City of Human Rights

In 1933, the National Socialists made Nuremberg the "City of the Party Rallies" and had monumental buildings erected as a backdrop for their major events. The cynical racial laws in contempt of humanity which were adopted here in 1935, will also remain inseparably linked with the name of Nuremberg. After the end of the war, the allies tried the main Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice. These "Nuremberg Trials" paved the way for today's international criminal justice. Thus the name of Nuremberg will necessarily remain linked to the history of National Socialism. The City accepts its responsibility in view of its history, and therefore endeavours to become a "City of Peace and Human Rights", informing people and sending out new signals of hope.

In 2001, the then Federal President Johannes Rau opened the Documentation Centre Party Rally Grounds. At the historical location of the perpetrators, the permanent exhibition mainly targets younger people, informing them about the causes, the context and the consequences of the National Socialist rule of terror.

On the "Way of Human Rights", created in 1993 by Israeli artist, Dani Karavan, stone pillars are engraved with the 30 articles of the Declaration of Human Rights in different languages, making them a visible presence in the city.

The City of Nuremberg established Germany's first municipal Human Rights Office, and since 1995, every two years has presented the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award. The 2007 awardee is Eugénie Musayidire (Rwanda) for her reconciliation work between the two enemy tribes, the Hutu and the Tutsi, in Rwanda.

Since 1995, Nuremberg has been the venue for an annual international human rights conference, an expert conference focussing on various human rights topics.