Design by Johannes Hölzinger, of Bad Nauheim, for the Documentation Center

In 1998, the City of Nuremberg opened an architectural competition for the Documentation Center at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. The design submitted by Johannes Hölzinger took a particularly innovative approach that involved the entire structure of the Congress Hall. A straight line, drawn from the Street of Human Rights in the city center to the Dutzendteich Lake, sliced through the body of the entire building. Hölzinger set up the resulting cut-out segments like sculptures in front of the building. This new axial line was also an answer to the axis that defines the Nazi Party Rally Grounds themselves – the Great Avenue. Albert Speer had oriented that avenue to the Imperial Castle in the city, thus seeking to align National Socialism artificially with Nuremberg’s historical tradition, in keeping with the propaganda slogan "From the City of the Imperial Diets to the City of Nazi Party Rallies."