history discussion

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

FROM: Peter Gay, Weimar Culture (New York, 1968), 147-164. Significantly modified.

I. NOVEMBER 1918-NOVEMBER 1923: A TIME OF TROUBLES AND FOUNDATIONS

The Weimar Republic was proclaimed on November 9, 1918, by the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann. It followed upon more than four years of bloody war, with German troops, though still on foreign soil, in disarray, the General Staff (headed by Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff) frantic for peace, and the imperial administration demoralized. Reversing German advances on the Western front in the spring of 1918, the Allies had gone on the offensive in the summer, and kept the initiative. On October 4th Prince Max von Baden, known as a liberal monarchist inclined to domestic reforms and international understanding, became chancellor. Prince Max appealed to President Wilson for an armistice on the basis of the Fourteen Points. The country was exhausted, weary to death of the adventure it had welcomed in August 1914 as a relief from petty civilian cares. Germany had lost 1.8 million dead and over 4 million wounded; the cost in materiel, wasted talents, maimed minds, sheer despair, was incalculable. Since the early summer of 1917, when the Reichstag had passed a resolution calling for a peace of understanding, it had been obvious that the old regime would never survive unchanged. On October 28, 1918, sailors at the Kiel Naval Base mutinied; by the first week in November some kind of revolution seemed inescapable. On November 8th a republic was proclaimed in Bavaria; other cities and states joined their lead. On the same day, Chancellor Max von Baden firmly called for the abdication of the Emperor. The workers of Berlin were in the streets, the successor of Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff joined the Chancellor’s plea. Emperor William II delayed, insisting at least on the Prussian throne, but he was asking too much, and Prince Max took what his chief was unwilling to give. He made the Social Democratic leader Friedrich Ebert his successor and announced the Emperor’s abdication. Some thought Scheidemann’s proclamation of the Republic hasty; from Scheidemann’s point of view it was barely in time—it anticipated the Spartacists (Communists), who were ready to proclaim a Soviet republic. That night, William II fled to Holland.

The Emperor and his partisans were discredited; leadership would have to come from Social Democrats. But what kind of Social Democrats? The Social Democratic party had long been a major party, but even before 1914 it had been a tense coalition, divided among radicals who took revolutionary Marxism seriously and trade unionists who wanted to forget about ideology and seek higher standards of living for the working classes. The trade unionist Ebert put together a temporary government on November 10th, which held intact for almost two months. Since November 8th a German armistice commission had been negotiating with the Allies under the leadership of a prominent Catholic Center Party deputy. And on November 11th the war was over, even if peace had not been made. It was a promising beginning for the new regime.

But the temporary government broke apart on December 27th. The radical left wanted a soviet republic and a complete reconstruction of society along the lines of what had taken place in Russia during the war. The Social Democrats wanted a parliamentary regime and a waiting policy on social and economic transformation. There was fighting in the streets in December, and there were some dead—bitterly remembered. But on the whole the country supported the parliamentarianism of the Social Democrats. Accordingly on January 19, 1919, there was a national election for deputies to a constitutional convention to be held at Weimar; despite a Communist boycott, over thirty million Germans turned out to vote. Four hundred twenty-one seats were at stake. The Social Democratic Party led the poll with 11.5 million votes and 163 seats; the Catholic Center Party, an amalgam of monarchists and mild republicans, got below 6 million votes and 89 seats; the newly founded Democratic Party (left liberals) did extraordinarily well, totaling about 5.5 million votes and 75 seats—it was this party, abundant in talent, decent in campaign methods, rational in its program, that turned out to be “the only party that lost in each election”; the National People’s Party, the Conservatives of the Empire, unchanged in all but name, got 3 million votes and 42 seats; while the newly founded People’s Party (right liberals), the party of Stresemann, big business, and right-wing leanings, got 21 seats on only 1.5 million votes. The Weimar coalition had received a strong mandate.

The Assembly was solemnly opened on February 9, 1919; two days later, it elected Ebert President, and Ebert, in turn, asked Scheidemann to form a cabinet. This first full-fledged cabinet drew from the three leading parties, the Social Democrats, the Center, and the Democrats—the Weimar coalition. But the work of the Assembly was marred, though not interrupted, by disorders at home and peacemaking abroad. By March the Social Democrat in charge of restoring order was aided rather doubtfully by the fanatical Free Corps—hastily formed paramilitary organizations of ex-officers, unemployed drifters, and youthful adventurers eager to kill.

In Versailles, meanwhile, a German delegation, disdainfully invited in April to accept peace terms, sought to ameliorate slightly what they could not significantly improve. Germans were angered by the news from France; on June 20th the Scheidemann government resigned and was replaced the next day by a cabinet headed by another Social Democrat. The new cabinet balked at only a few provisions, but the Allies were firm: the losers must sign without reservations. Faced with an ultimatum, the German Government yielded, and, on June 28th, a new delegation signed the dictated peace treaty. No other course was feasible. But inescapable as it was, submission left scars that never healed.

The Versailles Treaty imposed heavy economic, political, and psychological burdens on defeated Germany. It returned Alsace-Lorraine to France, split off East Prussia from the heart of Germany by turning over territory to Poland (the “Polish Corridor”), made Danzig a Free City, left open the disposition of other border areas to later plebiscites, deprived Germany of her colonies, forbade the union of Austria with Germany, imposed military occupation on the left bank of the Rhine, reduced the German Army to 100,000 men, put an end to the General Staff, and in other ways attempted to control German militarism. Most unacceptable—certainly most inflammatory—of all the provisions were articles that deprived the Germans of that intangible thing, “honor.” Article 231 of the treaty insisted that “Germany and her allies” accept “responsibility” for “causing all the loss and damage” to which the Allied powers had been exposed “by the aggression of her allies.” And a still undisclosed amount of reparations was to be paid. The clause did not use the word “guilt,” but it was quickly stigmatized as the “war guilt clause.” While practically all Germans hoped for repeal, some hoped for revenge.

Despite all this, the Weimar Assembly agreed on a constitution in relatively short time—it was adopted on July 31, 1919, and became law on August 11th. It enshrined a set of compromises that antagonized many and delighted few. In some respects, though, it was a perfectly straightforward document. Germany became a democratic republic; elections to the Reichstag, the national legislative body, were by universal suffrage starting at age twenty, Germany remained a federal state, though the powers of the various states were much curtailed. The chief executive body, the cabinet, was responsible to the Reichstag. But Germany did not become a purely parliamentary regime: the Constitution gave it a president, elected for a seven-year term by popular elections; he was symbol at home and representative abroad. Article 48 gave him the power (with the signature of the chancellor) take charge if “public security and order are seriously disrupted or endangered.” In its use of devices like proportional representation, initiative and referendum, the Constitution was as modern as its democratic electorate. In the fields of economic legislation and social transformation, from which so many had expected so much, it was rather vague. It laid down fundamental rights and duties of Germans. The compromise between bourgeoisie and proletariat ended with a victory of the former over the latter. Still, much was done; over much protest, Germany even adopted a new flag—black, red, gold, the flag of the liberal revolutions of 1848. When the delegates came home from Weimar, their Germany was in deep trouble, but the Republic was launched.

The events of the first year of the Republic did not predetermine the fate of Weimar, but they did set its general course. The next four years stood under the signs of domestic violence and foreign intransigence, the two interacting and, to Germany’s misfortune, reinforcing one another.

On June 6, 1920, there were elections to the Reichstag; they were disastrous for republicans. The German National Party and Stresemann’s People’s Party emerged strong, adding millions of votes and dozens of deputies; the Democratic Party declined spectacularly, dropping to almost a third of its earlier voting strength, the Social Democratic Party polled only 5.5 million votes. Another ominous development was the burgeoning of splinter parties. The Weimar coalition with 11 million votes and 225 deputies had lost control of the Reichstag; it confronted 14.5 million votes and 241 seats held by a variety of other parties. Not every right- or left- wing deputy was a mortal enemy of the Republic; few of them were dependable friends. The politics of militarism, revolutionary and counterrevolutionary slogans, and direct action was on the ascendant.

After long negotiations, the Catholic Center Party led cabinets until November 22, 1922. But problems remained intractable. In late April 1921 the Allies let it be known that German reparation payments, though sizable, were gravely in arrears, and they fixed the total sum at 132 billion gold marks, of which over 8 billion had so far been paid. The cabinet, committed to fulfillment of Germany’s obligations, delivered one more billion in gold. But now inflation—the result of the deficit financing of the war by the imperial government, the end of wartime wage and price controls, the resumption of international trade, the increase in government spending for the demobilization of soldiers and other war victims (including the increase in the number of civil servants), an inadequate system of taxation, government underwriting of credit with little backing by means of the printing press, inadequate regulation of the economy, and the reparations—became worrisome. In January 1921 the German mark had stood at 45 to the dollar, through the spring and summer it had remained stable at 60, in September it had reached 100 and by the end of the year it took over 160 marks to purchase one dollar. During this period, a terror campaign by the right, especially elements of the disbanded Free Corps, culminated in the assassination of Walther Rathenau, the Foreign Minister. “The enemy,” the Center Chancellor exclaimed, “is on the right”—but the right, unrepentant, continued its campaign of vilification and terror. And big industry was regaining self-confidence; there was talk that the eight-hour day should be replaced by the ten-hour day.

The Germans were not paying their reparations on time, a delay the French interpreted as deliberate sabotage. Late in December 1922 the Reparations Commission officially declared that Germany had failed to meet her obligations, and on January 11, 1923, a French-Belgian contingent occupied the Ruhr to operate the mines and the industries in behalf of the victorious powers. The occupying troops acted with a high hand and open brutality. There were bloody clashes. The German Government counseled passive resistance. Production came to a standstill. And inflation, already a grave threat, now got out of control altogether; the disruption of trade, the disastrous decline in tax payments, all consequences of the Ruhr occupation, were more than the mark could stand. The Reichsbank tried to help, but its reserves were near depletion, and in April 1923 the dam burst: the currency dropped daily, and inflation reached fantastic dimensions—by October 1923 not millions, or billions, but trillions of marks were needed to buy a loaf of bread or mail a letter. Farmers refused to ship produce, manufacturing reached an all-time low, there were food riots, workers hovered near starvation, millions of bourgeois lost all their savings, while speculators grew rich. The resulting economic dislocation and psychological upheaval only strengthened the already pervasive distrust of the Weimar Republic.

Early in August 1923 the Social Democrats declared the need for a national coalition. Ebert called upon Gustav Stresemann of the People’s Party to form a cabinet; the first Stresemann government lasted until early October, followed by a second, which survived until the end of November. It ended passive resistance, to get production started again; and in November, under the direction of Hjalmar Schacht, the government ended the printing of money, began a ruthless economy drive, and proclaimed a new mark, the Rentenmark, which was “secured” by Germany’s total resources. Schacht became president of the Reichsbank. Stability returned, though hardships did not end.

Stresemann’s conciliatory policy exasperated the right, already embittered and emboldened by French violence, local successes in Bavaria, and the general uncertainty. On the night of November 8th, 1923, and the morning of November 9th, Adolf Hitler and General Ludendorff led a putsch attempt in Munich. It failed, and some of the conspirators were captured and tried. Ludendorff was, of course, acquitted; Hitler was convicted of high treason, but permitted to convert the trial into a propaganda feast against the Republic. His sentence was the minimum possible—five years—of which, in any event, he spent only about eight months in confinement, to emerge a significant political figure. Hitler had joined an obscure right-wing group—a small cluster of anti-Semitic, anti-republican, anti-modern misfits—in July 1919. By April 1920 it had formulated a program and taken a name, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. For three years the Nazis fomented disorder, gave inflammatory speeches against the Republic, preached violence against Jews, and enlisted some sympathizers in high positions. When Hitler’s rebellion in November 1923 collapsed, and when financial stability gradually returned, republicans breathed easier; was Hitler not, after all, just another crank? It took years before they were proved wrong.

II. DECEMBER 1923-OCTOBER 1929: THE GOLDEN TWENTIES

The middle years of the Weimar Republic were far from happy; still the political events of this comparatively tranquil time can be rapidly summarized. Sanity seemed to be returning at home and abroad. In November 1923 the Social Democrats defeated the Stresemann cabinet, charging that it had been gentle with right-wing subversion, but the six cabinets that were to govern Germany between December 1923 and the end of June 1928 showed sturdy continuity: each had Stresemann as its Foreign Minister. If it was a relatively stable period, it was also a conservative one: though they repeatedly saved it with their votes, the Social Democrats were out of the government for almost five years. Meanwhile, the “Dawes Plan,” named after the American banker and statesman Charles G. Dawes, proposed the evacuation of the Ruhr, considerable reductions in reparations payments, and loans to Germany.

The German Government accepted the plan, over fierce right-wing opposition. It was always the same story: the concessions that seemed to implacable Frenchmen too great, seemed too small to irreconcilable Germans. In July 1924 the Allies met in London; in August they invited the Germans to join them, and the French reluctantly agreed to begin to evacuate some troops. After venomous Reichstag debates, Germany accepted the Dawes Plan, French troops moved out of the Ruhr—they were gone by July 1925—Germany received foreign loans, and the Rentenmark was replaced by the Reichsmark. By mid-1925 the “golden twenties” had arrived.

But then President Ebert died on February 28, 1925, and the elections for his successor brought out all the old divisions. On the first run no one received the required majority of all the votes cast; on the second run a plurality would be sufficient. And after prolonged maneuvering among the parties, after some old candidates had been dropped and new candidates brought forward, it was the aged hero of World War I, Hindenburg, who received the largest vote—14.5 million, or 48 percent. His main opponent, the Center Party leader Wilhelm Marx, got nearly 14 million votes. It seemed a grave setback to the Republic, but Hindenburg acted quite scrupulously and effectively as a loyal chief executive during this period.

As the fears of German republicans about Hindenburg waned, they waned abroad as well. Germany’s isolation gradually ended. Since early 1925 Stresemann had been making overtures to the Allies, and in October France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, and Germany signed a treaty at Locarno, which settled the western frontiers, and called for the peaceful settlement of all further disputes. Like every other step toward fraternity, Locarno was denounced by the right in Germany, but the treaty was adopted by a narrow margin. For several years the “spirit of Locarno” guided European diplomacy. In September 1926 Germany entered the League of Nations. Stresemann followed up these triumphs by discussions with the French on international peace that eventuated, in 1928, in the Kellogg-Briand Treaty condemning war as an instrument of national policy. It was like a handsome screen concealing unpleasant realities.

There was something mask-like about German internal prosperity as well. The prosperity was real enough; German industry was modernizing its plant, business was stable, wages were relatively high, unemployment was low—it fell below three-quarters of a million in 1928. But there were hidden ominous developments: governments, both federal and state, were wasting funds; the powerful industrial magnate Alfred Hugenberg, who had grown rich in the inflation, was gaining control of the opinion industries; and much of the basis of the prosperity was, after all, foreign money pumped into Germany—a source that might dry up. Reparations remained an issue. The Communists continued to refuse cooperation with “Social Fascists”—that is, Social Democrats. The new army retained its old ideas: it wanted political influence, nationalist policies, and secret rearmament. And right-wing fanatics never weakened in their determination to overthrow a regime that was being almost suicidally indulgent with them. In September 1928 the Brandenburg section of the Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet), an extreme anti-Weimar group of veterans founded in 1918 and swollen to great size in the following years, candidly proclaimed: “We hate the present regime”; it has “made it impossible for us to liberate our enslaved Fatherland, destroy the war-guilt lie and win needed Lebensraum (living space) in the east. We declare war against the system which today rules the state and against all those who support this system by a policy of compromise.” It would be wrong to say that no one listened, but things were going too well to make such threats really terrifying.

Indeed, while the Nazis and their allies floundered and fumed—peace and prosperity were never their best times—and the Communists continued their opposition, the Social Democrats gained strength. In the last general elections to the Reichstag, in December 1924, the Social Democrats had held 131 seats; in the new elections, of May 1928, they raised their representation to 152. In contrast, the German Nationalists were reduced from 103 seats to 78; and the Nazis from 14 to only 12. Other right-wing and center parties lost seats as well; the time for the Social Democrats’ return to a leading rather than supporting role had come. On June 28, 1928, a Social Democrat formed a cabinet of distinguished individuals speaking only for themselves; most were Social Democrats. But not all: Stresemann, the indispensable man, after some hesitation agreed to serve as Foreign Minister once more. The enemies of Weimar, needless to say, did not remain silent. Hugenberg took over the leadership of the German National Party and soon made overtures to Hitler, still the pariah of German politics; among the crowd of self-appointed gravediggers to the Republic, Hugenberg has undisputed claim to front rank. The Nazis had held their first Nuremberg party rally in August 1927, calling for a general purge of the German body politic and the German soul. But they did not merely rave; the Nazi leadership found some connections in respectable circles.

But in 1928 and 1929 the center of tension was still in foreign affairs. It was not until August 1929 that the French promised to evacuate their troops from the Rhineland by the following year—the sore of occupation had continued to fester for over six decisive years. Earlier, in mid-December 1928, the French, British, and Germans had agreed to appoint a committee of experts to look, once again, into Germany’s capacity to pay reparations. The United States agreed to join, and one of its delegates, Owen D. Young, became chairman. The experts, including Hjalmar Schacht who had acquired a reputation as a financial wizard, wrangled, privately and publicly, for half a year. On June 7, 1929, they finally signed an agreement: Germany was to be complete master over its affairs, but would continue to pay reparations on a graduated scale, ranging from 1.7 billion marks the first year to about 2.5 billion in 1966 and around 1.5 billion annually thereafter until 1988. The amount, though large, was lower than any other demand made so far; the specificity, though it now seems absurd, was designed to anesthetize passions and reduce reparations to a merely technical question. The German response was quick and wholly predictable: vehement denunciations by Hitler and Hugenberg, poisonous speeches on the right, vigorous defenses by republicans, and delay. There was even an opposition referendum on the Young Plan that failed. Five days later the Reichstag finally voted to adopt the Young Plan, and Hindenburg conscientiously signed it. But then, by mid-March 1930, the architect of Germany’s foreign policy, Gustav Stresemann, had been dead for over five months. In bad health for over a year, harassed by members of his own party, vilified by the Nazis and the German Nationals, he had continued to defend his policies until the end. He died on October 3, 1929, and was succeeded a fellow member of the German People’s Party—a friend and follower, but no replacement. We should not exaggerate the power of one man in the turbulent stream of history—there were forces at work in New York and Paris and Berlin that Stresemann would have been powerless to stem. Yet his death was a grievous loss; it was, if not the cause, at least a sign of the beginning of the end.

III. OCTOBER 1929-JANUARY 1933: THE TIME OF TROUBLES RETURNS

Stresemann’s death dramatized the dilemma of “bourgeois, politically homeless Protestantism”—that large number of voters mortally afraid of Communists, unwilling to join the Social Democrats, suspicious of the Catholic Center, disoriented by the war and its aftermath and, on the whole, unimpressed by Germany’s renewed international prestige. Stresemann had taught these millions the virtues of collaborating with Social Democrats—a collaboration which, he had candidly said, was an affair not of the heart but of reason. With his death, the right wing of his People’s Party reasserted itself, and the fragmentation of the Weimar coalition—its vital political center—continued.

It would not have become dangerous if there had not been a world economic crisis. But there was. Precarious German prosperity had already been shaken early in 1929, when unemployment rose to two million and tax collections declined. The focus of political debate became unemployment insurance, admittedly a heavy and growing burden on the government; it was a principle the Social Democrats dared not touch, and a grievance to industrialists and conservatives of all kinds, inclined to make these payments the convenient scapegoat for all of Germany’s accumulating ills. Then came, late in October 1929, the stock market crash on Wall Street. Its reverberations were felt everywhere; the Great Depression was world-wide. But it was most disastrous for the least stable regime, that is, for Germany, which had lived off foreign investment far more than many Germans knew or were willing to admit. With the rush to self-protection everywhere, German exports dwindled, foreign loans to Germany were not renewed. In consequence, tax income dropped further, bankruptcies multiplied, and unemployment grew inexorably. The Social Democrats demanded an increase in unemployment premiums; the Center Party and the People’s Party, now speaking for the employers, refused to go along; and on March 27, 1930, the Cabinet resigned. The great coalition was dead. On the next day, Hindenburg asked Heinrich Brüning to form a cabinet of personalities. Brüning, since 1929 the chairman of the Center delegation to the Reichstag, a cool, conservative Catholic with a reputation for financial expertness and no gift for oratory, promised continuation of a conciliatory foreign policy, demanded vigorous action in the economic sphere, and called, in almost bullying tones, for cooperation from the Reichstag in this emergency. His program was agricultural tariffs, higher excise taxes, government economies—deflationary policies designed to cheer conservatives and appall the workers. Yet the Nationalists remained dissatisfied; the Nazis, who took to the streets in defiance of police orders, followed a policy of obstruction; the Social Democrats and Communists naturally opposed Brüning’s proposals. In the midst of growing misery, the final evacuation of German soil by French troops, on June 30, 1930, went almost unnoticed—an ironic commentary on the ephemeral quality of political passions. When no agreement on Brüning’s program could be reached, the Chancellor threatened to invoke Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution; then on July 6th, after a defeat in the Reichstag, instead of resigning, he invoked it. Germany was now governed by presidential decree. Faced with strenuous protests, Brüning dissolved the Reichstag, and set national elections for September 14th.

Through the summer, responsible bourgeois and Social Democratic politicians, far from blind to the pressures exerted by the extremists, sought for some accommodation. In vain. The campaign plumbed new depths of demagogy and sheer violence, and voting on September 14 was heavy: there were 35 million voters in 1930, whereas there had been only 30 million two years before. Many of these new voters were the hitherto apathetic, brought to the polls by the general distress and the militant parties, and the young, who had turned to the right in the universities and in the streets, before their elders turned in the same direction. The Social Democrats held firm; they lost a half-million votes and 10 seats, but this still meant a parliamentary delegation of 132. The Center picked up a half-million votes and increased its seats from 78 to 87. The other moderate parties lost disastrously, both in votes and in seats. The Communists gained over a million votes and 23 seats; they were represented in the Reichstag by 77 delegates. But the real victors were the Nazis; they climbed from 800,000 votes to almost 6.5 million, from 12 seats to 107.

Brüning governed on, until May 30, 1932, amid growing unemployment, mounting misery, rising violence, and increasing signs that the Republic was dying. Through 1931 Hindenburg signed one emergency decree after another, controlling the price of food, regulating bank payments, reducing unemployment compensation. The Nazis made no secret of their plans for the future. The Nazi press, skillfully led by Joseph Goebbels, preached action against republicans, democrats, Jews, Communists—”November criminals” all. The threat was grave enough to induce the Social Democrats to support Hindenburg in the presidential elections to be held in early 1932. For the first time unemployment exceeded six million in January 1932, and anything seemed possible. In the election on March 13th, no candidate received a majority of the votes. A runoff was needed, and on April 10, 1932, Hindenburg was re-elected President of the Republic with over 19 million votes; Hitler ran a strong second with 13.5 million, Thälmann, the Communist, a poor third with less than 4 million votes. Three days later, the President dissolved the Nazi paramilitary association, the SA (the “Brown Shirts”), but in a series of state elections the Nazis consolidated their strength. Then, on May 30th, Hindenburg dismissed the Brüning cabinet, persuaded by his friends and by his influential adviser, Kurt von Schleicher, that Brüning’s social program smacked of agrarian socialism. His successor was the smooth, gaunt, manipulative reactionary, Franz von Papen. He even looked like an undertaker.

The rest is a story of fear, terrorism, irresponsibility, missed opportunities, and shameful betrayal. Papen’s cabinet included the ambitious Kurt von Schleicher as Defense Minister, and a collection of aristocrats—an innovation in Weimar. It was as though the Revolution of 1918 had never taken place. On June 4, 1932, Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag and called for elections in late July; on June 16th he rescinded the ban on the SA—both decisions major victories for the Nazis. The Brown Shirts then went into action wholeheartedly, and the summer of 1932 was marked by bloody clashes between Communists and Nazis, and Social Democrats and Nazis. The Social Democrats called it civil war, and they were right. But the government did nothing, or aided the aggressors. On July 20th Papen, after persuading Hindenburg that the step was necessary, seized the Prussian government from the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats, dedicated to republican legality, challenged the action in the courts, but offered no resistance.

