Adolph Hitler's public debut - August 2, 1914 - the Photograph of the Century

Adolph Hitler.  Hands down, "Der Fuhrer" is the most famous figure of the 20th Century.  His face, even in the crudest abstract form,  (a black-plastic comb under any nose), is still the most recognizable visage in the entire world. 

All through the month of August the news media salted the airwaves and the Internet with blaring reminders that August marks the 100th Anniversary of the start of the First World War.  I suspect most of junk reportage was ignored, as the public has been fixated on Gaza, the Ukraine, the I.S.I.S. Caliphate, and Ebola.  These past four weeks I planned to write an article on "the most remarkable photograph of the 20th Century" - the exact moment when Adolph Hitler was first photographed at a public event, and nobody recognized him or had any inkling of what he would become.  It was on the Odeonplatz in Munchen (Munich), August 2, 1914.  Hitler was just "a face in the crowd," joyously cheering the Declaration of War against Russia, and joining in the lusty outburst of German National songs.

This portrait, taken by Heinrich Hoffmann, was published in 1933.

This was how Hitler saw himself and how he wanted to be portrayed.

Below,  is one of a sequence of six photographs taken by Heinrich Hoffman, a Munich photographer.  Years later Hoffmann was hired as Hitler's personal photographer, and when his boss mentioned have been at the event Hoffman took the negatives into the lab and made poster-size enlargements. He was thrilled to discover that quite by chance he had recorded Hitler's face in the Bavarian crowd. It was a stunning find, and it was first published on March 12, 1932.  The photo was syndicated and appeared in an unknown number of periodicals and with sets of cigarette cards which are today in thousands of collections worldwide.  In the summer of 1914 Hitler was a complete unknown, but within the week he volunteered for the German Army and was soon in the thick of the fight.  An extraordinary man and I agree with George Will who dubbed the picture "the century's most remarkable photograph". 

Hoffmann was not alone covering the event.  Many German newspapers covered the event, as did at least one newsreel cameramen.  It was even featured in the Illustrated London News. I have collected over a dozen images of the crowd, taken in all four directions.  In addition I have found four different published versions of the shot printed in the 1930s,  in which Hitler is isolated in a circle or vignette.

THE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE CENTURY
In this photograph the citizens of Munich assemble in front of the Feldherrnhalle, a symbol of military prowess, to cheer the coming of a great war.  They don't yet understand that conflict will destroy their empire and brutally humble the Germanic tribes.  In that crowd is a loner, a man of intelligence but who lacks in the conventional graces, and who doesn't yet understand his own potential as a leader.  Postwar, he will be responsible for rebuilding and empowering his defeated Germany, and return annually to that very symbolic spot to perform the rituals of blood and honour intended to cleanse the stink of defeat.  The loner in the crowd on Aug. 2, 1914 was a man of destiny so potent in significance that a century after this photograph was taken there are writing men who seek their own notoriety in trying to debunk every aspect of Adolph Hitler's life - even to the petty extent of mocking this photograph. 

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT      

As everyone should know,  the modern German state and most of the Germanic people are still traumatized by the Nazi period of social, cultural and political domination.   Political correctness is expected, and few Germans today are capable of producing unbiased accounts of Adolph Hitler or the Third Reich. Some academics go so far as to make false claims which they cannot back up.  For decades the Hoffmann photograph was accepted by authoritative biographers and historians.  Then in December of 2010, the historian Gerd Krumeich, a man whom one London newspaper insisted is "recognized as Germany's greatest authority on World War 1", stepped forward and declared the photo a fake. His precise accusation was that Heinrich Hoffman had doctored the photo, inserting Hitler's face, for the purpose of helping him win an election.    The story spread like an infectious contagion because of course Hitler bashing is easy and fun, and it panders to the lazy mobs that cannot seem to find any 21st Century witches to burn.

