The Ruling Elite

by Deanna Spingola

  11.Officials should abolish all unearned incomes.

  12.Officials should regard personal enrichment due to war as a crime against the nation, and all war gains should be ruthlessly confiscated.27

  13.All businesses formed into companies (trusts) should be nationalized.

  14.All profits derived from wholesale trade should be shared.

  15.The state should make extensive provision for old age.

  16.A healthy middle class should be created and maintained, with communalization of wholesale business premises and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders; the state should show extreme consideration to all small purveyors.

  17.Land reform suitable to national requirements, with a law allowing confiscation without compensation of land for communal purposes; abolition of interest on land loans and prevention of all land speculation.

  18.Prosecution of those whose activities were injurious to the common interest; criminals against the nation, usurers, and profiteers should be punished with death, whatever their creed or their race.

  19.The replacement of Roman law, which served the materialistic world order, with a legal system for all Germany.

  20.The possibility of higher education for all citizens; thorough reconstruction of the national education system. Educators should bring the curricula of all educational establishments into line with the requirements of practical life; gifted children of poor parents, whatever their class or occupation, should be nurtured at the state’s expense.

  21.The raising of the standard of health by protecting mothers and infants, prohibiting child labor, and increasing bodily efficiency by obligatory gymnastics and sports, especially for the physical development of the young.

  22.Abolition of a paid army and formation of a national army.

  23.Legal warfare against conscious political lying and its dissemination in the press; the creation of a German national press.

  (a)All editors of newspapers and their assistants, employing the German language, should be German citizens.

  (b)Non-German newspapers, even those printed in German, should be required to obtain special permission from the state to appear.

  (c)Non-Germans should be prohibited by law from participating financially in or influencing German newspapers, and the penalty for contravention of the law should be suppression of any such newspaper and immediate deportation of the non-Germans concerned in it; the state should stamp out all tendencies in art and literature of a kind likely to disintegrate national life and suppress institutions that militate against these requirements.

  24.Liberty for all religious denominations if they were not a danger to the state and did not militate against the moral feelings of the Germans. The party stands for positive Christianity, but would not bind itself to any particular confession. It would combat the Jewish-materialist spirit within and without the nation and is convinced that Germany could achieve permanent health from within on the principle of the common interest before self.

  25.To realize all of the foregoing, the party demands the creation of a strong central state power. a politically centralized parliament with unquestioned authority over the entire Reich and its organization and formation of chambers for classes and occupations to carry out the general laws promulgated by the Reich in the states of the confederation.28

  Hitler’s Assumption of Power

  In May 1932, the NSDAP printed six hundred thousand copies of its twenty-page emergency economic program before the July Reichstag elections. It had three main points.

  1.“Unemployment causes poverty; employment creates prosperity. Just as the individual sinks into poverty when he no longer has a job, so also must a whole people sink into poverty when it does not use its productive strength and tolerates a political-economic system that hinders people’s comrades who are willing and able to work to support themselves.”

  2.“Capital does not create jobs, but rather jobs create capital. The ‘brilliant’ capitalist economists maintain that we cannot work because we lack the means. That is nonsense. The less we work, the less must be our means, and the greater the unproductive waste and destruction of our national resources. The more we work, the greater our capital, and therefore the greater the results of our labor.”

  3.“Unemployment benefits burden the economy, but job creation stimulates the economy. Tolerating unemployment means: With less labor, less is produced, and therefore less can be consumed. The result [is] hunger, poverty, and wage cuts. The fewer who work, the fewer who pay taxes. To get the same tax revenues, therefore, individuals must bear a heavier burden. The result: tax increases. Decreasing purchasing power and increased taxation forces more firms into bankruptcy. The result [is] an increase in unemployment. The unemployed must be supported by the community, which means an increase in public expenditures. The result [is] the collapse of public finance, despite an increase in taxation.

