This article analyses the debate about the relationship between the rise of the far right and the built environment in Germany. Four distinct arguments are identified and evaluated: the development of a critique of architectural modernism by far-right intellectuals; the rehabilitation of Nazi architects and theorists; the creation of spaces for right-wing prefigurative politics; and, lastly, historical reconstructions as a factor in the rightward shift of political culture. The article claims that all these arguments have some validity, but that only the last points to a development with wider political impact. It also argues that there has been a shift from a critical understanding of reconstructions to an uncritical one, and that uncritical reconstructions can facilitate a rapprochement between centre-right parties and intellectuals and far-right figures.