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Fifteen minutes later, in Essen, Germany in the person of Adolf Hitler entered the largest single factory room in Europe, the sooty locomotive assembly plant at the Krupp works. At that instant every whistle in Germany blasted, for a full minute. Then came a full minute of silence. Not an automobile, not a pedestrian budged. In Berlin the Rev. Stewart Winfield Herman, acting pastor of the American Church, was slapped smartly in the face for not raising his hand in the Nazi salute during this period of ecstasy.
The Speech— By the time ardent Nazis dared breathe again Adolf Hitler was standing on a platform on top of a half-finished locomotive while blinding searchlights from traveling cranes high in the dusty rafters picked out his tiny figure. For an hour and a half he talked, saying nothing that no German had not heard a hundred times before.
"Germany wants peace!" he hoarsely 'cried. "But there can be no real world peace without equality between partners. There can no longer be honored and dishonored !"
For the benefit of the workers around him he added: "I am dependent on no one. I possess neither bonds nor shares nor even a bank account."
For hours after he had stopped talking Germans tramped through the streets of Essen, singing in the pouring rain.
Dankgebet. Next day's ceremonies in Cologne were even more impressive. In an extraordinary exhibition of railroad efficiency German trains had brought an estimated 2,000,000 people to the Rhine city. No sooner had they left the station than they were handed lapel buttons marked "The Rhineland is Free." On every street corner Brownshirts were handing out paper flags by the dozen. From noon on all traffic was halted in the centre of the city. The square before Cologne's lace-spired cathedral was black with Germans, tears in their eyes, singing.
In the exhibition hall der Führer spoke soberly, tactfully. Once he blurted out: "I know I have hurt millions of persons, but I have had to do it in order to create national unity." This was expunged from most reports of his speech. He ended on a fine emotional note:
"Who can find in the history of the German people a basis for the charge that it has not been loyal to its treaties? This nation stands true to every treaty that it signed voluntarily and as an equal. . . . I feel that God's grace is once again upon us, and in this hour we sink on our knees and ask the Almighty to give us His blessings and give us strength to stand firm in the struggle for freedom. ... So may God help us!"
Once again Stagemanager Goebbels pushed the button and the obedient German people in every village in the land opened their mouths and sang the old Dutch thanksgiving hymn. Dankgebet, which begins ''God make us free." Written by Adrian Valerius in 1597, the most popular German translation is that of Josef Weyl. Forty million Nazi voices boomed out the words: "Wir treten zum Beten vor Gott dem Gerechten" ("We step up before God the Just to Pray").