Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday on April 20, 1939 was his first one to be celebrated after the government of Nazi Germany declared that the Führer’s birthday was to become an official national holiday. Festivities took place in all municipalities throughout the country just as they had since 1933 and would continue until 1945. The events that were organized in Berlin by Joseph Goebbels were a lavish spectacle that Heinrich Hoffmann documented in his book titled “Ein Volk ehrt seinen Führer. Der 20. April 1939 im Bild” (A Nation Honors It’s Leader – 20 April 1939 in Pictures). The following series of postcards were also issued by Hoffmann in order to commemorate this momentous event.

“A PEOPLE HONORS IT’S LEADER” – APRIL 20th 1939 IN PICTURES

Heinrich Hoffmann’s photo book “Ein Volk ehrt seinen Führer” (“A People Honors It’s Leader”) highlights the celebrations of the 50th birthday of Adolf Hitler that occurred on April 20, 1939. Dozens of photos cover the events that took place on that special day, with people greeting Hitler from all over Germany, children visiting him at the Chancellery, and the presentation of gifts by the Third Reich’s upper echelon. The celebration had actually commenced on the evening before when Hitler arrived in a cavalcade of 50 white limousines along the four-mile East-West axis across Berlin, a newly built boulevard designed by Hitler’s favourite architect, Albert Speer, and was now thronged with a roaring crowd of thousands.

The highlight of the next days festivities included a vast military parade with 50,000 German troops taking part and 162 Luftwaffe airplanes flying overhead. The parade still remains one of the largest ever in history and served a duel purpose as a warning to Western powers of Nazi Germany’s military capabilities. The parade lasted for more than four hours, with 20,000 official guests attending along with several hundred thousand spectators being present.

“Unser Führer”

Unser Führer (Our Leader) was a 128 page special edition photo book published by Illustrierter Beobachter magazine for Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday, examining his life’s work with photo essays on subjects as diverse as the Builder of the Greater German Reich, the Leader of the NSDAP, the Man in the Brown Shirt, the Loyal Comrade, the Speaker, the Soldier, the Artist, the Provider of Work and Bread, the Highway Builder, the Friend of the Worker, the Friend of the Farmer, the Friend of Sports, the Educator of the Nation, the Statesman, and the Liberator of the Saarland, Rheinland, Austria and Sudetenland.