Hitler's 50th Birthday Celebration (20 April 1939)

Adolf Hitler’s fiftieth birthday on 20 April 1939 was marked throughout the German Reich as a national holiday, the only occasion on which the date was officially designated a public holiday by the government. The celebrations, carefully orchestrated under the direction of Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, were designed as a grand demonstration of national unity, the cult of the Führer, and the military strength of the rearmed Wehrmacht. Berlin served as the principal stage for the most elaborate of these observances, while similar festivities, including military parades and party ceremonies, took place in cities and towns across the Reich and in annexed territories.

Preparations had been underway for weeks. Public buildings, streets, and private houses were ordered to display flags bearing the Hakenkreuz. The newly completed Ost-West-Achse, a broad ceremonial boulevard designed by Albert Speer as a central element of the planned transformation of Berlin into Welthauptstadt Germania, was prepared as the main route for processions and the principal parade. On the afternoon of 19 April, Hitler led a motorcade of fifty white limousines along this thoroughfare. Crowds lined the route, and the occasion was used to inaugurate the avenue formally. In the evening, Goebbels delivered a nationwide radio address praising Hitler as a man of historic stature who had achieved bloodless territorial gains and restored German power. Later that night, members of the “old guard” of the NSDAP from the various Gaue staged a torchlight procession. At midnight, within the Neue Reichskanzlei, leading figures of the regime offered formal congratulations and presented gifts. These included works of art, porcelain from Meissen, statues, tapestries, models of architectural projects and military equipment, rare coins, antique weapons, and numerous other items. Speer offered a large model of a planned triumphal arch. Heinrich Himmler presented a painting of Frederick the Great. Ferdinand Porsche and representatives of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront delivered a convertible Volkswagen. Hitler also inspected a model of the Westwall fortifications and a model of his personal Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft. Contemporary accounts note that he examined some gifts with interest, mocked others, and largely ignored the rest.

On the morning of 20 April itself, the band of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler performed a short concert in the garden of the Reichskanzlei, playing the national anthem and the Horst-Wessel-Lied. Hitler appeared briefly to acknowledge the musicians before returning indoors to view the accumulated presents. Shortly after 10:00, he departed the Reichskanzlei in an open Mercedes, travelling via the Stadtkommandantur to the reviewing stand erected opposite the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg along the Ost-West-Achse. There he took his place on a raised dais under a canopy decorated with eagles and Iron Crosses, seated on a gilded chair covered in red plush. Surrounding him on the grandstand were senior officers of the Wehrmacht, party leaders, and approximately 20,000 official guests, including foreign diplomats and military attachés.

The military parade that followed was the largest yet staged by the German armed forces. It lasted more than four hours and involved between 40,000 and 50,000 troops drawn from all branches. Units of the Heer, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine each contributed twelve companies, supplemented by formations of the Schutzstaffel. Marching contingents were interspersed with motorised columns that included roughly 600 Panzer vehicles of various types (among them PzKpfw II, III, and IV), heavy artillery pieces, anti-aircraft guns such as the 8.8 cm Flak, searchlights, motorcycle units, engineer equipment, and other specialised vehicles. Overhead, 162 aircraft of the Luftwaffe flew in formation. The parade route stretched along the Ost-West-Achse, with troops forming up over a considerable distance beforehand so that the flow past the reviewing stand remained continuous and precise. Contemporary film and photographic records show infantry, cavalry, sailors, airmen, Fallschirmjäger, and SS men marching in close order, dipping their standards as they passed Hitler. The event was intended both as a birthday homage and as a public display of the Wehrmacht’s recovered strength and modern equipment, directed as much at domestic audiences as at foreign observers.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the route and filled side streets. Security was provided by large contingents of the SA, NSKK, regular police, and several hundred men of the SS positioned near the reviewing stand. Similar, though smaller, military parades and ceremonial assemblies took place the same day in garrisons throughout the Reich. In many locations, the day began with a Großer Wecken by military bands, followed by formal appeals, promotions, and the presentation of gifts from local populations. Evening events often featured party rallies at which the Führer’s achievements were praised and the national anthems sung.

