The Swastika rising as The new Sun over germany

c. 1938

Concerning the importance of imagery and the swastika, Hitler stated in Mein Kampf:

“The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the people through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the true psychological form that arrests the attention and appeals to the heart of the nation’s masses.”

For the Third Reich, 1938 proved to be a pivotal year during which Hitler, five years into his ascendency as Nazi Germany’s supreme leader, could do no wrong. His prophetic pronouncements and tactical successes garnered new territory and the ever-growing zeal of the German public.

Through various machinations, aided by Himmler and Göring, Hitler’s opponents in the military were forced from their positions, with lackeys taking their place and the Wehrmacht coming under his control as minister of war and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. After the murder of Austrian political opponents, German troops marched into Austria on 12 March. These actions met overwhelming Austrian public support, with 98.9 per cent of the 4,484,475 Austrian electorate voting to merge with Germany.

On 1 October 1938, more flowers of welcome were offered to German troops as they paraded into the Czech Sudetenland after Hitler’s sabre-rattling paid off again. Neither Britain nor France was prepared to go to war to protect Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, an area that was populated by some 3 million ethnic Germans. As a result of the 20 September 1938 Munich Agreement between Germany, Britain and France – which excluded Czechoslovakian participation – war was averted and promises of peace assured. Hitler was handed another uncontested victory, further fuelling his plans for aggression, and on 15 March he struck again at Czechoslovakia, devouring the rest of the country.

When Britain and France realised Hitler’s plans for further aggression, they agreed to declare war if Germany should attack Poland. However, the Molotov-rippentrop Pact opened the door to a mutual invasion of Poland by

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. They duly carved their way into the country, first Germany on 1 September 1939, then Red Army forces on the 17th of the month. As Poland fell to the onslaught from the west and east, Britain and France lived up to their agreement, declaring war against Nazi Germany.

As German successes mounted, including the occupation of Norway in April, Hitler’s attention turned to Germany’s long-time foe, the French. As German U-boats wrought havoc against British shipping, coordinated armoured and aircraft assaults were launched against Belgium and the Netherlands in May 1940. By 20 May German forces reached the French coast at Dunkirk, and Paris was occupied on 14 June.

The six-week campaign against France was over by 21 June with the signing of an armistice in the same train car in which the Germans had signed their surrender at the end of World War I, and revenge against the humiliating defeat in the previous war was accomplished.

Celebrating the past two years of victory, Berlin hosted a massive parade on 19 July 1940. A few weeks later, in August, Hitler had already made ready his invasion of the USSR, his prime and primal enemy. There was a delay – a fatal one – when Mussolini, Germany’s

Axis ally, blundered into the Balkans, where the Greeks threw back the Italians in disarray. In response Hitler sent forces to rescue the situation, postponing his Russian timetable from mid-may to late June. The loss of several weeks of summer weather resulted in Russia’s eternal comrade ‘General Winter’ taking its first toll on Hitler’s plans, preventing another quick and devastating military victory.

“THE ART OF PROPAGANDA CONSISTS PRECISELY IN BEING ABLE TO AWAKEN THE IMAGINATION OF THE PEOPLE THROUGH AN APPEAL TO THEIR FEELINGS” – Adolf Hitler