The Nazi's "Cathedral of Lights"

I came across this picture in a book, and thought that it looked alot like a barcode.

The Party Rally at Nuremberg, 1938. Anit-aircraft searchlights projects a 'Dome of Lights' into the sky

It looked like an interesting story so I did some research.

The "Cathedral of Lights" was designed by Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich, and is one of the most powerful images from Nazi Germany.

Did the Nazi's use the searchlights as a symbol of power?...... as a type of mind control?



....or are the "Cathedral of Lights" the mark of the beast?....




en.wikipedia.org...

Albert Speer (born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer; [1]; pronounced [ˈʃpeːɐ̯] ( listen); March 19, 1905 – September 1, 1981) was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office. As "the Nazi who said sorry",[a] he accepted responsibility at the Nuremberg trials and in his memoirs for crimes of the Nazi regime. His level of involvement in the persecution of the Jews and his level of knowledge of the Holocaust remain matters of dispute.

When Troost died on January 21, 1934, Speer effectively replaced him as the Party's chief architect. Hitler appointed Speer as head of the Chief Office for Construction, which placed him nominally on Hess's staff.[32]

One of Speer's first commissions after Troost's death was the Zeppelinfeld stadium—the Nürnberg parade grounds seen in Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda masterpiece Triumph of the Will. This huge work was capable of holding 340,000 people.[33] The tribune was influenced by the Pergamon Altar in Anatolia, but was magnified to an enormous scale.[34] Speer insisted that as many events as possible be held at night, both to give greater prominence to his lighting effects and to hide the individual Nazis, many of whom were overweight.[35]

Speer surrounded the site with 130 anti-aircraft searchlights. This created the effect of a "cathedral of light" or, as it was called by British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson, a "cathedral of ice".[36] Speer described this as his most beautiful work, and as the only one that stood the test of time.

The idea was disliked by the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring, because the number of searchlights represented most of Germany's strategic reserve, but 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."

British Ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson said that it "was both solemn and beautiful... like being in a cathedral of ice."

en.wikipedia.org...

Adolf Hitler poses in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background, one day after the formal capitulation of France, on June 23, 1940. He is accompanied by Albert Speer, German Reichsminister of armaments and Hitler's chief architect, left, and Arno Breker, professor of visual arts in Berlin and Hitler's favorite sculptor, right.

This music was played in conjunction with Albert Speers Cathedral of lights at the 1934 National Socialist German Workers Party Rally in Nuremberg 1934.

The Nazi's were known to use anything at their disposal to gain control of the people. Was the "Cathedral of Lights" designed as a weapon for mass hypnosis or a similar agenda? The searchlights were obviously used to make a statement, but could there also be more esoteric reasons for the searchlights?


www.theatlantic.com...
www.bytwerk.com...

reply to post by isyeye


What an awesome thread, isyeye.

Thanks for putting this up. I thought I had seen it all but I have never seen a single one of these images.

Good job.

X.

reply to post by isyeye

I did not know, thanks for bringing it onboard. My first reaction was "who here reads barcode please?" But then I read that the lights were evenly spaced, so doesn't that nullify the barcode premise? The first pic does appear to have an unevenness about it.

Mark of the beast?! Hah, no....
But still an interesting thread, what caught my attention was the following:

The idea was disliked by the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring, because the number of searchlights represented most of Germany's strategic reserve, but 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."

This doesnt represent any particular barcode, nor the sign of the beast. It was simply a show of power, impressive to say the least. One can only imagine seeing that with your own eyes, it must have been breathtaking!

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
reply to post by isyeye

 

I did not know, thanks for bringing it onboard. My first reaction was "who here reads barcode please?" But then I read that the lights were evenly spaced, so doesn't that nullify the barcode premise? The first pic does appear to have an unevenness about it.

I thought that too. But in some of the pictures you can see a different arrangement of lights.

reply to post by Clairaudience


It was definitely an impressive show of power. I'm not too sure about the barcode thing myself, more of just an odd coincidence because of the angle of the pictures.

reply to post by isyeye

I guess it wouldn't be so surprising, given that Hitler was keen to utilizing esoteric energies and voodoo like propaganda to influence. So yea, if the lights(shadows) were manipulated somehow to project a barcode type effect, then who knows?

Bar codes weren't really something that was even being worked on until the late 1940s. Even then in America it started as a graduate student's project at Drexle Institute of Technology. It was originally began because of a request from a food service vender that wanted to speed up lines and improve efficiency.

Barcodes are not esoteric Nazi propaganda or the mark of the beast.

The Cathedral of Light works on a very simple principle. If you overwhelm a group of people with spectacle they are much easier to coerce and control. Plus at the time it was an amazing show of power. No one had really made a habit of putting on such huge displays with electric light. For many rural Germans it would have been completely awe inspiring and breath taking. It would reinforce the idea that Hitler and Germany were the most powerful forces on Earth.

Originally posted by MikeNice81
Bar codes weren't really something that was even being worked on until the late 1940s.

I'm not exactly sure if this is true, I have read a book on how IBM was the first to develop techniques to mark and keep databases on individuals who were kept in Nazi concentration camps. I would say this was the birth of the barcode. But as I said, I'm not sure.

Originally posted by Clairaudience

Originally posted by MikeNice81
Bar codes weren't really something that was even being worked on until the late 1940s.

I'm not exactly sure if this is true, I have read a book on how IBM was the first to develop techniques to mark and keep databases on individuals who were kept in Nazi concentration camps. I would say this was the birth of the barcode. But as I said, I'm not sure.

edit on 25-1-2012 by Clairaudience because: (no reason given)

I've seen it stated that the military also used a barcode like system for identifing parts in the 1920's, but I haven't been able to confirm that they did.

reply to post by isyeye
Those Nazis sure knew how to mesmerize and hypnotize the masses back then,trying to make them forget and ignore what was really going on and just think about it, Hitler was chosen as Time Magazines - Man Of The Year in 1938...He could have been, Man Of The Century, if he had used his power and sway for good instead of evil...

reply to post by Clairaudience


The IBM system was a punch card set up.

From an article by Edwin Black

The infamous Auschwitz tattoo began as an IBM number.

In August 1943, a timber merchant from Bendzin, Poland, arrived at Auschwitz. He was among a group of 400 inmates, mostly Jews. First, a doctor examined him briefly to determine his fitness for work. His physical information was noted on a medical record. Second, his full prisoner registration was completed with all personal details. Third, his name was checked against the indices of the Political Section to see if he would be subjected to special punishment. Finally, he was registered in the Labor Assignment Office and assigned a characteristic five-digit IBM Hollerith number, 44673.

The five-digit Hollerith number was part of a custom punch card system devised by IBM to track prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, including the slave labor at Auschwitz.

At Death's Door by Edwin Black

I was unable to find any mention of the military adopting barcodes for tracking in the 1920s.