Most of the
men who have held the leading positions in German public life since 1933 were
previously unknown or very little known, outside a limited circle of friends
and colleagues. In the case of those few whose names figured prominently in the
daily press the idea which the public had of them was often quite a distorted
one, owing to the fierce spirit of controversy that dominated domestic politics
during the years immediately preceding the National Socialist Revolution. The
astonishing recovery that has taken place since 1933 is an historical
phenomenon which has attracted the attention of the world. And hence it is that
the outside world now takes such a lively interest in the personality of Adolf
Hitler and his immediate collaborators. In this little pamphlet an attempt will
he made to sketch in broad outline the profiles of some of those political
leaders who have taken a prominent part in the work of national reconstruction
which has been accomplished since 1933 and is still being accomplished.
Outsiders may be struck by the
diversities of age, origin and professional career, which characterise the men
around Hitler. During the years of political, social, economic and spiritual
distress which followed the War and the Inflation adversity brought together some
of the best men from all grades and classes of the nation. In the beginning
most of them were urged forward individually and independently by a passionate
feeling of abhorrence for the decomposition and decay into which the Nation and
State were falling. What brought those men together and welded them into a unit
was a profound faith in a restored and reinvigorated German Reich under the
inspiration of the idea which Adolf Hitler had promulgated.
The internal political struggle
which was carried on during the post-war period forged into an indissoluble
community all those men who had to bear together the stress and peril of the
strife. The distracted conditions of the time called for men of character and
passionate devotion to ideals and developed these characteristics in them
during that long and difficult period of trial. And so it happened that on
January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler assumed supreme control of Germany, he did
not have to go around looking for ministers, after the parliamentarian fashion.
He knew who were the men around him and he knew the special talents that were
respectively suited to the various tasks that had to be carried out in the work
of building up the broken nation.
In Germany today Party and State
are welded together in an indissoluble unity. The same idea finds various forms
of expression in the various branches of organization. It is not that the Party
serves the State or that the State serves the Party. Both serve the German
nation as a whole, each in its own way. And so it comes about that National
Socialism is the modem expression of the idea which was originally the
inspiration of the democratic movement also but which the democratic movement
departed from and even sometimes openly contradicted. This idea meant that the life
of the State springs from the life of the people as a fountain from its source.
All political and administrative organization, the constitution and even the
State itself, are man’s handiwork and will pass away and give place to others,
as does the individual man himself. But the people is everlasting. To its
welfare and its future all must be subordinated, the individual as well as the
State. It is from this belief that the phenomenon has grown which is the
hallmark of the New Germany, namely the absolute unity of ideas and opinions on
all vital questions affecting the nation. Thus it was that from Hamburg to
Vienna a united chorus of Ja’s was registered on the Sunday of the
plebiscite, April 10, 1938, when the Führer asked the
electorate to sanction the re-union of Austria with Germany and therewith the
creation of a common Reich which had been the dream of the German people
through many centuries of their history.
The Party is the organized
expression of the will of the people and functions through a series of offices
at the head of each of which is a Reich Director (Reichsleiter). Though
a Reich Director of the Party may also be a Cabinet Minister, the two functions
do not overlap, as their respective aims are quite distinct. A Reich Director
is responsible for the affairs of a certain special branch within the Party
organization; whereas the duties of a Cabinet Minister are concerned with those
general legal and administrative measures which give outer embodiment to the
inner essence of the State and its relations towards other bodies and towards
the citizens. The German form of government is distinguished by the fact that
all power is concentrated in the hands of a supreme leader. And this is so not
only in regard to the political forces of the nation but also in regard to the
military and economic forces.
On February 4, 1938, a decree
was issued which brought about even a greater concentration of power than
formerly existed; for this decree extends the concentration of political power
in the hands of the Führer also to the
military and economic spheres. The Führer himself is
now directly and personally in supreme command of the armed forces of the
nation, without any intermediary in the person of a War Minister. The former
War Minister, Field Marshal von Blomberg, whom the Germans have to thank for
the reconstruction of the army, was relieved of his position in response to a
desire which he had repeatedly expressed, in view of his health and his long
years of strenuous service. The purely administrative side of the war ministry
has been taken over by the High Command, at the head of which is General
Wilhelm Keitel. On the same date as that of the decree just mentioned the Führer established a Secret Cabinet Council to advise him on
foreign policy.
The Reich
Cabinet is constituted as follows:
Adolf
Hitler: Führer and Chancellor
Dr. Hans
Heinrich Lammers: Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery
Dr. Otto
Meissner: Minister of State and Chief of the Presidential
Chancellery of the Führer and
Chancellor
Rudolf Hess: Deputy
for the Führer as Führer of the Party and Cabinet Minister
Joachim von
Ribbentrop: Minister for Foreign Affairs
Dr. Wilhelm
Frick: Minister of the Interior
Field
Marshal Hermann Göring: Air
Minister and Prime Minister of Prussia. Commissioner for the Four Years’ Plan
Dr. Joseph
Goebbels: Minister for National Enlightenment and Propaganda
Walther
Funk: Minister of Commerce
Count
Schwerin von Krosigk: Minister of Finance
Richard
Walter Darré: Minister of Agriculture and Food
Franz
Seldte: Minister of Labour
Bernhard
Rust: Minister of Education
Hanns Kerrl: Minister
for Ecclesiastical Affairs
Dr. Franz Gürtner: Minister
of Justice
Dr. Julius Dorpmüller: Minister of Communications
Dr. Wilhelm
Ohnesorge: Minister of Posts
Baron
Constantin von Neurath: President of the Secret Cabinet Council
Dr. Hjalmar
Schacht: Minister and President of the Reichsbank
Dr. Hans
Frank: Cabinet Minister and President of the Academy of Law
The Secret
Cabinet Council is constituted as follows:
President: Baron Constantin von Neurath
Members:
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Joachim von Ribbentrop
The Prussian Minister-President,
Air Minister and Commander-in- Chief of the Air Force, Field Marshal Hermann Göring
The Deputy of the Führer, Rudolf Hess
The Minister for National
Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr. Joseph
Goebbels
The Minister and Chief of the
Chancellery, Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers
The Commander-in-Chief of the
Army, Colonel-General
Walter von Brauchitsch
The Commander-in-Chief of the
Navy, General-Admiral
Dr. Raeder
The Chief of the High Command of
the Armed Forces, General of
Artillery Wilhelm Keitel.
The Reich
Directors (Reichsleiter) of the National Socialist Party are:
Franz Xaver
Schwarz: Treasurer
Walter Buch: Supreme
Judge of the Party
Philipp
Bouhler: Chief of the Führer’s Chancellery
Dr. Robert
Ley: Director of Organization
Dr. Joseph
Goebbels: Director of Propaganda
Dr. Otto
Dietrich: Chief of the Press
Max Amann: Director
for the Press
Dr. Hans
Frank: Director of the Office of Justice
Richard
Walter Darré: Director of the Office for Agrarian Policy
Alfred
Rosenberg: Director of the Foreign Political Office. Führer’s
Delegate for the whole mental and ideological training in the principles of the
National Socialist Party, as laid down by the Führer
Franz
Ritter von Epp: Director of the Colonial Policy Office
Karl
Fiehler: Director of the Head Office for Communal Policy
Dr. Wilhelm
Frick: Leader of the Reichstag Section
Viktor
Lutze: Chief of Staff of the S.A.
Heinrich
Himmler: Leader of the S.S.
Baldur von
Schirach: Leader of the Hitler Youth
Martin
Bormann: Director of the Staff of the Führer’s Deputy
Wilhelm
Grimm: Chairman of the II Chamber of the Supreme Party Tribunal
Rudolf Hess
In the back
room of the Stemeckerbräu in Munich,
at one of the early, meetings held by the German Workers’ Party after Hitler
had joined it, Rudolf Hess heard Hitler speak for the first time. Immediately
the thought leaped to his mind: „This is the only man who can save Germany.“
From that day to this Rudolf Hess has been the first among the Führer’s closest followers and collaborators.
In 1933 he was appointed Reich
Minister and Deputy of the Führer as leader
of the National Socialist Party. All the strings of the Party organization are
held in his hands. His nomination to a seat in the Cabinet was a formal
recognition of the absolute union of Party with State and assured harmonious
collaboration between the various departments of State and the various branches
of the Party organization.
