Source: Germany’s Hitler (Chapter XV) - by Heinz A. Heinz
In order to round out the picture of Hitler which it has
been the attempt of these pages to depict, a few words remain to be said about
his private life since 1919.
As
has been already narrated, Hitler left barracks in the August of that year, and
rented a modest lodging with humble people in the Thierschstrasse, Number 41.
It
is interesting to have a look into this poor room where Hitler lived for ten
years. A Herr Erlanger was, at that time, the landlord of the house. He
observes today: „I hadn’t much to do with him myself as he wasn’t directly a
tenant of mine. His room was a sub-let. And since I am a Jew, I concerned
myself as little as possible with the activities of my lodger and the National
Socialists. I often encountered him on the stairway and at the door –h e was
generally scribbling something in a notebook.
„Often
he had his dog with him, a lovely wolfhound. He never made me feel he regarded
me differently from other people. He lodged here in my house from the autumn of
1919 to 1929. First he took a little back room, and then an equally small one
in the front to serve as a sort of office and study. The back room in which he
slept is only eight by fifteen feet. It is the coldest room in the house; there’s
a passage below it leading to the courtyard. Some lodgers who’ve rented it
since got ill. Now we only use it as a lumber room; nobody will have it any
more.
„The
only ‘comfort ’ Hitler treated himself to when he was here, was a hand basin
with cold water laid on.
The
room to the front was a bit bigger, but the small high-set window left much to
be desired. It was very scantily furnished.”
We
have caught a glimpse of the rooms that were his home all these strenuous years
in the Thierschstrasse, and now we must have a look at his unpretentious house
on the Obersalzberg.
The
Obersalzberg is one of the slopes of the Bavarian Alps, above the Königsee, but
below the grand, bare snow-flecked summits of the highest mountains near
Watzmann. It is a shaggedly pine-wooded region interspersed with wide stretches
and spaces of open grass or meadowland threaded by white filaments of winding
road. The whole is dotted over with the characteristic Bauernhöfe (peasant farms)
of the country, looking much like the chalets of Switzerland with their
flower-decked balconies, their green-shuttered windows above the white
stonework of the ground floor.
A
steep road leads up from Berchtesgaden to the Obersalzberg. Here Hitler and a
few chosen intimates found refuge from the stress and strain of life during the
time that preceded the disruption of the Party in November, 1923. They
forgathered in one of these Obersalzberg farm houses, called the Platterhof,
and there took counsel together, and enjoyed brief, but precious, snatches of
rest and recreation.
One
gets to Berchtesgaden from Munich by train in about three hours. But by motor
one can do the journey a little more quickly. Berchtesgaden is a little town
near the Königsee. It does not He directly on the lake because the mountains
there come down so steeply to the water’s edge no room remains for the town.
The lower flanks of these mountains are covered with hanging pine forests, but
the summits are bare rock, snow-clad and glacier-seamed in winter. The
Obersalzberg is a single mountain in the neighbourhood of the Königsee (King’s
Lake). There are houses built upon it.
Lower
down the slope of the Salzberg lay a little house, also built in the Bavarian
mountain style, called the Berghof.
Here
the Bavarian Mountains meet the Salzburg Alps; the former frontier between
Germany and Austria ran athwart these rocky summits. The view from hence is
magnificent. Deep down below lies the green valley in which Berchtesgaden
nestles. Snow-clad peaks soar into the blue heavens all around; among them
König Watzmann and his seven rocky offspring.
Hitler’s
house, Berghof, here, is in no sense a ministerial residence like Chequers in
England. It is nothing more than a simple country house.
It
consists of two storeys, the lower built of white stone, the upper of
brown-stained wood. A wooden balcony with flower-boxes all along the railing
runs round the house outside the bedroom windows. The windows have green
shutters with white bands; the grey shingled roof is secured against the storms
of winter by rows of heavy stones laid upon it. A little belfry, thatched, like
a bird shelter, adorns one end of the roof tree. The plateau surrounding the
house is laid out for a car park and a garden. There are flower borders, a
large green lawn with a wide rectangular path surrounding it, a rock garden, a
telescope, garden furniture – gay chairs, tables, coloured sun umbrellas – and
a flagstaff with the long red flag and its hooked cross in the central circle
of white, hanging from it.
