Annette Kelm Travertinsäulen, Recyclingpark Neckartal, Parkplatz, 2019

The work is from the artist’s series Recyclingpark Neckartal, for which Annette Kelm photographed a remnant of national socialist architecture hidden on the outskirts of Stuttgart. Located in a small space compressed between a recycling yard and a waste-to-energy plant are 14 travertine columns that the Nazi regime commissioned from the Lauster quarry in Stuttgart in the 1930s. Despite their colossal proportions, they are barely visible today in the shadow of the gigantic incinerator. They were intended for a monumental Mussolini memorial to be erected as part of Albert Speer's planned world capital "Germania" in Berlin on Adolf Hitler Platz (now Theodor Heuss Platz). World War II prevented the realization of the project and the columns were never removed. Today, they serve as a poignant testament to the Nazi regime's megalomania and the influence of power politics.