June 23

1760 The Battle of Landshut takes place in Silesia. A Prussian army of 12,000 men under General Fouqué engage an Austrian army of over 28,000 men under General von Loudon and suffer a defeat, with its commander taken prisoner.

1883 Birth: Ludwig Mueller, head of the German Faith Movement and Reich Bishop. When Hitler comes to power, Mueller will become plenipotentiary for all problems concerning the Evangelical Church, acting as the leading figure in the Association of German Christians. In late summer 1933, he begins actively organizing opposition to Pastor Martin Niemöller's (Niemoeller) Confessional Church, but due to Hitler's lack of support, Mueller's influence will gradually decline after 1935. He will commit suicide in Berlin in March 1946.

Calling themselves the "Storm Troopers of Jesus Christ," and believing Hitler was an instrument of God, a group of Nazi Protestant theologians spearheaded a drive in 1933 to align the Protestant churches of Germany with pagan Nordic ritual and the goals of the Nazis. Their goal, one Reich church under centralized leadership, produced the coerced election of Ludwig Müller, Hitler's advisor on church matters, to the new post of Reich bishop of the Protestant Church. Müller was an antisemitic nationalist, a military chaplain who believed racial "mongrelization was immoral and should be prohibited by law ...

1894 Birth: Edward VIII, Edward Patrick David, Duke of Windsor. Edward will be the only British monarch to have voluntarily relinquished the throne; the monarch with the second-shortest reign in British history after Edward V; and the two are the only British monarchs never to have been crowned

Many historians have suggested that Hitler was prepared to reinstate Edward and Wallis as King and Queen of Britain, if he conquered the country, and is apparently to have said to Wallis, "you would make a good Queen." Some historians have suggested that the Duke (and especially the Duchess) sympathized with Fascism before and during World War II, and had to remain in the Bahamas to minimize their opportunities to act on those feelings. These revised assessments of his career hinge on some wartime information released in 1996, and on further secret files released by the UK government in 2003. The files had remained closed for decades, as Whitehall judged that they would cause the Queen Mother substantial distress if released during her lifetime. US naval intelligence revealed a confidential report of a conference of German foreign officials in October 1941, that judged the Duke "no enemy to Germany" and the only English representative with whom Hitler would negotiate any peace terms, "the logical director of England's destiny after the war.

1911 Volkishness: Guido von List takes members of the HAO on a "pilgrimage" to the St. Stephen's catacombs in Vienna, where List claimed to have first sensed Wotan while still a child. They then continue on to other Wotanist "sanctuaries" on the Kahlenberg, the Leopoldsberg and at Klosterneuburg. (THP)

1915 WW1: Two Italian armies, each of approximately 100,000 troops, attack toward Gorizia during the First Battle of the Isonzo. They batter in vain against the heavily fortified Austrian defenses.

1916 Swiss police shut down Zurich's Cafe Voltaire, regarding its artist patrons as dangerous. Note: This Cafe is one frequented by neighboring resident Mr. Uljanov, better known as Lenin, the Russian revolutionary.

1917 WW1: Note to the US Government from the Russian Democratic Government (via the Russian Ambassador to the US, Boris Bakhmeteff:

On behalf of the Russian Provisional Government and in behalf of all the people of new Russia, I have been first of all sent here to express their gratitude to the Government of the United States for the prompt recognition of the new political order in Russia. This noble action of the world's greatest democracy has afforded us strong moral support and has created among our people a general feeling of profound appreciation. Close and active relationship between the two nations based upon complete and sincere understanding encountered inevitable obstacles during the old regime because of its very nature.  The situation is now radically changed with free Russia starting a new era in her national life. The Provisional Government is actively mobilizing all its resources and is making great efforts to organize the country and the army for the purpose of conducting the war ...

1919 Defeat of German forces at Cesis in northern Latvia during Estonian Liberation War, now celebrated annually as Estonian Victory Day.

1919 Volkishness: Sebottendorff, now living in Constance, Switzerland, summons his sister, Dora Kunze, and his mistress, Kathe Bierbaumer. Soon afterward he converts the Muenchener Beobachter into a limited liability company, the Franz Eher Verlag Nachf. Bierbaumer is given 110,000 of the 120,000 marks of capital stock issued and Kunze the remaining 10,000. (THP)

1922 Weimar: Adolf Hitler is once again one of the main speakers at a meeting of Walter Riehl's Austrian Nazi party (DNSAP) in Vienna. (THP)

1928 Further Correspondence with Government of the United States respecting the United States Proposal for the Renunciation of War:

There is nothing in the American draft of an antiwar treaty which restricts or impairs in any way the right of self-defense. That right is inherent in every sovereign State and is implicit in every treaty. Every nation is free at all times and regardless of treaty provisions, to defend its territories from attack or invasion, and it alone is competent to decide whether circumstances require recourse to war in self-defence. If it has a good case, the world will applaud and not condemn its action. Express recognition by treaty of this inalienable right, however, gives rise to the same difficulty encountered in any effort to define aggression ...

