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7 Case Study: The Nuremberg Rallies
XXX Case Study: The Nuremberg Rallies7
In this chapter we will examine the famous Nuremberg Rallies. Held yearly, they were one of the most important events in Nazi Germany, where propaganda played a central role.
Caption
Poster for the 1933 rally in Nuremberg. The official name of the Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).
?KEY QUESTION
What role did the Nuremberg Rallies play in Nazi Germany?
What was the purpose of the Nuremberg rallies?
In Nazi Germany, rallies and parades were very common and played a very important role. They combined popular festival, glorification of military values, political meeting and sacred occasion. They were designed to emphasise the importance of the People’s Community (the Volksgemeinschaft) and the contribution of each individual to the national will. They also gave a sense of order and discipline and made for an excellent propaganda spectacle.
The annual Nazi Party rally held at Nuremberg was the most important of all. Staged over a number of days in early September, it involved hundreds of thousands of participants, with representatives of all party organisations, including the SS, the SA, the army and the Hitler Youth and its female counterpart, the League of German Maidens. Goebbels described the rallies at Nuremberg as ‘the High Mass of the party’.
The Nuremberg Rallies served a number of propaganda purposes:
Their primary purpose was to strengthen the personality cult of Adolf Hitler. All events during the rallies were designed to portray Hitler as Germany’s saviour.
They were designed to promote the concept of the Volksgemeinschaft.
They demonstrated the dynamism and energy of National Socialism.
They created the impression both at home and abroad that the regime was popular, commanding the unlimited enthusiasm and loyalty of the general population.
Why was Nuremberg chosen?
The national party rally of the Nazi Party, or to give it its title, the Reichsparteitag (National Party Convention), was first held in Munich in 1923. Weimar was the second venue in 1926. In 1927 Nuremberg was selected, as it was situated in the centre of Germany and the local stadium was an ideal venue. The Nazis could also count on a well-organised local party, led by Julius Streicher, and the sympathy of the local police. The Nazis would later claim that Nuremberg had been chosen because of the city’s historical association with the medieval Holy Roman Empire. This was an attempt to link the Nazi Party with the glories of Germany’s past.
From 1933 the size and scale of the rallies increased dramatically. Nuremberg became known as the ‘City of the Party Rallies’. The number of participants grew to well over 500,000 people. The 1934 rally lasted a week, with over 500 trains bringing people from all over Germany. The rallies were now renamed the Reichsparteitage des deutschen Volkes, or the National Congress of the Party of the German People. This name was chosen to represent the unity that the Nazis claimed existed between the German people and the Nazi Party.
What were the themes of the rallies?
Each year the rally had a different title, which usually related to a recent foreign policy success:
The 1933 Rally of Victory was a celebration of the Nazis coming to power.
In 1934 it was called the Rally of Unity and Strength or the Rally of Power. It is famous for the film made about the rally by Leni Riefenstahl, called Triumph of the Will.
The 1935 Rally of Freedom celebrated the reintroduction of conscription and in Nazi eyes breaking free from the Treaty of Versailles.
The 1936 Rally of Honour was named because of the successful German reoccupation of the demilitarised Rhineland, which the Nazis saw as restoring German honour.
In 1937 the Rally of Labour celebrated the reduction of unemployment in Germany since the Nazis came to power.
The Anschluss with Austria saw the 1938 rally being called the Rally of Greater Germany.
The 1939 Rally of Peace was supposed to show Germany’s commitment to peace, but it had to be cancelled when Germany invaded Poland.
There were no rallies held during World War II.
What were the main events during the rallies?
As we have read, the most important purpose of the Nuremberg Rallies was the almost religious focus on Adolf Hitler. Throughout the days of the party congress, there were numerous parades that usually followed the same format:
Members of a party organisation such as the SA marched in front of Hitler at the rally grounds just outside the city or through the centre of the old town.
Once a parade was over, the participants then listened to a speech from Hitler.
Hitler would have played a central role in nearly all of the events listed below. On the following page, you can read one of the types of speeches Hitler gave at the rallies.
Some of the events from the 1938 party congress:
September 6: Day of the opening of the party congress
Official opening of the Party Congress and reading of Hitler’s proclamation
September 7: Day of the reich labour service
Review of the Labour Service on the Zeppelin Field Parade of the Reich Labour Service through Nuremberg city
September 8: Day of fellowship
Torchlight parade of political leaders
September 9: Day of the political leaders
Meeting of the National Socialist Women’s Association
September 10: Day of the Hitler youth
Review of the Hitler Youth on the Zeppelin Field
September 11: Day of the SA and SS
Mass meeting on the Zeppelin Field Parade through Nuremberg
September 12: Day of the armed forces Review and mass meeting of the army Closing ceremony of the Party Congress
Nuremberg Castle circa 1885. The city's historical importance was favoured by the Nazis.
