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A handshake marked the “birth of the Third Reich”

The "Day of Potsdam" on March 21, 1933 was a decisive step from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi dictatorship.

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A handshake marked the “birth of the Third Reich”

The "Day of Potsdam" on March 21, 1933 was a decisive step from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi dictatorship. The decisive scene of the day is deeply engraved in the collective memory of the Germans: the handshake between Adolf Hitler, who was appointed Chancellor on January 30, and Paul von Hindenburg, President of the Reich, in front of the Potsdam Garrison Church. The state act for the opening of the new Reichstag had previously been celebrated there.

"The whole thing served the will of the Nazi elite to catch up with the old Wilhelmine elite," says the Potsdam historian Werner Treß, deputy head of the Moses Mendelssohn Center at the University of Potsdam (MMZ), about the staging of the "Day from Potsdam". The fact that the Hohenzollerns also came played into the hands of the National Socialists: Prince August Wilhelm ("Auwi") appeared in SA uniform and Crown Prince Wilhelm in hussar uniform. Pictures of the historic day can be seen in the Potsdam Museum on Alter Markt - and also an amateur film by the rowing club "Vineta" of the parade of the heads of state in the Prussian garrison town.

The image of the handshake between Hindenburg and Hitler still has an effect today, says the head of the MMZ, Gideon Botsch: "It was very clear that Björn Höcke, when he congratulated Thomas Kemmerich, who had just been elected head of government in the Thuringian state parliament, with his handshake a clear wanted to trigger historical associations.” The extremism researcher Botsch refers to the election of the FDP politician Kemmerich as Thuringian head of government in February 2020 with the votes of the right-wing extremist party. AfD faction leader Höcke bowed slightly to Kemmerich when congratulating him – like Hitler did to Hindenburg.

Mainly because of March 21, 1933, there have been protests against the reconstruction of the 90-meter-high tower of the Garrison Church in downtown Potsdam since 2017. Critics such as the initiative "For a Potsdam without a garrison church" and the "Learning place garrison church" of the Christian Martin Niemöller Foundation have been fighting the reconstruction since the planning began.

After the collapse of the German Empire, the Garrison Church lost its status as a symbol of Prussianism, says Philipp Oswalt from the "Garrison Church Learning Place". As early as the 1920s, the church was a meeting place for restorative forces fighting against the Weimar Republic.

On the other hand, Jürgen Reiche, scientific director and curator of the planned exhibition on the history of the garrison church, emphasizes the need for reconstruction. This offers "here and now, finally, an opportunity to publicly confront the history of this church and thus also Prussia in an exhibition - critically, free of myths, questioningly and with objective distance," says Reiche. "Where else is there a place in Potsdam, beyond the beautiful appearance of palaces and parks, where this political story is told in a larger context?" The permanent exhibition is to be on view in the tower after the planned opening next year.

Of course, the "Day of Potsdam must receive special attention," says Reiche. "But the story cannot be reduced to this day." This applies to the alliance between the military and the church, the connection between altar and throne, which is discussed in detail in the exhibition, emphasizes Reiche. "The story beyond the day is also multi-layered, ambivalent and revealing, it plays into this March 21st and continues to have an impact today."

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