Film footage of the NSDAP party conference in Nuremberg in 1927. Since 1927, the National Socialists have organised their party conferences in Nuremberg, which Adolf Hitler officially designated the “City of the Reich Party Congresses” in 1933. The party conventions served to publicise the NSDAP. The newsreel footage from 1927 shows the prominent figures of the NSDAP in Nuremberg. Hitler, Streicher, Hess and other party leaders.

Historical context

The party congresses of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) in Nuremberg were important events that served as platforms for propaganda, demonstrations of power and the mobilisation of party supporters. The party congress in 1927 was the third party congress of the NSDAP and took place from 19 to 21 August 1927 in Nuremberg.

The party congress of 1927 was the first after the re-establishment of the NSDAP in February 1925, after the party had been banned following the Hitler Putsch of 1923 and subsequently re-authorised.

The party congress was held in Nuremberg, which would later become the “City of the Reich Party Congresses”. Nuremberg was deliberately chosen because of its historical significance and its central location in Germany. The party congress attracted many party members and supporters, demonstrating the growth and mobilising power of the party. However, the party was still an insignificant splinter party that could only achieve 2.6% of the vote in the 1928 Reichstag elections. Hitler’s importance as a charismatic leader was also still essentially limited to his own ranks. The public appearances and speeches that Hitler made in his early years as a populist and party leader were not particularly influential, as new election studies have shown.

In this respect, the party conference is the document of a still completely marginalised movement which, astonishingly, will come to power only six years later.