Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 5
Rimpl's plan for Salzgitter. (Rimpl, “Die Kunst in Dritten Reich”)
with the whole region, including the mines and industrial sites, reckoned
eventually at 250,000.
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Salzgitter was defined by the confluence of two rivers, the Flothe and the
Fuhse, and their green banks. Rimpl invoked the “body politic” metaphor
quite literally. The Flothe formed the 2-km backbone of the town, while
the convergence of the two rivers defined the skeleton of the body. The
joining of the green valleys provided the setting for a sport and health com-
plex—the town's heart. The green areas, conducting cleansing mountain
winds through the town, were the lungs through which the town breathed.
The whole effect was to “give the new industrial city the character of a city
in the country.”
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The transportation node at Salzgitter's northeast end formed the legs and
arteries of the town. A second symbolic point, the site of the Volkshalle and
Nazi headquarters, was the head that directed the organic functions of the
body. Order was of utmost importance, and hierarchy was to be preserved