Adolf Hitler was an admirer of imperial Rome and believed that some

ancient Germans had, over time, become part of its social fabric and exerted influence
on it. He considered the Romans an early Aryan empire, and emulated their architecture
in an original style inspired by both neoclassicism and art deco.
He also ordered construction of a type of Altar of Victory, borrowed from the Greeks,
who were, according to Nazi ideology, inseminated with the seed of the Aryan peoples
(The Altar of Victory was located in the Roman Senate House (the Curia) and bore a
gold statue of the goddess Victory.)
At the same time, because of his admiration for the Classical cultures of the ancient
Mediterranean, he could not isolate and politicize German antiquity, as Benito
Mussolini had done with respect to Roman antiquity. Therefore he had to import political
symbols into Germany and justify their presence on the grounds of a spurious racial
ancestry, the myth that ancient Greeks were among the ancestors of the Germans linked to the same Aryan peoples.
Most regimes, especially new ones, wish to make their mark both physically and
emotionally on the places they rule. The most tangible way of doing so is by
constructing buildings and monuments. Architecture is considered to be the only art
form that can actually physically meld with the world as well as influence the people who
inhabit it. Buildings, as autonomous things, must be addressed by the inhabitants as
they go about their lives. In this sense, people are "forced" to move in certain ways, or
to look at specific things. In so doing, Architecture affects not only the landscape, but
also the mood of the populace who are served. The Nazis believed architecture played
a key role in creating their new order. Architecture had a special importance to the
politicians who sought to influence all aspects of human life.
Determining what National Socialists saw as the concept of Nazi Architecture is
problematic. Various members of the leadership had differing views and tastes and
commentators see the same style in different ways. Roger Eatwell sees the format used
at the Nuremberg rallies as a mixture of Catholic ceremony and leftwing Expressionist form and lighting, while Sir Nevile Hendersonsaw a cathedral of ice.
Still, if a building was designed and built using the Nazi version of what was German, it
was considered Nazi Architecture.
In general, there were two primary National Socialist styles of architecture. Nazi
Architecture in its crudest sense was either a squared-off version of neoclassical
architecture, or a mimicry ofvlkisch and national romanticism in buildings and
structures. The most notable example of this is the Wewelsburg castle complex
redesigned in a very mythological way as a cult site for theSS. Especially in the North
Tower of the castle medieval Romanesque and Gothic architecture was imitated.
The Wewelsburg was to become "centre of the world".