EXAMINE THE SOURCE
Here is an edited transcript of a speech by Hitler at the 1934 rally. Read it closely and answer the questions that follow.
Closing Address to the Nazi Party Congress Nuremberg, Germany, 14 September 1934 by Adolf Hitler
The Sixth Party Rally is coming to an end. What millions of Germans outside our ranks may simply have rated as an imposing display of political power was infinitely more for hundreds of thousands of fighters; the great personal, political and spiritual meeting of the old fighters and battle comrades. And perhaps, in spite of the spectacular forcefulness of this imposing review of the armies of the Party, many among them were wistfully thinking back to the days when it was difficult to be a National Socialist. For when our Party comprised just seven people, it already formulated two principles: it wanted to be a truly ideological party; it wanted, uncompromisingly, sole and absolute power in Germany.
We, as a party, had to remain a minority, because we mobilised the most valuable elements of fight and sacrifice in the nation, and they are never a majority but always a minority. And since the best racial component of the German nation, proudly self-assured, courageously, and daringly, demanded leadership of the Reich and the people, the people followed its leadership in ever greater numbers and subordinated themselves to it...
Formerly, our opponents saw to it that through prohibition and persecution our movement was periodically purged of the light chaff that began to settle in it. Now we must practice selectiveness ourselves and expel what has proved to be rotten and therefore not of our kind. It is our wish and intent that this state and this Reich shall endure through the millennia ahead. We can rejoice in the knowledge that the future belongs totally to us.
Where the older generations might still waver, the youth is sworn to us and given to us, body and soul. Only if we realize in the Party the ultimate essence and idea of National Socialism, through the joint effort of all of us, will it forever and indestructibly be a possession of the German people and the German nation. Then the splendid and glorious army of the old and proud armed services of our nation will be joined by the no less tradition-bound leadership of the Party and together these two establishments will form and firm the German people and carry on their shoulders the German state and German Reich.
At this hour, tens of thousands of party comrades are beginning to leave town. While some are till reminiscing, others are getting ready for the next roll call, and always people will come and go, and always they will be gripped anew, gladdened, and inspired, for the idea and the Movement are expressions of the life of our people and therefore, symbols of eternity. Long live the National Socialist Movement. Long live Germany!
Source: http://www.speeches-usa.com/Transcripts/051_hitler.html
QUESTIONS
(a) According to Hitler, what does the rally mean for ‘hundreds of thousands of fighters’?
(b) What were the two principles of the Nazi party?
(c) According to Hitler, why did the party have to remain a minority?
(d) What is Hitler’s wish for the future of the party?
(e) What role does Hitler see for the armed services of the nation?
(f) How would you describe the tone of this speech? Give evidence to support your answer.
The Nazi party rally grounds
Most of the events at Nuremberg happened at the rally grounds that were located just outside Nuremberg. You can see them on the map on page 69. Before 1933, only the municipal stadium in the complex had been used for the rallies, but once the party was in power the rally grounds were greatly extended to incorporate a number of venues. In 1934 architect Albert Speer was given the task of creating an overall plan for an area of 11 square kilometres. Hitler planned for the buildings at the party rally grounds to stand for thousands of years. When World War II began the construction work was abandoned and some of the projects remained unfinished.
The most important venues in the rally grounds were the following:
Hitler speaking at Nuremberg.
The Zeppelin Field: The Zeppelin Field was named after the site of the landing of one of Count Zeppelin’s airships in 1909. It was the central venue for staging the party parades. Speer redeveloped the site building, a large grandstand with a width of 360 metres. The field provided space for up to 200,000 people. At night the ‘Cathedral of Light’ was created, when over 150 strong floodlights beamed up into the sky, providing spectacular effects.
One of the reasons for Hitler’s popularity was his foreign policy. His aims were to:
Remove the restrictions placed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles Unite German speakers together into one country (a Greater Germany or Gross Deutschland) Conquer territory in Eastern Europe (Lebensraum, or living space).
Below are some of the main actions that Hitler took in the 1930s:
1933 Germany left the League of Nations. 1935 Germany broke the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and introduced conscription. Germany also announced that they had an air force and started to build tanks – all of which had been forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. 1936 German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland that bordered France, which was forbidden under the Treaty of Versailles. France and Britain took no action. 1938 March: Austria became part of Germany in an event known as the Anschluss. September: After the Munich Conference, the German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia was given to Germany. 1939 March: Germany occupied the rest of the Czech lands. September: Germany demanded the return of the port of Danzig to German control. When the Poles refused, Germany attacked Poland. Britain and France declared war – World War II had started.
