Category: History Listing Date: 2014-08-12
Hitler's Affect on Rushmore
The Nazi Party Rally Grounds were part of a major NS construction programme for the entire Reich. Hitler himself, as the self-appointed "Supreme Master Builder" of Germany, repeatedly exercised his influence on how that programme was actually implemented.
The monumental edifice designed by Nuremberg architects, Ludwig and Franz Ruff, was designed to be a congress centre for the NSDAP. above reference
So what does any of this have to do with Mount Rushmore?
Well, World War II became the priority. Money needed for the war would not be available for Gutzon Borglum's Mount Rushmore project. Hitler's plan to expand his brand of Socialism shifted everyone's focus a half a world away from an artist's dream in South Dakota.
Certainly the argument can be made that not much more could have been done on the mountain near Keystone. Little granite suitable for carving remained. Even the large area to Washington's right, the first location of Jefferson, was unusable. Still, it is interesting to speculate about what might have been.
Gutzon Borglum died in 1941. Would have Borglum's son Lincoln continued if funding would have been available? Perhaps that grand hall, The Hall of Records, could have been finished; perhaps not the original design but a modified version.