50th Birthday Gifts Biography
(Source google.com)
Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday on April 20, 1939 was
celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany. On that day, the largest
military parade in the history of the Third Reich was held in Berlin . On April 18,
1939, the government of Nazi Germany declared April 20, the birthday of Adolf
Hitler, a national holiday. Festivities took place in all municipalities
throughout the country, as well as in the Free City of Danzig. Historian Ian
Kershaw comments that the events organized in Berlin by the Nazi minister of propaganda
Dr. An astonishing extravaganza of the Führer cult. The
lavish outpourings of adulation and sycophancy surpassed those of any previous
'Führer's Birthday.' Festivities began
in the afternoon of the day before, when Hitler was driven at the head of a
motorcade of fifty white limousines along Albert Speer's newly completed
"East-West Axis", the planned central boulevard for "Germania ", which was to be the new capital for the
Nazi empire. Hitler had been anticipating a speech from the taciturn Speer and
was amused when he evaded this by briefly announcing that the work should speak
for itself. The next event was a torchlight procession of deputations from all
over Germany ,
which Hitler reviewed from a balcony in the Reich Chancellery. Then, at
midnight, Hitler's courtiers congratulated him and presented him with gifts,
including
...statues, bronze casts, Meissen porcelain, oil-paintings
(some valuable, including a Lenbach and even a Titian, but mostly the standard
dreary exhibits found in the House of German Art in Munich), tapestries, rare
coins, antique weapons, and a mass of other presents, many of them kitsch (like
the cushions embroidered with Nazi emblems or 'Heil mein Führer') ... Hitler
admired some, made fun of others, and ignored most.
—Ian Kershaw, Hitler: 1936-1945: Nemesis. Notably, Speer
gave Hitler a model of the gigantic triumphal arch planned for the rebuilding
of Berlin, and Hitler's pilot, Hans Baur, gave him a model of the 'Führer
Machine', a four-engined Focke-Wulf 200 'Condor' which was to go into service
in the summer as Hitler's official airplane.
The main feature of the celebrations on the birthday itself
was a huge show of the military capabilities of Nazi Germany intended, in part,
as a warning to the western powers. In total, 40,000 to 50,000 German troops
took part in the parade, which lasted about five hours and included 12
companies of the Luftwaffe, 12 companies of the Army, and 12 companies of
sailors, as well as the SS. 162 warplanes flew over the city of Berlin . The grandstand
comprised 20,000 official guests, and the parade was watched by several
hundreds of thousands of spectators. Features of the parade were large long
range air defence artillery guns, emphasis on motorized artillery and development
of air defense units. Goebbels, the event's organizer declared in a broadcast
address to the German people "The Reich stands in the shadow of the German
sword. Trade and industry, and cultural and national life flourish under the
guarantee of the military forces. [...] The name of Herr Hitler is our
political programme. Imagination and realism are harmoniously combined in the
Führer." Military leaders
throughout the country gave addresses to their troops to celebrate the
occasion. Some, such as Erich von Manstein, were especially effusive in their
praise for their supreme commander.
Official guests representing 23 countries took part in the
celebrations. Cesare Orsenigo, the Papal envoy, Jozef Tiso, the President of
the Slovak Republic , the heads of the branches of
Nazi Germany's armed forces, and mayors of German cities offered birthday
congratulations at the chancellery of Nazi Germany. The Greek government sent a
delegation that included George Kirkimis, thegovernor general of the Greek
region of Macedonia
at the time. Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini exchanged telegrams
assuring each other that the friendship between Germany and the Kingdom of
Italy, two countries ruled by fascist regimes at the time, could not be
disturbed by their enemies. The
ambassadors of the United Kingdom ,
France and the United States were not present at the parade,
having been withdrawn afterHitler's march into Czechoslovakia . The U.S. was
represented at the troop review by chargé d'affaires Raymond H. Geist. U.S.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not congratulate Hitler on his birthday, in
accordance with his practice of not sending birthday greetings to any but
ruling monarchs. King George VI of the United Kingdom dispatched a message
of congratulation to Hitler. Due to the strained relations between the two
countries at the time, the advisors of the British monarch had considered
whether the King should ignore the birthday or not.
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