Relics of the Reich by Colin Philpott

Author:Colin Philpott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473844254
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

THE GERMAN PAVILION AT THE WORLD’S FAIR, PARIS.

Most of the locations featured in this study are in Germany, or in what was Germany at the time of the Third Reich, but this structure at the heart of the French capital deserves a mention.

Between May to November 1937 the World’s Fair took place in the centre of Paris. The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (The International Exhibition of Arts and Technology in Modern Life) was designed to show off contemporary scientific and technological achievement with pavilions devoted to then new technologies like cinema, radio and aviation.

Forty-four participating nations each had a pavilion to show off their attainments. Germany and the Soviet Union were, almost certainly by accident rather than design, allocated prime sites opposite each other across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. At first, as with other projects like the Olympics, Hitler was not enthusiastic about the World’s Fair but was persuaded by his chief architect, Albert Speer, of the importance of Germany being seen on this international stage.

Apocryphally, Speer found a copy of the design of the planned Russian pavilion when visiting the Paris site some months before the opening and decided to ensure the German pavilion would be taller than its Soviet rival. Whether true or not, the German pavilion indeed towered above the Soviet one. It was made of steel with a Bavarian marble surface topped by a giant German eagle. To ensure that it was built on time, and as Speer exactly required, more than 1,000 German workers were transported to Paris for its completion.

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