May 1 is the day of workers' solidarity among the descendants of the proletariat and the night of the divine presence for those who feel their kinship with the Gods. In the stellar calendar of all the peoples of Europe since the most ancient pre-Christian times, there was a great holiday that falls on this date. Beltane among the Celts and Anglo-Saxons, Radunitsa (Krasnya Gorka) among the Slavs, Walpurgis Night (later called) among the Germans. What does this day mean for the National Socialists?
On the evening of April 30, 1945, in the very center of the besieged Reich, the eternal Fuhrer Adolf Hitler ended his carnal form. His body, according to the ancient pagan tradition, was given over to the cleansing fire.
The night that has come from April 30 to May 1 has been a time of the otherworldly presence since ancient times, when the fine line between the worlds dissolves into the sacred mysteries. In the pre-Christian tradition, this night was celebrated as a sign of a blossoming spring. The central element of the ceremony was a pole with a burning Kolovrat wheel, and the holiday itself was inextricably linked with the cult of the sun.
The coming of Christian teachings from the Middle East to the European land perverted the essence of this pagan act and turned into Darkness that which was Light. However, even in the Christian interpretation of Walpurgis Night, initially it did not carry a demonic meaning, by no means, the name itself came from the name of Saint Walpurgis (or Waldburga), a Wimburn nun, missionary, abbess who came from England to Germany in 748 with the aim of founding a monastery. The nun was extremely popular, and very soon they began to venerate her as a saint.
However, already in the Middle Ages, the mystical essence of this pre-Christian holiday is demonized and the belief is strengthened that Walpurgis Night is the night of the feast of witches throughout Germany and Scandinavia. The earliest notions of Wedic gatherings point to night flights of witches through the air to cause thunderstorms and showers, to hide the Sun, Moon or stars. All this is the essence of the manifestation of a new interpretation by Christians of the pre-Christian tradition.
Thus, night flights are also drawn to us by the Edda, where witches are called queldridha (Abendreiterin - night riders). The old gods-patrons of the world, Wotan with his fierce army and Freyja, also rushed through the skies with such fast-flying cavalcades. Like the old gods, Thor, riding on goats, Freya - on a hog, Gindle - on a wolf, witches, in the Christian interpretation, make their flights on the favorite animals of mythology - on wolves, bridled and chased by snakes, on cats, goats, bears, pigs (Russian baba-yaga), on deer and other animals.
According to the new interpretation, the ball of the prince of darkness and his witches takes place on this night. They gather on the high, inaccessible mountain Brokken, where they celebrate their "Sabbat". This day is especially highlighted by Goethe, in the first part of "Faust". Brocken is the highest point of the Harz Mountains (1142 meters), which is translated from German as "mountain forest". The summit of the Brocken mountain is called Hexentanzplatz, which translates as "the place where witches dance". These are the northernmost and highest mountains in Germany. Brokken has short summers and long winters. There are no trees there, and the top of the mountain is covered with snow for most of the year. It is there, according to popular belief, the prince of darkness arranges his ball, to which all the witches flock. It was there that Mephistopheles led Faust:
Can you hear the thunder
Promotional video:
Fall of trunks, noise of branches,
And the forest groan, and the creak of the roots?
Barrel after barrel covers each other
In a deep abyss, at the bottom, And the wind whistles, the storm howls
Among the wreckage in the depths.
Do you hear the screams - further, closer?
Do you hear screams - higher, lower?
Between the rocks, along the slopes of the mountains
A wild choir rushes noisily.
Choir of witches
All to Brocken! The crowd is thick;
The sowing was green, the rye yellow.
Urian sits at the top:
To the top of the witches the path lies
Among mountains and rocks, with a broom, with a goat, -
And the stench and thunder are all around.
However, let's go back to 1945. The Harz Mountains became one of the most stubborn places of resistance of Hitler's supporters. Heinrich Himmler ordered the Harz fortified area to defend central Germany from the Western allies. It was defended by the 11th Army, SS divisions, and Volkssturm. As soon as 1 US Army reached Nordhausen and wanted to continue its advance north, it met with fierce resistance, especially in the mountains around the cities of Ilfeld and Ellrich. Only on May 7, 1945, the last units of the 11th Army and SS troops surrendered. Since the commanders of some of the Volkssturm detachments did not know about the end of the war, they continued to fight in May 1945 against the American troops as part of the legendary Werewolf partisan units.