Nuremberg Rally

Adolf Hitler speaking at the 1933 Nuremberg Rally.

The Nuremberg Rally (officially, Reichsparteitag, meaning Reich national party convention) was the annual rally of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in the years 1923 to 1939 -- 11th Congress -- in Germany. Especially after Hitler's rise to power in 1933, they were large Nazi propaganda events. The Reichsparteitage were held annually at the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg from 1933 to 1938 and are thus usually referred to in English as the Nuremberg Rallies.

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History and purpose

The first rallies by the NSDAP took place in 1923 in Munich and 1926 in Weimar. From 1927 on, they ran exclusively in Nuremberg. Nuremberg was selected for pragmatic reasons: It was situated in the center of the German Reich and the local Luitpoldhain was well suited as a venue. In addition, the NSDAP was able to rely on the well organized local strand of the party in Franconia, then led by Gauleiter Julius Streicher. The Nuremberg police were sympathetic to the event. Later, the location was justified by putting it into the tradition of the Reichstag in the Holy Roman Empire. After 1933, the rallies were held near the time of the Autumn equinox under the label of Reichsparteitage des deutschen Volkes ("National Congress of the Party of the German People"), which was meant to symbolize the solidarity between the German people and the Nazi Party. This point was further emphasized by the yearly growing number of participants, which finally reached over half a million from all sections of the party, the army and the state.

The Nuremberg Rallies

Reichsparteitag 1934, "Totenehrung" (honouring of dead): SS-leader Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler and SA-leader Viktor Lutze on the stone terrace in front of the "Ehrenhalle" (Hall of Honour) in the Luitpoldarena; in the background: the crescent-shaped "Ehrentribüne" (literally: tribune of honour).
Stamp from Reichsparteitag 1935

Each rally was given a programmatic title, which related to recent national events:

Procedure

The primary aspect of the Nuremberg Rallies was to strengthen the personality cult of Adolf Hitler, portraying Hitler as Germany's saviour, chosen by providence. The gathered masses listened to the Führer's speeches, swore loyalty and marched before him. Representing the Volksgemeinschaft as a whole, the rallies served to demonstrate the might of the German people. The visitors of the rallies by their own free will were subordinate to the discipline and order in which they should be reborn as a new people. [1]

Propaganda movies

Official films for the rallies began in 1927, with the establishment of the NSDAP film office. However the most famous films were the ones made by Leni Riefenstahl for the rallies between 1933 and 1935. Relating to the theme of the rally, she called her first movie "Victory of Faith" (Der Sieg des Glaubens). However this movie was taken out of circulation after the Röhm-Putsch. The rally of 1934 became the setting for the award-winning documentary film Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). However, several generals in the Wehrmacht protested over the minimal army presence in the film. Hitler apparently proposed modifying the film to placate the generals, but Riefenstahl refused his suggestion. She did agree to return to the 1935 rally and make a film exclusively about the Wehrmacht, which became Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht.

The rallies for 1936 and 1937 were covered in Festliches Nürnberg, which was shorter than the others, only 21 minutes.

Books

There were two sets of official or semi-official books covering the rallies. The "red books" were officially published by the NSDAP and contained the proceedings of the "congress" as well as full texts of every speech given in chronological order.

The "blue books" were not published by the party press, but rather initially by Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter of Nuremberg, later by Hanns Kerrl. These were larger scale books that included the text of speeches and proceedings, as well as larger photographs.

In addition to these, collections of Heinrich Hoffman's photographs were published to commemorate each Party congress, as well as pamphets of Hitler's speeches. Both series of books are much sought after collectors items. [2]

See also

Notes

External links