The Reich in Photos – The 50-th Birthday of the Führer - 20.04.1939 – Part III

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 648, 3 February 1943

1. Germany.

 

Signing of the Japanese-German Economic Agreement in Berlin on 20 January 1943.

 

– The signing ceremony.

 

– Ribbentrop and the Japanese Ambassador Oshima sign the document.

 

– Germany, Berlin. On 30 January, Reich Marshal Hermann Göring delivers a speech at the Ministry of Aviation before representatives of the air force, navy and army.

 

– Göring’s speech, as recounted by the announcer, on the continued struggle of the German people and their Wehrmacht as the guarantor of Europe’s existence.

 

– The audience.

 

– Close-up of ace pilot Adolf Galland.

 

Berlin.

 

– Ceremony at the Reich Chancellery to mark the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power.

 

– Speech by Reichsleiter Dr Robert Ley, calling on Germans to mobilise their efforts to bring victory closer.

 

– Albert Speer, head of the German Labour Front, and Dr Ley present awards to the most distinguished workers on the home front.

 

The Berlin Sports Palace, the traditional gathering place for Berlin’s National Socialists.

 

– Reich Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels addresses the entire German people.

 

– A delegation from the Italian Fascist Party, led by Council Member Tardini and the Italian Ambassador to Berlin, Dino Alfieri, makes its way through the hall.

 

– Dr. Goebbels’ speech as narrated by the announcer.

 

– In his opening remarks, Goebbels says: “We have boundless confidence in our soldiers.

 

– There is no one among us who lacks the fanatical desire to make a worthy contribution to the struggle through their labour and their faith in victory.”

 

– In conclusion, the Reich Minister reads out the Führer’s proclamation, in which he states that the German Wehrmacht is destined to defend the whole of Europe. ‘What would have become of the entire German people and of the whole of Europe if, at the last minute, the Wehrmacht had not deployed its forces against the threat from Asia?’

 

– On the podium: Speer, Himmler, Rosenberg, Ley and others.

 

– The audience.

 

– At the end of the meeting, Goebbels calls on the entire nation to unite under the traditional slogan of the National Socialists: ‘The Führer commands – we obey’.

 

– Shouts of approval fill the hall; everyone raises their arms in the Nazi salute.

 

2. The Atlantic.

 

A German submarine is underway.

 

– The patrol has been going on for over two months; all torpedoes have been used up.

 

– Another submarine comes to the rescue.

 

– Signals are sent from the bridge indicating readiness to transfer the torpedoes.

 

– The commander moves over to it; the process of transferring the torpedoes needs to be discussed in detail.

 

– The torpedo is lowered into the water; the propeller and warhead are wrapped in life jackets to protect them from possible damage.

 

– The seven-metre colossus is carefully transferred onto the boat.

 

– The boat sinks 3 metres; the torpedo is to be secured on the upper deck.

 

– The torpedo is positioned between the net breakwaters.

 

– The commander gives the signal, the boat surfaces, and the torpedo is mounted on the guide rail.

 

– The boat continues on its way.

 

– An alarm sounds on the boat; the crew take their stations.

 

– A neutral Swedish fishing vessel is visible through the periscope; they let it pass.

 

– An American yacht has come into view; in these waters, small vessels of this kind are required to broadcast their position to alert German submarines.

 

– The sailing vessel will be sunk; the crew is abandoning ship.

 

The Atlantic.

 

– A Swedish trawler is visible through the periscope.

 

– The submarine lets it pass.

 

– The submarine continues on its way.

 

– An American yacht in the ocean; the crew abandons ship.

 

– The submarine fires on it with its guns; the yacht sinks.

 

3. North Africa.

 

Tunisia.

 

– Vehicles head for the front, passing the remains of ancient structures, the ruins of an aqueduct from the time of Carthage.

 

– A sapper stops a vehicle, warning of mines, and places a sign.

 

– At the front line of the German forces.

 

– German officers at a meeting.

 

– On the right is Knight’s Cross recipient Lieutenant Colonel Walter Koch, one of the heroes of Eben-Emael.

 

– Arabs carry boxes of ammunition for the German units.

