Question inspired by the appearance of this photo on /r/HistoryPorn: http://i.imgur.com/TadlLhB.jpg
It's December 11, 1941. Hitler decides that Germany will declare war on the United States. How, mechanically, does this take place? Under German law at the time, does Germany formally and legally declare war simply by Hitler saying so? Or did the action require some sort of formal legislative or executive process? In the photo, is Hitler actually taking the legal action to declare war, or is he merely announcing that the action has already been taken?
Hitler's announcing what has just happened. The actual legal declaration was the note handed by Ribbentrop to the US chargé d'affaires in Berlin at 2:30pm. Hitler's Reichstag announcement and the presentation of a duplicate declaration in Washington by the German chargé d'affaires to the head of the State Department's Division of European Affairs (Secretary of State Hull declined a meeting) came shortly afterward. The formal declaration was signed by Ribbentrop, though the decision is thought to have been Hitler's.