All
within is as simple and as well-kept as without. The peasant note is stressed.
To describe one of the rooms: the furniture, consisting of little but the table
and a few chairs, is of local make, of painted wood. A wooden dado in
grey-green panels with a single little bunch of country flowers painted on
each, reaches half-way up the cream-washed walls. The window has a valance, and
simple curtains of figured cretonne hang straight at the sides. A wooden bench
coloured like the dado amply furnished with variously and gaily covered
pillow-shaped cushions runs round the room and forms a window-seat. There are
one or two well-hung engravings to be noted, a cupboard with large painted
panels, topped with jugs in peasant ware, and the bright notes of here and
there a tasteful plate set on the beading of the dado. Such is the
Reichskanzlers sitting or dining-room in the Berghof. His square bare table has
gaily turned and painted legs, and stretchers for foot rests between. All is eminently
homelike and simple. A great green tiled oven, surrounded by a bench, takes the
place of the English open hearth. Huge rag rugs lie here and there about the
floor.
The
Berghof was built shortly before the War by a Hamburg merchant. Hitler discovered
it long before he bought it. His thoughts turned to this spot and this house
after the strains and stresses of Landsberg.
He
rented it, and asked his sister to come and keep house there, so that he
himself could come and go as circumstances might permit. Later on he purchased
it outright, and was thankful to withdraw to its peace and privacy during the
stressful time of the struggle of the Party.
Later
ensued a period during which but the rarest moments of respite could be
snatched at the Berghof. During the last phases of his struggle for power in
1932 Adolf Hitler rarely was able to resort thither, alone or with chosen
companions, for a few hours’ relaxation or intensive counsel.
After
a simple but sufficient repast in which fresh milk, black bread, and some sort
of cereal were the chief ingredients, the Führer and his friends liked to sit
round the table, or around the stove, and in this informal fashion talk over
the prospects and the problems of the Kampf.
Since
his accession to the Chancellorship of the Reich, Hitler’s little country place
has had to be adapted somewhat to its owner’s wider needs. Without losing
anything of its unpretentiousness, a motor road approach to it has been
constructed, and additional accommodation has been added after the Führer’s own
plans. It remains, however, much as it was originally, and ever awaits the
coming of its master, guarded by three friends of his of whom he has none more
loyal and faithful, the sheep-dogs, Muck, Wolf and Blonda.
By
the year 1929 when Hitler’s Party had now become a nation-wide Movement, it was
unsuitable that he should remain any longer in the Thierschstrasse, mainly for
the reason that he was obliged to receive the visits of highly placed or
important people either in his inadequate little room there, or in the back
premises in the Schellingstrasse used as Party headquarters. So he removed to
an empty apartment in the Prinzregenten– Platz 16. „This bachelor requires nine rooms for himself,” wrote one of his
critics and opponents, quite failing to add that two families also shared them,
one of these consisting of the very people with whom he had lodged in the
Thierschstrasse.
Hitler
still lives in this house when in Munich. His pretensions have waxed no whit
since he became Chancellor.
He
generally comes of a week-end to Munich or to Berchtesgaden. The rest of the
time he spends in Berlin. He inhabits the old Reichskanzlei of Prince Bismarck.
As a rule he takes his frugal meals at home, often in company with a few simple
S.A. men who come to him from every quarter, some of whom he may not even know.
His adjutant Brückner sees to it, doubtless, that it is not always the same
visitors who have the privilege of dining with Adolf Hitler.
Personal
comfort, apart from personal cleanliness, never meant much to Hitler. He lives
as simply to-day in the Wilhelmstrasse as he lived at Frau Popp’s and in the
Thierschstrasse in those early beginnings.
In
this connection, it might be interesting to say a few words on the private life
of the Führer.
