Background: This is a chapter from a 1927 Nazi book on the Nuremberg party rally of that year.
The source: Alfred Rosenberg and Wilhelm Weiß, Reichsparteitag der NSDAP Nürnberg 19./21. August 1927 (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher, 1927), pp. 5-8.
It was a good idea to hold the third National Socialist party rally in the old imperial city of Nuremberg. It is a city that was at the center of German history during the great period of the Middle Ages, but also one that threatened to become a fortress of Marxist mass insanity during the 20th century. From 19 to 21 August, it was therefore a symbol that the freedom fighters of the coming German national state will not allow sites of Germany’s glorious past to become playgrounds of the Jewish-Marxist denial of all the values of the German people. The reception the marching National Socialist columns received was refreshing. It was as impressive as only a mass meeting can be at which the great ideals of the German freedom movement are welcomed by the hearts of the enthusiastic German people.
The meetings of the party rally, joined by mass participation from the German-minded population of Nuremberg, displayed a unique and powerful unity.
The party rally began on Friday, 19 August, with the arrival of the delegates and the first participants, greeted by the tested NSDAP leader of Franconia, Comrade Streicher, and other Nuremberg party members as they entered Nuremberg’s walls. They came from all parts of Greater Germany, from the stolen territories, Czechoslovakia, the occupied Rhine, the Saar, German-Austria, Berlin, the Ruhr, from the north and the south. On foot or bicycle, on motorcycles or in trucks, they had rushed here to participate in the great gathering of the German freedom movement. The Nuremberg population enthusiastically greeted the Brown Shirts and National Socialists. The entire city was talking of what was to come. Swastika flags hung from many private dwellings. The participants were greeted with the colors black-white-gold, white-blue and red white (Nuremberg’s city colors). Everywhere there were shouts of “Heil” and meetings of old acquaintances from past German rallies.
As one left the entrance tunnel and entered the main railway station hall, there was a large banner with the words: “Reich Party Rally of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party from 19 to 21 August.”
Party orderlies with arm bands met the mass of party comrades that grew with each arriving train.
The housing office had its hands full. The mass arrival was handled smoothly, thanks to the exemplary preparation and organization of the party rally, carried out primarily by S. A. Leader Captain von Pfeffer, charged with the task by the party leadership, and the Nuremberg local group and its experienced staff.
The party leadership was headquartered at the Hotel “Deutsche Hof.” Here and at the Cultural Union Building, things were in full gear during the entire rally.
The real work of the party rally took place at numerous special meetings in the various rooms of the Culture Union Building as well as other places in the city. These began at 4 p.m. Even these special meetings on various aspects of National Socialist activity were filled to overflowing. They were characterized by lively and energetic discussion by nearly all the party’s leaders and early fighters. These various special meetings created the foundations for National Socialism’s spiritual mass march.
Everywhere one saw the same picture: the discussions took place under Adolf Hitler’s spiritual leadership, whose name, whether spoken or unspoken, guaranteed the fundamental unity of every debate.
Adolf Hitler was greeted enthusiastically wherever he went. Other party members in attendance included the National Socialist parliamentary representatives Gregor Straßer, Dr. Frick, Count Reventlow, Gottfried Feder, Dr. Artur Dinter, Dietrich (Franconia), von Mücke, Stöhr, Haake, Dr. Buttmann, Adolf Wagner, Holzwarth, etc. Other party comrades who were active include A. Rosenberg, Dr. Goebbels, Schwarz, Dr. Ley, Captain Loeper, Hildebrandt, Mutschmann, Kaufmann, Munder, etc.
Also present were Representatives Jung and Krebs from the National Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia, as well as a representative from Switzerland.
By early Saturday morning, the streets were filled. Special trains filled with Brown Shirts from every corner of Germany began arriving at 7 a.m. The arriving National Socialist columns from Berlin, Vienna, and the Ruhr received the particular greetings of the throngs gathered in the square outside the station. Besides these three special trains, others came from Halle, Zwickau, Dresden, Munich, Augsburg, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Regensburg, and many other cities. At least a third more arrived than had applied in advance, and by afternoon the large mass quarters were filled to the last bed. More than 8,000 S.A. Men were in the Luitpold Hall alone, 2,000 in the Büsing Garage, 2,500 in the Volksfest Hall. Numerous smaller facilities capable of housing up to a thousand men had to be added. Arriving units marched immediately to their quarters, each accompanied by its own band. They were greeted enthusiastically by the Nuremberg populace. All day long the streets were filled with the marching brown battalions of awakened German lovers of freedom.
The Culture Union Building was decorated with large swastika banners, visible from afar. Saturday afternoon, the delegate’s meeting under Adolf Hitler’s leadership began. This large hall, holding 3,000 was beautifully decorated. Large swastika banners hung from the galleries and the large stage was decorated with green and gold wreaths and swastika flags, with our huge symbol in the background!
The powerful mass meeting that was the center of the National Socialist Freedom Movement was held here.
By 11 a.m., hundreds and hundreds of delegates from all parts of the Reich filled the hall. The mood was expectant and solemn. This was no ordinary party rally of the type all too familiar in the German Republic. Party rallies are held all over Germany today wherever the representatives of an old era think it necessary to keep their distrustful followers in line by flooding them with rhetoric about “a generation grown old in security.” Here in Nuremberg things were different: It was the mass meeting of a generation that has nothing more to do with Germany as it is today. It has burned the bridges to a social order that deserves, today or tomorrow, to be destroyed. This spirit is alive in the speeches of all the leaders of the National Socialist Party, a spirit filled with faith in the future and in the victory of the National Socialist idea of freedom.
That is what distinguished this National Socialist delegate’s conference from all similar gatherings. There was no room for the usual party conflicts. From first to last one sensed a solemn spirit of responsibility for the appearance and honor of our young movement.
The delegates rose to remember the dead of the movement and its martyrs as the festive music of the “Netherlands Hymn of Thanks” filled the hall. No one failed to be moved by the deep solemnity of this powerful moment.
The united picture of the event was enhanced by the presence of all the leadership on the podium. The delegate’s congress was a united, powerful and unified mass meeting that did not fail to have its impact on the numerous guests of honor.
As impressive as the opening itself was the impressive conclusion to the Congress late on Sunday afternoon. As the columns of the National Socialist Freedom Movement marched to music through the streets of the city, filling Nuremberg with a festive atmosphere, the Congress meeting in the Culture Union Building, filled to the end to the last seat, reached its high point. The list of speakers itself was impressive. Representatives Dr. Frick, Dr. Buttmann, and City Councilman Fiehler reported on the party’s parliamentary activity. Party comrades Count Reventlow, Feder, Dr. Dinter, and Dr. Goebbels discussed German foreign policy, the general corruption in political and economic life, the racial question, and issues of National Socialist propaganda. Finally, party comrade Rosenberg spoke on the international situation, laying the spiritual foundation on which Adolf Hitler would build his concluding remarks. The congress joined in a powerful manifesto of German freedom and in a mass meeting for the leader of German freedom. When Hitler concluded the entire hall rose to its feet in a storm of enthusiasm. For all present it was a moving experience to see the leader and his followers, the will and the idea, the movement and the masses, joined together in unbreakable unity. The swastika is the living symbol of that unity.
The Nuremberg party rally of the National Socialist movement was a new and powerful victory of German thinking on freedom. It showed that this idea has taken deep root in the German people, and that no power in the world can destroy it. National Socialism is marching. It marched in Nuremberg in spirit and in deed, with the strength of its idea and the columns of young Germany. The songs and the tread of the swastika’s battalions will find an echo throughout Germany!
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