Krumeich claimed that he had examined many variants of the Hoffmann photo and found minute differences, such as a lock of hair hanging in one and absent in others.  That is not surprising as  many prints were in circulation and were screened and tinted by individual printers. I include a vignette printed in 1933 as a collectable card. It is tinted in colours and a technician has touched up the moustache to give it more definition, but there are no substantial differences.  If Hitler had a hat, it was down at his side. He is not waving it in the air as many in the crowd were doing.  More to the point, Hitler had become a practiced politician, and he was hyper-vigilant of his image.  He spent hours in front of the mirror perfecting his body language and building a repertoire of facial gestures.  Heinrich Hoffmann had photographed his client's theatrics and he had a huge archive of images on file.  If he wanted to pull some photo-fakery he could have done a much better job, and he would have had the client looking at the camera, just as others standing next to Hitler are doing.  How obvious is that?

Everyone in the crowd understood they were witnessing history, and there were cameras recording faces from all points of the compass.   So what was Hitler looking at, while the other men are looking into Heinrich Hoffman's camera lens? 

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT

Hitler was intensely interested in the official proceedings - ie. the declaration of war.  He longed for war, and the joy on his face is very apparent.  He was at this point in his life disassociating himself with his native Austria, and would petition the government of the King of Bavaria for permission to join his army. Permission was in fact immediately granted.

The Bavarian State Library in Munich has many Hoffman images in its

online catalog, which it will gladly sell to publishers and film makers.

This one, "HOFF 4482" is offered without any editorializing about it

being faked or contrived. It is deemed an authentic record of German history.

The city of Munich was where Hitler found his courage, honed his iron will,  and developed his unique form of political brilliance. He was particularly enthralled by the historical symbolism of the Feldherrnhalle and after the war, when he began moulding the NSDAP, he would annually meet with Nazi recruits in the Odeonplatz for oath-taking pageantry which was highly scripted and very photogenic.

I conclude PART 1 of this article with this water colour of the Feldherrnhalle on the Odeonplatz, which was painted by Adolph Hitler.  It is more evidence of just how important that ceremonial structure and that unique location were in his thinking process.  All my life I have read in biographies and weighty works that Hitler did not have what it takes to become an artist. The truly nasty insisted that had no talent at all, as if the man who orchestrated the murder of six million Jews must be stripped of the merest shred of humanity.  That verdict is of course absolute rubbish, shared and repeated by cowards who are afraid to form their own opinions about art and about the man.  What Hitler inflicted on Europe after he took leadership of the Nazi Party is another story entirely.    Those who make no attempt to understand the man he was before Germany's defeat in the Great War or before the coming of his leadership in the NSDAP, are not worthy of your attention.   Young Hitler walked the streets of Munich carrying an artists easel and would not have bothered with a camera even if given one. He had an eye for detail and an ear for a well turned phrase, and on August 2, 1914 he pressed close enough to  the great hall to catch the speeches and the military salutes. We are very fortunate that Hoffman preserved his negatives  long enough for one of them  to reveal something of Hitler during those formative years before he had yet to find his destiny or capture the public imagination.

Part 2 and 3 will appear when time allows.

Update Jan 7, 2015: clearly I had no time in 2014 to return to this interesting subject. That is unfortunate because it's a fabulous story muddied and distorted by a couple of recent books written by academic historians with contemporary political agendas.  I think I need a bigger gun than a Google Blog for this one.

Ronald J. Jack
August 30, 2014

The Livens Flame Projector - It made the Somme explode like some horrific industrial accident.

Toy soldier with flamethrower - for burning the beastly Boche in your backyard.

