"PLACE DE LA CONCORDE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 February 1939, Page 3

"PLACE DE LA CONCORDE”

HERR HITLER’S NAZI CITY Although Chancellor Hitler, living on a mountain top in distant Bavaria, does not like Berlin, he is determined to stamp the Nazi regime on the capital (writes the Berlin correspondent of the "Observer”). One huge room at rite Architectural Exhibition opened the other day in Munich is dedicated to plans and large-scale plastic models of the numerous grandiose buildings to be erected in Berlin during the next, few years. All these fine buildings, it is claimed. will impress future generations with the greatness and significance of the present epoch, and they are only a small part of what is to come. The gulf between the Weimar regime is significantly illuminated in this exhibition of “Kolossal” buildings. During the Weimar regime, foreigners came from all parts of the world to see the model flats built, for the workers. the modernistic villas, the splendid swimming baths, and the beautiful sport places.

While they will also have a certain practical value, all these new buildings will glorify Herr Hitler, the Nazi State, and the Nazi Party. They till point the way to a bigger and Greater Germany of the future, and it is obvious that Herr Hitler intends to make Berlin into a kind of “German Washington.” It is noteworthy, however, that the skyscraper style. which begun to creep into German architecture in years ago. is being strictly avoided. Most of the new buildings are to be four or live stories high with cold severe fronts, a box-like appearance, ami classical facades.

Like Moscow. Berlin is not over-bur-dened with many historical buildings of great aesthetic value. Professor Speer, entrusted with lhe Hitler "refashioning of Berlin.” can thus carry out. his plans without committing great vandalism. As far as can be gathered, all the good eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings are to be left untouched. and changes are to be imide chieflv at the expense of mediocre architecture.

The Wilhelmstrasse will be left untouched. except for the Reich Chancellery. which is being extended the whole length of a street. When linisli-

ed it will be the largest Chancellery in the world. Herr Hitler and Professor Speer have worked together on this creation. It will have rooms and reception halls for every possible official occasion. Herr Hitler’s own workroom will measure Sift in length. 44ft wide and 30ft high. LARGEST IN EUROPE. Berlin is also to have its Place de la Concorde, the "Round Place,” designed to rival its original in Paris. Its diameter 600 ft, the “Round Place” will be surrounded by six imposing buildings--the House of German Travel. the Alliance Insurance Company, the German Artists’ Club, an UFA cinema, the Thuringia House, and the Army Casino. In the centre there will be four fountains with groups of sculpture. Nearby will be the new German War Ministry, which will be the largest in Europe. It will contain a special "Soldiers' Hall.” dedicated to all the great soldiers in German military history. The new military faculty of the Technical Institute is being erected on the edge of the Grunewald forest not far from the Olympic Stadium. On the north side of the city, the Berlin garrison is to be housed in a gigantic, barracks to be known as the "Moabit Block.”

For the time being the Under den Linden is being left as it is. but beyond the Protestant Cathedral the. road is to be widened, and two large buildings erected at “this door to the cast." Other commercial office buildings will probably go it]) there, too.

Alongside the Tiergarten, Berlin’s Hyde Par!:, there is to be a new “Diplomats' Quarter." with a number of imposing m w embassies and legations. The model for the beautiful Italian Embassy is mt show til Munich.

The colossal new air port now being com-ii-itcted at Tcmpelhof will be "the biggest in Europe.” Large. buildings to house net oplanes are. rapidly going up. v hilc the halls for the, pas senger traffic are on an equally impressive scale. They tire all being built round a huge open circus, which will be designed to impress foreigners when they land in Berlin. The famous Victory Column has tilready been removed from its former place in front of the old Reichstag to Iho Tiergarten. and the famous V ictory Allee, with its 1 Johenzollorn statues, lias also been set up nearby.