2nd September 1936
Tegernsee

Tegernsee

The German tourist town of Tegernsee has stripped Adolf Hitler of honorary citizenship after 83 years. Hitler’s honour was revoked by Conservative mayor Johannes Hagn and the 16 town councillors. Hagn said: ‘It took so long because we didn’t actually know if he was still on the books as an honorary citizen and it turned out he was... We thought the honour had died off with him but that turned out not to be the case so we had to officially expunge him from the books.’ 

Tegernsee in Bavaria was one of thousands of communities to honour Hitler after he came to power in 1933. He visited the town with Paul von Hindenburg, the German president who paved the way for him to become chancellor, and both were given the keys to the town. Hitler was later photographed at the wheel of a boat on the lake the town takes its name from. 

During the war the stretch of water became known as ‘Bonzo See’ – Lake Big Shot – because of the number of Nazi chiefs who bought holiday homes there. In the past decade hundreds of towns and villages have stripped Hitler of honours heaped on him during 12 years of Nazi rule.

The Daily Mail, 7th April 2016

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