Rudolf Hess does not frequently
come into the public limelight. His modest office in the Wilhelmstrasse
indicates the character of the man himself rather than the wide scope of the
work in which he is engaged. It has always been his habit to work in seclusion
and silence, presenting only the results of his labours to the public. In this
way he has set an example of personal discipline and self-denial for the other
leading officials of the Party.
Very little has been written
about Rudolf Hess. Not much more than the outstanding dates in his career is known
to the public. He was born in Egypt in 1894, as son of a German business man
who had settled down there. He went to school in Germany and in 1914 he
volunteered for service at the front. He received an officer’s commission, in
recognition of his abilities, and was seriously wounded. Still he was able to
join the Air Force as an active pilot. Since that time he has been passionately
devoted to aviation as a sport. As civilian airman, he won the Zugspitz flight
in 1934.
Having been an active collaborator
of the Führer from the earliest stages of the
Movement onwards, he was fated to share the Führer’s imprisonment in the Fortress of Landsberg. During
those months the two men spent a great deal of their time together and Hess had
this excellent opportunity of gaining a profound and accurate insight into
Hitler’s world of ideas. From 1925 onwards he was the Führer’s private secretary and as such his constant companion.
The more the Party grew, so much greater became the work and care that fell to
the lot of the Führer. Hess
succeeded in relieving his chief of much of the daily work connected with the
organization and direction of the Party and thus allowed Hitler more time and
quiet for greater tasks. The office which Hess now holds really signifies a
continuation of the work in which he was engaged during the militant stages of
the Movement, he has a very sure eye in distinguishing the essential from the
unessential ant thus he is able to harmonize many differences of view that
arise in conducting the affairs of the Party; for these differences are nearly
always on points that are not essential. The aim which he keeps steadily before
his mind is to present the Party principles pure and unadulterated and to weld
all the members of the Party together under the inspiration of those
principles. Rudolf Hess once said - and the saying is characteristic of the man’s
personal modesty: „Adolf Hitler has appointed me to deputize for him because he
knows that I have learned to look at men and politics through his eyes.“
He discards all bureaucratic red
tape and refuses to be hampered by official routine. The heads of the various
branches of the Party organization feel that they can collaborate with their
chief in a spirit of freedom and spontaneity. „Do not be giving orders,“ he
once said, „but produce results which will further the interests of National
Socialism.“
Hermann Göring
The
extraordinary place which Field Marshal Göring holds in the public life of Germany is attributable in
the first place to his absolute loyalty towards Adolf Hitler. The various
offices which are united in his person have in many cases little in common with
one another. But they all have one common characteristic. It is this: When Göring was commissioned by the Führer to take on each job, one after another, it was always
because it was necessary to overcome special difficulties and exigencies which
demanded practical talent and ability of a high order.
It was in the first years of the
Party’s existence, 1921/22, that Hermann Göring organized the Storm Troops (S.A.) and formed these
young men on the model of discipline and patriotism which characterized the
generation that fought at the front. In 1930 Göring was appointed to be Hitler’s political representative
in Berlin and thus came into the focus of national politics for the first time.
Later on his political ability brought about a decisive stage in the
parliamentary conduct of affairs. In 1932 he came into a conflict with the War
Minister of that time, General Groener, and the result led to Groener’s
retirement in the same year, as President of the Reichstag, a dramatic episode
occurred between him and the Chancellor of that time, von Papen. The result signified
an important success for the Party. Goebbels wrote thus about Goring’s
activities: „Through a prolonged series of thoroughgoing discussions he
prepared the ground for the Führer with
diplomacy and skill. His broad mental grasp, his strong nerve and above all his
firmness of character and loyalty to the Führer proved to be of the highest value and deserving of all
admiration. Steadily and firmly he has gone ahead as the Führer’s shield-bearer.“
Once the National Socialists had
taken over power, the question of next importance was to establish and secure
public order. As Prime Minister of Prussia Göring cleaned up the administration, reorganized the police
and brought about that internal peace which was necessary to the Hitler
Government for its work of reconstruction. At a later date Goring’s activities
came into the foreground as Air-Minister. Within a very short period he has
built up the military air force out of nothing and has reconstructed and
expanded German commercial aviation. Today the Führer has entrusted him with another and again a most
important task, namely, to secure the foundations of German food supplies and
vital necessities through the Four Years’ Plan. He has thrown the whole force
of his personality into this work and lias awakened such enthusiastic
collaboration that its success is assured.
These few facts indicate the
quality of Göring’s gifts in the sphere of
constructive politics. The iron tenacity which he displayed as one of the best
flying officers at the fighting front during the war is also displayed in his
political activities. Göring is no
Utopian. He has a keen eye for the limits of practical possibilities. But he
will always push ahead as far as those limits permit. In his case the saying is
once again proved true, that the decisive qualities for political leadership
are not expert knowledge in special branches but the capacity for impartial
judgment and a sound understanding of men. But the most decisive gift of all is
the courage to accept personal responsibility. In the choice of his advisers
and collaborators, Göring has given
proof of his insight into human character. And this knowledge of men is to a
large extent responsible for his success.
He has a profound love of nature
and animals. His reform of the laws for the protection of animals and the game
laws have been recognized as affording the world an example that deserves to be
followed. The few hours that are needed for relaxation are spent at his country
seat in the Schorfheide in the middle of the deer Park he has constructed
there.
He also takes an active part in
theatrical life. The development of the Prussian State Theatre is due to his
help and encouragement. And it was among the actresses of the Prussian stage
that Göring discovered the lady who has turned out to be his
second life’s companion, following the loss of his first wife.
Hermann Göring was born in Bavaria in 1893, but the family is of
North German origin. He studied at the Cadet School in Berlin and at the close
of the War he was leader of the Richthofen Air Squadron. In 1921 he first met
Adolf Hitler. „I have met the man who will lead Germany on to liberty“ is the
entry in his diary under that date. Unflinching loyalty to the Führer has been the guiding principle of his life since then.
Joachim von
Ribbontropp
Ever since
the days of his youth Joachim von Ribbentrop has been in Personal touch with
the conditions of life in foreign countries. He studied in England, in France
and in Switzerland and before the War he was for a short time in Canada. Later
on he travelled widely abroad as commercial representative for some German
firms. During these sojourns he made the acquaintance of a large number of
influential people, especially in England. These recognized in von Ribbentrop a
man of wide views and shrewd thinking and they appreciated him even though they
did not agree with his views on certain political questions.
Thus it was that he came to know
the peculiarities and characteristics of other nations, not from diplomatic
experience but from the practical experience of everyday business life. That
accomplishment made it possible for him to become a very valuable adviser to
Adolf Hitler on foreign affairs some years before the National Socialist
Movement had gained supreme political control of Germany. Since 1930 von
Ribbentrop has worked for the Party. He took a leading part in the decisive
negotiations which preceded Hitler’s assumption of the Chancellorship in 1933.
During the following year he carried on negotiations with the statesmen of
France and England on the question of disarmament. In 1936 he was leader of the
German delegation at Geneva. This was after German troops had reoccupied the
demilitarized zone in the Rhineland and it fell to von Ribbentrop’s lot to
explain and defend Germany’s action before the world representatives at Geneva.
In the same year he was sent as
ambassador to London, in which Post he remained until his appointment as
Foreign Minister of the Reich in February 1938. The aim of Germany’s foreign
policy, to attain once again by friendly means her Position as an equal among
the Great Powers, necessitated having an ambassador in London who would firmly
hold by his principles and convictions without at the same time ever forgetting
or ignoring the other side of the question. Moreover, such a man had to have
the capacity to wait for the right moment to come before making a final
decision. On the other hand there was need of a German ambassador in London who
would make the Position of his own people understood and who would make it
quite clear that, though for years the Reich had in good faith resigned itself
to the policy of disarmament, the fact that it had now decided on rearmament
did not invoke the danger of war but, on the contrary, furnished a firmer
guarantee of peace, because it put the political situation in a clearer and
less ambiguous light.