The Luitpold Hall: Originally built in 1906, the Nazis rebuilt it to be used exclusively for their party congress. Albert Speer had the front of the building remodelled and the interior modernised. The hall could hold 16,000 people.
The Luitpold Arena:
Originally designed as a park, it was enlarged to hold over 150,000 people. At one end was the Ehrenhalle, a World War I memorial built in 1929. The Nazis remodelled the park, incorporating the Ehrenhalle. Thousands of SS and SA men gathered at the Luitpold Arena to participate in a ceremony honouring the Nazi dead of the 1923 Bear Hall Putsch at the Ehrenhalle. The other end of the Luitpold Arena was a grandstand with a speaker’s platform and three tall swastika banners.
The SS Guard on Parade at the Nuremburg Rally.
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Luitpold Arena War Memorial Luitpold Hall Congress Hall (unfinished by 1939) German Stadium (planned but not built by 1939) March Field (unfinished by 1939)
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Municipal Stadium / Stadium of the Hitler Youth
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Zeppelin Field Zeppelin Field Grandstand Swimming Baths SS Barracks Camp for the Army, the SS, the SA, Hitler Youth and other participants Municipal Stadium: This had been built in the 1920s as part of a sports and leisure complex and held 50,000 spectators. This was the scene of march-pasts by the Hitler Youth. The stadium is still in use and was one of the venues for soccer’s 2006 World
Cup.
A new railway station was built and there was also a camp zone to house participants during the rally. During World War II it was used as a prisoner of war camp.
As we have read, because of the outbreak of the war a number of buildings planned by Speer were not completed. These included a 50,000-seat Congress Hall, modelled on the Colosseum in Ancient Rome, and the German Stadium, with a capacity for 400,000 people. The historic centre of Nuremburg was also used for parades. These were reviewed by Hitler in the central marketplace, which was renamed Adolf Hitler Platz in 1933.
What were the Nuremberg laws?
Sometimes important policy was announced at the rallies. The 1935 rally is remembered for the infamous Nuremberg Laws that made Jews second-class citizens in Germany. Hitler had summoned the Reichstag (German parliament) to meet at Nuremberg during this rally. The parliament now had only Nazi members and was completely obedient to Hitler’s commands. He wanted it to pass a new law making the swastika flag of the Nazi Party the new flag of Germany. Hitler also decided that a new set of laws dealing with the position of Jews in Germany would also be approved by the Reichstag. These laws were hastily drafted during the Nuremberg Rally and then presented to the parliament. Two laws were passed:
The Protection of German Blood and German Honour
The Reich Citizenship Laws.
The front of the Luitpold Hall.
As a result of the first law, marriage and extramarital sexual relations between Jews and Germans were banned, with strict punishments. Between 1936 and 1939 over 1,500 Jews were convicted and imprisoned for violating the ban on sexual contact between Germans and Jews.
Jews were also forbidden to employ German women under the age of 45. Under the second law, Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and were now called state citizens.
Given that the laws were drafted in a hurry, they were quite vague. Nazi officials were to spend the next few months working out their definition of what a Jew actually was.
As the historian Ian Kershaw wrote:
Under the new laws three-quarter Jews were counted as Jewish. Half-Jews (with two Jewish grandparents) were reckoned as Jewish only if practising the Jewish faith, married to a Jew, the child of a marriage with a Jewish partner, or the illegitimate child of a Jew and an Aryan.
Source: Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, Hubris Penguin Books, 1999
These laws marked a significant step in the removal of Jews from German society. One impact of the laws was to reinforce the impression created by Nazi propaganda among the German population that the Jews were different and not German.
At the 1937 rally Hitler met the brother of the Japanese emperor, symbolising closer relations between both countries. During the 1938 rally Hitler used his speeches to put pressure on the Czechs over the Sudetenland (a Germanspeaking region of Czechoslovakia). He made wild allegations claiming widespread mistreatment by the Czechs of the Germans who lived there. The crisis over this region nearly led to a European war in the autumn of 1938. However, the dispute was settled at the Munich Conference when the British and the French agreed to Hitler’s demand that the region be given to Germany.
Hitler salutes marchers in the centre of Nuremberg.
Why is the film Triumph of The Will controversial?
