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

thank you, a famous joke among civilians in Nazi Germany was that the typical Aryan Superman would have to be as blonde as Hitler, as tall as Goebbels, and as thin as to imagine that the leaders of Nazi Germany were, by any standards, quite ordinary and certainly not in any way. fitting with the ideal of German virility that they relentlessly repeated before the people and the leading parrot was another example of the fury of the Aryan

superman

of the Reich SS Heinrich Himmler whose poor eyesight, weak chin and great resemblance to Emperor Hirohito made a complete mockery of all the ideology that was. making propaganda like the Danzig and West Prussian Nazi writer Albert Foster once commented about him.

I quote if I'm anything like him, I stay very quiet about the end of the race. quotes it was said that the most feared man in Germany was deeply troubled by something he spent a lot of time on. The time he spent trying to figure it out was, in the grand scheme of things, a seemingly minor matter, but it was something Himmler had to deal with. achieve. Failure would have caused him shame and made him a hypocrite. So what was it that he longed for? It was a badge, a very, very common metal. insignia that adorned the uniforms of virtually all SS officers in Germany its name, the German national sports insignia, the insignia was actually a pre-World War I decoration that the Nazis kept and simply improved with the addition of a swastika in design in 1934. the issuing authority was the official governing body of sports of the Third Reich, the DRL during the formation of the SS until the 1920s, in addition to having to comply with certain racial and other characteristics To be a member, SS men of all ranks were expected to be more

athletic

and healthy.

So, compared to the average German soldier or civilian, the SS emerged as Hitler's elite bodyguard from the Nazi mass movement. all SS men had a six-month probationary period to obtain both badges. Failure to record these

athletic

achievements in the service record, the spaces printed in the record to record the dates the badges were issued, would have been embarrassing and would likely affect the candidate's career. Now, Himmler had already obtained the bronze sports badge during the first phase of his Nazi career, but Himmler was not a natural athlete, more of a desk man; He had served in the First World War as an officer cadet, a foreigner, although he did not see action later. as a reserve officer and had accumulated approximately 18 months of regular service in the army and had achieved all physical training, although not without complaints according to his letters home and had also served in a fry corps unit before joining the nsdap only once time. in fact I was in a firefight from the brewery field in 1923 watch my video about Himmler's military career in the final screen appointed fü

hrer

of the SS of the reich in 1929 had radically increased the status and power of the SS by introducing new and flashy uniforms and decorations to attract members and also created a list of things the SS officer should have will be working to obtain the two aforementioned sports insignia the SS sword of honor the deaths had a ring a membership of one of the Himmler's Special Projects, such as the Labensborne breeding program, of course, Himmler could have awarded himself the coveted National Sports badge, but he knew this would cause him to lose the respect of his subordinates, including his powerful deputy Reinhard Heydrich. , who seemed to many to be the epitome of the ideal SS officer, tall, thin, coldly handsome and blond, a man noted as a fencing and e

quest

rian champion and someone who many believe would one day succeed Himmler as fü

hrer

of the Reich Himmler , on the other hand, looked less like an Aryan Superman than a 30-something schoolteacher, had poor eyesight and required glasses, was rather pencil-chested, of average height, and a little flabby from an overly sedentary office.

So it was that with the adoption of the German national sports badge by the Nazis in 1934 and its addition as a requirement in SS service records, Himmler had no choice but to earn it, the award criteria being divided between several disciplines: swimming, jumping, running and power. speed, physical strength, which included pistol shooting, something Himmler was quite good at, and endurance running, long-distance walking or cycling. Himmler, stripped to the waist, wearing only baggy black shorts, canvas soles, and his ubiquitous glasses, was photographed puffing on an SS athletics track in 1935. When he completed one of the qualification disciplines for the badge, the judges They were, of course, subordinates of their fellow SS Himmler, which raises an obvious problem: Did Himmler meet the requirements for the insignia or were the judges interested not only in flattering their powerful boss but also in saving his La The boss's face awarded him the badge anyway, his service history without it shows that he did not receive the basic bronze rank of the badge, but rather the silver one, so if he had been given the bronze, he would have said that the Reichsfura SS was quite common, but it had been awarded.

To him, gold would have sounded like absolute adulation and corruption. Himmler probably would not have believed that he had accepted gold given his age and physical condition, but the Silva was a perfect compromise. Himmler was considered better than average and could be proud of him. Of his achievement it is interesting to note that he wore the national sports insignia in silver on his uniform throughout the war, but not his sports insignia 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 virility, he was one of them, unlike the war hero, First World War veterans such as Hitler and figures who had won high decorations for their bravery.

Himmler didn't have much hardware to pin on his uniform, his medals were all pretty mundane from left to right. They are the striking SS medal for 12 years of service the nsdap award for 15 years of service followed by the award for 10 years of service the Angelus with Austrian medal of 1938 the Zodeton land medal also of 1938 with the Prague bar of 1939 the return of mutilation to the Fatherland Medal of 1939 and the Western Wall Medal of World War II nothing for bravery or even meritorious service his only really important decoration was the order of blood worn on a ribbon in the right pocket awarded to the participants in the 1923 beer hall.

In the end, in Munich, none of this mattered because it was Himmler who became at the end of the war the most powerful and feared man in Germany after Hitler, but it was also clear that Himmler was still being an insecure individual who dreamed of military glory and recognition, but when Hitler actually was given two military commands in a row since the latter part of World War II, he proved to be a much better administrator and police officer than a general and ended up being fired from both. commanders for his ineptitude on the battlefield and retired to a clinic suffering from nervous and stomach tension.

Cramps to recover from the stress of command. This episode permanently damaged Himmler's relationship with the Führer and ended any dreams of a Knight's Cross or similar high military decoration. So where are Himmler's sports medals and insignia today? Well, they still exist and will be the topic. from a future video, thank you very much for watching, please subscribe and share it, and also visit my audiobook Channel War Stories with Mark Felton. You can also help support both of my channels on PayPal and Patreon details in the description box below.