On July 31, 1932, the elections took place and ended in a stunning victory for the Nazis: they got over 13.5 million votes and 230 seats. The Social Democrats with 8 million votes and 133 seats held relatively firm, while the Communists with 5 million votes and 89 delegates and the Center with almost 6 million votes and 97 delegates made some gains. The other parties were nearly wiped out. The opposition to the Nazis remained numerous but disunited; the Nazi leadership was confident. Papen negotiated with Hitler, prepared to take Nazis into his government, but Hitler wanted the chancellorship or nothing. He got nothing—for the moment. Papen received another vote of no confidence, requiring Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call for new elections.

The elections took place on November 6, 1932, and gave new hope to the few remaining optimists among republicans. The Nazis lost 2 million votes and 34 seats in the Reichstag; they were still the strongest party with a delegation of 196, as against 100 for the Communists (who again picked up strength), 121 for the Social Democrats, and 90 for the Center, who both suffered moderate losses. But there were many, including Nazis, who interpreted the results as the beginning of a real, final decline; in mid-November, in a number of local elections, this decline seemed confirmed. Nazi brutality in talk and action had alienated many. And Hitler had other troubles: in desperate need of financial backing, he had long since surrendered all claims to the socialism incorporated in the program and the very title of his party; but there were old Nazis still imbued with their “German Socialism,” their agrarian, anti-capitalist, though also anti-Marxist and anti-Semitic, collectivism. Hitler was saved by his right-wing competitors. On November 17th Hindenburg had reluctantly permitted Papen, one of his favorities, to resign, but, unpopular as Papen was, he continued to govern until a successor could be found. It was Schleicher who took over most of von Papen’s cabinet. But no one, left or right, trusted Schleicher, and on January 28, 1933, he resigned.

Meanwhile the dying Weimar Republic was experiencing the last and most fateful intrigue of all. Once out of office, filled with dislike of Schleicher and the desire to return to power, Papen decided to use Hitler as a kind of stalking horse. He, too, underestimated his man. He met Hitler privately, and sought to persuade the aged Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor. “The Old Man” was reluctant, but then he trusted Papen, and other men around him, such as son Oskar, also advocated the appointment of Hitler. After Schleicher’s resignation, even Schleicher urged this course. All of Hindenburg’s advisers were confident: Hitler would be kept in check by Papen, as Vice Chancellor, and other reliable conservatives in the cabinet. The old man yielded, and on January 30, 1933, he made Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. The Republic was dead in all but name, the victim of structural flaws, reluctant defenders, unscrupulous aristocrats and industrialists, a historic legacy of authoritarianism, and a disastrous world situation.

******

THE WEIMAR CONSTITUTION (1919)

From: René Brunet, The New German Constitution (New York, 1922). The text has been abridged and modified.

PREAMBLE: The German People, united in all their branches, and inspired by the determination to renew and strengthen their Reich [State] in liberty and justice, to preserve peace both at home and abroad, and to foster social progress, have adopted the following Constitution.

PART ONE — STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE REICH

SECTION I — THE REICH AND THE STATES

ARTICLE 1. The German Reich is a republic. Political authority is derived from the People.

ARTICLE 2. The territory of the Reich consists of the territories of the German States. Other territories may be incorporated into the Reich by national law, if their inhabitants, exercising the right of, self-determination, so desire. ...

ARTICLE 4. The generally recognized principles of international law are accepted as an integral part of the law of the German Reich.

ARTICLE 5. Political authority is exercised in national affairs by the Reich Government in accordance with the Constitution of the Reich, and in State affairs by the State Governments in accordance with the State constitutions. ...

ARTICLE 8. The Reich also has jurisdiction over taxation and other sources of income, in so far as they may be claimed in whole or in part for its purposes. If the Reich claims any source of revenue that formerly belonged to the States, it must have consideration for the financial requirements of the States.

ARTICLE 9. Whenever it is necessary to establish uniform rules, the Reich has jurisdiction over:

1. The promotion of social welfare;

2. The protection of public order and safety. ...

ARTICLE 12. So long and in so far as the Reich does not exercise its jurisdiction, such jurisdiction remains with the States. This does not apply in cases where the Reich possesses exclusive jurisdiction. ...

ARTICLE 13. The laws of the Reich are supreme over the laws of the States that conflict with them. If doubt arises, or difference of opinion, whether State legislation is in harmony with the law of the Reich, the proper authorities of the Reich or the central authorities of the States, in accordance with more specific provisions of a national law, may have recourse to the decision of a supreme Court of the Reich. ...

ARTICLE 17. Every State must have a republican constitution. The representatives of the People must be elected by the universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage of all German citizens, both men and women, according to the principles of proportional representation. ...

ARTICLE 19. If controversies concerning the Constitution arise within a State in which there is no court competent to dispose of them, or if controversies of a public nature arise between different States or between a State and the Reich, they will be determined upon complaint of one of the parties by the Supreme Court of the German Reich, unless another court of the Reich is competent. ...

The President of the Reich executes judgments of the Supreme Court.

SECTION II — THE REICHSTAG

ARTICLE 20. The Reichstag is composed of the delegates of the German People.

ARTICLE 21. The delegates are representatives of the whole People. They are subject only to their own consciences and are not bound by any instructions.

ARTICLE 22. The delegates are elected by universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage by all men and women over twenty years of age, in accordance with the principles of proportional representation. The day for elections must be a Sunday or a public holiday.

The details will be regulated by the national election law.

ARTICLE 23. The Reichstag is elected for four years. New elections must take place at the latest on the sixtieth day after its term comes to an end.

The Reichstag convenes at the latest on the thirtieth day after the election. ...

ARTICLE 25. The President of the Reich may dissolve the Reichstag, but only once for the same cause.

The new election occurs at the latest on the sixtieth day after such dissolution. ...

ARTICLE 32. The Reichstag acts by majority vote unless otherwise provided in the Constitution. For the conduct of elections by the Reichstag it may, in its rules of procedure, make exceptions. The quorum to do business will be regulated by the rules of procedure. ...

ARTICLE 36. No member of the Reichstag or of a State Assembly shall at any time whatsoever be subject to any judicial or disciplinary prosecution or be held responsible outside of the House to which he belongs on account of his vote or his opinions uttered in the performance of his duty.

ARTICLE 37. No member of the Reichstag or of a State Assembly shall during the session, without the consent of the House to which he belongs, be subject to investigation or arrest on account of any punishable offense, unless he is caught in the act, or apprehended not later than the following day. Similar consent is required in the case of any other restraint of personal liberty which interferes with the performance by a delegate of his duties. ...

SECTION III — THE REICH PRESIDENT AND THE REICH CABINET

ARTICLE 41. The Reich President is chosen by the whole German People.

Every German who has completed his thirty-fifth year is eligible for election. ...

ARTICLE: 43. The term of the Reich President is seven years. He is eligible for reelection. ...

ARTICLE 44. The Reich President may not at the same time be a member of the Reichstag.

ARTICLE 45. The Reich President represents the Reich in matters of international law. He concludes in the name of the Reich, alliances and other treaties with foreign powers. He accredits and receives ambassadors.

War is declared and peace concluded by national law.

Alliances and treaties with foreign States, relating to subjects within the jurisdiction of the Reich, require the consent of the Reichstag.

ARTICLE 46. The President appoints and dismisses the civil and military officers of the Reich if not otherwise provided by law. He may delegate this right of appointment or dismissal to other authorities.

ARTICLE 47. The Reich President has supreme command over all the armed forces of the Reich.

ARTICLE 48. If any State does not perform the duties imposed upon it by the Constitution or by national laws, the Reich President may hold it to the performance thereof by force of arms.

If public safety and order in the German Reich is materially disturbed or endangered, the Reich President may take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, and, if necessary, to intervene by force of arms. To this end he may temporarily suspend, in whole or in part, the fundamental rights established in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153.

The Reich President must immediately inform the Reichstag of all measures adopted by authority of Paragraphs 1 or 2 of this Article. These measures shall be revoked at the demand of the Reichstag. ... The details will be regulated by a national law. ...

ARTICLE 50. All orders and directions of the Reich President, including those concerning the armed forces, require for their validity the counter-signature of the Reich Chancellor or of the appropriate Reich Minister. By the countersignature responsibility is assumed. ...

ARTICLE 52. The Reich Cabinet consists of the Reich Chancellor and the Reich Ministers.

ARTICLE 53. The Reich Chancellor and, on his proposal, the Reich Ministers are appointed and dismissed by the Reich President.

ARTICLE 54. The Reich Chancellor and the Reich Ministers require for the administration of their offices the confidence of the Reichstag. Each of them must resign if the Reichstag by formal resolution withdraws its confidence.

ARTICLE 55. The Reich Chancellor presides over the Reich Cabinet and conducts its affairs in accordance with rules of procedure, which will be framed by the Reich Cabinet and approved by the Reich President.

ARTICLE 56. The Reich Chancellor determines the general course of policy and assumes responsibility therefore to the Reichstag. In accordance with this general policy each Reich Minister conducts independently the particular affairs entrusted to him and is held individually responsible to the Reichstag. ...

ARTICLE 58. The Reich Cabinet will make its decisions by majority vote. In case of a tie the vote of the presiding officer will be decisive.

ARTICLE: 59. The Reichstag is empowered to impeach the Reich President, the Reich Chancellor, and the Reich Ministers before the Supreme Court of the German Reich for any wrongful violation of the Constitution or laws of the Reich. The proposal to bring an impeachment must be signed by at least one hundred members of the Reichstag and requires the approval of the majority prescribed for amendments to the Constitution. The details will be regulated by the national law relating to the Supreme Court.

SECTION IV — THE UPPER HOUSE

ARTICLE 60. An Upper House will be organized to represent the German States in national legislation and administration.

ARTICLE 61. In the Upper House each State has at least one vote. In the case of the larger States one vote is accorded for every million inhabitants. Any excess equal at least to the population of the smallest State is reckoned as equivalent to a full million. No State shall be accredited with more than two-fifths of all votes.

German-Austria after its union with the German Reich will receive the right of participation in the Upper House with the number of votes corresponding to its population. Until that time the representatives of German-Austria have a deliberate voice. [Italicized section deleted at the demand of the Supreme Council of the Allied and Associated Powers.]

The number of votes is determined anew by the Upper House after every general census. ...

SECTION V — NATIONAL LEGISLATION

ARTICLE 68. Bills are introduced by the Reich Cabinet or by members of the Reichstag.

National laws are enacted by the Reichstag.

ARTICLE 69. The introduction of bills by the Reich Cabinet requires the concurrence of the Upper House. If an agreement between the Reich Cabinet and the Upper House is not reached, the Reich Cabinet may nevertheless introduce the bill, but must date the dissent of the Upper House. ...

ARTICLE 73. A law enacted by the Reichstag shall be referred to the People before its promulgation, if the Reich President so orders within a month. ...

A popular vote shall further be resorted to on a measure initiated by the People if one-tenth of the qualified voters so petition. A fully elaborated bill must accompany such petition. The Reich Cabinet shall lay the bill together with a statement of its attitude before the Reichstag. The popular vote does not take place if the desired bill is enacted without amendment by the Reichstag.

A popular vote may be taken on the budget, tax laws, and laws relating to the classification and payment of public officers only by authority of the Reich President.

The procedure in connection with the popular referendum and initiative will be regulated by national law. ...

ARTICLE 76. The Constitution may be amended by process of legislation. But acts of the Reichstag relating to the amendment of the Constitution are effective only if two-thirds of the legal membership are present, and at least two-thirds of those present give their assent. ...

SECTION VII — THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

ARTICLE 102. Judges are independent and subject only to the law.

ARTICLE 103. Ordinary jurisdiction will be exercised by the Reich Court and the courts of the States.

ARTICLE 104. Judges of ordinary jurisdiction are appointed for life [by the Reich President]. They may against their wishes be permanently or temporarily removed from office, or transferred to another position, or retired, only by virtue of a judicial decision and for the reasons and in the forms provided by law. The law may fix an age limit on reaching which judges may be retired. …

ARTICLE 105. Extraordinary courts are illegal. ...

PART TWO — FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF GERMANS

SECTION I — THE INDIVIDUAL

ARTICLE 109. All Germans are equal before the law.

Men and women have fundamentally the same civil rights and duties.

Privileges or discriminations due to birth or rank and recognized by law are abolished. Titles of nobility will be regarded merely as part of the name and may not be granted hereafter.

Titles may be conferred only when they designate an office or profession; academic degrees are not affected by this provision.

Orders and honorary insignia may not be conferred by the state.

No German may accept a title or order from a foreign Government.

ARTICLE 110. Citizenship in the Reich and in the States will be acquired and lost in accordance with the provisions of a national law. Every citizen of a State is at the same time a citizen of the Reich.

Every German has the same rights and duties in each State of the Reich as the citizens of that State. ...

ARTICLE 113. Those elements of the People which speak a foreign language may not be interfered with by legislative or administrative action in their free and characteristic development, especially in the use of their mother tongue in the schools or in matters of internal administration and the administration of justice.

ARTICLE 114. Personal liberty is inviolable. An interference with or abridgment of personal liberty through official action is permissible only by authority of law. Persons, who are deprived of their liberty, shall be informed at latest on the following day by what authority and on what grounds they have been deprived of liberty, and they shall without delay receive an opportunity to present objections against such loss of liberty.

ARTICLE 115. The house of every German is his sanctuary and is inviolable. Exceptions are permissible only by authority of law.

ARTICLE 116. An act can be punishable only if the penalty was fixed by law before the act was committed.

ARTICLE 117. The secrecy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications is inviolable. Exceptions may be permitted only by national law.

ARTICLE 118. Every German has a right within the limits of the general laws to express his opinion freely by word, in writing, in print, by picture, or in any other way. ... There is no censorship. ...

SECTION II — COMMUNITY LIFE

ARTICLE 119. Marriage, as the foundation of family life and of the maintenance and increase of the nation, is under the special protection of the Constitution. It is based on the equal rights of both sexes. The maintenance of the purity, the health, and the social advancement of the family is the task of the state and of the municipalities. Families with numerous children have a claim to equalizing assistance. Motherhood has a claim to the protection and care of the State.

ARTICLE 120. The physical, mental, and moral education of their offspring is the highest duty and the natural right of parents, whose activities are supervised by the political community. ...

ARTICLE 123. All Germans have the right of meeting peaceably and unarmed without notice or special permission. Previous notice may be required by national law for meetings in the open, and such meetings may be forbidden in case of immediate danger to the public safety.

ARTICLE 124. All Germans have the right to form associations or societies for purposes not contrary to the criminal law. This right can not be limited by preventive measures. The same provisions apply to religious associations and societies.

Every association has the right of incorporation in accordance with the civil law. No association may be denied this right on the ground that it pursues a political, social-political, or religious object.

ARTICLE 125. The liberty and secrecy of the suffrage are guaranteed. Details will be regulated by the election laws.

ARTICLE: 126. Every German has the right to petition or to complain in writing to the appropriate authorities or to the representatives of the People. This right may be exercised by individuals as well as by several persons together.

ARTICLE 128. All citizens without distinction are eligible for public office in accordance with the laws and according to their ability and services.

All discriminations against women in the civil service are abolished. ...

SECTION III — RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES

ARTICLE 135. All inhabitants of the Reich enjoy complete liberty of belief and conscience. The free exercise of religion is assured by the Constitution and is under public protection. ...

ARTICLE 136. Civil and political rights and duties are neither conditioned upon nor limited by the exercise of religious liberty. The enjoyment of civil and political rights as well as eligibility to public office is independent of religious belief.

No one is under any obligation to reveal his religious convictions. …

ARTICLE 137. There is no state church.

Freedom of association in religious societies is guaranteed. …

SECTION IV — EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS

ARTICLE 142. Art, science and the teaching thereof are free. The state guarantees their protection and takes part in fostering them.

ARTICLE 143. The education of the young shall be provided for through public institutions. In their establishment the Reich, States and municipalities cooperate. ...

ARTICLE 148. All schools shall inculcate moral education, civic sentiment, and personal and vocational efficiency in the spirit of German national culture and of international conciliation. In the instruction in public schools care shall be taken not to hurt the feelings of those of differing opinion. Civics and manual training are included in the school curriculum. Every pupil receives a copy of the Constitution on completing the obligatory course of study. The common school system, including university extension work, shall be cherished by the Reich, States and municipalities. ...

SECTION V — ECONOMIC LIFE

ARTICLE 151. The regulation of economic life must conform to the principles of justice, with the object of assuring humane conditions of life for all.

Within these limits the economic liberty of the individual shall be protected.

Legal compulsion is permissible only for safeguarding threatened rights or in the service of predominant requirements of the common welfare.

The freedom of trade and industry is guaranteed in accordance with the national laws.

ARTICLE 152. Freedom of contract prevails in economic relations in accordance with the laws. ...

ARTICLE 153. The right of private property is guaranteed by the Constitution. Its nature and limits are defined by law.

Expropriation may be proceeded with only for the benefit of the community and by due process of law. There shall be just compensation in so far as is not otherwise provided by national law. ...

ARTICLE 157. Labor is under the special protection of the Reich. The Reich will adopt a uniform labor law. ...

ARTICLE 159. The right of combination for the protection and promotion of labor and economic conditions is guaranteed to every body and to all professions. All agreements and measures which attempt to limit or restrain this liberty are unlawful. ...

ARTICLE 161. For the purpose of conserving health and the ability to work, of protecting motherhood, and of guarding against the economic effects of age, invalidity and the vicissitudes of life, the Reich will adopt a comprehensive system of insurance, in the management of which the insured shall predominate. ...

ARTICLE 164. The independent agricultural, industrial and commercial middle class shall be fostered by legislation and administration, and shall be protected against oppression and exploitation. ...

ARTICLE 181. The German people have drawn up and adopted this constitution through their National Assembly. It comes into force

SCHWARZBURG, August 11, 1919

[Signed by Ebert and the Reich Cabinet]

******

HANS FALLADA, LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW? (1932)

FROM: Hans Fallada, Little Man, What Now?, trans. Eric Sutton (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1933), 16-20.

Hans Fallada (pen name of Rudolf Ditzen) was a journalist who wrote novels set in the republic and then the Nazi regime. He portrayed the precarious existence of those in the middle and working classes. In this, his most famous novel, he portrays the fortunes of Johannes Pinneberg, a member of the growing number of white-collar workers in the republic (from 1/30th of the wage-earning population in 1880 to 1/5th in 1925). Part of the new middle classes came from proletarian backgrounds and had political convictions similar to their proletarian (working class) neighbors, and others came from more traditional backgrounds. The latter’s world view was similar to that of the middle classes, that is, they were as much concerned with social status as with income. Although they worked for a wage, they did not think of themselves as “workers,” but rather as “employees,” i.e. as members of the middle classes. As a result, many resisted entering unions, or employees’ associations; and many of those who did, disdained the most important weapon they had, the strike, for they considered it a proletarian tactic and therefore beneath their dignity. They placed the traditional emphasis on status above the modern emphasis on income. Pinneberg and Emma Mörschel (Bunny) had to get married because she was pregnant. She brought him home to meet her family. Pinneberg was a salesman; the Mörschels were a working class family. Notice the class friction between the two.

At the kitchen table sat a tall man in gray trousers, gray waistcoat, and white flannelette shirt, without coat or collar: slippers on his feet. A lined yellow face, with little sharp eyes behind a pair of pince-nez, a gray mustache, and an almost white beard.

As Pinneberg and Emma came in, he let the Volkstimme [a Social Democratic newspaper] drop.

“So you’re the boy that wants to marry my daughter? Glad to hear it, sit down. You must take time to think it over, though.”

Bunny had put on an apron and was helping her mother. Frau Mörschel said angrily: “I wonder where that young rascal’s got to. Supper will be spoilt.”

“Overtime,” said Herr Mörschel laconically; and winking at Pinneberg, he added: “I suppose you work overtime sometimes, don’t you?”

“Yes,” said Pinneberg; “fairly often.”

“But without pay —?”

“Unfortunately, yes. The boss says —”

Herr Mörschel went right on: “That’s why I’d rather have a working man for my daughter. When my boy works overtime he gets paid for it.”

“Herr Kleinholz says —” began Pinneberg afresh.

“What the bosses say, young man,” observed Herr Mörschel, “we’ve known for a long time. It doesn’t interest us. What does interest us is what they do. Any wage agreement in your job?”

“I believe so.”

“Belief belongs to religion. The worker has nothing to do with religion. There’s sure to be an agreement; and you’ll find it provides that overtime must be paid. Why should I have a son-in-law that doesn’t get paid for overtime?”

Herr Mörschel, after planting this poser, leaned back complacently. Pinneberg shrugged his shoulders.

“Because you clerks are not organized,” Herr Mörschel explained kindly. “Because you don’t stick together and back each other up. So they treat you as they like.”

“But I am organized,” objected Pinneberg. “I belong to a Trades Union.”

“Emma! Mother! Our young man belongs to a Trades Union! Who would have thought it? Well!” The tall Mörschel cocked his head and observed his future son-in-law with half-closed eyes. “What’s your Union called, my boy? Out with it.”

“The German Employees’ Union,” said Pinneberg, more warmly.

Mörschel was so overcome that his tall form was quite convulsed. “The G.E.U.! Mother, Emma, hold me tight. And the lad calls that a Trades Union. The bosses kind of like it, don’t they? God bless my soul, children, what a joke!”

“Look here,” said Pinneberg, now furious. “you’re quite wrong. We’re not financed by the employers. We pay our contributions ourselves.”

“Yes, and I can guess what your officers do with them. Well, Emma, you’ve found a grand lad, I must say.”

Pinneberg looked appealingly at Emma, but she did not catch his eye.

“People like you, so I’ve heard,” went on Mörschel, “think you’re a cut above us working men.”

“No.”

“Yes. And why? Because you’re paid by the month instead of the week. Because you work overtime without pay. Because you don’t mind being paid under scale. Because you never go out on strike. Because you’re always scabs.”

“It’s not just a question of money,” said Pinneberg. “We think differently from most working men, our needs are different.”

“Think different!” said Mörschel. “Think different!” You think just like any proletarian.”

“I believe not,” said Pinneberg. “I, for instance—”

“You, for instance,” said Mörschel, fixing him with an evil leer. “You, for instance, have had an advance, eh?”

“Advance?”

“Yes. An advance on Emma. Not very nice behavior. Very proletarian habit, too.”

“I—” began Pinneberg; he grew very red, and longed to pull the place about their ears.

Frau Mörschel said sharply: “No more from you, father. That’s all over. Keep your nose out of it.”

A knock. “There comes Karl,” cried Bunny.

“Let’s have supper, then, wife,” said Mörschel. “But I’m right, son-in-law, you ask your parson. Very bad behavior.”

A young man came in; young only in age, yellower and more bilious than his father. He growled: “Ev’nin’,’’ took no notice of the guest, pulled off his jacket and waistcoat, and then his shirt. Pinneberg observed him with growing astonishment.

“Overtime?” asked the old man.

Karl Mörschel grunted.

“That will do, Karl,” said Frau Mörschel. “Come and eat.”

Karl let the tap run full on and began to wash very intensively. He was naked to the hips. Pinneberg felt a little embarrassed for Bunny, but she seemed not to notice it.

There was much that Pinneberg could not help noticing: the ugly earthenware plates, blackened and chipped, the half-cold oniony potato pancakes, the sour gherkins, the tepid bottled beer for the men, this dismal kitchen, Karl at the sink.—

“That’s Emma’s young man,” said Frau Mörschel. “They’re going to be married soon.”

“So she’s done it, has she?” said Karl. “A bourgeois, eh? A working man wasn’t good enough for her.”

“You see,” said Herr Mörschel, with great satisfaction.

“What do you mean by ‘you see’?” snarled Karl. “Sooner an honest bourgeois any day than you Social Fascists [what Communists called Social Democrats].”

“Social Fascists,” raged the old man. “Who’s a fascist, you little Soviet toady!”

“Who!” says Karl. “You damned old jingo—”

Pinneberg listened to these words with a certain satisfaction.

But the potato pancakes tasted no better.

