Honorary city titles in Nazi Germany

In Nazi Germany, the state gave a number of honorary titles to certain German cities. Not included in this list is the Polish city of Zamość, which, in 1942, was planned to be renamed Himmlerstadt, after Heinrich Himmler.^[1]

The following cities were given an honorary title during 1933-1939:^[2]

City	Honorary title	In English	Since	Note
Berlin-Friedrichshain	Horst-Wessel-Stadt	"Horst Wessel City"	1933
Braunschweig	Die deutsche Siedlungsstadt	"German Settlement City"		Self-assigned title.[3]
Bremen	Stadt der Kolonien Hauptstadt der deutschen Schiffahrt	"City of the Colonies" "Capital of German Shipping"	1933	[4] Shared with the city of Hamburg, see below.[5]
Chemnitz	Hauptstadt der deutschen Industrie	"Capital of German Industry"	1933	Shared with the city of Essen, see below.[5]
Coburg	Erste nationalsozialistische Stadt Deutschlands	"First National Socialist City of Germany"	1939	Coburg was the first German city in which the NSDAP won the absolute majority of the popular votes during municipal elections.
Cologne	Hauptstadt des deutschen Handels	"Capital of German Trade"	1933	Shared with the city of Leipzig, see below.[5]
Essen	Hauptstadt der deutschen Industrie	"Capital of German Industry"	1933	Shared with the city of Chemnitz, see above.[5]
Frankfurt am Main	Stadt des deutschen Handwerks	"City of German Crafts"	1935	See Friedrich Krebs (mayor)
Goslar	Reichsbauernstadt	"Reich Peasant City"	1936	[6]
Graz	Stadt der Volkserhebung	"City of the Popular Uprising"	25 July 1938	Given because of pre-Anschluss pro-Nazi demonstrations.[7]
Hamburg	Hauptstadt der deutschen Schiffahrt	"Capital of German Shipping"	1933	Shared with the city of Bremen, see above.[5]
Innsbruck	Stadt der deutschen Bergsteiger	"City of the German Mountaineers"
Landsberg am Lech	Stadt der Jugend	"City of the Youth"	1937	[8]
Leipzig	Reichsmessestadt Hauptstadt des deutschen Handels	"Reich Fair City" "Capital of German Trade""	20 December 1937 1933	[9] Shared with the city of Cologne, see above.[5]
Linz	First: Jugendstadt des Führers Heimatstadt des Führers	First: "Youth City of the Führer" "Home City of the Führer"		Adolf Hitler spent much of his youth in Linz, and continued to consider it his home town for the rest of his life.
	Later: Gründungsstadt des Großdeutschen Reichs Patenstadt des Führers	Later: "City of the Founding of the Greater German Reich" "Patronage City of the Führer"	1938	The law which formally legalized the incorporation of Austria into the German Reich was signed in Linz on 13 March 1938 by Hitler and Arthur Seyss-Inquart, then-Chancellor of the Austrian Republic.
Munich	Hauptstadt der deutschen Kunst Hauptstadt der Bewegung Merged title: Hauptstadt der Bewegung und Hauptstadt der deutschen Kunst	"Capital of German Art" "Capital of the Movement" Merged title: "Capital of the Movement and Capital of German Art"	1933 1935 1938	"The Movement" meaning the Nazi Party, which was founded and headquartered in Munich. The dual titles were merged into one according to a May 1938 Hitler decree[10]
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz	Dietrich-Eckart-Stadt	"Dietrich Eckart City"
Nuremberg	Stadt der Reichsparteitage	"City of the Reich Party Conventions"	7 July 1936	Center of the annual Nuremberg Rallies)[11]
Salzburg	Stadt der Lebensforschung	"City of Life Sciences"
Salzgitter	Officially: Stadt der Hermann-Göring-Werke Informally: Hermann-Göring-Stadt	Officially: "City of the Hermann-Göring-Werke" Informally: "Hermann Göring City"		[12]
Soest	Stadt des deutschen Mittelalters	"City of the German Middle Ages"
Stuttgart	Stadt der Auslandsdeutschen	"City of the Abroad Germans"	1936	[13][14]
Wels	Stadt der Bewegung Patenstadt von Hermann Göring	"City of the Movement" "Patronage City of Hermann Göring"		[15]
Wolfsburg	Stadt des KdF-Wagens	"City of the KdF Car"	1938	Unlike the other cities on this list which were merely assigned these honorary titles, Wolfsburg was actually founded under the name Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben, not acquiring its modern name until the post-war denazification process after the Third Reich's defeat in 1945.

See also

• German World War II strongholds, so-called Festung ("fortress") cities of Nazi Germany.
• Führerstadt
• Streets named after Adolf Hitler

References

1. Lynn H. Nicholas, Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web p. 333 ISBN 0-679-77663-X
2. Fritz Mayrhofer: Die "Patenstadt des Führers", Linz
3. Verkehrszeitschrift d. St. Braunschweig: Braunschweig - Die deutsche Siedlungsstadt, Siedlungs-So.heft serie 5, 1935
4. Heinz Gustafsson: Namibia, Bremen und Deutschland, Aschenbeck & Holstein, 2003, ISBN 3-932292-40-5
5. Donath, Matthias (2007). Architektur in München 1933-1945: ein Stadtführer, p. 10. Lukas Verlag, Berlin.
6. P. Schyga: Von der nationalen Stadt zur Reichsbauernstadt des Nationalsozialismus, Goslar 1918 - 1945 - Ein historisch-politischer Essay, Bielefeld, 1999.
7. Helmut Konrad / Andrea Strutz: Graz - "Stadt der Volkserhebung", March 2007
8. Manfred Deiler: Landsberg wird zum Wallfahrtsort des Nationalsozialismus, Landsberg, 2005
9. Leipzig-Lexikon: Register R: „Reichsmessestadt“
10. Spotts, Frederic (2003). Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, p. 368. Pimlico, London.
11. Alexander Schmidt: Geländebegehung. Das Reichsparteitagsgelände in Nürnberg, tredje helt omarbetade upplagan, Nürnberg 2002
12. Forndran, Erhard (1984). Die Stadt- und Industriegründungen Wolfsburg und Salzgitter, p. 394. Campus.
13. Stadt Stuttgart: Karl Strölin (1890-1963)
14. Roland Müller: Die Stuttgarter Kriegsfilmchronik - Ein besonderer Bestand im Stadtarchiv (Uppsats)
15. Hauch et al 2001, NS-Zwangsarbeit: der Standort Linz der Reichswerke Hermann-Göring-AG Berlin, 1938-1945. Zwangsarbeit-Sklavenarbeit : Politik-, social- und wirtschaftshistorische Studien, vol. 1, p. 29, ISBN 3-205-99417-5