planned for a massive Winter Stadium designed with the capacity to hold at least 250,000 German citizens. The size of the buildings is best exemplified in Hitler's plans for the . This unrealized dome designed by Hitler and Speer was intended to be an assembly hall standing at high and holding over 180,000 people. In 1945 when Speer discussed the designs for the with British and United States structural engineers, the engineers claimed the interior of the would have been so vast and grandiose that at full capacity, condensation from the breath of chanting soldiers would have formed clouds within the structure. The purpose of this hall was to create a permanent structure acting as the capital of the Third Reich, and the centerpiece of Germania that eternalized Hitler's strength, power, and influence. With structures of such size being built on Berlin's soil for the first time, the ground needed to be tested. The was built as a test for Hitler's Triumphal Arch. Speer was concerned that the ground would be too soft to hold something as dense and large as the Triumphal Arch, so the was constructed to test the ground's capability to hold massive concrete structures. Hitler’s architects and engineers planned to measure the depth that the sank into the ground. Work on the new capital was soon discontinued due to the onset of World War II and measurements at the cylinder ceased in June 1944. Albert Speer The is one of the few structures that still stand today by Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer. Speer was born on March 19, 1905, in Mannheim, Germany to an upper middle-class family. Speer chose to study architecture like his father and grandfather. He studied at the University of Karlsruhe and transferred to the Technical University of Munich. Speer completed his postgraduate studies at the Technical University of Berlin before joining the Nazi party in 1931. Hitler had appointed Speer as the inspector general of Berlin on 30 January, 1937. His task was redesigning Berlin as a center of National Socialism according to Hitler's vision and aspiration. According to Speer, Berlin was to be the "showpiece" of Hitler's and the Nazi regime's architectural self expression. Speer was also eager to fulfill Hitler's desires for massive buildings and monuments that encapsulated the regime's vision. After he presented plans of the Triumphal Arch to Hitler, Speer quickly commissioned the construction of the .