In general it was not a very festive engagement dinner. …

******

LETTERS FROM BETTY SCHOLEM TO HER SON GERSHOM

(1918-1923)

FROM: Gershom Scholem, A Life in Letters, 1914-1982. Trans. and ed. Anthony David Skinner. Cambridge/MA: Harvard UP, 2002. (Translation modified)

The Scholems were middle-class Berlin Jews, who had built up a printing business during the empire. Arthur, the father, is described as “a law-abiding, tax-paying patriot.” The two oldest sons, Reinhard and Erich, joined the family firm, but the two younger sons, Werner and Gershom, took different paths. Werner became a Communist, although he was expelled from the party in 1926. Gershom became a Zionist pacifist during World War I and moved to Switzerland. After a brief return to Germany in the early republic, he moved Jerusalem in 1923. What follows is a selection of letters from his mother, Betty, to him. We will return to these letters.

Berlin, November 11, 1918

Dear child,

What happened was no laughing matter. On Saturday, father and I were on the Palace Bridge when we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of all the shooting. Well, I got my legs into gear! … After everything seemed to quiet down, I went with your father to see a bit of the revolution. As soon as we innocently arrived at the Pleasure Garden, shots rang out from the Palace Square. The shots rapidly grew into the powerful rattling of machine-gun fire. Everyone panicked and ran across the Castle Bridge, with the two of us in the middle of the pack. Can you imagine that this should happen to me! My bones are still shivering. Yesterday the situation still appeared ominous. … Thanks to the energy of the Workers-and-Soldiers Council, however, an agreement was reached and events can now unfold without a civil war breaking out. Today the situation already looks better. The general strike planned for today will allow all of the workers to participate in the assemblies, but tomorrow everyone will return to work. All of our workers showed up for work as usual, but at noon your father sent them away to attend the assemblies. Hermann’s printing house is protected by the authorities because it prints food ration coupons and money—which means that we’re protected, too. The red placard of the Workers-and-Soldiers Council hanging at the entrance to our shop says, “Communal Institution! To Be Protected!” Soldiers with red armbands stand near the doors. All organizations and institutions have been smart enough to side with the new government, so that it can, by hook or by crook, maintain public order and, above all, prevent hunger. We thought the difficult times were behind us. Now it seems they’ve just started. The conditions set by the armistice are truly inhuman. But since they were imposed prior to the emperor’s abdication, one can only hope they’ll be made less stringent for the Republic. …

Kisses, Mum


Berlin, January 7, 1919


My dear child, 


… These days are turbulent beyond belief, with constant putsches and riots. Who knows what we have yet to go through. Machine-gun fire rattles while I write!! The Spartacus [Communist] people have occupied all of the newspaper offices. Your father has just told me that a regiment of the Guards has gone over to their side. In the past few days, they’ve been agitating for a general strike. Yesterday our workers walked off the job at 10:00 a.m. in order to join in the street demonstrations. This morning they all showed up, and after half an hour their spokesman, a Spartacist, again asked for a day off to demonstrate. 


(January 9) The workers held a meeting after your father flatly turned them down, and the older and more rational ones, in particular those who had just returned from the front, well-nigh beat the life out of the Spartacus people. With a vote of everyone else against four (the four Spartacists in the shop), they decided against a further strike. … 
On Monday, when I took a walk with Reinhold through Old Berlin …, we kept coming across parades of people demonstrating. They marched in unison, of all things. And why not? They did so for the simple reason that they had all served in the military! …

Kisses, Mum

Berlin, January 13, 1919

My dear child,

This past week has been incredible, bizarre beyond belief. It now seems that the Spartacists have been all but driven out. Their reign of terror was horrific. Our good old standard clock atop the Hospital Market took a bullet in the dial and heart. Two bullets flew through the shop of our local butcher, ripping a hole in his spleen—luckily the spleen sitting on his shop counter. On Saturday afternoon I went with Dr. Meyer (who wanted to watch the revolution; nothing I could say could keep him from it) down pitch-dark Wall Street until we arrived behind the colonnade on Leipzig Street. Everything was dark as coal; Leipzig Street was entirely hidden by the night; Beuth Street was blocked; Dönhoff Square echoed with the sound of shots; everywhere there were ghost-like groups of people. Well, we turned around at once and made our way back. In the evening Vorwärts [the SPD newspaper] was taken and the Spartacus people vacated the Mosse and Ullstein [two publishing houses] buildings. Yesterday afternoon we went to take a look at the Vorwärts building. It looked awful. Shells had ripped through the building from the roof to the cellar. The neighboring buildings and those across the way also look terrible.

Your father sends his greetings. He has no time to write. He and Reinhold work without interruption now—there is so much to do! Times are good for the printing business: handbills, proclamations, and placards follow each other in furious succession. ...

Kisses, Mum

Berlin, January 22, 1919

Dearest child,

Our situation is becoming ever more dreary. Dr. Meyer can provide you with plenty of stories about Berlin. There was an attack on the Anhalter train station (of all places) while we were there. Hand grenades shattered the windows of the office where the doctor was peacefully haggling for a ticket. He’ll tell you how terrifying the situation was and how courageous I was and how comforting the old official was who assured us that just the day before three people had died in that very hallway. Every day brings a new drama. The electrical plants have been on strike since yesterday, ergo no light. Since morning there has been no power. ...

Kisses, Mum


Berlin, June 8, 1919 


My dear child,

… Yesterday we had another general strike, as a change of scenery. 
Streetcars and trains stopped running. There was also a strike in our firm because, I am sorry to say, we have a hothead in the worker’s council. 
We’re afraid that on Friday there will be more rioting in the wake of Rosa Luxemburg’s [a Spartacist leader killed by Free Corps] funeral. …

Kisses, Mum

Berlin, October 9, 1923

My dear child,

... Here it has become simply terrible. I can imagine that outside Germany people must have the strangest notions about this place. The reality is even stranger. When you left, the brand of sausage I gave you cost 12 million marks; today it’s up to 240 million. All prices have risen at this pace, often even faster. The collapse of the economy is complete. No one can buy a thing, and the unemployment rate has thus been on the rise.

You’ll be glad and interested to know that we’ve been printing money for the government printing house, of course. A general rapture prevails on the shop floor, since the threat of unemployment hangs over everyone. …

Kisses, Mum

Berlin, October 15, 1923

Dear child,

… Conditions have taken a catastrophic turn here. Notice that this letter cost 15 million cash; it will be 30 million beginning the day after tomorrow—and this price will most likely last a mere two days at most. Now you can get things done only with billions. To ensure that next week’s payroll will keep its value, the boys bought dollars on Friday at the (ridiculous!!) exchange rate of 1.5 billion to 1, and they’ll re-sell them on Thursday in order to pay people. For the time being, this week’s pay will be 8 billion, though we’ve had negotiations today because the workers are demanding twice that much. The bread ration card has been done away with, and a normal loaf of bread now costs 540 million; tomorrow, surely twice as much. The streetcar fare is 20 million (tomorrow it’ll be 50!). My God, you probably don’t have faintest notion of this million-fold witches’ Sabbath. You must know that we send women’s magazines to Frau Jacques Meyer. A few days ago her husband sent us a bank check for over 5 million. When we went to the bank here in Berlin to pick it up, it cost 40 million in transfer fees! I ask myself if the neighboring Swiss are indeed so ignorant of our circumstances, or if they just act that way! This small anecdote can illuminate everything. If throughout the world there is such little understanding of our plight, how can we expect that anyone will come to our aid? It seems inevitable that we will lose the Rhine and the Ruhr, that Bavaria will break away, and that Germany will once again fall apart into minuscule petty states. …

Kisses, Mum

Berlin, October 23, 1923

My dear child,

… It’s lucky we’re in the business of printing money. Once again, we have 130 workers. With the exception of the money presses, the few customers able to pay such fantastic prices do not require much effort. By contrast, the boys are busy day and night with the money transactions. They are now more bankers than book publishers. They have to watch like a hawk in order to plan properly and to prevent the billions of paper marks, which are now their business, from disappearing into thin air. You can’t imagine how things have become! In three days the dollar has gone from 10 billion, to 18.5 billion, to 40. Bread: 900 million, 2.5 billion, 5.5 billion. The collapse has been total. Here and there plundering has flared up, but not much. The despairing women are far too weary; they put up with everything. Until now there has been no unrest, though for weeks we’ve expected it to break out at any time. …

Kisses, Mum

******

GERMAN GUN LAWS, 1919-1920

During the twenty years after World War I Germany issued five laws or decrees restricting firearms. Included in this section are the first two of those laws, issued in the first years of the Republic. In addition the Versailles Treaty contained restrictions on military weapons in Articles 159 to 184. Only Articles 166 and 170, which are most relevant, are included here. Included here are the first

A. Decree Concerning the Possession of Weapons (13. January 1919)

§1

All firearms and ammunition for all types of firearms should be surrendered immediately.

The following are considered firearms: rifles, carbines, pistols, sub-machine guns, guns of any sort, machine guns, hand grenades, rifle grenades, mortars, and flame throwers.

§2

The central state authorities will designate the requisite conditions for this task. They determine the collection sites and the final date for this surrender.

§3

Whoever is in unauthorized possession of weapons or ammunition that is designated in paragraph 1 after the deadline to surrender them will be punished with prison up to five years or a fine up to one hundred thousand Marks or both penalties.

Should these weapons or ammunition be used in violence against persons or things, the penalty is up to five years in a penitentiary, or in lesser circumstances not less than three months.

B. The Treaty of Versailles (28. June 1919)

ARTICLE 166

At the date of March 31, 1920, the stock of munitions which the German Army may have at its disposal shall not exceed the amounts fixed in Table No. III annexed to this Section. Within the same period the German Government will store these stocks at points to be notified to the Governments of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers. The German Government is forbidden to establish any other stocks, depots or reserves of munitions. …

ARTICLE 170.

Importation into Germany of arms, munitions and war material of every kind shall be strictly prohibited. The same applies to the manufacture for, and export to, foreign countries of arms, munitions and war material of every kind.

C. Law Concerning Disarmament of the Population (7. August 1920)

The Reichstag has passed the following law that with the agreement of the Upper House is herewith declared:

§1

All military weapons are to be surrendered by a point in time to be determined by the Reich Commissioner for Disarmament to places also to be determined by him. The Reich Commissioner can determine that to begin with only a registration of military weapons need occur.

Only the Reichswehr [Army] and those officials whose duties require weapons are exempt from surrendering weapons.

Whoever is in possession of military weapons after the deadline for surrender has passed must report their amount and type for delivery to authorized places within three days.

The regulation for military weapons also applies to essentially finished parts or those in preparation as well as ammunition for military use. Modified military weapons count as military weapons when they contain essential parts of military weapons. More precise determination falls to the Reich Commissioner for Disarmament.

§2.

The Reich Commissioner will determine which weapons are considered military weapons.

§3.

The delivery of legally acquired weapons will be compensated.

THE NAZIS IN BAVARIA (1922)

The first report that many Americans saw about the Nazi movement took the form of a New York Times article on November 21, 1922. The article appeared on page 21 that day, indicating it’s relative importance. The Times headline formatting has been retained.

NEW POPULAR IDOL RISES IN BAVARIA

Hitler Credited With Extraordinary Powers of Swaying Crowds to His Will.

_______________

FORMS GRAY-SHIRTED ARMY

________________

Armed With Blackjacks and Revolvers and Well Disciplined, They Obey Orders Implicitly.

________________

LEADER A REACTIONARY

________________

Is Anti-Red and Anti-Semitic, and Demands Strong Government for a United Germany.

By CYRIL BROWN

MUNICH, Nov. 20—Next to the high cost of living and the dollar, “Der Hitler” and his “Hakenkreuzlers” are the popular topic of talk in Munich and other Bavarian towns. This reactionary Nationalistic anti-Semitic movement has now reached a point where it is considered potentially dangerous, though not for the immediate future.

Hitler today is taken seriously among all classes of Bavarians. He is feared by some, enthusiastically hailed as a prophet and political economic savior by others, and watched with increasing sympathetic interest by the bulk who, apparently, are merely biding the psychological moment to mount Hitler’s bandwagon. Undoubtedly the spectacular success of Mussolini and the Fascisti brought Hitler’s movement to the fore and gained popular interest and sympathy for it. Another condition favorable to the outburst of the movement is the widespread discontent with the existing state of affairs among all classes in towns and cities under increasing economic pressure.

Hitler’s “Hakenkreuz”[swastika] movement is essentially urban in character. It has not yet caught a foothold among the hardy Bavarian peasantry and highlanders, which would really make it dangerous. As a highly placed personage put it: “Hitler organized a small insignificant group of National Socialists two years ago, since when the movement has been smoldering beneath the surface. Now it has eaten its way through, and a conflagration of course is not only possible but certain if this now free flame of fanatical patriotism finds sufficient popular combustible material to feed on.”

Hitler has been called the Bavarian Mussolini, and his followers the Bavarian Fascisti. There is nothing socialistic about the National Socialism he preaches. He has 30,000 organized followers in Munich alone. His total following throughout Bavaria is uncertain, since the movement is in a state of rapid flux. He is wasting no time working out political programs, but devotes his whole energy to recruiting fresh forces and perfecting his organization.

Blackjacks Silence Opposition

“Herr Hitler regrets he is unable to meet you as he is leaving town on important business for several days,” was the answer received by THE NEW YORK TIMES correspondent. His important business was going to Regensburg with three special trainloads of Munich admirers for the purpose of holding a series of reactionary inflammatory meetings and incidentally to beat up protesting Socialists and Communists with blackjacks if any dare protest, which is becoming increasingly rare.

His simple method is, first, propaganda, and secondly, efficient organization. He personally conducts patriotic revival meetings for this purpose, often descending from his stronghold, Munich, on other Bavarian towns with special trainloads of followers. He has a rare oratorical gift, at present unique in Germany, of spellbinding whole audiences regardless of politics or creed. The new converts made at these rallies, those who absolutely and unconditionally pledge themselves to Hitler and the cause, are carefully sifted through and the pick of them who pass military muster are organized into “storm troops” with gray shirts, brassards in the old imperial colors, a black anti-Semitic Swastika cross in a white circular field on red; armed also with blackjacks and, it is popularly whispered, revolvers.

According to a reliable specialist informant, there are probably 400,000 military rifles and 150 cannon still concealed in Bavaria. So that some fine day Hitler’s legionaries might well make their debut with rifles. …

Hitler is credited with having a rapidly increasing following among the workers disgruntled by the high cost of living. It is also said many ultra-radicals, Including Communists, have flocked to his reactionary banner. He is beginning to draw support from the politically sluggish middle classes, which in Bavaria, however, are not so sluggish as in Berlin. Even more significant there is some active, more passive support and to a still greater sympathetic interest for the Hitler movement among the Bavarian loyalists, among monarchists and militarists and in government and political circles, apparently coupled with the idea that the movement could provide a useful tool if it could be controlled by their special interests. But there is also the latent fear that the movement might wax beyond control.

Hitler, in addition to his oratorical and organizing abilities, has another positive asset—he is a man of the “common people” and hence has the makings of a “popular hero,” appealing to all classes. It is reported that he was a worker before becoming leader of the Bavarian Social Nationalists. He served during the war as a common soldier and won the Iron Cross of the First and Second Classes, which for a common soldier is distinctive evidence of exceptional bravery and daring. To Bavarian mentality he talks rough, shaggy, sound horse sense, and according to present Bavarian public opinion a strong, active leader equipped with horse sense is the need of the hour.

Chief Points of His Program

Hitler’s program is of less interest than his person and movement. His program consists chiefly of half a dozen negative ideas clothed in generalities. He is “against Jews, Communists, Bolshevism, Marxian socialism, Separatists, the high cost of living, existing conditions, the weak Berlin government and the Versailles Treaty.” Positively he stands only for “a strong united Germany under a strong Government.”

He is credibly credited with being actuated by lofty, unselfish patriotism. He probably does not know himself just what he wants to accomplish. The keynote of his propaganda in speaking and writing is violent anti-Semitism. … so violent are Hitler’s fulminations against the Jews that a number of prominent Jewish citizens are reported to have sought safe asylums in the Bavarian highlands, easily reached by fast motor cars, whence they could hurry their women and children when forewarned of an anti-Semitic St. Bartholomew’s night [a sixteenth-century massacre of Protestants by Catholics in France].

But several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using ant-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.

A sophisticated politician credited Hitler with peculiar political cleverness for laying emphasis and over-emphasis on anti-Semitism, saying: “you can’t expect the masses to understand or appreciate your finer real aims. You must feed the masses with cruder morsels and ideas like anti-Semitism. It would be politically all wrong to tell them the truth about where you really are leading them.”

The Hitler movement is not of mere local or picturesque interest. It is bound to bring Bavaria into a renewed clash with the Berlin government as long as the German Republic goes even through the motions of trying to live up to the Versailles Treaty. For it is certain the Allies will take umbrage at the Hitler organization as a violation of the military clauses of the treaty and demand disbandment, even as in the case of its predecessor, the Orgesch [, a paramilitary group that was disbanded on order of the Allies in 1921 in an effort to control such groups].

******

THE NSDAP PARTY PROGRAM (February 24, 1920)

Hitler presented this program at the first mass meeting of the party. It came two months before the party added “National Socialist” to its name. The program was written by Hitler, Anton Drexler (the founder of the party), and Gottfried Feder (the party’s “economic expert”).

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party at a large mass meeting on February 25, 1920, in the Höfbräuhaus Festival Hall in Munich announced their Program to the world. ....

THE PROGRAM of the German Workers’ party is limited as to period. The leaders have no intention, once the aims announced in it have been achieved, of setting up fresh ones, merely in order to increase the discontent of the masses artificially and so ensure the continued existence of the Party.

1. We demand the union of all Germans to form a Great Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination enjoyed by nations.

2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations, and abolition of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain.

3. We demand land and territory [colonies] for the nourishment of our people and for settling our excess population.

4. None but members of the Nation may be citizens of the State. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the Nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the Nation.

5. Anyone who is not a citizen of the state may live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to foreign laws.

6. The right of voting on the leadership and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizen of the State alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, whether in the Reich, in the country, or in the smaller localities, shall be granted to citizens of the State alone. We oppose the corrupting custom of Parliament of filling posts merely with a view to party considerations, and without reference to character or capacity.

7. We demand that the State shall make it its first duty to promote the industry and livelihood of citizens of the State. If it is not possible to nourish the entire population of the State, foreign nationals (non-citizens of the state) must be excluded from the Reich,

8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who entered Germany subsequent to August 2, 1914, shall be required forthwith to depart from the Reich.

9. All citizens of the state shall be equal as regards rights and duties.

10. It must be the first duty of each citizen of the state to work with his mind or with his body. The activities of the individual may not clash with the interests of the whole, but must proceed within the frame of the community and be for the general good.

We demand therefore:

11. Abolition of incomes unearned by work

12. In view of the enormous sacrifice of life and property demanded of a nation by every war, personal enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We demand therefore ruthless confiscation of all war gains.

13. We demand nationalization of all businesses that have been up to the present formed into companies (trusts).

14. We demand that the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared.

15. We demand extensive development of provision for old age.

16. We demand creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, immediate communalization of wholesale business premises, and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders, and that extreme consideration shall be shown to all small purveyors to the state, district authorities, and smaller localities.

17. We demand land reform suitable to our national requirements, passing of a law for confiscation without compensation of land for communal purposes; abolition of interest on land loans, and prevention of all speculation in land.

18. We demand ruthless prosecution of those whose activities are injurious to the common interest. Sordid criminals against the nation, usurers, profiteers, etc., must be punished with death, whatever their creed or race.

19. We demand that the Roman Law, which serves the materialistic world order, shall be replaced by a legal system for all Germany.

20. With the aim of opening to every capable and industrious German the possibility of higher education and of thus obtaining advancement, the state must consider a thorough reconstruction of our national system of education. ...

21. The state must see to raising the standard of health in the nation by protecting mothers and infants, prohibiting child labor, increasing bodily efficiency by obligatory gymnastics and sports laid down by law, and by extensive support of clubs engaged in the bodily development of the young.

22. We demand abolition of a paid army and formation of a national army.

23. We demand legal warfare against conscious political lying and its dissemination in the press. In order to facilitate creation of a German national press we demand:

a) that all editors of newspapers and their assistants, employing German language, must be members of the nation;

b) that special permission from the state shall be necessary before non-German newspapers my appear. These are not necessarily printed in the German language

c) that non-Germans shall be prohibited by law from participation financially in or influencing German newspapers, ...

It must be forbidden to publish papers that do not conduce to the national welfare. We demand legal prosecution of all tendencies in art and literature of a kind likely to disintegrate our life as a nation, and the suppression of institutions that militate against the requirements above-mentioned.

24. We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the state, so far as they are not a danger to it and do not militate against the moral feelings of the German race.

The party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within us and around us, and is convinced that our nation can only achieve permanent health from within on the principle:

The common interest before self

25. That all the foregoing may be realized we demand the creation of a strong central power of the state. Unquestioned authority of the politically centralized Parliament over the entire Reich and its organizations; and formation of Chambers for classes and occupations for the purpose of carrying out the general laws promulgated by the Reich in the various states of the confederation.

The leaders of the party swear to go straight forward—if necessary to sacrifice their lives—in securing fulfillment of the foregoing points.

******

ADOLF HITLER, TESTIMONY AT THE BEER HALL PUTSCH TRIAL

(March 1924)

FROM: Inside Hitler’s Germany, ed. Benjamin Sax and Dieter Kuntz (Lexington/MA, 1992), 76-78.

The right-wing Bavarian government under Gustav von Kahr, after offering tacit support to Hitler and his movement, began to have second thoughts and tried to distance itself from them. On November 8, 1923, Kahr addressed a group of economic and free corps leaders at a Munich beer hall to defend his dictatorial rule in Bavaria. Hitler believed wrongly that Kahr was announcing a march on Berlin to bring down the republican government. Hitler and the SA descended on the beer hall, announced that a national revolution had begun, and coerced Kahr into joining him. Kahr managed to leave the hall and set to suppress Hitler’s movement. On the morning of November 9th, the fifth anniversary of the November revolution of 1918, Hitler and General Erich Ludendorff led a group of over 1000 men on a march from the beer hall through Munich to gain larger support. They encounter a police cordon, and shots were fired killing fourteen marchers and four policemen. The leaders of the march were later arrested and put on trial for treason in early 1924. Ludendorff was acquitted and Hitler received a light sentence. What follows are excerpts of Hitler’s final speech before the court.

May it please the Court!

The Marxist movement is destroying the foundation of all human cultural life. Wherever this movement breaks through, it must destroy human culture. The future of Germany means: destruction of Marxism. Either Marxism poisons the people, their Germany is ruined, or the poison is going to be eliminated, then Germany can recover again, not before that. For us, Germany will be saved on that day on which the last Marxist has either been converted or broken.

We will fight spiritually for one who is willing to fight with the weapons of the spirit; we have the fist for the one who is willing to fight with the fist.

When we recognized that the territory of the Ruhr would be lost, our movement arrived at a big point of discord with the bourgeois [middle class] world. The National Socialist movement recognized clearly that the territory of the Ruhr would be lost if the people would not wake up from its lethargy. World politics are not made with the palm branch, but with the sword. But the Reich too must be governed by National Socialists. …

But our movement has not been founded to gain seats in parliament and daily attendance fees; our movement was founded to turn Germany’s fate in her twelfth hour.

