Großer Wachaufzug
The Großer Wachaufzug was a military ceremony and guard mounting in Berlin, the capital Germany, held on certain occasions at the Neue Wache. The building has been the center of guard duties performed since 1931.
History
Before 1945
It was introduced on 18 September 1818 on occasion of the state visit of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, with the Prussian 1st Guards Grenadiers mounting the first guard.It took place for 100 years until the end of the Prussian monarchy in November 1918. The event ended with a concert by the respective regimental military band in the Kastanienwäldchen. The Weimar Republic had initially abolished ceremony until the Reichswehr formed the Berlin Guard in 1921. It was not until 1925 that Reich President Paul von Hindenburg reintroduce the ceremony, being a ceremony held twice a week. It consisted of a band leading a guard through the Brandenburg Gate, across Pariser Platz into Unter den Linden. On May 31, the anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, the Reichsmarine served as guards. On 12 March 1933, the German government under the Nazi Party reintroduced the "Wachaufzug unter den Linden", after a two-year hiatus. It was mounted by the Infantry Regiment Großdeutschland, and later by the Luftwaffe Guard Battalion under the command of a lieutenant on horseback. Up until the Battle of Berlin in the last weeks of the Second World War, the ceremony was moved across the linden trees in front of the Neue Wache.