As
a matter of fact, on this subject there is but little to be said, for this
private life takes up a few hours only of each day, and sometimes not so much
as one single hour.
Although
Hitler generally retires to rest at a very late hour, very often not until 2
a.m. or even later, he is up again early in the morning. He is without doubt
one of those people who can do with a minimum of sleep. It is a known fact
that, starting from January 30th, 1933, when he became Chancellor of the German
Reich, he worked without interruption for three days and three nights, and
during this time showed himself on the balcony of the Chancellor’s palace at
frequent intervals to the enthusiastic crowds who all day long filled the
Wilhelmplatz.
After
breakfast, which in his case takes on a very simple form, consisting usually of
milk, black bread and fruit, Hitler makes a practice of being informed on all
world happenings. His Press Chief, Dr. Dietrich, who is closely attached to his
person, lays a large quantity of home and foreign newspapers before the Führer,
and furnishes him with a precis of all important articles and news items. This
review of the newspapers takes place twice or three times a day. In addition
Dr. Dietrich reports to the Führer all the numerous items of confidential
information which day and night pour into the Chancellery of the Reich by
telephone, telegraph and radio, or by courier. Dr. Dietrich is one of the few
people who are permitted to present themselves at all times unannounced in the
private room of the Führer. It may be said in this connection that Hitler is
one of the best-informed persons in the world. It makes not the slightest
difference where he happens to be, he keeps himself without intermission
informed on all the important happenings in the world. When he is travelling by
plane, the Morse apparatus works without intermission, and in his official
train, in addition to a wireless receiver, there is a radio-telegraphic
apparatus.
Hitler’s
working day, similarly to that of other states-men, consists principally in the
receiving of reports, in discussions with the heads of his Chancellery and of
the different ministries, in the reception of visitors, and in working through
documents and files. In addition to this he frequently finds time to devote
himself to his favourite subject of architecture. There is little doubt that
had Hitler not become Chancellor, he would have been an architect of no small
repute. The vast plans which in less than a decade will have completely changed
the face of so many towns in Germany, such as Berlin, Hamburg, Nuremberg and
Munich, originate in their main features with Hitler, and were worked out in
part by his former architect, the late Professor Troost, and in part by his
present adviser, Professor Speer.
As
already stated, it is seldom that Hitler takes his midday meal alone. Generally
some members of his immediate staff sit at table with him, and he also very
frequently invites a few of his oldest adherents whom he came to know during
the war, or in the years immediately following it. Often too, to their great
surprise, some of the youngsters and girls of the Hitler Youth, who come from
all parts of Germany, and stand before the Chancellor’s house, find themselves
invited in to lunch with him, and to tell him about themselves and their
families, and the circumstances in which they live. Although the Führer himself
eats vegetables, salad and fruit only, it is not his wish that those who sit at
table with him should follow him in this respect.
Hitler
generally invites a few well-known German artists and men of science to a short
tea in the afternoon, this enabling him to discuss artistic and scientific
matters with them. The interest which the Führer takes in painting and
sculpture may be said to be as great as that which he takes in music. Among the
subjects which interest him most are history, of which he possesses an unusual
knowledge, the natural sciences, and practical engineering. In technical
matters the Führer is also an expert. The well-known People’s Car, which is to
be manufactured by the million in Germany, and which in spite of its
exceptional qualities is, in the matter of cheapness, in advance of all other
types up till now, was constructed by Professor Porsche under the constant
supervision of the Führer. Designs from Hitler’s own hand decided its form, and
he himself carried out tests with the trial car, before the final form was
decided upon.
In
the evening it is the custom of the Chancellor to work for several hours, often
as late as midnight. Now and again he visits the opera, or more frequently he
sees films in his own cinema in the Chancellor’s palace. He takes a particular
interest in the films, and often has foreign films run off before him, so that
he may compare them with the German films. Afterwards he discusses both the
artistic and the technical side with German film artists.
Before
finally retiring to rest, it is Hitler’s custom to read for a certain time, and
in preference to any others he reads works on history, and on the history of
art, also on military subjects and biographies.
