july 1933 Hitler’s Reich Hamilton Fish Armstrong Volume 11 • Number 4 The contents of Foreign Affairs are copyrighted.©1933 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this material is permitted only with the express written consent of Foreign Affairs. Visit www.foreignaffairs.com/permissions for more information. HITLER'S REICH The First Phase By Hamilton Fish Armstrong A PEOPLE has disappeared. Almost every German whose name as a or the world knew nlaster of government s business in the Republic of the past fourteen years is gone. are waves are There exceptions; but the swiftly cutting the sand one from beneath them, and day by day, by one, these last speci mens over sea. of another age, another folk, topple into the Nazi out So completely has the Republic been wiped that the Nazis find it difficult to believe that it ever existed, at any rate as more a were than bad dream from which they awakened by the sound own own of their shouts of command, their marching feet. To or them it signifies nothing that this that compatriot shouldered more to es than his share of the load in the long uphill struggle means tablish Germany's prestige and of existence in the black or years after the military collapse, that his German nationalism to and patriotic devotion were, according the lights of that day, measure to beyond question. The of his right any sort of present consideration is first of all whether or not he was a Nazi. If he was even now not, he is wiped out, usually though he might wish to swallow his past and accept Adolf Hitler's leadership. Not merely is he wiped out, but the memory of him is wiped out. never was. name It is pretended that he His is not mentioned, even in scorn. If one asks about a answer is ? him, vague given: "Oh yes but is he still alive? Maybe he is abroad. Or is he in a not to nursing home?" This does merely apply Jews and Com or or own munists, fled imprisoned detained "for their protec tion" in barbed-wire concentration camps. It applies to men like Otto Braun, leader of the great Social Democratic Party, peren nial Premier of Prussia, the strong man of whom Germans used to we say: "When Hindenburg dies, have him." Ill and broken, he to escaped to Switzerland the day before the election. It applies the series of Chancellors furnished by the once-powerful Center Party, traditional provider of Chancellors; Dr. Briining alone has a managed to keep few slender lines of communication with the a present, but at sacrifice of reputation among such of his friends as are not The who were talked thorough expedientists.? generals about as von even embryo dictators Seeckt, Groener, the pow Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Foreign Affairs ® www.jstor.org 590 FOREIGN AFFAIRS ? erful von Schleicher are no more heard of or seen. It is said that when General von Schleicher leaves the confines of his at two country place Glienicke of the Sturm Abteilung (generally referred to as the S.A.) attend him. Stresemann is not merely dead, but has been dead as long as the last Pharaoh. The men who ruled Germany in these fourteen years have been swept out out out to away, of sight, of mind, (according the program of Dr. Goebbels, propagandist-in-chief) of history. Hindenburg him a a on self is legend, fable. His picture is the walls of the coffee houses, for he played his r?le for the Nazis; their need for him is finished, and to all intents and purposes he is also. The Stahlhelm, the organization of front-line veterans, credited with having saved the country from anarchy and communism in as a several post-war crises, but feared by the Nazis possible rival to their S.A., has been broken and subjected. Its second a in command, Colonel D?sterberg, few short months ago candi date for President of the Reich, but with Jewish blood in his was out a manner was no veins, turned in which less humiliating wrote a because President Hindenburg him letter of condolence. The other Stahlhelm leader, Herr Seldte, followed with the an nouncement that he had gone over to the Nazis and had put the at rank organization Hitler's orders. The and file, disciplined ex-soldiers, who looked upon the S.A. as a rabble of mercenaries were not and looters, left gasping. They had been ready to shoot no when they had the chance; the chance is theirs longer. The Reichswehr, on which General von Schleicher counted and which as recently as last December could and would have sup a move to ported him in determined establish authority in the name now of the flickering Republic, stands glumly aside. Its are barracks the sole government buildings to fly only the black over white-red flag of the Reich; all the others (except the a President's residence, which has special flag) floats the Nazi swastika. But despite this last symbol of independence, the Reichswehr knows its day for action has slipped by. All that its can leaders do is wait (as the Royal Italian Army has waited without result) to see whether there will ever come a moment of to chaos when they might step in reestablish the state they were a enlisted to serve. It is forlorn hope. one to One by continue fall the last possible citadels of defense against uncontradicted Nazi dictatorship. Federal Germany is gone. The Gleichschaltung law disposes of HITLER'S REICH 591 the prerogatives of the separate States, and Nazi leaders have been named Statthalter, with power from Berlin to dismiss State governments should they not prove fully amenable. Eminent are a Lutheran and Reformist theologians hastily forming new to meet and unified Reichskirche the fear of the Nazis that opposi or tion weakness might develop in the former 28 autonomous to churches in the various States, and simplify their drive against are religious organizations which not two parts blood and iron and one only part milk of human kindness. The Socialist trade unions, as a already dead political power and presumably resigned to the as a abolition of the strike weapon in wage bargaining, were on finally seized outright May 2, the day after the celebration of of National Labor." were the "Festival Their buildings occupied by storm troops, their officers were jailed, and their funds were to new appropriated the Nazi union which is now organizing all labor as an will. to instrument of party They had hoped be al to lowed continue their social insurance and banking activities at for their 3,500,000 members, preserving least their identity after fifty years of activity in German life. The answer was the raid, and the simultaneous Nazi proclamation attacking the as union leaders "Red criminals" and announcing to German labor that "Adolf Hitler is your friend, Adolf Hitler is fighting for your freedom, Adolf Hitler will give you bread!" The smaller Catholic and other trade unions promptly "submitted them selves unconditionally and without reserve," and the agricultural organizations and cooperatives followed suit. Freemasonry has been abolished; the Grand Lodge of Prussia has abjured its now origins, dissolved its ties with other Masonic lodges, and is the "German exclusively Aryan Christian Order of Friendship." The judiciary has been weeded over with minute care, and as a result many judges (beginning with Dr. Tigges, President of the Supreme Court of Prussia) have either resigned or been dis a missed. Henceforth, says circular of the Prussian Ministry of will Justice, judges be tested for their patriotism and social prin be ciples and will put through periods of service inmilitary camps to in In school them "martial sports." Nazi eyes the conception outworn. of abstract justice is The essential justice is that which serves the higher ends of the state. Even the great Nationalist Party, co-partner with the Nazis in the March election which followed the fall of von Schleicher, and supported by all the clans of Junkers, monarchists, landed pro 59* FOREIGN AFFAIRS prietors, former army officers and officials, is left hanging in the air, its toes barely touching the ground, slowly strangling in the noose own on von of its devising. When the night of January 30 to Papen persuaded Hitler join him in making the election, he own thought that he had prepared the way for his conservative to tne was reverse forces swallow up Nazis. But it the which hap pened. Since the elections, the strength of the Nationalist Party has been sapped in every direction. Most strikingly, perhaps, has on this been true in the Junker stronghold of East Prussia, where one excuse or to another (the latest Nazi method is simply say that an unregenerate official has been recreant to his trust, but men without preferring specific charges) the key of the National ist Party organization have been removed from controlling places in the government and banks and agricultural organizations. commerce Throughout the Reich, chambers of and other public organizations in which Nationalist elements were strong are being even "assimilated," while private associations and important are industrial organizations experiencing the novelty of having at announce Nazi commissars appear board meetings, the expulsion of Jewish, "liberal" or otherwise undesirable members, and consti tute new to boards amenable party orders. In answer to this smashing of his strongholds, and in effect to to replying frequent prophecies that he would have resign, Dr.