Reichserntedankfest

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View through the Weser valley to the Bückeberg , Hagenohsen, with the mowed former fairground and Hagenohsen . The raised middle path is uncut and darker, at its end up in the bush group are the remains of the former official gallery.
Location of the Reichserntedank fairground near Hameln with the arrival and departure routes at the time (road, rail, river)

The Reichserntedankfest , also known colloquially as the Bückeberg Festival , took place on the Bückeberg near Hagenohsen, about five kilometers south of Hameln , between 1933 and 1937, on the first Sunday after Michaelmas Day (29 September). In addition to the Nazi Party in Nuremberg and the celebration of May 1 ( National Labor Day , from 1934 "National holiday of the German people") in Berlin , it was the largest mass event of the Nazi Party .

An artificially flattened lawn on the northern slope of the Bückeberg, about 600 by 300 meters, served as the fairground. Most recently, over a million people from all over the German Reich took part in the Reichserntedankfeste . Although the festival was conceived for the peasantry , officials and NSDAP members in particular were obliged to attend. Prominent participants were leading National Socialists such as Adolf Hitler , Joseph Goebbels and Reichsbauernführer Walther Darré . In the run-up to the Reichserntedankfest, the Reichsbauerntag took place in Goslar , which was an internal event of the Reichsbauernrat .

Reasons for the Bückeberg

The 160  m above sea level. NN high Bückeberg

The Reich Ministry of Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels was responsible for organizing the Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festival and commissioned the architect Albert Speer with the design. It was supposed to create a place for “a rural folk festival of previously unimagined proportions in the great outdoors”. In August 1933 a commission from the Reich Propaganda Ministry toured the areas around the cities of Hoya , Bückeburg and Hameln in search of a suitable place for the big festival. While the Weserwiesen in Hoya were initially envisaged for the mass event, the commission decided on the Bückeberg near Hameln. This was officially justified by the fact that this was “very own German soil” and “Germanic core area”. It is filled with "free, militant peasantry" and the fields are "soaked with blood from the struggles of the German tribes for German soil". It was also argued that the Varus Battle , which supposedly took place not far from here , was the great victory of the Teutons over the Romans . The main argument was the Weser , which was a German river from the source to the mouth.

All of this also applied to Hoya as the venue, so that the reasons for choosing the Bückeberg are more on the practical side. The originally favored Hoya did not meet the requirements to cope with the arrival and departure of the expected crowds. Favorable rail connections were a prerequisite, as the Deutsche Reichsbahn had to do a large part of the transports. In addition, due to the favorable incline of its wide northern slope, the Bückeberg was ideal as a place for the planned large-scale rally, as here, in contrast to the Weserwiesen in Hoya, you have an unobstructed view of the speakers and honorary stands and a wide view of the Landscape of the Weser valley. From 1935 onwards, this proved to be important for the large-scale military exercises and exhibition fights, which became an increasingly important part of the festival.

Another reason that spoke in favor of the Bückeberg was the fact that the selected side of the mountain domain land was owned by the State of Prussia and was therefore easily available.

The fairground

description

Sketch of the fairground as it was in 1933

The spacious, grassy fairground was designed by Albert Speer and was to be expanded as "Reichsthingplatz" . It is an oval- shaped meadow area, initially 120,000 m², later 180,000 m², surrounded by walls and hedges . The oval was surrounded by a triple ring of flagpoles with swastika flags, open to the valley. They formed an internal space that was intended to strengthen the feeling of belonging to a national community . The festival area is located on a gently sloping slope on the eastern outskirts of Hagenohsen and allows a wide view of the valley with the meandering Weser . The square was criss-crossed from top to bottom by what was then an 800-meter-long middle path, most of which has been preserved. The path, known at the time as the “Führerweg”, is raised by half a meter like a dam and eight meters wide. At the lower end of the path there was a 40-meter-wide, pyramid-like speaker's platform. On it stood SA members with standards and flags. At the upper end in front of the edge of the forest stood the four-meter-high and about 100-meter-wide, 3000-person grandstand of the National Socialists and guests of honor from the Reichsnährstand . Inside there was a switchboard and a radio studio. The entire terrain has a double slope. The hillside location enabled all visitors to look down to the speaker's platform. The terrain sloped slightly from the outside to the middle, so that there was a good view of the middle path at all points. 76 loudspeakers provided sufficient sound. In addition to the grandstands , the “Führerweg” was also equipped with microphones from 1936 onwards. Several platforms for film and later television cameras were spread across the square and filming was also carried out from zeppelins . Both grandstands were made of wood, which were dismantled after each event. The major VIP box rested on foundations made of concrete , which are still preserved. In order to create the impression of a rural festival, the installations were mostly made of natural materials, such as wood for grandstands, stairs, railings and flagpoles. The technical installations, such as the telephone and radio switchboard, electrical cables, water pipes, were designed to be as imperceptible as possible.

construction

The event area of ​​the Reichserntedankfeste on the slope of the Bückeberg, on the left the eastern edge with a steep edge, on the right residential houses by Hagenohsen
The steep edge of the terrain (left) on the eastern edge created by the embankment

In mid-August 1933 1,800 men of the Reich Labor Service began to level the mountain and fill it up on the side. Between 1934 and 1937, work was carried out on the expansion and leveling of the fairground. For this purpose 450 workers of the Reich Labor Service were constantly on duty, who were housed in barracks in three camps in the forest of the Bückeberg . They laid cables for loudspeakers, microphones and lighting, built a power station in the neighboring village of Hagenohsen, and in 1935 they laid a drainage system on the rocky terrain.

