Führer birthday
In the time of National Socialism , the Führer birthday (also the birthday of the Führer or the Führer’s birthday ) was a “specially celebrated day”, on which flags were placed annually on April 20 , the birthday of the “ Führer and Reich Chancellor ” Adolf Hitler . Only April 20, 1939, Hitler's 50th birthday, was a state-decreed holiday , to which representatives of foreign governments and armed forces were invited to the Reich capital .
Processes
The evening of April 19 was the date on which young people were solemnly accepted into the Hitler Youth every year throughout the German Reich . The Donau-Bodensee-Zeitung reports on a ceremony with a vow and a subsequent march through the streets of Ravensburg on April 19, 1944:
“On the eve of the Fiihrer's birthday, over a million boys and girls across the Reich stood up to be accepted into the large community of the Hitler Youth. The ten-year-olds also came to Ravensburg with shining eyes and radiant hearts to give themselves to the Führer as a birthday present. "
On April 20, the birthday itself, party celebrations and memorial hours were held throughout the Reich and in the annexed areas as part of the Führer cult (most recently in 1944). In addition to speeches about the greatness of the Führer and his role in history, anti-Semitic inflammatory speeches were also the order of the day. It was also customary to sing National Socialist songs, so-called "songs of the movement", and the national anthems ( Deutschlandlied as the official and Horst Wessel song as the unofficial anthem).
On April 20, 1945, celebrations were only possible to a very limited extent and sometimes took on grotesque features:
“On April 20, 45, 7 pm we have to appear in the casino of the Landeshaus for the 'celebration of the Fuehrer's birthday'. A district leader talks about the final victory! The donated bottle of red wine and the small portion of ham and sausage with bread could not convince us of the victory. "
Aftermath after 1945
In 1994 the English Football Association canceled an international match in Hamburg against Germany scheduled for April 20 because of feared riots due to the date.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg Prime Minister Günther Oettinger did not want to be elected by the state parliament on this date after his predecessor Erwin Teufel announced his resignation on April 19, 2005. Oettinger, who considered April 20 to be “historically burdened” by Hitler's birthday, was then introduced to his new office on April 21.
literature
- Jörg Koch: Führer’s birthday , in: Ders. So that you don't forget history - national commemorative and public holidays from 1871 to today. Wbg Academic, Darmstadt 2019, ISBN 978-3-534-40186-4 , pp. 150-160.
- Joachim Immisch (Ed.): The newsreel of Hitler's 50th birthday. Explanations and material for their evaluation, Lower Saxony State Center for Political Education, Hanover 1961.
- Walter Kempowski (ed.): The echo sounder. A collective diary - Swan 45 . Knaus, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8135-0249-X .
- Roland Kopp: The Wehrmacht is celebrating. Commander's speeches on Hitler's 50th birthday on April 20, 1939 , in: Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 62 (2003) 2, pp. 471-535.
- Günther Rühle : A German career. “Schlageter” by Hanns Johst - a world premiere for Hitler's birthday . In: Theater heute , vol. 43 (2002), issue 8/9, pp. 56–64.
Web links
- Ordinance to the Law on One-Time Special Holidays of April 17, 1939
- Search the KVK for Hitler's birthday
Individual evidence
- ↑ Our youth pledged themselves to the Führer. A new year has started. In: Donau-Bodensee-Zeitung , Ravensburg district edition, April 22, 1944
- ^ Article in the Donau-Bodensee-Zeitung , Ravensburg district edition, April 22, 1944
- ↑ The Volkssturmmann Fritz Steffen (1893–1979), Stettin, in: Walter Kempowski , Das Echolot - Abgesang '45 . A collective diary, Munich 2005.
- ^ According to an n-tv report from October 26, 2004: [1]