Two stages of progress in the
foreign policy of the new Reich are specially connected with von Ribbentrop’s
name. The first of these was the German-English Naval Pact of June 1935, which
acknowledged England’s predominant interests as a sea power and established
naval relations between both countries on a basis that safeguarded and
sanctioned the justice of those interests. The second stage was the Anti-Comintern
Pact with Italy and Japan which established the Berlin- Rome-Tokyo triangle.
During the process of reuniting Austria with the German Motherland foreign
relations were directed by von Ribbentrop as the newly appointed Foreign
Minister.
Joachim von Ribbentrop is 45
years old and is a native of the Rhineland. When the World War broke out he
happened to be in British territory. He had some difficulties in getting back
to Germany; but he succeeded and volunteered for service at the front. He
fought both on the East and West fronts and was wounded. At the end of the War
he took part in the peace negotiations as adjutant to the plenipotentiaries
appointed to represent the German War Ministry. He resigned from the army with
the rank of 1-st lieutenant.
Baron
Constantin von Neurath
Baron von
Neurath, the former Foreign Minister and now President of the Secret Cabinet
Council, is a man who has little taste for talking. He was always sceptical as to
the results which were to be hoped from the great palaver that took place at
the innumerable international conferences which were held with persistent
repetition during the post-war period. Nor did he have any great hopes for the
results of Germany’s entry into the League of Nations; because he soon
recognised what a wide distance there was between the practical policy followed
by the League of Nations and the ideals which had inspired its origin.
In the years immediately
following the War, Baron von Neurath served his country as diplomatic
representative abroad. From 1922 to 1930 he was ambassador in Rome, and from
1930 to 1932 in London. Thus his work lay in the two centres that today are of
the greatest importance for Germany’s foreign policy. His work in Rome prepared
the way for that political rapprochement between the two peoples which found
its formal expression in the establishment of the Berlin-Rome axis. During
those years when the political life of the Reich was in a sort of comatose
condition von Neurath succeeded in creating among the Italian people, and
especially in the mind of the Head of the Italian State, the conviction that a
new and powerful Germany would one day arise.
Von Neurath has kept up his
connections with those political leaders in England who came to know him during
his sojourn there and who have implicit trust in his sterling qualities. It was
at the special wish of President von Hindenburg that he was recalled from
London to become Foreign Minister in von Papen’s Cabinet in 1932. In this
position he continued under the Hitler Government until February 1938, when he
became President of the Secret Cabinet Council.
Most of those who have come into
touch with Baron von Neurath have noticed the fine feeling which he has for the
imponderability of politics. He recognises and accurately estimates those
forces and ideas which determine the policy of foreign States. And he
recognises and justly appreciates the national needs and necessities of other
States. The faculty of clear insight which has been developed through years of
diplomatic experience makes it possible for him to form a just estimation of
international possibilities and necessities. But the shrewdness and foresight
for which he is renowned are qualities that are by no means connected with any
weakness or vacillation of character, as has been clearly shown by the success
of Germany’s foreign policy under his guidance. The restoration of Germany’s
strength made It possible for him to adopt a strong and uncompromising policy in
foreign affairs.
Baron von Neurath has served in
the Foreign Office ever since 1901 without break, except for a short interval
when he was Prime Minister in the federative State of Württemberg, which is his native country. He is one of the few diplomats
from the pre-War time who during the years of Germany’s distress and dejection
still believed in her future resurgence. And he was able to awaken that same
belief in the minds of foreign political leaders. That is chiefly what first
brought himself and Adolf Hitler together and has established an abiding
friendship between them.
Dr. Joseph
Goebbels
Both at home
and abroad, the Minister for National Enlightenment and Propaganda is one of
the best known German statesmen. And because it falls within the scope of his
office sometimes to say disquieting things, he has become the target of attack
for those exiles and their abettors who are hostile towards the Third Reich.
There are many people whose judgment of the Bolshevik peril is fundamentally sound
but who do not like to hear it spoken about, because ruthless criticism of
Bolshevism somehow or other does not quite fall in with their own political
leanings. With Goebbels that is not so. When he speaks of Bolshevism he is
uncompromising and throws upon It the searching light that it deserves.
Dr. Goebbels is a journalist by
profession. As newspaper man and public speaker he led the National Socialist
campaign in Berlin, where he had to fight for every foot of the ground but
finally routed the Marxists and won Berlin for the National Socialists. It was
a political struggle which at the beginning had to be waged with quite
inadequate means and demanded much personal sacrifice. But Goebbels never tried
to avoid the fight and was never on the defensive. He went into the very heart
of the territory where his opponents were strongest. During the struggle he
spoke unflinchingly in public against the Communists in the working quarters of
Berlin. His dialectical ability and his capacity for stating his case clearly
reduced his opponents to silence, even in the eyes of their own followers.
Goebbels once said jokingly about himself that he had been accused of all
possible faults and defects but he had never been accused of being tongue-tied.
There are few men who are such masters of the art of public speech. And when
one meets him in a narrower circle of diplomats, or scholars or artists, it is
difficult to believe that this is the same man whom one heard speaking
yesterday at a mass meeting where he stirred tip his audience to a high pitch
of emotion. Here in the more intimate intellectual or artistic circle he puts
forward his ideas calmly and modestly, as he speaks on some artistic or
literary topic. Common to both, however, is the clear logical manner in which he
analyses and expounds his theme, whether it be a matter of profound
philosophical character or political ideas that have to be inculcated in the
minds of the masses.
It may be said that Goebbels is
the creator of modem political propaganda, which he has developed into a
special art. But in this connection it must not be forgotten - and Goebbels
himself would be among the first to acknowledge this - that good propaganda can
be made only when it deals with sound and far-reaching and fruitful ideas. For propaganda
must show results or else it will be condemned within a short time, no matter
how cleverly it be organized. But a propaganda which is based on actual facts
can become a tremendous force in the service of the State, if that force be in
the hands of one who knows how to use it.
The Chamber of Culture
established and directed by Dr. Goebbels embraces all Germans who are engaged
in productive work in the various branches of culture. The aim of the Chamber
is to see that all cultural products, those which are yet to be produced as
well as those already in existence, shall be applied to beneficial ends for the
welfare of the nation. The character and personality of Goebbels is a
sufficient guarantee that German intellectual life will never be cramped within
narrow bureaucratic formulas. He is highly gifted artistically that he knows
very well how impossible it is for creative genius to be productive in the
cultural sphere if it be hide-bound by rigid regulations. Creative talent will
always go its own way and very often it becomes operative only as a process of
release from mental tension. But if its products are to have significance for
the people they must spring from the profound depths of the national soul. That
is the only limiting principle which Goebbels recognises in the domain of
cultural creativeness. And here he can appeal to all the great historical
examples of creative genius; for they have always been in their truest sense
the representatives of the national being. In other words, all great artistic
products, whether in literature, architecture, sculpture or painting, have been
folk products in their primary essentials.
Goebbels was born in the
Rhineland in 1897. His effervescent vitality and Rhenish humour have made him
liked everywhere. He is very happy in his family life. During the most
difficult days of his political struggle his wife always gave him the moral
support of sympathetic understanding, not a small blessing for a man who has
often so much to contend with and is always active in so many fields.
Dr. Wilhelm
Frick
Dr. Wilhelm
Frick is Reich Minister of the Interior and Minister of the Interior for
Prussia also. It may be well to explain here that this latter office is now
practically an integral part of the former; because Prussia no longer exists as
an independent federative State. There remain only a few administrative relics
of its former Constitution, such as the office of Prussian Minister-President
and Prussian Minister of the Interior, also the Prussian Ministries of
Education, of Labour, of Finance and of Ecclesiastical Affairs. But these
offices are all held by the corresponding Ministers for the Reich, except that
of Minister-President, and Ministry of Finance.
Dr. Frick is personally known to
many foreigners who are in the habit of visiting Germany, especially those who
have musical affiliations. Both he and his wife are musical devotees and he is
in the habit of giving musical evenings at his home, where one can hear some of
the best chamber music that contemporary German artists can produce. Dr. Frick
is well known for his uprightness and integrity of character. His features and
bearing express those virtues and all his conduct is inspired by them. Though
he is 61 years old, he looks and acts as if he were much younger and he is
quite un-bureaucratic. He represents the best traditions of the German civil
service. He looks upon his work from a much higher standpoint than that of the
fulfilment of the daily routine tasks and Adolf Hitler once said of him that he
had the courage to place the welfare of the country above his duty as a civil
servant.
