Hitler's visionary plans: Hamburg as the world capital of the Third Reich!

Hitler's visionary plans: Hamburg as the world capital of the Third Reich!

A fascinating and at the same time shocking episode in history can be uncovered in Germany's second largest city, Hamburg. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Third Reich, had grandiose plans for this city, which was to develop in the National Socialist style as an answer to New York. How Focus reported that the dimensions of this vision were so great that 40,000 people would have lost their homes.

Hitler often emphasized how important Hamburg was to him and visited the city a total of 75 times, although it is sometimes thought that he did not like it. He first expressed his plans during a harbor tour on June 13, 1936. At that time, he also planned to build a monumental bridge over the Elbe, which would be reminiscent of the famous structure, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Gigantic plans and their effects

As part of these plans, Hamburg was chosen to be one of the five “leader cities” of the Third Reich. Historians such as Harald Sandner emphasize that Hitler's vision not only included the transformation of the city itself, but also included completely new buildings and a variety of impressive structures. A defining element was the planned district high-rise, which was to tower over the St. Michaelis Church at a height of 250 meters.

An extensive renovation plan required a lot of time and resources. On April 1, 1937, the Greater Hamburg Act was passed, which incorporated several neighboring cities and increased the population from 1.2 to 1.7 million people. Konstanty Gutschow was selected as the architect for the sophisticated urban planning and his team grew to an impressive 250 employees. Other futuristic ideas included a terminal for ships from the Nazi leisure organization “Strength through Joy” as well as a gigantic “people's house” for 50,000 people and a parade ground for 100,000 people.

Financial dimensions and influences of war

The estimated cost of these sweeping changes was 1.6 billion Reichsmarks, and they were planned to be implemented by the mid-1960s. But the outbreak of the Second World War on September 1, 1939 abruptly stopped all developments and projects. How Wikipedia Hitler was responsible for countless human rights violations and the horrific extent of the Holocaust from 1933 until his death in 1945.

Although the major redevelopment plans were never completed, some of the ideas and traces that were conceived during this time are still visible in Hamburg today. Examples include the new Elbe Tunnel and some housing developments based on Gutschow's designs. Also city planning in National Socialist Germany, as in Front West presented, shows how far-reaching the regime's ideas were, and in many places still represent a part of our heritage today, even if they are linked to a dark history.