1934 Italian warships occupy the Albanian port of Durazzo.

1935 Mussolini rejects British concessions concerning Abyssinia.

1940 WW2: Hitler makes a brief tour of occupied Paris.

The newspaper vendor in the Place de l'Opera couldn't believe his eyes. There, almost within reach, stood Adolf Hitler, conqueror of France. The German leader was posing for photographers in front of the famous Opera, behaving like any ordinary sightseer. The time was 6 am; the date June 23, 1940, just one day after the French capitulation. For Hitler, who had flown in from Belgium, the visit-his first and last-was a dream come true. His yearning to see Paris had begun when, as an art student, he had pored over pictures of the city's historic sites. Now, Paris lay under his victorious hand, all his own to savor as few men had been privileged to do. Oddly, Hitler, with his aides, an armed escort and two artist favorites, architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker, chose to pack his dream into three pell - mell hours, like a vacationing school teacher on a 10 - city package tour.

From the Opera, the motorcade went on to the Madeleine, one of the city's numerous memorials to the Napoleonic era, then drove around the Arc de Triomphe in an open car and stopped near the Eiffel Tower, where Hitler paused for a travel album snapshot with his artist companions. At Napoleon's Tomb, in the Invalides, the Fuhrer stared at the red porphyry sarcophagus of Europe's last great conqueror, and murmured, "This is the finest moment of my life."

1940 Those Vichy French: Pierre Laval is appointed Deputy Premier by Petain. General Weygand cashiers General de Gaulle.

1940 WW2: From the German Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Schulenburg) to the German Foreign Office:

Molotov made the following statement to me today: The solution of the Bessarabian question brooked no further delay. The Soviet Government was still striving for a peaceful solution, but it was determined to use force, should the Rumanian Government decline a peaceful agreement. The Soviet claim likewise extended to Bucovina, which had a Ukrainian population. As justification Molotov declared that, although a long time had elapsed since his declaration before the Supreme Soviet, Rumania had done nothing to bring about a solution of the Bessarabian problem. Therefore, something would have to be done. I stated to Molotov that this decision of the Soviet Government had not been expected by me. I had been of the opinion that the Soviet Government would maintain its claims to Bessarabia-not contested by us-but would not itself take the initiative toward their realization. I feared that difficulties in the foreign relations of Rumania, which was at present supplying us with very large amounts of essential military and civilian raw materials, would lead to a serious encroachment on German interests. I told Molotov that I would report to my government at once, and I requested him not to take any decisive steps before my Government had taken a stand concerning the intentions of the Soviet Government. Molotov promised to inform the Soviet Government of my request but emphasized expressly that the matter was extremely urgent. Molotov added that the Soviet Government expected Germany not to hinder but to support the Soviets in their action. The Soviet Government on its part would do everything to safeguard German interests in Rumania. Accordingly, I request immediate instruction by wire. I take the liberty of calling attention to the numerous Volksdeutsche residing in Bessarabia and Bucovina for whom provision of some sort will have to be made.

1940 Gulag: Third of four mass deportations of Poles to Siberia by the Soviets. Taken are 240,000 of those who fled the Nazis, small merchants, doctors, teachers and journalists.

1941 Barbarossa: The Luftwaffe (German Air Force) destroys over 2,000 Red Air Force aircraft. Many are caught on the ground in the first hours of the assault. The numerically strongest air force in the world is wiped out in 48 hours. The Commander of Russian Aviation, General Rychagov, is given the death sentence for "treasonable activity" (i.e., defeat.) German forces of Heeresgruppe Sued cross the river Bug in southern Poland and capture Brest-Litovsk. Slovakia declares war on the Soviet Union.  (Clark II)

1941 WW2: Lithuanian Activist Front initiates Lithuanian 1941 independence from the Soviet Union; it lasted only briefly as the Nazis occupied Lithuania a few weeks later. Estimates for the number of the Lithuanian rebels vary from 30,000 to 100,000; the latter figure possibly includes some inactive LAF members.

1941 Holocaust: The first group of Polish and Polish-Jewish mental patients are deported to Auschwitz.

1942 WW2: The Afrikakorps reaches the Egyptian border near El Alamein.

1942 Holocaust: By this time, almost all 15,000 Serbian Jews deported to the concentration camp at Zemun have been gassed in mobile gas units, disguised as Red Cross vans (see November 1941 and August 29, 1942). (THP)

1944 WW2: Generaloberst Dietl, C-in-C of 20th Gebirgsarmee on the Arctic front in northern Finland, is killed in an air crash.

The Russians are the only power that can do anything in Rumania, and I thought it was agreed between you and me that ... they should try to give coherent direction to what happened there. In point of fact we have all three cooperated closely in handling in Cairo the recent Rumanian peace-feelers. On the other hand, the Greek burden rests almost entirely upon us ...

I cannot admit that I have done anything wrong in this matter. It would not be possible for three people in different parts of the world to work together effectively if no one of them may make a suggestion to either of the others without simultaneously keeping the third informed. A recent example of this is the message you have sent quite properly to Uncle Joe about your conversations with the Poles, of which as yet I have heard nothing from you. I am not complaining at all of this, because I know we are working for the general theme and purposes, and I hope you will feel that has been so in my conduct of the Greek affair ...

I am keeping you constantly informed, and I hope to have your confidence and help within the spheres of action in which initiative is assigned to us.

1944 WW2: German author Thomas Mann becomes a US citizen.

1951 Death: General Henri Philippe Petain dies in a French prison.