That statement was made on the
occasion of the first significant thing which Dr. Frick did for the National
Socialist Movement. During the years that immediately followed the War Dr.
Frick was Chief of the political section at police headquarters in Munich. In
his official capacity he made the acquaintance of Adolf Hitler, who was then
holding his first meetings in Munich. With the power which he held in his hands,
Frick might easily have suppressed the young Movement; but he readily
recognised in it what he called „The kernel of Germany’s revival“. And on the
day of the national rising he protected the Movement and was the cause of
preventing a development of hostilities which would have led to further
bloodshed. For this conduct he had subsequently to appear in the dock with
Hitler and his companions.
The events of that November day
in 1923 sealed for ever the bond of friendship and comradeship between these
two men. The hitherto shy and retiring civil servant now showed himself to be
an orator who could enkindle a spirit of fervid enthusiasm in his audiences. He
showed particular ability in bringing the working classes to believe in the
principles of the National Socialist Movement. He has been member of the Reichstag
since 1924 and was originally the leader of the National Socialist group in
Parliament, as parliamentary deputy he scornfully refused to adopt the usual
parliamentarian tactics and he was content to remain incorruptible and
undismayed, for the sake of the principles of his Party.
In 1929 he became Minister of
the Interior in the federative State of Thuringia, under a coalition government
of the bourgeois Parties. Thus he was the first National Socialist to become a
Minister. From the beginning he was convinced that his collaboration with the
bourgeois Parties could not last long; for he was determined not to pursue
coalition politics but to follow the political principles of Adolf Hitler who
had commissioned him personally to go to Weimar, the seat of the Thuringian
Government. His work as Minister of the Interior in the city of Goethe and
Schiller lasted for over a year and was rich in results. During that period the
little State of Thuringia became the pioneer of the national revival. The
administration, the cultural life of the State and the educational system, were
delivered from the disintegrating influences of base politics. On one occasion
Frick prohibited the production of a communist play in the theatre; but the
supreme administrative tribunal ordered the Prohibition to be withdrawn. Frick,
however, stuck to his guns and refused to withdraw, holding that the decision
of the tribunal could not override the authority of the State. Since the
National Socialist advent to power Frick has been Reich Minister of the
Interior. As such he has thrown himself enthusiastically into the work of
formulating legislative measures for the reform of the administration of the
Reich. If National Socialism had accomplished nothing else beyond this work of
legislative and constitutional reform, that alone would entitle it to a
prominent place in German history. For over a thousand years the German people
have yearned for political unity and incorporation in one State. This yearning
has at last been fulfilled by the legislative and constitutional reform of the
Reich. The Weimar Constitution of 1919 allowed the federative States to
maintain their independence; but this was practically set aside in 1933 and in
the following year the sovereignty of the federative States was transferred to
the Reich. The federative parliaments were abolished and nearly all the
Prussian Ministries were merged with those of the Reich. Legislation and the
administration of justice were also transferred to the Reich. So that now at
last, after a long history of internal disunion, the German people are united
in one National State, such as other peoples - the French and British, for
instance - achieved centuries ago.
Walther
Funk
The most
noteworthy characteristic of the Minister of Economy is the imperturbable
temperament which he displays in handling the most difficult Problems. There
are few things over which this typical East Prussian will get excited. Until he
was appointed Minister of Economy he was Chief of the Press for the Government
of the Reich and during the stormiest passages in contemporary German history
he was always the soothing and calming and directive force at press
headquarters. His calm consideration of the various problems that came before
him as well as his characteristic sense of humour have impressed most of those
who have had dealings with him.
This tranquillity of his is that
of a man who has studied his special branch thoroughly, so that he knows his
particular business and can come to such clear decisions that no other person
will think of telling him how this or that should be done. Though Funk is only
forty-eight, he is one of the most efficient commercial experts in Germany. He
never loses sight of the national interests as a whole and fully realizes that,
as national economy is only a branch of the total national effort, it must be
subordinated to the whole.
His career as an economist has
passed through that of the journalist. For some years he was on the commercial
editorial staff of one of the leading Berlin papers which makes a speciality of
commerce and finance. Often and in the most difficult times he was able to
influence the commercial policy of the Government, through his work in the
press. As a result of his published articles, which attracted the attention of
experts, he was invited in 1923 to join the inner councils of the men who
carried through the German currency reform after the inflation period. As
journalist and public speaker he fought against the foreign loans, which were
mounting at an entirely unjustifiable rate and the catastrophic consequences of
which he foresaw at a very early date, just as did his predecessor in the
Ministry of Economics, Dr. Schacht. During those days the economist developed
into a politician who recognised that Hitler’s victory was an indispensable
prerequisite before German economy could again be restored on a sound basis. As
economic adviser to Hitler, Walther Funk played an important part even before
the advent of National Socialism to power. His clear insight into the economic
situation and his judicious foresight secured him the confidence of the leading
economic circles.
On the day that he assumed
office Hitler appointed Funk as Chief of the press department under the
Government of the Reich. Here it was his duty to keep the Führer informed daily on the political situation at home and
abroad as it was reflected in the pages of the press. Besides this, Funk
directed the affairs of the publicity council for German business which he
himself had founded. Finally, as vice-president of the Reich Chamber of
Culture, he rendered excellent service to the cultural life of Germany.
In the difficult period of the
Four Years’ Plan, which demands that all the resources of German economic life
must be mobilized under its aegis, Funk was appointed Minister of Economy.
Count
Schwerin von Krosigk
Count
Schwerin von Krosigk, who is Finance Minister of the Reich, was for a long time
an official in the Ministry of Finance. When President von Hindenburg called
him to take over control of the Ministry of Finance, in June 1932, he made it a
stipulation that powers should immediately be given him to balance the Reich
Budget.
The greatest service which Count
Schwerin has rendered the country is due to the fact that he has put the
national finances on a sound footing. The unswerving policy of thrift which he
demanded in order to be able to carry out his plans is reflected in his own
private life. In the conduct of his office he has looked upon himself as a
responsible and conscientious Pater familias, the family being the
German people. And in his own home he has had to provide for the support and
upbringing of eight children. The authority which he enjoys in his sphere of
work does not come merely from his position but rather from his recognized
expert knowledge.
Adolf Hitler took him over as a
proved expert from the two preceding Cabinets. He was given a free hand to
carry through financial measures, which bear the stamp of a man who is imbued
with a profound sense of his social and national responsibilities. In this
connection one may call to mind the measures which give generous financial
encouragement to young people about to marry and also for the help of large
families.
Count Schwerin von Krosigk was born
in Anhalt in 1881. He studied at Lausanne and subsequently at Oxford,
where he was awarded a diploma in economics, „with distinction.“
Richard
Walter Darré
The Minister
of Food and Agriculture looks upon the peasant farming class not only as a
branch of the national economic system but as the vital source of the nation’s
existence. The life-blood of every nation has to be renewed from its peasantry;
and the peasants toil is the source and guarantee of the nation’s food
supplies. It is the peasant who renders the nation independent of foreign
countries for its vital needs. It was the keen recognition of these truths that
first brought Walter Darré into touch with Adolf Hitler, in 1930. At that time
Hitler commissioned him to work for the reconstruction of a new and sound
peasant-farming class.
In his sphere of labour Darré
discards abstract theories just as much as he discards purely material
considerations regarding national economy. His own life exemplifies the
manifold productivity of the new ideas and his practical abilities. He holds a
diploma for agriculture. After the War he was employed by the Reich as expert
adviser on problems connected with stockbreeding. The thorough-going knowledge
of the subject which he displayed in his various specialist publications
brought him fame abroad; so that he was invited to come to Finland as adviser
to the Agricultural Department there.
But he is never hemmed in by
mere specialist rules and considerations. He thinks out his problem to its last
practical consequences. And so from the study of questions in his own special
branch he came to discern the truths of hereditary biology and to recognise the
fact that a peasantry rooted in the soil is the first and indispensable
prerequisite for a healthy people.
