http://www.naderlibrary.com/LM.triumphofwillscreen.htm[Transcribed from the movie by Tara Carreon, The Ralph Nader Library Librarian]
English Language Translations: Peter B. Gushue, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia and Anthony R. Santoro, Ph.D.; Identifications: Anthony R. Santoro, Ph.D.
Triumph of the Will
The Document of the Reich Party Day 1934
Commissioned by order of the Fuhrer
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
On the 5th of September 1934 ...
20 years after the outbreak of the World War ...
16 years after the beginning of Germany's suffering ...
19 months after the beginning of the German Rebirth ...
Adolf Hitler flew again to Nuremberg to review his faithful followers.
The "old city" or Nuremberg
Motorcade from the airport to the Hotel Deutscher Hof
A bouquet for the Fuhrer
Arrival at the Hotel Deutscher Hof
Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler (Hitler's SS Bodyguard Regiment)
Band serenade and night rally in front of Hitler's hotel
Hitler Youth and German Youth encampment outside the city of Nuremberg
March past of farmers in traditional costume and presentation of the harvest to Hitler
Hitler and Dr. Robert Ley, Reichsleiter and Head of The German Labor Front (DAF-Deutsche Arbeitsfront) ...
review ranks of Labor Front men
Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer
Viktor Lutz, SA Obergruppenfuhrer and Chief of Staff of the Storm Troopers (SA - Sturmabteilungen) ...
succeeding Ernst Rohm
Dr. Josef Goebbels, Reich Minister of People Enlightenment and Propaganda and Gauleiter of Berlin
Baldur Von Schirach, Reichsjudendfuhrer (Reich Youth Leader)
Congress Hall of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party)
Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer
I open the Congress of the Sixth Party Day ...
in respectful public memory of ...
General Field Marshal and Reich President Von Hindenburg ...
who has passed into Eternity.
The General Field Marshal is remembered as the first soldier of the Great War.
And thoughts as well to our fallen comrades.
I greet the high representatives of foreign states ...
who by their presence are participating in this day for their political parties.
In sincere friendship the greeting of the Movement is extended ...
especially to the representatives of the Armed Forces here, now under the orders of the Fuhrer!
My Leader:
Around you stand the flags and standards of this National Socialism.
Only when they are threadbare ...
will the people be able to understand ...
by hindsight, the greatness of our time ...
because of what you, my Leader, mean to Germany!
You are Germany!
When you act, the Nation acts.
When you judge, the People judge.
Our thanks is the vow to stand with you ...
in good days and bad ...
come what may!
Reich Minister Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels
Thanks to your leadership, Germany will be attainable as the homeland.
Homeland for all Germans in the world.
To us you were the guarantor of victory.
To us you are the guarantor of peace!
Adolf Hitler: Hail Victory!
Hail Victory! Hail Victory!
From the proclamation of the Fuhrer read by Wagner
Adolf Wagner, Gauleiter of Munich Upper Bavaria Adolf Bavarian Interior Minister & SA-Obergruppenfuhrer
No revolution that seems to be permanent ...
can lead to anything other than complete anarchy.
So the World will not live at war.
So also the people do not live on revolution.
Nothing on this earth that has lasted for thousands of years ...
was assembled in mere decades.
The largest tree also has the longest period of growth.
What braves the centuries ...
will also be strong through the centuries.
Alfred Rosenberg, Reichsleiter and later Reich Minister for annexed Eastern Territories
It is our unshakeable belief in ourselves ...
that is our hope for the youth ...
to carry on the work which has been put before them in the stormy years ...
of the revolt of 1918 in Munich ...
and which is already part of the entire German nation's history.
Dr. Otto Dietrich, Reichsleiter and Reich Press Chief in Ministry of People Enlightenment and Propaganda
Truth is the foundation ...
on which the power of the press stands in the world.
And that it reports the truth about Germany ...
is the only demand that we place on the foreign press.
Dr. Fritz Todt, Reich General Inspector of Highways and Construction and Minister of Armaments and Munitions
As I speak, work on the Reich Autobahn has begun at 51 locations.
Although this work is in its early stage ...
today there are already 52,000 men on the job ...
and another 100,000 ...
engaged in the work of allied industries.
Fritz Reinhardt, State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Finance and SA Obergruppenfuhrer
Wherever we look, all around there is building ...
and new creations ...
and activity and life ...
which will continue into the future.
