Hitler's Propaganda Pilgrimage

June 1940 - A Small group of uniformed men are in the process of being filmed by another who crouches down upon his knees in order to perfectly bring his subjects into frame. Meanwhile another Still Photographer out of sight unhurriedly takes a picture of three of the handpicked group standing together bathed in summer sunshine in front of the kneeling cameraman, while in the background stands one of the worlds most recognisable landmarks - The Eiffel Tower in Paris. This carefully choregraphed moment and the image that resulted from it showing Adolf Hitler in company with Albert Speer and Arno Breker, while his personal cameraman Walter Frentz filmed them all exploring Paris on that sunny morning, was one of a whole series of shots credited to his his longtime personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. This image and all the others that make up this series of photographs have now gone onto become some of the most iconic and easily recognisable pieces of stage managed propaganda to be ever created, during the entire history of the Second World War. 

The journey that Hitler undertook to Paris with his own hand picked entourage which included three specially invited guests being flown out from Berlin just for the occasion - Albert Speer, Arno Breker and Hermann Giesler - was also accompanied by his own regular two man personal photographic team. Despite a large number of witnesses who survived the war, its exact details still remain frustratingly unknown with even its exact date still a source of some debate amongst reputable historians - this is chiefly due to the fact that all of those who took part in it have it taking place on different dates in June 1940. The resulting series of images captured by Hoffmann and Frentz were later presented to Hitler in the photographic collection - ‘Mit Hitler in Westen’ - and these form the basis of this image set along with other additional photos.