FAKING HISTORICAL AWARENESS
August 2014 is of course, the hundredth anniversary of the opening of World War 1 - which is being  trumpeted by some as... wait for it... "The Forgotten War".  How significant a cliche is that? Network television is certain that 2014 - 2018 is a golden window of opportunity to flood our eyes with NO- COST reruns of old war films and documentaries, interlarded with saccharine stories believed to be of "local interest".  The Royal Canadian Mint and Canada Post are invested heavily in promoting public awareness, and will be offering tens of millions of dollars of collectible merchandise over the next four years. Veterans Affairs has no surviving Great War veterans to roll out, and so vigorously mines the memories and enthusiasms of descendants of C.E.F. volunteers.  Our news industry (which wraps advertising around content) and the Canadian government (which wraps "Heritage" money around its perceived voter base), clearly believe we need their officially  mandated and infomercial form of remembrance. Do we?

Have you noticed a nauseating stream of faux-reportage this month?  Stale stories are, I think, a propaganda effort certain to fall on deaf ears. It is a campaign which I suppose will play out over four years, annoying the hell out of those who do possess historical awareness. The problem is that reporters and politicians are not believable people, and we instinctively know that there is not an ounce of genuine interest or compassion in their commemorative message.  As one who frequently teaches young people about WW1, its technology, its poetry and its lasting impact on our society, I am constantly searching for stories which can cut through the avalanche of sticky, kaleidoscopic imagery which is over-stimulating our youth.  Obviously such images must be arresting if they are to have any chance of competing with Hollywood's output. Archival images of the muddy trenches and the poppy fields, with a bugler blowing the Last Post in the background, doesn't cut it with the cellphone generation.  Emphasizing "how very young" the boys of that "Lost Generation" were, fails to put a lump in the throat of today's teenagers. A strangers death does not scare them, and a soldiers death does not move them.

HISTORY THAT STINGS
Assuming the B.C. Teachers Strike ends sometime soon, and students are one again required to struggle with Social Studies 11,  "Canada in World War One" will be on their plate. It's a given that when you teach war history it is helpful to have artifacts on the table. When a student picks up a Ross rifle bayonet and is asked to imagine the pain of a German who had that rammed threw his rib cage, it leaves an impression. I'm always seeking new ways to make such impressions. I may soon be tutoring well-rested students on really scary war-tech, like the LIVENS LARGE GALLERY FLAME PROJECTOR:

Click on each photo to enlarge.

In May of 2010 a team of archaeologists and historians assembled on a farmer's property at Mametz, France to open an exploratory trench. They were looking to disinter a forgotten monster of WW1.  They had excellent maps, photos, Regimental War Diaries and more, which made it fairly easy to locate the blasted gallery where one of the Livens Flame Projectors was sited.  The whole excavation, which included the assistance of a party of Royal Engineers, was recorded for a British network television show, called "TIME TEAM".   Over the years I have watched three or four episodes on YOUTUBE, but I had not heard of this episode. I stumbled over it just a week ago.  It seems that it was co-produced for Canada's HISTORY CHANNEL, but then H.C. is not my cup of tea.

THE DRAGON'S LAIR  -  SAP 14
It is very clear to me that the reason this documentary project went off so well is because it was meticulously researched by historians who know their stuff. Kudos to them. But while I do recommend the program for its visuals, it is obviously made for people who don't know anything at all about warfare or who divide their time between the TV screen and their cell phones.  The 47 minute program is extremely repetitious and filled with looped clips and contrived drama, which was totally unnecessary. (In researching this article I checked the production companies website. This video project is listed as a "Docu-drama". Fair enough.)  The battlefield dig at Mametz was well funded, precise in execution, and fully supported by a British university, a French Museum, the British MOD and even a few French donor companies.  As a result the  excavations generated a wealth of physical evidence and support a highly interesting story.  The team effort justified the investment of resources, and I have read that the program was  "a hit".

I first watched the TIME TEAM program on YOUTUBE, cut into four segments.  You can now watch the 47 minute show intact.  It is here -   THE SOMME'S SECRET WEAPON.

The massive flame projector was designed for a single purpose. Assembled below the front trenches in strict secrecy, they would be used as a shock weapon to neutralize a length of the German line, just as an assault was initiated.  Only four were built for the Somme.  Two were successful and two were destroyed by enemy action.  We realize today that this type of weapon is better deployed in a defensive scenario.  Image if, earlier this month, Israeli sappers had encountered such fire beasts as they entered Gaza?  Fortunately Hamas weapon makers prefer  I.E.D.s to flame throwers.

