Chapter 79 Chapter Thirteen The Triumph of the Will (1)

1934-1935 After winning the referendum, Hitler retreated to Berchtesgaden for a break in late summer.In Obersalzburg, his beloved Obersalzburg, he often went out for walks, for hours at a time.He doesn't talk much - it's one of his favorite pastimes.But at the same time, he is also preparing for the party's birthday congress in Nuremberg, which could be marred by painful memories of the purges of Roma.In order to prevent this, he resolved not to resort to the usual practice of threats, promises and reconciliation.The country was still in turmoil, and intellectuals, like Spengler, who had reluctantly agreed with National Socialism, were now enemies again.

Another concern for Hitler was that foreign journalists were eager to obtain material and might use it to denounce or ridicule his regime.Dorothy Thompson has published an article in the Harper's Market. "It's not a revolution," said one man who came to see the Passion Play (a play that blames the Jews for the death of Jesus) at Oberammer. [*The play was not revised until 1975 Only then did the blame shift to the failed evil angel Lucieer, whose American visitors repeatedly said to him, "It was the resurrection, and they thought Hitler was God. Believe it or not, there was a German woman sitting next to me at the Passion, and when they put Jesus up on the cross, she said, 'That's him. That's our Führer, our Hitler!' When they gave the Jews 30 silver pieces, she said, 'That's Rohm, he betrayed the leader.'" Thompson said, with Ambassador Dodd's August The record in his diary on the 23rd describing the circumstances of the play was almost exactly the same: "When Jesus was being tried in the angry Jewish court, a well-dressed German with a serious face said to me: 'EsistunserHitler' (he is our Hitler)." My distant relative Ida Horner, who sat on the other side of the hall, told me at the end of the show, "When Judas put away the 30 silver coins, a woman nearby said, 'This is the Roma ’. I suspect that at least half of the German audience thought Hitler was Germany’s messiah.”

Among the many stormtroopers who barely remained in the party, the opinion was quite the opposite.Hitler, they believed, was more like Judas than Messiah.While discussing the upcoming party birthday with Hitler, Rohm's former subordinate Max Juttner couldn't help but praise the late head of state.Hitler was furious: "Why are you repeating the old story?" He shouted, "This matter is over. Rohm has been sentenced." Juttner was taken aback and retorted that if Rohm's character is not good, the Führer He will not be selected as chief of staff.Hitler turned around, patted Juttner on the shoulder and said: "You are right, but you can't know the whole process. Rohm and Schleicher tried to rebel against me, and I had to suppress it. I was going to let The courts will look into these matters, but the way things are going, I can't help it, and many SA leaders have been shot without my consent. The whole world is publicizing this. I take full responsibility."

Hitler picked the young Albest Speer to be the stage manager of his spectacular show in Nuremberg.The performance was clearly intended to consolidate its gains and reunite the party.Speer demolished all the temporary stands of Chaplin Stadium. Under the inspiration of the Pergamon Altar, a stone platform 1,300 feet long and 80 feet high was erected. The eagle is surrounded by swastika flags, and a searchlight with a range of 25,000 feet is placed every 40 feet, a total of 130.Göring was unwilling to lend these searchlights because they were for strategic reserves.But Hitler supported Speer. "If so many searchlights are being used for something like this," he explained, "other countries will think we're outnumbered."

His imagination surpassed current propaganda.He planned to make an eternal record and export it, and invited the famous actress and director Rini Raifensdahl to make a memorial film.He admired her works, especially "Blue Light".He assured her that if she could make a film commemorating the party's birthday in 1934 and the length of a feature film, he would give her his fullest cooperation.Although she was disgusted, she had to give in.But once she left his presence, she said she couldn't make a documentary.She handed over the directing task to her collaborators, and she went to Spain to shoot the film.When she returned, the Nuremberg Congress was only two weeks away.Hess's letter was waiting for her: the Führer found her, was taken aback when he entrusted the task to someone else, and demanded to see her immediately.

