IDEOLOGY – ARCHITECTURE RELATIONSHIP: NAZI ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

Hitler’s Germany witnessed the most influential political power activities in world history before and during the Second World War. Germany’s collapse both politically and economically in the early 1930s enabled Hitler to take action. This structure, which relied on the new political stance behind it, has ensured its legitimacy and ideology with propaganda works. Nazis used the social power of architecture as a tool to support the new order that they were establishing. Aim: This study aims to investigate the effects on the forming and shaping of the city and the designed buildings, planned according to the Nazi ideology fundamentals. Method: In the article, concepts of ideology and propaganda are discussed. The propaganda methods used during the Hitler period are briefly explained. Through the relationship between ideology and architecture, the reflections of ideology on Nazi architecture have been determined. By evaluating the relationship of Hitler's architectural preferences with ideology, it was determined how it was treated as a propaganda tool. Findings: It was determined that the effects of Hitler's ideology on the shaping of Nazi architecture had an independent style of national socialism and classicism established on European typology and morphology. The relationship between the monumental architecture utilized in Nazi Germany and the styles in the history of architecture was detected. Although it is impossible to classify Hitler's architectural preferences under a single title and to say that the Third Reich has an official architectural style, it was determined that Nazi Architecture, founded on the neoclassical basis, was developed and changed around this framework. Conclusion: For architecture to thrive, it needs an innovative, unrestricted and creative environment rather than a repressive one. Politics is expected to be supportive rather than conflicting with architecture. Instead of imitation, supporting historical searches with creativity will develop architecture.