Photo: STUTTGART POLICE / copyright
A blurred newspaper image may be the only record of the time the UK flag and the Nazi swastika flew together on British soil.
The photograph, discovered recently, was taken during a visit of a German boxing team to the English city of Nottingham in October from 1936.
Despite the increase in tension between the two countries, visits between groups and societies were common .
“It’s quite chilling to see the two flags side by side,” says historian Tom Andrews.
The flags flew together in front of the now County Hotel demolished to welcome you to the German Stuttgart Police Boxing Club.
Despite the First World War, United Kingdom maintained strong ties with Germany , even after Hitler took over and became more belligerent.
The desire to support these ties led to a series of events that, in retrospect, are discordant.
This included a swastika flying over the White Heart Lane soccer field in 1930 and, perhaps most infamously, e l England football team do do the Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938.
“We often forget how cordial relations were between Great Britain and Germany. There was an Anglo-German camaraderie, ”says Professor Julie Gottlieb, an expert in modern history.
“The two countries were trading partners until 1939. But I can’t think of another example where the two flags flew side by side in the UK. ”
Andrews has investigated the Chief of Police of Nottingham in wartime, Athelstan Popkess.
“Popkess was interested in his officers playing sports, especially boxing, and competing against other police teams,” says Andrews.
“This resulted in a goodwill visit to the Stuttgart police, and the Nottingham team moved to Germany first. ”
“ I had heard accounts of the two flags flying together but I didn’t think there were any photos. ”
Upon hearing the story, an Andrews contact reviewed the archives of the Stuttgart Police.
“He found the photo but didn’t know what building it was in, so I tracked down the location,” adds Andrews.
“It’s quite chilling to see the two flags flying side by side three years before the war broke out.”
“But Popkess saw the militarization of Germany and that led him to organize precautions against air strikes in Nottingham, which became an example that many cities followed. ”
The visit was used for propaganda purposes by the Nazis and An accompanying article reported how the town sheriff had encouraged Hitler and that the hosts gave the Nazi salute when the German national anthem was played.
But Gottlieb says these actions need to be seen in context.
“The swastika didn’t have the same impact then as it does now,” he says.
“But you didn’t have to look very far to see the evidence of what the Nazis were like, especially with the Nuremberg laws and the persecution of minorities,” he highlights.
The UK had its own far-right party, led by the fascist Oswald Mosley.
The British Union of Fascists (UBF) had 50. 000 members at the beginning of the decade of 1930 And it is was involved in various public disturbances.
“But they never used the swastika. As an ultra-nationalist and patriotic movement, they used the British flag, ”says Gottlieb.
“ When, in the mid-decade of the 30, the UBF was aligning itself more with the Nazis, it changed its own symbol for a flash in a circle, which gave them the nickname of ‘flash in the pan ‘”
“ But they were never really a major political force. The greatest concern was centered on the fascist tendencies in the government. ”
“The organization was more willing to give Hitler the benefit of the doubt, and appeasement was the expression of this. But after ‘the night of broken glass’ in November 1938, there were few public defenders of the Nazis, ”concludes Gottlieb.
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