Berlin

Ode to Peace or Prelude to Militarism?

“…According to the thinking of historian Andreas Daum, who assessed John F. Kennedy's famous 1963 visit to Berlin from the standpoint of political theater, the parade into the Olympic stadium exemplified "the mutual process of seeing and being seen as a political statement, " a process in which "[a]-ctors are to be seen as observers as well as the objects of observation. " 20 Despite his minor "official" role in the ceremony, press reports and Riefenstahl's footage establish that Hitleras-observer was clearly a focal point. The march served as something of a barometer enabling the foreign audience, the German masses, and Hitler himself to ascertain the Nazi regime's international prestige-one where greater capitulation to the Fuehrer assured immediate gratification in the form of a warm reception from the spectators (if also, perhaps, some minor degree of admonishment in the international press).…”