Blutfahne

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Jakob Grimminger carrying the Blutfahne in Triumph of the Will.

The Blutfahne (Blood flag) was a Nazi Swastika flag which was used in the attempted Nazi Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Germany on November 9, 1923 and one of the most revered objects of the German Nazi Party. The flag was actually that of the 5th SA Sturm that was covered in blood from members of the Nazi Party who had been shot by the Munich Police (primarily from party member Andreas Bauriedl who fell on top of the flag when he was shot and killed).

There were two stories about what happened to the flag in the aftermath of the putsch: One was that Heinrich Trambauer (the flagbearer) took the flag to a friend where he removed the flag from the staff and left with it hidden inside his jacket. Later, Traumbauer gave the flag to a Karl Eggers, who kept the flag safe. The other story was that the flag was confiscated by the Munich authorities and was later returned to the Nazis, Eggers being the recipient.

Regardless of which story was the correct one, after Adolf Hitler was released from Landsberg prison (after serving one year of a five year prison sentence for his part in the putsch), Eggers gave the flag to him. It was then fitted to a new staff and finial and just below the finial was a silver dedication sleeve which bore the names of three martyrs from the putsch. Bauriedl was one of the three honorees. In addition, the flag was no longer attached to the staff by its original sewn-in sleeve, but by a red-white-black intertwined cord which ran through the sleeve instead.

The flag was thereafter treated as a sacred object by the Nazi Party, and it was carried by SS Sturmbannführer Jakob Grimminger at various Nazi party ceremonies. One of the most visible uses of the flag was by Adolf Hitler, who at the annual party rallies at Nuremberg, touched other Nazi banners with the Blutfahne, thus 'sanctifying' the new flags with the old.

When not in use, the Blutfahne was kept at the headquarters of the Nazi Party (the Brown House) in Munich, with an SS guard of honor. The flag had a small tear in it that went unrepaired for a number of years. The tear was believed to have occurred during the putsch.

The Blutfahne was last seen in public at the Induction Ceremony of the Volksturm on October 18, 1944. (Not at Gauleiter Adolf Wagner's funeral six months earlier, as has frequently been reported.) This ceremony was conducted by Himmler and attended by Keitel, Guderian, Lammers, Bormann, Fiehler, Schepmann and Kraus. The Blutfahne has not been seen since then. It is possible that it may have been destroyed, or it may yet survive, either in secret storage somewhere or simply unrecognized as such.