Embassy Shuns Baltimore German Celebration Because Swastika is Not Displayed

September 13, 1933

Baltimore (Sep. 12)

Representatives of the German Reich shunned the German Day celebration here at Carlin’s Park, although in all the thirty-two years that the day has been celebrated here, either the German Ambassador or his representative had been present.

No Swastika flag, no official German recognition, was the dictum of the Embassy at Washington. As there was no such flag, there was no recognition.

The absence was not mentioned on the platform, however, and few persons present remarked upon it. The annual outdoor gathering of the Independent Citizens’ Union of Maryland and the United Singing Societies of Baltimore jammed their section of the park with a crowd of 15,000 persons.

It was a singing, marching, orating, beer-drinking and eating crowd, and most of the speakers remarked upon its good humor and gayety.

The black, white and red flag of the republic was the emblem carried in the procession beside the Stars and Stripes. In Germany at present the Swastika flag is carried with the black, white and red banner. Officials of the Independent Citizens’ Unions decided recently, however, that they would not fly the two flags together, and gave as the reason their opinion that the Swastika flag is political and not national.