A
little noticed but indeed interesting and typical quality of the Führer’s is
his intense loyalty to all those with whom he has been acquainted for a long
time, and who in former years were in any way amicably disposed towards him, or
afforded him any help. It is a known fact that when in Munich he still stays
with the same people with whom he stayed in 1919. Few persons, however, realise
why when in Munich he frequently takes his meals in a small, inexpensive and
comparatively unknown restaurant in the Schellingstrasse. It is for the reason
that during the period 1926 to 1930, when the headquarters of the Party were
accommodated in the back part of a house in this street, the then Leader of the
Party, Hitler, used to take his meals in this inexpensive hostelry which
adjoined them. Similarly, when travelling by car in Upper Bavaria, the Führer
makes a practice of visiting the same inns and the same acquaintances, which
many years before he used to visit at the very beginning of his struggle.
Not
far from Munich, in the small village of Solln, there lives an old lady eighty
years of age of the name of Hoffmann. She is known everywhere in Munich by the
name of „Hitlermutterl ” (Hitler’s Mother). In her house there hangs a portrait
of the Führer dating from the year 1925, bearing the following dedication: „Meinem
lieben treuen Mütterchen in Verehrung Adolf Hitler ” („To my beloved and
devoted adopted Mother in token of deep respect Adolf Hitler”). This distinguished
old lady has ever since the year 1920 been one of the most devoted adherents of
Hitler. She visited him every month during his arrest in the fortress of
Landsberg, and remained loyal to him for years on end. Today she is still
working in the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organisation. In spite of
the heavy burden of the responsibilities of State, Hitler never misses
journeying every year by car to the small village of Solln to pay a visit to „his
beloved and devoted adoptive Mother ” on her birthday.
Intimate
and heartfelt as are the relations of Hitler to his old acquaintances and
friends, equally profound is the confidence which all sections of the
population, each after their kind, feel towards the Führer. On an average three
thousand letters reach the Chancellor’s office every day, each of them
addressed to Adolf Hitler personally; in these people from all parts of the
country make requests, and lay propositions before him. A special bureau deals
with these letters alone, and it has been ascertained that the great majority
of the requests received are in point of fact justified. In such cases help is
always given, either by the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organisation,
or by some other organisation of the Party, or by the Reich’s Chancellor
himself. The Führer frequently causes such letters to be laid before him, with
a view to keeping in constant touch with the anxieties of the people, and in
order to be able himself to lend a helping hand.
During
the weeks preceding Christmas the stream of letters grows to the dimensions of
a flood. Tens of thousands of children write to „Uncle Hitler,” to tell him
about their Christmas wishes. With a few words, and in childish handwriting,
the different toys and other matters are mentioned upon which the hearts of his
small correspondents are set. They believe that „Uncle Hitler ” must surely be
on good terms with Santa Claus, and in this they are right. The National
Socialist People’s Welfare Organisation make it their business to see that the
wishes of the children are fulfilled, and among the hundreds of thousands of
Christmas packets which are distributed every year by this organisation, many
thousands are destined for those children who, full of confidence, have written
to „Uncle Hitler.”
In
a village in the neighbourhood of the Obersalzberg there lives a boy who
suffers from paralysis. He too once wrote to Adolf Hitler, and asked for a
wireless set as a Christmas present. The letter found its way into the Führer’s
hands, and to the great surprise and joy of the poor youngster, the Führer
insisted on making him a personal present of the much-desired set. Hundreds of
examples of the kind might be quoted.
But
it does not always so happen that Hitler is the giver. Often it is the other way
about. Some time ago, for example, when as the result of a chill Hitler was
suffering from a cough, and from hoarseness of the throat, he received written
advice, and numberless letters and prescriptions from all classes of the community.