  “Contributions to the unemployment fund decrease, while poverty forces more to depend on it. The result [is a] collapse of the unemployment compensation system, despite increases in contributions and cutting of benefits. Private industry collapses under the increased burdens. Small firms become bankrupt. Independent people are ruined. Big capitalist firms, trusts, etc., are rescued by the state, since their collapse would throw hundreds of thousands of people into poverty. Billions go for rescuing banks, hundreds of millions for supporting the big industrial and shipping concerns. All of these sacrifices are useless. Unemployment, poverty, and deficits have to get worse, the general situation ever more hopeless, as long as there is not a complete change. Only a systematic program of job creation can bring that change.”29 The program had the solutions for Germany’s economic woes.

  Heinrich Brüning’s policies caused massive unemployment in both blue- and white-collar industries. Even resorting to Article 48 and implementing emergency legislation did not resolve matters. He failed to acquire parliamentary backing and resigned at the end of May 1932. On July 20, using a presidential decree, Franz von Papen, the new chancellor, ousted Otto Braun’s SPD-led government, and dissolved the Reichstag, bringing the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Chancellor Papen scheduled new elections for July 31. On July 27, Hitler told a crowd in Eberswalde that the NSDAP was never a parliamentary party, unlike other parties. His legal goal, which was constitutional, was to eliminate the thirty-four other parties. The other parties could not claim ignorance; they knew that Hitler intended to create a one-party state. Like the US Constitution, the Weimar Constitution made no provisions for political parties. Article 76 required a two-thirds majority of the Reichstag to eliminate the republic. Hitler refused to participate with other parties in a coalition government. He wanted to end the political status quo and to make the nation independent of foreign money, which would not only destabilize Germany’s economy, but the world’s economic structure.30

  General Kurt von Schleicher, friends with President Paul von Hindenburg’s son, Oskar, had suggested Papen for the chancellor’s post. Papen hoped that he could persuade Hitler to accept a subordinate position in the government. On July 31, the NSDAP won 230 seats, with 13,745,000 votes, becoming the most influential party in parliament. Papen had two choices: create a coalition government with the NSDAP or form a minority government and continue to govern under Article 48. Papen considered making a major alteration to the constitution, which would have resulted in the formation of a divisive two-party, left-right regime, with a monarchial figurehead.31 Because Hitler was the head of the most popular party, he had a legal right to be appointed the chancellor.

  Sixty percent of voters did not want leadership by the KPD, which held eighty-nine seats, as this might lead to a civil war. Poland might then exploit this domestic situation and attempt to grab more territory. In the national elections of November 6, 1932, Papen attempted to gain a majority in the Reichstag or to win enough seats to form a political alliance and maintain
his cabinet. Although the NSDAP lost some votes and wound up with 196 seats, it remained the most influential party. Meanwhile, the recession continued. Papen, disappointed by the elections, resigned, and Kurt von Schleicher became the chancellor on December 3. He intended to incrementally discard Brüning’s policies in hopes of gaining SPD and left-wing trade union support. When that failed, he sought a way to fracture the popular NSDAP. He offered the offices of vice chancellor and prime minister of Prussia to Gregor Strasser, hoping to attract the NSDAP’s leftist faction and to marginalize Hitler’s influence. He wanted the NSDAP in the government, but without Hitler. When Hitler rejected this, Strasser resigned from the NSDAP.32

  Hindenburg wanted to end presidential cabinets and the exploitation of Article 48 and emergency decrees. Nineteen governments functioned during the fourteen-year existence of the Weimar Republic. The right and the left disapproved of Schleicher, and Germans consequently embraced the NSDAP. The political and military elite, who pursued a military dictatorship, supported Schleicher, even if this meant staging a putsch. Hindenburg, adamant about observing the constitution, wanted a cabinet supported by a majority in the Reichstag. Meanwhile, the communists increased their influence and power.33

