About this place
The Silbersee, or Silver Lake, sits quietly at the southern edge of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds, ringed by reeds and woodland that make it a favourite spot for local walkers. Yet its calm surface conceals a double history of megalomania and destruction. The lake occupies part of the vast excavation dug for the German Stadium, the colossal arena Albert Speer designed to seat more than four hundred thousand spectators and to crown Hitler's city of the party rallies. Work halted when the Second World War began, the enormous foundation walls were left unfinished, and by early 1945 groundwater had begun to flood the deserted pit. After the war the excavation swallowed a second burden, becoming a dumping ground for the rubble of bombed-out Nuremberg together with industrial and chemical waste. To this day the water is heavily contaminated, giving off the faint smell of sulphur and remaining strictly off limits to swimmers, a poisoned mirror reflecting the ambitions that shaped this ground.
Key facts
- 400000 spectators — The German Stadium planned for this excavation was designed to hold more than this, intended as the largest stadium in the world
- 1937 year — Hitler laid the foundation stone of the German Stadium here on 9 September, during that year's party rally
- 90 metres — The planned height of the stadium's earthen terraces, forming an oval roughly 800 metres long
📍 Alfred-Hensel-Weg, 90471, Nürnberg