Nuremberg, September 1933: The first rally after the seizure of power once more took place in Nuremberg – Hitler having decided that the city was to be the permanent venue and "City of the Nazi Party Rallies". Henceforth a major national event, programme, length and dimension were massively upscaled. The black-and-white photograph shows the Zeppelin Field with a provisional wooden grandstand at the 1933 rally.

The first construction projects began the same year. Based on plans by architect Albert Speer, as of 1934 the existing venue was to be transformed and extended into a huge cultic complex solely aimed at cultivating the Nazis' self-image. From 1938 onwards, large scale supplies of granite from concentration camps were planned.

Modern media techniques were to be deployed to let the nation share the community experience inspired by the rallies. The photographer Heinrich Hoffmann and film director Leni Riefenstahl shaped the image of the Nazi Party Rallies. International reactions ranged from enthusiasm to rejection.

Experience-focused stagings were designed to convey the Nazi regime's key messages one of them being the promise of Germany's rise again based on the unity of the German national community under strong leadership. In 1935, on the political stage of the rallies, the "Nuremberg Laws" were proclaimed as the legal basis for the disenfranchisement of the German Jews. In 1938, the annexation of Austria was celebrated. Due to the planned attack on Poland, the 1939 Rally of Peace was cancelled just before the opening.