Brunswick-Nußberg / Lower Saxony
The Thingstätte in Brunswick was among the first 66 of the official construction program. It was built in an old quarry of the Nußberg not far from the city center. It formed an urban axis together with the cathedral, the tomb of Henry the Lion, the Landestheater and the city’s parade ground (the later “SA- Feld”), . Today, the Thing site has fallen into disrepair and is hardly visible except for a few steps.[1]
Begin of construction / inauguration
March 21st 1934 / Aug 18th 1935
Architects / Construction
Fritz Schaller, Ernst Zinsser, Berlin / Robert Dirichs, Brunswick
Historic Name
Ceremonial Site on the Nußberg
Historic Usage
| Aug 18th 1935 | „Übergabespiel“ by Karl Fischer |
| Aug 18th 1935 | Thingplay „Ewiges Volk“ (Eternal people) by Wolfram Brockmeier with music by Karl Wittkopp |
| 1936 | Several rallies |
| 1937 – 1939 | runswick Festival with a total of 11 different performances, including “Alkestis” by Christoph Willibald Gluck |
| 1937 (Brunswick Festival) | „Frankenburger Würfelspiel“ by Eberhard Wolfgang Möller |
| 1938 (Brunswick Festival) | „Nibelungen“ I +II” by Friedrich Hebbel |
| 1939 (Brunswick Festival) | „Hochverräter“ (high traitor) by Curt Langenbeck Beethoven’s 9.th Symphony Song and dance play„Faith and Beauty“ |
| May 14. – 24.1939 May 19th 1939 and May 20th 1939 | 4th Reichsführer camp of the Hitler Youth In the context of it: „Schlacht der weißen Schiffe“ (Battle of the White Ships) byHenrik Herse |
Contemporary usage
Recreation area, wooded
Further info:
A war memorial in the form of a “blood witness memorial” was to be erected as a classically intended counterpart to the Thing site and the peripheral ensemble described above, as a stylization of Nazi martyrdom. As a kind of Nazi cathedral, it was to be the crowning glory of the overall construction measures. Due to the lack of financial means on the eve of the Second World War, this project was no longer realized.. [3]
[1] Stommer, Rainer, Die inszenierte Volksgemeinschaft, Jonas- Verlag Marburg, 1985, p. 209 f.
[2] ibid.
[3] Bein, Reinhard, Zeitzeichen. Stadt und Land Braunschweig 1930–1945, Döring-Verlag Braunschweig, 2000,
p. 11