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DAY OF THE LUFTWAFFE INVITATIONS & FORMAL DINNER SEATING PLAN FOR 1 MARCH 1938 FROM GENERALFELDMARSCHALL GOERING TO GENERALLEUTNANT FRIEDRICH CHRISTIANSEN

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There is another rare original formal invitation from the President of the German Academy for Aeronautical Research, Generalfeldmarschall Göring, measuring 6-¼ x 9 inches. It is beautifully embossed at the top with a Luftwaffe flying eagle clutching a swastika. This invitation (shown directly above) was for evening festivities starting at 18:45 in the Festsaal of the Haus der Flieger in Berlin. In small letters in the lower left corner of the invitation there are instructions about the fancy uniform and medals Christiansen was expected to wear. This invitation was also folded in half and has some period pencil writing in the upper right corner, no doubt by Generalleutnant Christiansen himself.

Generalleutnant Christiansen received a 5-½ x 7-¼ inch formal invitation from Generalfeldmarschall Göring to attend the festivities in the Honor Hall at the RLM starting at noon on 1 March 1938. On the invitation (shown directly above) are clear instructions about which uniform to wear, as well as the route to be driven and automobile parking. This invitation was also the entrance card. It was folded in half, probably by Christiansen so it would fit conveniently in a pocket of his uniform.

Everybody who was somebody in Nazi Germany wished to be a part of Hermann Göring’s day to celebrate aviation on 1 March 1938, and the most notable of them were. Generalleutnant Friedrich Christiansen, the Korpsführer of the NSFK (National Socialist Flying Corps), was present for all the events!

The remarkable original 11-¾ x 17 inch seating plan for the dinner features the names of all guests; a veritable who’s who in Nazi Germany! Present that night were aviation heavyweights like Generalleutnant Ernst Udet, Generaloberst Erhard Milch, General der Flieger Hugo Sperrle, General der Flieger Albert Kesselring, General der Flieger Bodo von Witzendorff, General der Flieger Bernhard Kühl, Generalmajor Karl Bodenschatz, Generalmajor Bruno Loerzer, General der Flieger Konrad Zander, General der Flakartillerie Günther Rüdel, General der Flieger Hans-Jürgen Stumpff, Oberst Hans Jeschonnek, and many others.

This is a very rare original three-piece lot of documents related at the very highest level to the Tag der Luftwaffe or Day of the Air Force on 1 March 1938. There were great parades and splendid troop reviews in front of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM or Nazi Air Ministry) on Wilhelmstrasse in the government quarter of Berlin. The day ended with a formal dinner in the reception hall of the Haus der Flieger, located in Hermann Goering’s Aviation Ministry building complex between Leipziger Platz and Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, just down the street from Adolf Hitler’s Reichschancellery. It is also the special day and the place where Adolf Hitler presented Nazi Aviation Minister Hermann Göring with his spectacular Feldmarschall baton!

Offered for sale on this USMBOOKS webpage are two extremely rare and original invitations, one for the very important formal reception and another for the formal dinner at the Nazi Air Ministry. The documents were addressed to World War I reconnaissance, rescue and bomber pilot, and recipient of the Pour le Mérite, Generalleutnant Christiansen. The invitations are accompanied by an extremely rare seating plan for the formal evening dinner which the General attended with his wife and 228 or so very important people.

This is an incredibly rare Third Reich document grouping, related to one of the most historical and well-photographed events of 1938 in Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. The attendees were people that were extremely well-known in Germany and around the world. Many of their names were in newspapers every day during the Third Reich and no event they attended was more prestigious than the Tag der Luftwaffe!

Documents that feature people at this historical level were of course, saved and treasured by the recipient and his or her family and seldom come on the market at any price. They are unique and among the rarest of ephemera of the Third Reich.

Very few social/political events took place in Nazi Germany that warranted the high profile invitations that made it possible for the elite to attend the Tag der Luftwaffe in 1938!

Among the other well-known Nazi dignitaries in attendance along with the Christiansens were Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, Generaloberst Walther von Brauchitsch, Dr.Ing. Fritz Todt, Reichsminister Dr. Karl Frank, Police General Kurt Daluege, State Minister Dr. Otto Meissner, Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler, Professor Albert Speer, Berlin Police President Graf von Helldorf, Reichsminister Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Reichsorganisationsleiter Dr. Robert Ley, Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten, Gauleiter Josef Terboven, Reichsminister Wilhelm Ohnesorge, State Secretary Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, Reichsminister Julius Dorpmüller, SS-Gruppenführer Werner Lorenz, SA Stabchef Viktor Lutze, Staatsrat Görlitzer, NSKK Korpsführer Adolf Hühnlein, Italian Diplomat Giuseppe Renzetti, State Secretary Freiherr von Weizsäcker, Princess Sophie von Hessen, even the very famous entertainers Zarah Leander, Olga Tschechowa and Viktor de Kowa. Hermann Göring’s sister-in-law Ilse Göring was also present as was Fraulein Elsa Sonnemann, the sister of Goering’s wife Emmy.

Many were invited to attended with their wives who were always seated away from their husbands. When General Christiansen received the big, twice-folded 11-¾ x 17 inch dinner seating plan, it had a red pointing finger stamped next to his name and seat. His name and the name of his wife are also underlined, probably by Christiansen himself, to make it easier to get to their proper places at different tables at the right moment.