Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday

Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels made sure the events organised in Berlin were a lavish spectacle focusing on Hitler himself.

British historian Ian Kershaw comments that the events organised in Berlin by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels were "an astonishing extravaganza of the Führer cult.

[1] Festivities began in the afternoon on the day before his birthday, when Hitler rode in the lead car of a motorcade of fifty white limousines along architect Albert Speer's newly-completed East-West Axis, the central boulevard for planned Welthauptstadt Germania, which was to be the new name for a renovated Berlin after the victory in World War II.

Papal Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo, Slovak State President Jozef Tiso, the heads of the branches of Nazi Germany's armed forces and mayors of German cities offered birthday congratulations at the chancellery.

[5][6] Hitler and the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, exchanged telegrams that assuring each other that the friendship between Germany and Italy, both of which were ruled by fascist regimes, could not be disturbed by their enemies.

[11] British King George VI dispatched a message of congratulation to Hitler, but the strained relations between the two countries made his advisors consider whether he should ignore the birthday altogether.

[1] A luxury edition of Hitler's political manifesto and autobiography, Mein Kampf, was published in 1939 in honour of his 50th birthday and was known as the Jubiläumsausgabe ("Anniversary Issue").

[13] German author and photographer Heinrich Hoffmann wrote a book about Hitler's 50th birthday, Ein Volk ehrt seinen Führer ("A Nation Honours its Leader").

Geburtstag ("Hitler's 50th Birthday"), is regarded as an important example of Nazi propaganda and was subsequently shown to packed audiences at Youth Film Hours, which were held on Sundays.