Nuremberg

We next went to Nuremberg in Germany. Well, actually Barvaria. Apparently people make great distinction as to whether they are from Germany or Barvaria – Barvarian considered being the better thing to be. The weather was still gloomy and damp, matching the general grayness of architecture and mood of the first part of our experience of Nuremberg - the Nazi Rally grounds. Our guide was a professor of Political Science at the university. He was quite humorous and, as such, he was unusual because Nurembergers as a whole, he said, are a grumpy people. But he also said that their standing in the soccer ratings had fallen considerably so that was probably the source of the mood. 

I found this part of our trip to be quite sad. I suppose it is difficult to live down the dual reputations of being the city of the Nazi Party rallies and also the venue of the International Tribunal of War Criminals . We first went to Zeppelin Field – referred to as a monumental Nazi vestige, and then to the unfinished coliseum that Hitler had designed along the lines of the Colliseum in Rome. Andreas, our guide, said that Nuremberg still carries a great deal of guilt. Then why are these buildings and monuments kept, he was asked? Why not destroy them?  He admitted that the building relics of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds are depressing reminders of a very dark past. But, Andreas mused, places like Zeppelin Field are authentic places for learning. That people, especially the people of Nuremberg, need to deal with the past.  The sites open up different routes of access in the teaching of a difficult history. The further the Nazi era recedes into the past, the more important these sites will become. These stone vestiges need to continue to ‘speak’ to us in the future. He couldn’t help pointing out to us, with obvious glee, that one of the Nazi administration buildings, complete with carved stone Nazi eagle emblems on the sides, had been turned into a Burger King! It must be one of the most beautiful Burger Kings in existence, and with its American capitalist fast-food associations, a thumb to the nose to Hitler.