Heinrich Himmler: Aryan Superman? Reichsführer's Quest for Athletic Honour

[Music] thank you a famous joke among civilians in Nazi Germany was that the typical Aryan Superman should be as Blonde as Hitler as tall as Goebbels and as Slender as guring the fact was the leaders of Nazi Germany were by any measure rather ordinary and certainly in no way fitting the ideal of German manhood that they relentlessly parroted to the people and the leading parrot was another example of the Aryan Superman reich's Fury SS Heinrich Himmler whose poor eyesight weak chin and strong resemblance to Emperor Hirohito made a complete mockery of the entire ideology he was propagandizing as the Nazi gowliter of Danzig and West Prussia Albert Foster once remarked about himna quote if I look like him I keep very quiet about race end quote it was said that Germany's most feared man was himself deeply troubled about something that he spent a lot of time trying to solve it was in the grand scheme of things a seemingly minor matter but was something that Himmler had to achieve failure would have caused shame and made him a hypocrite so what was this thing he craved it was a badge a very very common metal badge that adorned the dress uniforms for virtually every SS officer in Germany its name the German national sports badge the badge was actually a pre-World War One era decoration than the Nazis kept and simply upgraded with the addition of a swastika in the design in 1934 the issuing authority was the official Sports governing body of the Third Reich the DRL during the formation of the SS through the 1920s as well as having to meet certain racial and other characteristics for membership SS men of all ranks were expected to be athletic and healthy more so than the average German Soldier or civilian the SS emerged as an elite bodyguard for Hitler out of the Nazi mass movement the essay or brown shirts which already issued its own sports badge to members so it was that as a visible display of athletic manliness after 1934 all SS men had a six-month probationary period in which to earn both badges failure to have these athletic achievements logged on one's service record spaces printed on the record to record the dates the badges were issued would have been embarrassing and probably affected the candidate's career now Himmler had already earned the sa Sports badge in bronze during the early phase of his Nazi career but Himmler was not a natural athlete more of a desk man he had served in World War one as an officer Cadet a foreign though seeing no action and later as a Reserve officer and racked up about 18 months of regular service in the Army and had managed all the physical training though not without complaints according to his letters home and he had also served in a fry Corps unit before joining the nsdap only once had he actually been in a shootout from the 1923 beer hall pitch check out my video about himmler's military career in the end screen appointed reich's fuhrer SS in 1929 he had radically increased the status and power of the SS introducing striking new uniforms and decorations to attract members and also created a list of things the SS officer should have will be working towards the aforementioned two sports badges the SS honor sword the deaths had ring a membership of one of himmler's Special Projects such as the labensborne breeding program of course Himmler could just have awarded himself the coveted National Sports badge but he knew that this would lose him the respect of his subordinates not least his powerful Deputy Reinhard heydrich who appeared to many the epitome of the ideal SS officer tall spare coldly handsome and blonde a man noted as a champion fencer and equestrian and someone many believe would one day succeed Himmler as reich's fuhrer Himmler on the other hand looked less Aryan Superman than Schoolmaster in his 30s he had poor eyesight requiring glasses was rather pencil chested of average height and a little bit flabby from too much sedentary office work so it was that with the adoption of the German national sports badge by the Nazis in 1934 and with it added as a requirement on SS service records Himmler had no choice but to earn one the award criteria were divided between several disciplines swimming jumping power running speed physical strength which included pistol shooting something Himmler was quite good at and endurance running or long distance walking or cycling Himmler stripped to the waist wearing only baggy black shorts plim soles and his ubiquitous spectacles was photographed puffing his way around an SS Athletics track in 1935 as he completed one of the qualifying disciplines for the badge the judges were of course fellow SS himmler's subordinates posing an obvious problem did Himmler actually meet the requirements for the badge or did the judges Keen not only to flatter their powerful boss but also to save their boss's face award him the badge anyway on himless service record it shows that he received not the basic bronze category of the badge but the silver so if they had given him the bronze it would have said that the reichsfura SS was quite ordinary but to have awarded him the gold would have smacked of outright flattery and Corruption Himmler probably wouldn't have believed that he had taken gold given his age and physical state but the Silva was a perfect compromise Himmler was seen to be better than the average and could be proud of his achievement it's interesting to note that he wore the national sports badge in silver on his uniform throughout the war but not his sa Sports badge in bronze the silver meant that he could look heidrich and other SS officers in the eye without fear of criticism about his athleticism and manliness he was one of them unlike the war hero World War One veterans like Hitler and guring who had both won High decorations for gallantry Himmler didn't have much ironware to pin on his uniform his medals were all quite mundane from left to right they are the garish SS 12-year long service medal the nsdap 15-year long service award followed by the 10-year long service award the Angelus with Austria medal from 1938 the zodeton land medal also from 1938 with the 1939 Prague bar the return of maimel to the Fatherland medal 1939 and the West Wall medal from World War II nothing for bravery or even meritorious service his only really important decoration of note was the blood order worn on a ribbon on the right pocket awarded to participants in the 1923 beer hall pooch in Munich in the end none of this mattered for it was Himmler who became by War's end the most powerful and feared man in Germany after Hitler but it was also clear that Himmler remained an insecure individual who dreamed of military glory and recognition but when Hitler indeed gave him two military commands in succession from the latter part of World War II he proved to be a much better administrator and policeman than a general and ended up being dismissed from both commands for his Battlefield ineptitude retreating to a clinic suffering from nervous tension and stomach cramps to recover from the stress of command this episode permanently damaged himmler's relationship with the fuhrer and put paid to any dreams of a knight's Cross or similar High military decoration so where are himmler's medals and sports badges today well they still exist and will be the subject of a future video many thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook Channel War stories with Mark Felton you can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below foreign

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 350,104

Keywords: Mark Felton, Sports Badge, Medals

Id: kphPy-DXdqo

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023