Richard-Walther Darre, Reich Agricultural Leader, Head of Central Office of Race and Resettlement
Maintaining the health of our farmers is the primary foundation ...
for the prosperity of industry ...
for German business and for foreign exports.
Julius Streicher, Gauleiter of Upper Franconia and Editor of "Der Sturmer"
A people that does not protect the purity of its race, goes to seed!
Dr. Robert Ley, Reichsleiter and Head of the German Labor Front (DAF - Deutsche Arbeitsfront)
All our work must be dictated by a single thought --
that the German worker ...
be made an upright, proud and equally entitled national comrade.
Dr. Hans Frank, Reichs Minister of Justice and later Governor General of occupied Poland
As the Leader of the German legal service ...
I can say that, clearly, the basis of the National Socialist State ...
is the Nationalist Socialist Law Code.
And for us our highest leader is also the highest judge!
We know how sacred the principles of these laws are to our Fuhrer.
These Reich laws can assure you, National Comrades ...
that your life and existence is safe in this National Socialist State of Order, Freedom and Law.
Dr. Josef Goebbels, Reich Minister of People Enlightenment and Propaganda, Gauleiter of Berlin ...
and later General Plenipotentiary for Total War
May the bright flame of our enthusiasm never be extinguished.
It alone gives light and warmth ...
to the creative art of modern political propaganda.
This comes from the depths of the People ...
and from these depths of the people ...
it must always again find its roots and its strength.
It may be good to possess power based on strength ...
but it is better to win and hold the heart of a People.
Konstantin Hierl, Reichsarbeitsfuhrer, Head of the German Labor Service
Today, the German people are spiritually and soulfully ready ...
to undertake their obligation in the general Labor Service.
We have the Fuhrer's orders!
Reich Labor Service Review before Hitler
My Leader:
I wish to present 52,000 RAD men for your inspection.
Hail, Men of the Labor Service!
Shoulder spades!
Spades at ease!
Here we stand.
We are ready ...
to carry Germany into a new era.
Germany!
Comrade, where do you come from?
From Friesenland
And you, Comrade?
From Bavaria
And you?
From Kaiserstuhl
And you?
From Pomerania
And from Konigsberg
From Silesia
From the seacoast
From the Black Forest
From Dresden
From the Danube
From the Rhine
And from the Saar
One People!
One Leader!
One Reich!
Germany!
Today we work together ...
in the swamp.
We work in the swamp.
And in the sand.
We dam the North Sea.
We plant trees.
We build roads ...
from town to town, and city to city.
We provide the farmer with new soil ...
forests and fields, land and bread ...
for Germany.
We didn't stand in the trenches.
Nor were we under the shell fire of grenades ...
and still we are soldiers.
Sharpen the hammers ...
axes, pick axes and spades!
We are the Reich's young manhood!
As once at Langemarck ...
at Tannenberg ...
before Luttich (Liege) ...
before Verdun ...
on the Somme ...
on the Ahne ...
in Flanders ...
in the West ...
in the East ...
in the South ...
on land, on water, and in the clouds.
Comrades, who were shot by the Red Front and Reactionaries ...
You are not dead!
You live in Germany!
My Labor Service Men.
For the first time you are presented for review in this forum ...
before me and before the German people.
You represent a great idea ...
and we know that for millions of our national comrades ...
physical labor will no longer be a divisive concept.
But it will instead bind us together and, furthermore ...
no longer will it be the case in Germany ...
that physical labor will be seen as anything less ...
than any other work.
The whole nation passes through your school.
The time will come when no German ...
can be admitted into the community of the people ...
until he has first become a member of your group.
And you know that today you are not only being seen ...
by the thousands in Nuremberg, but by all of Germany ...
which also sees you here for the first time today.
And I know that just as you serve this Germany proudly ...
all of Germany today will see its sons marching in you with proud joy!
Viktor Lutze, S.A. Chief of Staff at SA Night Rally
Hail Victory! Hail Victory! Hail Victory!
Comrades.
Many of you here tonight knew me ...
as an SA man ...
marching in the rank and file ...
in the first years of the Movement.
And Party Comrades, just as I was an SA man then ...
so I am still an SA man today!
We SA workers will always be true only to the Fuhrer ...
and fight for the Fuhrer.
