--- description: Color pictures by Hitler's personal photographer testify to the Führer's mass popularity and the frenzied response he elicited from crowds. title: Adoring Hitler: Color Photos of a Tyrant Among the Crowds image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31b40394e1492876/69877b1806f2c1c7f6333867/131101-hitler-austria-19381.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Third Reich](/tag/third-reich/) ## Third Reich Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Adoring Hitler: Color Photos of a Tyrant Among the Crowds by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 1, 2013 6:45 PM CUT  Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign (before the Anschluss) to unite Austria and Germany. Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign (before the Anschluss) to unite Austria and Germany.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 1, 2013 6:45 PM CUT Billions of words, hundreds of books, scores of movies and plays and countless articles—in newspapers, magazines and online—have been written about [Adolf Hitler](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf%5FHitler "undefined"). Most of those writings have tried, at some point, to explain or at least examine how a nondescript, failed artist was able to bend millions of people to his will, overrun a continent and pull much of the globe into a catastrophic world war. That Hitler was a galvanizing speaker is evident to anyone who has ever heard recordings or seen footage of him in action. That his blather about “Aryan” racial superiority and a Thousand Year Reich appealed to Germans who felt subjugated by other Western powers after World War I is beyond dispute. That his reliance on scapegoats—Jews, communists, homosexuals, Slavs and others—helped cement his control of a regime headed by gangsters, degenerates and sociopaths is both a confirmation of the power of propaganda and a distressing commentary on the primal hatreds lurking beneath the veneer of “civilized” societies. Whatever the true, core source of his malevolent charisma, there’s simply no getting around the fact that, for more than a decade in the middle part of the 20th century, men, women and children were drawn, in droves, to Hitler and his message. Here, LIFE.com offers color pictures by Hitler’s personal photographer, Hugo Jaeger, that testify to the Führer’s mass popularity, and the often frenzied response he was able to elicit from otherwise staid citizens of the Reich. [\[Read the stranger-than-fiction tale of how Time Inc. came to own Jaeger’s archive, and see more of his photos\]](http://life.time.com/history/hitler-at-50-rare-color-photos-of-a-despots-birthday/#1 "undefined")  Adolf Hitler greets the cheering throng at a rally in 1937. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, Germany, 1937. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign (before the Anschluss) to unite Austria and Germany. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign (before the Anschluss) to unite Austria and Germany. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crowds greet a saluting Adolf Hitler at a cornerstone ceremony at a Volkswagen factory, 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crowds greet a saluting Adolf Hitler at a cornerstone ceremony at a Volkswagen factory, 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crowds at a cornerstone ceremony at a Volkswagen factory, 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Torchlight rally honoring Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Hundreds of thousands gather at a harvest festival and Nazi Party rally in Germany, 1937. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Guests of honor at a military demonstration for Hitler's 50th birthday celebration in Berlin. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A crowd cheers in Florence, Italy, during Hitler's state visit in 1938. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Italian fascists during Adolf Hitler's 1938 state visit. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A crowd in Munich, Germany, around the time of the 1938 Munich Conference. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Paying tribute to Hitler during celebrations for his 50th birthday, Berlin, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3677092/adoring-hitler-color-photos-of-a-tyrant-among-the-crowds/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3677092/adoring-hitler-color-photos-of-a-tyrant-among-the-crowds/"},"headline":"Adoring Hitler: Color Photos of a Tyrant Among the Crowds","datePublished":"2013-11-01T18:45:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:06.846Z","description":"Color photos made by Hugo Jaeger, Adolf Hitler's personal photographer, testify to the often-frenzied response that the Nazi Führer elicited from citizens of Germany's 'Thousand Year Reich'","url":"https://time.com/3677092/adoring-hitler-color-photos-of-a-tyrant-among-the-crowds/","keywords":["Third Reich","photography","Hitler","LIFE Magazine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31b40394e1492876/69877b1806f2c1c7f6333867/131101-hitler-austria-19381.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31b40394e1492876/69877b1806f2c1c7f6333867/131101-hitler-austria-19381.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Austrians Cheer Hitler 1938","caption":"Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign (before the Anschluss) to unite Austria and Germany.","creditText":"Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/third-reich/","name":"Third Reich"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3677092/adoring-hitler-color-photos-of-a-tyrant-among-the-crowds/","name":"Adoring Hitler: Color Photos of a Tyrant Among the Crowds"}}]}] ```