Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday was celebrated on April 20th, 1939 in Berlin. A large-scale parade helped kick-start the occasion. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, as would be the case in Nazi Germany when celebrating their Führer’s birthday called “Führerweather”.
This whole concept of celebrating a leader’s birthday in such a style seems very foreign to me because we do not have such occasions in the United States. We do celebrate our past heroes, but they have been dead for many years. In Nazi Germany, the nation would come together to honor a living “hero” that they all respected very much. For the most part, at least prior to the start of the Second World War, citizens appreciated everything that Hitler had done for them, bringing them from the devastating defeat in World War I and building up Nazi Germany into one of the strongest countries in Europe, both from a financial as well as from a military standpoint.
The entire birthday celebration was staged from the precise timing of the parade to detailed instructions for those attending. Therefore, there needed to be a great deal of military personnel on hand to ensure everything ran smoothly. In addition, airspace was under tight control and roads were to be closed for most of the day, so spectators could secure a spot to view the festivities.
Two million bystanders as well as 50,000 military members joined together to celebrate this “holiday”. I find it difficult to call it a holiday due to the fact that birthdays in our culture aren’t holidays. You don’t see President Obama on his birthday arrange for a grand celebration; you see him continue to work hard to ensure America is safe from foreign threats. By no means am I a Democrat, I just wanted to illustrate an example. The only place I could potentially see this happening today would be North Korea, but even then it is hard to imagine.
As like any other major event, there was an abundance of cheering for the one everyone wanted to see. It is crazy to think that this event took place a few months before the invasion of Poland, later in 1939. This celebration brought the country together, obviously there were some who disliked the Nazi Party, but it was unknown that another long, arduous World War would soon begin. Once World War II began, it was anyone’s guess when peace would finally be restored.