Overview

This richly illustrated book details the wide-ranging construction and urban planning projects launched across Germany after the Nazi Party seized power. Hagen and Ostergren show that it was far more than just an architectural and stylistic enterprise. Instead, it was a series of interrelated programs intended to thoroughly reorganize Germany’s economic, cultural, and political landscapes. The authors trace the specific roles of its component parts—the monumental redevelopment and cleansing of cities; the construction of new civic landscapes for educational, athletic, and leisure pursuits; the improvement of transportation, industrial, and military infrastructures; and the creation of networked landscapes of fear, slave labor, and genocide. Through distinctive examples, the book draws out the ways in which combinations of place, space, and architecture were utilized as a cumulative means of undergirding the regime and its ambitions. The authors consider how these reshaped spaces were actually experienced and perceived by ordinary Germans, and in some cases the world at large, as the regime intentionally built a new Nazi Germany.

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9781538158333

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An indispensable work for anyone interested in urban planning and architecture under National Socialism. Erudite, captivating, and filled with fascinating photos and maps, the book leaves the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted and often contradictory imprint of Nazi ideology on the built landscape of Germany.--Guntram H. Herb, Middlebury College Nazi Germany may be best remembered for the unparalleled, global destruction wrought by its toxic racism and war machinery. But, as Hagen and Ostergren demonstrate in this fascinating book, the regime's totalitarian ideology extended to the built world, too. Their valuable research shows the stunning and frightening extent of the Nazi regime's architectural megalomania.--Steven Hoelscher, University of Texas at Austin There is a substantial scholarly literature concerning architecture in the Third Reich, but Hagen and Ostergren break new ground. While dealing--as other scholars have--with the relationship between the construction of public buildings and Nazi aesthetics, Hagen and Ostergren go a step further by placing their study in a broad context. They approach their subject from the point of view of geographers, seeking to understand the relationship among aesthetics, ideology, utility, and urban planning during the Third Reich. Of particular interest is the chapter on the construction of concentration camps. In their epilogue, The Building and Breaking of Nazi Germany, the authors provide a brief but valuable analysis of the destruction of Germany's urban landscape during the final days of WW II; there is also interesting discussion of the use of Nazi buildings during the postwar period. These are subjects usually ignored by other scholars. The numerous illustrations enhance the utility of this book. Building Nazi Germany makes an important contribution to understanding of National Socialism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.-- Choice

Author Information

Joshua Hagen is dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Robert C. Ostergren is professor emeritus in the Department of Geography at University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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