Interwar Period in Pictures- 20 July 1933 Signing of the Reich Concordat.

"Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII) signs the Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican at a formal ceremony in Rome on 20 July 1933. Nazi Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen sits at the left, Pacelli in the middle, and the Rudolf Buttmann sits at the right. The Concordat effectively legitimized Hitler and the Nazi government to the eyes of Catholicism, Christianity, and the world."

Interwar Period in Pictures- On 22 June 1935 Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler at the Town Hall in Burg (Fehmarn island) and signed the Golden Book.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (left) talking with Reichsminister Joachim von Ribbentrop following the French armistice negotiations in Compiègne, France, 21 June 1940. In the center is Himmler's Chief of adjudant SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Karl Wolff.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Obersalzberg, June 21, 1939: Albert Speer presents the plans for a new Opera house in Linz, Austria, near Hitler's birthplace.

Note Hitler's facial expression of satisfaction as he never stopped considering himself an architect at heart. Also present are two of Hitler's SS adjutants. The Opera house was never built.

Interwar Period in Pictures- The historic arrival of the famous "zeppelin on rails" bullet train in Berlin early on the morning of 21 June 1931.

The schienenzeppelin (rail zeppelin) was a prototype propeller-driven light-weight railcar that held the world railway speed record for no less than twenty years. It was powered by a BMW aeroengine, driving a four-blade wooden pusher propeller. On June 21, 1931, it kept up 230 km per hour for about 20 km. It was designed by Franz Kruckenberg. Like the Bennie railcar, it never went into production, possibly because of the obvious danger of combining a propeller with a platform-full of passengers.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Adolf Hitler being driven by Ferry Porsche in a Cabriolet on their way to groundbreaking ceremony of new Volkswagen plant...later to be called Wolfsburg on 27 May 1938..

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) inspects the new, Volkswagen 'people's car' at the Fallersleben car factory, 27 May 1938. The factory was designed to manufacture six million of the cars. On Hitler's left is the car's designer Dr Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951).

Interwar Period in Pictures- This is a May 26, 1939 children's identification card issued by the German police to Inge Engelhard in lieu of a passport when she traveled to England on a Kindertransport, stamped by immigration authorities in Harwich. She has been given the middle name of "Sara" obligatory to all Jewish females under the German Nuremberg laws, and she was declared stateless.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Adolf Hitler looks out the window of the Fuhrer Train on 25 May 1935.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Wedding of Princess Ingrid of Sweden and Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark on 24 May 1935 in Stockholm.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the "Pact of Steel" on 22 May 1939.

On 22 May 1939, Italy and Germany agree to a military and political alliance, giving birth formally to the Axis powers, which will ultimately include Japan.

Mussolini coined the nickname "Pact of Steel" (he had also come up with the metaphor of an "axis" binding Rome and Berlin) after reconsidering his first choice, "Pact of Blood," to describe this historic agreement with Germany. The Duce saw this partnership as not only a defensive alliance, protection from the Western democracies, with whom he anticipated war, but also a source of backing for his Balkan adventures. Both sides were fearful and distrustful of the other, and only sketchily shared their prospective plans. The result was both Italy and Germany, rather than acting in unison, would often "react" to the precipitate military action of the other. In September 1940, the Pact of Steel would become the Tripartite Pact, with Japan making up the third constituent of the triad.

The signing of the Pact of Steel in the Reichskanzlei in Berlin: from left, sitting, Italy's Foreign Minister Count Ciano, Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, Third Reich's Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop. Behind Hitler, standing, Hermann Göring.


Source: This Day in History

Interwar Period in Pictures- A crowd looks on as the "Bremen", a German Junkers W33 aircraft, and the first plane to fly west across the Atlantic, is placed on display in Grand Central Terminal, on 21 May 1929.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Under SA guard, a group of leading Socialists arrives at the Kislau camp, one of the early concentration camps on 16 May 1933.

Local Social Democratic party leader Ludwig Marum is fourth from the left in the line of arrivals. Kislau, Germany, May 16, 1933.

Interwar Period in Pictures- The newly crowned King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, with their daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, May 12, 1937.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Kathleen, Rose, and Rosemary Kennedy, await their Presentation at Buckingham Palace, May 11, 1938.

Interwar Period in Pictures- German soldiers give the salute as they stand beside the casket of Capt. Ernest A. Lehmann, former commander of the zeppelin Hindenburg, during funeral services held on the Hamburg-American pier in New York City, on May 11, 1937. The swastika-draped caskets were placed on board the SS Hamburg for their return to Europe.

Interwar Period in Pictures- In New York City, funeral services for the 28 Germans who lost their lives in the Hindenburg disaster are held on the Hamburg-American pier, on May 11, 1937. About 10,000 members of German organizations lined the pier.

Interwar Period in Pictures- The So-Called Coordination [Gleichschaltung]: First Meeting of the Coordinated Hamburg Citizenry under SA Supervision (May 10, 1933)

Interwar Period in Pictures- Nazi students and SA unloading "un-German" books as fuel for a book burning on May 10, 1933 in Berlin, Germany. The SA (Sturmabteilung or "Stormtroopers") was the Nazi paramilitary organization under Ernst Röhm. The banner on the back of the truck states, "German students march against the un-German spirit."

Interwar Period in Pictures- Nazi Party members gathering banned publications and books for burning, Opernplatz, Berlin, Germany, 10 May 1933.

 
On 10 May 1933, Nazis in Berlin burned works by leftists and other authors considered "un-German", including thousands of books looted from the library of Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft.

Interwar Period in Pictures- Hitler with Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht (May 5, 1934).