LIFE - Adolf Hitler: Among the Crowds

Worshipping Hitler

Fri, 28 Apr 1939 03:00:00 EST

Between 1936 and 1945, German photographer Hugo Jaeger was granted virtually unlimited access to Adolf Hitler, earnestly chronicling, in color, the Fuhrer at public events and in private moments. (Pictured: Reichstag members salute Hitler at a session in Berlin's Kroll Opera House.)

Hitler's Adoring Masses Salute a 'Greater Germany'

Fri, 01 Apr 1938 03:00:00 EST

Hugo Jaeger captures Austrian crowds, ecstatic at the notion of Austria and Germany uniting under one government, as they cheer Hitler's 1938 campaign to unite the two German-speaking nations. Here, and in several other galleries on LIFE.com, are rare and never-before-published photographs from Jaeger's astonishing collection -- along with the equally amazing story of how Jaeger buried the photographs (literally buried them, in the ground) for years before bringing them to light.

The Original Axis of Evil

Sun, 01 May 1938 04:00:00 EDT

A boy holds up a sign in Florence during Hitler's May, 1938 state visit to Italy, when he met with Italian dictator and ally Benito Mussolini. Hitler was an early fan of color photography in an age almost completely chronicled in black-and-white; he once told Jaeger that "the future belongs to color photography."

Massive Rally for the Reich, 1937

Fri, 01 Jan 1937 03:00:00 EST

Fueled by Hitler's oratory and the sense of being part of an epic, invincible movement, Nazi rallies saw hundreds of thousands of people -- or, in the case of this 1937 rally, more than a million -- swept up by the carefully calculated grandeur. "The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one," Hitler said.

Memorializing the Beer Hall Putsch, November, 1938

Sat, 08 Nov 1941 03:00:00 EST

Hitler speaks in Munich on the 15th anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, in which Hitler and other Nazi party members attempted to overthrow the German government. Hitler, jailed for a year for his part in the coup attempt, was the master of swaying large crowds. "I was carried on the wave of the enthusiasm which ... bore the speaker along from sentence to sentence," chief Nazi architect, Albert Speer, recalled of one Nazi rally.

VIPs at Hitler's 50th Birthday Celebration, 1939

Thu, 20 Apr 1939 03:00:00 EST

Guests of honor command prime seats at a military parade in honor of Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday in Berlin, April 20, 1939.

A Sea of Swastikas

Thu, 21 May 1942 03:00:00 EWT

Nazi flags fill a festival at Innsbruck. It was Hitler who came up with the idea of using the swastika as the symbol of the Nazi Party. After many attempts, he wrote in Mein Kampf, "I found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika."

Hitler's Picnic

Sun, 01 May 1938 04:00:00 EDT

A trio of women pose with dishes for a picnic for Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during Hitler's 1938 state visit to Italy. Hitler was convinced women were strongly attracted to him, and was careful about only inviting married women to parties and similar public events so as to avoid wagging tongues.

Hitler's 50th Birthday Celebration, 1939

Thu, 20 Apr 1939 03:00:00 EST

Hitler (center, in brown uniform) reviews a military parade in honor of his 50th birthday in Berlin, April 20, 1939.

A 'Sieg Heil' From the Ladies

Sat, 01 Jan 1938 03:00:00 EST

Women salute during Hitler's 1938 campaign to unify Austria and Germany.

Body of the Nazi Empire

Thu, 01 Sep 1938 04:00:00 EDT

Athletes perform during the Reichs Party Congress in 1938, in Nuremberg, Germany. Hitler considered German bodies property of the German empire. Even in his interactions with children, he was seemingly interested mainly in the characteristics they would pass on to the future Reich.

Fascist and Nazi Love Fest

Sun, 01 May 1938 04:00:00 EDT

Enthusiastic Italians wave Nazi and Fascist flags during Hitler's 1938 state visit to Italy. Hitler and the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini died two days apart in 1945: the former commited suicide; the latter was executed.