Germania (city)

Albert Speer, the "first architect of the Third Reich", produced many of the plans for the rebuilt city in his capacity as overseer of the project, only a small portion of which was realised between the years 1938 and 1943.

Some of the projects were completed, such as the creation of a great East–West city axis, which included broadening Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17.

He [Hitler] even considers it good that by renaming the Reich capital Berlin into 'Germania', we'll have given considerable driving force to this task.

[2]Hitler described his vision for the city several months earlier: As world capital Berlin will only be comparable with Ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Rome!

Doubts persisted at the time as to whether the marshy Berlin ground could have taken the immense weight of the proposed projects, leading to the construction of an exploration building (Schwerbelastungskörper, literal translation: heavy load-bearing body),[4] which still exists near[5] the site where the Arch of Triumph would have been built.

When France was defeated in 1940, Hitler visited Paris briefly with Speer and a few chosen others, the Führer's desire to "give Berlin a new face" was revitalised, and the work was redoubled at his command.

At Speer's instigation, Hitler signed a decree which read: In the shortest possible time Berlin must be redeveloped and acquire the form that is its due through the greatness of our victory as the capital of a powerful new empire.

[emphasis in the original][1]After serious setbacks in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which Hitler had initially seen as another blitzkrieg ("lightning war"), construction on "Germania" was halted permanently in March 1943.

This would run south from a crossroads with the East-West Axis close to the Brandenburg Gate, following the course of the old Siegesallee through the Tiergarten before continuing down to an area just west of Tempelhof Airport.

These new stations would be built on the city's main Hundekopf (dog's head) geography S-Bahn ring with the Nordbahnhof in Wedding and the larger Südbahnhof in Tempelhof-Schöneberg at the southern end of the avenue.

It had been intended that inside this generously proportioned structure the names of the 1,800,000 German dead of the First World War should be carved.