It is under the aegis of this
idea that Germany’s agrarian policy is being shaped. The farming class is now
free from every kind of economic insecurity and the farmstead has been
permanently entailed to the family of the farmer and his descendants.
Darré was born in the Argentine
in 1895. He is the son of a German business man whose forefathers emigrated
from Northern France and settled in Germany during the seventeenth century. He
went to school in Germany and afterwards in England, at Wimbledon. In 1914 he
joined the colours as a volunteer and took part in nearly all the big battles
on the Western Front.
Today we
have set aside distinctions of class and Position and look upon all our fellow
countrymen as constituent members of the one national community. But this
consummation has been made possible by the comradeship-in-arms during the War.
The feeling of a common destiny, which had been engendered in the trenches, was
never forgotten but we lacked a leader who would organise it and bring it to
practical effect in the life of the nation. Immediately after the War the men
who were still inspired by this sense of comradeship stood more or less alone,
as individuals without being united to one another by any practical bonds.
The Minister of Labour, Franz
Seldte, is one of the best representatives of the old front-line soldier. As an
officer at the front he was seriously wounded, his left forearm being
completely tom away by a shot during one of the battles on the Somme. During
the first months of the Marxist revolt in 1918 he called together some of his
comrades and laid the foundations of that ex-service Legion which became known
as „The Steel Helmets.“ During all the controversies in post-War Germany Seldte
steadfastly refused to allow „the Steel Helmets“ to be drawn into Party
politics. Not until Hitler’s regime began did Seldte feel that the ideal was
being realized for which the front-line soldier had fought.
This man who has made the idea
of comradeship the guiding principle of his conduct is now at the head of the
Ministry of Labour. This means that he controls the department of State whose
duty it is to establish and consolidate a sound social policy. That fact
significant of the man himself and significant for Germany; for it is the
comradeship of labour that has overcome and superseded the class conflict, just
as in the trenches one had to fight for, and shoulder-to-shoulder with, the
other, so it is now in the field of social politics in Germany.
The Minister of Labour was born
in Magdeburg in 1882 and was formerly an industrial employer. Therefore even
before he entered politics he had practical experience of social-political
Problems.
Dr. Franz Gürtner
German Law
is going through a process of radical transformation. From a legal system which
was too much the work of professional jurists and the administration of which
was too much in the hands of men who respected principally the letter of the
code, we are now going back to reconstruct a legal system that will correspond
more closely to the historical traditions of the German people and their
ethnical as well as national customs and sentiment. It will be a legal system
that will not be for its own sake but for the maintenance of the national
community. At such an historical juncture as the present the Minister of Justice
cannot stand apart from everyday life as a stickler for legal formalities.
Considering the merely external
facts of Dr. Gürtner’s career, we find in these a striking proof that he is a
highly gifted jurist. He is the son of a locomotive engineer who has worked
himself up to one of the highest positions in public life, and a Position which
calls for, learning of a very high order. He is a native of Bavaria, having
been born in Regensburg IS81. He became Minister of justice in Bavaria in 1922.
Since 1932 he has been Reich Minister of Justice, his holding of that office
having been sanctioned by Adolf Hitler in 1933.
The range of his personal
interests and accomplishments extends far beyond his official sphere of action.
He is artistically gifted and plays the cello excellently. During the illegal
struggles for freedom he was forced to take a direct part in politics, even as
Bavarian Minister of Justice. In the Bavarian Palatinate especially, under the
French occupation, small groups of seditionists and secessionists sought to
separate Bavarian territory from the Reich. This campaign was carried on with
the help of foreign finance and extended even to the highest quarters in
Bavarian public life. Gürtner took a firm stand against this separatist
Movement.
Bavarian humour is a
characteristic mark of his personality and those who come into touch with him
in his Berlin office invariably experience its stimulating effect.
The
practical preparations for legal reform in Germany are being made by the „Academy
for German Justice.“ Dr. Hans Frank is President of this Academy. He is also a
Cabinet Minister.
To the broad public he is known
as „Barrister Dr. Frank II, his name having become famous as defender of
National Socialism in the courts of justice during the militant stages of that
Movement. Among the leading statesmen in Germany today there are many who were
at one time or other defended by Dr. Frank before the judges in the courts. He
was only nineteen years of age when he first met the Führer, shortly after the War. Later, after he had concluded
his legal studies, he became the Führer’s advocate
and legal adviser. In 1930 he achieved an important political success for
National Socialism. During a court trial having been asked to testify as witness
under oath, he succeeded in proving the legality of the National Socialist
Movement.
In the hurry and rush caused by
one urgent case after another, in the chase from one law court to another,
hither and thither through all quarters of the Reich, he gained valuable
experience of legal practice which enabled him to develop his ideas of
jurisprudence and test them in practice. During those days of hard political
campaigning the young jurist had many long conversations with the Führer, in the course of which the groundwork and structural
plan of the new reform of German Law were laid down and outlined.
„Personal considerations must not enter into the work of building up
a State.“ That axiom hung on a wall of the waiting room in the Prussian
Ministry of justice when Reich Minister Kerrl held office there. This was
before the Prussian Ministry of Justice was amalgamated with that of the Reich.
The axiom is characteristic of this man who never pursues his personal
interests and demands of his collaborators that they shall govern their conduct
in a similar way. The individual must always place his task before himself; and
that is all the truer where the task is all the greater.
Hanns Kerrl is a North German
and was born in 188t. He interested himself in law and became a minor official
in the administration of justice. But he strove untiringly and still strives to
deepen and strengthen the foundations of his own philosophy of life. He has
devoted much of his time to the study of problems connected with art,
philosophy, and religion. He is essentially a practical man who has learned his
lesson in life’s school and treats all problems from the human standpoint. That
is what gives his discourse its special value and makes it interesting.
Adolf Hitler has commissioned
Hanns Kerrl to take charge of the political relations between the State and the
churches. A profound belief in Christianity has enabled him to undertake this
difficult task. He has a natural way of appealing to the feelings of other
people and that has helped him to bridge over many difficulties, the moment he
discerns a spirit of goodwill on the other side. In his own person he has given
an example of how National Socialism and Christianity can work harmoniously
together once both are sincerely accepted and believed in.
Kerrl was mentioned in
dispatches several times during the War and he was one of the first National
Socialists in North Germany. During the autumn of 1923 he founded the first
National Socialist local group in his native town. In 1928 he was one of the
six National Socialists to be elected to the Prussian Diet, where in 1932, as
President he carried on a vigorous campaign against the Marxist Government in
Prussia. As Prussian Minister of Justice he took a leading part in the reform
of the penal code.
Bernhard
Rust
Bernhard
Rust, Minister of Science and Education, was born in Hannover in 1883. He took
up teaching as a career and became head master of the Grammar School at
Hannover. In 19 10 he received a call to the University of Halle to teach
German literature. This was in consequence of a work which he had published on
the teaching of philosophy in the German secondary schools. But Rust did not
accept the invitation to Halle and refused a second time, when it was repeated
two years later. This was because he was far more interested in the training of
the rising generation than in abstract scholarship.
It is from this standpoint that
we must view his activities today as Reich Minister of Education. In all his
work at the Ministry and in all the measures he has adopted for the reform of
the educational system he has the practical well-being of the young generation
principally in mind, its physical as well as its intellectual development. He
aims at reducing to practice in a modem form the classical ideal of a unified
educational system in which mind, character, and body, are developed in a
balanced harmony.
His experience as an educator
has enabled him to acquire a clear vision of pedagogical possibilities and of
the damages that result from a badly devised educational system. From 1924
onwards he was head of the National Socialist Movement in Lower Saxony. During
the political struggles of those days he came so closely into touch with the
everyday life of the people and heard so many expressions of their views that
he acquired a very comprehensive idea of what they lacked in the sphere of
moral and mental training.
The aim of education must be, on
the one hand, to balance the drawbacks of those physical weaklings where the
brain is inclined to be developed at the expense of the body and, on the other
hand, to make those who are inclined exclusively towards sport also take an
interest in study and devote a reasonable amount of time and energy to it.