The unpaved roads and paths in the area were expanded and paved with cobblestones . New streets were built on the Bückeberg and a large parking lot was created in the grandstand for the buses of the guests of honor and diplomats. A four-track "Führerbahnhof" with particularly long platforms for Hitler's special train was completed east of Tündern . Shortly before the events, the number of workers rose to 1,500. In addition to the Reich Labor Service, local construction companies were also involved.

Plans by Speer and the Reichsbauernführer Walther Darré to provide the complex with fixed, classicist structures, to raise the surrounding wall and provide eight wide access stairs, to expand the "Führerweg" as a 600 meter long staircase and to connect the Bückeberg to a new motorway, were not realized.

ideology

In 1933, Hitler decreed that the harvest festival should be celebrated centrally on the first Sunday in October. The Thanksgiving Day , the first Sunday after the 29th of September (Michaelis), was since announced in Reichsgesetzblatt 28 February 1934 as one of the highest national holidays of the Nazi state . The importance of the peasantry to the empire should be emphasized here , particularly on the basis of the blood-and-soil ideology .

The Christian tradition of the harvest festival, which is anchored in rural areas, was transformed and instrumentalized by the Nazi regime through the Reich harvest festival. The Nazis understood the harvest festival as a festival that its origin and of meaning in the worship of the Germanic god Wotan had.

Unlike May 1, 1933 at which from the traditional day of the workers' movement of National Labor Day was and the next day SA and SS forcibly union houses occupied and arrested their officers, the Nazis chose among the peasantry, whose organizations already in Reichsnährstand gleichgeschaltet were , the path of seduction and manipulation. The gigantic Reichserntedankfeste were intended to bind the rural population idealistically and emotionally to the regime and should therefore be seen as part of the process of taking power .

The Protestant regional church office in Hanover did not oppose this appropriation of the church harvest festival by the National Socialists, on the contrary - in its appeal for the harvest festival in 1933 it said:

"This celebration of thanks to the Creator gives the church the opportunity to point out obedience to the divine order of creation, as it is brought to us in new clarity, especially through the thoughts of National Socialism."

Preparatory advertising

The concept of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda included, in addition to the plans for the design of the fairground and for the course of the major event, an upstream advertising campaign with brochures, posters and films. The press and radio were also involved, as were other ministries and organizations, in particular the Reichsnährstand, Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) and Reichsarbeitsdienst. The goal of encouraging large numbers of the rural population to participate in the Reichserntedankfest was achieved through three successive waves of propaganda, each of which was given a meaningful motto . In 1935 these were in the first phase from June with reference to the national community idea “City and Country - Hand in Hand”, in the second phase from August “Our bread from our own plaice”, which alluded to the desired self-sufficiency of supply, and in the third phase from September “under the harvest wreath” as an association with the original Christian event.

Hitler's propaganda trip through Hameln

From 1933 to 1935 Hitler chose to travel by air from Berlin to Hanover . In 1933 he first took part in the assembly of the Reichsnährstand in Goslar , and then drove in a triumphal procession in an open car via Hameln to the Bückeberg. In 1934 and 1935 it came directly from Hanover to Hameln, again triumphantly in an open car, and only after the end of the Reichserntedankfest to Goslar, which had meanwhile been elevated to the status of a Reichsbauernstadt . The trips through Hameln, which at that time had 28,000 inhabitants, were carefully prepared by the local administration. The request to the citizens of Hamelin by Mayor Detlef Schmidt and district manager Ahlswede read:

“For the reception, jewelry that has never been there has to adorn the houses in the streets of the city. It is now certain that the guide will touch the following streets in the city on his journey to the Bückeberge: Rohrsen, Morgensternstraße, Deisterstraße, Osterstraße, Bäckerstraße, Mühlenstraße, Hafenstraße, Ohsener Straße etc. Hamelensians, be aware of this honor. It goes without saying that every house is now immediately adorned with garlands and wreaths, with swastika flags and national emblems. Let each one show his admiration for the Führer by helping to add an unsurpassable ornament to his home. We expect that no one is mutually exclusive. On Sunday, Hamelin must have festive decorations that have not yet been achieved in any city. We Lower Saxony know what we owe our Führer. "

The city donated 1,000 truckloads of birch green to decorate the houses free of charge. A huge harvest crown was hung on the forecourt of the station with the words "The German farmer - Germany's strength - The people of bread - The leader's loyalty". Banners were stretched across the streets of the city with the inscriptions “The peasantry is the source of life for the German people !”, “A strong peasant family - through the new hereditary farm law !”, “The calloused peasant hand - creates bread for every stand!”, “Donates for the Winter Relief Organization of the German People ! "and" City and Country - Hand in Hand! "

From 1936, Hitler used his special train to travel to and from the airport , which stopped directly in Hagenohsen. This eliminated the triumphant car trip to and through Hameln, which was met with injustice by city leaders.

Arrival and departure logistics

For the arrival and departure, up to 215  special trains with at least 1000 people per train were used, which stopped at the Hameln train station or one of the eight other stops in the vicinity of the Bückeberg, so Hameln-Tündern . In the last few hours before the start of the festival, the trains stopped at Hamelin station every two minutes. Visitors came from all over Germany, most of whom came from a radius of around 100 km. Some participants accepted a journey time of 30 hours.

The Hellweg note, carved in sandstone, on the road from Latferde over the Bückeberg to the festival area

Harvested fields in the vicinity of the Bückeberg were prepared as large parking spaces for those arriving by bus, car and horse-drawn carriage. For the vehicles of the 3,000 guests of honor, parking spaces were available right next to the podium and speaker's podium. Many participants traveled with Weser ships, for which moorings were created. In addition to the fixed Weser bridge between Kirchohsen and Hagenohsen, pioneers built several pontoon bridges across the river. Narrow access roads had been specially widened as “parade routes”, for example the Reichsstraße through the Emmer valley between Hämelschenburg and Kirchohsen.