Hitler Youth and German Youth Rally at the German Stadium
Hitler and Baldur von Schirach, Reich Youth Leader
Reich Minister Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels
Martin Bormann, Secretary to the Fuhrer and Head of the Party Chancellory ...
SS Adjutant Schaub, Hitler, SA - Adjutant Bruckner
Hitler and Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess
Hitlerjugend Marsch (The Hitler Youth March -- Adolf Hitler to Thee)
Baldur Von Schirach, Reichjugendfuhrer (Reich Youth Leader)
My Leader!
My Comrades!
We live again for this hour which makes us proud and happy.
According to your command, my Leader, a youth stands here ...
a youth that knows neither class nor caste.
The young generation of our people follows after you.
Just as you demonstrate the highest self-sacrifice in this Nation ...
so does this youth wish to be selfless.
Because you embody the concept of fidelity for us ...
therefore we wish to be faithful.
Adolf Hitler, the Leader of German Youth, attention!
My German youth.
After one year I can greet you again here.
You standing here today represent something ...
that is happening all over Germany.
And we want that you, German boys and girls ...
will absorb everything that we wish for Germany.
We want to be one people ...
and through you, to become this people.
We want a society with neither castes nor ranks.
And you must not allow these ideas to grow within you.
We want to see one Reich!
And you must educate yourselves for this.
We want this people to be obedient ...
and you must practice obedience in yourselves.
We want this people to be peace-loving ...
but at the same time to be courageous.
And you must for that reason, be both peace-loving ...
You must be both peace-loving and strong.
We want this people not to become soft ...
but to become hard and, therefore ...
you must steel yourselves for this in your youth.
You must learn sacrifice ...
and also never to collapse.
Whatever we create today ...
whatever we do ...
will all pass away ...
but in you Germany will live on.
And when we can no longer hold ...
the flag that we tore from nothing ...
you must hold it firmly in your fists!
And I know that it cannot be any other way ...
as we bind ourselves together.
For you are flesh of our flesh and blood from our blood!
The same spirit that governs us ...
burns in your young minds.
And when the great columns of the movement ...
sweep through Germany today ...
then I know that you will close ranks ...
and we know that Germany lies in front of us ...
Germany marches within us ...
and Germany follows behind us!
Air Marshal (later Reichsmarschal) Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Hitler ...
and Minister of War General Werner Von Blomberg, review units of the Reichswehr
Ride by the 18th Cavalry Regiment and modern armored cars and gun caissons of the Reichwehr
Night Rally of Political Leaders
Architect Albert Speer's "Sea of Flags" ...
and "Cathedral of Lights" on Zeppelin Field.
A year ago ...
we met for the first time on this field,
the first general review of political leaders ...
of the National Socialist Party.
200,000 men have assembled here.
They are not here at the summons of their hearts alone ...
but also at the summons of their loyalty.
It was the great calamity of our people that drove us to the struggle ...
brought us together ...
and left us greater.
Those who do not understand ...
have not experienced the same calamities among their people.
These things appear enigmatic and mysterious ...
that hundreds of thousands would be led to assemble ...
amidst calamity and passion.
Others cannot understand ...
that this is not an order of the State!
They are deceiving themselves!
The State does not order us!
We order the State!
The State did not create us!
Rather we created our own State!
No, the movement lives ...
and it is grounded hard and fast.
And as long as one of us can draw a breath ...
he will give his strengths to the movement ...
just as it was in yesteryear.
Then drum will join drum ...
flag will join flag ...
group will join group. Gau to Gau ...
and after that, this earlier divided people ...
will follow these sacred columns of the Nation.
It would be an outrage if we were to lose ...
what we have fought for ...
with so much labor, so much worry ...
so much sacrifice, and so many privations.
One cannot live faithfully and give up ...
what has given meaning and purpose to one's entire life.
That would not be so ...
if it were not a cardinal command.
And no earthly power gave us that command.
For the God, our God, who created our people, gave us that command!
So it is our vow this evening ...
that each hour, on every day ...
to think only of Germany of the People and Reich ...
and of our German nation!
To the German people! Hail Victory! Hail Victory!
Review of SA and SS and Commemoration of the recent death on August 2, 1934 ...
of Reichsprasident and General Feldmarshall Paul von Hindenburg
Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuhrer-SS and Chief of the German Police, Hitler, and Viktor Lutze, Stabchef-SA
SA, NSKK, and SS Party formations offer an oath of fealty to Adolf Hitler.