Following recovery of whole sections of a Livens Flame Projector buried in collapsed SAP 14, the device has been recreated in a four versions.  A  C.G.I.  graphic, a tiny scale model, a full-size scale model (sans pressurized tanks), and incredibly -  a full-sized working facsimile built and tested by the Royal Engineers.  I think the last was unnecessary (and environmentally filthy) but it made for highly dramatic television images.  

The Royal Engineers actually cheated. They did not even try to use Livens' original system of piston-driven compressed gas.  They used an electric pump attached to very large portable fuel bladders of a type which  all NATO forces have in their inventory.  Still, if you compare the test firings made with the reconstructed weapon, with the original image at the top of this article, you will agree that the  R.E.s succeeded in copying the effect. A horrifying flame weapon indeed.

Something from a madman's notebook?  Not really. All weapons are murderous in intent and in use. But some are designed to scare you as well as kill you.  What is amazing about this Flame Projector, which some marketing guru has now dubbed  "The Dragon of the Somme", is that is took Livens and skilled British craftsmen and Engineers  just 25 weeks from first sketch - to fabrication - to deployment in a clay tunnel.

I have learned that an 83 minute version of the TIME TEAM documentary was edited for North American viewing. I haven't seen that longer version, but it may simply be the "Two Hour Special" produced for HISTORY TELEVISION.  If so, I might still watch it, hoping that the historians get to speak more than "Tony" the Time Team's  on-air talent.

"The War That Will End Wars"
If you have read the H.G. Wells novel THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, you will recall that the Martian heat ray was an energy weapon carried by walking machines that laid waste to much of England's urban core, incinerating London and at least one Royal Navy Dreadnought.  When I first read of Livens' devastating flame projector, in a history blog, I pulled down a riot of visual memories which enhanced my reading experience.  Odd thoughts really, such as wondering if his diabolical design was not somehow influenced by his recreational reading. It cannot be denied that Mr. Wells was widely read, and he was influential.  In his "Martian" novel, Wells described the shock effect of the hellish invaders roaming about the English countryside unchallenged, their towering machines burning all humans they encounter.  Livens' more industrial version of a death ray failed only because it was so vulnerable to German artillery that it had to remain hidden sub-surface, and because its fiery charge was expended in only a few short bursts.  The B.E.F. did make territorial gains from time to time, and the Livens flame weapon was not mobile.  Of course, once I had seen the British video, with its full colour recreation of the weapons' destructive power,  the imaginative component of  my reading experience evaporated.

Although not a combatant, H.G. Wells was a participant in the Great War from its beginning to end.  His book,  THE WAR THAT WILL END WAR was published in October of 1914, which was months before our Canadian troops (the C.E.F.)  reached the battlefield. Before long the title was "in circulation" in a skeptical form as "The war to end all wars". The book's opening line reads "The cause of a war and the object of a war are not necessarily the same." is still a basic truism.  In our own time the war making ambitions of radical Islam triggered an American response  - the declaration of a so-called "War on Terror", but as some of us realize, ever since President Wilson expressed his credo of "making the world safe for democracy" the United States government has always managed to scare up a threat to its particular way of life.

The concept of flame projectors never died, but what they did do was become mobile. In World War ll all nations with tank armies developed flame-thrower variants. They were most famously used by the Americans during the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific. More recently, assemblers of books on Science Fiction art invariably include the more fanciful covers from Hugo Gernsback publications, very often including this one showing his "invention", The Flame Tank, which appeared not in a S.F. pulp but his hobbyist magazine SCIENCE AND MECHANICS (Jan. 1936).  The only thing unique about this painted scenario is that the artist has the infantry garbed in flame resistant uniforms and hoods, which implies that they would fight almost amid the flames.