BARBAROSSA AND ADOLF HITLER

Hitler sent his Panzer troops into Russia on June 22, 1941. His invasion plans were kept secret but when his armies moved, he shocked the world as well as the Russian people who thought they were safe from him for a period. At the time, this move into Russia was the largest military invasion the world had ever witnessed. Hitler called the invasion Barbarossa! And he thought that he would have captured all of Russia by December of that year. He had the same dreams of Napoleon who also lost his armies to the Russian winter! What did the word Barbarossa mean and where did it come from? The Italian word was applied to the German Emperor Friedrich ("Lord of Peace") or Friedrich I (1152-1190). The word means "red" because of his red beard. Friedrich was a strong willed ruler who returned Germany again to the leadership of the Christian world, though Germany was actually an Empire or collection of some 100 independent states. Friedrich proclaimed a "Landfried" or Peace of the Land, whereby he enforced his rule on all of the German people. He was "a terror to evildoers" and his enemies. It is said he advanced civilization in Germany that up to that time was a pretty backward people. Friedrich may have been the first ruler to speak of the "Holy Roman Empire." He imagined himself as the world emperor ruling all of Europe. It is said that he hoped "that the entire world would consider him as emperor, as well as the Italian pope, who was at that time the vice-ruler of God." Friedrich held absolute authority over all of the Empire, and supposedly owned all the property within it. With an iron fist he held total control over Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary. In his last year (1189), he led the Third Crusade into the Holy Land, hoping to unify both East and West in a Roman Empire restored to its ancient scope. When in the 1800s Bismarck united all of Germany into one state, a proud people, the Germans, saw in him Barbarossa rising triumphantly from the tomb. When Hitler invaded Russia, he called that invasion Barbarossa. He dreamed of the glory of old Germany controlling and ruling the world. And he saw that domination beginning with the conquest of the Slavs, the backward Russian people. Hitler also dreamed of restoring Imperial Rome to its glory. His armies carried Roman standards in parades. Hitler knew history more than we give him credit for! It is no accident that he saw the German Empire (or the Roman Empire) lasting for 1,000 years, the same length of time that the Kingdom of Christ will last on earth! – Dr. Mal Couch