As we had declared at numerous public meetings, that our leaders would not, like those of the Communists did, stand in the rear in the critical hours, our leaders marched in front. On Ludendorff’s right side Dr. Weber marched, on his left, I and Scheubner-Richter and the other gentlemen. We were permitted to pass by the cordon of troops blocking the Ludwig Bridge, who wept bitter tears, were deeply moved and all gone to pieces. People who had attached themselves to the columns, yelled from the rear that the guys should be knocked down. We yelled that there was no reason to harm these people. We marched on to the Marienplatz. The rifles were not loaded. The enthusiasm was indescribable. I had to tell myself: The people are behind us; they no longer can be consoled by ridiculous resolutions. The people want a reckoning with the November criminals, as far as it still has a sense of honor and human dignity and not for slavery. In front of the Royal Residence a weak police cordon let us pass through. Then there was a short hesitation in front, and a shot was fired. ... Shortly afterwards a volley was fired. I had the feeling that a bullet struck in my left side. Scheubner-Richter fell, I with him. At this occasion my arm was dislocated and I suffered another injury while falling. … Around me there were bodies. …

During those days I was all broken down by pains of body and soul, if only because I believed that Ludendorff was dead. I obtained the first newspapers at Landsberg. There I read the statement about a breach of my pledged word, that I had pledged my word to Mr. von Kahr never to undertake anything without informing him, that I had given this pledge still on the evening of November 6th. There I stood as a perfect scoundrel without honor. That is the lowest thing to do; that man, who worked together with us the whole time, stepped up with such lies against us now, when we could not defend ourselves and, to an extent, were broken down in spirit. I never gave such a pledge to Mr. von Kahr. I have said, I am standing behind you loyally, I will do nothing against you. Finally I said: “If you are not going to make up your mind, then I will not consider myself obligated as far as my decisions are concerned.” When this campaign of slander continued in the course of the next few days and one after the other was brought in to Landsberg, whose only guilt was to have adhered to our movement, then I resolved to defend myself and to resist until the last breath.

I did not enter this court to deny anything or to reject my responsibility. … I bear the responsibility all alone, but I declare one thing: I am no criminal because of that and I do not feel as if I would be a criminal. I cannot plead guilty, but I do confess the act. There is no such thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918. It is impossible that I should have committed high treason, for this cannot be implicit in the action of November 8th and 9th, but only in the intentions and the actions during all the previous months. ... I do not consider myself as a man who committed high treason, but as a German, who wanted the best for his people. …

******

ADOLF HITLER ON PROPAGANDA (1924)

FROM: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Ralph Manheim (Boston, 1971), 179-185.

One of Hitler’s continual concerns was the mobilization of the masses to the cause of the radical right. He wrote in Mein Kampf (his autobiography and political philosophy) that British propaganda in World War I was superior to that of the Germans because it addressed the masses rather than the elites. The same strategy could be applied to domestic politics. In adopting the tactics he describes below he separated the NSDAP from the other non-Marxist parties, which was instrumental in the party’s electoral success.

The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses’ attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision.

The whole art consists in doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. But since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself, since its function, like the poster, consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect.

All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is, addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be exerted in this direction.

The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be. And this is the best proof of the soundness or unsoundness of a propaganda campaign, and not success in pleasing a few scholars or young aesthetes.

The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses. ...

Once we understand how necessary it is for propaganda to be adjusted to the broad mass, the following rule results:

It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance.

The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points; and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out. …

[T]he very first axiom of all propagandist activity …[is] the basically subjective and one-sided attitude it must take toward every question it deals with. …

What, for example, would we say about a poster that was supposed to advertise a new soap and that described other soaps as “good?”

We would only shake our heads.

Exactly the same applies to political advertising.

The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right that it has set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.

It was absolutely wrong to discuss war-guilt from the standpoint that Germany alone could not be held responsible for the outbreak of the catastrophe; it would have been correct to load every bit of the blame on the shoulders of the enemy, even if this had not really corresponded to the true facts. …

The broad mass of a nation does not consist of diplomats, or even professors of political law, or even individuals capable of forming a rational opinion; it consists of plain mortals, wavering and inclined to doubt and uncertainty. As soon as our own propaganda admits so much as a glimmer of right on the other side, the foundation for doubt in our own right has been laid. The masses are then in no position to distinguish where foreign injustice ends and our own begins. In such a case they become uncertain and suspicious, especially if the enemy refrains from going in for the same nonsense, but unloads every bit of blame on his adversary. …

The people in their overwhelming majority are so feminine by nature and attitude that sober reasoning determines their thoughts and actions far less than emotion and feeling.

And this sentiment is not complicated, but very simple and all of a piece. It does not have multiple shadings; it has a positive and a negative; love or hate, right or wrong, truth or lie, never half this way and half that way, never partially, or that kind of thing. …

[T]he most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success. …

The purpose of propaganda is not to provide interesting distraction for blasé young gentlemen, but to convince, and what I mean is to convince the masses. But the masses are slow-moving, and they always require a certain time before they are ready even to notice a thing, and only after the simplest ideas are repeated thousands of times will the masses finally remember them.

When there is a change, it must not alter the content of what the propaganda is driving at, but in the end must always say the same thing. For instance, a slogan must be presented from different angles, but the end of all remarks must always and immutably be the slogan itself. Only in this way can the propaganda have a unified and complete effect. …

All advertising, whether in the field of business or politics, achieves success through the continuity and sustained uniformity of its application. …

[L]imited to a few points, devised exclusively for the masses, [propaganda should be] carried on with indefatigable persistence. Once the basic ideas and methods of execution [a]re recognized as correct, they [a]re applied … without the slightest change. At first the claims of the propaganda were so impudent that people thought it insane; later, it got on people’s nerves; and in the end, it was believed.

******

GERMAN GUN LAW, 1928

In 1928 the Reichstag passed a new gun law, which revised the earlier ones.

Law Concerning Firearms and Ammunition (12 April 1928)

The Reichstag has passed the following law that with the agreement of the Upper House is herewith declared:

Section I

General Information

§1

(1) This law considers as firearms weapons by which a shell or buckshot is propelled by explosive gases or compressed air.

(2) This law considers as ammunition finished ammunition for firearms as well as any type of gunpowder.

(3) Finished essential parts of firearms or ammunition as well as those in preparation are considered the same as finished objects.

Section II

The Production of Firearms and Ammunition

§2

(1) Whoever wants to produce, modify or repair professional firearms or ammunition must receive authorization. Reloading by patrons also counts as production of ammunition.

(2) The authorization or its cancellation cannot be predicated on the examination of the question of need.

(3) For the construction of a powder factory or other plant for the preparation of ammunition authorization according to paragraph 16 of the Trade and Industry Act is required.

§3

An injunction that denies or rescinds authorization can be appealed through the appeals procedure applicable to police enforcement of the state laws. …

§4

If the authorization is ultimately denied or rescinded, a new application for granting authorization can be submitted if three years have passed since the final decision was reached.

Section III

Trade in Firearms and Ammunition

§5

(1) Authorization is required for whomever produces or sells firearms or ammunition professionally or commissions others to do so, or is an intermediate for the production or commissioning of such weapons, or wants to volunteer to produce or commission such weapons.

(2) The requirements of paragraphs 2 and 3 apply.

******

HEINRICH BRÜNING ON THE ECONOMIC CRISIS (May 1932)

FROM: Inside Hitler’s Germany, ed. Benjamin Sax and Dieter Kuntz (Lexington/MA, 1992), 57.

Heinrich Brüning became Chancellor in 1930 after the collapse of the existing coalition over unemployment insurance. His solution to the depression was to fight inflation, its opposite, by fiscal conservatism (increasing taxes and decreasing government spending). These policies were unpopular and Brüning became know as “the hunger chancellor.” He failed to assemble a coalition after elections of September 1930, so he governed during the rest of his tenure using Article 48 of the Constitution; and the depression became increasingly severe.

The fundamental problem occupying our attention literally almost day and night is the problem of unemployment. This vexation of mankind is acute in the entire world, but it has here in Germany taken on an incredibly oppressive gravity. You are aware of the numbers engulfed by this material and moral poverty. Six million unemployed, whose lot is shared by an equal number of family members; in short, one-fifth of our entire population! Of these six million unemployed, two million (or one-third) are under the age of twenty-five. They are unemployed at a time in their lives when physical strength and determination are seeking release in work. From among these two million, one million are under the age of twenty-one. One million young people who face life without a job; people who cannot find employment just at the time when they have reached maturity, and are able to think and act independently; just then are they confronted with an insurmountable obstacle.

Is it any wonder that radicalism is welling in the hearts of these young people? Is it any wonder that they base hope of a better future on the downfall and destruction of the present system?

You all know that the cost of work-providing measures of the so-called productive work relief amounts to much more by far than even the pure unemployment payments. … Despite the temptation to make the necessary money available for these programs, the national government has refrained from employing artificial means, which in the long term would be counterproductive. These measures would lead to an unstoppable devaluation of the mark. The nation would not be able to survive a second inflation, but would sink into chaos from which recovery would not be possible. It follows that all we can do then is to take a path that will not bring on inflation, will not endanger the German currency, but will provide work for the unemployed, thereby protecting them from spiritual and moral destruction. Aside from what the Reich government can distribute in terms of public works projects and other internal measures, resettlement and volunteer labor service will also come under special consideration.

One thing, however, must be remembered: Germany cannot solve this problem alone. … The world economic crisis must be eliminated or at least softened somewhat, because salvation can come only through the joint actions of all. The first precondition is the restoration of confidence. This has often been repeated by all those who have closely examined this matter. Confidence can only be restored by finding solutions to the well-known political problem.

******

LETTERS FROM BETTY SCHOLEM TO HER SON GERSHOM

(1930-1932)

Berlin, September 30, 1930

My dear child,

… The results of our election must look much worse outside Germany than they do here. Here there’s a great deal of resignation, though this is due more to the economic crisis than to fear of anti-Semitism. It would do wonders to calm the situation if the newspapers were all banned for three months. The sort of nonsense and lies they come out with is detestable. …

All the best, Mum

Berlin, October 6, 1930

My dear child,

… Reports that “the Jews are fleeing to Switzerland with bag and baggage” are of course a big fat newspaper hoax. Most likely, not even a single Jew has left. And why should they. There hasn’t been a single progrom. Even the new Reichstag won’t be any different from the old one. If only newspapers would stop printing their lies! Erich was in Rhineland and Eiffel for eight days shortly before the election. He didn’t even notice any special election propaganda; at most, he saw a couple of tame placards. The German people are so stubborn! But conditions here are really miserable. …

Kisses, Mum

Zernsdorf [a lakeside town not far from Berlin], June 10, 1931

My dear child,

… The boys tell me that twelve million inhabitants in Germany live off the state: four million unemployed and the rest pensioners, war invalids, invalids who are also pensioners, and other hungry stomachs. And this doesn’t even take into account the parasites receiving sick pay or living off professional associations! Compared with these enormous sums which society has to come up with, the reparations play hardly any role at all. Even if the Allies canceled all of our war debts, we’d still be in the same hot water. Try as we might to blame our economic debacle on the reparations, no one will believe our belly-aching so long as we still build tanks. …

Kisses, Mum

Zernsdorf, July 28, 1931

My dear child,

… Last night the boys came to Zernsdorf with the nightmarish news that they fear losing everything: the house and the business. Our customers have been dragged under due to the collapse of the bank. Everyone has been scared off business is dead. On Saturday Erich was happy to get a 500-mark contract with Ultra-Phone; on Monday the company went bankrupt. …

I’ll keep you abreast of the news (as I have over the past eight years). And rest assured that I, for one, won’t lose my composure. If I run out of money, I’ll live more simply. … Here in Zemsdorf everything’s as beautiful as always—despite it all. This we still own!

A thousand kisses! Mum

Zernsdorf August 4, 1931

My dear child,

You should already have received two letters from me describing the terrible situation. Technically, I’m in no position to give you a complete picture of the collapse, which you’d need in order to really understand what’s happening. The year 1930 was still a good one. We were a bit in the red; but given more or less normal business, we still hoped to make it up eventually. We never would have taken such a long trip if we’d had an inkling that such a crisis lay ahead!! It hit us like a catastrophe. An enormous fall in the demand for price tags caused our debts to swell. Just as all business came to a halt, the bank failed; so there was no one to speak to. The banks went into a government holding company, which showed no interest in the debts of “customers.” All of this happened at once. It looks as if we’ll lose everything. It’s cold comfort to know that the entire commercial sector is in the same position and that more shops are going under than staying afloat. Since everywhere you look there’s desert, you see no chance to plant anything new. The situation is desperate. …

I cannot continue to maintain my own house and household—this much seems certain. A pity, isn’t it? My mama, hardly a wealthy woman, at least died in her own apartment. Of all the possible alternatives left to me, moving in with Erich seems the best. … As long as we can still keep the house, I want to stay in my own apartment. For now, the rent of 170 marks is still easy to come up with. …

Even though at the moment things aren’t so bad that I have to give up the household, they could reach that point at any time. I’ll ask you now if you could use anything, because it takes two to three weeks to get a letter back from you. Selling things amounts to giving them away. I’ll let Werner have what he can take; other things can be stored. ... It’s impossible to send furniture to Palestine, isn’t it? Shipping and taxes are expensive, and who can pay them? You must bear in mind that we have nothing. …

With kisses, Mum

Berlin, February 9, 1932

My dear child,

… I think it’s an awful idea to travel to Germany in times such as these, with all this tension, political contamination, and anti-Semitism in the air. Some of Erich’s friends were at a hotel in Neustrelitz, and the waiter who served them wore a swastika! …

Kisses, Mum

Berlin, November 15, 1932

Dear children,

... Nothing new to report. None of Herr von Papen’s lovely speeches can bring new jobs out of the woodwork, nor will the situation improve if people are kept busy with elections. There’s already talk of dissolving the Reichstag, largely because Papen can’t stomach the idea of a hundred Communists. The transportation strike lasted five days, and the strikers got nothing from it. Our Friday evening at Lene’s suffered because of it. Only Erich and Edith made the half-hour pilgrimage to Kreuzberg; it was much too far for the others, including myself. A certain Herr Berger-Son was there as well. I’ve often heard about his enormous muzzle. He said that strikers in Neukölln had piled four trains one on top of the other. Sure, sure, said Erich. “Three I can imagine—but how did they stack the fourth upon the third?!”...

Reinhold, who’s terribly despondent, was just here for an hour. There’s nothing that can be done. Contracts for price tags have shrunk so much that the factory is hardly utilized at all. Since Theobald made the merger primarily to do price tags, the future looks truly bleak. Reinhold’s visits always make my heart heavy. ...

Warmest kisses, Mum

Berlin, November 20, 1932

Dear children,

… After fruitless efforts, Herr von Papen is being pushed to the side. Today read in Voss [the Vossische Zeitung, a liberal Berlin newspaper] that Hitler will become chancellor after all. But he won’t be any different from the others. It’s almost gotten to the point where I couldn’t care less. …

Warmest kisses, Mum

******

THE STORY OF A BANK CLERK (1933)

FROM: Theodore Abel, The Nazi Movement. New York: Atherton, 1966.

In the summer of 1933, the American sociologist Theodore Abel travelled to Germany. There he offered prizes “for the best personal life history of an adherent of the Hitler Movement.” Contestants had to be Party members before January 1, 1933 and the winners would be those “who submitted the most detailed and trustworthy accounts.” Abel collected 683 entries. Most of the contestants were between the ages of 30 and 60, and most came from the middle classes or unorganized workers. Certainly memory creates some distortion, and the similarity of some of the rhetoric to Hitler’s own autobiography must be taken into account. But, with such qualifications, these are very valuable documents. What follows is one of them.

The development of the younger generation, presupposing certain natural tendencies of character, will doubtlessly be strongly influenced by the events of the two past decades. The outward glamour of pre-war days, the outbreak of the war, the invasion of the Russians, our troops marching through to the East, the distribution of provisions during the war (our standing on line for perhaps thirty grams of sausage), news of victories of our armies from all parts of the world where German troops were fighting, the breakdown of November 1918, the struggle against the new republican regime, interminable political arguments, battles in lecture halls, political terrorism, the economic difficulties during the inflation and depression, and finally the death struggle between Marxism and middle class on the one hand, and the young revolutionary movement on the other—all will remain ineffaceable in the memory of the young German. The majority of the younger generation, whether it wanted to or not, had to take some position in regard to these events. In every instance, the standpoint was based on feelings conditioned by blood and race.

It was in March 1907 that I was born in the extreme northeastern part of Germany in Tilsit, a city that was enjoying prosperity as the center of trade with the neighboring country of Russia. ... Through the [Versailles] “peace treaty” this purely German region was torn from its motherland; Tilsit became a border city. The economic prosperity of a progressive city was destroyed. Boundary duties and the narrow-minded attitude of the small border states created after the war did the rest. As a result many young people had to leave their places of work in order to find others in the “provinces” or in the Reich. I was among them.

Fate had not blessed me with riches. I was the son of a middle class man. I received my education in a Tilsit public school. ... By taking advantage of every opportunity, I was “promoted” and received satisfactory reports. Thus I had the necessary prerequisites for further theoretical instruction in business. I was able to apply for admission to the school of commerce in Tilsit. This state institution did much toward the broadening of my knowledge. After two years of study, I received a diploma. ... My will power and energy had been developed early. In life it is usually true that only through industry and perseverance can a maturing man win the position he deserves.

Hardly had I left school when I passed from theoretical to practical learning. One must bear in mind, however, that life itself is the best teacher, and thus all of life is an apprenticeship. The first continuation of my education was with a Tilsit wholesale merchant. It did not satisfy me, because I felt that in the customary education of apprentices in this field mental activity was badly neglected. In the very first months my employer realized this. He now used me for calculating and bookkeeping work. Fate however, determined things differently. Through the mediation of the head salesman I received a training position in a bank. This was my rightful place. In 1923, a mad tempo ruled the course of business of the German banks. They reckoned in millions, later billions, and finally even in trillions. Amounts which one day still had some value melted into nothing within twenty-four hours. The mushroom growth of prosperous banks was followed late in the fall of the same year by complete breakdown. The conversion of our currency from the paper mark to the gold mark occasioned a simplification of business everywhere. Further systematizing measures followed. Tens of thousands of bank employees lost their positions and had to seek new schooling in order to find employment in other branches of industry.

This second apprenticeship of mine satisfied me. A hastened professional training quickly fitted me into a new position, for on the basis of my training my time of apprenticeship was decreased by half. After three quarters of a year I had an opportunity to demonstrate my broad knowledge of bookkeeping. But soon the business institution in which I had found employment was also closed, owing to economic depression. It was only through the recommendation of my chief that after a month I again found employment ... in the little town of Passenheim, in a branch of the same credit organization. However, I did not remain here long. The political battle that meanwhile had placed me quite in the foreground—about which I will speak later—demanded all my energies. Under these circumstances, it was no wonder that I soon became hated. The arguments about trifles became more frequent. After six months of work, I turned from this first scene of a real battle for National Socialism toward an uncertain future, going back to my home town, Tilsit. Naturally it was not easy for a “rebel” like me to find suitable employment. It is true, unfortunately, that the mass cannot endure sincere people. Therefore, in order to have any work at all, I had to take temporary jobs. ... Despite many struggles, I succeeded in creating here the sounding-board which enabled me to help the National Socialists’ idea to victory. In 1933 I became cashier, and soon thereafter, in October of the same year, I was chosen by the board of directors as vice-president of [a] bank.

Today, as a member of the old guard, with the membership number 10,980, I am often asked for my reasons for joining the NSDAP. The world often does not understand and is astonished that it was possible for the National Socialists to conquer the state. They cannot see how we, the old fighters, again and again worked up the courage and the energy to overcome all obstacles. Who knows the sacrifices and privations of those years of battle, who knows the inner feeling of those party comrades who sacrificed everything in constant faith to the idea and to its first soldier, Adolf Hitler? Was that opportunism or chauvinism? As an old fighter, I maintain it was neither. It was renunciation and sacrifice in a belief in the great cause. It was, as I mentioned in the beginning, racial feeling; it was the inner law that urged us lo new action. In order to be true to our own character, we gave up a quiet and comfortable life to become political soldiers. I must go far back to present the National Socialist aims and instructive feelings as they first appeared in my development. In doing this I only want to assert that National Socialism was not learned by us old party members, but merely sprang from our instincts. Thus it was a matter of course that the opinion of the Führer was always also inherently our own before the Führer made it public. In election campaigns this was best expressed. We appeared as speakers before the people with our own points of view and attitudes and afterwards ascertained that our words agreed with those of the Führer. Thus in the National Socialist movement we find Führer and followers inseparably united. The attitude of the true National Socialist is that of the German man. In the simplicity and naturalness of our demands and the German’s understanding of them, lies the psychological foundation of the success of the National Socialist movement.

The youth movement [was] ... my personal preparatory school for National Socialism. The German youth movement was a training for personality in the best sense, for it taught us independence of action. Blood and soil were the two factors that played the largest part in this training. Love of the homeland and faith in the destiny and preservation of our nation were here for the first time experienced by maturing youths. They gave a meaning to life and turned us away from the superficial teachings of people who thought purely in terms of economics. We turned away from the [card] playing politicians of the beer table; we became rebels, revolutionaries, because we saw our nation in danger. We recognized the poisoning of the German soul in the form of superficial, shallow music, in the form of the trashy literature that could be bought cheaply at any newsstand. On the stage of the German theatre we heard words that were foreign to our nature and our spiritual attitude. Our mind’s eye envisioned the breakdown of Rome, Babylon, Nineveh, and the other ancient states. Everywhere one turned one saw Jews. The press, theatre, motion pictures, literature, music—indeed art in every form—technical science, and education, were all decisively influenced by them. Was the degeneracy of the above-mentioned nations also to seize our people? Never! That must not be.

But the [youth movement] ... could not fulfill this mission of regeneration. The flood of Bolshevism would have passed over it. Our youthful, vital forces, together with the other constructive forces of the nation had first to create a revolutionary movement and gain control of the state in order to accomplish reorganization of our entire national life. A, man like Walter Rathenau [the republican foreign minister who was assassinated in 1922], who, because he was a Jew, saw everything in a Jewish perspective, was insufferable to us, the youth who were consciously German. Therefore, the first determining factor of our movement was its anti-Semitism. The “Deutschvölkischer Schutzbund” [the largest anti-Semitic organization in Germany in the early republic] was the vanguard of the movement which fought for our national Germany, until the government dissolved the organization and new ways had to be found to meet a new situation. Down in the south we heard of Adolf Hitler, the “Drummer” who was perceiving the same problem with the same emotions as so many other German fellow-countrymen. ...

No sooner was it made known in 1925 that Adolf Hitler had decided to reorganize on a national scale the organization that had been prohibited and dissolved in 1923 than nothing could hold us back. In the extreme northeast, in March to April 1925, the first local group of the Party was formed. ... The National Socialist press at that time was insignificant. The Völkische Beobachter in the beginning appeared with only four pages and only as a weekly. Because we were so far removed from its place of publication, Munich, the newspaper always reached our subscribers two days late, and even later, as a daily, it was always out of date. It did not have the needed staff of contributors. Therefore the newspaper offered our citizens nothing. Despite this, our will to build up the battling paper of our movement was stubborn and undaunted. At that time I succeeded in acquiring about a hundred subscribers for the party publication. That was about 1925 or 1926. As a reward, I received from the party organization in Munich both volumes of Mein Kampf, with the signature of the Führer, and several photographs of our Führer likewise autographed. Today, after the victory, I look upon these proudly in memory of those hours.

Passenheim, 1926: Another field of action but the same work. New methods were discovered. The National Socialist press was enlarged by the addition of Goebbels’ aggressive paper, Der Angriff, and the National Sozialistische Briefe published in Elberfield. These we utilized in our propaganda. We also sold several hundred copies of the first edition of the new picture magazine, the Illustrierte Beobachter, about the party congress in Weimar. We distributed handbills. One of these was confiscated by the police upon the instigation of the Jewish manufacturer Hirschweh. The handbill represented a Jew on a see-saw who was raising first the workman on his left and next the bourgeois on his right. It was undoubtedly brazen on my part to portray so rudely the powerful position of the Jewish group. ... Then in the Summer of 1926 began the struggle to restore freedom of speech to Hitter. By means of written petitions the anger of the population at the entirely one-sided and unjustified prohibition was to be presented to the authorities in Prussia. With a few men I succeeded in securing about one thousand signatures. Only my old comrades know how much distrust and worry I experienced, what strength of character was necessary to go about this work. I like to recall those party comrades who shared joys and sorrows with me during that time of struggle, and I think especially of a young teacher, ... who was the only one among his colleagues to step forward and openly pledge himself to National Socialism. He never failed when I asked for his assistance, and many a time after a propaganda trip I enjoyed the hospitality of his home. When I think of Passenheim and the spread of National Socialism, I can only say, “Only six months, but to me they are a history of many unforgettable hours.”