Hitler was not angry, and only used kind words to persuade him. "You only need to spend six days of your life," he said.She retorted that if editing was included, it would be 6 months.Hitler said after hearing this, "Oh, but you are still so young!" She insisted on not doing it, saying that she was the most unsuitable to make such a film. "I'm not a party member. I can't even tell the SA from the SS." "That's why I want you to shoot," said Hitler, "that will give people a new perspective." She accepted the difficult task.Meanwhile, to bring extra interest to the six-day program, she devised various shots: She used planes, cranes, roller skates, and installed a small lifting platform on the tallest flagpole.A week before the opening of the conference, she brought a 120-person film crew (including 16 photographers) to Nuremberg.She got all the help Hitler promised.Even the fire fighting equipment and other public facilities in the city were handed over to her.

The congress attendees began to flood Nuremberg.They were handpicked months in advance.Each has a number, an assigned truck, an assigned car seat, and an assigned bed in the marquee city near Nuremberg.By the time the convention officially opened on September 4, tens of thousands of party members had rehearsed.That evening, after the Führer's brief welcoming address in the Old Town Hall, Hanfsteinl delivered a lengthy speech urging the foreign press to "report only what happened in Germany, without explaining it."After that, the hotel "Deutsches Hotel" where Hitler stayed was surrounded by at least 10,000 party members.They chanted "We want the Führer!" rhythmically, until Hitler appeared on the balcony.Their frenzied faces reminded L. Sheila (who was working at the Globe at the time) of the frenzied expressions on the faces of the "sacred ramblers" of Louisiana.

The next morning, Hitler appeared in the Luppold Arena.He's more of an object of reverence than a speaker.He walked in quickly, followed by Goering, Goebbels, Hess, Himmler and several adjutants.The band played the Badenweiler March.After the moving "Egmond Prelude" was finished, Hess walked to the stage and slowly read the list of martyrs who died in the 1923 uprising.For an audience of 30,000 people - not so foreign journalists - it was a moving experience.The most important words came from the mouth of the prefect Wagner - he read a Hitler communiqué.Because Wagner's voice resembled Hitler's, some reporters listening to the radio really thought it was him. "The German way of life for the next thousand years must have been determined," Wagner read. "For us the turbulent nineteenth century is over. There will be no more revolutions in Germany for the next thousand years."

Hitler was enthralled by the almost constant cheers of his admirers, but he was still plagued by anxiety.Many of the stormtroopers who came to celebrate the festival came with remorse and disenchantment.The thought of possible embarrassing or even dangerous situations made him nervous, and sometimes he even regretted himself.Once, while eating in a restaurant frequented by party officials, he suddenly turned to Hans Frank. "Your delay in Munich on June 30 annoys me!" he cried.When Frank again asked for his resignation, he interrupted impatiently. "In a few weeks the joke of state law will be over." The Reich, Bavaria and the rest of the states, will be calling the shots, he said.After an uncomfortable silence, he walked out.

As the congress grew more exciting, Hitler regained his elation.This was particularly evident on the evening of the 7th.At night, 200,000 loyal party members held more than 200,000 banners and packed the Chaplin Stadium to the brim.Their ranks are as orderly as an army.The effect of Speer's 130 searchlights is more thrilling than imagined. "The stadium was illuminated like daylight, and it looked like a hall surrounded by huge, shining white columns," Speier recalled. It's the translucent anemone floating on the sea." In the eerie silence, Hitler's voice rang out through loudspeakers to terrible effect. "We are strong and will be stronger!" he said.It was both a promise and a threat.