  By now there were six million unemployed people and Germany was in economic chaos, the perfect environment for the communists, whose ideology appealed to the desperate masses. It was also an opportune time for the NSDAP to increase its influence. Papen, banker Kurt von Schroeder, Alfred Hugenberg, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Oskar von Hindenburg, and Hitler began negotiating in early January 1933 in an effort to create an operational constitution-based government. Hindenburg wanted to appoint Papen as chancellor again, but was willing to have NSDAP representation. He opposed Hitler’s appointment even though he led the strongest party and justifiably demanded the chancellorship. Papen was willing to accept the vice chancellorship, anticipating that he could dictate policy to Hitler. General von Hammerstein-Equord begged Hindenburg not to appoint Papen, due to the possibility of civil unrest. He also opposed Hitler, as this might result in a National Socialist influence in the army.34

  Without the NSDAP and the German National People’s Party (DNVP), Hindenburg could not achieve a majority. Thus he felt compelled to appoint Hitler, who had very modest demands, along with his cabinet, which included ministers Wilhelm Frick and Hermann Göring. Papen would accompany Hitler when he visited Hindenburg. Because Schleicher’s desire for a military putsch was widely known, General Werner von Blomberg, who favored National Socialism, was named the new Reichswehr minister. On January 28, Schleicher and others agreed with army chief General Hammerstein to give Hindenburg an ultimatum not to appoint Hitler. If he refused, Hammerstein would proclaim a state of military emergency. On January 29, he telephoned Hitler to tell him that the Reichswehr opposed his appointment.35

  However, a coalition of the NSDAP, Hugenberg’s DNVP, and the Centre Party provided a majority in the Reichstag, and a conservative government, Hindenburg’s objective. On January 29, 1933, without consulting members of the Reichstag as that was not a constitutional requirement, he agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor. Hitler obtained power legally although some people accused Hindenburg of making concessions to him that he had denied Schleicher. But conceding to Schleicher would not have achieved a majority-supported government, something that a Hitler cabinet would do. People underestimated him, assuming that his many duties would overburden him and that he would take direction from Papen.36 On January 30, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor, supported by Hugenberg and Papen.37

  The Reichstag Fire Myth

  During World War I, Willi Münzenberg, a young left-wing radical, was living in Switzerland where Leon Trotsky discovered him. He soon joined Lenin’s Bolshevik group, whose members were biding their time until they could return to their revolutionary activities in Russia.38 In 1918, Münzenberg was a propagandist and a founding member of the KPD during the Weimar era. In 1924, he was elected to the Reichstag and at the same time worked closely with Lenin’s Comintern and Cheka. He was in the Reichstag until the KPD was banned in 1933. He created numerous Trotskyite front organizations, which aided in the establishment of the Münzenberg Trust, a huge media conglomerate.

  On February 22, 1933, Alfred Cohen, the president of B’nai B’rith, and prominent Jewish leaders held a special meeting in New York to plan how to wage economic warfare against Germany. The American Jewish Congress (AJC) advocated public protests in America and elsewhere.39 The National Socialists acknowledged that the communists were trying to achieve in Germany what they had accomplished in Russia. On February 23, Göring ordered a police raid on their offices to collect evidence of this but authorities found nothing. On February 27, a fire erupted in the Reichstag’s debating chamber and soon the whole building was aflame.40

  Marinus van der Lubbe set the fire, which became the impetus for emergency legislation. Officials had not planned the resulting suspension of civil rights, but improvised as the Reichstag burned. The NSDAP and KPD blamed each other, but Fritz Tobias through exhaustive research verified that van der Lubbe was the culprit. No one has refuted his findings. The new government, with Hitler as chancellor, expected the SPD or the KPD to initiate military action. President Hindenburg, not Hitler, issued the Reichstag directive in response to the fire. This emergency legislation was intended to prevent the excesses of 1932.41

  The Reichstag passed the enabling bill by a two-thirds majority. The article expressly gave the Reichstag the power to cancel the emergency decree by a simple majority vote. The SPD did not have enough seats to prevent ratification of the legislation, which gave extra powers to the government. The SPD opposed the act while the government was in the process of outlawing the KPD, an action it would formalize on July 14, 1933. The enabling laws allowed the government the right to temporarily legislate. Such laws were part of Germany’s constitutional history and were used during World War I and during the first coalition government in the Weimar period. Officials passed enabling laws on October 13 and December 8, 1923, in an attempt to halt inflation. From 1930 to 1932, the government operated on 239 emergency or enabling laws. Hitler, as a condition of his chancellorship, wanted to use enabling or emergency decrees. He did not trick anyone, since Article 76 of the Weimar Constitution allowed for changes if two-thirds of the Reichstag approved. More than two-thirds of the Reichstag did.42

