Gauforum Weimar

The former Gauforum in Weimar exemplifies the monumental traditionalism of National Socialist architecture. As a center of power, it served propaganda and administrative functions for the Nazi elite. This gigantic (relative to its surroundings) facility, on which construction began in 1937, was designed by Hermann Giesler. Hitler was himself involved in the planning, as was Thuringia’s Gauleiter, Fritz Sauckel, who as “general plenipotentiary for labor deployment” was responsible for, among things, the deportation and death of European forced laborers.

This complex of around 40,000 square meters was not just designed to be the seat of the part and the government; it was pointedly intended to give architectural form to racist ideology and National Socialist ideas of work, achievement, and community. It was considered the prototype of other planned Gauforums in more than forty cities in Germany, though they were never built. The Gauforum in Weimar remained unfinished. Originally, five large buildings were planned; three administrative and stately buildings were partially completed: for the Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) and the Gauleiter, for the Deutsche Arbeitsfront, and National Socialist organizations; a bell tower, a large Halle der Volksgemeinschaft (Hall for the People’s Community) with seating for 20,000 (of which only the shell was completed), and a central parade grounds on what was then Adolf-Hitler-Platz.

The building of the Gauforum went hand in hand with drastic urban-planning changes to Weimar to make it a “gau capital.” Large sections of the northern part of the city center and also parts of the old town were demolished; the former Asbachgrund was filled in. Even today, the consequences of the National Socialist architecture of intimidation can be read from the cityscape of Weimar.

After the war, the Soviet military administration occupied the site. From then on, the former Gauforum was used primarily by different educational facilites. Since 1990, it has been the headquarters of the Office of State Administration of Thuringia. In 1999, parts of the grounds were used as an exhibition site for Weimar’s year as a European Cultural Capital. Since 2005, a shopping center has been housed in the former assembly hall. Beginning in the fall of 2019, a new exhibition will provide information on the history of the Gauforum. In 2020, the Gedenkstätte Buchenwald will open a permanent exhibition on Nazi forced labor there. As a central component of the incipient District of Weimar Modernism, the former Gauforum will become a place of memory and critical reflection. [KM/HY]