IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

My father was five when Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS and second in command after Adolf Hitler, came to his hometown. For one thousand years, the remains of the first German king, Heinrich I, had lain in the crypt of the church in Quedlinburg (now a UNESCO world heritage site in central Germany). Himmler saw the millennial anniversary of the royal burial as an opportunity to turn the church into a pilgrimage site where Germans would worship not God but Adolf Hitler. For this highly publicized event—the rededication of the church in July 1936 would be filmed, and the speeches broadcast on every German radio station—Himmler demanded that the townspeople serve as props in this political play. Most responded with enthusiasm, repainting the wooden trim on their homes and hanging swastika flags from their windows. This paper describes how the medieval town and its history were curated to serve a Nazi retelling of the German past. Historical artifacts were invested with fascist symbolism, the church structure was physically altered and desacralized, and the long history of the town was re-scripted as a prologue to an inevitable and eternal Nazi future. My paper explores how townspeople reacted to these scripts, and how they engaged with vexing questions of history and memory in their cherished town of Quedlinburg.