The scale of the Berlin parade and the accompanying nationwide observances reflected the high point of the pre-war cult of the Führer. Propaganda emphasised national recovery, territorial expansion achieved without major bloodshed, and the restoration of military power. Gifts and messages arrived not only from within Germany but also from German communities abroad. Foreign military attachés present in Berlin noted the emphasis on motorised and anti-aircraft units, even if little entirely new equipment was displayed. The celebrations concluded without incident, leaving a carefully constructed image of unity, discipline, and strength that the regime sought to project both at home and abroad in the months preceding the outbreak of war later that year.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RECEPTION AND GIFTS

Some of Hitler's 50th birthday gifts, including vases with swastikas and paintings, in the Neue Reichskanzlei (New Reich Chancellery). The picture was taken by Hugo Jaeger. On 20 April 1939, Adolf Hitler celebrated his 50th birthday amid elaborate festivities in Berlin, during which he received a vast array of gifts from Nazi officials, military leaders, organizations, and citizens that filled rooms in the Reich Chancellery. Albert Speer presented a detailed scale model of the planned gigantic triumphal arch intended for the reconstruction of Berlin as Welthauptstadt Germania. His personal pilot Hans Baur offered a model of the four-engined Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, known as the Führer plane that later entered service as his official aircraft. Ferdinand Porsche, accompanied by Robert Ley of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront, delivered a black convertible prototype of the KdF-Wagen, the forerunner of the Volkswagen. Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe, gave a solid gold model of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler presented a prized portrait of Frederick the Great, which Hitler kept until the final days in the bunker. Other presents included statues, bronze casts, Meissen porcelain, oil paintings, tapestries, rare coins, antique weapons, and numerous kitsch items such as swastika-embellished vases and embroidered textiles. The Free City of Danzig conferred honorary citizenship upon him through Albert Forster. A Munich brewery specially produced low-alcohol beer suited to his digestive preferences. Additional offerings comprised silver architectural models, porcelain from the Allach factory associated with the SS, handcrafted clocks from the Sudetenland, food items like hop salad and apples from grateful regions, and even thousands of pairs of soldiers’ socks along with a living eagle!

Source :
Hugo Jaeger photo collection
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2010/10/koleksi-ratusan-foto-berwarna-dari-life.html
https://artsandculture.google.com/search/asset?q=hugo%20jaeger&hl=en

Photograph of Maximilian von Weichs by Walter Frentz

Generalfeldmarschall Maximilian Reichsfreiherr von Weichs (Oberbefehlshaber Heeresgruppe B) in a picture taken on 1 February 1943 by Walter Frentz, during Generalfeldmarschall promotion ceremony with Hitler at the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze in Rastenburg, East Prussia. Weichs received his special promotion to the rank of marshall on that day in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic German defeat at Stalingrad. At that time he held the position of Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B, the formation responsible for the advance toward the Volga during Fall Blau. Heeresgruppe B had included 2. Armee, 4. Panzerarmee, 6. Armee under Friedrich Paulus, as well as the allied 2. Hungarian Army, 8. Italian Army and the Romanian armies whose collapse during Operation Uranus sealed the encirclement. Although Weichs had repeatedly warned of the overstretched flanks and had recommended a timely withdrawal, Adolf Hitler refused, and large parts of Heeresgruppe B were subsequently detached to form Heeresgruppe Don under Erich von Manstein. Despite the destruction of nearly the entire 6. Armee and the effective dissolution of Heeresgruppe B, Weichs was elevated to Generalfeldmarschall together with Paulus, Ewald von Kleist and Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen. The promotion, announced on the same day that Paulus was also made Generalfeldmarschall inside the Stalingrad pocket, served both as a formal recognition of senior command responsibility and as a propaganda gesture intended to mask the scale of the disaster. Weichs retained the rank for the remainder of the war, later serving as Oberbefehlshaber Südost and commander of Heeresgruppe F in the Balkans. The elevation therefore marked the highest point of his military career even as his operational authority on the Eastern Front was simultaneously being reduced. After a brief period in the Führerreserve he returned to active duty later in 1943, carrying the rank of Generalfeldmarschall until his final transfer to reserve status in March 1945. Thus the promotion of 1 February 1943 stands as a paradoxical culmination of his service with Heeresgruppe B amid one of the Wehrmacht’s greatest defeats.

Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=2018989&hilit=weichs#p2018989
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/35803/Weichs-von-Maximillian.htm
https://www.walter-frentz-collection.de/fotoarchiv/personenarchiv-a-z/personen-t-z/

Blue Division's Swearing-in Ceremony at Grafenwöhr (1941)

From left to right: Generalleutnant Agustín Muñoz Grandes (Kommandeur 250. Infanterie-Division [spanien]), Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm (Chef der Heeresrüstung und Befehlshaber des Ersatzheeres), Gauleiter Fritz Wächtler (NSDAP-Gauleiter der Bayerischen Ostmark), and Dr.phil. Friedrich von Cochenhausen (Kommandierenden General des Stellvertretenden XIII. Armeekorps in Nürnberg und Befehlshaber vom Wehrkreis XIII). The picture was taken at Truppenübungsplatz Grafenwöhr on 31 July 1941 during swearing-in ceremony of the Spanish volunteers in the Wehrmacht.

In the summer of 1941, as German forces advanced deep into the Soviet Union following the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June, a contingent of Spanish volunteers prepared to join the campaign on the Eastern Front. These men formed what became known as the División Azul, or Blue Division, a unit of volunteers raised in Francoist Spain to fight against Bolshevism. After recruitment and initial organization in Spain, the volunteers travelled by train across France and into Germany, arriving at the large military training ground of Grafenwöhr in Bavaria between 17 and 23 July 1941. There, under German supervision, they underwent rapid reorganization, outfitting, and instruction before formal incorporation into the Wehrmacht as the 250. Infanterie-Division.

Grafenwöhr was a major Truppenübungsplatz with extensive facilities capable of accommodating large formations. The Spanish contingent, numbering roughly 18,000 men, was placed under the overall administration of the camp authorities, which operated from the Kommandantur. German instructors oversaw the issue of Wehrmacht uniforms, equipment, and weapons, including the distinctive MG 34 machine gun that the Spaniards quickly came to admire. The only outward marks distinguishing the Spaniards from German personnel were a silk arm shield in the Spanish national colours bearing the word “España” on the right sleeve and, in many cases, the continued wearing of the blue Falange shirt or the red Carlist beret beneath or in place of standard headgear. The division was restructured from the Spanish four-regiment model to the standard German three-regiment organization to facilitate integration into the Wehrmacht supply system. The infantry regiments received the designations 262., 263., and 269. Infanterie-Regiment, supported by an artillery regiment and various independent units and services. Spanish military justice and certain internal police functions remained under Spanish control, in accordance with agreements reached between the two governments.

Training was intensive but abbreviated. German expectations of rapid deployment, combined with the high proportion of veterans of the Spanish Civil War among the volunteers, led to a compressed schedule of roughly two to five weeks rather than the longer period originally envisaged. The men adapted to German drill, marching discipline, and weapons handling while living in the camp’s two-storey barracks built in a style reminiscent of Bavarian architecture.

The formal swearing-in ceremony that sealed the division’s incorporation into the Wehrmacht took place on 31 July 1941 on the instruction field known as Kramemberg (sometimes rendered Kramerbrg in contemporary accounts). The entire division formed up for the occasion, accompanied by a German company of honour. Presiding over the event were the Spanish commander, General Agustín Muñoz Grandes, together with his staff; Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm, representing the German high command as Chef der Heeresrüstung und Befehlshaber des Ersatzheeres; and General der Artillerie Dr.phil. Friedrich von Cochenhausen, who acted as the officer in charge of the ceremony. The Spanish and German national flags stood side by side.

The proceedings began with a Catholic field mass, reflecting the predominantly Catholic character of the Spanish volunteers. After the religious service came the central act: the oath of allegiance. At the insistence of the Spanish authorities, the standard Wehrmacht formula of personal loyalty to Adolf Hitler was modified to limit the obligation to the struggle against communism. General von Cochenhausen first read the oath in German:

“Schwörst Du vor Gott und bei Deiner Ehre als Spanier, dem Obersten Befehlshaber der Deutschen Wehrmacht, Adolf Hitler, im Kampf gegen den Kommunismus unbedingten Gehorsam entgegenzubringen und schwörst Du, als tapferer Soldat zu kämpfen, der jederzeit bereit ist, sein Leben in Erfüllung dieses Eides hinzugeben?”

