The Nuremberg Rallies
Key idea: Propaganda (information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view)
Key person: Joseph Goebbels (spell correctly!)
Dates: First rally held 1927, but the elaborate ones the case study refers to began in 1933 and ran until 1938.
Purpose: A demonstration of Nazi policies and power.
1933 Rally
The Rally of Victory
1934 Rally
1935 Rally
1936 Rally
Rally of Honour
1937/1938 Rallies
1939 Rally
Nuremberg Trials
Key person: Joseph Goebbels (spell correctly!)
Dates: First rally held 1927, but the elaborate ones the case study refers to began in 1933 and ran until 1938.
Purpose: A demonstration of Nazi policies and power.
- Nuremberg chosen as focal point for Nazi regime – steeped in ancient German culture and history. Its central location helped with logistics.
- Rallies involved marches, torchlight processions, speeches and huge numbers in uniforms or waving swastika flags and banners.
- Designed by Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer.
1933 Rally
The Rally of Victory
- Zeppelin Field (outside city) used for first time. 11 sq km – allowed for much greater number of Party members to attend
- 500,000 people took part
- Speeches by Goebbels and Hitler (Goebbels’s entitled, “The Racial Question and World Propaganda”, focused on the inferior nature of Jewish people)
1934 Rally
- Best-remembered rally
- Hitler portrayed himself as an object of worship for the German people – rally was used to promote the Fuhrer cult
- Triumph of the Will - film by Leni Riefenstahl - documented the rally.
- Regarded in general as outright propaganda, Riefenstahl always insisted it was a documentary.
- Opening sequence displays a variety of techniques, used to depict Hitler as a popular, glorious leader – a messiah.
- Film includes footage of those attending the rally – happy, strong Aryans. No dissent is shown.
1935 Rally
- Proclamation of the Nuremberg Laws
- Blood Law – forbade sexual relations between Jews and Germans of Aryan blood
- Jews were no longer allowed to be German citizens
- Stark warnings issued about the difficulty of maintaining “tolerable relations” with Jews
1936 Rally
Rally of Honour
- Over 1 million attended
- Albert Speer still designer
- Four Year Economic plan announced
- Rearmament
1937/1938 Rallies
- More extreme
- 1,000 year Reich to be developed
- Jews conflated with Bolshevism (communism)
- Massive audience support for anti-Semitic speeches
1939 Rally
- Was to be the Rally of Peace, and was to run from 2-11 September
- Cancelled due to German invasion of Poland, 1 September and French-British declaration of war, 3 September.
Nuremberg Trials
- After the war, Nazis accused of war crime were tried in Nuremberg, symbolising the defeat of Nazi Germany.