The participants who stayed overnight found quarters in Hameln or in huge tent camps around the Bückeberg. On the day of the event, all visitors were welcomed over loudspeakers upon their arrival at the train stations and jetties and led to assembly points, from where they started the sometimes long way to the festival area together.

Although the Reichserntedankfest was supposed to be a festival of the peasant class, peasants were numerically in the minority. In order to conceal this, groups in traditional costume were optically overrepresented. Most of the visitors came from cities such as Hanover , Braunschweig , Minden and Herford . A relatively large proportion of the audience had women and children who were expressly invited to participate. This differentiated the Reichserntedankfest from other Nazi mass events in which men dominated.

Course of the Reichserntedankfeste

The elevated middle path, then known as the “Führerweg”

On the morning of the Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, captive balloons of the Wehrmacht floated over the grounds to show visitors the way. On broad streets they came to the fairground, which was surrounded by flags. From the town of Hagenohsen on the Weser , a stairway led up to the festival area, where the six of the visitors marched up in step . After the preliminary program with traditional costume groups and formations of the SA and the Reich Labor Service, the prominence of the Nazi state with numerous members of the diplomatic corps walked up the dike-like, elevated middle path to the grandstand.

Only after a while did Hitler appear and was greeted with a salute of 21  shots . Then he stepped off the honor company of the Reichswehr , in the midst of the enthusiastic crowd, to the sounds of the Badenweiler March, slowly (1933: 45 minutes) climbed the 800-meter-long Mittelweg, which was known as the "Führerweg", to the grandstand. There he was received by Joseph Goebbels to the sound of fanfare and with a short welcome speech, and a farmer's wife presented Hitler with the decorated harvest crown with the words:

My leader! You protect
our country, our people, our class with a strong hand !
As a humble token of our gratitude,
we will hand you the harvest crown.

Power distribution box on Mittelweg

Then Adolf Hitler and the Reich Ministers took the middle path back down to the speaker's platform. The pacing of the middle path was a central point of the program of the Reichserntedankfest, officially called the path through the people . On the way, behind an SS cordon chain, stood the enthusiastic crowd of participants. Individual spectators who had slipped through were allowed to approach Hitler and touch him. At no other mass Nazi event was there such a physical closeness between “Führer” and “Volk”.

When they reached the speaker's platform at the foot of the mountain, Hitler and Reichsbauernführer Darré held thirty-minute speeches amidst the flags of the SA, SS and the Reich Labor Service, which were to be the climax and end of the Reich Harvest Festival. Finally the first stanza of the Deutschlandlied and the Horst-Wessel-Lied followed . A large fireworks ended the festival.

In 1933, the start of the official festival part was set at 7 p.m., which, however, led to chaos as the crowds marched off in the falling darkness. Therefore, from 1934, the beginning was brought forward to midday and the final fireworks were replaced by the dropping of hundreds of small parachutes with swastika flags attached. A light dome consisting of spotlights set up around the square , the cones of which reached a few kilometers into the sky, was intended to impress the population even more.

From 1935, parts of the Wehrmacht took part in the Reichserntedankfest. After Adolf Hitler had received the harvest crown on the stage of honor, a maneuver of almost all branches of weapons with artillery , tanks and bombers followed on the area below the fairground in the plain . A small village built by pioneers, initially "Bückedorf", later disparagingly called "Meckererdorf", was set on fire. The Wehrmacht demonstrations lasted over 60 minutes in 1937. A dummy bridge over the Weser was also destroyed.

development

Hameln was proclaimed “ Nuremberg on the Weser”, “Nuremberg of the North”. From 1935 onwards, the "program that was dripping with blood and soil kitsch" was also supplemented by combat displays by the Wehrmacht .

  • At the beginning of August 1933, the country's farmer's leader Hartwig von Rheden announced that a Reichserntedankfest would be held on the Weserwiesen in Hoya
  • At the beginning of August 1933, the Reich Ministry of Propaganda decided in favor of the Bückeberg as the venue
  • Construction work on the Bückeberg began in mid-August 1933
  • On October 1, 1933, the 1st Reichserntedankfest took place in the evening hours with around 500,000 participants
  • December 1933, Goebbels elevated the fairground to the Bückeberg Reichsthingstätte and announced the Bückeberg as a permanent venue
  • September 30, 1934 - 2nd Reichserntedankfest, from now on at noon, with around 700,000 participants
  • October 6, 1935 - 3rd Reichserntedankfest from now on with Wehrmacht demonstrations, number of participants unknown
  • October 4, 1936 - 4th Reichserntedankfest, number of participants unknown
  • October 3, 1937 - 5th Reichserntedankfest with around 1.2 to 1.3 million participants
  • October 2, 1938 - planned 6th Reichserntedankfest on the Bückeberg, canceled on September 30th (!) Due to "use of means of transport" for other purposes (relocation of parts of the armed forces to the border with Czechoslovakia , see Sudeten crisis )

The information on the number of participants comes from the organizer, the Reich Propaganda Ministry, and is certainly generously rounded upwards, but still shows the great popularity that the event had.

The festival only took place five times. In 1938, in view of the Sudeten crisis , it was canceled at short notice due to its "use of means of transport" because the cheering masses were brought in with heavily discounted special trains that were now needed to transport soldiers. After the beginning of World War II on September 1, 1939 , this type of outdoor event was no longer feasible. Another reason for not continuing the festivals was that the population was indoctrinated and that the National Socialist regime was so politically stable during this time that the consent of the population was no longer required.

