{{short description|Feature of the Nazi Party rallies in Nuremberg}} [[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1982-1130-502, Nürnberg, Reichsparteitag, Lichtdom.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The Cathedral of Light above the ''Zeppelintribüne'' (1936)]] [[File:150cm Flak-Scheinwerfer 34 auf SdAnh 104 Luftwaffenmuseum Berlin-Gatow Denis Apel.JPG|thumb|right|A German 150 cm searchlight displayed at the ''Militärhistorisches Museum Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow'', 2003]]
The '''Cathedral of Light''' or '''''Lichtdom''''' was a main aesthetic feature of the Nazi Party rallies in Nuremberg from 1934 to 1938. Designed by architect Albert Speer, it consisted of 152 anti-aircraft searchlights, at intervals of 12 metres, aimed skyward to create a series of vertical bars surrounding the audience. The Cathedral of Light was documented in the Nazi propaganda film ''Festliches Nürnberg'', released in 1937.
==Background== Speer had been commissioned by Adolf Hitler to build a stadium for the annual party rallies, but the stadium could not be completed in time for the 1933 rally. As a stopgap, he used 152 antiaircraft searchlights pointed upwards around the assembly area.<ref name="kitchen"/><ref name="filler">Martin Filler, "Hanging Out with Hitler", review of Martin Kitchen, ''Speer: Hitler's Architect'', ''New York Review of Books'' '''62''':20:36-40 (December 17, 2015)</ref>
The searchlights were borrowed from the ''Luftwaffe'', which caused problems with its commander Hermann Göring, because they represented most of Germany's strategic reserve. Hitler overruled him, suggesting that it was a useful piece of disinformation. "If we use them in such large numbers for a thing like this, other countries will think we're swimming in searchlights."<ref name="Speer 59">Speer, {{Internet Archive|id=Inside_the_Third_Reich_Albert_Speer|page=79|name= pp. 58-59}}</ref>
==Continued use== Though they had originally been planned as a temporary measure until the stadium was completed, they continued to be used afterwards for the party rallies.<ref name="filler"/> A similar effect was created for the closing ceremony of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin by Eberhard von der Trappen with Speer's collaboration.<ref>Dietrich Neumann, Kermit Swiler Champa, eds., ''Architecture of the Night: The Illuminated Building'', 2002, {{ISBN|3791325876}}, p. 47</ref><ref>Allen Guttman, ''The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games'', p. 66</ref> Variants of the effect had the searchlights converge to a point above the spectators.
==Equipment and impact== The Flak Searchlights used were developed in the late 1930s and used 150-centimeter-diameter parabolic glass reflectors with an output of 990 million candelas. The system was powered by a 24-kilowatt generator, based around a 51-horsepower (38 kW) 8-cylinder engine, giving a current of 200 amperes at 110 volts. The searchlight was attached to the generator by a cable 200 meters long. The system had a detection range of about 8 kilometers for targets at an altitude of between 4000 and 5000 meters.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/nazi-rally-cathedral-light-c-1937/|title=The Cathedral of Light of the Nazi rallies, 1937|website=rarehistoricalphotos.com|date=20 November 2013 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-08-30}}</ref>
Speer described the effect: "The feeling was of a vast room, with the beams serving as mighty pillars of infinitely high outer walls".<ref name="kjc"/><ref name="Speer 59"/> The British Ambassador to Germany, Sir Neville Henderson, described it as "both solemn and beautiful... like being in a cathedral of ice".<ref name="kitchen">quoted in Martin Kitchen, ''Speer: Hitler's Architect'', p. 35</ref><ref name="Speer 59"/>
It is still considered amongst Speer's most important works:
{{quote|...the single most dramatic moment of the Nazi Party rallies... was not a military parade or a political speech but the ''Lichtdom'', or Cathedral of Light...|Kathleen James-Chakraborty<ref name="kjc">Kathleen James-Chakraborty, "The Drama of Illumination: Visions of Community from Wilhelmine to Nazi Germany", in Richard A. Etlin, ed., ''Art, Culture, and Media under the Third Reich'', 2002, {{ISBN|0226220877}}, p. 181</ref>|source=}}
==See also== * {{anli|A Symphony of Lights}} * {{anli|Architecture of the Night}} * {{anli|Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds}} * {{anli|German searchlights of World War II}} * {{anli|Imagine Peace Tower}} * {{anli|spectra (installation)}} * {{anli|Tribute in Light}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}} *{{cite book | last = Speer | first = Albert | authorlink = Albert Speer | year = 1970 | title = Inside the Third Reich | location = New York and Toronto | publisher = Macmillan }} (Translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston.) Republished in paperback in 1997 by Simon & Schuster, {{ISBN|0-684-82949-5}}.
==External links== * {{Commonscatinline}} * [https://mashable.com/feature/nuremberg-rallies Photos from 1933-1938 Nuremberg Rallies]
{{Albert Speer}} {{Authority control}} Category:Nuremberg under Nazi Germany Category:Architectural lighting design Category:Nazi culture Category:1930s in Germany Category:Searchlights Category:1934 establishments in Germany Category:1938 disestablishments in Germany Category:Light art Category:Albert Speer