  The elections took place as scheduled on March 5, 1933. While the NSDAP failed to obtain the majority it had hoped for, it won 288 seats while the SPD won only 120.43 Germans overwhelmingly revealed their acceptance of the economic policies of the NSDAP, which emerged as the largest party. In response, on March 12, AJC leaders again met in New York for three hours to plan a national program of protests, parades, and demonstrations.44 On March 21, Munich Police Chief Heinrich Himmler announced the opening of the Dachau camp for the incarceration of communists, many of whom were Jews, to stop them from executing their conspiracy within Germany, especially with so much encouragement from abroad.45

  While the NSDAP was struggling against the Bolsheviks, Münzenberg and his staff manufactured “evidence” claiming that the NSDAP had set the Reichstag fire. In 1933 and in 1934, the Münzenberg Trust would publish two books, The Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror and The Second Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire. Historians accepted these books until 1960 when Fritz Tobias uncovered abundant false information in the two works. He revealed that the so-called secret tunnels that NSDAP members supposedly used to leave the Reichstag were actually for water piping.

  In 1919, Albert Norden, a rabbi’s son, had joined the Free Socialist Youth, later called the Young Communist League of Germany, a faction of the KPD. Starting in 1923, he edited several communist publications and was the editor of Rote Fahne (Red Flag) (1931-33). In 1933, he left Germany for France where he wrote for Popular Front publications and contributed several chapters to The Brown Book of the Hitler Terror and the Burnin
g of the Reichstag, written by the World Committee for the Victims of German Fascism and published in August 1933 by Victor Gollancz. It was the primary source of the myth that Hitler seized power by orchestrating the Reichstag fire.

  Münzenberg’s books contained purported documentation, persuasive-looking photos, and lists of victims, which served as the model for the falsified IMT documents. Unbiased researchers have since evaluated the books and have discovered that they are fabrications using forged photos and documents. Yet court historians continue to exploit the material in them despite the verifiable findings. In the 1970s, to reaffirm the dubious allegations, a West German communist firm republished the brown books with all of the previous documents, including several papers that look like an NSDAP circular letter of June 7, 1933, complete with a semblance of the NSDAP letterhead.46

  In June 1934, Münzenberg visited America where he met with SPD lawyer Kurt Rosenfeld. He also spoke at a rally at Madison Square Garden and at the Bronx Coliseum along with Sinclair Lewis and Malcolm Cowley. Otto Katz, Münzenberg’s assistant, visited America to gain support for pro-Soviet and anti-NSDAP causes as part of the 1935 Comintern Seventh World Congress’s proclamation. In July 1936, Katz journeyed to Hollywood where he formed the Anti-Nazi League for the Defense of American Democracy with Dorothy Parker and other Hollywood personalities who also joined similar groups. Paul Muni, Melvin Douglas, and James Cagney sponsored the Hollywood league. Münzenberg was in Paris conducting anti-NSDAP broadcasts in June 1940 but fled to escape the advancing German forces.

  NSDAP Funding

  The iron, coal, and steel industries readily accepted Hitler’s policies while Germany’s export-oriented businesses, particularly the chemical and electrical industries, did not. Historian Henry Ashby Jr. had access to West and East German archives and to the records of industrial conglomerates and found that industries from late 1930 onward made donations to Hitler while also donating to the Centre Party and other right-wing parties. Hugenberg and his party would have served the interests of big business much better than Hitler, whose greatest financial support came from NSDAP members. Though often unemployed, they still made personal sacrifices for the party. Krupp, part of Germany’s heavy industry, did not support Hitler until he became chancellor.47