From the speeches of Hitler and Goebbels

1934 Goebbels greets Hitler:

"My leader! (…) These 700,000 German farmers, with whom the whole German nation is united at this hour, connected by the waves of the ether, lays their homage at your feet. You have rebuilt an empire of peasants, workers and soldiers. How deeply this empire is fixed and anchored in the heart of the whole people, that was able to show you this trip from Goslar to Bückeberg through the best German farming country, which was like a real triumphal procession. (...) "

1935 Hitler:

“(…) Providence made it possible for us not only to bring in a rich economic harvest this year, it has also blessed us even more: we have again become the German Wehrmacht. The German fleet will be built. The German cities and the beautiful villages, they are protected, the strength of the nation watches over them, the weapon in the air watches over them. Far beyond that, we want to thank you for a special harvest: At this hour we want to thank the hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of German women who have given us the most beautiful thing they could give us: hundreds of thousands of small children! (...) "

1937 Hitler:

“(…) It’s not for nothing that I let you demonstrate the Wehrmacht's exercises here at every harvest festival. They are meant to remind you all that we would not be standing here if we did not have shield and sword guarding us. (...) We have no desire to start dealing with anyone. But everyone should also know: the garden that we have tilled, we harvest it alone, and no one should imagine that they will ever be able to break into this garden! The international Jewish Bolshevik criminals can be assured of this: wherever they go - they come across an iron stop at the German border! (...) "

Current condition and handling of the festival area

The former grounds of the Reichserntedankfeste are now as at the time of the festivals in state ownership; today the owner is the state of Lower Saxony . The area has largely been preserved with the exception of a smaller agricultural area on the plain and individual residential buildings on the lower western edge. It is still recognizable today as a designed landscape with the elevated “guide path”, staged groups of trees, paved streets and avenues. Structural relics are staircases on the Weser, an elevated water tank , remnants of the labor camp , grandstand foundations and distribution boxes . The foundations of the grandstand are still visible today, but are heavily overgrown. A planting by the municipality of Emmerthal in the 1990s should make it invisible. The cobblestone street from Hagenohsen up to the grandstand has been preserved and is a listed building (today Bückebergstraße , 1933 Hellweg ). The cobblestones of Emmerthaler road to Vorwerk Ohsen is well preserved.

  • Listed street in Hagenohsen with cobblestones and a 20% incline up to the festival area

  • Pavement detail

  • Emmerthaler Straße with cobblestones and avenue trees below the mountain; on the right the ascending terrain

  • Paved parking lot, covered with tar, for guests of honor and diplomats at the time above the grandstand

  • Remains of the grandstand as concrete foundations at the upper end of the square

  • Stairs created for visitors from the Weser up to the festival area

Today's meaning

Historians attach importance to the area of ​​the Reichserntedankfeste on Bückeberg near Hameln as a historical place of remembrance on a national level. In addition to the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, the ruins of the KdF seaside resort Prora on Rügen and the former Reichssportfeld Berlin, it is one of the few remaining places where the National Socialists campaigned for popular approval and manipulated the national community . According to Albert Feiber from the Obersalzberg Documentation , the Bückeberg is a central location for the Nazi regime's self-portrayal. It is an addition to memorial sites such as the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Documentation Center and the only place in northern Germany where the subject of the Führer cult is addressed let represent. The Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments regards the site as a high-ranking cultural monument and in 2011 classified it with its remaining facilities as a monument within the meaning of the Lower Saxony Monument Protection Act . This assessment is based on the fact that the site is still recognizable as such today. The entire area is to be seen as a structural system due to the extensive leveling work , removal and embankment in the 1930s . According to the Lower Saxony state archaeologist Henning Haßmann , it is "one of the best preserved and most impressive testimonies of monumental landscape architecture and designed cultural landscape from the time of National Socialism ". This is documented by a three-dimensional terrain model from the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation of the former festival area and the wooded Bückeberg, which is based on airborne laser scanning . According to Haßmann, it shows an "abundance of traces" in a "relict landscape", including remains of camps of the Reich Labor Service and water reservoirs built at the time, which are under forest cover.

Jens-Christian Wagner from the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation explained in 2015 that “the Nazi crimes cannot be told or understood without their social framework. Bergen-Belsen and the Bückeberg belong together, are part of a system. Anyone who talks about the crimes must also speak about the perpetrators and the willingness of the population to participate. "

  • Remnants of the former "Führerbahnhof" between Tündern and the festival area

  • Water tank to supply visitors with water, built on the Bückeberg in 1934

  • Elevated water tank on the Bückeberg to supply water to the labor camp

  • Foundations of a labor camp on the Bückeberg

Inclusion in the list of monuments 2011

View from the Ohrberg over Tündern to the snow-covered area of ​​the former Reichserntedankfeste

At the beginning of 2001, the historian Bernhard Gelderblom from Hameln applied for the Bückeberg to be placed under monument protection because of its historical significance . In 2002 the municipality of Emmerthal designated the area of ​​the Reichserntedankfeste as a residential area and planned to have it built on. Since then there has been a controversy about the future of the area. There was resistance among historians to any development that would have meant the destruction of the historic site. The municipality of Emmerthal initially refused a monument status for the site. It was feared that the site would be upgraded, which right-wing extremists might have discovered as a “place of pilgrimage”, especially since flowers were laid on April 20th (“ Führer birthday ”). As the highest monument protection authority, which has to decide on the monument status in cases of dissent, the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture called a symposium in September 2009 with the participation of experts and local decision-makers. As a result, it was agreed to include the site in the monument register and to maintain its “ status quo ”. Reconstructions of the venue or the establishment of a memorial were ruled out. In 2011 it was designated a cultural monument and included in the list of monuments. After the monument was classified, the question arose of a communication concept for the site, for which there was no information on site until then. The theme of the mass gatherings on the Bückeberg is presented in a small area in the permanent exhibition of the Hameln Museum .

