ABSTRACT
Historic landscapes were integral in Nazi efforts to frame their vision of the German nation. Much has been written about Nazi plans to redesign large cities, and scholars have investigated Nazi attitudes toward the countryside. And while some have explored historie preservation in larger cities, relatively little attention has been given to the importance of small town landscapes during the Nazi period.2 Like the countryside, the small town seemed to epitomize a family-orientated, traditional way of life. Yet the small town represented the importance of community within Nazi ideology perhaps better than rurallandscapes. In partieular, Nazis viewed medieval towns as important places in their efforts to rework German history.3 The medieval town's imposing fortifications, churches, and civic architecture reminded Germans what could be accomplished when they put the common good ahead of self-interest. In many respects, the Nazi regime aimed to remake the national community to reflect these idealized characteristics of the small medieval town. Already an established icon, Rothenburg evolved with relative ease into a visual representation of key Nazi values and exemplified a nationallandscape and past on a local scale that conformed to Nazi preferences.