He was sent all kinds of medicinal teas, and a large quantity of jars of honey
from all parts of Germany found their way to the Chancellor’s house. Every year
on his birthday Hitler receives more presents than it has ever been the lot of
a statesman to receive from his fellow-countrymen. Every year, on April 20th,
entire post office vans drive up to the Chancellor’s residence, and whole rooms
gradually fill with presents of every description. The great majority come from
humble homes, and also from children, and many of the presents represent months
of patient work. It is with the greatest happiness that the Führer examines all
the presents that are sent him, for he cannot but look upon them as evidence of
the devotion which the millions in Germany feel towards him, who have placed
their whole future in his hands.
From
the few examples cited above, it will be readily recognised that the relations
between the Führer and the German people, from a human standpoint also, are
both close and intimate. And as Hitler, since taking over the Chancellorship,
can hardly be said to have altered in any of his essential human qualities and
principles, and in his manner of regarding himself, like Frederick the Great,
as „the first servant of the State,” and no more so do the German people look
up to the Führer not as a dictator, or a ruler, but as the leading working man
of the nation.
Undoubtedly
the year 1938 was by far the most dramatic since Hitler’s accession to power.
At the same time it possibly entailed the greatest consequences not only for
Germany but for the whole of Europe. In March, 1938, Austria ceased to be an
independent State, and in October the same year Czechoslovakia lost those of
her frontier regions which were almost exclusively inhabited by Germans.
These
two countries, Austria and Czechoslovakia, were created at Versailles, and,
according to the calculations of the authoritative statesmen there, should have
been of permanent duration, had conditions generally and the balance of power
in Europe remained what they were in 1918, but it was forgotten that history
does not stand still. It would have been considered impossible, at that time,
that the face of Germany would radically change within the century, and that
she could again attain to any great degree of political or military importance.
Not
one of the statesmen gathered at Versailles had ever heard of Adolf Hitler. Had
he done so he would certainly have smiled ironically at the man’s
insignificance, and at the fantastic plans he formulated in the Bierhalle of
Munich.
And
yet it was this very Hitler beginning his struggle entirely without means,
without power and without help, who in fourteen years had united behind him a
people of sixty-eight millions; who as the creator and leader of a new Germany,
twenty years after Versailles, showed that the Treaty signed there was nothing
practically but a scrap of paper.
For
treaties can only be lasting when at the beginning they take into consideration
alterations in the situation, or when–in such a case–they are revised. If this
is not done, they will simply be passed over and extinguished by historical
development.
The
rise of the National Socialist movement in Munich in the year 1920 opened up
the question of the Anschluss of Austria and of the Sudeten German territories,
and therewith the creation of a Greater Germany.
The
first paragraph of the Programme of the National Socialist German Workers’
Party runs as follows :
“We
demand the fusion of all Germans into a Greater Germany on the ground of the
people’s right of self- determination.” As Adolf Hitler announced this programme
on the 24th of February, 1920, in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich to an enthusiastic
audience of 2000 people, among his hearers were some from Austria and Sudetenland,
delegates from the Nazi Parties of those districts populated by Germans.
The
development of the Austrian and Sudeten German Nazi Parties from 1919 to 1933
draws many a parallel with the rise of the Hitler Movement in Germany. When,
however, Hitler became Reich’s Chancellor in January, 1933, the struggle for
union with the Reich carried on by those parties in Austria and Sudetenland
entered upon its dramatic last phase. The Führer’s
first care, however, was to make Germany strong again, politically, and from a
military and economic point of view, for the reason that he knew only a strong
nation at home could guarantee to the Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia the
realisation of the right to self-determination.
It
would exceed the purpose of the present book to describe here the long
embittered struggle waged by the people in Austria–who for the most part were
National Socialists–against the Government and its forces. It cost innumerable
lives. Thousands of National Socialists were imprisoned for years together: still
more fled to Germany. Distress and misery waxed ever greater and greater.
Schuschnigg’s Dictatorship had long looked for support from abroad, until at
length Germany became sufficiently powerful, and the Berlin-Rome Axis was consolidated.
In March, 1938, Adolf Hitler was once more able to set foot on his native soil,
after a long absence. The question he had so often pondered as a schoolboy in
Linz: „Why don’t we Austrian Germans live together with the others in Germany?