Since during the civil engineering work in 1938 at the foot of the Bückeberg there was a larger burial ground from the transition from the Bronze Age to the Pre-Roman Iron Age around 1000 BC. Was discovered, the site is also a ground monument .

Open Monument Day 2013

The then Lower Saxony Minister of Science Gabriele Heinen-Kljajic opened the National Open Monument Day in Hameln in 2013

On September 8, 2013, the then Lower Saxony Minister for Science and Culture Gabriele Heinen-Kljajic opened the day of the open monument nationwide for Lower Saxony in Hameln , the motto of which was "Beyond the good and the beautiful - uncomfortable monuments?" The focus of the event was the site of the Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg.

2013 was the 80th anniversary of the first festival of 1933 (October 2nd). With this, the state of Lower Saxony dedicated itself to the area as one of the central sites of National Socialist self-portrayal and gave it national attention. The 15-minute documentary The Bückeberg - An Inconvenient Monument , which students from the European University Viadrina filmed on site in June 2013, premiered at the event . On the day of the open monument, guided tours for those interested took place on the former festival site.

Following the Open Monument Day, there was a series of events in Hameln on the Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festival with lectures, guided tours and readings. The exhibition on the Reichserntedankfeste, conceived by the historian Bernhard Gelderblom in 1999, was shown, which was already on view in the Obersalzberg Documentation Center and the Nazi Party Rally Grounds Documentation Center in Nuremberg.

Further action from 2013

In September 2013, the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation organized a workshop with the participation of historians, preservationists, memorial staff, landscape architects and representatives of the affected municipalities to advise on how to deal with the site. As a result, a number of recommendations for action were drawn up for the Bückeberg as a historical site of national importance, including:

  • Establishment as a central place of education about National Socialism
  • The potential of the site as a place for historical-political learning must be specified, whereby any re-fascination or myth formation must be prevented
  • The historical sources for the Reichserntedankfest must be made accessible and secured
  • The festival area was to be measured and the remains recorded
  • A museum concept is to be developed for the mediation, since neither a reconstruction of the facilities nor a documentation center are planned

In the aftermath of the workshop, a master plan for the Bückeberg was created from 2014 onwards , by agreement of the Hameln-Pyrmont district , the Emmerthal community, the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation and the Lower Saxony Memorial Foundation . In addition, the site was to be surveyed using airborne laser scanning .

Creation of a documentation and learning location from 2016

Guided tour on the premises in the Mittelweg area, 2018

From 2016, the Association for Regional Cultural and Contemporary History Hameln e. V. carried out a two-year project to prepare a documentation center under the name “Documentation Bückeberg”. Under the direction of the historian Bernhard Gelderblom, the historian Anett Schweitzer and the historian Mario Keller-Holte, in coordination with the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation , developed a documentation and educational concept. It includes the development of the former festival site and its infrastructure, the conception of a permanent exhibition, the construction of an archival collection and the selection of a suitable location for a documentation center. The project with a budget of almost 140,000 euros was financed by the Sparkasse Hameln-Weserbergland , the VGH Foundation and the Deister and Weser newspaper , among others . History teachers from the Hameln-Pyrmont district want to use the Bückeberg documentation and learning location as an extracurricular learning location .

In 2017, several competition drafts for a documentation and learning location on the Bückeberg were submitted. A jury chaired by District Administrator Tjark Bartels selected the design of a "historical-topographical information system" with a system of paths around 1.3 kilometers long. It is a low-threshold offer without buildings and without major ground movements, with mowed grass paths across the area to eight islands with information boards. The original plan was to put up a four-meter-high and 15-meter-long sign reading “Propaganda” on what is now a field at the location of the previous speaker's platform, but the plan was soon abandoned. At the opposite upper end, a footbridge is to lead over the still existing concrete foundations of the grandstand. The cost of the project was initially estimated at 350,000 euros and later at 450,000 euros. Of this, the Hameln-Pyrmont district pledged to take over 225,000 euros, the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation 150,000 euros, the Lower Saxony Bingo Environmental Foundation 50,000 euros and the Lower Saxony Foundation 50,000 euros. Added to this are the maintenance and care of the site in the years 2018 to 2021 and follow-up costs of around 300,000 euros. In 2018, funds totaling 1.457 million euros were available for the realization of the documentation and learning location.

Expert forum in Hameln on the culture of remembrance for the Bückeberg , 2018

At the beginning of 2018, the Hameln-Pyrmont district held a specialist forum on the culture of remembrance for the Bückeberg , in which not only citizens but also representatives from politics, education, culture and administration took part.

The decision on the realization of the documentation and learning location was made by the district council of the Hameln-Pyrmont district in a meeting in March 2018. The selected design was presented to the public in the district building in Hameln at the beginning of 2018. Its implementation, which is also supported by the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation, was planned for 2018. The documentation and learning location is supported by the "Documentation and Learning Location Bückeberg non-profit GmbH " founded at the end of 2018, and Hamelin historian Alexander Remmel was appointed managing director.

Even after the decision to implement the documentation and learning location in 2018, the project remained controversial within local politics and in parts of the population. On November 30, 2018, a compromise was announced through a revised concept, in particular to reduce the burden on residents on Bückeberg and to protect the place from arrival traffic. After that, the area is to be accessed from the upper side. There, sanitary facilities and projects such as the “Green Classroom” and the “Fundamental Rights Path” are planned in the area of ​​the former “grandstands”. A permanent exhibition about the background of the “Reichserntedankfeste” is planned in the Museum of Agricultural Engineering and Agricultural Work, where a building is to be converted for around 400,000 euros. This increases the total costs for the documentation and learning location to around 2 million euros. The planned documentation and learning location on the Bückeberg is due to open in 2021 and will cost around 1.3 million euros.