Upon my return to Tilsit at the age of nineteen, I again found myself in a leading position, as secretary, treasurer and director of propaganda. Now local groups of the movement were being built up everywhere. After working hours the S.A. comrades took their bicycles, provided themselves with newspapers, and went out to sell them in order to obtain money for the continuation of the new work. One must keep in mind, too, that we received no outside help. Most of our expenses were paid by money contributed out of our own pockets. Germany and her future were at stake, the loss mattered not. Month after month of strenuous activity passed. Already 1927 was half gone. Fate gave me another field of activity. I came to Korschen, a railroad center in East Prussia with about 2400 inhabitants. Here was an entirely virgin field as far as National Socialism was concerned. Far and wide our movement was unknown. ... The wave of propaganda spread over the whole province, the latter at that time completely untouched territory. There was no weekend and no Sunday that we did not travel more than a hundred kilometers on our bicycles. ... In consequence of the national point of view, which prevailed among the people who lived in this province, we seldom made a trip in vain.

Our election campaigners in 1928 raised the hundred nationalist votes of the Korschen district to nearly 1100. ... Our young group was strong because of its constant activity in the neighborhood. ... In 1929 our group gained considerably in size; the local group was doubled. At the local council elections we secured three of the eighteen available seats; at the district elections we received one thousand votes in the district and one seat. ... We were able now to put our goals more effectively before the people and to secure the cooperation of local officials. To be sure, we were not interested in the council seats as such, for we were not parliamentarians and had no faith in numbers, but the election was a measuring rod of our progress.

Sooner or later it was our firm intention that the, state made up of parties should be destroyed. A nation ruled by thirty-five parties would have to fall as a result of the friction between the different interests. Thus every mandate meant a position of power to us, and after each victory we girded ourselves for further battle. ...

The national party meeting of 1929 will remain ineffaceable in the memories of the old guard. Of the 125 participants from the province, ... the poorest sons were the truest. Party members with a minimum income, part of them agricultural laborers, contributed travelling money from their own pockets. Many had literally starved themselves in order to come. In return they had the privilege of being allowed to take part with 60,000 other members from all parts of the nation in this third mighty review of the brown army. From this they gained the spirit that today excites the admiration of the whole world and with the help of which we were able to erect the gigantic organization of the totalitarian state.

With success, however, resistance also grew, as I soon noticed at my own place of business. The directors of the bank came from the group of the so-called satiated bourgeois, in the truest sense philistines, who lack any idealistic incentive. For them the only existing concepts were “peace and order”; everything else was undesirable. ... Defiant and stubborn, I could give only one answer, “I cannot act differently!” Now I often had to justify myself about trifles. These philistines were strengthened by the fact that the bank was approached by railroad employees, with suggestions that I should be discharged, else they would withdraw their membership and withdraw their savings accounts. I was given notice no less than four times. It was owing to my own conception of service and the sympathy I had won among the people that the notice was always withdrawn at the last moment. Petty chicanery was the order of the day. Let me mention only that all my incoming and outgoing phone calls were cut off, that I was no longer permitted to have my mail and newspapers brought to the bank. They even objected to my bicycle leaning against the side of the house during working hours, because a National Socialist pennant was attached to it. Finally with the threat of being discharged, I was forbidden to speak at meetings, even at discussion evenings, and also forbidden to wear my uniform. This made it impossible for me to carry on any propaganda, and I had to turn the leadership of the local group over to another party member. My only pride was that the organization was standing and would continue to grow, for all the prerequisites were there.

At the instigation of the district organization leaders, I was entrusted with the cultivation of the local group of Rastenburg, which was still in a very poor state. The problem was to win a city of 14,000 inhabitants where the Communists were the strongest party. There were about eight party members, but new ones were not being added; for following our first appearance in January 1929, resulting in a battle in the lecture hall, they were terrorized by the Communists who construed the appearance of any Nazi as a “provocation.” Therefore a hall could not be obtained, and we had to meet in very small rooms without any outsiders in order to discuss the tasks of organization and the strengthening of our idea. Difficulties arose because I lived twenty-four kilometers [9.2 miles] away, could make no train connections, and during the first months had to ride there after work on my bicycle. But difficulties are meant to be overcome. Today people will probably just begin to recognize the sacrifices that the old party members made everywhere.

After a while our circle grew. The elections of 1930 forced us to approach the solution of the problem of a meeting place. Master carpenter Thersky was the first Rastenburg citizen to find the courage at that time to put his furniture storeroom, holding a few hundred people, at the disposal of the Party, thereby assuring the success of the election. In return he was exposed to a boycott by the adherents of the left, and, indeed, even of the bourgeoisie. Often stones were thrown at his house, and demonstrations were a daily occurrence. The S.A. of the whole district acted as a guard for the hall at the first and second meetings. When we finally succeeded in carrying on the meetings in safety to the participants, the ground was cleared. The press printed half-way decent notices and we were able to hire a hall in the city. To be sure, we had to pay an excessive rent and besides be responsible for damages. ... The three battles which took place in the hall cost us more than eight hundred marks in damages. The day following every meeting a collection had to be taken up. Contributions of a mark, really made with difficulty, sufficed in a few days to cover our bills. And we must never forget to thank our S.A. who beforehand distributed handbills and sold tickets for days and afterwards had to do the fighting. ... Workmen, students, artisans, office employees, and unemployed formed the “mass” of the small but determined S.A. of that time. They gave their last pennies to pay for the trips scheduled for each day. The fighting was always severe and the Communists usually pursued us. ... Where there was such a spirit of self-sacrifice, such faith, so much courage and renunciation, victory had to follow. The old guard was only hardened by tribulations. Party comrades who had been deprived of a livelihood fought all the harder for our goals, and those who fell by the wayside served as warnings to us never to rest in our battle. This courageous and heroic attitude certainly carried along many party comrades in the struggle. No prohibition of brown shirts and emblems long prevailed. Bit by bit the hostile fortresses were conquered; fellow-countryman after fellow-countryman was won over. In 1931 I left Rastenburg knowing that I had created a vital local group there. ...

The time of the final decision was 1932. Our opponents defended themselves more bitterly, but our struggle, too, was more bitter. The lack of understanding of the middle class was shown when they refused to allow the Party to accept a compromise and to permit it to take over part of the responsibilities of government. The December elections brought us a loss of supporters because all too many of the mass of “adherents” could not understand the farsightedness of the Führer. We, on the other hand, held meetings and appeared as speakers in discussions sometimes as often as three times in an evening, just as formerly. The old fighter had not changed. It was he who made January 30, 1933, possible. The old guard had never failed. It was the staunch supporter of the movement and will remain so in the future, too. ...

I am particularly proud of having won over to our idea all my colleagues in my place of business, although they were constantly changing—all, that is, except for one who lives outside of our district and who has since also become a National Socialist. The designation of the bank as “Nazi fortress” during the years of battle will be the happiest reminder of my activities for our Leader and his idea.

What will come now? Is the revolution over? These questions are often asked in the press by reporters who simply cannot understand the unrivalled success of the Party and its supporters. Outwardly the revolution is finished. Germany is National Socialist. All important positions are filled by National Socialists, but some of the people have remained the same as before. In economic life and in the organizations the strength of the National Socialist revival makes itself felt. Only the younger generation, however, will surrender to the idea completely. It is the task of the old guard, after the governmental basis has been created, to deepen and intensify the spirit of Adolf Hitler and the idea of national life. We must keep in mind the dead comrades who were not permitted to experience National Socialist Germany. Let us think of what they called out to us so often: “Forward over graves!”

******

ADOLF HITLER, SPEECH TO RHINELAND INDUSTRIALISTS (1932)

FROM: Hitler’s Third Reich, ed. by Louis L. Snyder (Chicago, 1981).

Hitler was invited by a supporter to speak before the Industry Association in the industrial city of Dusseldorf. Many in the audience were curious about the emerging political figure but at the same time skeptical. Hitler was able to convince them not to pay attention to the middle points of the NSDAP Program, written by another man. Rather he presented himself as the champion of the fight against “Bolshevism” (Communism). At the end of the speech he received a standing ovation.

Today the National Socialist movement is widely regarded in Germany as being opposed to our business life. It seems to me that the reason for this viewpoint is that we have looked at the events that have shaped our development to the present, in a different way from all other organizations in our public life.

I believe it is most important that once and for all we break with the concept that our destiny is determined by world events. It is just not true that our present misery was caused by a world crisis, a world catastrophe. What really happened was that we have reached a state of general crisis. From the beginning many mistakes were made.

I need not say: “According to the general view the Peace Treaty of Versailles is the cause of our misfortune.” The Peace Treaty of Versailles is only the work of men. It is not a burden that has been placed upon us by destiny. It is the work of men. Both the Peace Treaty of Versailles and effects of that treaty have been the result of a policy which, fifteen, fourteen, or thirteen years ago, was looked upon as the right policy, at least in the enemy states. From our point of view it has been fatal—when ten or fewer years ago its true character was revealed to millions of Germans.

It is, furthermore, my own view that it is false to say that life in Germany today is solely determined by considerations of foreign policy. Certainly a people can reach the point where foreign relations influence and completely determine political life. But that is neither natural nor desirable.

Politics is nothing else and can be nothing else than the safeguarding of a people’s vital interests and the waging of the life-battle by every means. All functions of the body politic must in the final analysis fulfill only one purpose—to secure in the future the maintenance of that body which is the people [Volk].

Neither foreign policy nor economic policy is of primary importance. Of course, a people needs the business world in order to live. But business is only one function of the body politic. The essential thing, then, is the starting point—and that is the people themselves. ...

It is only natural that when the capable intelligences of a nation, always in a minority, are regarded only as the same in value as all the rest, then genius and personality are subjected to the majority and this process is falsely named the “rule of the people.” This is not really the rule of the people, but in reality it is the rule of stupidity, of mediocrity, of half-heartedness, of cowardice, of weakness, and of inadequacy.

In the long run democracy leads to the destruction of a people’s real and enduring values. That is why it is that peoples with a great past lose their dominant position as soon as they surrender themselves to the unlimited, democratic rule of the masses. ...

To sum up the argument: I see two diametrically opposed principles: the principle of democracy, which, no matter how you look at it, is the principle of destruction; and the principle of the authority of personality, which I call the principle of achievement.

The worth of a people, the character of their internal organization, and the character of their education — these are the starting points for political action. ...

Look at the world today. We have nations which, through their innate outstanding worth, do not have the life-space [Lebensraum] which is rightfully theirs. We have the so-called white race which, since the fall of ancient civilizations, in the course of some thousand years has created for itself a privileged place in the world. This privileged position, this economic supremacy, has been due to a political conception of supremacy. ...

Today we are faced with a world condition which is for the white race understandable only if it brings about a marriage of the spirit of domination in political will and the spirit of domination in economic activity. The white race can maintain its position only as long as the difference in standard of living in different parts of the world continues to exist. If today you give our export markets the same standard of living as we ourselves possess, it will be impossible for the white race to maintain its position of superiority. ...

Why is it that people just do not see ... that Bolshevism today is not just a mob storming about in some of our streets in Germany, but rather an idea of the world which is taking over the whole Asiatic continent? ... If the advance of Bolshevism is not interrupted, it will transform the entire world completely just as Christianity in the past changed the world. ...

This gigantic phenomenon cannot be wished away in the modern world. It is a reality, and of necessity it must destroy the existence of our white race. We can see the stages of the process: first the lowering of civilization; then the construction of an independent system of production; and then the final stage—its own production to the complete exclusion of other countries. ...

Gentlemen, the development is there for all to see. The crisis is serious, very serious. ...

It was the power-state that created for the world the general condition for its subsequent prosperity. In my view it is to put the cart before the horse if people today believe that by business methods they can recover Germany’s power position. One must realize that the power position is also the condition for the improvement of the economic condition.

There can be no economic life unless behind that economic life there stands the determined political will of the nation absolutely ready to strike and strike hard. And here I would enter a protest against those who believe that the Treaty of Versailles is, according to the almost universal view, the cause of our misfortune. No, that treaty is in itself only the consequence of our own slow inner confusion. ...

If I want to better the situation in any way, then I must first of all change the values of the country. I must first of all recognize the fact that it is not the primacy of foreign policy which can determine our actions but rather the character of our nation in the domestic sphere. ...

Gentlemen: Germany in the long run cannot exist unless we find our way back to a quite extraordinary, newly created political force which can exercise effective influence abroad.

It matters not which problem we want to solve. If we want to support our export trade, the political will is all-important. If we want to construct a new internal market, if we want to solve the problem of Lebensraum, once again we shall need the collective political strength of our nation. ...

******

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE THIRD REICH

FROM: Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany (Cambridge, 1991), 179-204. Modified.

Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the republic on January 30, 1933. He was to lead a cabinet in which there were only two other Nazis, Wilhelm Frick and Hermann Goering. Elections were called for March 5, 1933, and, despite the intimidating atmosphere following the burning of the Reichstag on February 27th, which the Nazis used as a pretext for declaring a state of emergency, the Nazis still failed to win an absolute majority at the polls. The NSDAP achieved 43.9 per cent of the vote, giving it 288 seats, while the left gained over 30 per cent of the vote (128 seats for the SPD and eighty-one for the KPD) and the Center and Liberals together gained 18 per cent. Even together with their Nationalist coalition partners the Nazis could not immediately obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to alter the constitution by an Enabling Law to destroy democratic government. Yet, after a well stage-managed opening of the Reichstag in the Garrison Church in Potsdam on March 21st, Hitler was able to convince the Center party and other smaller right-wing parties that they should support his plans. By preventing Communists and twenty-one Social Democrats from attending the Reichstag on the evening of March 23rd, Hitler ensured the passing of the Enabling Law, with only the Social Democrats courageous enough to speak and vote against the destruction of democracy in Germany. Henceforth, Hitler could pass any “law” he wanted, without regard for parliamentary approval. In any event, the latter soon became meaningless: in the course of the early summer of 1933, all parties except the NSDAP were either outlawed (the KPD being the first to go) or disbanded themselves (the Center Party formally dissolving itself on July 5, 1933). On July 14, 1933 the “Law against the formation of new parties” effectively established a one-party state.

Moves towards “co-ordination” were taken in a wide range of

spheres. The civil service was purged of political opponents of Nazism, as well as Jews, in the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” of April 1933. The powers of the different states were attacked by the Nazi seizure of local powers in March 1933, and in April ten so-called “Reich Governors” were appointed to assert Nazi power at the state level. In May, trade unions were eliminated and replaced by the “German Labor Front” (DAF). The “Reich Food Estate” dealt with agriculture and the peasantry, while craftsmen and small traders were organized under an umbrella organization. On January 30, 1934, one year after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, the upper house of parliament was abolished and the federal system terminated. The final major constitutional change came with the death of President Hindenburg on a August 1934. Hitler made use of the occasion to combine the offices of President and Chancellor in his own person as Führer, and to take personal command of the armed forces, who now swore an oath of obedience to him.

The new, personal allegiance of the army to Hitler was made easier by Hitler’s decision to resolve conflicts with the SA in favor of the army. The SA, under its leader Ernst Röhm, had been developing into a rather unruly rival for both the SS and the army. Aware that he vitally needed the support of the latter for his expansionist foreign policies, Hitler instigated the so-called “night of the long knives” on June 30, 1934, in which leaders of the SA were murdered along with a number of other individuals with whom Hitler had fallen out (including Schleicher and Gregor Strasser). This mass murder was retroactively “legalized” by a law passed on July 3, 1934. The SA was firmly put in its place, in relation not only to the army, but also to the SS. The latter, under Heinrich Himmler—who by 1936 had combined control of the SS and the German police, effectively concentrating control of the means of terror in the Third Reich—was able to arrest, detain, imprison, torture and murder, with no respect for law or justice. In March 1933 the first Nazi concentration camp was opened in Dachau, near Munich—to much public fanfare, with open and enthusiastic newspaper coverage. This was essentially a detention center and forced-labor camp, in which “anti-social elements” (including political opponents of the regime and homosexuals, as well as “criminals” more conventionally defined) were subjected to a penal regime. While inhumane treatment, torture, malnutrition, ill-health and overwork as well as outright murder were all causes of death, these labor camps were not extermination centers in the sense of those established solely or primarily for purposes of killing after 1941. Fear of arrest and fear of informers led to a frightened public conformity on the part of many Germans, who were forced to lead a double life, expressing their real views only in complete privacy.

At the same time as coercing the German people into conformity, measures were taken to attempt to obtain their consent to, and support for, the new National Socialist community. Measures were partly ideological, partly practical. For those not excluded from the new “people’s community” (Volksgemeinschaft)—for those apolitical Aryans, with no Jewish blood or political antipathy—life could be made relatively comfortable in the peacetime years of Nazi Germany. An economic upswing that had started already before Hitler came to power was given further impetus by Nazi work-creation schemes (Autobahn building, general construction works, and increasingly projects connected with rearmament). Nazi economic policies were geared both to autarky and to preparation for war, as well as to consumer satisfaction, objectives that were not always mutually compatible. There is some debate about the connections between Nazi economic policies and economic recovery, as well as about their effects on different groups in the population. It should be noted that certain developments were at odds with some of the pre-Nazi ideology, such as the proclaimed hostility to large department stores and the emphasis on the rural virtues of “blood and soil”—positions that were hard to combine with the industrial requirements of rearmament. One thing is however quite clear: unemployment was rapidly reduced, so that by the late 1930s there was instead a labor shortage. In contrast to the uncertainties and hardship of the Weimar years, the Nazi dictatorship was associated for many Germans with a secure income and an improved standard of living, however qualified by restrictions on personal freedom.

There was also a range of schemes designed to inculcate a sense of harmonious, regenerated national community healing the wounds of Weimar’s conflicts. Programs such as Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy), with organized leisure activities and holiday trips for workers, and an emphasis on the notion of community even at the factory level, sought to infuse Germans with a new spirit and enthusiasm inculcated at work. Meanwhile, Goebbels’ curiously entitled Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (created in March 1933) pumped out material designed both as light entertainment or diversion and as political indoctrination. The press and radio were co-opted, and the education system transformed into an instrument of Nazi socialization. The burning of books written by left-wing, Jewish and other “un-German” authors on May 10, 1933, was instigated by Nazi activists and presided over by Goebbels. It symbolized the Nazi attempt to purge from German minds all views except their own. A range of social organizations, such as the Hitler Youth (HJ) and League of German Girls (BDM), and the Nazi women’s organizations, sought to incorporate different sections of society into the new community, while the multiplicity of preexisting German organizations were outlawed, dissolved, or taken over by the Nazis. The notion of a regenerated national community under the savior figure of Adolf Hitler was further propagated by symbolic displays of power and unity, through the mass rituals, parades, and depiction of crowds of adoring Germans raising their arms in the “Heil” salute as Hitler passed.

The monolithic image promoted by the Nazis had a certain element of truth in it, and the notion of a charismatic Führer above all the local conflicts and frictions of everyday life represented a powerful element of cohesion. Local party bigwigs could be blamed for things people did not like, while they sighed “if only the Führer knew …”. But to take the Third Reich at its face value would be mistaken. The Nazi state was by no means so streamlined, nor the population so adulatory or brainwashed, as earlier interpretations of what was called Nazi “totalitarianism” suggested. For one thing, there remained a “duality” of power in the Nazi state, with new party organizations duplicating, and rivaling, continuing state administrative machinery. The overlapping spheres of jurisdiction led to considerable competition and conflict in a range of areas—between rival party organizations as well as between state and party bureaucracies—with no institutionalized means of resolving disputes other than by appeal to the Führer. The only finally decisive factor was “the Führer’s wish.” On some accounts, the very notion of a charismatic Führer “above” the fray was less an attribute of the person of Adolf Hitler himself than a consequence of the way the regime, with its plurality of competing organizations, had to function in practice. Frequently, Hitler only entered into conflicts at the last moment, in true Social Darwinist fashion allowing participants to fight it out between themselves and then backing the stronger, winning side. In many areas of policy, Hitler postponed making decisions until the last possible moment. This does not necessarily mean that he was a “weak dictator,” as some interpretations have suggested, since when it mattered to him—particularly on foreign policy—Hitler was quite determined to ensure that he got his own way. In other areas he was simply less interested in the details of policy formation.

Moreover, the totalitarian notion must also be qualified with reference to the fact that certain key elites—notably industry and Army—were not “coordinated” in quite the same way as more subordinate groups. For much of the 1930s, they experienced a certain congruence of aims with the Nazis, in the areas of economic regeneration under authoritarian, anti-union auspices, and rearmament and revision of the hated Treaty of Versailles. But the congruence of aims was never complete: there were frictions and divergences of interest on a number of points, and from 1938 onwards the regime entered a more radical phase in which differences were thrown into sharper relief—complicated after 1939 because the nation was at war.

At the level of popular opinion, too, the picture is more complex than at first sight might be thought. While there was a hard core of convinced Nazis, many more joined party organizations after March 1933 out of opportunistic motives, while others remained aloof even at the cost of their professional careers or their family’s livelihood. People did not swallow a “Nazi ideology” (which was in any event not very consistent or coherent) wholesale; rather, they sympathized with certain elements—such as promotion of German national greatness and revision of the Treaty of Versailles—while criticizing other elements, particularly if they were personally and/or materially affected by, for example, some aspect of economic policy. Many peasants, to take one illustration, had supported the Nazi emphasis on “blood and soil” before 1933; but they soon became disenchanted with certain Nazi agrarian policies, such as the Entailed Farm Law which stipulated that medium-sized farms could only be inherited by a single heir, of German Aryan stock, and not be divided among heirs. Public opinion was fragmented: people on the whole lived on a very day-to-day level, grumbling or applauding on particular issues but failing to develop a sense of the whole. There was also a widespread lack of interest in the fate of others, once they were removed from the immediate vicinity.

This restricted focus of interest, to areas of direct concern and immediate relevance, affected even the churches, whose record in the Third Reich is ambiguous. The Protestant churches—whose members had provided a disproportionate share of the Nazi vote—soon split between the pro-Nazi “German Christians” and the anti-Nazi “Confessing Church,” among whose number were some highly courageous opponents of Nazism such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yet while the Nazis had to abandon their early plans to subvert the church for Nazism and install a Reich Bishop, the reactions of most Protestants to the regime remained mixed. Nazi attacks on denominational schools and attempts to reorganize church structure were resisted, but many Protestants shared anti-communist sentiments and conservative-nationalist goals with the Nazis. The Catholic community, with its transcendent loyalty to Rome, was initially more resilient to the attractions of Nazism, yet in the main Catholics no more provided an effective bastion against Nazism than did Protestants. Reassured initially by the Concordat concluded between the Nazi government and the Vatican in July 1933, German Catholics slowly came to resist Nazi encroachments on their religion, such as the removal of crucifixes from classrooms in confessional schools. But they very firmly distinguished between “religious” matters, in which it was proper and permissible to resist Nazi policies, and “political” affairs that were no concern of the church. This self-limitation meant that while church leaders did in fact protest against the Nazi “euthanasia” program, in which many Germans (including of course Catholics) were killed because of mental disability or sub-normality, they failed to protest against the treatment of the Jews. While remaining to an extent alienated from the regime, potential Catholic opposition was limited by a restrictive legalism in their separation of “religion” and “politics,” the sphere of the church and that of the state; the same was also true of Protestants.

The German people were thus subjected to a mixture of coercion and consent, as well as to changed experiences and circumstances, changed material and social conditions, in the course of the prewar years, which led to a mixture of grumbling and support, approval and dissent, on different issues and at different times. But there were some who had little freedom to be so ambivalent: there were those who were to be excluded form the new national community, and were only too well aware of its dark side. Left-wingers early found themselves rounded up and imprisoned, or forced to go underground; resistance was extremely hazardous and clandestine. Others were discriminated against because of their racial heritage or personal practices: Jews, gypsies and homosexuals were singled out for harsh treatment, while the Slavic peoples were denigrated. Jewish policy in the 1930s was characterized by a series of more or less ad hoc measures: the attempted boycott of Jewish shops and businesses in April 1933, the exclusion of Jews from the civil service and certain professions, the “Nuremberg Laws” of 1935 depriving them of citizenship rights and imposing restrictions on marriages between Jews and gentiles, “Crystal Night” (Reichskristallnacht) on November 9, 1938, in which Jewish synagogues, homes and premises were attacked, burned, and looted and a relatively small number of Jews were killed. These measures were in the main initiated by Nazi activists or in response to pressures for action on the part of party radicals. Public displays of brutality commanded little general popular support among Germans. But there was much approval of the aim of “removing” Jews from German society, and the “Aryanization” of Jewish property (including housing) pleased the beneficiaries. The “legalization” of the pariah status of Jews in the Nuremberg Laws was applauded, while the destruction of property and creation of mess in Crystal Night was not. While it was quite clear that Jews were “not wanted” by many in the new Germany of the Thousand-Year Reich, and were to be excluded from Germany’s glorious future, it was by no means clear in the peacetime years that the “final solution” to the “Jewish question” which the Nazis had constructed would ultimately be a policy of mass murder.

