| “Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reich Chancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) visited Köln (Cologne) to campaign for the referendum of support for the Friedensappell (“peace appeal”) for the Remilitarisierung des Rheinlands (“Remilitarization of the Rhineland”). All bells of the cathedral rang on the eve of March 28, 1936, a request of Hitler. On the Domplatz (Square) in front of the Domhotel, at Domkloster 2a, where he stayed then night before, a large crowd kept on calling on Hitler to show himself on the balcony. After he’d done that, the crowd was quiet for about 15 minutes. Then they started yelling again. Hitler goes to the balcony again. This went on for quite a while. When German troops marched into Cologne on March 7, 1936, a vast cheering crowd formed spontaneously to greet the soldiers, throwing flowers onto the Wehrmacht while Catholic priests offered to bless the soldiers. In Germany, the news that the Rhineland had been remilitarized was greeted with wild celebrations all over the country; the British historian Sir Ian Kershaw wrote of March 1936 that: “People were besides themselves with delight … It was almost impossible not to be caught up in the infectious mood of joy”. Reports to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD – Sopade) in exile in Prague in the spring of 1936 mentioned that a great many erstwhile Social Democrats and opponents of the Nazis amongst the working class had nothing but approval of the remilitarization, and that many who had once been opposed to the Nazis under the Weimar Republic were now beginning to support them. To capitalize on the vast popularity of the remilitarization, Hitler called a referendum on March 29, 1936, in which the majority of German voters expressed their approval of the remilitarization. During his campaign stops to ask for a yes vote, Hitler was greeted with huge crowds roaring their approval of his defiance of Versailles. Kershaw wrote that the 99% Ja (“Yes”) vote in the referendum was improbably high, but it is clear that an overwhelming majority of voters did genuinely choose to vote yes when asked if they approved of the remilitarization. In the aftermath of the remilitarization, the economic crisis which had so damaged the National Socialist regime’s popularity was forgotten by almost all. After the Rhineland triumph, Hitler’s confidence surged to new heights, and those who knew him well stated that after March 1936 there was a real psychological change as Hitler was utterly convinced of his infallibility in a way that he had not before been.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1765.jpg |
| Image Size | 194.66 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1300 x 953 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 29, 1936 |
| Location | |
| City | Cologne |
| State or Province | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Country | Germany |
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| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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