 

– A breather: the Germans eat local mutton stew, try local oranges from a crate, and get their hair cut.

 

– Soldiers do their laundry and read newspapers.

 

– Germans in the trenches.

 

– An observer climbs up a windmill.

 

– Camouflaged machine-gun nests; soldiers peer out from their shelters.

 

– A gun crew at their gun.

 

– The start of a firefight.

 

– German soldiers advancing.

 

– Officers studying a map.

 

– American prisoners.

 

– German soldiers on the front line.

 

– Damaged American tanks.

 

– A German soldier with a captured machete.

 

– German fighter planes take off on a combat alert.

 

– Enemy aircraft attack the German runway; bomb explosions are visible.

 

– Anti-aircraft gunners lay down covering fire.

 

– A downed aircraft burns out on the ground.

 

– Fighter planes return from a successful sortie.

 

– Captain Kurt Ubbens, a Knight’s Cross recipient with Oak Leaves, steps out of the cockpit; to date, he has shot down 101 enemy aircraft.

 

– Another pilot, Major Joachim Müncheberg, recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, shot down four British aircraft during this flight.

 

– Field Marshal Albert Kesselring talks to the pilots.

 

– Pilot Captain Heinz Bär tells his comrades about the flight.

 

– The wreckage of smoking British aircraft lies scattered across the desert.

 

– The northern sector of the Eastern Front, Northern Karelia.

 

– A German horse-drawn convoy on sledges travels through the snow.

 

– Snow-clearing vehicles clear the road.

 

– Soldiers clear the snow with shovels.

 

– Motorised columns move through the forest in deep snow.

 

– A German detachment disembarks from lorries and continues on foot.

 

– Soldiers on the march.

 

– Arrival at the front-line positions.

 

– Soldiers at dugouts.

 

– Infantry General Karl Weisenberger awards Lieutenant von Ainem the Knight’s Cross for his excellent work as an artillery observer and then inspects the ranks of soldiers with him.

 

4. USSR. Fighting near Leningrad.

 

– Delivery of food and ammunition by sledge and lorry.

 

– Unloading a train carrying ammunition.

 

– German heavy artillery shelling the Lake Ladoga area.

 

Central sector of the front, map.

 

– Colonel-General Walter Model, recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, at his post, talking to soldiers.

 

– Due to frequent changes in positions, signalmen have to carry out a particularly difficult task.

 

– They are laying a cable secured to special poles, which will be used to establish communication between the command posts of individual units.

 

– Signalmen in a trench; communication established.

 

– A raid by Soviet aircraft.

 

– Bombs explode in the immediate vicinity of the German trenches.

 

– Alarm.

 

– German artillery, mortars and machine guns fire on Soviet tanks.

 

– A German infantry counter-attack; Germans in camouflage uniforms are running.

 

– The battlefield after the attack.

 

– Destroyed Soviet equipment.

 

– German soldiers taking a smoke break.

 

– The skirmish continues.

Courier Adolf Hitler: 1914 – 1918

 

DOWNLOAD THE BOOK IN PDF FORMAT

 

By His War Comrade Balthasar Brandmayer

 

Translated from the rare German original, Meldegänger Adolf Hitler: 1914-1918, published in 1931. It was written by one of Adolf Hitler’s closest war comrades, Balthasar Brandmayer, who served in the same courier squad from 1915 to 1918. This first-hand account by a man who fought at Adolf Hitler’s side on the bloody western front – published before Hitler came to power – is certainly of historic interest to any student of the most influential man of the twentieth century or, for that matter, of the First World War.