There were two areas of policy in which Hitler had quite definite goals: racial policy, and foreign policy. Hitler wanted to make Germany into a “pure” racial community; and he wanted to expand German “living-space” (Lebensraum), achieving first European and then world mastery. Ultimately all else had to be subordinated to these ends. We must now turn to the radicalization of the regime in foreign policy, war and genocide.

As early as the 1920s, in Mein Kampf and the (then unpublished) “Second Book,” Hitler had laid down a program for his foreign policy. This program consisted in revising the Treaty of Versailles, incorporating Austria and transforming Czechoslovakia and Poland into satellite states, confronting France before turning to conquer Russia, and finally achieving world domination, perhaps with Britain as some sort of junior partner that Germany would help to protect. Evidently at least the first stages of this program commanded broad sympathy among conservative nationalist circles in Germany. Indeed, after 1930 a shift in foreign policy under Bruning’s government away from Stresemann’s more careful conciliation had been evident. A new, more confrontationist style went along with moves away from multilateral agreements towards a system of bilateral political and economic arrangements designed to extend Germany’s influence in southeastern and eastern Europe. When Hitler came to power in 1933, there were certain continuities with these trends, although the pace quickened and the ultimate aims were rather more ambitious. Nevertheless the compromise with the old elites that had brought Hitler to power was sustained, with some tensions and frictions, until the winter of 1937-8.

Hitler’s general strategy in the 1930s was to achieve as much as possible by diplomatic means while energetically pursuing policies of rearmament. Rearmament had been secretly pursued, and different means of expanding the army canvassed, since the later 1920s. Hitler made his intentions explicit in speeches to the generals and to his cabinet within ten days of coming to power. Initially, rearmament was disguised, as in Krupp’s euphemistically named “agricultural tractor program” which produced tanks from July 1933. By 1934 explosives, ships and aircraft were in production—all against the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, but approved by the army. In March 1935 the existence of a German air force and of general rearmament, as well as the introduction of conscription, were finally announced to the outside world. In the meantime, Hitler had pursued individual agreements with particular countries in place of collective arrangements. He broke off German participation in the Geneva Disarmament Conference, and withdrew Germany from the League of Nations in October 1933. In January 1934 he concluded a ten-year non-aggression pact with Poland (against the advice of the Foreign Ministry). In March 1935 the Saarland returned to Germany after a plebiscite in January. Although there were tensions between Italy and Germany over Austria (after an attempted coup by Austrian Nazis in 1934, in which the Austrian chancellor was murdered), Hitler was concerned to improve relations. He admired the Fascist leader Mussolini, and for a while trod carefully in connection with the Austrian question. The preoccupation of Britain and France with the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in October 1935, presented Hitler with the opportunity and impetus for his first really risky step in foreign policy. In March 1936 German troops remilitarized the Rhineland. This, despite the relatively limited numbers of German troops, was achieved successfully to much popular acclaim at home and little serious criticism abroad. Germany was, after all, only “entering her own back yard.”

In 1936, Hitler announced that Germany must be ready for war within four years, and a “Four-Year Plan” under Goering was launched. This marked a break with the previously relatively orthodox management of the economy under the former President of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Schacht, who subsequently resigned as Minister of Economics in November 1937 because of conflicts between his ministry and Goering’s Four-Year-Plan Office. Rearmament was to be vigorously pursued, but not at the expense of the living standards of consumers at home; Hitler had a perpetual eye on public opinion in general and his own popularity in particular. Shifts occurring on the foreign policy front also contributed to a loosening of ties between Hitler and his conservative nationalist allies. The Spanish Civil War, which broke out in July 1936, helped to bring Italy and Germany closer together (in their support of Franco) in the “Rome-Berlin axis.” Ribbentrop, who for some time had been effectively running a Nazi diplomatic service in rivalry with the Foreign Ministry, and who in 1936 became Germany’s Ambassador to Britain, failed to secure a British alliance with Germany. In the course of 1937, it became clear to Hitler that he would have to drop his plans for alliance with Britain, and strengthen his connections with Italy. In 1938, under Ribbentrop’s influence, Japan became the third member of the “Axis.” It also became increasingly clear that Germany would not be able to sustain a protracted rearmaments race, and would have to go to war sooner rather than later.

In the winter of 1937-8 these developments reached the point where a split between Hitler and certain old conservatives was inevitable. A meeting in November 1937 with leaders of the army, navy, air force, as well as the Foreign Minister and the War Minister was the occasion for a lengthy harangue by Hitler on at least some of his plans for achieving German “living space” (Lebensraum). Hitler failed to convince his audience, and was met with reservations and criticisms. But Nazi military planning in December became increasingly offensive, rather than defensive, in nature. By February 1938, Hitler had engineered a purge of the Army leadership, replacing conservatives critical of his views with others more amenable to Nazi plans. Hitler himself became Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (in addition to being Supreme Commander by virtue of his position as head of state). In February 1938, finally, Ribbentrop replaced Neurath as Foreign Minister. The changes meant that the regime was now more specifically Nazi, less constrained by the more traditional considerations and ambitions of orthodox German nationalists.

Hitler was able to achieve two of his major foreign policy aims in the course of 1938-9 by—relatively—peaceful means. Despite Germany’s reassurances in 1936 about respecting Austrian independence, which had facilitated the rapprochement with Italy, tensions continued in relation to Austria. Under considerable pressure from Goering, who took much of the initiative in the course of 1937, the Austrian issue came to a head in the spring of 1938. The Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg had talks with Hitler in February 1938. Schuschnigg then called a plebiscite in March 1938, formulated to predetermine the outcome; Hitler (and Goering) managed to effect a postponement and rewording of the plebiscite, and a handover of power from Schuschnigg to the frontman for the Austrian Nazi Party. Austrian troops were then instructed to offer no resistance when German troops marched triumphantly into Hitler’s native country, greeted by welcoming crowds, and with this bloodless invasion the Anschluss of Austria was effected. Despite its prohibition in the Treaty of Versailles, other European powers saw little reason to protest. For Austrian Jews, the consequences were disastrous. The vicious anti-Semitism of Austrian Nazis was given free rein, and Jews in a country that later purported to be “Hitler’s first victim” received worse treatment than their brethren in Germany.

Hitler did not have quite such an easy time in relation to Czechoslovakia. A right-wing party with support from Germany fomented unrest among the sizeable ethnic German population, particularly in the Sudetenland. In the course of the summer of 1938, a crisis developed. After a week of mounting tension, the situation was defused; but discussions were sharpened, with British Prime Minister Chamberlain playing a key role in negotiations. When, finally, at the end of the Munich Conference of September 1938—at which Czechoslovakia was not represented—certain border areas were ceded mainly to Germany, Chamberlain made his famous return to Britain waving a piece of paper signed by Hitler and proclaiming that it meant “peace in our time.” Chamberlain’s so-called “appeasement policy” has come in for considerable subsequent criticism as well as the defense that it helped to buy Britain time for effective rearmament. Hitler himself at the time was bitterly disappointed at his bloodless success, feeling cheated of a potentially successful war. The German people, by contrast, were relieved that the threat of war had been averted, and Hitler’s domestic popularity rose accordingly. Czechoslovakia, meanwhile, had lost its effective lines of defense. When in March 1939 Hitler decided to invade what was left of Czechoslovakia, his troops were able to march into Prague with minimal opposition. Bohemia and Moravia were turned into a “Protectorate,” and Slovakia effectively became a satellite state of the German Reich. The western powers let this “far-away country” of which they knew little, and for which they cared less, fall with no gesture of help.

On Poland, Hitler faced more serious intransigence on the part of the western powers. The Poles refused to give way on Danzig and on March 31st the British guaranteed Polish independence. Despite this setback, Hitler had by now formed the impression that Britain was essentially weak and vacillating, and would not stand by its guarantee. On August 23, 1939 Hitler, in a surprise move, made the notorious pact with Stalin’s Russia, which had for so long been the ideological arch-enemy of the Nazis. The Nazi-Soviet pact was purely strategic for both Hitler and Stalin: both had an interest in carving up Poland, and while Stalin needed time for rearmament, Hitler was concerned to prevent a potential British alliance with the USSR and to be able to concentrate his attention on defeating the west without having a war on two fronts. On September 1, 1939 German troops invaded Poland. On September 3rd Britain and France, honoring their pledge to Poland, declared war on Germany. The second major war of the twentieth century unleashed by Germany had begun. The German people on the whole embarked on it with foreboding, and little of the enthusiasm with which considerable numbers had greeted the outbreak of war in 1914.

The Polish campaign raised false hopes that the war would be over soon. In a lightning campaign (Blitzkrieg) Poland was defeated in less than three weeks. Parts of it were incorporated into an expanded Reich, and parts were transformed into the “General Government” under German administration. There followed during the winter months of 1939-40 the so-called phony war or Sitzkrieg. In the spring of 1940 Hitler rapidly turned his attention north and west: first to Scandinavia, then, in May 1940, via Holland and Belgium to France, the defeat of which was followed by occupation of the northern and western parts and the installation of the compliant Vichy regime. In spring 1941 Germany attacked Yugoslavia and Greece. The unexpected early and rapid victories boosted Hitler’s domestic popularity, at a time when consumer conditions were still relatively satisfactory; they also gave Hitler himself a false sense of invincibility. Goering persuaded Hitler that the German air force (Luftwaffe) was in a position to knock Britain out of the war, and a series of air raids over Britain began. But Britain proved more resistant to invasion and defeat than the Germans had expected; and Hitler did not wait to defeat Britain and consolidate his hold in the west before turning his attention eastwards. In the summer of 1941 he decided the time had come to invade Russia, thus effecting what he had previously been concerned to avoid: war on two fronts. The Russian campaign proved disastrous. German troops were over extended and ill-equipped; and when the Russian winter came, with icy winds and deep snow, German soldiers found themselves immobilized, without adequate clothing, afflicted by frostbite and in some instances even freezing to death. The Nazi charity collections at home (the winter relief fund, including donations and one-pot meals) persuaded numerous Germans to part with boots, coats, skis; but it was too little and too late. There were also serious tactical mistakes in the military campaign, particularly in the mounting of simultaneous and overambitious offensives that could not be sustained. In 1943, at Stalingrad, the Germans finally suffered a major defeat that could not be disguised. Neither domestic morale nor Hitler’s faith in his inevitable victory ever recovered.

The invasion of Russia was the first turning point in the war. Germany had been prepared for a short, sharp war, but was not equipped to sustain a protracted conflict of the sort which now developed. The second turning point came with the transformation of what was still a European war into a world war in December 1941. There had been a separate set of conflicts in the Pacific since the early 1930s involving Japan. In December 1941 the Japanese attacked and destroyed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor as a result of which the USA declared war on Japan. While Germany was linked with Japan as one of the Axis powers, there was no compulsion for Germany to come to Japan’s defense; yet Hitler took this opportunity to declare war on the USA. His megalomaniac desire for world mastery turned a European war—which Germany at this time still had some hope of winning—into a world war, taking on the enormous military and economic might of the most advanced industrial nation in the world.

From 1942-3, the war turned against Germany, with desert campaigns in north Africa, relentless air-raids over Germany carried out by the Royal Air Force and the American air forces, and continued fighting in Italy even after the deposition of Mussolini by the Fascist Grand Council in July 1943. Germany was fighting on three fronts, and the German situation became increasingly desperate as the Russians launched an offensive in the east to coincide with the Normandy landings of the western allies on June 6, 1944. Morale on the home front plummeted, as people feared for friends and relatives at the front and suffered deteriorating conditions at home. Hitler himself became a virtual recluse, making fewer and fewer public appearances and withdrawing increasingly to his East Prussian retreat, the “Wolf’s Lair”. Wrapped up in their own troubles and concerns, the majority of German people paid little attention to a phenomenon, of which they knew more than they would later like to admit, which was taking place at precisely this time.

Hitler’s basic aims had been two-fold: to achieve Lebensraum for the German race; and to rid that race of what he saw as a pollutant, a bacterium, poisoning and infecting the healthy “Aryan” stock: the Jews. Slowly, during the period after 1933, Jews had been identified, stigmatized, and excluded from the “national community”, the Volksgemeinschaft. Measures had been adopted to give Jews an outcaste status, and many Jews, realizing they had little future in Germany, had already fled for more welcoming shores. Although there had been acts of violence and discrimination against Jews, there had been no systematic policy for totally ridding Germany of the Jewish population. In wartime, things changed. For one thing, with the conquest of territories in which there were far larger Jewish communities (particularly in the east), the “Jewish problem” assumed new proportions. For another, more extreme circumstances suggested and promoted more radical solutions. Hitler let it be known that he wanted the expanded Reich to be “cleansed of Jews.” Initially, schemes were actively considered for the mass deportation of Jews to a reservation in Madagascar and Jews were even sent to southern France in preparation for shipment. In Eastern Europe, there were plans for a Jewish reservation in the area around Lublin in southeastern Poland. After the invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941, the “final solution” became altogether more sinister.

No written Hitler-order for the extermination of the Jews has ever been found; nor, given Hitler’s style of government, is such an order likely ever to have existed. But he let his wishes be known and fostered a climate in which the policy of extermination could be effected. There is some disagreement among historians as to whether the extermination program which actually took place was the direct consequence of a pre-determined plan, or whether it developed in a more ad hoc, haphazard manner as a result of local initiatives which were later coordinated. Whatever the interpretation, the broad outline of facts is clear. The first mass killings of Jews were undertaken by so-called “task forces” (Einsatzgruppen), who arrived in Russia in the wake of the invading German troops. Jews were rounded up and taken out to forests where they dug mass graves, were lined up naked, and were then shot into the graves. This technique had serious disadvantages from the Nazi point of view: killings were relatively public and easily witnessed by passersby, allowing the news to filter back to Germany; and those doing the shooting—which included shooting young women cuddling babies in their arms—often, despite the SS suppression of human emotions and inculcation of obedience and brutality, found themselves physically incapable of undertaking such cold-blooded murder without first imbibing copious quantities of vodka. Meanwhile, in the ghettoes in Poland, overcrowding and disease were becoming ever more serious, as more and more Jews were transported from occupied territories. From the point of view of those in charge of the Warsaw and Lodz ghettoes, some means would have to be found sooner rather than later of dealing with the increasing numbers of Jews, whether by halting the influx or disposing of those already there. The means chosen was death: immediate death by inhalation of gas, rather than shooting. Jews from the Lodz Ghetto were rounded up, from December 1941, and driven out to Chelmno, about forty miles north-west of Lodz, where they were driven around in vans which had the exhaust pipes redirected to pump the exhaust fumes back inside the body of the vehicle. When the screams of those packed inside had died down, the drivers stopped and the bodies were dumped in mass graves in the forest. This too, however, proved to be a relatively “inefficient” means of killing: it could—and did—kill tens of thousands, but could not dispose of millions.

In January 1942, a conference was called at Wannsee, in the beautiful lakeside surroundings on the west of Berlin, to coordinate the “final solution” that was already taking place, under the general direction of SS-leader Heinrich Himmler. In Poland, specially designed extermination camps were opened at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. Under the so-called “Reinhard Action” (named after Reinhard Heydrich, who presided over the meeting at Wannsee), these camps effected the liquidation of the vast majority of Polish Jews.

They made use of the expertise and personnel of the now-terminated “euthanasia” program. The most infamous of the camps, the name of which has come to epitomize evil and suffering, was however not tucked away out of sight in eastern Poland, but was in fact within the borders of the greater German Reich: Auschwitz, which was a major industrial centre on the main west-east railway line in Upper Silesia. The Auschwitz complex spread over several square kilometers, in and around the town, straddling both sides of the main railway line (with an extra sideline built specifically to allow trains to go directly into the extermination centre at Birkenau). Auschwitz I, an already existing prison and labor camp largely for political prisoners, was the scene of horrific “medical” experiments under Josef Mengele; it was also the place where the use of Zyklon B gas was first tried. Auschwitz II, or Auschwitz-Birkenau, was established a few kilometers away, as a specifically designed factory for mass murder. Whole trainloads could be “processed”, the trains cleaned and readied for their empty return to the west, within three or four hours. When all the gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau were in full operation, it was possible to kill up to 9,000 people within twenty-four hours. Also in the town of Auschwitz was the I. G. Farben company’s new synthetic rubber (Buna) plant, where inmates worked. The Auschwitz complex also supplied labor for a number of other German firms such as Krupp and Siemens. This was no isolated, hidden concentration camp, but rather a vast enterprise of which large numbers of Poles and Germans were perfectly well aware. Complicity in the functioning of the Third Reich extends far beyond a small band of Nazi thugs and criminals.

The mass murder of over five million Jews, as well as the almost complete annihilation of Europe’s gypsy population, and the killing of numerous political opponents of Nazism or others deemed “unworthy of life,” from a whole range of cultural, political and national backgrounds, including Communists, Social Democrats, Conservatives, Protestants, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others, was bureaucratically organized, technologically perfected and efficiently executed. Hitler created the climate and provided the impetus for mass murder—which even conflicted with other central aims of the regime, such as the need for slave labor in the war effort—but he cannot be held to be the only guilty man, as certain explanations that concentrate on the takeover of Germany by a uniquely evil individual imply. Nor can responsibility be placed solely on a small band of fanatics around Hitler. Hitler did not come to power by accident; nor was his regime simply maintained by terror and coercion. Many Germans, in different capacities, facilitated the Holocaust by their actions or permitted it to continue by their inaction. By the end of 1943 at the latest, a considerable percentage of Germans—amounting to several million—knew that the Jews who were being rounded up and shipped off to the east would, directly or indirectly (via transit camps such as Theresienstadt), ultimately end up in a place not of “resettlement” but of death. This was known, too, by governments of neutral countries and of Hitler’s enemies; but powers such as Britain and the USA, for whatever range of reasons, good and bad, chose to ignore the question and concentrated rather on the military effort of defeating Germany in war.

Whatever the extent to which people “knew” about the evils of the Nazi regime, most Germans preferred to ignore or disbelieve what did not concern them directly. Their intimations were better suppressed. There were some courageous groups and individuals in Nazi Germany who made attempts to oppose Hitler and terminate his rule. These included many clandestine left-wing opposition groups in the 1930s, who continued to meet, discuss and organize, despite the flight of the SPD leadership into exile and the dispersal of KPD members to Moscow as well as the west. For many who refused to assent or conform to the regime, there was little that simply keeping faith with like-minded souls could hope to achieve. Attempts by better-placed individuals who moved in elite circles and could hope to influence foreign opinion or alter the course of events were for a variety of reasons unsuccessful. A group of Catholic students in Munich, known as the “White Rose” group, printed and distributed leaflets criticizing the regime. Their attempts to rouse public opinion, and to connect with other resistance groups in positions to affect the regime, could do little more than keep a flame of morality burning among the prevailing self-centeredness, conformity and apathy. They were caught and executed, still in their early twenties. Many others too paid with their lives.

The resistance that received most public attention in West Germany after the war was the so-called July Plot of 1944. This constituted, however, a somewhat ambiguous legacy for West German democracy. Many individuals associated with the July Plot had earlier helped the Nazi regime to power and sustained it in the 1930s. By the summer of 1944, Germany’s eventual defeat was becoming increasingly inevitable, and the accusation can be leveled against the military resistance that they simply wanted to salvage Germany from total destruction and occupation. Moreover, even taking into account differences of opinion among nationalist resistance circles about the form a post-Hitler regime should take, most of them were essentially anti-democratic in outlook. They wanted an authoritarian government by elites, and not a return to the sort of constitution embodied in the Weimar Republic; they disliked the idea of mass participation in government. In the event, their conceptions of alternative government could never be realized. The attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg to kill Hitler failed. Stauffenberg placed a briefcase containing a bomb under the large table in the Wolf's Lair where Hitler and others were engaged in military planning. The bomb went off, and Stauffenberg, seeing the explosion after leaving the building, returned to Berlin reporting success. But the weighty table, under which the briefcase had been pushed, shielded Hitler from the full blast of the explosion, and he survived relatively unscathed. In the wake of the July Plot the reign of terror was intensified to an extraordinary degree. Not only were the main participants in the plot arrested and killed in the most gruesome manner, but thousands more were also rounded up, imprisoned, tortured and in many cases put to death. Penalties for even the most minor “crimes against the regime” in the winter of 1944-5 were increased, so that thousands of ordinary Germans were executed for such offences as listening to foreign radio broadcasts or making political jokes.

Despite a German counter-offensive in the winter of 1944-5, by the spring of 1945 it was clear to Germany’s leaders that the war was lost. Hitler’s “scorched-earth” policy exacerbated the destruction of Germany: Hitler instructed his people to fight to the last, never to surrender and to leave nothing to the victors to inherit. Hitler’s view was that if the German people were not strong enough to win, then they did not deserve to survive at all. Hitler, too, went down with the country he had led to ruin. In his bunker under the ruins of Berlin, with the advancing Russian army ever closer, Hitler married his longtime faithful friend, Eva Braun, on April 29, 1945; and on April 30th they committed suicide. Their remains were incinerated by members of Hitler’s entourage. On May 2nd Berlin capitulated to the Russians, and on May 7-8th the unconditional surrender of Germany was signed. A brief provisional government under Admiral Dönitz was dissolved on May 23rd, and the occupying powers assumed supreme power in Germany. Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich had ended in ruins and ashes, after twelve years that had profoundly affected the course of history. The Nazi “national awakening” and “revolution” had ultimately achieved only genocide and suicide; millions lay dead, the destruction was almost immeasurable.

******

ADOLF HITLER, APPEAL TO THE GERMAN PEOPLE (February 1, 1933)

FROM: Völkischer Beobachter, February 2, 1933. Translated by Rod Stackelberg and Dieter Kuntz.

The day after he became chancellor, Hitler issued this proclamation in the name of his cabinet. Note the relatively moderate tone of the document.

More than fourteen years have passed since that ill-fated day when, deluded by promises at home and abroad, the German Volk [people] forgot the most treasured values of our past, the Reich, its honor and its freedom, and thus lost everything. Since those days of betrayal, the Almighty has withheld his blessing from our Volk. Dissension and hatred broke out among us. Millions of the best German men and women from all walks of life watched in profound distress as the unity of the nation disintegrated and dissolved in a tangle of egotistical political opinions, economic interests, and ideological differences. As so often in our history, the portrait of Germany has been one of heartbreaking disunity since this day of revolution. We did not receive the equality and fraternity promised to us, but we did lose our liberty. For the disintegration of the unity of spirit and will of our Volk internally was followed by the decline of its political standing in the world. ...

The insane notion of victor and vanquished has destroyed the trust between nations and thereby also the world economy. But the misery of our Volk is dreadful! The misery of millions of unemployed, starving proletarians [workers] in industry is being followed by the impoverishment of the entire middle classes and artisan vocations. If this disintegration ultimately also engulfs the German farmers, we will be confronted by a catastrophe of incalculable dimensions. For not only will this mean the end of a Reich, but also of a two-thousand-year-old inheritance of the highest and loftiest values of human culture and civilization. The signs of disintegration are all around us. With unprecedented will and violence, Communists attempt with insane methods to poison and demoralize the shaken and uprooted Volk. ...

Fourteen years of Marxism have ruined Germany. One year of Bolshevism would destroy Germany. The presently richest and most beautiful cultural areas of the world would be turned into chaos and a heap of ruins. Even the suffering of the last decade and a half would not compare with the misery of a Europe in whose heart the red flag of destruction had been raised. May the thousands of wounded and countless dead that this internal war has already cost serve as a warning signal against the coming storm. In these hours of overwhelming concern for the existence and future of the German nation, the aged leader of the World War [Hindenburg] appealed to us men in the national parties and organizations to fight under him once more as we had at the front, this time at home, in unity and loyalty, for the salvation of the Reich. As the venerable Reich President has extended his hand to us to work together, we, the national leaders, vow to God, our conscience, and our Volk that we shall resolutely and steadfastly fulfill the task thus entrusted to us as the national government.

