A Thingspiel was a kind of outdoor theatre which enjoyed brief popularity in pre-war Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 during the 1930s

1930s

File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...

.

A Thingplatz also known as Thingstätte was a specially-constructed outdoor amphitheater built for such Thingspiele. They were constructed in considerable numbers during the early 1930s. An estimated 200 to 400 were at least in the planning stage in the period of 1933 to 1939.

Here, the Volk would gather for Völkisch meetings and to view theater and propaganda presentations by Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...

. A Thing

Thing (assembly)

A thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead...

was an ancient Nordic

Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...

/Germanic

Germanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

 gathering of the people, in an outdoor setting. The Thing sites were to be built as much as possible in a natural setting, incorporating rocks, trees, water bodies, ruins, and hills of some historical or mythical significance.

The first Thingplatz was built in 1934 near Halle

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

. Some 1200 Thing sites were planned, but only about 40 were built, as the movement was never particularly popular with the people . Hitler himself was not a big believer in the "Blut und Boden" aspect of Goebbels' propaganda, and outdoor propaganda performances were not popular in the commonly cold and damp German weather. After 1936, most Thing sites were used as Feierstätten (festival sites) or Freilichtbühnen (open-air theaters), for outdoor plays and normal folk festivals such as those celebrating the summer solstice.

Following the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 many of these sites have come to be used as venues for outdoor rock concert

Rock concert

The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...

s and other musical presentations.