Idea and Appearance of the Empire

Source: SS Leitheft, No. 7. 1943

 

The idea of the nationalist state must be defeated

 

As clear as the struggle for the defence of our homeland against the onslaught from the East is, so clear are the outlines of a new organisation of Europe, outlines that no longer follow the borders assigned to them by a nationalist conception. What calls millions of men to arms in Europe today is not only the struggle for raw materials and living space, but also the will for a radical reorganisation of this continent for which it is worth living and dying. The fact that thousands of Norwegians, Dutchmen, Flemings and Walloons are fighting on the Eastern Front in the ranks of the Waffen SS can only be seen as a symptom of an awakening of energy among the Germanic peoples, who, beyond the boundaries of the political order in which they have lived up to now, are seeking the path to a new future. There can be no doubt that our vision of what Europe will be one day when this harsh and relentless struggle is over already takes us far beyond the limits of the old nationalistic conception. No thinking mind in Europe believes that at the end of this bitter struggle, as fate will decide for ever, the restoration of the old political order can take place. Just as the sacrifices of the present war legitimize, at its conclusion, the creation of an order which corresponds to the breadth and depth of the National Socialist revolution accomplished in the heart of the continent. This new order can only be established on the basis of the idea of race. The Dutch, the Flemings, the Walloons, the Scandinavians, who today are fighting alongside us in the ranks of the Waffen SS, are not only defending their homes against the Asian wave, they are also the pioneers of a reorganisation of Europe on the foundations of the Germanic idea. In this way, a process similar to that which led to the creation of Bismarck’s Reich seventy years ago is taking place on the European territory. 

 

A young Danish volunteer with the face of a child.

 

Heinrich Himmler visits his SS on the Eastern Front in 1941.

 

The SS unites many European nationalities under its runic emblem.

 

At that time, the German principalities, under the influence of the nationalist principle, joined together to form an Empire. The National Socialist revolution has absorbed the nationalist idea and replaced it with the idea of race. Therefore, at the end of this war, a new European order must be established on the basis of Germanic solidarity. The nationalist idea flourished in Bismarck’s Reich. At the moment when the innumerable waves of Asia are attacking the borders of Europe, the continent is turning back to that great historical construction which it had already built centuries earlier on the basis of Germanness. We have reached a point in evolution where the concept of race begins to become a historical and political reality. The people and the nation appear more and more as particular expressions of this concept. The revolution in political thought which first took place within our Empire soon extended its effects beyond the borders of the old Reich. It can no longer be contained; it is sweeping away the old errors of the old liberal doctrine with the same unyielding rigour with which it is tearing down the small artificial states created by the English policy of balance. The test of the war against the Asiatic enemy no longer permits the survival of the system of States which was born at Versailles. And now we find ourselves in the hour of struggle and danger before a new European organisation; we are witnessing the birth of a racial Empire.

 

This is the aim of our struggle. All those are called who are influenced in their attitude by the same blood. The German feels, of course, that he is the heart of this Empire which must embrace the whole area of our race. But he must not regard this Empire as an extension of the nationalist idea. The German nationalist idea acquired a new dimension in 1938. Our opponents want to persuade the peoples of Europe of the idea that everything that followed was only the consequence of German imperialism. Here too they have failed to understand the National Socialist revolution. It could not lead to imperialism but must, according to its principles, integrate the national state of the Germans into a vast Germanic Empire. All attempts to define in legal-political terms the future relationship of the Germanic states to the Empire can only fail because existing concepts such as federation, federal system, federalism belong to the realm of the past and miss the revolution in our thinking brought about by the concept of race. The German revolution is becoming a Germanic revolution. On the battlefields of the most terrible war that has ever been waged against a hostile world trying to smother the germ of a new vital order accomplished by the German revolution, there is a powerful appeal to the Germanic peoples to form a Germanic Empire of their own.

 

The Eternal Empire

 

The idea of a Nordic Empire is not a product of our time. It accompanies our entire historical existence as the image of an ordered world which invites the man of our race, on the strength of his creative artistic power, his inventive gifts, and his ability to found a cohesive organic system on the model of the Empire. The proud centuries of the history of the German

 

