This album of photographs includes pictures from the Gautag of Gau Essen that took place exactly 91 years ago on 30 October 1932. Adolf Hitler also spoke at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund on this day as part of the 1932 election campaign. There are also photos from Josef Terboven‘s wedding, the Gauleiter of Essen, and Hitler with his daughter Inga. Several highlights of Adolf Hitler’s many visits and speeches given at the Krupp factory located in Essen are also included.

The commemorative Gautag (District Day) badge issued for the Gau Essen district, dating to the October 1932 event. The tinnie featured a design of crossed hammers with a central sword. 

I have recently discovered a huge mystery surrounding the following group of photographs. Although Hitler is wearing the Gautag Essen badge in these photos, these photographs were actually taken three months earlier in the Swabian town of Kempten. These were taken at a campaign speech that was titled as the Hitlertage in Kempten. At 1:00 p.m. on 30 July 1932, Hitler delivered a thirty minute speech on the grounds of the Allgäuer Tierzuchthalle located at Kotterner Straße 54, now known as the Allgäuhalle in front of 18,000 listeners. The photographs were taken by Erwin Hefel, an Austrian photographer who had traveled up to Kempten from Feldkirch. In 1923 Hefel co-founded the first local group of the German-Austrian branch of the NSDAP and had risen to the leader of the SA in Feldkirch by 1936. The mystery still remains as to why he’s wearing the Essen badge on this day…

The following photographs and film footage appear to be from the Gautag Essen event, and yet it’s still very difficult to tell due to the confusion with the badge. If anyone can explain this badge mystery please let me know as it makes it very difficult to sort these photographs into the correct category…

Adolf Hitler’s speech on the Essen Gautag of 1932 took place in the Essen exhibition hall (Ausstellungs-Gebäude Halle) in front of 50,000 listeners with radio transmission to Wesel, Kleve, Mörs and Geldern. The old Essen exhibition hall was destroyed in WW2 bombing raids but stood where the current Messe Essen now stands in the Grugapark located southwest of the city center on Norbertstrasse 2.

Hitler also gave a speech in the städtischen Saalbau (municipal hall building), later Philharmonie in the Huyssenallee, in front of 6500 listeners on 22 November 1926. This rare film footage shows his arrival at the Essen Hauptbahnhof and later departing by car from the Hotel Vereinshaus wearing his leather driving cap. 

The Krupp family is a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, noted for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. Hitler had tried to gain entry to the Krupp factories back in 1929, but was rebuffed because Krupp felt he would see some of the secret armament work there and reveal it to the world. Bertha Krupp never liked Hitler, though she never complained when the company’s bottom line rose through the armaments contracts and production. She referred to him as “that certain gentleman” (Dieser gewisse Herr) and even pleaded illness when Hitler came on an official tour in 1934. Her daughter Irmgard acted as hostess to Hitler on that occasion.

Guest on the hill: Hitler with Bertha and Gustav Krupp around 1939 in the garden of the Villa Hügel in Essen. Hitler walks through the garden behind the house. Unlike previous guest Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Nazi leader was undesirable as an overnight guest because Bertha could not stand him.

On 7 August 1940 Hitler flew to Essen-Haarzopf from Berlin to visit the Krupp family on the occasion of German industrialist Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach’s birthday. Krupp’s 70th birthday party was held at Villa Huegel where Hitler presented him with special gifts of a chess set and the Golden Party Badge of the NSDAP.