Nazi Rally Grounds

In the book Difficult Heritage, Sharon Macdonald shares two approaches on remembering. “One approach to difficult heritage is to obliterate it – to remove it from view. Another, related, is to ‘mutilate’ or ‘deface’ it – a procedure that might make its origins unclear and that is often perceived as removing its power or ability to ‘give testimony’” (p. 52). Thinking back to our trip to the Nazi Rally grounds, these two approaches can be applied. In one sense the city of Nuremberg has tried to maintain the grounds to the highest possible standards. Our guide said that the city alone pays nearly 5 million Euros per year to keep the grounds maintained.  They have built a beautiful museum and the grounds themselves are nicely manicured. But in another sense, it seems as if they have “mutilated” it by re-purposing it. 

Upon arrival, I noticed many activities going on that were obviously not things that happened during the war. What stood out to me were the people boating in the man-made reservoir when you enter the grounds. Albert Speer, who was tried during the Nuremberg Trials, was responsible for the construction of this reservoir, which served as the main water feature. Initially, this reservoir served as decoration and water supply, but today people can go and rent boats and enjoy a day in the water. The fact that people can go and enjoy something that was once used by Hitler as a place to show the excellence of the Nazi party and celebrate their success is disturbing to me. While the city has tried to maintain the grounds, their efforts almost seem pointless to me if they are going to allow people to come on a sunny afternoon and enjoy a leisurely ride in a boat with friends and family. 

Nuremberg

We arrived in Nuremberg on wednesday. We had a day off so we decided to go explore the city. Our hotel is just a 15 minute walk from the city center which is very convenient. We found a great place for lunch and then did a little shopping and walking. We grabbed some doner kebab for dinner which was amazing! We then went to this "beach" which was just an area where they brought in sand and had shallow pools and of course lots of drinks! We hung out there for a while and met up with some others. We hit up a Starbucks for some wi-fi and then headed back.

Yesterday we went to the Nazi Rally grounds which were much different than expected. (Post to follow on this). After a 3 hour tour we headed back to town and ate some Nuremberg sausage at the oldest restaurant in the world. We then walked around and did some window shopping. We returned to the hotel for a short break and then headed back to the doner kebab place for dinner. We stopped at the grocery store and then headed back to the hotel.

Today we went to the Nuremberg trial rooms and had a very informative tour. We were actually able to sit in the actual trial room which was pretty cool. After our tour we stopped at the grocery store to grab some food. We headed back to the hotel to do some reading and of course had to go back to our kebab place for one final meal since we leave tomorrow. 

Final days in Munich

neuschwanstein castle

Here is a short recap of our final days in Munich...
Saturday:
We drove an hour and a half to the Neuschwanstein castle. It was a gorgeous day! We hiked to the top and took a tour of the castle. Then hiked down a different way and took a short bike ride to a lake.

  

              

Touching the castle

 It was such an amazing day. When we got back to Munich we grabbed some dinner at the grocery store and headed home so we could get some sleep.

The next day (Sunday) a group of us traveled three hours outsinde of Munich to the German-Austrian border to hike at Kehlsteinhaus, or Hitler's Mountain Retreat, which is more commonly known in the States as the Eagle's Nest. After a brutal bus ride up the mountain, we enjoyed some lunch at the restaurant. The eight of us hiked up Hoher Göll, the highest peak of the Göll massif in the Bavarian Alps between Germany and Austria.  Unfortunately the day we went was pretty cloudy, and we couldn't see much of the spectacular views for most of the hike. However, right as we were about to turn around, the clouds cleared and we were able to look down at the valleys and towns below. We made it on a ridge to the border of Austria at 8,200 ft elevation, 6,000 ft above the closest ground by climbing over boulders, down "steps" that were more like ladders, found snow in 60 degree weather in July, and took a few wrong turns here and there. It truly was an amazing experience and definitely worth the long trip

Early morning train ride

              

Trying to figure out our U-rail passes

Hanging out in the luggage compartment

The tunnel to the elevator that takes you to the retreat

Minor wound

Austria?

The view at the end made getting up at 5:30 so worth it. When we finally got back we grabbed some dinner and headed straight to bed. 

Monday:

Ryan's Birthday!!! Monday we spent the morning at the archives which was very interesting. We had a guided tour and were able to see a lot of the actual archives. After a few hours we headed back to our hotel to get ready for birthday celebrations. Since it was also Kim's birthday, we all decided to go out and celebrate. We ate at a small little restaurant, had some drinks and then headed back to Kennedy's. Turned out Monday was karaoke night and everyone took advantage of that. 

 Overall a very fun day!