Gauforum
About This Site
A National Socialist administrative quarter in the middle of Weimar, built partly by concentration camp prisoners, never finished as planned, and in ordinary daily use ever since.
What it was meant to be, 1937
The complex was laid out to gather the central administrative offices of a party Gau in one place. Three elements were planned: a "Halle der Volksgemeinschaft" with standing room for twenty thousand, a bell tower, and a building for the Reichsstatthalterei and the Gauleitung. Rudolf Heß laid the cornerstone of the hall on 1 May 1937.[1]
Whose building it was, 1927–1942
The southern wing was intended for Fritz Sauckel's office as Reichsstatthalter, moving across from the Landesmuseum once the work was done.[1] Sauckel had been Gauleiter of Thuringia since 1927 and from March 1942 ran forced labour for the entire Reich — and prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp were among those put to work on this construction.[1]
Standing there now, 2005–2024
The buildings survived the war and are not a ruin or a memorial: since 2005 the complex has housed a shopping centre and a Thuringian state administrative office, and since 2024 the Museum Zwangsarbeit im Nationalsozialismus.[1] A visitor crossing the square is walking through the largest surviving National Socialist ensemble in a town that is on the UNESCO list for Goethe and the Bauhaus, and nothing announces it.
Why it is worth stopping
Weimar's difficulty is usually described as two histories in one town. The Gauforum is the place where that is a single address: an unfinished monument to a party, built with camp labour, now containing shops, a state office, and a museum about the forced labour that raised it. The building was not preserved as a warning. It was simply too big to remove, and the town got on with using it.
Questions visitors ask
- What was the Gauforum built for?
- A National Socialist administrative quarter — the central offices of a party Gau gathered in one place. Three elements were planned: a "Halle der Volksgemeinschaft" with standing room for twenty thousand, a bell tower, and a building for the Reichsstatthalterei and the Gauleitung. Rudolf Heß laid the cornerstone of the hall on 1 May 1937.[1]
- Who built it?
- Prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp were among those put to work on the construction.[1] The southern wing was intended for Fritz Sauckel, Gauleiter of Thuringia since 1927, who from March 1942 ran forced labour for the entire Reich.
- Was it ever finished?
- No — it was never completed as planned.
- What is there today?
- The buildings survived the war and are in ordinary daily use: since 2005 the complex has housed a shopping centre and a Thuringian state administrative office, and since 2024 the Museum Zwangsarbeit im Nationalsozialismus.[1]
- Why isn't it a memorial?
- It was never preserved as a warning — it was simply too big to remove, and the town got on with using it. A visitor crossing the square is walking through the largest surviving National Socialist ensemble in a town on the UNESCO list for Goethe and the Bauhaus, and nothing announces it.
Sources
- Gauforum — weimar-im-ns.de, retrieved 29 August 2026