Bernard Rust is the first
Minister of Education for the German Reich, since there was no national system
of education hitherto, each federative State having its own system and its own
ministry. These worked independently, sometimes along parallel lines and
sometimes in open contradiction to one another. But now there is a central
national ministry, the creation of which is one of the phases of that radical
process of reform which is being introduced into the administration of the
Reich.
Dr. Julius Dorpmüller
Dr. Dorpmüller is Minister of Communications. His name is associated
with the modem organization of the German railways. Liberated from the
restrictions to which they were submitted during the post-war period, when they
were administered as a pledge in the hands of the Versailles Powers, the German
railways have now been developed into a model system of transport. This is
principally the work of Dr. Dorpmüller.
He was born in Elberfeld in
1869. He studied engineering and obtained a doctorate in that branch of
technical science. While he was employed as constructional engineer by the
German Railways he was invited to China to assist as consulting engineer in
carrying out the plans for railway expansion in that country. It was during
this time that he began to take that interest in Eastern Asia which afterwards
became his favourite hobby. When the War broke out in 1914 he was still In
China; but he managed to make his way through a hostile Russia back to Germany,
where he was at once employed in organizing the war transport system.
At the end of the War he
returned to the State railways and since 1926 he has been Director-General. Dorpmüller is not only an engineering expert but also a man who
has great practical ability as an organiser. As Reich Minister of Transport,
all branches of public transport are subordinate to his control, except air
transport. Though the interests of the various branches of transport have often
clashed with one another, Dorpmüller has
succeeded in establishing harmonious collaboration among them, an achievement
which was very necessary in order to cope with the increasing demands of German
industry and commerce.
Dr. Wilhelm
Ohnesorge
Dr. Ohnesorge
is Minister of Posts. He has been a post-office official from the beginning of
his career and has shown special technical ability in developing modem methods
of news transmission.
He was born in Bitterfeld in 1872.
At the age of eighteen he entered the postal service. A series of discoveries
and inventions first brought his name into prominence among the technicians
interested in telegraphic and telephonic communication. Under the stimulus of
the demand for effective long-distance telephonic communication during the War
he invented what is called „The Four-Line-System,“ whereby the means of
telephonic conversation over very long distances have been considerably
improved. This invention is in use today throughout the world, Recently Dr.
Ohnesorge has been busying himself with the technique of the latest means of
news transmission, namely, television.
Dr. Ohnesorge has written
several essays and delivered several lectures on the cultural significance of
the postal services in history and in modem life, treating the subject in an
entirely fresh light. His knowledge of history and cultural progress has
contributed to give these essays and addresses a special value and interest.
Despite the wide range and
absorbing nature of his official activities, Ohnesorge takes quite an active
interest in sport and has personally promoted sports associations and
undertakings among the officials and employees of the Postal Service.
He has been a member of the
National Socialist Movement since 1920. In that year he formed a National
Socialist group at Dortmund, which was the first local group to be formed
outside of Bavaria. During the French invasion of the Ruhr, despite the
sharpest supervision exercised by the enemy, Ohnesorge succeeded in organizing
an excellent news service whereby the Germans in the occupied region were kept
in constant touch with home affairs.
Dr. Hans
Heinrich Lammers
Dr. Lammers is
Chief of the Reich Chancellery and was raised to the rank of Cabinet Minister
in November 1933. He is one of Hitler’s closest collaborators.
Dr. Lammers was born in Upper
Silesia in 1879. He began his career as Court Magistrate. During the War he
held the rank of Captain in the territorial army and was awarded the Iron Cross
both of the 1st and 2nd class. After the War he devoted himself to the study of
constitutional law, in which he is now considered as one of the leading
authorities. On this subject he delivered several lectures at the High School
for Politics in Berlin. For many years Lammers has studied the whole apparatus
of Government and administration. Questions concerned with the drawing tip of
legislative measures and the working relations between the various ministries
and the Führer represent the chief task he is
engaged on today. The Führer sets great
value on the many-sided knowledge of this experienced official and constantly
seeks his advice on various questions of procedure etc.
Lammers had already declared
himself on the side of National Socialism, long before it took over power. He
was then assistant adviser on questions of constitutional law at the Reich
Ministry of the Interior, where he had to encounter many difficulties owing to
his nationalist principles.
Dr. Otto
Meissner
Dr. Meissner
first became known to the outside world as the personal adviser of President
von Hindenburg. He was born in Alsace in 1880. He entered the civil service and
shortly before the War became an official at the Foreign Office. When Ebert
became first President of the German Republic Dr. Meissner was called to be his
Chef de Cabinet.
When Field Marshal von
Hindenburg came into office as President of the Reich he retained the services
of Dr. Meissner. After the death of President von Hindenburg the Führer confirmed Dr. Meissner in his Position and in December
1937 nominated him as Secretary of State, which for practical purposes is an
honorary title in this instance.
As collaborator with von
Hindenburg, Dr. Meissner always backed up the President in his strictly
non-party policy. His broad outlook and political tact have won the unstinted
admiration of the foreign diplomats who have come into touch with him as Chief
of the Presidential Chancellery.
In addition to those who are
Ministers of the Reich, there are other leading personalities in the Party
organization who deserve to be noticed in this short pamphlet. The new impulse
which the National Socialist Movement gave to the life of the State and the
Nation became diffused through all branches of activity and demanded new men in
responsible positions which supplement the Government departments. In the
following sketches the names of many prominent party leaders may be missed; but
within the limits of such a short treatise it will only be possible to give a
biographical sketch of some of the men whose names are familiar abroad.
Dr. Arthur
Seyss-Inquart
The name of
Dr. Seyss-Inquart was practically unknown to the outside public until it began
to figure prominently in the press and broadcast news during the days that the Anschluss
with Austria was taking place. His name will now be permanently written in the
historical annals of those days.
Seyss-Inquart was born in 1892,
in Stannern near Iglau, a purely German town which now belongs to
Czechoslovakia. He served throughout the War as volunteer in the Tyrolese Kaiserjäger, one of the elite regiments in the old Austrian Army.
He was severely wounded in the foot, so that he walks lame even today. In his
youth he was a great Alpinist and, despite his physical disability today, he
takes part in athletic sports, works in the garden and takes part in mountain
excursions on foot.
After the War he practised as a
lawyer in Vienna and soon began to play a leading part in the movement for a
Greater Germany. The plan for a Customs Union which was suggested several years
ago, for the purpose of bringing about closer economic relations with the Reich,
was partly drawn up by him. That was in 1931; but the plan was wrecked at
Geneva.
Dr. Seyss-Inquart has been for
several years now the trusted representative of the National Socialist Movement
in Austria. After the agreement arrived at between the Führer and the Austrian Chancellor, Dr. Schuschnigg, in
February 1938 at Berchtesgaden, Seyss-Inquart became Minister of the Interior
and Minister of Public Security in the Vienna Cabinet.
Although he had known for a long
time that the majority of Austrians were National Socialist at heart, and that
the Schuschnigg-Regime had very little backing among the people, his attitude
towards the Chancellor remained strictly loyal. Not until the famous Innsbruck
speech did he suspect that Schuschnigg would break his pledge. Then the arming
of the Communists on the part of the federal Governments, and other movements
in the background, convinced Seyss-Inquart that, under the Schuschnigg-Regime,
Austria was heading for civil war. He went to Schuschnigg and told him the bald
truth. „You have become illegal Mr. Chancellor,“ he said.
Schuschnigg resigned. The
Austrian Federal President, Herr Miklas, entrusted Seyss-Inquart with the
formation of a Cabinet, which took the oath of loyalty to the Constitution
before the President next day, march 12, 1938. This change of Cabinet was
strictly in accord with the provisions laid down in the Constitution. The new
Austrian Government consisted of Dr. Seyss-Inquart, Federal Chancellor and
Minister of Defence; Dr. Glaise-Horstenau, Vice-Chancellor; Dr. Wolf, Foreign
Affairs; Dr. Hueber, Justice; Dr. Menghin, Education; Dr. Jury, Social Welfare;
Reinthaler, Agriculture and Forestry; Dr. Fischböck, Commerce and Communications.
After the Schuschnigg
resignation the first official step which Seyss-Inquart took was to invite the
German Reich to send troops for the purpose of safeguarding internal peace and
security in Austria. It was due to the decisive and loyal stand which he took
that it was possible to effect the union of Austria with Germany in a legal way
and without any bloodshed.
