The city of Breslau, now known as Wrocław, was the site of the 1938 Deutsches Turn- und Sportfest (German Gymnastic and Athletic Festival). Adolf Hitler attended the festival on the final day of the week long event on 31 July 1938. The festival also coincided with the 125th anniversary of the German Wars of Liberation against Napoleon, which provided historical context to promote a nationalist, expansionist message and the idea of a “Greater Germany”. Breslau was the capital of Silesia and had a strong association with the NSDAP movement in Germany since the early 1930’s. The city was home to the largest NSDAP headquarters in Eastern Germany, and Hitler visited Breslau on multiple occasions. In 1945, the city was declared a “Festung” (fortress), and Hitler’s order meant that Breslau was to be held against the advancing Soviets with no retreat or surrender, leading to significant destruction and transformation in the post-war period.
The Deutsches Turn- und Sportfest (German Gymnastics and Sports Festival) was the last big sporting event organized by the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen, the Sports governing body of the Third Reich. The venue was staged in July 1938 at the city’s Hermann Göring Stadium, later renamed “Stadion Olimpijski”. This highly nationalistic sports event was officially commemorating the 125th anniversary of the historical German Wars of Liberation against Napoleon and the first award of the Iron Cross in the city of Breslau itself in 1813.
The Sportfest was staged as a grand patriotic, expansionist occasion, illustrating the clamor for a Greater Germany to the public. This event gathered German athletes brought from many different parts of the world, like Argentina, South West Africa, Italy, the US and South Africa. It also became a gathering of representatives of German ethnic minorities, mainly from Eastern Europe (Siebenbürgen, Banat) who staged processions dressed in their colorful folkloric costumes, a display of the Nazi Drang nach Osten policies. Not only did sports competitions and athletes’ parades take place, but also numerous military, civil, and costume processions in the main streets of the city of Breslau.
The Hotel Monopol in Wrocław, then a part of Nazi Germany, was where Hitler stayed in Breslau and gave speeches, first from the window and then out of the balcony above the entrance, which was built especially for him in 1938.
Adolf Hitler was a guest of the Hotel Monopol, room 113, during the 1938 Turnfest. Here he waves from the balcony with Konrad Henlein to the crowd gathered on Świdnicka Street below.
Konrad Henlein was a gymnastics instructor and the head of the German gymnastics movement (Deutsche Turnbewegung) in Czechoslovakia from 1923 until 1933. Before 1923 he was already promoting Völkisch ideology in his local turner club. Henlein became an increasingly well known figure in the Sudetenland after club victories in a 1926 gymnastics competition in Prague. Henlein’s mentor Heinz Rutha, founder of the Turnerbund movement which promoted a youthful männerbund (male elite) of Führern (leaders) commanding unconditional loyalty, greatly influenced Henlein’s politics. In May 1931, Henlein was elected president of the supposedly apolitical Turnerbund, and it became more overtly völkisch and militaristic. The purpose of the Turnerbund became to indoctrinate its members into the Völkisch movement. In 1933 Henlein became the leader of the Sudeten-German Home Front (Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront), and on 24 April 1938 he demanded autonomy be granted for the Sudeten-German areas.
All 150,000 German athletes from across all parts of the world participated in a parade on the last day of the German sports festival. The occasion was especially significant for it was the first time that German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Konrad Henlein, Sudeten German leader, had appeared together. Hitler and Henlein watching the parade of athletes at Breslau, Poland on July 31, 1938.
Heinrich Hoffmann’s photo book “Hitler bei dem Deutschen Turn- und Sportfest in Breslau 1938” documented the events of the German Gymnastics and Sports Festival that took place from 27 to 31 July 1938 in Breslau. The main venue was the then Hermann-Göring-Stadion (formerly Schlesierkampfbahn) in the Leerbeutel sports park. The 18th Deutsche Turnfest happened to fall in time with the 5th German fighting games so the events were combined into one massive event. Germans from around the world came to the city to show off their skills to the Führer at the Hermann Göring Stadium (now the Olympic Stadium). The event took place with 150,000 active participants from ten countries and featured 70,000 participants in the final demonstration. The festival was one of the largest mass events of the Nazi era.
Deutsches Sängerbundesfest
The 12th annual German Singing League Festival (12. Deutsches Sängerbundesfest) held in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw in western Poland) in 1937 was a major gathering held from 28 July through 1 August and attracting participants from all around the world including an American delegation. It was hosted by Führer Adolf Hitler and State Minister of Propaganda Dr. Joseph Goebbels. It was also a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the German Singers’ Association in Breslau. Concerts took place at the Jahrhunderthalle (Centennial Hall, now a UNESCO Heritage Site), the Hermann-Göring-Stadion (now called the Olympic Stadium), and in the courtyard of the city castle. Many small choirs also performed on city squares and streets during the afternoons.
Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Gallery 