1944 German Football Championship Final

Video size: 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) - 39.3 MB
Date: Sunday, 18 June 1944
Place: Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany
Cameraman: unknown

The 1944 German football championship, the 37th edition of the competition, was won by Dresdner SC, the club defending its 1943 title by defeating Luftwaffe team LSV Hamburg in the final, which were held on 18 June 1944.

The final years of the German Championship during the war saw many military teams compete in the championship, Luftwaffe teams, Luftwaffensportvereine, short LSV, and, Wehrmacht teams, Wehrmachtssportvereine, short WSV, became very competitive.

Dresden's Helmut Schön, who would later coach Germany to the 1974 FIFA World Cup, became the top scorer of the 1944 championship with 14 goals, the second-highest individual amount of any player in the history of the competition from 1903 to 1963.

It was the last edition of the tournament during the Second World War, with the competition not being held again until 1948. The thirty-one 1943–44 Gauliga champions, two more than in the previous season, competed in a single-leg knock out competition to determine the national champion.

Dresdner SC became the last club to be awarded the Viktoria, the annual trophy for the German champions from 1903 to 1944. The trophy disappeared during the final stages of the war, did not resurface until after the German reunification and was put on display at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt until 2015, when it was moved to the new Deutsches Fußballmuseum in Dortmund.


Source :
Die Deutsche Wochenschau No. 720 - 21 June 1944
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-DzDJmt5F8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944_German_football_championship

Hermann Göring Visit "Der Sieg im Westen" Exhibition

Image size: 1600 x 1159 pixel. 550 KB
Date: Monday, 18 November 1940
Place: Heldenplatz, Vienna, Ostmark (Austria)
Artist: Unknown

This photo was taken on 18 November 1940, and it shows Nazi and Wehrmacht officials as guests at the Wehrmacht exhibition entitled "Der Sieg im Westen" (Victory in the West), which were held at Heldenplatz, Vienna, Ostmark (Austria). This exhibition features a series of propaganda relating to the resounding victories of German troops in the invasion of France and the Lower Countries a few months earlier. The identification of the persons pictured here are, front row from left to right: Hugo Jury (Gauleiter Reichsgau Niederdonau und Reichsstatthalter Niederösterreich), Baldur von Schirach (Gauleiter und Reichsstatthalter Reichsgau Wien), Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe), and Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List (Oberbefehlshaber 12. Armee). Some additional identification: in the back row between Jury and Schirach is Character als Generalmajor Edmund Glaise-Horstenau (General z. B.V. beim Oberkommando der Wehrmacht); whose head blocked by Göring is SS-Gruppenführer Dr.jur. Ernst Kaltenbrunner (Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Donau); between Göring and List is General der Kavallerie Eberhard von Mackensen (Chef des Generalstabes 12. Armee); and at the far right behind List is Generalleutnant Hans Graf von Sponeck (Kommandeur 22. Luftlande-Infanterie-Division).

Source :

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=1385037#p1385037

https://ww2colorfarbe.blogspot.com/2020/08/goring-at-wehrmacht-exhibition.html

Food Negotiations Between German and the Canadians

Image size: 1600 x 1205 pixel. 403 KB
Date: Monday, 30 April 1945
Place: Achterveld, Netherlands
Photographer: Ernest DeGuire

Food negotiations begin. German and Canadian negotiators arrive at a schoolhouse, where they secretly discuss supplying food to the starving Dutch people still in German-held areas. While 2nd Corps of the 1st Canadian Army was crossing the Rhine River in late March 1945, 1st Corps was on a massive redeployment from the Italian front — through the Mediterranean and up through the south of France — to join the 1st Canadian Army advance into Germany and The Netherlands. Moving into northern Netherlands the Canadians effectively cut off the 117,000 German troops in western Holland, leaving them with no means of escape. The Germans were defeated and the exhausted Canadian soldiers could see the end. Nobody wanted to be the last man killed in this war in the cold bleak months of early 1945. But the occupying Germans were still fighting, and the occupied Dutch were still suffering serious privation under them. The oppressors had flooded the farmlands of western Netherlands and blockaded food and supplies to civilians. The abject neglect of the Dutch by the occupying Germans caused the death of at least 18,000 civilians in the terrible famine known as the Hunger Winter. The picture was taken by Ernest DeGuire on 30 April 1945 at Achterveld, Netherlands.

