Relics of Nazi Architecture in the Czech Republic

Abstract

: After the Anschluss of Austria, Czechoslovakia was the next target of Nazi expansion to the east. Its border areas were initially occupied (October 1938) and then, on 15 March 1939, Nazi armies occupied the rest of the Czech Lands. A Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, fully under the control of the Nazi Reich, was created on the same day. This article deals with the implementation of architectonic and urbanistic concepts advocated by the Nazi regime in the occupied Czech Lands. The aim of Nazi-supported tendencies in architecture was to promote spatial and visual Germanisation of the occupied territories. The Nazi leadership was convinced that architecture and urbanism ought to function – both in Germany and in other occupied territories – as a symbol of German superiority and dominance. In the Protectorate, Nazi authorities clearly prioritised the implementation of architectonic and urbanistic patterns adopted from Germany. In the final part, the author briefly discusses plans for a new way of making these planned and actually implemented constructions more accessible in a specialised electronic map with specific expert content (geo-graphical information system – GIS).