Figure 1.-- This photograph was taken in 1935 at Nuremberg. The local NAZIs are handing out some propaganda items to the children, part of the prepsrations for the annual Reich Party Congress (Reichsparteitag) known as the Nuremberg Rally.

The Nuremberg rallies grand-scale rallies began with the growth of the NAZI Party (1929). The rallies were staged in late August or September and lasted several days to a week. Thgey attrcted hundreds of thousands of Party members and spectators. As the NAZIs gained noteriery they attracted a substantial contingent of foreign journalists. There was a national press and radio buildup leading up to the rallies. Many Hitler Youth boys marched on foot to reach Nuremberg. And decoration of the city began. Buildings in Nuremberg were festooned with festive banners, enormous flags, and all kinds of NAZI insignias and symbols. A major component of the Nuremberg rallies were the deployment and parades of the many affiliated Party organisations, including the SS, SA, Labor Service, Hitler Youth, DAF, etc. The military complained that they were not given a suitable role. Rally activities were not restricted to the rally grounds. The various NAZI formations paraded in military order through the center of old Nuremberg. Here they were reviewed by Hitler and enthusiastic crowds. The rows of people moving hrough the highly decorated historic town was said to sybolized the continuity between the Reichstag in the Holy Roman Empire (the first Reich) and the NAZI Third Reich. Standard features of the rallies included stirring martial music and songs, banners, goose-step marches, human swastika formations, torchlight processions, bonfires, and impressive fireworks displays. Adolf Hitler and other NAZI luminaries delivered impassioned orations. The high point was always Hitler's speech. He would vannounce important new NAZI initiatives. The most important being the racist Nürnberg Laws stripping Jews of their citizenship and rights were promulgated in 1935. A new feature was added (1935). It was a performance of Richard Wagner's 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg' on the first evening of the rally. Hitler was a huge admirer of Richard Wagner. And for him and many other NAZSIs, Wagner's operas depicted the mythical scenes that comported with the heroic-German Weltanschauung (world view) adopted by the NAZIs. The climax of each rally was the consecration of the colors. New NAZI flags were touched to the Blutfahne (Blood Banner) -- a tattered standard said to have blood stains of those killed in Hitler’s abortive Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.

Created: 1:41 AM 11/21/2022
Last updated: 1:41 AM 11/21/2022