Source :
http://www.mapleleafup.ca/ve1.html

Ritterkreuz Award Ceremony of Wilhelm Knetsch at Stalingrad

Image size: 1600 x 1111 pixel. 376 KB
Date: Thursday, 15 October 1942
Place: Stalingrad, Soviet Union
Photographer: Unknown

Major Wilhelm Knetsch (Kommandeur Infanterie-Regiment 545 / 389.Infanterie-Division) receives the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knight’s Cross of the Iron Crosses) from General der Panzertruppe Friedrich Paulus (Oberbefehlshaber 6. Armee). Stalingrad, 15 October 1942. Knetsch already received the radio news about his award from 8 October 1942. During the attack on Stalingrad, Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Knetsch (26 February 1906 - 27 March 1982) was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold and the Ritterkreuz with a fortnight of each other, and the proud Paulus said that Knetsch was the best battalion commander in his entire army! Because of a severe illness, on 15 November 1942 he left the Stalingrad cauldron.

Source :

"Winter Storm: The Battle for Stalingrad and the Operation to Rescue 6th Army" by Hans Wijers

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68997

Reception of Leading NS Officers by Adolf Hitler

Image size: 1600 x 1056 pixel. 226 KB
Date: Tuesday, 1 August 1944
Place: Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze, Rastenburg, Ostpreußen/East Prussia
Photographer: Unknown

Reception of leading NS (National-Socialist) officers by Adolf Hitler, 1 August 1944. In his headquarters Hitler receives a number of leading national-socialist officers from Wehrmacht (Armed Forces). He is seen here during the welcoming with Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel (Chef des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht), SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Linge (persönliche Ordonnanz Hitlers), SS-Obergruppenführer Julius Schaub (Chefadjutant des Führers Adolf Hitler) and General der Gebirgstruppe Georg Ritter von Hengl (Chef des NS-Führungsstabes im Oberkommando des Heeres). Hengl was awarded the Military Order of Max Joseph and was an Observation Officer of the Flying Corps during the First World War. On 7 May 1945 Kampfgruppe Hengl (Battle Group Hengl) had their last combats against the advancing U.S. forces at the Wilder Kaiser. He is the recipient of both Deutsches Kreuz in Gold #587/3 (20 June 1944 as General der Gebirgstruppe and Kommandierender General XIX. Gebirgs-Korps) and Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes #449 (Oberstleutnant and Kommandeur Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 137)

Source:

Fotos aus dem Führerhauptquartier - Hermann Historica München

Schwertern Award Ceremony For Rainer Stahel

Image size: 1600 x 1064 pixel. 205 KB
Date: Tuesday, 1 August 1944
Place: Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze, Rastenburg, Ostpreußen/East Prussia
Photographer: Unknown

Presentation of the Schwertern zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub (Oak Leaves and Swords of the Knight's Cross) #79 to Generalleutnant Rainer Stahel (15 January 1892 - 30 November 1955) that held in Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze, Rastenburg, 1 August 1944. As a Generalmajor and Kommandant Fester Platz Wilna (commanding officer of the stronghold at Vilnius), he was responsible for tying down large enemy forces so, on 18 July 1944, was awarded the Swords and promoted to Generalleutnant. While commanding operations in Bucharest (Rumania) he fell into Russian captivity. In 1955, he died in Russian Gulag from a heart attack as news of his release was broken to him! Also present in this picture: Generaloberst Heinz Guderian (Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen und Chef des Generalstabes des Heeres) and Oberst Nicolaus von Below (Luftwaffen-Adjutant der "Adjutantur der Wehrmacht beim Führer und Reichskanzler").

Source:

Fotos aus dem Führerhauptquartier - Hermann Historica München