CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE, July 27, 1935

• German ocean liner SS Bremen incident
• Anti-fascist protesters storm ship
• Nazi flag is torn down and disposed of

Page 3 a one column heading: "2,000 Reds Tear German Flag Off Ship At New York" (see image)  
Complete with all 22 pages, rag edition in very nice condition. A few small binding holes along the spine.

Background: On July 26, 1935, the SS Bremen incident ignited a diplomatic firestorm when a group of anti-fascist protesters, led by communist seaman Bill Bailey, boarded the German luxury liner at Pier 86 in New York City and tore the swastika flag from its jackstaff, tossing it into the Hudson River. The act occurred amidst a chaotic riot involving over a thousand demonstrators on the pier, but the true historical weight of the event landed in the courtroom of Magistrate Louis Brodsky. In a scathing ruling that dismissed charges against the "Bremen Six," Brodsky characterized the Nazi emblem as a "black flag of piracy" representing a "revolt against civilization," an assessment that infuriated the German government. This legal defiance provided Adolf Hitler with the perfect pretext to radicalize German symbolism; within weeks, at the Nuremberg Rally, the Reich Flag Law was enacted, officially replacing the traditional imperial tricolor with the swastika as the sole national flag of Germany. Consequently, a localized act of Manhattan street protest became the direct catalyst for the formal "Nazification" of German national identity on the world stage.