The (German: "heavy load-exerting body") is a large concrete cylinder located at the intersection of Dudenstraße, General-Pape-Straße, and Loewenhardtdamm in the northwestern part of the borough of Tempelhof in Berlin, Germany. It was built by Adolf Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer to determine the feasibility of constructing large buildings on the area's marshy, sandy ground. Erected between 1941 and 1942 it was meant to test the ground for a massive triumphal arch on a nearby plot. The arch, in the style of the Nazi architectural movement, was to be about three times as large as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. It was one component of a plan to redesign the center of Berlin as an imposing, monumental capital reflecting the spirit of the Nazi Germany as envisioned by Hitler. The was built by Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG in 1941 at a cost of 400,000 Reichsmark (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency around 1.69 million euros, about 2 million US dollars). It consists of a foundation with a diameter of that reaches into the ground and contains rooms which once housed instruments to measure ground subsidence caused by the weight of the cylinder, which was estimated as equivalent to the load calculated for one pillar of the intended arch. On this foundation a cylinder high and in diameter weighing 12,650 tonnes was erected at street level. Germania The is one of the few remaining vestiges of Adolf Hitler's plans to remake the city of Berlin. After being appointed chancellor in 1933, Hitler was committed to redesigning Berlin in a way that prominently displayed 'national emblems of racial community'. The reconstruction of Berlin was initiated alongside the idea that this rebuilding would create and represent an eternal marking of Hitler's legacy and power. Hitler was at the forefront of the decision-making when it came to what was being built, where something was being built, and determining whether or not the structure properly exemplified the ideals of National Socialist power. Hitler and his architect, Albert Speer, planned to make Berlin into a "Monumental World Capital" called Germania. A defining feature of Hitler's plans to redesign Berlin was that everything must be on a massive scale. The buildings themselves needed to convey a strong sense of sturdiness and uniformity. These large-scale designs and lofty ambitions are represented in the Olympic Stadium intended to host the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Hitler also