Because the farmers stood closest to the earth, to the soil, they formed the front-line soldiers of the Blut und Boden (“Blood and Soil”) ideology. The national Reichserntefest (Reich Harvest Festival) was a way for the Nazis to remove the Church’s role from the traditional harvest celebrations. From 1933 to 1937, mass gatherings were organized on the Bückeberg near Hamelin (known from the story of the Pied Piper). The location was chosen for its panoramic view over the Germanic Kulturlandschaft and the river Weser — considered a truly “German river,” as it both rises in Germany and flows into the North Sea.

The final “performance” was attended by 1.2 million people, brought in from far and wide through an enormous logistical operation. The open field on the slope of the Bückeberg functioned as an amphitheater: at the top stood an “altar,” and at the bottom a pyramid-shaped stage. The two were connected by a raised processional road along which the Führer took a “bath” in the crowd. While waiting for his speech, the masses were entertained with music and a military exercise — from 1935 onward even featuring a stage village that, at the end of the show, was set ablaze by the Wehrmacht… a grim foreshadowing of what was yet to come