Thanksgiving Celebration of the Reich - 1934

[JustJohn or JJ]

I'd hate to try to find a bathroom in that situation.



Getty Images AFP Reichserntedankfest rally (Thanksgiving Celebration of the Reich), 1934 This is the Reichserntedankfest of 1934 in Buckeberg. That year, 700,000 people participated. Even those who did not support Nazis were totally blown away and emotionally shaken. They had never experienced anything even remotely like this, there was no rock concerts back then. It created spiritual feeling of sublime and unity among people who were participating. When they were marching back to their tents in the night, they could still see the huge spotlights piercing the sky in the Buckeberg. They were totally pumped up and fell that things are really going to change better.

[pieter]

Dear John,

That is why I have never liked masses. Due to the agitation, propaganda, manipulation and indoctrination of people. People become blinded, enthousiastic and united for wrong causes. The NSDAP (the Nazi party like on this image), the Communist party (same mass demonstrations, esthetics and indoctrination of the masses like the nazi's. Military parade's, party gatherings, party youth in uniforms. No individuality, no personal will and independent thought). I also dislike(d) large rock concerts due to the mass hysteria and a crowd that is indoctrinated and dedicated to one thing.

Ofcourse the Nazi esthetics, design and perfect propaganda and photographic and cinematographic portrayal were and still are excellent. Due to Market Garden I visited the Museum 40-45 in Arnhem North, next to the Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek. The Airborne Museum is more dedicated to the Allied cause and shows more British, Polish and American equipment. While the Museum 40-45 is focussed on the German and Dutch Nazi side. With a German tank, German artillery, German armored vehicles, German Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, Kriegsmarine and Dutch Nazi WA uniforms, German pistols, guns, machine guns, Panzerfaust, helmets, Berets, Wehrmacht and SS Peaked caps (Schirmmütze) and etc. The Dutch guy who runs the museum admitted that he prefered German uniforms over allied uniforms, because they have more diversity and are more beautiful. He is not a nazi sympathizer, but said that 'we' have to show both sides of the war. The British, Poles and Americans didn't fought against ghosts or aliens, they fought against German, Austrian and Dutch Waffen-SS and German/Austrian Wehrmacht soldiers, officers, colonels, mayors and generals. That is what I show in my Museum.





Cheers,
Pieter

P.S.- I will show the video I made this week. I am stil editing it and it will be shown on TV Arnhem this Wednesday.

[pieter]

This is another video I shot and edited a two years ago.



About the Canadian transport plane they acquired back then.

Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

East-German propaganda

[pieter]

Hitler had a hypnotic talent, in the sense that he could control the masses with his carefully designed party days (Reichsparteitag)

They were large Nazi propaganda events, especially after Hitler's rise to power in 1933. These events were held at the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg from 1933 to 1938 and are usually referred to in English as the "Nuremberg Rallies". Many films were made to commemorate them, the most famous of which is Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will.

The first Nazi Party rallies took place in 1923 in Munich, and in 1926 in Weimar. From 1927 on, they took place exclusively in Nuremberg. The Party selected Nuremberg for pragmatic reasons: it lay in the center of the German Reich and the local Luitpoldhain was well suited as a venue. In addition, the Nazis could rely on the well-organized local branch 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 the Nazi Party by putting it into the tradition of the Imperial Diet (German Reichstag) of the Holy Roman Empire, considered as the First Reich. After 1933, the rallies took place near the time of the Autumn equinox, under the title of "National Congress of the Party of the German People" (Reichsparteitage des deutschen Volkes), which was intended 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.

Propaganda films

Official films for the rallies began in 1927, with the establishment of the NSDAP film office. The most famous films were 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). This movie was taken out of circulation after the Night of the Long Knives, although a copy survived in Britain and has recently been made available on the Internet Archive for public viewing. The rally of 1934 became the setting for the award-winning Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). 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.

[karl]

J.J.

Yes, indeed so, these were the high times of the NSDAP. They were riding high with their big events crowding masses of people as if they were cattle. All, to propagate their vested interest and methodology of control.

For the people, this was a show of and for them to see the glory of this new government. We must be mindful of the bitter post WW1 years of sorry and wide spread poverty that prevailed the country. No work, money worthless, no future other then a repeat of yesterday to continue.

In the beginning, the funny odd Austrian shout man, begin to make sense with the programmes under his name to rebuild and reinvent the Nation of Germany. It did work, for a few years, people were back to work, industry was once again producing. The French received their deserved slap on the nose and the Brits received nothing for recompence for war cost.

History though once again had the last word. All things come to an end in time, and with this, time ran out and the destroyers were destroyed.

Karl

[karl]

Pieter

Thank you for sharing the videos you shot and edited they were the more interesting for the reason you made them. The video of NVA parade, 1 Mai 1956 in Berlin, was very impressive with a assembly for parade as professionally organized and executed in a well done manner.

The uniforms were very impressive with all being snappy and professional. Very impressive indeed so with the music creating the atmosphere of a very professional military. I liked it. Even if it was East German with Soviet backing.

Karl

[Jaga]

Pieter,

I watched a part of the DDR movie, first I liked it ... to the certain degree since I understood the German language pretty well, then it started getting into my nerves.
We live in the world which did not learn much. People still have opinions and try to stick to what they believe in.

[pieter]

This is the video I shot about the Arnhem warmuseum 40-45 last thursday (I made some covershots earlier in August. In total I went three times -days plus one evening- there to film there. So I could go more into the details then last time. the video about the plane)
I filmed a lot of the German equipment. Tank, canons (artillery pieces), uniforms, weapons and etc. Also this time a Dutch military uniform of May 1940 and a Dutch Nazi (NSB) WA uniform, propaganda posters and a NSB flag.

The video is dedicated to 70 years Market Garden in Arnhem. This museum shows the side of the occupiers. The guy filmed in the video, the owner and manager of the museum, personally prefers German material. There is more diversity in German uniforms than in allied military uniforms in his view. Together with the Airborne museum and the the National Liberation Museum in Groesbeek it shows how the Operation Market Garden in September 1944 went and how the liberation in May 1945 were.



Today the program will be aire on television Arnhem ( www.rtv-arnhem.nl/ )