> An Utopia Called Welthauptstadt Germania

Around the world we can admire planned capitals. Brasilia, Washington DC and Canberra are cities built from scratch, utopias that became reality, even with questionable long-term results. So Hitler was an utopian too. During the Nazi period, and wishful to see Germany dominating the world, he exposed the plans to turn Berlin into a monumental and splendorous capital - 'Welthauptstadt Germania' means 'World Capital Germania'.

In fact the project was very well-studied, even during the war, and if Berlin was not destructed yet, Hitler acquired land, ordered the demolition of some buildings and saw some avenues being established. However the engineers knew that the soil of Berlin was too marshy to endure so many big buildings. When the war ended these plans became totally forgotten, and today Germania is just a temporary museum piece. Anyway, I was in Berlin recently, and what I saw was a monumental city still being constructed; it is destiny.

"Plans for this grandiose city included a stadium that could house 400,000 spectators, a Chancellery with a lavish hall twice as long as the one at the Palace of Versailles, the Triumphal Arch (based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris but much, much larger), and a giant open square to be surrounded by large government buildings. The centerpiece of the new city would be the Volkshalle, or People’s Hall, which would include a humongous domed building designed by Hitler himself and chief architect Albert Speer. If this domed building was built it would still today be the largest enclosed space in the world, being sixteen times larger than the dome at St. Peter’s."

(citation taken from here)

(video with more info and pictures about Germania)

(video with renderings showing Germania)