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Nazi Parades

The Sturmabteilung, or SA, was the organization which the world remembers as the "Brown Shirts" or Storm Troops - the gangsters of the early days of nazi terrorism. So that the Nazis might better spread their philosophies, the SA was employed to gain possession and control of the streets for the Nazis. Its function was to beat up and terrorize all political opponents. The importance of this function is explained in a pamphlet written by SA Sturmfuehrer Bayer, upon orders from SA Headquarters (2168-PS):

"Possession of the streets is the key to power in the State-for this reason the SA marched and fought. The public would have never received knowledge from the agitative speeches of the little Reichstag faction and its propaganda or from the desires and aims of the Party if the martial tread and battle song of the SA Companies had not beat the measure for the truth of a relentless criticism of the state of affairs in the governmental system." (2168-PS)

The Party Rallies of the NSDAP had such a tremendous impact on the audience and spectators, that the Allied Forces after World War Second used of all places Nuremberg to execute the heads of the Nazi-regime. The Party Rallies of Nuremberg made such a powerful impression that today, the name of Nuremberg has become a symbol for a trial of crime against humanity. There is no doubt, the Party Rallies of Nuremberg were the most powerful nation branding ever.

What made these Party Rallies so powerful and unforgettable that even today people can get under its spell? the fascination of the Party Rallies in Nuremberg was a fascination of movement of military parades and Tattoos. What impact have structured and rhythmically arranged movement formations on the audience? Fundamentally, this is a philosophical question. The world is physiological and materially structured. These structures have an impact on how people regard and perceive the world, dependent on the structures of what is perceived. For example, rhythmically structures have a different impact than visual structures. The one can intensify and amplify the other.

That happened in Nuremberg. At the Party Rallies [Reichsparteitag] at Nuremberg, the rhythmical structure was the music of marches. The function of marches is to regulate and unite the marching of troops and the movement of great mass formations. A perfect unified movement is a marching machine. All human actions are instinctively driven into a rhythmically participation. The underlying rhythmical pattern of marches was at Nuremberg a uniting force. The coordinated and nearly supernatural conducted movement of hundred thousand of people had a tremendous impact on the audience.

Effective-historical consciousness falls prey to what Jurgen Habermas identified as the Achilles heel of hermeneutics: insufficient resources to respond to ideologically tinged communication. Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will was a harbinger of two genres in film whose essences seem contradictory: documentary and propaganda. As a persuasive artifact, it is still hailed as the most powerful propaganda film ever made.

Triumph of the Will contained no narration whatsoever after brief introductory remarks. These introductory remarks were not verbalized, but were printed on successive screens in short phrases. In the opening scene: Hitler's descent from the clouds to grace Nuremberg with his presence. He emerged from the plane's belly as ready to assume command as Athena who sprang full-grown and armor-clad from Zeus's head. Like a heavenly savior, Hitler arrived to rescue Germany and transform it into an eternal empire, a thousand-year Reich.

The events of the 1934 Reichsoarteitag were not explained for observer-participants. Instead they were swept along with Hitler's motorcade, awed by the spectacles of militaristic precision in the parades by day and the torchlight processions by night.

Triumph of the Will was lavish in its close-ups of handsome Nordic types. This visual reinforcement of racial identity was consistent with the work of racial anthropologists whose books teemed with photos of racial archetypes. Jacques Ellul identifies photographs and visual images as important to propaganda efforts because their physical presence renders a stereotype immediate and lifelike.

The Panzerkampfwagen I was the first German tank developed after 1933. Design of the Panzer I began in 1932 and mass production began in 1934. Under the Treaty of Versailles, the German army wasn't allowed to have any tanks when Hitler came to power. The first public showing of the new Panzer I tank happened in 1935 when an eight tank wide row of Panzer I tanks thundered across the parade ground at the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally, the Reichsparteitag. It announced to the world that the deception was over.