” remained a question no longer, for he himself had answered it for ever.
The
first visit paid by the Führer in his native land was to the graves of his
parents in Leonding near Linz. On the evening of his first day in Austria he
visited his old Master, Professor Pötsch, the man who had grounded him so well
in history, before he started to make history himself.
On
the same evening the present writer (who as a journalist accompanied the
Führer’s entry into Austria and that of the German troops) had occasion to note
a characteristic example of Hitler’s method of rapid thinking. His thought
never tarries with the thing which has immediately been accomplished, but at
once goes forward. On that particular evening, when all the inhabitants of Linz
were out and about, laughing and weeping for joy, when thousands of them
gathered before the Führer’s hotel enthusiastically singing National Socialist
songs, when everyone in the hotel and out of it was talking of nothing but this
marvellous event, this Anschluss–Hitler himself asked for a big map of Linz,
and began then and there to discuss rebuilding with architects and engineers,
to rough out plans for the enlargement of the city. He talked already of a new
bridge over the Danube, a work put in hand a few weeks later; and he was much
interested in new projects for a large river harbour, the building of which was
begun three months afterwards.
On
the same day first orders were already being placed with Austrian industry, and
plans were initiated for the building of a Reich’s motor high road from
Salzburg to Vienna. In order to ameliorate the terrible immediate distress in
the cities and in the country the National Socialistic organisation for the
betterment of the people (Volkswohlfahrt, N.S.V.) now took hold. In the first six
months after the Anschluss the N.S.V. laid out more than seventy million marks
for the benefit of the impoverished population of Austria. This one quotation
alone shows how extensive was the help extended. The sum involved was almost as
much as the first loan made to Austria by the United States after the War, in
order to save a country in utter collapse from final extinction. But the money
spent in Austria by the N.S.V. was no loan; it was a gift. It was spent by the
German people, and distributed in the form of foodstuffs, clothing, etc.
Yet
another reference to figures to show how Austria was assisted economically by
the Anschluss – the number of the unemployed, which had stood at about 600,000
in March, already sank in six months to 100,000. At the same time the marriage
rate quadrupled itself over the preceding year.
In
this way Hitler began the work which was designed, as he said, to transform his
native land into a blossoming garden.
With
the Anschluss of Austria an accomplished fact, the question of the return of
the Sudeten Germans to the Reich became acute. This problem had been a
long-standing one. The Sudeten Germans had repeatedly been striving after unity
with Germany ever since 1848. In the year 1918, after the collapse of the
Habsburg monarchy, the Deputies for the Sudeten area declared (30th October,
1918) the region to be an Austrian Province. But in the Austrian Constitution
of October, 1918, Austria was declared to be a part of the German Reich!
Herewith the Anschluss of Austria and of Sudetenland with the German Reich was
formally completed.
But
this Anschluss concluded in a democratic sense on the people’s own right to
self-determination was not of long duration. The French Foreign Minister,
Pichon, announced as early as in January, 1919, that all means of force would
be put into relentless operation to prevent such a union of Germans. Under
pressure from the Allied Powers the step had to be cancelled. Czechoslovakia
was designed to form a military fortress of great strategical worth, which
widely dominated Germany. And this artificially constructed State could only
hold together if Austria remained dissociated with the Reich.
But
the statesmen at Versailles had not reckoned with the National Socialists, who
increased the more rapidly also in Sudetenland the more the German population
was oppressed by the Czechs. The misery of these people became worse and worse;
although the Czechs were numerically twice as strong as the Germans, 60 per
cent of the latter formed the unemployed. Since the end of the Great War over
20,000 of them had committed suicide. These facts were doubtless responsible
for it that by 1933 the National Socialist Party had become the most powerful
party in Czechoslovakia. After it became more and more certain to those living
abroad in the summer of 1933 that ere long Adolf Hitler would assume the
direction of affairs in Germany, the Czech Government felt that a settlement of
the Sudeten question was drawing nearer. They hoped to resolve it in their own
favour by repressing and exterminating the Germans in Czechoslovakia, before
Nazi Germany should become strong enough to have a say in the matter. The Czech
Government dissolved the National Socialist Party in October, 1933.
