Spear of Destiny (Speech)

The Spear of Destiny, a mystical object passed down and rumored to possess the power to rule the world. It’s been in the hands of some of histories most famous and powerful people. But does it really contain the power to “take over the world?” Well, lets take a look.

The story of this spear goes all the way back to the days of Jesus. It’s said that this is the spear used by Longinus to check and see if Jesus was dead while he was up on the cross. After this point, the history has been murky and debatable until 1098 when the First Crusade captured the city of Antioch and a peasant named Peter Bartholomew claimed to the courts that he had a vision. He claimed the spear was buried under the cathedral of St. Anthony in Antioch. They didn’t think much of what he had said because he was known as a drunkard in the area but, as excitement started to fill the room, they permitted him to go and check if it’s there. His “vision” then turned out to be true.

The leader of the First Crusade’s next voyage, Bohemond, had the spear in the possession of the Crusaders at all times. They won all the battles they were in for the next year and, over this time, people started questioning how genuine the spear was. The questioning reached such a peak that Peter himself ordered an ordeal by fire so they made a narrow passage between two massive blazing piles of fire. Peter, wearing nothing but a tunic and holding the spear, attempted to walk the passage and was burnt to death. Not many people believed in the spear’s authenticity after that point but it was kept at Constantinople for years until it was later brought to St Peter’s in Rome.

Charlemagne and Barbarossa both had the spear during their “reigns.” Charlemagne carried the spear with him through 47 successful battles but, supposedly, he died when he dropped it during the 48th battle. Barbarossa actually had the same fate when he dropped the spear while crossing a river and drowned. Napoleon Bonaparte made an attempt to get his hand on the spear after the battle of Austerlitz but they smuggled it out of Vienna before he had the chance to take it. It was finally returned to the Hofburg Museum in 1912. Hitler’s story is the most well-known and the most accurate because of its recency. In 1912, in Vienna, Hitler saw the spear at the Hofburg Museum, his quote about the day he saw it was, “I stood there, quietly, gazing upon it for several minutes, quite oblivious to the scene around me. It seemed to carry some hidden inner meaning which evaded me, a meaning which I felt I inwardly knew, yet, could not bring to consciousness… I felt as though I myself had held it before in some earlier century of history.

That I myself had once claimed it as my talisman of power and held the destiny of the world in my hands…” Hitler viewed the spear as his connection to all the German conquerors before him. On March 14, 1938, Hitler annexed Austria and, upon doing so, ordered that the spear be brought to him. He had kept the spear on him until May of 1941, a month before the Nazi invasion of Russia. He had it sent to an underground bunker in Nuremburg. The biggest turning point in World War two is the when it became winter time in Russia and the Germans couldn’t handle the bitter cold weather. That was when Nazi forces started to get pushed back. In the vault, on April 30th, 1945, Lt. Walter William Horn of the US Army took possession of the spear under the name of The United States Government. This happened at 2:10, while at about 3:30 Adolf Hitler Shot himself in the head and Eva Braun broke a cyanide capsule between her teeth. Later that night, Nazi Germany surrendered World War II. The spear was then returned to the Hofburg Museum.

Is the Spear of Destiny that was returned to Hofburg authentic? Four Star General George S. Patton sure thought so. He became so obsessed with the spear after the war that he had its history traced all the way back to when Longinus had it, with some controversial answers of course. Did Adolf Hitler really think that possession of the spear would make him unstoppable? Well, yes and no. It’s safe to assume yes because of what he said in his quote about the day he first saw it and tell me what kind of 23 year old thinks about world domination? But at the same time, it’s no because he never actually said that was what it was going to be used for. He might have just been taking it and all the other treasure from the museum to make himself richer. There’s no way to actually tell but we can look at the facts.