"Pulling out the cornerstone" of Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds on January 28, 2000

Work on building the Documentation Center in Nuremberg began by pulling down a stone, with major figures from the federal government, the Free State of Bavaria, the City of Nuremberg, and the District of Middle Franconia in attendance. Nuremberg architects Ludwig and Franz Ruff – the Congress Hall was not designed by Albert Speer – had faced the brick core of the Congress Hall with granite to highlight the National Socialist regime's aspirations to power and perpetual survival. Destroying the granite façade for the Documentation Center was the first symbolic act in how the architectural legacy of the National Socialist era would be dealt with in the future.