Nuremberg (dpa/lby) – During the renovation of the Nuremberg State Theater, opera and ballet will be given a replacement venue in the inner courtyard of the Congress Hall on the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds. The Nuremberg city council decided on Wednesday with a large majority, as the city’s press office announced.
However, the location is disputed. Some experts fear that an interim building could obscure the view of the facade and dilute the function of the memorial site. They want to keep the listed congress hall in its unfinished state, since the architecture thereby symbolizes the failure of the Nazis in addition to the demonstration of power. Mayor Marcus König (CSU), on the other hand, welcomed the city council decision: “Nuremberg is taking a new, courageous path with the extended cultural use of this never-completed building,” he explained.
From 1933 to 1938, the National Socialists staged their propagandistic Nazi Party Rallies on the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in the southeast of the city, which were attended by hundreds of thousands of party members and spectators. According to the plans of the Nazis, 50,000 people were to cheer the NS greats during their speeches in the congress hall. But it was never completed. There is only a horseshoe-shaped torso, which was later to house stairs and cloakrooms. Today it is largely empty.
During the renovation of the more than 100-year-old Nuremberg opera house in the city center, which will take several years, rehearsal rooms, workshops and offices for the opera and ballet section of the state theater are to be built in the shell of the congress hall. The interim building in the inner courtyard will house the stage, orchestra pit and auditorium.
