https://www.kaiserliche-schatzkammer.at/en/August 21^st, 2024

What does “Third Reich” mean and why did Hitler make it a propaganda slogan?

The National Socialists’ widespread use of propaganda to gain approval and ensure compliance is familiar to us. Few are those, however, who realize that the terminology of “Third” Reich, as well as “thousand-year Reich” became an effective element of Hitler’s bid for recognition as the builder of an empire, rather than merely the promoter of a political agenda. Here are excerpts from my new book “EXPOSING THE REICH” available on amazon.

Charlemagne’s Legacy

On Christmas Day of the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III, marking the beginning of the long history of the Holy Roman Empire. By the power of the sword, Charlemagne, also known as Emperor of the West, united a nu mber of peoples within his vast empire – notably the Saxons and Bavarians – but, at the same time, he rooted out paganism throughout his territories. He also expanded a reform program of the Church that helped to strengthen its power, advance the skills and moral quality of the clergy, standardize liturgical practices and improve the basic tenets of faith and morals.

Further down the road, Otto I was crowned German-Roman Emperor by the Pope in 962 and, from then on, the affairs of the German kingdom were intertwined with those of Italy and the papacy. Otto’s coronation as emperor resulted in designating German kings as successors to the former empire of Charlemagne and is considered the official beginning of the First German Reich.

The Holy Roman Empire formally went into dormancy in 1806 when the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a Habsburg, abdicated, following his military defeat by the French under Napoleon. Symbolically then, the Holy Roman Empire was born with the crowing of Charlemagne in the year 800 and expired one thousand years later, in 1806. Hitler exploited the long-lived history of the Holy Roman Empire – the First Reich – as a propaganda catchphrase: not only the “Third Reich”, but touting another “Thousand Year Reich” of Germanic power and glory.

The Priceless Imperial Regalia: The Right to Rule

The Imperial Regalia and imperial relics are of various origins and date from the 8^th to the 14^th centuries. They consisted of 28 objects that were safeguarded in Nuremberg for 350 years plus 3 items kept in Aachen, the city of the emperors’ coronation. Components of this secular treasure, as well as religious relics, were used as props during  the crowning of the Holy Roman Emperor and as a symbolic affirmation of both his worldly and “holy” authority.

During his eastward advance, Napoleon, one of history’s greatest plunderers, was eager to secure the Holy Roman Empire’s Imperial Regalia. When, in 1796,  Napoleon’s French troops crossed the Rhine, Nuremberg’s Imperial Regalia was hurriedly relocated further east, in Regensburg and then expedited on to Vienna in 1800.

During the Second German Reich (1871 – 1918) or Kaiserreich, the Hohenzollern Family, beginning with Emperor Wilhelm I, strove to lend the new empire historic weight as a linear succession to the “old empire”. This Wiederauferstehung des Reiches (resurrection of the empire) was also symbolized in the depiction of the Holy Roman Empire’s slightly modified crown in the coat of arms of the Second German Empire.

The Third Reich’s “Little Treasure Chest”

With its medieval history as an imperial city of the Holy Roman Emperors, as well as home to numerous German artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Adolf Hitler and National Socialist authorities chose to promote Nuremberg as “the most German of German cities”. For propaganda purposes, they also endeavored to showcase the Führer as the true keeper and heroic reformer of the ancient Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. No sooner had Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938, than the Imperial Regalia was repatriated from its Viennese stronghold back to Nuremberg. The transfer by armored train was carried out with much fanfare and theatrics as further proof of Hitler’s promise to right the wrongs that Germany had suffered in its past. More importantly, Hitler was seeking to inject the Third Reich with ‘historical’ value, thanks to the restoration to Germany of the most important symbols of power of the First Reich. As the event coincided with the Party rallies, the return of the regalia was exploited as that year’s rally theme. The Party rally’s brochure featured drawings of the crown, coronation robe and two swords of the Imperial Regalia, as well as a text suggestive of the association of the old and the new Reich.

After WWII, the US Armed Forces’ art commission decreed that all artwork and precious objects displaced during the National Socialist regime were to be returned to the location where they were prior to Hitler’s regime. For this reason, the Imperial Regalia were returned to Vienna and can be viewed up close in Vienna’s Imperial Treasury.

From “EXPOSING THE REICH: How Hitler Captivated and Corrupted the German People” by David Harper (available on amazon.com)

David Harper