One of the few surviving images of the Sportpalast (or, Totaler Krieg) speech of 1943. Goebbels' audience had been handpicked for their fanaticism and ability to produce noise. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1943, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered a speech to an attentive crowd at the Sportpalast arena in Berlin. Prior to…
Tag: Germany
02/13 – The Bombing of Dresden
An RAF bomber during a sortie over Germany during WWII. (History.com) On this day in 1945, over 1,200 Allied bomber aircraft took to the skies for an attack on Dresden, an industrial city in Eastern Germany. That night, the first of four sorties (missions) began and, over the next 48 hours, 3,900 tonnes of incendiary…
11/08 – The Munich Beer Hall Putsch
NSDAP agitators in what we now consider "classic Nazi" attire during the failed uprising at the Marienplatz. (source: Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1923 members of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Worker's Party, or Nazis) staged the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. Inspired by Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini's successful march on Rome, Nazi leader…