Response in state and federal politics

On April 19, 2018, the Lower Saxony state parliament discussed the establishment of a documentation and learning site on the Bückeberg in Emmerthal. After a controversial debate, the majority voted in favor of a motion by the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group that the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony should participate financially in the project. While the parliamentary groups of the SPD and FDP supported the proposal of the Greens, the CDU parliamentary group was "distant to negative; the AfD rumbled against the history project ”.

Since the topic was dealt with in the Lower Saxony state parliament, various state and federal politicians from the SPD, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, FDP, AfD and CDU have visited the Bückeberg to find out about the planned location for documentation and learning.

Because of the nationwide importance of the site of the earlier Reichserntedankfeste, the Bundestag , at the request of SPD members, dealt with the financial support of a documentation and learning location on the Bückeberg and made 725,000 euros available from the federal budget.

Criticism of the planned documentation and learning location

Individual district council members of the Hameln-Pyrmont district expressed criticism of the cost of the planned documentation and learning location that the district would have to bear. They fear a "financial disaster" and plead for a cheaper option. In addition, members of the district council demanded funding at the federal level, as the area of ​​the Reichserntedankfeste is assigned a national significance.

At the end of 2017, the plans for a documentation and learning location were presented to the population at a citizens' meeting, which was carried out by the Hameln-Pyrmont district and the Emmerthal community . The concept met with criticism mainly from the location, which was justified with excessive costs and a feared stigmatization of the village of Hagenohsen through the initially planned sign with the inscription "Propaganda". In the opinion of the critics, it would be sufficient to put up an information board at the top and bottom of the site; In addition, it can be explored virtually through an Internet offer on a smartphone . Some citizens started an "Initiative Bückeberg" and carried out a signature campaign against the implementation of the planned project on the Bückeberg. At the beginning of 2018, 2000 residents signed the signature list. As the resistance to a future place of learning and remembrance on the Bückeberg had increased considerably in 2018, the Emmerthal town council decided to conduct a public survey. It would have cost around 10,000 euros and would not have been binding. On June 27, 2019, the council of the municipality of Emmerthal decided not to carry out the citizens' survey, the two AfD politicians voted for it.

The AfD parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament rejects a memorial and, after visiting the site in July 2018, advocated two information boards as sufficient.

literature

Until 1945

  • Fritz Müller-Partenkirchen : Around the Bückeberg. Experiences and reports from the 1st German Thanksgiving Day on October 1st, 1933. Drescher, Möser (Magdeburg district) 1934.

After 1945

  • Wolfgang Benz , Hermann Grauel, Hermann Weiß (ed.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism . 4th edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-423-33007-4 ( dtv 33007), (5th updated and expanded edition. Ibid 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-34408-1 ( dtv 34408)).
  • Helmut Heiber (ed.): Goebbels speeches. 1932-1945. 2 volumes. License issue. Gondrom, Bindlach, 1991, ISBN 3-8112-0885-3 .
  • Bernhard Gelderblom : The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg 1933-1937. Verlag CW Niemeyer, Hameln 1998, ISBN 3-8271-9029-0 .
  • Gerd Biegel , Wulf Otte (Ed.): A people thanks their (seducer) leader. The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg 1933–1937. Lectures on the exhibition. Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, Braunschweig 2002, ISBN 3-927939-58-7 ( publications of the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum 102).
  • Bernd Sösemann : How the Nazis invented their harvest festival. In: Die Welt , October 14, 2008 ( online ).
  • Peter Schyga (Red.), Evangelical Lutheran Propstei Goslar in cooperation with the association "Spurensuche Harzregion eV" and Bernhard Gelderblom: Thanksgiving and "Blood and Soil". Bückeberg / Hameln and Goslar 1933 to 1938. Nazi race cult and the contradiction of parishes. Papierflieger Verlag, Clausthal-Zellerfeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-86948-048-0 ( Traces of Contemporary Harz History, special volume 2; exhibition catalog, Goslar, Goslar Museum , October 4 - November 1, 2009).
  • Hans-Jürgen Tast: Armed Holidays. "City and Country - Hand in Hand". In: The archive. No. 4, Dec. 2009, ISSN  1611-0838 , pp. 40-44, 4 figs.
  • Hans-Jürgen Tast: Thanksgiving. A festival in the shadow of German history. Part 1–2. In: Philately. The magazine of the Association of German Philatelists. 62. Jg., No. 400, Oct. 2010, ISSN  1619-5892 , pp. 1, 66-69, 12 color images and No. 401, Nov. 2010, pp. 56-59, 5 color images.
  • The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg near Hameln as workbooks for the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony 36. Ed .: Stefan Winghart , Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation, Hameln, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8271-8036-0 .
  • Bernhard Gelderblom: The "Reichserntedankfest" on the Bückeberg near Hameln 1933-1937. In: Memorial Circular No. 172, 12/2013, pp. 42–51 ( online , pdf).
  • Bernhard Gelderblom: Brown seduction on the Bückeberg , illustrated newspaper article in the Deister and Weser newspaper , September 6, 2013 ( online , pdf).
  • Anette Blaschke: The Reichserntedankfeste on site. On the "backstage" of a National Socialist mass production. In: Dietmar von Reeken , Malte Thießen: “Volksgemeinschaft” as a social practice. New research on the Nazi society on site. Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2013, pp. 125–141.
  • Juliane Hummel, Rolf Keller: The Bückeberg near Hameln. A long way to get to a cultural monument and a place for information and learning. In: Memorials Circular No. 176, 6/2014.
  • Frank Werner: Everyone took part here. In: Die Zeit No. 5, January 25, 2018, p. 18 ( online , pdf).
  • Christian Branahl, Frank Henke: Answers to the planned documentation site on the Bückeberg. In: Dewezet , January 26, 2018 ( online ).
  • Bert Strebe: Should a memorial stone commemorate the Nazi festivals on the Bückeberg? In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , February 10, 2018 ( online ).
  • Bernhard Gelderblom: The NS-Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg 1933-1937. Verlag Jörg Mitzkat , Holzminden 2018, ISBN 978-3-95954-059-9 .

