Nuremberg rallies

The first Nazi "Party Day" was held in 1920 by the "National Socialist German Workers' Association", the precursor of the Brownshirts. Early party rallies occurred in 1923 at Munich, and in 1926 at Weimar. Hitler himself declared that the rallies should be a "clear and understandable demonstration of the will and the youthful strength" of the party, while Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels said that the rallies changed a participant "from a little worm into part of a large dragon". Lastly, the Luitpoldhain park gave Nuremberg the "advantage of a large open space for mass gatherings". The Flak Searchlight-34 and -37 models used for the effect were developed in the 1930s, and had "an output of 990 million candelas". Rallies opened with Richard Wagner's 1868 opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, performed by the Berlin State Opera, and ceremonies included a parade where district party flags were touched to the Blutfahne, the flag used during the failed Beer Hall Putsch coup attempt of 1923. making the swastika banner the official national flag, and banning "marriage and sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jews". The Nuremberg Laws were based not on religion, but on race, being grounded on the idea that "racial identity" was "transmitted irrevocably through the blood" of Jewish ancestors. Personally designed by Hitler and proclaimed on 15 September 1935, the laws were "among the first of the racist Nazi laws that culminated in the Holocaust". ==Rallies ==

Each rally was given a programmatic title, which related to recent national events: • 1923: The First Party Congress took place in Munich on 27 January 1923. • 1923: The "German Day Rally" was held in Nuremberg, 1–2 September 1923. • 1934: The 6th Party Congress was held in Nuremberg, 5–10 September 1934, The Leni Riefenstahl film Triumph des Willens was made at this rally. • 1935: The 7th Party Congress was held in Nuremberg, 10–16 September 1935. This was due to the annexation of Austria to Germany that had taken place earlier in the year. • 1939: The 11th Party Congress, scheduled for 2–11 September 1939, was given the name "Rally of Peace" (). It was meant to reiterate the German desire for peace, both to the German population and to other countries. It was cancelled at short notice, as one day before the planned start date, Germany began its offensive against Poland, starting World War II on 1 September 1939. == Propaganda films ==

films Triumph of the Will on location in 1934. The first film to document a Nuremberg rally was A Symphony of the Will to Fight, released in 1927. The most famous films, however, were made by director Leni Riefenstahl for the rallies between 1933 and 1935. Her first movie, Victory of Faith (), was released in 1933. Because the film featured SA chief Ernst Röhm, who was later killed on Hitler's orders in the 1934 Night of the Long Knives, almost all copies of were destroyed. The rally of 1934 became the setting for Riefenstahl's award-winning Triumph of the Will (). In 1935 she made Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces (), focusing on the German Army,'' Riefenstahl, who lived until 2003, would face lifelong controversy because of her films and closeness to the regime. The 1936 and 1937 rallies were covered in the short film , directed by Hans Weidemann. == Rally books ==

There were two sets of official, or semi-official, books covering the rallies. The so-called "Red books" were officially published by the Nazi Party and contained the proceedings of each rally, along with the full text of speeches. The "Blue books" were published initially by Julius Streicher, the of Nuremberg, and later by Hanns Kerrl, not by the party press. These were larger scale books that included excerpts of speeches in addition to photographs. Alongside these books, collections of photos by Hitler's official photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, were published to commemorate each Party congress, as well as pamphlets of Hitler's speeches. Hoffman created 100-image series on the 1936, 1937, and 1938 rallies. == See also ==