On the day after his
appointment, March 13, 1938, and after Herr Miklas had resigned from the
presidency, Seyss-lnquart placed his new office at the disposal of the Führer, who now returned to his native country and was
received with jubilation by the whole people. On the day of the reunion of both
countries in Greater Germany Adolf Hitler appointed Seyss-lnquart as Governor (Statthalter)
of Austria.
The Austrian clergy gave proof
of their high sense of responsibility on that occasion. Under the leadership of
the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, Dr. Innitzer, the Austrian bishops ordered a
letter to be read in all the Roman Catholic churches. The text of the letter
ran as follows:
„From profound conviction and of
our own free will, we, the undersigned bishops of the ecclesiastical province
of Austria, are pleased to acknowledge that the National Socialist Movement has
done excellent constructive work, and is still doing it, in the national and
economic spheres as well as in the sphere of social welfare, for the German
Reich and People, and especially for the poorest sect Ion of the population. We
are also convinced that the action of the National Socialist Movement has
resulted in overcoming the danger of Godless Bolshevism, which would destroy
everything. We give our blessing and best wishes for the continuance of this
action in the future and we shall exhort the faithful to do the same.“
On April 10, 1938, the Führer summoned the whole population of Greater Germany to
the polls. More than 99 % of the electorate sanctioned the foundation of the
Greater German Reich and pledged their loyalty to the Führer.
Alfred
Rosenberg
In the
spring of 1919 Munich fell into the hands of the Communist Terror and was ruled
for a time by a Government consisting of Soldiers’ and Workers’ Councils, on
the Russian Soviet plan. The working classes and the bourgeois citizens vacillated
hither and thither, having no guiding principle to steady their outlook and no
leaders whatsoever. The Communist propaganda was by no means ineffective. There
were many plausible speakers who held meetings in the city squares, expounding
the alleged glorious achievement of Bolshevism in Russia. The average man in
the street did not know how much to believe or not to believe.
One day a young man who was then
Just twenty-six years old raised his voice at one of those meetings and gave a
calm and cool-headed description of what Bolshevism meant in reality. He was a
young scholar and the Baltic dialect must have sounded somewhat strange in
Munich ears. But the Munich workmen who stood around him soon saw that he was
an honest man and believed what he said. Some of them followed him into a cafe
to hear him further; for the speech on the square had to be cut short. Scarcely
half an hour had passed when a pair of soldiers who had mutinied from their
regiments and had joined the Communists came to arrest the speaker. But they
arrived too late.
The young man was Alfred
Rosenberg. He was born of German parents in the Hansa town of Reval, which then
belonged to Czarist Russia and is now the Capital of Estonia. Therefore,
Rosenberg was originally a Russian subject. Having studied architecture at the
Technical High School in Riga he went to Moscow and took out his official
diploma there. That was the prescribed procedure in those days. While in Moscow
he made the acquaintance of Bolshevism at its centre. He returned to his native
town, which had now been liberated from Russian rule, and from thence he came
to Germany.
The Communist agitation and
bourgeois indifference which he found in Germany struck him as nearly parallel
to what he had experienced in Russia and determined him to devote all his
energies to fighting It.
His study of art and of history
and philosophy led him to certain conclusions regarding the racial basis of
national existence. As a German born and living abroad, he had to remain
inactive in the enemy’s country during the War. This made him feel all the more
deeply for the lot of his kinsfolk and, when he experienced the plight into
which they had fallen, he felt it his duty to come forward as a political
leader in Germany.
In Munich he met the poet,
Dietrich Eckart, and subsequently Adolf Hitler. He was the first author who
promulgated the National Socialist Idea in literature and also its attitude
towards the Jewish problem. Since the time of its foundation as the press organ
of the National Socialist Party, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Völkischer Beobachter. In conducting the paper he had
to encounter the gravest difficulties day after day, especially those of
economic character; but he devoted himself unselfishly to his work and finally
succeeded in placing the Völkischer
Beobachter in the first rank of German newspapers.
Rosenberg’s masterpiece is his
book, entitled „The Myth of the Twentieth Century.“ It is an exposition of his
philosophy of life and has been much discussed abroad. In this book he traces
the various cultural, philosophical and religious currents which mark the main
courses of human history. And he takes them all under a general conspectus
which is inspired by his belief in folk culture as the basis of all sound
cultural effort and also inspired by his almost religious devotion to the ideal
of maintaining racial blood unmixed with foreign elements. A leading feature of
Rosenberg’s character is his high sense of honour, in response to which he has always
maintained his writing on a high artistic and scholarly level; and when dealing
with opponents in controversy he is always ready to appreciate their viewpoints
and makes It his chief aim to convince them of the truth of his own principles
rather than try to gain a mere dialectical victory.
Adolf Hitler has entrusted him
with the task of supervising ideological and intellectual training and
instruction within the framework of the Party. It is his duty to inculcate in
the youth National Socialist teaching, pure and unadulterated, as he himself
has helped to formulate it.
Besides this, Rosenberg is Reich
Director of the Foreign Political Office of the Party. Foreigners who have
attended his receptions and talks in his own office have been struck by the
tact which he displays in speaking with journalists and others of so many
varying shades of opinion. He can listen as well as talk. Indeed it is obvious
to anyone who speaks with him that he is a man who has formed his opinions and
shaped his own view of the world after long study and practical experience of
life.
Ernst
Wilhelm Bohle
It is not
due to mere chance that so many of Germany’s political leaders today were born and
spent their youth abroad. Rudolf Hess was born in Egypt, Darré in the
Argentine, Rosenberg in one of the Russian Baltic provinces, and the Führer himself in Austria, just beyond what was then the
German frontier. For the foreign-born often carries the motherland in his heart
and cherishes it as an ideal.
Ernst Wilhelm Bohle is Gauleiter
of the German Foreign Organization, Chief of the Foreign Organization in the
German Foreign Office, and has also the rank of Secretary of State. He was born
at Bradford in England, in 1903. A few years later his father became professor
at the University of Capetown, South Africa, and the family settled down there.
Young Bohle attended the Grammar School in Capetown and subsequently studied in
Germany, where he graduated in Commerce. He was then engaged as foreign
salesman for a Hamburg firm of exporters.
The German Foreign Organization,
of which State Secretary Bohle is now the Director - or Gauleiter, to
use the German term - was first founded in 1930. It embraces all Germans living
abroad who are members of the National Socialist Party. But its influence
extends also to Germans abroad who are not Party members. Its aim is to
encourage Germans abroad to maintain an attitude of strictest respect for the
laws and customs of the country in which they are guests, while at the same
time never forgetting their native land. The Foreign Organization helps all
Germans abroad to keep in living touch with their motherland and uphold its
ideals in their everyday lives.
The Chief of the Organization
has always had very close connections with England and the British Empire.
Again and again he has called attention to the importance of the part played by
foreign Germans in the relations between the various countries. Speaking in
London in October 1937 he said: „They know the homeland from which they came
and they learn to know the country and its people in the land that has given
them a second home. Who could be more suited to bring about a mutual
understanding and esteem between the various nations?“
It is said of Gauleiter
Bohle that his gifts are those of a diplomat rather than a business man. The
office which he holds is a very difficult one to administer, because It
constantly encounters conflicting interests abroad. But his inborn prudence and
keen sense of diplomacy have enabled him to make the course of the Foreign
Organization run smoothly.
Philipp
Bouhler
Reichsleiter Philipp
Bouhler is Head of the Führer’s Chancellery. This office deals with all matters
concerning the Führer in his
capacity as Head of the National Socialist Party. In other words, it is purely
a question of liaison work between the Führer himself and every individual member of the Party.
Bouhler is also in charge of the Private Chancellery and the Staff Office, in
both of which attention is given to the innumerable correspondence which
reaches the Führer daily from
all sections of the community and abroad.
Bouhler was born at Munich in
1899 and is descended from soldier stock. At the age of seventeen he joined up
for active service and was severely wounded. He has been a member of the
National Socialsit party since 1920. After studying German history and literature
he joined the Staff of the Völkischer
Beobachter and subsequently during the years when the Party
struggled for power, he held the position of business manager in its
administration. Hence he was seldom heard of in public. His administrative
abilities, however, were successfully applied in coping with the ever
increasing volume of work in connection with party organization.