Archives

Web links

Commons : Bückeberg (Hagenohsen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wolfhard F. Truchseß: The Bückeberg is to become a “place of learning”. In Dewezet, September 27, 2016
  2. ^ The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg. The importance of the Nazi cult site Bückeberg. At geschichte-hameln.de
  3. ^ Rural folk festival as a large rally. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  4. ↑ Bernhard Gelderblom: The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg - Why Bückeberg?
  5. ↑ The oval of the flags. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  6. ↑ The Middle Way. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  7. ↑ The speaker's platform. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  8. ↑ The grandstand. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  9. ↑ The double slope of the square. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  10. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau , February 28, 2001
  11. ^ The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg. The place. At geschichte-hameln.de
  12. ↑ The basic elements of the square design. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  13. ↑ Bernhard Gelderblom: The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg - construction site.
  14. ^ Encyclopedia of National Socialism. 4th edition. Munich 2001, pp. 450, 666.
  15. ↑ Bernhard Gelderblom: The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg - The idea for the festival
  16. ↑ a b c Bernhard Gelderblom: The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg - The main program
  17. ↑ The recruitment of participants. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  18. ↑ Hameln City Archives, holdings 2 Acc. 1 No. 1001 as well as Deister and Weser newspaper, September 28, 1934.
  19. ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin , picture archive, GOS no. BA010203.
  20. ↑ Where did the visitors come from? At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  21. ↑ Accommodation and meals. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  22. ↑ Who were the visitors? At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  23. ↑ Leader cult. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  24. ↑ Bernhard Gelderblom: The awarding of honorary citizenship to Adolf Hitler and Margarete Wessel by the city of Hameln. In Hameln's story - apart from the pied piper.
  25. ^ Kurt Bauer : National Socialism: Origins, Beginnings, Rise and Fall. UTB, 2008, p. 269.
  26. ↑ ibid p. 270.
  27. ↑ German Broadcasting Archive Frankfurt / Main, DRA no. C 1237.
  28. ^ Völkischer Beobachter , September 30, 1935.
  29. ^ Hitler's speeches at the Bückeberg. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  30. ^ Völkischer Beobachter, October 4, 1937.
  31. ↑ Education about taking part. In: Dewezet , January 14, 2018.
  32. ↑ Cultivate - plant - let forget. At dokumentation-bueckeberg.de
  33. ↑ Detlef Schmiechen-Ackermann : Staged “Volksgemeinschaft”: The example of the Reichserntedankfeste on Bückeberg 1933–1937. In: The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg near Hameln.
  34. ↑ An important place to supplement. At Deutschlandfunk , March 13, 2018
  35. ^ Henning Haßmann : The area of ​​the Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg as a cultural monument and its surroundings as a designed cultural landscape. In: The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg near Hameln. Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation, 2010.
  36. ^ A b c Christian Branahl, Frank Henke: Answers to the planned documentation site on the Bückeberg. In Dewezet , January 26, 2018
  37. ↑ Aerial photos show massive processing of the Bückeberg. At Focus Online , January 14, 2019
  38. ↑ Nazi party as a place of learning. In: Dewezet , December 30, 2015, p. 22.
  39. ↑ Schaumburger Zeitung , Rinteln / Weser, June 10, 2008.
  40. ↑ Bückeberg - monument protection is getting closer. In: Dewezet , October 1, 2009.
  41. ↑ Monument protection yes - but not a memorial. In: Dewezet , November 3, 2010.
  42. ↑ After a long struggle, the Bückeberg becomes a monument. In: Dewezet , March 10, 2011.
  43. ↑ Lars Lindhorst: More from Bückeberg to the museum? "Impossible". In: Dewezet , March 1, 2018.
  44. ↑ Open Monument Day in Lower Saxony: Opening in Hameln on September 8, 2013. Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation.
  45. ^ Bernhard Gelderblom: The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg. 80 years of Bückeberg. On Geschichte-Hameln.de.
  46. ↑ 80 years ago: First "Reichserntedankfest". On NDR.de, October 3, 2013.
  47. ↑ Premiere for an Inconvenient Memorial. In: Hello Sunday, September 14, 2013.
  48. ↑ Christian Branahl: From dealing with a difficult legacy. In: Dewezet , August 14, 2013 (pdf).
  49. ↑ The Bückeberg film project - an uncomfortable monument. On YouTube.com.
  50. ↑ Wolfhard F. Truchseß: The Bückeberg - an uncomfortable monument. In: Dewezet , June 10, 2013, (PDF; 782 kB).
  51. ↑ Wolfhard F. Truchseß: Are you playing into the hands of the neo-Nazis? In: Dewezet, September 9, 2013, (PDF; 625 kB).
  52. ↑ The Bückeberg near Hameln: place of the "Reichserntedankfeste". On: Gedenkstaettenfoerderung.Stiftung-NG.de