Colonel José María Troncoso then repeated the text in Spanish:

“¿Juráis ante Dios y por vuestro honor de españoles, absoluta obediencia al jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas alemanas, Adolf Hitler, en la lucha contra el comunismo, y juráis combatir como valientes soldados, dispuestos a dar vuestra vida en cada instante por cumplir este juramento?”

The assembled ranks raised their right arms in the Fascist salute and answered with a collective “¡Sí, juro!” or “Yes, I swear.” Muñoz Grandes himself took the oath separately, adding the emphatic Spanish declaration: “Lo que un español jura, lo cumple o muere” (“What a Spaniard swears, he fulfils or dies”).

Contemporary accounts describe the atmosphere as one of solemn intensity. One participant later recalled the emotional impact of thousands of voices answering as one. After the oath, Muñoz Grandes addressed the division, declaring that the volunteers had sworn to die rather than allow Bolshevism to continue its work of destruction, and instructing that the Führer be informed of their readiness and their determination to keep their word.

A second, smaller ceremony took place on 3 August for those who had not yet sworn. With the formalities completed and the brief period of intensive training concluded, the 250. Infanterie-Division was considered ready for active service. Movement toward the front began in the second half of August 1941. The division travelled by rail and then on foot through Poland and into the Soviet Union, eventually being assigned to the northern sector of the Eastern Front near Leningrad and the Volkhov River.

The Grafenwöhr ceremony of 31 July 1941 marked the official transformation of the Spanish volunteer formation into a unit of the German army. It formalized a carefully negotiated arrangement in which Spanish volunteers fought under German operational command while retaining certain national characteristics in justice, pay, and internal administration. The modified wording of the oath underscored the anti-communist motivation that Spanish authorities emphasized, distinguishing the commitment from a broader personal allegiance. In the months and years that followed, the division would see hard fighting in the frozen landscapes of northern Russia, earning a reputation for tenacity even as it operated far from home under foreign command. The events at Grafenwöhr remain a defining moment in the short but intense history of the División Azul.

Source :
https://www.ebay.com/itm/305590004014
https://www.worldmilitariaforum.com/forums/topic/320832-the-m18-helmet-worn-during-the-war/

Motorcyclists of 3. Panzer-Division in the Summer 1942

In the summer of 1942 the 3. Panzer-Division, under the command of Generalmajor Hermann Breith, formed part of the German forces committed to Fall Blau, the major offensive launched on the southern sector of the Eastern Front with the strategic aim of seizing the Caucasian oil fields. After participating in the successful counteroffensive that eliminated the Soviet bridgehead west of the Donez during the Second Battle of Kharkov in May, the division was fully reconstituted and assigned to the XXXX. Panzerkorps within the 1. Panzerarmee of Heeresgruppe A. Beginning on 28 June it advanced rapidly eastward from the Kharkov area toward Voronezh, contributing to the capture of that city by early July before turning south along the Don. Crossing the lower Don near Rostov, the division pressed deep into the Kuban steppe and the northern Caucasus, covering hundreds of kilometres in successive advances that carried its Panzer-Regiment 6 and supporting Panzergrenadier elements through Armavir and beyond. By mid-August the 3. Panzer-Division had reached the Terek River sector near Mozdok, where it engaged in intense fighting against determined Soviet defences protecting the approaches to Grozny. Supply difficulties, fuel shortages and lengthening lines of communication progressively slowed the advance, while Soviet resistance stiffened amid the rugged terrain of the Caucasus foothills. Throughout these operations the division’s tanks, predominantly Panzer III and Panzer IV models, spearheaded rapid thrusts in cooperation with neighbouring formations such as the 13. Panzer-Division and 23. Panzer-Division. Despite initial successes that brought German forces to within striking distance of the vital oil centres, the offensive ultimately stalled short of its objectives. Heavy casualties accumulated during the prolonged engagements around Mozdok and along the Terek, depleting the division’s combat strength by the end of the summer campaign. On 1 October 1942 command passed from Generalleutnant Hermann Breith to Generalleutnant Franz Westhoven as the division prepared for further operations in the Caucasus theatre.

Source :
https://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/14933905.html