We know that the National Socialists accorded architecture an important role in the propagation of their ideology. Who is not familiar with Albert Speer’s theatrical architecture, such as his megalomaniac reconstruction plans for Berlin? Much less well known are his ideas and plans with regard to planning and landscape architecture. By order of Himmler, the Generalplan Ost was drawn up, in which large parts of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine were to be transformed into a ‘Germanic’ landscape. New cities were to be built and a motorway all the way to Moscow was planned. The entire landscape in the occupied east was to be laid out as Wehrlandschaft: a military layout of the landscape to defend it against attacks by partisans and the Red Army.

But also in the Netherlands, landscape architecture was carried out during the German occupation. In the north of Arnhem, hidden in the woods of the Veluwe, there is a camouflage landscape that had to hide one of Europe’s largest airfields from the Allies. Still standing there are more than 200 farm and barn-like buildings that were grouped in a number of ‘villages’. The surrounding Veluwe landscape was also arranged to give an agricultural impression from the air. Since 2007, all these remains have been the second largest national monument in the Netherlands, after the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie.

Lecture by Carola Hein and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn

What is the right way to deal with this ideologically contaminated heritage? What specifics should be taken into account when the National Socialist legacy becomes cultural heritage in the Netherlands? Carola Hein and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn will discuss these and other questions during this lecture using concrete examples from Germany and the Netherlands.

Carola Hein is Professor of History of Architecture, Heritage, Urban Studies and Urban Development at TU Delft, Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam. In addition, she has held the UNESCO Chair in Water, Ports and Historic Cities since 2022.

Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn is Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at the University of Hanover. Wolschke-Bulmahn is an authority on National Socialist planning and landscape architecture.

Photo: Hans Jungerius

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