Renee Raifensdahl and her photographers filmed this scene from more than 10 angles. During the filming process, those nosy brownshirts, under the instigation of Goebbels, hid the Führer's words, interfere with her.They constantly harassed photographers, pushed them away from the best angles, and even demolished several photo booths. Hitler himself was also threatened because of the possibility of a SA response.Two days later, 50,000 SA assembled in the stadium; Hitler was on his guard. "The atmosphere in the stadium was quite tense," Sheila recalled. "I noticed that the Führer's own SS guards were also massed in front of the Führer, separating him from the stormtroopers." I wonder if anyone will draw a pistol during the Führer's "carrot and stick" speech.In his speech, the Führer pardoned all stormtroopers involved in the Roma conspiracy. The meeting ended without incident.This guarantees the success of the last program on the next day (9th and 10th).This day was designated as Army Day, and for this reason, the mobile troops equipped with the latest weapons made a perfect performance on the huge lawn.For the first time in Germany since the postwar period, the armed forces were displayed to the public.Seeing this realistic combat exercise, the 300,000 spectators were almost ecstatic.Sheila wrote in her diary that martial spirit was not a product of the Hohenzollerns. "It's something that's ingrained in the minds of all Germans. Today they act like children playing with tin soldiers." Hitler, like the crowd, reveled in the joy.After he finished his final speech, the cheers of the crowd resounded through the sky, and they could not calm down for a long time.Hess' voice was finally heard: he bid farewell to the Führer on behalf of the Nazi Party. "The Party is Hitler," he said, "Hitler is Germany, and Germany is Hitler. Hail Hitler! Hail Victory! Hail Victory! Hail Hitler Victory!" People are elated, excited, and excited.But to those uninfected by Hitler, it was the roar of a hideous beast, the scream of a cave. There could be no better symbol of the Führer's wedding to the army, and he decided to make a conciliatory gesture to his senior generals.That night, after a spectacular military parade in front of his hotel, he invited them to dinner. "I know that you accuse us of a lot of wrong things in our party," Hitler said at the time, according to General von Wichy's record, which was recorded verbatim at the time, "I admit that you are 100 percent correct. But you also Remember, in times of struggle, the intelligentsia abandoned me, so most of the people I worked with were low-quality personnel. I have been trying to correct this shortcoming. But, like the construction of the officer corps in the new armed forces It took years for the party to build a good leadership." His words were effective because, according to Vichy, "he knew how to use his great skill to make his Speeches are tailored to the needs of the audience." Later, Hitler visited the barracks.There, the old corporal had a heated fight with the soldiers, telling jokes and recalling the past.After returning to the hotel, he was relaxed and happy. While having supper with his confidants, he described in detail the situation of reuniting with the soldiers.It was a fitting end to a week of exhaustion. Two days later, a reception was held at the presidential palace to welcome Hitler.He was in high spirits.The diplomats who had been avoiding him had to formally congratulate the new president.Ambassador Dodd had never seen him "so happy, he greeted the representatives of the countries one by one." do everything.The party was reunited, and the people and the army were on his side. Despite Goebbels' interference, party monuments were not damaged.Tens of thousands of feet of extraordinary material were captured by Renee Raifensdahl and her photographers.During the editing of the film, protests hit her like a flood.The protesters were uncamera party officials and people who complained about insufficient propaganda.She refused to make changes, and Hitler proposed a compromise: the idea of ​​adding a picture of the disgruntled leader to the film.It was an affront to Raifensdahl's artistic principles; she rejected it.Hitler stood his ground with equal force.According to her own account, she stamped her feet and shouted, "I'm not doing it!" "You forgot who you were talking to?" he replied.Yet her convictions were so strong, and Hitler so admired her genius.As a result, after the film came out, no changes were made.She named Yingpin "Triumph of the Will" because she couldn't have a better title.Party officials were cold to her at the premiere, but Goebbels, her fiercest critic, understood that the film was a remarkable success.Its approach is far more powerful than any other film that promotes the Führer and National Socialism.It won the "May Day Cultural Achievement Award" for the best film that year. The film is also unanimously considered the most important documentary.Later, at the "World Film Exhibition" held in Paris in 1937, it won a gold medal for its artistry rather than content.