Hitler's last Beer Hall speech

8th November 1943: Hitler defiant as he speaks to the Nazi faithful - "We are fighting the fifth year of the greatest war of all time."

Hitler addressing the Nazi faithful in the Löwenbräukeller on 8th November 1943.

Hitler’s physical deterioration was not yet fully evident. Adolf Hitler congratulates Heinrich Himmler on his 43rd birthday, 7th October 1943 - with Martin Bormann beside him.

Every year Hitler came to Munich for the annual Party Rally, in which the Nazis celebrated the anniversary of the 'Beer Hall Putsch', when they had first attempted to grab power 1923.

Hitler always addressed the most ardent party members in the Löwenbräukeller. He had narrowly avoided an assassination attempt here in 1939. Every year he made boasts about how the Germans were the master race, about to dominate the world. This time there was not much to boast about.

You shall also leave here with fanatical confidence and the fanatical faith that there can be nothing other than our victory.

Nevertheless, Hitler was as defiant as ever. He was addressing the Nazi Party faithful, they did not need to be persuaded of anything. They just needed to be reminded that the Fuhrer was still in command and had hopes for the future.

Bizarrely he was to claim, despite all the major setbacks that Germany had suffered in the past year, that Germany was in a better position than at the start of the war.

Hitler’s major offensive for 1943, at Kursk, had come to nothing and Germans had been on the retreat in Russia ever since.