Heinrich Himmler and SS Generals in Quedlinburg 1936

Image size: 1600 x 1169 pixel. 374 KB
Date: Thursday, 2 July 1936
Place: Quedlinburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

SS generals in M32 black SS uniform and M18 stahlhem. From left to right: Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Chef der SS und Deutschen Polizei), SS-Gruppenführer August Heißmeyer (Chef SS-Hauptamt), SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (Chef SD-Hauptamt), SS-Brigadeführer Karl Wolff (Chefadjudant der Reichsführer-SS), and SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Walther Darré (Chef Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt/RuSHA). The picture taken in Quedlinburg castle, 2 July 1936, in the 1000th anniversary of King Henry I the Fowler's death (German: Heinrich der Finkler or Heinrich der Vogler). During the Nazi regime, the memory of Henry I became a sort of cult, as Heinrich Himmler saw himself as the reincarnation of the "most German of all German" rulers. The Nazism ideology referred to Henry as a founding father of the German nation, fighting both the Latin Western Franks and the Slavic tribes of the East, thereby a precursor of the German "Drang nach Osten". For this purpose, the collegiate church and castle in Quedlinburg were to be turned into a shrine for Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party tried to create a new religion. The cathedral was closed from 1938 and during the war. Liberation in 1945 brought back the Protestant bishop and the church bells, and the Nazi style eagle was taken down from the tower. Georg Ay was local party chief from 1931 until the end of the war.

Source:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=83951&start=75