  53. ↑ “Inconvenient Monuments” from the Nazi era. ( Memento from September 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on NDR.de, September 8, 2013.
  54. ↑ The exhibition The Reichserntedankfeste on the Bückeberg. On Gelderblom-Hameln.de.
  55. ↑ Conference report 19. – 20. September 2013: "Condition: unwritten". The Bückeberg near Hameln - place of the Reichserntedankfeste 1933 to 1937/38. At H / SOZ / KULT
  56. ↑ Juliane Hummel, Rolf Keller: The Bückeberg near Hameln. A long way to get to a cultural monument and a place for information and learning. In: Memorials circular. No. 176, 6/2014.
  57. ↑ Bückeberg as a place of learning - skepticism gives way. In Dewezet, February 10, 2017
  58. ↑ Documentation Bückeberg (imprint). Accessed January 30, 2019 .
  59. ^ Declaration by the specialist groups on the history of schools in the Hameln-Pyrmont district on the Bückeberg learning location
  60. ↑ Documentation Bückeberg - Selection process for the design of a historical-topographical information system
  61. ↑ Bückeberg Documentation Competition | 1st Prize
  62. ↑ Design draft as an aerial photo of the site. In Dewezet, February 19, 2018
  63. ↑ What is the commemoration worth? In Dewezet, November 19, 2017
  64. ↑ Foundation gives money for memorial site on the Bückeberg. At ndr. de, February 16, 2018
  65. ↑ Philipp Killmann: This is how the Bückeberg should look in the future. In Dewezet, January 3, 2018
  66. ↑ Joachim Zieseniß: Bückeberg continues to cause political disputes. In Dewezet, August 30, 2018
  67. ^ Philipp Killmann: Bückeberg: Experts and residents discuss at eye level. In Dewezet, February 23, 2018
  68. ^ Philipp Killmann: Specialist forum on the subject of Bückeberg. In Dewezet, February 13, 2018
  69. ^ Bückeberg: Green light for Nazi documentation center. At ndr.de, March 13, 2018
  70. ↑ Hameln-Pyrmont approves Nazi information center on the Bückeberg. In Dewezet, March 13, 2018
  71. ^ Philipp Killmann: Exhibition on Bückeberg plans in the district house. In Dewezet, February 1, 2018
  72. ↑ An important place to learn how the Nazi dictatorship worked: Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation supports plans for a Bückeberg documentation site. Press release of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation, February 2, 2018 (pdf)
  73. ↑ Frank Henke: "Propaganda" in large letters. In Dewezet, August 24, 2017
  74. ↑ Joachim Zieseniß: District Finance Committee: Majority group agrees Bückeberg plans. In Dewezet, February 28, 2018
  75. ↑ Dewezet, December 20, 2018
  76. ↑ Compromise on the establishment of the Bückeberg documentation and learning location (pdf)
  77. ^ After resistance from residents: Compromise for the Bückeberg memorial. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, November 30, 2018
  78. ↑ a b Christian Branahl: Neither winners nor losers. In Dewezet, November 30, 2018
  79. ↑ The Bückeberg Memorial is being built - but differently. At ndr.de, November 2018
  80. ↑ The Bückeberg documentation and learning location is scheduled to open in 2021 in NOZ on August 4, 2020
  81. ↑ resolution Alliance 90 / The Greens: Parliament Printed Matter 18/645, April 10, 2018 (pdf)
  82. ^ Thomas Thimm: Bückeberg debate: Barbara Otte-Kinast under pressure. In Dewezet, April 20, 2018
  83. ↑ Christian Branahl: Federal government gives 725,000 euros for the Bückeberg project. In Dewezet, June 27, 2018
  84. ↑ Christian Branahl: Federal politics looks at the Bückeberg. In Dewezet, May 9, 2018
  85. ↑ Federal government gives 725,000 euros for the Bückeberg project. In Dewezet, June 27, 2018
  86. ↑ Philipp Killmann: Documentation site on Bückeberg: Critical voices are getting louder. In Dewezet, December 18, 2017
  87. ↑ Philip Killmann: Tilts council Bückeberg project? In Dewezet, January 23, 2018
  88. ^ Bückeberg: plans for information system are presented. In Dewezet, November 19, 2017
  89. ^ Controversy over the memorial site at "Reichsthingplatz". At ndr.de, December 20, 2017.
  90. ^ Bückeberg has long been a nationwide topic. In Dewezet, February 21, 2018
  91. ↑ Journalist advocates a “positive culture of remembrance” on the Bückeberg. In Dewezet, December 27, 2017
  92. ↑ Signature campaign against the memorial on the Bückeberg. In Dewezet, December 15, 2017
  93. ↑ Christian Branahl: NDR sends dispute to Bückeberg. In Dewezet, February 19, 2018
  94. ^ Christian Branahl: Emotional debate for the NDR-1 listeners. In Dewezet, February 22, 2018
  95. ↑ Christian Branahl: Majority for survey of residents. In Dewezet, January 30, 2018
  96. ↑ Emmerthal: AfD enforces public opinion polls on Bückeberg in the specialist committee - how will the council decide? At Radio Aktiv , January 30, 2018
  97. ↑ Christian Branahl: Bückeberg - the last act. Dewezet, June 29, 2019, accessed on July 2, 2019 .
  98. ↑ Rundblick Niedersachsen: Dispute about the Bückeberg: AfD rejects memorial at the former Nazi crime scene. Edition 125/2018, July 3, 2018
  99. ↑ After the war, were in the Soviet occupation zone around the Bückeberg (1934) and 'when the time comes howl! (1942) placed on the list of literature to be segregated by the German Administration for National Education in the Soviet zone of occupation .

Coordinates: 52 ° 3 '  N , 9 ° 24'  E