At
this moment Konrad Henlein, Director of the German Gymnastic Societies in
Czechoslovakia, appeared on the political stage. In spite of persecution, and
of measures taken against him by the State Authorities, in less than two years
he succeeded in getting together two- thirds of the Germans living in Czechoslovakia
into a Sudeten German party. Whereupon he became the leader of the strongest
party in the country. But in spite of this he was not permitted to take part in
the Government.
Affairs
were rapidly coming to a crisis. The measures taken by the Government against
the Germans became more and more effective. The position of these people
constantly became worse. Here is one example: In the Czech city of Zwickau,
entirely inhabited by Germans, at the end of the year 1936 only 200 men were in
work out of 4,800. One thousand two hundred of the unemployed received no dole
at all; 80 per cent of the children were undernourished and tuberculous. The
misery elsewhere was similar to this.
When
Austria returned to the Reich the crisis in Czechoslovakia came to a head.
Meantime Konrad Henlein had succeeded in bringing all Sudeten Germans into his
party. At the local elections in June, 1938, 95 per cent of the voting was in
his favour. The anxiety of the Czech Government and of the military authorities
increased at the same time. Shootings took place nearly every day. Germans were
shot in the streets.
The
British Government recognised the danger of the situation and despatched Lord
Runciman to look into it, and to act as intermediary. Lord Runciman soon saw
that here no adjustment was possible any longer, that only a swift and complete
liberation of the Germans from Czechoslovakia would avoid the danger of an
inter-national conflict. The brutal treatment of the Sudeten Germans by the
Czech Army, which had been mobilised for months, aggravated the situation.
Then
Adolf Hitler stepped in.
In
his speech to the Party Congress in Nuremberg on the ground of the people’s
right to self-determination he required that the Sudeten Germans should be
permitted to return to the Reich. Otherwise Germany would be obliged to secure
this right for them by force. The British Prime Minister Chamberlain, who was
particularly anxious to avoid armed conflict, thereupon immediately flew to
Berchtesgaden, to have a talk with Adolf Hitler. The Czech Government showed
itself unwilling to under-take negotiations. It armed the Communist groups, and
forbade the Henlein Party.
Severe
fighting took place daily in which the Czechs used artillery and tanks. Every
night there was a constant stream of thousands of Sudeten German refugees
across the German border.
Meantime
talks were going on in London between the British Prime Minister and the French
Minister for Foreign Affairs, the outcome of which was a suggestion to the
Czech Government that the German regions should be severed from Czechoslovakia,
thereby securing a lasting peace in Europe.
The
proposal was accepted after Mussolini had made it quite clear that he took his
stand on the side of Germany.
But
the Czech Government made no move to realise the project. The Sudeten Germans,
who were shot, many of them women and children, already numbered nearly two
hundred. There was a second meeting between Hitler and Chamberlain, this time
at Godesberg. The Führer handed the Prime Minister a Memorandum for the Czech
Government in which considering the impossible state of affairs he demanded the
severance of the Sudeten areas by the 1st of October, 1938.
The
crisis was now coming to a head. All Europe was seized with the feverish
anticipation of war. Germany, England and France had already partially
mobilised. While Hitler was having a fortress wall built in the west, upon
which more than five hundred thousand men were employed, in the east the German
and Czech Armies were confronting each other.
England
and France prepared to march, and Hitler and Mussolini left no doubt about it
that on their side Germany and Italy were ready to fight for the right of
self-determination and the immediate return of the Sudeten Germans in
Czechoslovakia to the Reich.
Meantime
open war had broken out between the German population and the Czech soldiery.
Over 200,000 Sudeten German refugees had abandoned their homes and belongings
and fled to Germany.
The
world was confronted by the most critical moment since August, 1914.
Then
it was the wonderful thing happened.
