ABSTRACT
The rallies exemplified Hitler’s notion of community architecture. ‘Why always the colossal?’ he once asked rhetorically, ‘Because I want to build selfawareness into every German’ (quoted in Dal Co 1981:105). The Zeppelin Field embodied a sense of enclosure and togetherness within. The rallies were bonding ceremonies between the Führer and the ‘community’; they embodied the paradox of feeling stronger by submerging personal identity into a larger whole (Adorno 1991). At the rallies and marches the blood red banners with their orderly but dynamic swastikas established a congruence with the orderly and disciplined, but emotionally charged and dynamic troops. The flat floor of the arena was a signifier of order in space, 16 hectares of disciplined helmets and weapons. The rallies were multi-dimensional spectacles where ‘People, buildings, f lags, insignia, acoustics and light were essential elements of the whole’ (Blomeyer 1979:59).