Viktor Lutze, Storm Troopers (SA) Chief of Staff
My Fuhrer (My Leader):
Just as we have always done our duty to you in the past ...
so too in the future, we await your orders alone.
And we, Comrades, know only to obey ...
the orders of our Fuhrer ...
and to prove that we have remained true to the Fuhrer.
Our Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.
Hail Victory! Hail Victory!
SA and SS men.
A few months ago ...
a dark shadow cast itself across our Movement.
The SA and other institutions of the Party ...
had nothing whatsoever to do with this shadow.
They who would believe that a rift has opened in the unity of the Movement ...
deceive themselves.
It stands fast as this block here ...
and nothing in Germany will break it.
And when anyone does harm to the spirit of my SA ...
then the SA will not be harmed ...
but those who do this harm ...
will injure only themselves!
And only a fool or a known liar ...
could think ...
that I would ever disband an organization ...
that took us so many years to build.
My Comrades ...
we stand fast together for our Germany ...
and we must stand fast together for this Germany.
And I hand to each of you the new insignia ...
placing them with confidence ...
in the hands that I see as the most trustworthy there are in Germany.
For in the past you have proven your loyalty to me a thousand times.
In the time to come, it cannot and will not be any different.
And so I greet you as my old, faithful SA and SS men!
Hail Victory! Hail! Hail! Hail!
Honor gun salute of the army to the Party standards
Hitler presents new colors for the assembled Party formations ...
touching each new flag to the Blutfahne, the "Blood Banner" ...
carried by SS-Standartenfuhrer Jakob Grimminger ...
the same man who carried this flag during the abortive Munish putsch of 1923
Hitler's grand review of all paramilitary formations of the NSDAP ...
in Adolf Hitler Platz in front of the Frauenkirche (the Church of Our Lady)
March past of SA Honor Guard units led by Viktor Lutze
Salute of Julius Streicher, Gauleiter of Nuremberg Upper Franconia
Parade of the "Storm Flags"
Grand Admiral Eric Raeder
Hermann Goring in SA uniform
SA Stabchef (SA-Chief of Staff) Viktor Lutze
Hermann Goring and ...
Rudolf Hess take the salute
Max Amann, Reichsleiter in charge of the NSDAP press
Walter Buch, Reichsleiter and Chief Judge of the NSDAP Court
Viktor Lutze, SA Chief of Staff
Dr. Robert Ley, Reichsleiter and Head of the German Labor Front
Gauleiter of Munich and Upper Bavaria and SA-Obergruppenfuhrer Adolf Wagner
Alpine units of the SA Storm Troopers
General Franz Xavier Ritter von Epp, NSDAP Reichsleiter and Reichsstathalter (Governor) of Bavaria
Reich Air Defense League march past
Old Guard SA Feldhermhalle Regiment march past
NSKK (National Socialist Transportation Corps) march past
Gau Standard Bearers march past
Adolf Hitler Platz in the old city center
Reichsarbeitsdienst-RAD (Reich Labor Service) march past
Senior army, police and political officers, including Lieutenant General (later General Field Marshall) ...
Gerd von Rundstedt, salute the Reich Labor Service men in their march past the Fuhrer
Konstantin Hierl, Reichsleiter and Reichsarbeitsfuhrer (Reich Labor Service Leader - RAD)
Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels
Band of the SS (Schutzstaffel) Elite Guard
Obergruppenfuhrer -- SS Julius Schaub, Hitler's personal SS-Adjutant
Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuhrer-SS, leads the march past of the SS
Obergruppenfuhrer-SS Sepp Dietrich, Commander of Hitler's personal bodyguard ...
the Leibstandante SS Adolf Hitler (SS Bodyguard Regiment Adolf Hitler)
Reichsfuhrer-SS Heimlich Himmler salutes the Fuhrer
Willy Liebel, Lord Mayor (Oberburgermeister) of Nuremberg
Himmler and Hitler take the salute of the Leibstandarte - SS Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer's personal bodyguard regiment
Franz Xavier Schwartz, Reichsleiter, National Treasurer of the NSDAP, and SS-Oberst-Gruppenfuhrer
Hitler Youth boy and family watch the parade from an upper story
Crowd anticipates the march past of Hitler's personal bodyguard regiment, the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler
Band of the Leibstandante-SS Adolf Hitler
March past of the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler to Hitler's favorite march, the Badenweiler Marsch
Color guard of the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler, carrying the Fuhrer's personal standard
Army Chief of Staff General Werner von Blomberg ...