Empire are still close enough to us to remind us that all states owe their foundation to the energy of Nordic leaders: the state of the Cheruscan Armin, of the Battalion Civilis, of Marbod, that of the Burgundians, of the Vandals, of Theodoric and Charlemagne, the creator of the Germanic West, the state of the Varegues which extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, that of the Vikings and that of the Normans. The history of these Germanic peoples is our own history. We can experience today that in the ranks of the Waffen SS there are prominent representatives of the Germanic ethnic group who for centuries have waged a difficult and united struggle against the forces of the foreigner and who speak of the Empire as an idea which they have defended with arms and safeguarded. This is proof that the historical structures of the past still have an active influence and that the idea of empire outside the German state has been kept alive. It is now a matter of revising this historical image which hostile propaganda and false schooling have aroused in the Germanic populations of the West and the North and of re-establishing historical relationships such as those which conceded to the Dutch, Flemish, Walloons, and Scandinavians for centuries while they were members of the Reich, a civilised, free and flourishing life. We must think in terms of centuries. Enemy propaganda has profoundly changed the original face of these countries. The state organisations which the French Revolution and the English policy of equilibrium built up with such artifice and tenacity are condemned by the iron law of history. The political creations of the 19th century are now definitively collapsing. The idea of Empire, on the other hand, is being reborn, like the phoenix from its ashes; it is being reborn among all peoples of Germanic blood who no longer believe in the possibility of a political existence distinct from the Reich, if not directed against it. The idea of Empire is the strongest tradition on the continent and, therefore, the most decisive real force for a lasting historical order.

 

The Empire and Europe

 

We agree today that the political creations of the Germans in the past could only be ephemeral, for the energy of the race, a feeling of inexhaustible wealth, was diluted in a foreign ethnic group. The idea of the race makes it our duty in the future to preserve and concentrate our energy in the strictest possible way. The tragic division that dominated the Middle Ages Empire arose from its dispersal and from an often deficient or too narrow consciousness. This alone explains why the Europe of the time, already structured according to the Germanic principle, succumbed to the universalism of imperial Rome and Christianity, and why precious blood was shed for ideas that were at odds with its history and way of thinking; it is necessary to acknowledge the faults of the past if the future is to take shape.

 

It must therefore be made clear that a lasting order in Europe can only be established by the Empire. The destiny of Europe in the future will be as it was in the past, determined by the destiny of the Empire. Europe was a unit, the centre of human civilisation, as long as the Empire was great and powerful. At the time when it reached the height of its power, the kings of England and France considered themselves vassals of the German Empire. But Europe was disturbed and left to the aggression of powers outside its area, when the Empire broke up. We must remember that the name as well as the historical reality we imply in the word “Europe” is a creation of the Nordic race. That is why the Empire is also in the future the European heart and bridgehead, the magnetic centre that attracts and holds together the Germanic peoples. It is not our task to define the political structure that the future holds for the community of European peoples. The answer to the question raised by the situation of the Dutch, Walloons and Scandinavians in relation to the Empire can only be given at the end of the war and in the light of the Fiihrer’s decision. It will certainly result from an examination of the participation of these peoples in the struggle for the regeneration of this continent. It will by no means be formed on the basis of a fixed scheme, valid for all; nor will it proceed from the methods and vocabulary of liberal nationalist and legal theories. What will emerge will be a true community order, within which each one will have a place and a rank according to the results and sacrifices made for the whole and the specificity and particularities of its own being. The position of a particular Germanic people’s unit within this Empire will be determined in accordance with the political and spiritual energy which radiates from it. The ultimate decision will not be taken at a conference table, but on the battlefields where the Germanic peoples under German leadership are fighting for their future as equal members of the future Empire. The Waffen SS has been given the task by the Führer of cultivating the Germanic idea. It is its immediate duty to prepare the way for the new Reich, for which members of all Germanic peoples are fighting and dying in its ranks.

 

Any Empire that is divided weakens. So, no Empire disappears without internal division. The building of a house and the creation of an Empire require the same unity.

 

Paracelsus

Richard Wagner - Parsifal

Written: 1877-1882; Germany

Date of Recording: 1981

Venue:  Bayreuth, Germany

Bayreuther Festspiele, 1981

Orchestra/Ensemble:  Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Staged by: Wolfgang Wagner

Conductor: Horst Stein

Amfortas: Bernd Weikl

Titurel: Matti Saminen

Gurnemanz: Hans Sotin

Parsifal: Siegfried Jerusalem

Klingsor: Leif Roar

Kundry: Eva Radnova

1st Knight of the Grail: Toni Krämer

2nd Knight of the Grail: Heinz Klaus Ecker

1st Squire: Marga Schiml

2nd Squire: Hanna Schwarz

3rd Squire: Helmut Pampuch

4th Squire: Martin Egel

Flower Maidens: Norma Sharp, Carol Richardson, Hanna Schwarz, Mari-Anne Häggender, Marga Schiml, Margit Neubauer

