Bayfront Plaza Exhibit Hall Schedule

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The design and size of the external decoration of this Volkshalle, are all exceptional and call for explanations that do not apply to community halls planned for Nazi fora in other German cities.Scobie 114.The temple-like nature of the domed building was noted by Speer, who surmised that the building was ultimately intended for the worship of Hitler and his successors, that is, it was to be a dynastic temple/palace complex of the kind Augustus built on the Palatine, where his modest house was connected to the temple of Apollo.Speer, Erinnerungen, 56.Hitler's aspirations to world domination and the establishment of his New Order, already evident from architectural and decorative features of the new Chancellery, are even more clearly expressed here.

In short, it was possible that the hall might have its own 'weather' and create indoor rain because of its overcapacity.

But Hitler's interest in and admiration for the Pantheon predated this visit, since his sketch of the Volkshalle dates from about 1925.Giesler 325. Hermann Giesler records a conversation he had with Hitler in the winter of 1939/40, when Hitler was recalling his “Roman Impressions” ():Hitler's impressions of the Roman Pantheon were revived when on June 24, 1940 he made a tour of selected buildings in Paris, with the German architects Albert Speer, Hermann Giesler and Arno Breker, including the Paris Panthéon, which seems to have disappointed him.

The oculus of the building's dome, in diameter, would have accommodated the entire rotunda of Hadrian's Pantheon and the dome of St.

The second zone in the Pantheon, consisting of blind windows with intervening pilasters, is represented in Speer's building by a zone above the pillars consisting of uniform, oblong shallow recesses.

The globe on the dome's lantern was enhanced and emphasized by two monumental sculptures by Breker, each 15 metres high, which flanked the north faà§ade of the building: at its west end Atlas supporting the heavens, at its east end Tellus supporting the Earth.