| Heer (“Nazi German Army”) soldaten (“soldiers”) are shown standing at attention, massed in impressive squares, during the funeral service held for the late President Paul Von Hindenburg (October 2, 1847 – August 2, 1934). Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reich Chancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) can be seen in the foreground as he advances among the wreaths stacked on the ground. he concept of erecting a monument to celebrate the 1914 victory was 1st advanced in 1919 by the Association of the Veterans of East Prussia. Subsequently, a contest was staged for a design of the monument. It resulted in the submission of over 400 projects and was won by the brothers Walter and Johann Kruger, architects from Berlin. In 1924, on the 10th anniversary of the battle, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who had commanded the German troops in the battle, took part in the laying of the monument’s foundation stone, a ceremony attended by some 60 1,000 people, primarily veterans of WWI. The monument was built in the period 1925-27. Hindenburg, who in 1916 became Chief of Staff of the German Army. He became President of Germany after the war and as such he appointed Adolf Hitler to be its Chancellor in 1933. On the 7th of August 1934, the body of the Field Marshal was laid to rest to the sound of church bells and in the presence of high government officials and representatives of foreign nations. Hitler gave the funerary oration ending it with the high flying words “Toter Feldherr, geh’ ein in Walhall!” (Supreme leader, enter Walhalla.) The Tannenberg monument itself was elevated to the rank of a “Monument of German Pride”, the only such in all of Germany. It became a symbol, a myth, a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Germans. School children were required to visit it, and it was the site of the annual reunions of the veterans of WWI. Shortly after the Reichstag fire in March 1933, the German parliament passed the Enabling Act. This measure effectively granted Hitler the same dictatorial powers held by the 85-year-old President Hindenburg. Hindenburg did little to restrain Hitler’s increasing power or to curb his attacks on his rivals and on political and racial targets. With Hindenburg’s death on August 2, 1934, the last legal obstacle to Hitler’s complete power was gone. Hitler’s propaganda machine immediately suggested that the dead Hindenburg had been the Fuehrer’s strong supporter. Against Hindenburg’s express wishes, Hitler saw that Germany’s great military hero was buried at the Tannenberg Memorial with Nazi pomp and circumstance. Hitler’s speech on August 7, 1934, cemented his veneration of Hindenburg as a national hero and elevated himself to dictator of Germany. “Herr und Frau von Hindenburg! Esteemed Mourners!” “Generals, Officers and Soldiers of the Wehrmacht!” “A soldier is normally honored twice in his life: following a victory, and following his death.” “When the name of the Field Marshal and Reich President 1st rang out in the German Volk [“People”], a long and complete life of fighting and work already lay behind him. As a young officer of the Great King, the 17-year-old fought on the battlefield of Königgrätz and was ordained by his 1st wound there. 4 years later, he is witness to the proclamation of his Royal Commander in Chief to the German Kaiser. In the years thereafter, he aids in shaping the strength of the newly united German Reich. When commanding General von Hindenburg takes his leave on March 18, 1911, he can look back on a full career as a Prussian officer in the service of war and peace. “It was a great age. After centuries of powerlessness, after never-ending confusion and division, the German tribes were united by the brilliant leadership of a single man, the German nation thus created anew. The image of weakness which the Germans had so disgracefully and so often projected in centuries past was replaced by the manifestation of an unsuspected strength.” “What a wondrous feeling to have played a part in this epoch marking the resurrection of a German Reich by consistently fulfilling one’s duty in the storms of battle as well as in the immeasurable work of education and preparation in peacetime! And nonetheless, the name of this man remained unknown to the German Volk as did the names of innumerable other officers.” “Only a small circle in the nation knows these nameless men who unobtrusively fulfill their duties.” “When, three and a half years later, the German Volk first receives word of the name of General Paul von Hindenburg, the tempests of the World War are raging over Europe. In the worst hours, the Kaiser recalled the General from retirement and assigned to him command of the Army in East Prussia. And six days later, the cannons are booming here in the midst of the beautiful countryside of this old Land of the Teutonic Order, and still three days later the church bells are proclaiming throughout Germany: the battle of Tannenberg has been won. A victory had been achieved which world history is at pains to equal.” “And how immense have been the consequences! A precious German Land is snatched from the jaws of further devastation. In deeply-felt gratitude, millions of Germans throughout the Reich are passing on to each other the name of the commander who has performed this miraculous rescue together with his forces. And so much has happened in the space of the twenty years between August 28, 1914 and the present day! A war which made all of our memories and concepts of the past pale to insignificance, an incredible, neverending series of fights and battles, nervewracking tensions, terrible crises, and victories unequaled. Hope is pitted against despondency, confidence against despair. But again and again the nation is brought to its feet to protect its existence; millions of German men do their duty in loyalty and obedience. For the next century, the German Volk will have no reason to vindicate its military honor.” “Never before have soldiers been braver, never before more enduring, never before more willing to sacrifice than were the sons of our Volk in these four and a half years. The miracles of these accomplishments-they are inconceivable if one does not gauge and appreciate the strength of the man himself. A magic power lay in the very name of the Field Marshal who, with his armies, ultimately forced the greatest military power in the world to its knees in the Russia of that time. And when-unfortunately, too late-the Kaiser appointed him to head the entire Army, he was able, with his brilliant aides, not only to banish the most severe crisis for the time being but also to rouse German resistance to launch an offensive and win tremendous victories even two years later.” “The tragic end of that great struggle cannot be held against this commander in history, but is instead a condemnation of the politicians.” “With a God-given loyalty to his duty, the hoary Field Marshal led our regiments and divisions onwards from victory to victory, pinning unfading laurels to their flags.” “When the heinous deeds at home broke the resistance, a leader once more retired whose name had been inscribed for all time in the book of World History.” “It was the final triumph of the Old Army that, in 1925, the best representative national Germany could find was the soldier and Field Marshal of the World War. And it is one of the miraculous decrees of an enigmatic and wise Providence that the preparation for the uprising of our German Volk was initiated under the presidency of this superlative soldier and servant of our Volk and that, in the end, it was he who opened the gates to the renewal of Germany.” “It was in his name that the alliance was established which united the stormy power of the uprising with the best abilities of the past. As Reich President, the Field Marshal became the patron of the National Socialist Revolution and hence of the rebirth of our Volk.” “Nearly twenty years ago today, the bells sounded here and echoed throughout Germany for the first time in honor of the name of the Field Marshal. Today, to the peal of these same bells, the nation has accompanied its venerable departed hero back to the great battlefield of his unequaled victory. It is here, in the midst of the slumbering grenadiers of his victorious regiments, that the tired commander shall find his peace. The towers of the castle shall be defiant guards of this, his last great headquarters in the East. Standards and flags shall salute him.” “And the German Volk will come to its dead hero to gather new strength for life in times of need, for even when the last trace of this body shall have been obliterated, his name will ever more be immortal.” “Dead Commander, enter into Valhalla now!” On January 20, 1945, as the Soviet Armies advanced into East Prussia, the Nazi German military, fearing desecration by the Russians, evacuated the remains of the Field Marshal and his wife. After a perilous journey these found a lasting resting place, probably in Elisabethkirche (“Saint Elizabeth’s Church”) in Marburg, Germany. A day later, at night, the Germans blew up both the entrance tower and the 1 that had housed the Hindenburg tomb. The Soviets didn’t destroy the monument. It stood till 1949, when its building materials began to be utilized in the construction of the Palace of Culture in Warsaw and of the Headquarters building of the Workers (Communist) Party there. Nothing remains of the monument today other than its buried foundations. The area is now an Olsztynek city park. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1811.jpg |
| Image Size | 2.58 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 7680 x 5802 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 7, 1934 |
| Location | |
| City | Tannenberg |
| State or Province | Saxony |
| 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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