Covering around 100 hectares, the former “NS-Ordensburg” Vogelsang is one of the largest architectural complexes of the Nazi era – comparable to the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg or the Prora seaside resort. Although never completed, the complex still exemplifies the political architecture of National Socialism: built for self-promotion, to demonstrate power and to stage a display of dominion over people and nature.

The permanent exhibition ‘Destined to Be the Master Race: Nazi Ordensburgen – Between Fascination and Crime’ is the only exhibition dedicated to the history of the three Nazi Ordensburgen. Through numerous documents, films, photographs and artefacts, it provides insights into life at Vogelsang and the ‘fatal attraction’ of National Socialism. It also shows how former ‘Ordensburg men’ became perpetrators and accomplices in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe.

The introductory chapter, ‘Leaders for the Führer’s State’, makes clear why the Ordensburgen were established: the NSDAP was seeking new recruits for leadership positions. Who were the young men who were trained here? What ideas did they bring with them – and could they have resisted the ideology?

Spanning a total of eleven chapters – such as ‘Elite Claims and Subordination’ and ‘The Cult of the Body and Masculinity’ – the exhibition explores the origins, architecture and use of the Ordensburg. Above all, however, it focuses on the people who were to be moulded here into a ‘new German man’: the ideal image of the National Socialist ‘master race’.