Munich Conference - A Blood Order recipient with humor

[jabnus]

Here's a nice picture i came across in an old publication from the 1980's about the 1938 Munich Conference. In the background appears to be visible Hitlers room, where the fate of Sudetenland was sealed when this picture was taken.

What suprises me is that such a picture was even possible during the conference? Wasn't this one of the most official happenings of pre-war Germany? Weren't all people present instructed to at least act as if it was a very official meeting? This doesn't appear like strong discipline to me? Better said, i would never have expected such a highly decorated German, to so openly participate in such a joke? Maybe i overthink things too much, but the more i see this picture, the more i think that the whole circus was an even bigger circus as i ever expected. Chamberlain and Daladier sweating in the room in the background, just a few meters away the Germans having fun with their personal belongings? Makes you wonder that if in current times when a foreign minister visits any head of state, the guards would start a play with their items in the coatroom?

Anyway, here's the picture. I never saw it before and it seemed nice enough to show here on WAF. If anyone else has any interesting non-standard pictures from the Munich Conference or any Blood Order recipients, please post them. They are two of my favorite historical subjects and it would be nice to see some pics that are normally when speaking about the subjects not shown.

best regards,
Gaston

ps: is that a SS-Kriegsberichter cufftitle or am i seeing things that are not there?

[adlerfan53]

Awesome pic. I believe that sometimes we tend to forget that the Germans were human. They lived, laughed, loved and cried like the rest of us do. Sure many of them committed some atrocious crimes against humanity. Not everyone one of them were evil criminals. Real people were behind the veil of the swastika. I am not in the least surprised from this pic. The best stories from history are those that are happening in the background of the great events. Cool pic and hope there are more like this.

[jabnus]

Hi Adlerfan53,

I agree with you, we sure overlook sometimes that besides the atrocities of war there were real human's involved in history. And definately not all were bad (or good). Yet, i find it curious to see this man having so much fun with an English hat while Chamberlain and Daladier must have been sweating their heart out while being intimidated at the same time so close by?

best regards,
Gaston

[luftwaffe blue]

Chamberlain wasn't intimidated by Hitler, he was a career politician and readily flew to Munich, he may well have appeased Hitler to avoid a war at this juncture but intimidated he was not, interesting photo.

[scotty1418]

You might also want to factor there was probably some downtime involved on-site ...

[Br. James]

Many thanks for sharing this photo, Gaston -- what a hoot! I think we often fall into thinking that the Nazis were individually as stiff, aggressive and unfeeling as our own propaganda tells us they were, and then we come across a photo album with pix of soldiers laughing and having a good time, or we notice inconsistencies of all sorts in the records they kept (I am thinking here of the SS-DALs from year to year) and we are surprised to see that they made mistakes and often displayed a sense of humor. That takes us aback! This photo must have come from a private photo collection and, like you, I am not surprised that high-ranking Nazis had fun with Chamberlin's derby, but I AM surprised that this person did it so blatantly, right out in the hallway in from of Hitler's office doorway in the Führerbau! But of course this photo might have been taken when the meeting had broken for a meal...?! Great to see it!

Br. James

[ErichS]

A great pic Gaston and you gotta love those wacky Germans!

[der-hase-fee]

The Avenger John Steed (Patrick Macnee) !

[Mark Costa]

This SS man is actually Walter Hewel. Note the Stosstrupp AH sleeveband as well.

Mark Costa

[Br. James]

Of course! Many thanks for that, Mark! I'm surprised that I missed IDing that face! And since we now know that it was Walter Hewel, here's a quote from his bio on Wikipedia that adds a great amount of background depth to the derby photo: "Because of his friendship with Hitler, Hewel was given a large amount of leeway in his actions. For example, according to O'Donnell, Hewel played constant practical jokes on his boss, Ribbentrop, in order to amuse Hitler and other members of his entourage." From what we see at the beginning of this thread, Hewel was in rare form during the Munich Conference!

Br. James

[jabnus]

Indeed! Many thanks for identifying him Mark, i didn't realise it was Hewel. Reading up on him sets the picture very much in perspective and also makes us understand a bit more about the people and events during the Munich Conference.

[Thorsten B.]

That is definitely one of the best SS leader´s pics I have ever seen!

What a crazy guy.

[Coburg]

I am a great admirer of Chamberlain. I think when people talk about appeasment by the British and French they tend to forget the impact of the Great war on those 2 nations. France lost 11% of its male population in that war, the casualties for 1915 alone are horrendous.
Chamberlain gained Britain time, time to prepare ( albeit it too little too late) but we were an Empire in decline by then, and to be a soldier in those inter war years was regarded with disdain. Remember it was viewed as a bosses war in Britain and the working man wasn`t going to be slaughtered needlessly again.Britain as a nation has never recovered from the Great war and Chamberlain knew that .
Chamberlain died a broken man , but iI think he should be remembered as a great statesman who was not intimidated by Hitler and realised what was happening.
Great picture. Do we still wear bowler hats over here?

Jim

[JoeW]

So did he seriously believe he had bought "peace in our time" whilst waving that paper that Herr Hitler signed, or was he consciously buying time with the body of Czechoslovakia?

[Coburg]

I don`t think he or any of the British cabinet believed in peace in our time. When Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938 the British started building air raid shelters and trying to improve armaments, that doesn`t tell me that he believed in Hitlers ruse. Chamberlain may have been alot of things, but he certainly knew Hitlers games, particularly at the Hotel Dressen meeting and realised we neeed peace in the short term but refused to be bullied. Unfortunately when war came in 1939 we were ill preapred due to years of neglect of our armed forces post 1918.
I love the fact that when he went to Berchtesgaden Hitler was most unimpressed with the wonderful reception Chamberlain got from the locals.
What did Hitler say when questioned over signing that famous piece of paper at Munich?
"He seemed such a nice old gentleman I thought i would give him my autograph".
Whilst i have little time for Churchill , Chamberlain has had bad press in my opinion and should be remembered as a man who gained this country time.