Alto Solo: Hanna Schwarz

Synopsis

Act 1

In a forest near the home of the Grail and its Knights, Gurnemanz, eldest Knight of the Grail, wakes his young squires and leads them in prayer. He sees Amfortas, King of the Grail Knights, and his entourage approaching. Amfortas has been injured by his own Holy Spear, and the wound will not heal.

Vorspiel

Musical introduction to the work with a duration of c. 9–13 minutes.

Scene 1

Gurnemanz asks the lead Knight for news of the King’s health. The Knight says the King has suffered during the night and is going early to bathe in the holy lake. The squires ask Gurnemanz to explain how the King’s injury can be healed, but he evades their question and a wild woman – Kundry – bursts in. She gives Gurnemanz a vial of balsam, brought from Arabia, to ease the King’s pain and then collapses, exhausted.

Amfortas arrives, borne on a stretcher by Knights of the Grail. He calls out for Gawain, whose attempt at relieving the King’s pain had failed. He is told that Gawain has left again, seeking a better remedy. Raising himself somewhat, the King says going off without leave („Ohn’ Urlaub?“) is the sort of impulsiveness which led himself into Klingsor’s realm and to his downfall. He accepts the potion from Gurnemanz and tries to thank Kundry, but she answers abruptly that thanks will not help and urges him onward to his bath.

The procession leaves. The squires eye Kundry with mistrust and question her. After a brief retort, she falls silent. Gurnemanz tells them Kundry has often helped the Grail Knights but that she comes and goes unpredictably. When he asks directly why she does not stay to help, she answers, „I never help! („Ich helfe nie!“). The squires think she is a witch and sneer that if she does so much, why will she not find the Holy Spear for them? Gurnemanz reveals that this deed is destined for someone else. He says Amfortas was given guardianship of the Spear, but lost it as he was seduced by an irresistibly attractive woman in Klingsor’s domain. Klingsor grabbed the Spear and stabbed Amfortas. The wound causes Amfortas both suffering and shame, and will never heal on its own.

Squires returning from the King’s bath tell Gurnemanz that the balsam has eased the King’s suffering. Gurnemanz’s own squires ask how it is that he knew Klingsor. He solemnly tells them how both the Holy Spear, which pierced the side of the Redeemer on the Cross, and the Holy Grail, which caught the flowing blood, had come to Monsalvat to be guarded by the Knights of the Grail under the rule of Titurel, father of Amfortas. Klingsor had yearned to join the Knights but, unable to keep impure thoughts from his mind, resorted to self-castration, causing him to be expelled from the Order. Klingsor then set himself up in opposition to the realm of the Grail, learning dark arts, claiming the valley domain below and filling it with beautiful Flowermaidens to seduce and enthrall wayward Grail Knights. It was here that Amfortas lost the Holy Spear, kept by Klingsor as he schemes to get hold of the Grail as well. Gurnemanz tells how Amfortas later had a holy vision which told him to wait for a „pure fool, enlightened by compassion“ („Durch Mitleid wissend, der reine Tor“) who will finally heal the wound.

At this moment, cries are heard from the Knights („Weh! Weh!“): a flying swan has been shot, and a young man is brought forth, a bow in his hand and a quiver of matching arrows. Gurnemanz speaks sternly to the lad, saying this is a holy place. He asks him outright if he shot the swan, and the lad boasts that if it flies, he can hit it („Im Fluge treff’ ich was fliegt!“) Gurnemanz tells him that the swan is a holy animal, and asks what harm the swan had done him, and shows the youth its lifeless body. Now remorseful, the young man breaks his bow and casts it aside. Gurnemanz asks him why he is here, who his father is, how he found this place and, lastly, his name. To each question the lad replies, „I don’t know.“ The elder Knight sends his squires away to help the King and now asks the boy to tell what he does know. The young man says he has a mother, Herzeleide (Heart’s Sorrow) and that he made the bow himself. Kundry has been listening and now tells them that this boy’s father was Gamuret, a knight killed in battle, and also how the lad’s mother had forbidden her son to use a sword, fearing that he would meet the same fate as his father. The youth now recalls that upon seeing knights pass through his forest, he had left his home and mother to follow them. Kundry laughs and tells the young man that, as she rode by, she saw Herzeleide die of grief. Hearing this, the lad first lunges at Kundry but then collapses in grief. Kundry herself is now weary for sleep, but cries out that she must not sleep and wishes that she might never again waken. She disappears into the undergrowth.