The situation we have inherited is a terrible one. The task we must fulfill is the most difficult one posed to German statesmen within living memory. But our confidence is unbounded, for we believe in our people and their imperishable values. Farmers, workers, and the middle classes must all join together to provide the building blocks for the new Reich. The national government regards as its first and foremost task to restore the unity of spirit and will of our Volk. It will preserve and defend the foundation upon which the strength of our nation rests. It will extend its firm protection to Christianity as the basis of our moral system, and to the family as the nucleus of our Volk and state. It will restore to our Volk, beyond the divisions of rank and class, its consciousness of national and political unity and the duties this entails. It will make reverence for our great past and pride in our ancient traditions the foundation for the education of German youth. In this way it will declare a merciless war against spiritual, political, and cultural nihilism. Germany must not and will not sink into anarchistic communism. In place of turbulent instincts it will again raise national discipline to the guiding principle of our life. In doing so, the government will devote careful attention to those institutions that constitute the true guarantors of the power and strength of our nation. ...

The national government will undertake the great task of reorganization of the economy of our Volk through two great four-year plans: rescue of the German farmer to ensure the means of feeding the nation and thereby guaranteeing its existence; rescue of the German worker through a mighty and comprehensive attack on unemployment. ...

In its foreign policy, the national government regards its highest mission to be the safeguarding of the right to life of our Volk and therefore to regain the freedom of our people. As it is determined the chaotic conditions inside Germany, it will cooperate with other nations in order to establish a state of equal value and equal rights within the community of nations. It is aware of its great responsibility to represent this free and equal Volk in its quest to maintain and strengthen peace, which the world is more in need of today than ever before. ...

If Germany is to experience this political and economic revival and conscientiously fulfill its obligations towards other nations, one decisive step is required: overcoming the Communist subversion of Germany. We, the men of this government, feel ourselves responsible to German history for the reconstruction of an orderly body politic and thus for finally overcoming the insanity of class and class conflict. It is not a single class that we envision, but rather the German Volk, its millions of farmers, bourgeois, and workers, who will either together overcome the problems of these times or succumb to them together. Full of resolve and true to our oath, we are determined—in view of the present Reichstag’s inability to support this work—to entrust this task, to which we are committed, to the German Volk itself.

Reich President Field Marshal von Hindenburg has summoned us with the order to give our nation the opportunity to regain its strength through unity. We therefore now appeal to the German people to take part in this act of reconciliation. The government of the national resurgence wants to work, and it will work. It was not responsible for leading the German nation into ruin for fourteen years, but it wants to lead the nation back to the top. It is determined to make good in four years the damage done in fourteen years. But it cannot make the work of reconstruction dependent upon the approval of those who are to blame for the collapse. The Marxist parties and their fellow travelers have had fourteen years to prove their ability. The result is a heap of rubble. Now, German people, give us four years, and then pass judgment on us! True to the order of the Field Marshal, let us begin. May almighty God look mercifully upon our work, lead our will on the right path, bless us with insight, and reward us with the trust of our people. For we are not fighting for ourselves, but for Germany!

******

THE REICHSTAG FIRE DECREE (February 1933)

FROM: Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 3 (Washington, 1946), 968-ó70.

On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building was destroyed by arson. The Nazis claimed that the fire was set by the Communists to mark the beginning of a revolution like the one that took place during the war in Russia. The next day Hitler convinced President von Hindenburg that to head off such a revolution it was necessary to significantly curtail basic constitutional rights. Although the Nazis claimed that this decree was based on Article 48, it went far beyond what that article originally intended. It gave the Nazis carte blanche to start arresting their political opponents, especially the Communists.

DECREE OF THE REICH PRESIDENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE PEOPLE AND STATE OF 28 FEBRUARY 1933

In virtue of Article 48 of the German constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence, endangering the state:

ARTICLE 1: Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

ARTICLE 2: If in a state the measures necessary for the restoration of public security and order are not taken, the Reich Government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.

ARTICLE 3: According to orders decreed on the basis of Article 2, by the Reich Government, the authorities of states and provinces, if concerned, have to abide thereby

ARTICLE 4: Whoever provokes, or appeals for or incites to the disobedience of the orders given out by the supreme state authorities or the authorities subject to them for the execution of this decree, or the orders given by the Reich Government according to Article 2, is punishable—insofar as the deed is not covered by other decrees with more severe punishments—with imprisonment of not less than one month, or with a fine from 150 up to 15,000 Reichsmarks.

Whoever endangers human life by violating Article 1, is to be punished by sentence to a penitentiary, under mitigating circumstances with imprisonment of not less than six months and, when violation causes the death of a person, with death, under mitigating circumstances with a penitentiary sentence of not less than two years. In addition the sentence may include confiscation of property.

Whoever provokes or incites to an act contrary to public welfare is to be punished with a penitentiary sentence, under mitigating circumstances, with imprisonment of not less than three months.

ARTICLE 5: The crimes which under the Criminal Code are punishable with penitentiary for life are to be punished with death: i.e., in Sections 81 (high treason), 229 (poisoning), 306 (arson), 311 (properties), 324 (general poisoning). …

******

THE ENABLING ACT (March 24, 1933)

FROM: U.S. Department of State, National Socialism: Basic Principles (Washington, 1943), 106-107.

The Law for the Removal of the Distress of People and Reich—or as it is known, the Enabling Act—was approved by the Reichstag. Because it was a constitutional amendment, it required two-thirds of the members to be present and approval by at least two-thirds of those present. The Communist and some Social Democratic members had been arrested and could not vote. The remaining Social Democrats voted against the act. The other parties, including the decisive Center Party, voted for it. The act destroyed the Weimar Constitution and completed the job the Fire Decree had begun by removing all power from the Reichstag. It essentially made Hitler the dictator of Germany. Although the Nazis claimed that the vote occurred legally, the arrest of Reichstag members and the intimidation of those present by the SA violated the Constitution.

The Reichstag has resolved the following law, which is, with the approval of the National Council, herewith promulgated, after it has been established that the requirements have been satisfied for legislation altering the Constitution.

ARTICLE 1: National laws can be enacted by the National Cabinet as well as in accordance with the procedure established in the Constitution. This applies also to the laws referred to in article 85, paragraph 2, and in article 87 of the Constitution.

ARTICLE 2: The national laws enacted by the National Cabinet may deviate from the Constitution so far as they do not affect the position of the Reichstag and National Council. The powers of the President remain undisturbed.

ARTICLE 3: The national laws enacted by the National Cabinet are prepared by the Chancellor and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. They come into effect, unless otherwise specified, upon the day following their publication. Articles 68 to 77 of the Constitution do not apply to the laws enacted by the National Cabinet.

ARTICLE 4: Treaties of the Reich with foreign states which concern matters of national legislation do not require the consent of the bodies participating in legislation. The National Cabinet is empowered to issue the necessary provisions for the execution of these treaties.

ARTICLE 5: This law becomes effective on the day of publication. It becomes invalid on April 1, 1937; it further becomes invalid when the present National Cabinet is replaced by another.

******

LETTERS FROM BETTY SCHOLEM TO HER SON GERSHOM (1933)

Berlin, February 7, 1933

My dear child,

The flu is going around, and “Heil, Hitler!” can be heard in every shop. … Business hobbles along. … Hitler’s appointment brought a new shock. Theo told me yesterday that not a single new contract came in all last week. People are gripped by fear again. Some are even buying canned food, thinking that a famine will break out! Last Monday I saw [Goethe’s drama] Faust, and during the intermission I looked down into the Gendarme Market. I saw a vast torchlight procession moving toward the Linden. An hour later, during the second intermission, they were still marching. (Where did the Nazis come up with 20,000 torches so quickly?) Otherwise, everything’s calm. There are certainly no more swastikas around than before. …

Kisses, Mum

Berlin, February 20, 1933

Dear children,

… With us here, political changes appear first of all as a shock to business. This is, unfortunately, an old experience of ours. Business came to a standstill after Hitler became chancellor. … Each change in the cabinet almost automatically raises the specter of strikes and food shortages. Hitler blabbers incessantly on the radio, without saying anything positive. Though the ban on newspapers that only prattle is very positive indeed. There has also been a mass dismissal of republican-minded civil servants, from top to bottom: district magistrates, high police officials—they’re all being given the boot. Since all of these people will be entitled to full pensions, our civil service budget will only balloon again. Newspapers are not allowed to complain, even mildly. An Ullstein publication, a supplement of the Berliner Zeitung, was banned because it carried an article in its economic section claiming that the prevailing conditions here have thrown the stock market off! And the highly respected Catholic paper Germania also got closed down, even though it was closely allied with Herr von Papen. It goes without saying that the same fate befell the Communist papers. Soon we won’t have any other newspapers but the Nazi ones. Hitler does things with violence. For the time being, the Jews have nothing to fear. There are few Jews in the civil administration and the civil service, and special laws won’t be enacted so quickly.

Warmest kisses, Mum

Berlin, February 28, 1933

Dearest child,

Today I’m so upset I can’t even write. Last night Werner was arrested again! You must have read that some lunatic set the Reichstag on fire, something so idiotic you can even imagine it was a contracted job. The government responded by arresting all former Communist members of the Reichstag and regional parliaments, along with the Communists’ attorneys and lawyers—who are not even Communists but who only defended them in court! A harsh wind is blowing. Werner and [Werner’s wife] Emmy were with us on Saturday evening. He even said that, if he were denounced, it wouldn’t surprise him if they locked him up. We did not believe they could do a thing against him—and Emmy agreed with us. He was, after all, thrown out of the party seven years ago and hasn’t been in the least politically active since he began studying. …

Early this morning at around 4:45 a guard and two others appeared, and, as no one opened the door when they rang, they opened it with a picklock. Lovely, isn’t it? They searched the house for an hour, even the child’s room. They found nothing, for the simple reason that Werner did not have anything forbidden in the apartment. But they had orders, so they took him with them anyway. Someone at the police station very politely informed Emmy by telephone, “That’s right, Herr Scholem is here and you can speak with him early tomorrow morning, not today.”

This entire business might also be just an election maneuver. Who can say anything about ruses of destructive politics? Things look terrible for us. Business, too, is completely dead. “Come back after the elections,” the customers all say. This election has strangled everything.

I can’t tell you how worried I am—simply beside myself. I still can’t stop crying. Emmy smelled danger and wanted Werner to spend Saturday night somewhere else. He just laughed at her. Then came this fire at the Reichstag, poisoning everything. …

Goodnight and kisses, Mum

Berlin, March 5, 1933

Dear child,

I’ll begin by telling you that Werner was released late this morning and came here for lunch. He knows something about legal procedures: immediately after his arrest he submitted a statement to the chief of police in which he provided proof that he was a member neither of the party nor of the parliament. He also wrote to Emmy on February 28, though the letter arrived only yesterday at noon. Werner was very composed and didn’t understand our excitement in the least. He said that it’s happened before and that he’d experienced far worse things during four years of war. …

On Friday the police appeared at [the print shop]. Erich led them around and they inspected what was being set in type and printed. The members of the patrol were polite and well mannered, and took only a copy of the Jüdische Rundschau [a Jewish newspaper] with them. They were searching for illegal presses because the Communist press has been outlawed. We have to be careful, since the latest emergency orders suspended the paragraphs on personal freedom, privacy of mail and telephone, and so on. Foreign newspapers can inform you better than I can. The streets are quiet, nearly empty of people.

The turnout for today’s election was enormous—the radio says 90 percent. Erich and his visitors are sitting in the front room listening to the results. I’ve excused myself. It’s enough for me to hear it in the morning. …

Warmest kisses, Mum

Berlin, March 19, 1933

My dear child,

… You wrote that you want precise information! I must refer you to the newspapers. Caution is the order of the day, and no one is allowed to pass rumors around. But this isn’t necessary, since the facts speak for themselves. Lawyers and teachers have it the worst: they can be completely barred from their professions. Jewish doctors have already been shut out of the hospitals, and the national medical insurance is probably next in line. Still, the government won’t directly interfere with their private practices. …

I myself am really quite calm. I’m not the only one in the world I have to think of, however, and my concern for my children and grandchildren has nothing to do with paranoia or an overactive imagination, which are not something I incline toward. It’s a real stroke of luck that you’re out of harm’s way! Now, suddenly, I want to see everyone in Palestine!! When I only think of the outcry heard among German Jews when Zionism began! Your father and Grandfather Hermann L. and the entire Central Verein [an assimilationist Jewish organization] beat themselves on the breast and said with absolute conviction, “We are Germans!” And now we’re being told that we are not Germans after all! …

The streets are utterly quiet, at least in the sections of the city I frequent. But the Tauentzien, with its elegant shops, is full of the usual hustle and bustle. The number of people holding swastika boxes and collecting money has increased, though I’ve never seen anyone make a donation. …

Warmest kisses, Mum

Berlin, March 27, 1933

My dear child,

Werner is continuing to work undisturbed, both with his attorneys (four socialists, two of whom are Communists) and with the office of the Attorney General. What will happen in the future is totally uncertain and does not depend upon the individual.

The government is taking the strictest measures against the atrocity stories, of which at least 99 percent are pure lies. But such lies spread when the press is not allowed to write as it sees fit. The fables now going around are ghastly. … Last Monday I went to see Traude Zucker. She was stirred up like a witch’s brew! This old rumor-monger whispered to me straight off, “My dear Betty, pogroms are on the way!” “How do you know?” I asked. I don’t doubt that among the people randomly and unjustly arrested some have been beaten, and for them it’s terrible. The situation in the courts is awful, and horrible things happened in Breslau and Gleiwitz. Perhaps the agitation has been greater and more justified in smaller cities. But here in Berlin it’s quiet—this no one can deny. Not a single shop has been plundered. Not one of us or of those we’ve spoken to has been a witness to the insult or abuse of Jews on the street or on public transportation. So you should wait until things happen before you talk about it. Nothing can be either done or prevented through a preemptive outcry.

You’ve no doubt read about the “moderate” speech Hitler made in Potsdam. I sat and listened to the whole thing, from 10 AM. to 2 P.M. Many people were incredulous: “How could you listen to it!” We live in Germany, and yes I consider it important to listen. It really concerns all of us! Granted, what the government does is much more important than what it says. In any case, the speech hardly had a soothing effect. Mass dismissals affect a great many Social Democrats. I think they must have more to worry about than we Jews do. …

Warmest kisses, Mum

Berlin, April 2, 1933

My dear children,

I hope that my missing letter from March 23 has arrived. Recently I’ve been writing every week. There may be delays because there’s most likely random censorship of the mail.

Yesterday’s boycott, whose significance you’ve no doubt gathered from reading German newspapers, took place in absolute calm and without a single incident. ... No one appeared in Schoeneberg, nor was there a sign posted on the shop. Two boys showed up on the doorstep of my little Katen [Betty’s sister, Käte Schiepan], of all people, and politely informed her that she had to close. Hedwig Hirsch and I were there at the time. “Oh, you mean,” Katen replied, “that I should send my patients away?” “Of course not,” said one of the boys. “Those you are treating now can stay; you just cannot accept any new ones!” The rest of the day’s consultations continued as normal! For years, a businesswoman down below on the first floor has hung her sign next to Katen’s. The boys put their placard there; they couldn’t find any other place for it. The woman of course made a terrible fuss, and later added a small penciled note to the placard: “This concerns Frau Dr. Schiepan.” But no one noticed the note, and as a result the poor merchant was promoted to being a Jew. …

Kisses, Mum

In 1938, after Crystal Night, Betty emigrated to Australia, where she joined her two older sons, Reinhard and Erich, who had moved there the year before. Werner was arrested again and sent to Buchenwald, where he was murdered in 1940. Gershom remained in Jerusalem.

******

OFFICIAL COMMUNIQUÉ ON THE ROEHM PURGE (June 30, 1934)

FROM: The New York Times, July 1, 1934.

From June 30th to July 2nd eighty-five top leaders in the SA—including its head Ernst Roehm—were executed by SS squads without any trial. Other individuals, such as former Bavarian leader Gustav von Kahr and former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, were also murdered bringing the total to over one hundred. While the purge was still under way Nazi propagandists began issuing proclamations to justify it, for example, this one which appeared in The New York Times.

MUNICH, JUNE 30. For many months individual elements have been trying to drive a wedge and produce conflicts between the Storm Troops and the party, as well as between the Storm Troops [SA] and the State. Suspicions of this became more and more confirmed, but it was also plain that these endeavors were to be charged to a limited clique of certain leanings.

Chief of Staff Roehm, in whom the leader placed an exceptional amount of confidence, not only did not oppose these endeavors but undoubtedly sponsored them. His well-known unfortunate characteristic gradually led to intolerable burdens, which drove the leader of the movement and the Highest Leader of the Storm Troops [Hitler] into most serious conflicts of conscience.

Chief of Staff Roehm established contacts with General von Schleicher without the knowledge of The Führer. His go-betweens were another Storm Troop leader and an obscure person well known in Berlin, to whom The Führer had always strongly objected.

Since these negotiations also led—of course without the knowledge of The Führer—finally to contacts with a foreign power, or rather to its representative, it was not possible to avoid intervention both from the standpoint of the party and the State.

Provocative incidents brought about according to the plan caused The Führer to fly from Bonn to Munich at 2 o’clock this morning, after visiting labor camps in Westphalia, in order to remove and arrest the most seriously compromised group or leaders. The Führer himself went with only a few companions to Wiessee in order to still any attempts at resistance.

The execution of the arrests revealed such immorality that any trace of pity was impossible. Some of these Storm Troop leaders had taken male prostitutes along with them. One of them was even disturbed in a most ugly situation and was arrested.

The Führer gave orders for this plague to be done away with ruthlessly. In the future he will not permit millions of decent people to be compromised by a few of such sick men. The Führer instructed Premier Goering of Prussia to take similar action in Berlin and especially to arrest the reactionary accomplices of this political plot.

At noon today The Führer spoke to assembled Hitler storm troop leaders and stressed his unshakable bond to the storm troops, at the same time declaring he intended from now on to remove and destroy without mercy all undisciplined and disobedient persons, as well as unsocial or sickly elements.

He pointed out that service in the Storm Troops was a service of honor, for which tens of thousands of brave Storm Troop men had made the greatest sacrifices. He expected, he said, from the leader of each unit proof that he was worthy of such sacrifice and that he would be an example to his troop.

The Führer pointed out furthermore that for years he had protected chief of staff Roehm against attacks, but that developments obliged him to place above all personal feelings the welfare of the movement and the State. He had to suppress at the root attempts in circles of an ambitious nature to propagate a new revolution.

******

ADOLF HITLER ON “RACE” (1924)

FROM: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Ralph Manheim (Boston, 1971), 288-296, 300-308.

The following ravings on “race” by Hitler appeared in the first volume of Mein Kampf in 1924. Although everyone knew of his anti-Semitism in the republic, his views were muted in his post-1923 speeches until well into the Third Reich. Contrast the following selection with his address on becoming Chancellor in 1933.

Everything we admire on this earth today—science and art, technology and inventions—is only the creative product of a few peoples and originally perhaps of one race. On them depends the existence of this whole culture. If they perish, the beauty of this earth will sink into the grave with them.

However much the soil, for example, can influence men, the result of the influence will always be different depending on the races in question. The low fertility of a living space may spur the one race to the highest achievements; in others it will only be the cause of bitterest poverty and final undernourishment with all its consequences. The inner nature of peoples is always determining for the manner in which outward influences will be effective. What leads the one to starvation trains the other to hard work.

All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.

The ultimate cause of such a decline was their forgetting that all culture depends on men and not conversely; hence that to preserve a certain culture the man who creates it must be preserved. This preservation is bound up with the rigid law of necessity and the right to victory of the best and stronger in this world.

Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live. …

The man who misjudges and disregards the racial laws actually forfeits the happiness that seems destined to be his. He thwarts the triumphal march of the best race and hence also the precondition for all human progress, and remains, in consequence, burdened with all the sensibility of man, in the animal realm of helpless misery. …

All of the human culture, all the results of art, science, and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan. This very fact admits of the not unfounded inference that he alone was the founder of all higher humanity, therefore representing the prototype of all that we understand by the word “man.” … Exclude him—and perhaps after a few thousand years darkness will again descend on the earth, human culture will pass, and the world turn to a desert.

If we were to divide mankind into three groups, the creators of culture, the bearers of culture, the destroyers of culture only the Aryan could be considered as the representative of the first group. From him originate the foundations and walls of all human creation, and only the outward form and color are determined by the changing traits of character of the various peoples. He provides the mightiest building stones and plans for all human progress and only the execution corresponds to the nature of the varying men and races. …

Approximately the following picture of their development always results:

Aryan races—often absurdly small numerically—subject foreign peoples, and then, stimulated by the special living conditions of the new territory (fertility, climatic conditions, etc.) and assisted by the multitude of lower-type beings standing at their disposal as helpers, develop the intellectual and organizational capacities dormant within them. Often in a few millenniums or even centuries they create cultures that originally bear all the inner characteristics of their nature, adapted to the above-indicated special qualities of the soil and subjected beings. In the end, however, the conquerors transgress against the principle of blood purity, to which they had first adhered; they begin to mix with the subjugated inhabitants and thus end their own existence; for the fall of man in paradise has always been followed by his expulsion.

After a thousand years and more, the last visible trace of the former master people is often seen in the lighter skin color that its blood left behind in the subjugated race, and in a petrified culture that it had originally created. For, once the actual and spiritual conqueror lost himself in the blood of the subjected people, the fuel for the torch of human progress was lost! Just as, through the blood of the former masters, the color preserved a feeble gleam in their memory, likewise the night of cultural life is gently illumined by the remaining creations of the former light bringers. They shine through all the returned barbarism and too often inspire the thoughtless observer of the moment with the opinion that he beholds the picture of the present people before him, whereas he is only gazing into the mirror of the past. …

This mere sketch of the development of “culture-bearing” nations gives a picture of the growth, of the activity, and—the decline—of the true culture-founders of this earth, the Aryans themselves.

As in daily life the so-called genius requires a special cause, indeed, often a positive impetus, to make him shine, likewise the genius-race in the life of peoples. … Nowhere have we better occasion to observe this than in war. … The hammer-stroke of Fate that throws one man to the ground suddenly strikes steel in another, and when the shell of everyday life is broken, the previously hidden kernel lies open before the eyes of the astonished world. The world then resists and does not want to believe that the type that is apparently identical with it is suddenly a very different being. …

As already emphasized, this applies not only to the individual man but also to the race. Creatively active peoples always have a fundamental creative gift, even if it should not be recognizable to the eyes of superficial observers. ...

Hence it is no accident that the first cultures arose in places where the Aryan, in his encounters with lower peoples, subjugated them and bent them to his will. They then became the first technical instrument in the service of a developing culture.

Blood mixture and the resultant drop in the racial level is the sole cause of the dying out of old cultures; for men do not perish as a result of lost wars, but by the loss of that force of resistance which is contained only in pure blood.

All who are not of good race in this world are chaff. …

The mightiest counterpart to the Aryan is represented by the Jew. In hardly any people in the world is the instinct of self-preservation developed more strongly than in the so-called “chosen.” ...

For if the Jewish people’s instinct of self-preservation is not smaller but larger than that of other peoples, if his intellectual faculties can easily arouse the impression that they are equal to the intellectual gifts of other races, he lacks completely the most essential requirement for a cultured people, the idealistic attitude. In the Jewish people the will to self-sacrifice does not go beyond the individual’s naked instinct of self-preservation. Their apparently great sense of solidarity is based on the very primitive herd instinct that is seen in many other living creatures in this world. It is a noteworthy fact that the herd instinct leads to mutual support only as long as a common danger makes this seem useful or inevitable. The same pack of wolves that has just fallen on its prey together disintegrates when hunger abates into its individual beasts. …

If the Jews were alone in this world, they would stifle in filth and offal; they would try to get ahead of one another in hate-filled struggle and exterminate one another, in so far as the absolute absence of all sense of self-sacrifice, expressing itself in their cowardice, did not turn battle into comedy here too. So it is absolutely wrong to infer any ideal sense of sacrifice in the Jews from the fact that they stand together in struggle, or, better expressed, in the plundering of their fellow men. Here again the Jew is led by nothing but the naked egoism of the individual.