At
the suggestion of the British Prime Minister, and at Mussolini’s intervention,
the Führer invited the leading statesmen of England, France and Italy to a
final conference at Munich. While the whole world looked to Munich in a state
of intense tension, the four statesmen sat and deliberated at length.
Reason
carried the day.
The
representatives of the four great European Powers came to agreement, after
various points in the original Memorandum had been mitigated and amended.
The
new proposals were accepted by the Czech Government, the German troops began
their entry into the Sudeten German territory on the 1st of October, 1938, and
hereby was confirmed the return of three and a half millions of Germans to the
Reich.
Just
as he had formerly visited Austria, the Führer was present in Sudetenland on
the first day of the liberation of the fortunate people of these regions. But
the writer remarked a great difference in the behaviour of the Austrians and
the Sudetenlanders. Whereas in Austria there was nothing but rejoicing and
laughter, the thousands of people here who lined the roads and waited for hours
for the coming of the Führer were weeping. It was deeply moving to see how even
the hard weather-beaten faces of the peasants were wet with tears. They had
endured such untold misery and oppression, this sudden change of affairs was
too much for them. They could not grasp what had happened before their eyes.
The Führer’s road was thickly strewn with flowers.
The
Sudeten Germans received assistance as expeditiously as Hitler’s
fellow-countrymen in Austria had done. The first thing was to provide the poor
people with food and clothing. As the German troops marched in they already
distributed over 200,000 loaves of bread. Their field kitchens were placed at
the service of the entire population. Hundreds of the trucks of the N.S.V.
entered the impoverished towns and villages at the same time as the soldiers.
In Dresden alone tons of tinned stuff and other foods were assembled, together
with clothing and footgear for 250,000 people. Similar concentrations of
supplies were organised all along the frontier, in order that help might be
immediately forthcoming.
Then
the Führer provided work for the unemployed. Building was begun.
The
swift settlement of the Sudeten German question doubtless caused the
disappearance of one of the most dangerous occasions of war in Central Europe.
The
settlement was a gain for Germany as well as for Czechoslovakia. It meant a
gain, as a matter of fact, for all Europe. No further complications will now
arise as to frontiers between Germany and Czechoslovakia, because now the
frontier is drawn not on artificial and strategical, but on natural and
ethnological lines. Like the other countries of Southern Europe Czechoslovakia
will benefit by a close economical co-operation with Germany and will
peacefully attain to a new prosperity which would never have come to her
through war.
Today the whole world demands „Whither Germany?
“The answer is simple. One can only reply, „Germany follows Hitler.” Who would
predict the course the Fatherland will pursue should study the life of the
Führer, mark its consistency from the beginning up to the present, and only so
venture on prophecy. It is impossible to foretell what line his policy will
take if he is only considered from the angle of politics and diplomacy. Hitler
must be estimated from the human side as well.
Anyone
who has so studied Hitler’s career, especially that period of it in Vienna
which preceded his taking up politics will grant that he has not deviated from
the views he formed as a young man either in respect of them or with regard to
the conduct of life in general.
And,
as has been so often remarked, place and power have not altered the manner of
man he was.
Germany’s
foreign policy is directed towards peace and good understanding. It is a great
mistake when they confuse National Socialism with Imperialism. National
Socialism has no designs upon other lands and other peoples. Germany’s future
lies in its keeping, and, indeed, that of the whole world–in the keeping of the
true Socialism of common life, not in that of class war.
Socialism
as an international aspiration has practically petered out. It reached its
apogee towards the end of the War, and at the moment when it made its bid for
power, its failure began.
The
future belongs to National Socialism since, like Christianity itself, it is
founded on love, and reconciliation between high and low, rich and poor. Herein
lies its special creative and effective power. Marxian Socialism, on the
contrary, flourishes on class clash and hatred. It is anti-Christian and
destructive.
The
world will come to the recognition of all this in time. It may be decades will
be required before the truth of the contention is established beyond cavil.
Later generations will consider the Period of Marxian Socialism as an interlude
out of which purgatory the world emerged into the truer and beneficent conception
of
ADOLF HITLER