Gurnemanz knows that the Grail draws only the pious to Monsalvat and invites the boy to observe the Grail rite. The youth does not know what the Grail is, but remarks that as they walk he seems to scarcely move, yet feels as if he is traveling far. Gurnemanz says that in this realm time becomes space („Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit“).

Verwandlungsmusik (Transformation)

An orchestral interlude of about 4 minutes.

Scene 2

They arrive at the Hall of the Grail, where the Knights are assembling to receive Holy Communion („Zum letzten Liebesmahle“). The voice of Titurel is heard, telling his son, Amfortas, to uncover the Grail. Amfortas is wracked with shame and suffering („Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen“). He is the guardian of these holy relics yet has succumbed to temptation and lost the Spear. He declares himself unworthy of his office. He cries out for forgiveness („Erbarmen!“) but hears only the promise that he will one day be redeemed by the pure fool.

On hearing Amfortas’ cry, the youth appears to suffer with him, clutching at his heart. The knights and Titurel urge Amfortas to reveal the Grail („Enthüllet den Gral“), and he finally does. The dark hall is now bathed in the light of the Grail as the Knights eat. Gurnemanz motions to the youth to participate, but he seems entranced and does not. Amfortas does not share in taking communion and, as the ceremony ends, collapses in pain and is carried away. Slowly the hall empties leaving only the young man and Gurnemanz, who asks him if he has understood what he has seen. When the lad cannot answer, Gurnemanz dismisses him as just a fool and sends him out with a warning to hunt geese, if he must, but to leave the swans alone. A voice from high above repeats the promise: „The pure fool, enlightened by compassion“.

Act 2

Vorspiel

Musical introduction of c. 2–3 minutes.

Scene 1

Klingsor’s magic castle. Klingsor conjures up Kundry, waking her from her sleep. He calls her by many names: First Sorceress (Urteufelin), Hell’s Rose (Höllenrose), Herodias, Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry. She is now transformed into an incredibly alluring woman, as when she once seduced Amfortas. She mocks Klingsor’s mutilated condition by sarcastically inquiring if he is chaste („Ha ha! Bist du keusch?“), but she cannot resist his power. Klingsor observes that Parsifal is approaching and summons his enchanted knights to fight the boy. Klingsor watches as Parsifal overcomes his knights, and they flee. Klingsor wishes destruction on their whole race.

Klingsor sees this young man stray into his Flowermaiden garden and calls to Kundry to seek the boy out and seduce him, but when he turns, he sees that Kundry has already left on her mission.

Scene 2

The triumphant youth finds himself in a wondrous garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive Flowermaidens. They call to him and entwine themselves about him while chiding him for wounding their lovers („Komm, komm, holder Knabe!“). They soon fight and bicker among themselves to win his devotion, to the point that he is about to flee, but then a voice calls out, „Parsifal!“ He now recalls this name is what his mother called him when she appeared in his dreams. The Flowermaidens back away from him and call him a fool as they leave him and Kundry alone.

Parsifal wonders if the Garden is a dream and asks how it is that Kundry knows his name. Kundry tells him she learned it from his mother („Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust“), who had loved him and tried to shield him from his father’s fate, the mother he had abandoned and who had finally died of grief. She reveals many parts of Parsifal’s history to him and he is stricken with remorse, blaming himself for his mother’s death. He thinks himself very stupid to have forgotten her. Kundry says this realization is a first sign of understanding and that, with a kiss, she can help him understand his mother’s love. As they kiss Parsifal suddenly recoils in pain and cries out Amfortas’ name: he feels the wounded king’s pain burning in his own side and now understands Amfortas’ passion during the Grail Ceremony („Amfortas! Die Wunde! Die Wunde!“). Filled with this compassion, Parsifal rejects Kundry’s advances.

