The Nazi party rallies between 1933 and 1938 were large-scale propaganda shows, which took place annually every September in the city of Nuremberg. Over 500,000 people took part. The fascination of the rallies was due to their lavish staging with pseudo-religious elements, lighting effects and the effective employment of media and film in ways previously unknown.

South-east of Nuremberg, a tract of land measuring 11 square kilometres was set aside for the rallies. Many of its planned buildings were never finished or not even constructed.

Luitpold arena: The Luitpold Grove was originally a park and exhibition area, constructed in 1906. From 1933 onwards, it was expanded and converted into the Luitpold Arena, in which the SS and SA held a memorial ceremony for the dead. Hitler also used the memorial hall, dedicated to the soldiers who died during the first world war.

The arena was one of the oldest parts of the rally grounds. Large sections of it were already built by 1934, and it was finally completed in 1937. A ceremony in memory of the dead had been a traditional part of the programme. With exception of the Luitpold Hall, the Luitpold Grove buildings were not destroyed during the war. The arena was converted back into a park by 1960, with all buildings from the Nazi era removed.

The Luitpold Hall had been constructed in 1906, used as a civic festival hall. In 1935, Albert Speer gave the building a Nazi facade of natural stone and had it decorated with swastika flags during the rallies. Since 1933, the Nazi party congresses, as well as various other conferences, took place in the hall, in front of an audience up to 16,000 people. Each year, Hitler would give his speech here, to officially open the congress.

The Memorial Hall in the Luitpold Grove was dedicated to the citizens of Nuremberg who died in the first world war. It was designed by the architect Fritz Meyer in 1930. The building consisted of a hall of arches, two side rooms in which books containing the names of the dead were displayed, and a forecourt flanked on two sides by a row of seven pillars, each topped with a flat torch bowl. From 1933 onwards, the Memorial Hall was incorporated into the rally events. Although the building was originally intended for all the Nuremberg dead, irrespective of their origins and their political or religious beliefs, the Nazis remembered, above all, their own dead. Unlike the other buildings of the Luitpold Arena, the Memorial Hall has been retained in its original form and serves today as the city council's venue for its Rememberence Day ceremonies for the victims of both world wars and of the Nazi reign of tyranny.

Kongreßhalle: Construction on the Congress Hall, designed by Ludwig and Frans Ruff, began in 1935, but was never completed. Still, the half-finished building is the largest architectural relic on the former rally grounds.

The Nazi party congresses were to have taken place here before an audience of at least 50,000. Today, the building houses the Nazi party rally grounds Documentation Centre.

The horseshoe-shaped interior of the hall is about 170 metres wise and 160 metres long. It was to be the central hall for the Nazi party congresses, covered by a cantilever roof. However, due to the large surface area involved, experts doubt whether the roofing plan could have been implemented. Daylight would have entered the hall through a huge semicircular window in the roof. The interior was intended to produce a mythical stage effect.

Große Straße: The Great Road had been completed by 1939, intended for marching parades and to serve as the rally grounds' central axis. However, it was never actually used during a rally, because by the time it was finished, the war had broken out. Consisting of square granite slabs, the Great Road is two kilometres long and 60 metres wide.

Deutsches Stadion: The German Stadium was referred to by German propaganda as "the largest stadium in the world". Speer planned to seat 400,000 people in the building. The facade alone would have reached a height of 100 metres.

The stadium was intended for national-socialists combat sports, not sport in the traditional sense of the word. Work on the project began in 1937, and by 1941 tens of thousands of cubic metres of natural stone had been transported to the rally grounds. The war meant that the planning work continued with dimishing intensity up intul 1944. Only a huge excavation remained which filled up with ground water and today is known as Silbersee Lake.

Märzfeld: The March field was intended as the venue for the military parades, displays and manoeuvres of the armed forces. The field was enclosed by 24 towers and stands for several hundred thousands spectators.

Only a few of these towers had been built by 1938. The plans for the area remained at the building-site state because of the war and could never be fully realized. The towers were blown up in 1967. The field would have covered an area of approximately 600,000 square metres.

Zeppelinfeld: The Zeppelin field was constructed relatively quick, and provided a large area for the rallies' mass parades: participants numbered up to 100,000. The main tribune of the Zeppelin field is 360 metres long and was originally 20 metres high. However, the pillars and side-pylons were removed in the 1967.

Albert Speer designed the so-called Cathedral of Light for the field: an impressive ceremony produced by placing 130 searchlights on the top of the 34 fortress-like towers surrounding the complex. Each searchlight shot a dazzling beam eight kilometres high into the night sky where it united with the other beams to form a dome of light.