Hitler wanted a bit of the Vatican in Berlin

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Adolf Hitler intended to recreate the Vatican's St Peter's Square in Berlin to honour his ally Benito Mussolini, newly discovered documents have revealed.

Albert Speer, the Nazi leader's chief architect, was commissioned to draw up the plans, which have been discovered by historians examining his papers.

They had been stored in a secret room inside Moscow's Museum of Architecture after being taken to Russia at the end of World War II. There were more than 200 boxes of files belonging to Speer, whose grand designs for the rebuilding of Nazi Berlin were already well known.

But the plans for a new, Germanic version of St Peter's Square, complete with a giant statue of Mussolini, have astonished historians.

http://smh.com.au/news/world/hitler-wanted-a-bit-of-the-vatican-in-berlin/2006/01/22/1137864806875.html

[emad]

1. US Court won't review Vatican Bank holocaust suit:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2046402

[Meldread]

2. How ironic.

It seems that a bit of Nazi Germany has managed to find its way into the Vatican instead.

Just gotta love this New Pope's stand on gays. :eyes:

[smirkymonkey]

3. Weren't Berliners and Germans in the North generally Protestant?

I know that Austrians, Bavarians and areas of Southern Germany were Catholic, but why would he want to put a replica of the Vatican in Berlin?

A bit off the subject, but I am always puzzled by the alliances between powerful Protestants and the Vatican.