One of Hitler’s aims was to convey to the world the images of the new German unity as seen at Nuremberg. With this in mind he arranged for the young actress and director Leni Riefenstahl to make a record of the 1934 rally. She had made a film of the 1933 rally called Triumph of Faith, but it had not been successful. Riefenstahl was at first reluctant, given the failure of her first film, but Hitler persuaded her to accept the task. Goebbels opposed her appointment, as Riefenstahl was not a party member (she never joined), and because Hitler had directly appointed her, bypassing the propaganda ministry. Furthermore, as we have read, Goebbels favoured more indirect methods of propaganda in films and opposed what he saw as a crude propaganda film about Hitler.
Nonetheless, Hitler issued orders that Riefenstahl be Leni Riefenstahl shooting Triumph of the Will. provided with all the resources that she required. A crew of 120 worked on the film with 30 cameras. The most advanced film techniques of the time, such as telephoto lenses and wide-angled photography, were used. The resulting film, Triumph of the Will, was in the words of the historian Richard Evans ‘a documentary like none before’. The film had no commentary and it portrayed the unity and determination of the German people under Hitler’s leadership. The film was noted for its presentation of vast disciplined masses moving in perfect co-ordination. It was the only film made about Hitler during the Third Reich.
It was released in 1935 to widespread praise not only in Germany, but also abroad. The film won the German National Film Prize, which was presented to Riefenstahl by Goebbels who had changed his mind about the film. He described it as ‘a magnificent cinematic version of the Führer’. It was awarded the Gold Medal at the Venice Film Festival in 1935 and the Grand Prize at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. She was the first female director to receive such international recognition for her work.
Controversy rages to this day as to whether it is a piece of propaganda or a brilliant example of cinema. In an interview in 1964, Riefenstahl defended the film:
Everything in it is true. And it contains no commentary at all. It is history. A pure historical film. It reflects the truth that was then in 1934, history. It is therefore a documentary. Not a propaganda film.
Source: www.kamera.co.uk
Many commentators disagree and accuse the director of using spectacular filmmaking to promote a system that became a by-word for evil. Richard Evans wrote about the film:
Presented as a documentary, it was a propaganda film designed to convince Germany and the world of the power, strength and determination of the German people under Hitler’s leadership.
Source: Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power, Penguin Books, 2006, page 126
Still shot from Triumph of the Will. Hitler, Himmler and the SA leader Victor Lutze are at the memorial to the Nazi dead of the Beer Hall Putsch in the Luitpold Arena. They are flanked on either side by gigantic formations of Nazis in perfectly aligned columns. It is images such as these that cause many people to view Triumph of the Will as propaganda. What do you think?
Today in Germany the movie is classified as National Socialist propaganda and is banned except for educational purposes.
After the success of this film, Leni Riefenstahl was commissioned by the International Olympics Committee to produce a documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Her film, called Olympia, received widespread international praise and is considered by many to be the greatest sports documentary ever made. As with her earlier work, Triumph of the Will, there is still controversy about the film as to whether it is a documentary or Nazi propaganda.
Because of her association with the Nazis, Riefenstahl was imprisoned by the victorious Allies for four years after the war. She unsuccessfully tried to return to film making and turned to photography instead. She died in 2003 at the age of 101.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1 Why was Nuremberg chosen as a site for Nazi party rallies?
2 Why were the rallies useful propaganda spectacles for the Nazis?
3 Explain why the rally had a different title each year.
4 What basic format did events follow during the rally?
5 Describe some of the important venues at the rally grounds outside Nuremberg.
6 ‘Triumph of the Will is a work of Nazi propaganda.’ Do you agree? Outline two reasons to support your answer.
EXAMINE THE SOURCE
The Nuremberg Laws, September 15, 1935 Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, September 15, 1935
Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted the following law, which is promulgated herewith: I. 1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden.
Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad. 2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor. II. Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. III. Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood under 45 years of age as domestic servants. IV. IV. 1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colours. 2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colours. The exercise of this right is protected by the State. V. 1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section I will be punished with hard labour. 2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section II will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labour. 3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections III or IV will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties. VI. The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Führer and the Reich
Minister of Justice will issue the legal and administrative regulations required for the enforcement and supplementing of this law. VII. The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section III, however, not until January 1, 1936.
Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935
I. 1. A subject of the State is a person who belongs to the protective union of the German
Reich, and who therefore has particular obligations towards the Reich. 2. The status of subject is acquired in accordance with the provisions of the Reich and State Law of
Citizenship. II. 1. A citizen of the Reich is that subject only who is of German or kindred blood and who, through his conduct, shows that he is both desirous and fit to serve the German people and Reich faithfully.
