Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939

E44334

Reichstag speech historical event political speech

Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939 was the address to the German parliament in which he announced and attempted to justify the invasion of Poland, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe.

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All labels observed (3)

Label	Occurrences
Adolf Hitler in Reichstag speech	1
Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939 canonical	1
Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 30 January 1939	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T349722 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939
Context triple: [Gleiwitz incident, pretextFor, Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939]

A. Gleiwitz incident
The Gleiwitz incident was a staged 1939 false-flag attack by Nazi Germany on a German radio station, used as propaganda to justify the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II.
B. Reichstag Fire Decree
The Reichstag Fire Decree was an emergency order issued by President Paul von Hindenburg in 1933 that suspended key civil liberties in Germany and enabled the Nazi regime’s subsequent dictatorship.
C. Invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland was the 1939 German and Soviet military campaign that triggered the start of World War II in Europe.
D. Nuremberg Party Rally
The Nuremberg Party Rally was a massive annual propaganda event held by the Nazi Party in Nuremberg, showcasing its power, ideology, and militaristic pageantry.
E. German attack on Westerplatte
The German attack on Westerplatte was the opening military engagement of World War II in Europe, where German forces assaulted a Polish military transit depot near Gdańsk in early September 1939.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939
Target entity description: Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939 was the address to the German parliament in which he announced and attempted to justify the invasion of Poland, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe.

A. Gleiwitz incident
The Gleiwitz incident was a staged 1939 false-flag attack by Nazi Germany on a German radio station, used as propaganda to justify the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II.
B. Reichstag Fire Decree
The Reichstag Fire Decree was an emergency order issued by President Paul von Hindenburg in 1933 that suspended key civil liberties in Germany and enabled the Nazi regime’s subsequent dictatorship.
C. Invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland was the 1939 German and Soviet military campaign that triggered the start of World War II in Europe.
D. Nuremberg Party Rally
The Nuremberg Party Rally was a massive annual propaganda event held by the Nazi Party in Nuremberg, showcasing its power, ideology, and militaristic pageantry.
E. German attack on Westerplatte
The German attack on Westerplatte was the opening military engagement of World War II in Europe, where German forces assaulted a Polish military transit depot near Gdańsk in early September 1939.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (48)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	Reichstag speech ⓘ historical event ⓘ political speech ⓘ
audience	German public ⓘ members of the Reichstag ⓘ
chronologicalRelation	delivered after the Gleiwitz incident ⓘ delivered before the British and French declarations of war on Germany ⓘ delivered on the first day of the German invasion of Poland ⓘ
containsElement	appeals to German unity ⓘ denunciations of the Treaty of Versailles ⓘ false allegations of Polish attacks on German territory ⓘ propaganda claims of Polish aggression ⓘ references to ethnic Germans in Poland ⓘ
country	Germany ⓘ
date	1939-09-01 ⓘ
declaredState	state of war between Germany and Poland ⓘ
historicalPeriod	Nazi era ⓘ linked to: Nazism World War II ⓘ
ideology	German nationalism ⓘ Nazism ⓘ
language	German ⓘ
mainTopic	Danzig (Gdańsk) question ⓘ German territorial claims in Eastern Europe ⓘ German–Polish relations ⓘ Nazi foreign policy ⓘ invasion of Poland ⓘ outbreak of World War II in Europe ⓘ
medium	radio broadcast ⓘ
place	Reichstag building, Berlin ⓘ linked to: Reichstag building
politicalContext	German expansionism ⓘ Nazi dictatorship in Germany ⓘ breakdown of the European diplomatic order of the 1930s ⓘ
purpose	announcement of the German attack on Poland ⓘ blaming Poland for the outbreak of hostilities ⓘ mobilization of German public opinion for war ⓘ portraying Germany as acting in self-defense ⓘ propaganda justification of the invasion of Poland ⓘ
recordingExists	audio recording ⓘ transcript ⓘ
relatedEvent	German invasion of Poland ⓘ linked to: Invasion of Poland Gleiwitz incident ⓘ Nazi–Soviet Pact ⓘ linked to: Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact beginning of World War II in Europe ⓘ
relatedWork	Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 30 January 1939 ⓘ linked to: Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939
significance	important primary source for historians of the Second World War ⓘ key document in the history of Nazi propaganda ⓘ symbolic starting point of World War II in Europe ⓘ
speaker	Adolf Hitler ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Gleiwitz incident → pretextFor → Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939 ⓘ

Nacht der langen Messer → justifiedBy → Adolf Hitler in Reichstag speech ⓘ

linked to: Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939

Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 1 September 1939 → relatedWork → Hitler’s Reichstag speech of 30 January 1939 ⓘ