That is why the Jewish state—which should be the living organism for preserving and increasing a race—is completely unlimited as to territory. For a state formation to have a definite spatial setting always presupposes an idealistic attitude on the part of the state-race, and especially a correct interpretation of the concept of work. In the exact measure in which this attitude is lacking, any attempt at forming, even of preserving, a spatially delimited state fails. And thus the basis on which alone culture can arise is lacking.

Hence the Jewish people, despite all apparent intellectual qualities, is without any true culture, and especially without any culture of its own. For what sham culture the Jew today possesses is the property of other peoples, and for the most part it is ruined in his hands. In judging the Jewish people’s attitude on the question of human culture, the most essential characteristic we must always bear in mind is that there has never been a Jewish art and accordingly there is none today either; that above all the two queens of all the arts, architecture and music, owe nothing original to the Jews. What they do accomplish in the field of art is either patchwork or intellectual theft. Thus, the Jew lacks those qualities that distinguish the races that are creative and hence culturally blessed. …

No, the Jew possesses no culture-creating force of any sort, since the idealism, without which there is no true higher development of man, is not present in him and never was present. Hence his intellect will never have a constructive effect, but will be destructive, and in very rare cases perhaps will at most be stimulating, but then as the prototype of the “force which always wants evil and nevertheless creates good.” Not through him does any progress of mankind occur, but in spite of him. …

He is and remains the typical parasite, a sponger who like a noxious bacillus keeps spreading as soon as a favorable medium invites him. And the effect of his existence is also like that of spongers: wherever he appears, the host people dies out after a shorter or longer period.

Thus, the Jew of all times has lived in the states of other peoples, and there formed his own state, which, to be sure, habitually sailed under the disguise of “religious community” as long as outward circumstances made a complete revelation of his nature seem inadvisable. ...

His life within other peoples can only endure for any length of time if he succeeds in arousing the opinion that he is not a people but a “religious community,” though of a special sort.

And this is the first great lie. ...

On this first and greatest lie, that the Jews are not a race but a religion, more and more lies are based in necessary consequence. Among them is the lie with regard to the language of the Jew. For him it is not a means for expressing his thoughts, but a means for concealing them. When he speaks French, he thinks Jewish, and while he turns out German verses, in his life he only expresses the nature of his nationality. …

To what an extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, so infinitely hated by the Jews. They are based on a forgery, the Frankfurter Zeitung moans and screams once every week: the best proof that they are authentic. What many Jews may do unconsciously is here consciously exposed. … Anyone who examines the historical development of the last hundred years from the standpoint of this book will at once understand the screaming of the Jewish press. For once this book has become the common property of a people, the Jewish menace may be considered as broken. …

The ignorance of the broad masses about the inner nature of the Jew, the lack of instinct and narrow-mindedness of our upper classes, make the people an easy victim for this Jewish campaign of lies.

While from innate cowardice the upper classes turn away from a man whom the Jew attacks with lies and slander, the broad masses from stupidity or simplicity believe everything. The state authorities either cloak themselves in silence or, what usually happens, in order to put an end to the Jewish press campaign, they persecute the unjustly attacked, which, in the eyes of such an official ass, passes as the preservation of state authority and the safeguarding of law and order.

Slowly fear of the Marxist weapon of Jewry descends like a nightmare on the mind and soul of decent people. They begin to tremble before the terrible enemy and thus have become his final victim. …

How close they see approaching victory can be seen by the hideous aspect which their relations with the members of other peoples takes on.

With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people. With every means he tries to destroy the racial foundations of the people he has set out to subjugate. Just as he himself systematically ruins women and girls, he does not shrink back from pulling down the blood barriers for others, even on a large scale. It was and it is Jews who bring the Negroes into the Rhineland, always with the same secret thought and clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily resulting bastardization, throwing it down from its cultural and political height, and himself rising to be its master.

For a racially pure people which is conscious of its blood can never be enslaved by the Jew. In this world he will forever be master over bastards and bastards alone.

And so he tries systematically to lower the racial level by a continuous poisoning of individuals. ...

In the political field he refuses the state the means for its self-preservation, destroys the foundations of all national self-maintenance and defense, destroys faith in the leadership, scoffs at its history and past, and drags everything that is truly great into the gutter. …

The most frightful example of this kind is offered by Russia, where he killed or starved about thirty million people with positively fanatical savagery, in part amid inhuman tortures, in order to give a gang of Jewish journalists and stock exchange bandits domination over a great people.

The end is not only the end of the freedom of the peoples oppressed by the Jew, but also the end of this parasite upon the nations. After the death of his victim, the vampire sooner or later dies too.

******

ADOLF HITLER, COLONIZATION OF EASTERN EUROPE (1941-1942)

FROM: Hitler’s Secret Conversations, 1941-1944 (New York, 1976), 28-30, 56-57, 343-345.

In conversations at military headquarters in East Prussia after the Russian campaign had begun, Hitler expanded on his earlier visions of living space in the East.

The essential thing, for the moment, is to conquer. After that everything will be simply a question of organization.

When one contemplates this primitive world, one is convinced that nothing will drag it out of its indolence unless one compels the people to work. The Slavs are a mass of born slaves, who feel the need of a master. As far as we are concerned, we may think that the Bolsheviks did us a great service. They began by distributing the land to the peasants, and we know what a frightful famine resulted. So they were obliged, of course, to reestablish a sort of feudal régime, to the benefit of the State. But there was this difference, that, whereas the old-style landlord knew something about farming, the political commissar, on the other hand, was entirely ignorant of such matters. So the Russians were just beginning to give their commissars appropriate instruction.

If the English were to be driven out of India, India would perish. Our role in Russia will be analogous to that of England in India. …

The German peasant is moved by a liking for progress. He thinks of his children. The Ukrainian peasant has no notion of duty. …

The Russian space is our India. Like the English, we shall rule this empire with a handful of men.

It would be a mistake to claim to educate the native. All that we could give him would be a half-knowledge—just what’s needed to conduct a revolution! …

It’s better not to teach them to read. They won’t love us for tormenting them with schools. Even to give them a locomotive to drive would be a mistake. And what stupidity it would be on our part to proceed to a distribution of land! In spite of that, we’ll see to it that the natives live better than they’ve lived hitherto. We’ll find amongst them the human material that’s indispensable for tilling the soil.

We’ll supply grain to all in Europe who need it. The Crimea will give us its citrus fruits, cotton and rubber (100,000 acres of plantation would be enough to ensure our independence).

The Pripet marshes will keep us supplied with reeds.

We’ll supply the Ukrainians with scarves, glass beads and everything that colonial peoples like.

The Germans—this is essential—will have to constitute amongst themselves a closed society, like a fortress. The least of our stable-lads must be superior to any native. …

The railways will serve for the transport of goods, but the roads are what will open the country for us.

Today everybody is dreaming of a world peace conference. For my part, I prefer to wage war for another ten years rather than be cheated thus of the spoils of victory. In any case, my demands are not exorbitant. I’m only interested, when all is said, in territories where Germans have lived before.

The German people will raise itself to the level of this empire. …

This Russian desert, we shall populate it. The immense spaces of the Eastern Front will have been the field of the greatest battles in history. We’ll give this country a past.

We’ll take away its character of an Asiatic steppe, we’ll Europeanize it. With this object, we have undertaken the construction of roads that will lead to the southernmost point of the Crimea and to the Caucasus. These roads will be studded along their whole length with German towns, and around these towns our colonists will settle.

As for the two or three million men whom we need to accomplish this task, we’ll find them quicker than we think. They’ll come from Germany, Scandinavia, the Western countries and America. I shall no longer be here to see all that, but in twenty years the Ukraine will already be a home for twenty million inhabitants besides the natives. In three hundred years, the country will be one of the loveliest gardens in the world.

As for the natives, we’ll have to screen them carefully. The Jew, that destroyer, we shall drive out. As far as the population is concerned, I get a better impression in White Russia than in the Ukraine.

We shan’t settle in the Russian towns, and we’ll let them fall to pieces without intervening. And, above all, no remorse on this subject! We’re not going to play at children’s nurses; we’re absolutely without obligations as far as these people are concerned. …

For them the word “liberty” means the right to wash on feast-days. If we arrive bringing soft soap, we’ll obtain no sympathy. These are views that will have to be completely readjusted. There’s only one duty: to Germanize this country by the immigration of Germans, and to look upon the natives as Redskins, If these people had defeated us, Heaven have mercy! But we don’t hate them. That sentiment is unknown to us. We are guided only by reason. They, on the other hand, have an inferiority complex. They have a real hatred towards a conqueror whose crushing superiority they can feel. The intelligentsia? We have too many of them at home. …

In this business I shall go straight ahead, cold-bloodedly. What they may think about me, at this juncture, is to me a matter of complete indifference. I don’t see why a German who eats a piece of bread should torment himself with the idea that the soil that produces this bread has been won by the sword. When we eat wheat from Canada, we don’t think about the despoiled Indians.

In order to retain our domination over the people in the territories we have conquered to the east of the Reich, we must therefore meet, to the best of our ability, any and every desire for individual liberty which they may express, and by so doing deprive them of any form of State organization and consequently keep them on as low a cultural level as possible.

Our guiding principle must be that these people have but one justification for existence—to be of use to us economically. We must concentrate on extracting from these territories everything that it is possible to extract. As an incentive to them to deliver their agricultural produce to us, and to work in our mines and armament factories, we will open shops all over the country at which they will be able to purchase such manufactured articles as they want. …

It will be the duty of our Commissars alone to supervise and direct the economy of the captured territories, and what I have just said applies equally to every form of organization. Above all, we don’t want a horde of schoolmasters to descend suddenly on these territories and force education down the throats of subject races. To teach the Russians, the Ukrainians and the Kirghiz to read and write will eventually be to our own disadvantage; education will give the more intelligent among them an opportunity to study history, to acquire an historical sense and hence to develop political ideas which cannot but be harmful to our interests. ...

In the field of public health there is no need whatsoever to extend to the subject races the benefits of our own knowledge. This would result only in an enormous increase in local populations, and I absolutely forbid the organization of any sort of hygiene or cleanliness crusades in these territories. Compulsory vaccination will be confined to Germans alone, and the doctors in the German colonies will be there solely for the purpose of looking after the German colonists, It is stupid to thrust happiness upon people against their wishes. …

All Germans living in territories must remain in personal contact with these strong-points. The whole must be most carefully organized to conform with the long-term policy of German colonisation, and our colonizing penetration must be constantly progressive, until it reaches the stage where our own colonists far outnumber the local inhabitants.

******

OTTO DIETRICH, THE FÜHRER STATE IN CHAOS (1949-1950)

FROM: Otto Dietrich, The Hitler I Knew (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2010), 90-108.

Otto Dietrich joined the Nazi Party in 1929 when he was thirty-two. He became party press chief in 1931, and he was well established within the party when Hitler came to power. In 1937 he was appointed Reich Press Chief. He largely stayed out of the public eye during the Third Reich. After the war he was arrested by the British, brought to trial and found guilty, and was sentenced to seven years in prison. He served only eighteen months and was released for good behavior. During his stay in prison he wrote this book, which was first published in 1955, three years after his death. Certainly memoirs such as this one are self-serving, but Dietrich offers good insight into the structure of the regime and Hitler’s role in it.

In theory Hitler had built up an ideal Führer State. But in practice he created utter chaos in the leadership of the state. ...

Hitler established his “Volk-community” in Germany. At the same time he created a class of leaders who had, he said, risen by natural selection out of the political struggle on the domestic scene. He equipped these leaders with “authority over those below and responsibility to those above.” On top of the heap he himself sat enthroned as absolute Führer responsible to no one. ...

This “classless race-and-Führer state” had been brought into being by revolution. Hitler wanted to ensure its continuance by setting up a functioning, permanent system for the selection of leaders. For this purpose, all barriers of privilege were to be removed; the potential leaders seeking to rise above the broad masses of the people were not to be hampered by birth or economic condition. Competence alone was to be the qualification for leadership in this new state. The best youths of the nation were to be constantly recruited out of the people, were to join the leadership and grow into the pulsating life of the nation. Thus the state would be assured of both stability and progress. It would advance to the highest possible point of evolution. This system of perpetual renewal, of creative forces developing out of the society’s own rhythm, was to constitute the best and most modern form of state, the most beneficial to the commonweal and at the same time the most just for each individual.

That was the “idea.” In theory it was alluring and attracted many fine minds. But what was it like in practice?

In the twelve years of his rule Hitler created in the political leadership of Germany the greatest confusion that has ever existed in a civilized state. Instead of developing the hierarchy of leaders who were to stand at his side, checking his work, giving advice, and adjusting conflicts, he concentrated the leadership more and more exclusively within his own person. He permitted no other gods besides himself. The cult of personality he fostered was directed solely toward himself. He wanted no suggestions; he wanted only execution of his orders. ...

The strangest aspect of this leadership policy was the fact that in wartime the Reich had, to all practical purposes, no chief of government. As commander of the armed forces Hitler was unable to keep up with his duties as chancellor. He patently had no intention of submitting to Cabinet decisions. ... [T]hroughout the war he did not call a single meeting of the Cabinet; his ministers therefore served no political functions whatsoever. He repeatedly stated that he was deliberately keeping himself free of all such “hampering” influences. The chancellor’s business was conducted for him on a civil-service level by his “Chief of the Reich Chancellery” (Lammers), to whom he assigned the rank of minister in order to facilitate his dealings with the members of the Cabinet. Hitler permitted a degree of independence only to the chiefs of those departments whose operations he did not feel he knew enough about. ... He also allowed a certain freedom to the men of whom he felt absolutely sure, men who were completely devoted to him, like Goebbels (Propaganda), Ribbentrop (Foreign Policy), and Himmler (Police).

With his overwhelming need to dominate, Hitler could not permit the development of any other personality besides his. Instead of drawing to himself men of high character, rich experience, and breadth of vision, he gave such persons a wide berth and made sure they had no chance to influence him. A miser unwilling to share his power he consistently, cunningly, and stubbornly isolated himself from the influence of all those whom he suspected of even the shadow of opposition to his will and his plans. Far from being the prisoner of his advisers, Hitler was rather the jealous guardian of his own rule. He surrounded his own autocratic dominion with impenetrable armor.

In addition, he systematically undermined the authority of all higher political organs in order to increase the absoluteness of his own power. He destroyed all clarity in the administration of government and established an utterly opaque network of overlapping authorities. It was almost a rule with Hitler to set up dual appointments and conflicting agencies.

By making Göring head of the Four Year Plan Authority he gave him control of the entire German planned economy. But then, at the same time, he kept in office a rival minister of the economy (Schacht—Funk) whose functions were practically the same. Later on he added to these a minister for war production (Todt—Speer) who, incidentally, was engaged in a permanent feud with the 0KW over problems of armament.

So long as Neurath was foreign minister Hitler handled his most important and most secret foreign affairs through the “Plenipotentiary of the Reich for Disarmament Questions” (Ribbentrop). When the latter became minister of foreign affairs, Neurath was appointed president of the nonexistent Privy Council. But in addition to the Foreign Office there was a “Foreign Policy Office” (Rosenberg) and a “Foreign Organization of the National Socialist Party” (Bohle). No one could possibly unravel their various jurisdictions in foreign affairs.

One day at Hitler’s headquarters Ribbentrop persuaded the Führer to commit to him in writing the conduct of all propaganda intended for foreign consumption. Propaganda Minister Goebbels knew nothing at all about this. The morning of the following day movers, sent by the Foreign Office, appeared at Goebbels’s various offices in Berlin to remove all the physical apparatus used for foreign propaganda. Goebbels’s men barricaded themselves in their rooms, and the propaganda minister himself promptly telephoned to Hitler for help. Hitler, who had actually signed the order to Ribbentrop, ordered Goebbels to come at once by plane. When Goebbels arrived, he told him to sit down with Ribbentrop in a compartment of his special train and not to leave it until they had ironed out their dispute. Three hours later both men emerged redfaced and informed Hitler—as might have been expected—that they could not agree. Furious, Hitler withdrew and dictated a compromise which largely revoked his previous written order. In practice, however, Ribbentrop never adhered to this latter decision. Holding a facsimile of the first, rescinded order, down to the end of the war he continued to challenge the Propaganda Ministry’s jurisdiction in all German missions abroad. Moreover, Ribbentrop had the obsession that all German authorities that had anything at all to do with foreign countries belonged under the Foreign Office. This fixed idea involved him in jurisdictional disputes with virtually all the ministries and ... those “Supreme Reich Authorities” that existed side by side with the ministries. He even battled with the High Command of the Armed Forces. Hitler knew all about these squabbles. He frequently commented mockingly upon Ribbentrop’s morbid ambitions, but in spite of all the complaints about the impossible situation he never intervened.

In 1933 Hitler assigned all press policy to the propaganda minister and appointed Goebbels Chief of the German Press Organization. But this did not stop him from installing a “Reich Head for the Press” (Amann, president of the Reich Press Chamber) under Goebbels and a “Reich Press Chief” (Dietrich). My official high-sounding title was “Press Chief of the Reich Government,” but the title did not carry with it corresponding powers. My work was largely publicity and keeping Hitler informed on press matters. Since the Press Division of the Foreign Office dealt with foreign correspondents, and since the 0KW during the war also claimed a considerable portion of the functions of the press officials, the jurisdictional disputes in this field were unending.

In the sphere of culture Goebbels and Rosenberg quarreled incessantly; in art Goring and Goebbels were rivals; in the control of German writers Goebbels, Rosenberg, and Bouhier tilted against one another.

In the Party organization Ley and Bormann had the same radius of activities; in Party education Rosenberg and Ley were in competition.

In the armed forces the interests of army, Waffen-SS (SS-in-Arms), and air force field divisions were inextricably confused and incompatible. Hitler had arbitrarily set up these organizations side by side.

Hitler divided the Reich Communications Ministry into Railroad and Post Office departments, thereby creating an inexhaustible source of disputes.

In the sphere of justice he had a Minister of Justice and a Head of the German Legal Front (Gürtner and Frank) who feuded with one another.

He had a Labor Minister (Seldte), a Leader of the German Labor Front (Ley), and a Commissioner General for Manpower (Sauckel). In general education the field was divided between Rust (Minister of Education), Wächtler (National Socialist Teachers’ League), and, Axmann (Reich Youth Leader). Even in public health there were similar obscurities and crossing jurisdictions.

This is but a small sample of the utterly wild confusion of leadership. Everywhere in the Reich and in the occupied territories Hitler established the same conditions: dual appointments, special commissioners, a horde of officials with overlapping jurisdictions. I recall the pungent comment of Minister of Economy Funk in 1943, when he arranged a press release regarding a clarification of jurisdiction that Hitler had supposedly ordered. With biting irony he said to me over the telephone: “Consider what that means! Consider that for the first time in the history of the Third Reich we really have clear lines of jurisdiction and a distribution of spheres of operation!”

It was not negligence, not excessive tolerance and consideration which prompted Hitler, ordinarily so ready to cut across complexities, to create a tangle of struggles for position and conflicts of authority among the top men of the National Socialist State. There was a method in the madness. In this way Hitler had at his disposal two or three “chiefs” in every field, each with an extensive apparatus. He could ensure the execution of his plans by playing one man off against the other or showing preference to one rather than another. His method systematically disorganized the objective authority of the higher departments of government—so that he could push the authority of his own will to the point of despotic tyranny.

A further situation resulted from these jurisdictional squabbles. Each of the disputants naturally strove not only to maintain his own sphere of authority, but to enlarge it at the expense of the spheres of rivals. The scene was thus cluttered with numerous staffs and offices, each dependent upon a different chief each employing large numbers of persons whose sole activity was to straighten out internal jurisdictional conflicts. A large number of persons were thus engaged in totally nonproductive work. The apparatus of government and Party, which has always been the breeding ground of human weaknesses, swelled beyond all proportion.

How fearfully such conditions destroyed that vital intangible, the confidence of the people in their government! It is depressing to consider how these internal conflicts paralyzed energies, hampered performances, and drained the strength of the nation during the war.

Such was Hitler’s “brilliant idea” of the Führer State in practice. His megalomania and his lack of talent for leadership killed the idea; it was buried in the sober facts of daily life, bruised and broken by the harshness of reality. Like so many great ideas in the history of mankind it failed miserably in the realm of actuality because of human weakness and inadequacy.

Was the idea in itself invalid, even without these weaknesses? That is a question that must also be answered. Undoubtedly there are Germans who will say that it is an ideal to be striven for irrespective of failures—an ideal which must be striven for even though it may never be fully realized. There is no doubt that even the best idea needs more time for its fulfillment than Hitler, in his hysterical haste, gave it, or than the war gave to the German people. ...

It was Hitler’s nature to carry all things to extremes until they were transformed into their opposites. So was it with all the institutions he attempted to reform. He set out to rid society of pernicious outgrowths, for which reason he made a revolution. But then he tore everything up by the roots. A horrid example of this process is his treatment of the judicial system.

Hitler incessantly attacked the nation’s judges for being “remote from life,” without links to their race, sticklers to the dead letter of the law, “petrified bureaucrats,” and the last pillars of reaction. In his private conversation violent abuse of magistrates was one of his constant themes. He made no bones about his hatred of them. Undoubtedly one of the reasons for this feeling was the sense that judicial independence constituted concealed resistance to his absolutism. ...

He appointed himself a legislator with restrictive powers; he also appointed himself supreme judge of the nation, and made free with the operations of the law. Characteristically, he imagined that he was acting in the name of the nation, that he was fulfilling a noble mission. If his absurd ideas are thought out to the end, it becomes obvious that the “sound instincts of the nation” which he made so much of would be destructive forces rather than constructive ones.

Hitler declared that for him, too, the will of the people was supreme law. In reality he put forward his personal will as that of the people, and he made the people believe that his will was theirs. ...

Hitler had a technique for presenting false or highly debatable premises at the very start of his argument, giving them the air of being indisputable, obvious facts. Building upon these premises, he could then prove to the listener who accepted the premises whatever he wished to prove. From the untenable base his thesis was built up with unassailable logic and put forward with great force of conviction. Anyone examining the first premises more closely, and challenging them rather than accepting them without question, would soon have recognized the faultiness of his conclusions. But challenging his premises was not so easy. To support his view Hitler would marshal an array of facts that could not be checked by most of his listeners. He would dress up such facts and inflate their importance enormously while he would either belittle or entirely ignore the arguments on the other side.

By means of this trick of his, along with the suggestive force of his oratory and the deep conviction he put behind his words, no matter what he was saying, he was able to reassure and encourage those who had dealings with him. He always sounded as if he were speaking under inspiration from on high. ...

Hitler was always afraid that prudence would cripple youthful vigor. For that reason he deliberately gathered young people around him, kept aloof from the experience of age, and hated the “intellectual reservations” of the mature. Worried as age crept up on him, constantly fearing that he would be unable to finish his work when his youthful vitality gave out, and believing that he alone could finish that work, he drove himself incessantly. Out of that fear sprang his reckless, ill-fated haste and the inorganic, destructive character of his acts. On the one hand, he thought in millennia when decades would have been more to the point; on the other hand, he wanted to achieve in years things that would require centuries. Child of fortune that he was, he lacked all feeling for development and tradition, growth and maturation. ...

His political structure had no tradition behind it, no historical foundation in the people. Consequently, as soon as the tower began to sway, it collapsed like a house of cards. ...

The principles by which he acted were diametrically opposed to parliamentary democracy. In a parliamentary democracy the administration is fundamentally responsible to the elected representatives of the people. Responsibility proceeds from the top down; that is, the leadership is responsible to the people and the will of the people is its supreme law. In Hitler’s state, however, the responsibility was to proceed from the bottom to the top and authority from superior to subordinate. In other words, the Führer was not to be responsible to the people; on the contrary, the people were responsible to him and he to nobody at all. Hitler himself decided what the will of the people was.

The magnitude and frightfulness of the consequences of Hitler’s dictatorship have taught the German people a basic lesson in history. ... We were obviously destined by fate to run a misguided historical course to the very end, ... so that we would at last come to see that our dire way must be abandoned forever.