Hitler Youth: Pageantry -- Party Rallies


Figure 1.--The Deutsche Jugend (DJ) boys are participating in a NAZI rally in Alsace during 1941. A year earlier they might have been wearing French Cub Scout uniforms. I'm not sure who the speaker is.

Much of the NAZI Party’s popularity before Hitler seized power based on mass mobilization (rallies, demonstrations) and other modern forms of public political expression. The NAZI party events and accompanying pageantry became the major annual public event in German political life. Party rallies were held all over Germany. These were events that German boys could participate in and their patriotism admired by family and neigbors. These rallies were held in many locations and at different times of the year. The high point of the year for NAZI stalwarts and older Hitler Youth, however, was the annual part rally at Nuremburg. Every summer thousands of Hitler Youth members marched from their home towns to along countless German roads cinverging en mass at Nuremberg to participate in the annual Nazi Party Congress. Goebells in 1940 had a film made commemorating this annual event--Der Marsch Zum Führer (The March To The Führer). The boys are pictured in their columns as they march through the mountains, forests, fields and towns of the Reich, still largely untouched by the War.

NAZI Events

Much of the NAZI Party’s popularity before Hitler seized power based on mass mobilization (rallies, demonstrations) and other modern forms of public political expression. The NAZI party events and accompanying pageantry became the major annual public event in German political life. We notice parades in the treets and we notice NAZI Party rallies. We believe that there were other types of events, but here we have very little information.

Local Rallies

Party rallies were held all over Germany. The purpose was to frim up support and inspire the family faithful. These were events that German boys and girls could participate in and their patriotism admired by family and neigbors. These rallies were held in many locations and at different times of the year. The image here shows a rally in Alsace (figure 1). They were notable for their military formations. The NAZIs were very good at staging theatrically emotive events. Often very dramatic locations were chisen for these rallies. I am not sure what the impression was on the participants. I rather think the children were very impressed, but this is somrething that needs to be conformed. We have very little information on these rallies at this time. I am not sure, but I believe thsat various NAZI formations may been involved in these rallies. Here we are talking avout the Hitler Youth, but other groups such as the SA seemed to have been ibvolved as well.

Nuremberg Party Rallies

The high point of the year for NAZI stalwarts and older Hitler Youth, however, was the annual part rally at Nuremburg. Hitler chose Nuremberg as the location for the annual rallies. It was a beaytiful medieval city with a storied history. Every summer thousands of Hitler Youth members marched from their home towns to along countless German roads converging en mass at Nuremberg to participate in the annual Nazi Party Congress. Tghe early rallies were modest affairs, but after the NAZIs came to power in 1933, they were expandded into NAZI extravaganzas. The Hitler Youth were an important part of the event. Hitler Youth boys from all over Germany set out on mass marches to Nuremberg, converging into larger numbers as they reached the city. The Nuremberg Rally was a multiple day affair and one day was devoted specifically to the Hitler Youth. he climax of this day was a speech by Hitler to the massed Hitler Youth boys and girls.

Der Marsch zum Führer

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebells in 1940 had a film made commemorating this annual event--Der Marsch Zum Führer (The March To The Führer). The boys are pictured in their columns as they march through the mountains, forests, fields and towns of the Reich, still largely untouched by the War. This national pilgrimage is climaxed by the elaborate ceremonies of the Nuremberg Congress. The boys parade before their Führer and are addressed by NAZI potentates such as youth leader Baldur von Shirach, Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, and of course Hitler himself. Behind the now chilling pageantry of this film and the all to notable discipline of its participants, the film shows the cleverness of the NAZI propaganda machine in preparing German boys, both physically and psychologically, for war. Wehrmacht leaders were destressed withhow the morale of the German soldier and civilians collapsed at the end of World I. Many believed that the HJ would prevent this in the future.







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Created: February 15, 2002
Last updated: 3:14 AM 5/17/2007