gives military salute to the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler units
The parade step of the "Black Guards," the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler
Closing Ceremonies of the Parteltag (Party Day) week of events in the Nuremberg Congress Hall
SS-Standartenfuhrer Jakob Grimminger, carries the Blutfahne (Blood Flag) ...
into the Congress Hall for the closing ceremonies
Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess at the Podium
The Fuhrer speaks:
The Sixth Party Day of the Movement has come to an end.
What appeared like a show of political strength ...
for millions of Germans outside of our ranks.
For hundreds of thousands of fighters ...
it was ultimately more.
The great personal and spiritual meeting ...
of the old fighters and comrades in struggle.
And, perhaps, a cross section of you ...
despite the forced civility of this review of our Party ...
will return with courageous hearts
to the days in which it was difficult to be a National Socialist.
When our Party consisted of only seven members ...
it already had two principles.
First, it would be a Party with a true ideology.
And second, it would be uncompromisingly ...
the one and only power in Germany.
We had to remain in the minority, because we mobilized ...
the most valuable elements of struggle and sacrifice in the Nation ...
which have always been not in the majority, but rather in the minority.
And because these are the racially best of the German nation ...
they can in the proudest self-esteem ...
claim the leadership of the Reich and the people.
The German people ...
and subordinated itself to this leadership in ever-growing numbers!
The German people is happy ...
in the knowledge that a constantly changing vision ...
has been replaced by a fixed pole!
Whoever feels that he is the carrier of the best blood ...
and knowingly uses it to attain the leadership ...
will never relinquish it!
Ludwig Muller, Reichsbischof (Reich Bishop of the United German Evangelist Church)
There is always a part of the people who stand out as really active fighters ...
and more is expected from them than from the millions of national comrades in the general population.
For them it is not simply enough to make the pledge: "I believe!"
Rather, the affirmation: "I fight!"
For all time to come the Party will be the source of political leadership for the German people.
It will in its teaching ...
and was ultimately in its organization hard as steel ...
malleable in its tactics and adaptable in its entirety.
yet it will be a training school like a holy order for political leaders.
It must be shown, however, that all upstanding Germans become Nationalist Socialists.
Only the best Nationalist Socialists, however, are Party Comrades!
Once, our enemies worried us and persecuted us and, from time to time ...
removed the lesser elements from the Movement for us.
Today we must examine ourselves and remove from our midst the elements that have become bad.
And therefore, do not belong with us!
It is our wish and will ...
that this State and this Reich last for a thousand years.
We can be happy to know that this future belongs entirely to us!
When the older ones among us falter ...
the youth will stiffen and remain until their bodies decay.
Only then, if we in the Party with our most obedient dedication ...
become the highest embodiment of National Socialist thought and being ...
then the Party will materialize ...
into an eternal and indestructible pillar of the German people and Reich.
Then our glorious and laudable Army ...
the old, proud, standard bears of our people ...
who are equally tradition minded ...
will champion the Political Leadership and the Party.
And then these two institutions will equally educate the German man ...
and, therefore, strengthen and carry on their shoulders ...
the German State, the German Reich!
At this hour, tens of thousands of our Party Comrades are already leaving the City.
While many of them relive the meeting in their memories ...
still others are already planning the next review.
And again the people come and go and they will be engrossed anew and happy ...
and inspired, for the idea and the Movement live on in our people ...
and with the Movement are symbol of eternity!
Long live the National Socialist Movement!
Long live Germany!
Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess at the Podium
The Party is Hitler!
But Hitler is Germany, as Germany is Hitler!
Hitler: Hail Victory! Hail Victory!
"The Horst Wessel Song"
the NSDAP hymn and unofficial German National Anthem after Deutschland Uber Alles.
Raise the banner
The columns are closed tightly
The SA marches with a peaceful strong step
Comrades shot by the Red Front and the Reactionaries
March in spirit together in our columns
Comrades shot by the Red Front and the Reactionaries
march in spirit together in our columns.
THE END