Schwerbelastungskörper, a concrete cylinder nearly 60 feet tall and 12650 ton heavy, was built in 1941 to test if Berlin‘s sandy soil could support a 384-foot-tall triumphal arch. The monument would have been the crown jewel of Germania, Hitler’s new world capital. Albert Speer, the Third Reich architect, drew up an ambitious plan of Germania that would have replaced Berlin. When Speer showed it to his father, also an architect, the father is said to have muttered: “You’ve all gone crazy.” Luckily, Germania was never realized; this forlorn column is the only thing that remains of it, slowly sinking into the ground.
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Foiled World Capital, Germania
Schwerbelastungskörper, a concrete cylinder nearly 60 feet tall and 12650 ton heavy, was built in 1941 to test if Berlin‘s sandy soil could support a 384-foot-tall triumphal arch. The monument would have been the crown jewel of Germania, Hitler’s new world capital. Albert Speer, the Third Reich architect, drew up an ambitious plan of Germania that would have replaced Berlin. When Speer showed it to his father, also an architect, the father is said to have muttered: “You’ve all gone crazy.” Luckily, Germania was never realized; this forlorn column is the only thing that remains of it, slowly sinking into the ground.