Furious that her ploy has failed, Kundry tells Parsifal that if he can feel compassion for Amfortas, then he should be able to feel it for her as well. She has been cursed for centuries, unable to rest, because she saw Christ on the cross and laughed at His pains. Now she can never weep, only jeer, and she is enslaved to Klingsor as well. Parsifal rejects her again but then asks her to lead him to Amfortas. She begs him to stay with her for just one hour, and then she will take him to Amfortas. When he still refuses, she curses him to wander without ever finding the Kingdom of the Grail, and finally calls on her master Klingsor to help her.

Klingsor appears and throws the Spear at Parsifal, but it stops in midair, above his head. Parsifal takes it and makes the sign of the Cross with it. The castle crumbles and the enchanted garden withers. As Parsifal leaves, he tells Kundry that she knows where she can find him.

Act 3

Vorspiel

Musical introduction of c. 4–6 minutes.

Scene 1

The scene is the same as that of the opening of the opera, in the domain of the Grail, but many years later. Gurnemanz is now aged and bent. It is Good Friday. He hears moaning near his hermit’s hut and discovers Kundry unconscious in the brush, as he had many years before („Sie! Wieder da!“). He revives her using water from the Holy Spring, but she will only speak the word „serve“ („Dienen“). Gurnemanz wonders if there is any significance to her reappearance on this special day. Looking into the forest, he sees a figure approaching, armed and in full armour. The stranger wears a helmet and the hermit cannot see who it is. Gurnemanz queries him and chides him for being armed on sanctified ground and on a holy day, but gets no response. Finally, the apparition removes the helmet and Gurnemanz recognizes the lad who shot the swan, and joyfully sees that he bears the Holy Spear.

Parsifal tells of his desire to return to Amfortas („Zu ihm, des tiefe Klagen“). He relates his long journey, how he wandered for years, unable to find a path back to the Grail. He had often been forced to fight, but never wielded the Spear in battle. Gurnemanz tells him that the curse preventing Parsifal from finding his right path has now been lifted, but that in his absence Amfortas has never unveiled the Grail, and lack of its sustaining properties has caused the death of Titurel. Parsifal is overcome with remorse, blaming himself for this state of affairs. Gurnemanz tells him that today is the day of Titurel’s funeral, and that Parsifal has a great duty to perform. Kundry washes Parsifal’s feet and Gurnemanz anoints him with water from the Holy Spring, recognizing him as the pure fool, now enlightened by compassion, and as the new King of the Knights of the Grail.

Parsifal looks about and comments on the beauty of the meadow. Gurnemanz explains that today is Good Friday, when all the world is renewed. Parsifal baptizes the weeping Kundry. Tolling bells are heard in the distance. Gurnemanz says „Midday: the hour has come. My lord, permit your servant to guide you!“ („Mittag: – Die Stund ist da: gestatte Herr, dass dich dein Knecht geleite“) – and all three set off for the castle of the Grail. A dark orchestral interlude („Mittag“) leads into the solemn gathering of the knights.

Scene 2

Within the castle of the Grail, Amfortas is brought before the Grail shrine and Titurel’s coffin. He cries out, asking his dead father to grant him rest from his sufferings and expresses the desire to join him in death („Mein Vater! Hochgesegneter der Helden!“). The Knights of the Grail passionately urge Amfortas to uncover the Grail again but Amfortas, in a frenzy, says he will never again show the Grail. He commands the Knights, instead, to kill him and end his suffering and the shame he has brought on the Knighthood. At this moment, Parsifal steps forth and says that only one weapon can heal the wound („Nur eine Waffe taugt“). He touches Amfortas’ side with the Spear and both heals and absolves him. Parsifal commands the unveiling of the Grail. As all present kneel, Kundry, released from her curse, sinks lifeless to the ground as a white dove descends and hovers above Parsifal.