Bouhler’s literary work is
well-known. He is the author of several works dealing with the Führer, whose close collaborator he has been for many years.
In 1936 the
German Reich celebrated the tenth centenary of the death of Heinrich I. (A.D.
918-936), who laid the foundations of the first German kingdom. It was decided
that the event should be commemorated by restoring the tomb in the Cathedral of
Quedlinburg, where Heinrich and his consort are buried. Himmler decided to make
a visit of inspection to the cathedral. On the appointed day a detachment of
the SS went to the railway station to welcome their Chief, it was cold and
raining. Himmler arrived several hours late. On seeing the SS men drawn up in
formation, the first question he asked was: Have these men had their mid-day
meal? He was answered in the negative. Whereupon he invited the whole
detachment to be his quests at the restaurant.
That one little incident, chosen
from the many such incidents that are related of him, is typical of Heinrich
Himmler, he has a brotherly consideration for the welfare of the men under him,
which is one of the reasons why his administration is so efficient. Yet he is
not sparing of his own comfort or his personal interests, he is modest and
never permits himself to be the central object of any public demonstration, he
wishes to be known only by his work.
Himmler is Chief of the SS as
well as the German Police. The SS (Schutz-Staffel), which were originally
founded as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard, wear black uniform and are all
specially selected men who have sworn absolute loyalty to the Führer and are always ready to do their utmost for the State
and public order which the Führer has
founded. Formerly the Government of each federative State controlled its own
police independently, so that there was no national Police System. But the
federative Governments have now been abolished and a unified national Police
System has been established, under the supreme control of Heinrich Himmler.
Himmler’s hobby is the early
history of Germany and the study of its pre-historic origins. He is acquainted
with almost every important book on this subject. He widely employs the SS in
exploration work and they have succeeded in excavating several early Germanic
settlements and have brought to light many relics of a past culture.
Himmler is a native of Munich,
where he was born in 1900. He studied agriculture and graduated in that
science. He also worked for a long time as a practical farmer. He is
passionately devoted to hunting game and is an excellent shot. In 1925 he
joined the National Socialist Party, after having been a member of several
other organizations for the national restoration of the Reich. Today he belongs
to the innermost circle of trusted followers around the Führer and is one of the most authoritative public personages
in the Reich.
Viktor Lutze
„Twelve years ago, when I became leader of a small SA group, I put
forward three principles which should guide my conduct and that of the SA group
under me. These were: absolute loyalty, strictest discipline, and the spirit of
self-sacrifice.“
That was the statement which Viktor
Lutze made when he tool, over the leadership of the whole SA, in June 1934.
During the years that preceded the advent of National Socialism to power the SA
held the foremost place in the political struggle. On the streets the brown
uniform was the Symbol of a Movement that was marching forward towards the
creation of a New Germany. The marching song composed by Horst Wessel, a member
of the Berlin SA who had been murdered by Communists, became a national anthem.
After National Socialism came into power the task set before the SA was
altered. In accordance with the Führer’s desire, the
SA men now have to be the model for all National Socialists to copy, a model of
devotion to duty and soldier like simplicity.
Viktor Lutze is Chief-of-Staff
of the SA. In his inner nature he is a soldier. In the War he was seriously
wounded and lost the use of his left eye. It was for this reason that he
resigned from the army and became a business man. But the political struggles
of the post-War period soon brought him back from his civilian calling. When
the French invaded the Ruhr he joined the same volunteer organization to which
Leo Schlageter belonged and when Schlageter sealed his faith by a martyr’s
death Lutze was one of the men who brought his body from the occupied region
into the homeland.
Lutze comes of an old family of
farmers and artisans in Lower Saxony. He was born in Westphalia in 1890. He
inherits the simplicity and genuineness of his forebears. And he has given
proof of outstanding ability as an organiser. The building up of the SA and the
allocation of their various ranks is based on the prototype which he himself
created when he was leader of an SA group during the militant period of the
Movement.
Dr. Robert
Ley
A successful
labour leader must have a practical knowledge of the conditions under which the
workman lives and works, and also of his outlook on life, his ideas, his speech
etc. The work-man’s difficulties and cares cannot be learned at the office desk
of the leader. The latter must have experienced all these in his own person.
Though Dr. Robert Ley, the
Leader of the German Labour Front, is a university man, lie is also a man of
the world, a man of everyday commonsense and practical ability, neither a
bureaucrat nor an abstract theorist, a man who Is simple and straightforward in
his speech and in his ways. The German Labour Front, which has been created by
Dr. Ley, embraces all Germans who are engaged in productive labour, whether
physical or mental. This Labour Front is not a maze of offices and exchanges
packed with people who are looking for jobs. It is a living organism in which
each individual element is active. It has superseded the old trade-unions,
which operated on the assumption that the interests of Capital and Labour must
be in eternal opposition to one another. Dr. Ley’s vast organization embraces
all German employers as well as the workers. Its members number about twenty
millions. Its chief purpose is to promote and maintain peaceful cooperation
between employers and employees by inculcating in the minds of the employers a
sympathetic understanding for the just claims and rights of the employees and,
on the side of the employees, a reciprocal understanding of the conditions
under which a business has to be managed and the possibilities on which the
payment of wages etc., depend. In this way it has been possible to put an end
to the fruitless opposition of the old trade-unions and establish a fair
balance of give-and- take in each business. Inasmuch as the German Labour Front
not only took over the trade-unions but expanded them into a co-operative
organization which embraces all Germans actively engaged in productive work
whether as directors or subordinate officials or ordinary workers, including
also the hitherto independent trades and professions, we have here a veritable
national community which embraces all productive effort for the welfare of the
nation as a whole.
This community has its own
social departments, the most important of which is known as the „Strength
Through Joy“ organization. This enables every German worker to share in the
general amenities of life at a nominal cost. Thus he can visit the best
theatres, go on excursion trips at home and abroad, take part in all kinds of
sports etc.
Within the Party framework Dr.
Ley is also Reich Director of the Political Organization of the National
Socialist Party. This organization is something more than a mere administrative
mechanism under Party direction. The political leaders of the organization are
the trustees not merely of the individual Party members but are also the
intermediaries between the people as a whole and the supreme leadership. The
Reich Director of the Political Organization is also responsible for the
training of future Party leaders at various political colleges.
Dr. Ley is a native of the
Rhineland and is the son of a peasant farmer. He was born in 1890. He studied
food chemistry and after the War, in which he served as a volunteer, he took a
post in one of the biggest chemical works in Germany. Owing to his political
activities, he was several times arrested and finally lost his position on that
account.
Baldur von
Schirach
Baldur von
Schirach, the Reich Leader of the Youth, began to take part in political
activities when he was still in his teens. He was born in 1907 and at the age
of seventeen he entered the Party. A year later he became personally associated
with the Führer.
He studied German literature and
the history of art and, while a student, he became leader of the National
Socialist Students’ Movement. He achieved great success in converting the
overwhelming majority of students to the principles of National Socialism long
before National Socialism took over supreme control of Germany. He was
recognized as the leader of the youth for a long time before he was officially
appointed to that position. His oratory inspired the young generation and his
example as an indefatigable fighter, almost obsessed by the heroic ideal,
attracted them and still attracts them to him.
As Reich Leader of the Youth, he
has, brought the whole youth of Germany into one organization, the membership
of which has now reached seven millions. This organization, known as the Hitler
Youth, is entirely independent and autonomous in its administration. It is also
self-supporting. Acting in collaboration with the training which they get at
school and at home, the Hitler Youth Organization helps to develop the physique
of its members, instils sound ideas in their minds and inculcates moral
principles, all with a view to making the young generation a worthy factor in
the national community.
But Baldur von Schirach
interests himself not merely in political activities. Indeed it may be said
that he is one of those people who took part in politics because the conditions
of tile time called for such action. Otherwise he probably would have devoted
himself entirely to literature and, if we are to judge by the poems which he
has already published, he would probably have achieved great success in that
field. He himself is the author of the Song of the Hitler Youth.
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