Category — Politics

The old war horse Paul von Hindenburg has said he will run again for president. Elections are not far off – March 13, 1932, and one has to wonder what the Hitlerites will do. Hitler himself is talking as if he has already won the presidency, but he isn’t even a German citizen! He has no country. His native countrymen, the Austrians, wiped their hands of him almost 15 years ago when he joined the Bavarian army. They don’t want that rabble-rouser back any more than we want him running our country!

A Nazi informant says of Hitler, “The Fuehrer  has his plans all finished. He speaks, acts and feels as if we were already in power.”

What are the Nazis cooking up that will make Herr Hitler a citizen? Another source indicates there are plans afoot in Brunswick to appoint Hitler to a position that will grant him automatic citizenship. If so, we shall see if the public likes such crafty political moves when they vote next month.

My father the retired general and I had a rather long discussion today, sometimes heated, about the Japanese situation.

He has long admired Japan and its ruling class. He has written a book and lectured on the topic.  He religiously compares Germany’s destiny in Europe to that of Japan’s undisguised determination in Asia.

The dissenting  point I made in our argument was that Japan’s long standing ambitions in Manchuria and other parts of China and Korea will inevitably bring it into conflict with the United States and possibly Britain. I also pointed out that if Germany continues to likewise cast its eye on the vast grain fields and oil fields to the East, as my father suggests it should, our Fatherland will run afoul of  Britain, France and the United States, not to mention Russia.

In this kind of war-gaming we frequently engage in ( I’m no military man, I’m an academic! )  I hold strongly to my conviction that Germany can never win a two front war. My father is not convinced. Even when I remind him that when the Bolsheviks sued for peace in the Great War and we were able to completely focus our military resources on the Western Front, we still could not win. Then I hear the usual shit from the general that the Great War was lost at home by traitors, not at the front. I never fail to point out that the German army lost the war when they failed to take Paris in the first few months of the conflict and the coup de grace occurred when a million fresh troops from the U.S. joined the fray in 1917.

Countering, my father argues  that he has no esteem for the United States. He feels it is too far away, is now isolationist and has no interest in European politics or war. I cautioned my father that Germany is currently in no condition to go to war over anything, much less lebensraum. The French have a sword hanging over our head with 200 divisions on the border and Russia is too vast to conquer, as Napoleon found out.

We both did agree that Britain is too war weary to care a whit about any German plans to expand in the East. They lost the flower of their aristocracy in the Great War and have no stomach to once again police German actions.

We have no standing army, navy or decent political leader, so my father the general’s geoploitical ambition for Germany to turn Eastward is nothing but poppycock. Talking about geopolitics does serve to get us through two excellent cigars.

Father warned  me to watch this Hitler fellow. Hitler could make things happen for Germany, he said. After all, ten years ago my dear  father the general had tutored Hitler’s closest friend, our good Rudolph Hess, about Germany’s destiny to rule central and eastern Europe. Hess had not been the brightest student, father has rued many times, but herr  Hess makes up for lack of intellect with ambition, drive, and now, the ear of Adolph Hitler. I tell my father I am watching Hitler and his minions and am particularly sensitive to their antisemitism. He glanced at my mother and nodded knowingly.

“If that son of a bitch can put Germany back on the map. I’ll be a happy man. But watch his cronies. I agree many of his advisors are dangerous to people like us.”

“What do you mean, ‘ people like us’, ” I asked.

“People who think for themselves.”

We closed our talk with some schnapps and agreed to discuss Japan again the next time I came south to visit. My brother Hans arrived in the evening and we had a late supper. Hans mentioned that the communists and Nazis are fighting violently in the streets of Munich. This is nothing new.  I return to Berlin in the morning.

I have a source that tells me Hitler commented that the Reichstag  building is ugly and hideous. More remarkable, Hitler claims it looks like a Jewish synagogue and should be burnt to the ground.  Only then, he said, will Germany be free from “foreign influence.”

Hitler made it clear in Mein Kampf that he despises all parliaments dating back to his days in Vienna. But this statement is beyond the pale. This is a direct attack on the Wiemar Republic and democracy in Germany. While I am no fan of the Republic, I do not advocate arson and the destruction of democratic institutions.

I cannot release Hitler’s damnable opinion to the newspapers because it was said in confidence to a very small group of individuals at the Albon Hotel and my source would be exposed

January 1932, Berlin

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Not wanting to strengthen Bruening and the the Republic in any way, Hitler has rejected the idea of prolonging Hindenburg’s term, calling the concept utterly “unconstitutional.” What a riot. The irony of Hitler calling anything unconstitutional is sadly laughable.

The Nazi’s are obviously spoiling for an electoral fight. I’m not sure why Hitler wants to run against Hindenburg at this time. The old man seems unbeatable.

Since the 1930′s, the Nazi’s have been winning provincial elections. But to run a country-wide election is something else indeed. Why does Hitler risk ruining his own powerful position and that of his party?  If he does obtain citizenship and runs against Hindenburg, I hope and pray that he gets beaten soundly by the old man. It would be devastating.

I would prefer that Germany install a government similar to England’s whereby King Wilhelm could come back from the low countries to his throne. I can see that scenario happening in the future if Hindenburg continues to rule, but we are lost if Hitler succeeds in his ambitious and ruthless climb to the top. Let us hold the elections, ruin Hitler and  put a stake in the heart of the Nazis!

Sources tell me that Hitler was called from Munich to Berlin to talk with Chancellor Bruening about prolonging Hindenburg’s presidential term. Hindenburg does not want to go through the strain of another election. The old man wants to prolong his own term, but not have to once again fight for it against Hitler and others.

Hitler reportedly said in Munich when he received the summons to Berlin that, “Now I have them in my pocket! They have recognized me as a partner in their negotiations.”

Bruening’s  proposal includes two incentives. If the Nazis agree to Hindenburg’s term extension, Bruening will retire once he settles the problem of repaying reparations and restoring equality for rearming Germany. He also said that on his retirement, he would suggest to Hindenburg that Herr Hitler be made Chancellor.

Hitler has apparently not given an answer yet. He has retired to the Kaiserhof just down the street to confer with his deputies. My sources at the hotel tell me that Hess, Strasser, Goebbels, Goering and Roehm are all in attendance.

We shall see what the morrow brings.

Word from Leipzig has arrived. Hitlerite speakers at the local congress continue to press the idea of the superiority of the “Nordic” race, whatever that is.It is a rather odd thing for the Nazis to propound when their leaders are all rather swarthy themselves! No blond, blue eyed Hitler, Hess, Goebbels or Himmler.

More ominously, the Leipzig Nazis called for the murder of Marxists, the abolition of trade unions and the mandatory sterilization of Jews and other “lesser” races in Germany (read: Slavs and Gypsies). How the Nazis are winning elections with this kind of wretched rhetoric is beyond my comprehension.

I think that they must be appealing to voters who want radical change because the Republic is perceived as corrupt and run by special interests. Other, less than desirable issues, such as sterilization and murder, are not in the forefront of the voter’s mind, though they obviously should be of concern to any civilized nation.  The political system in Germany appears to be broken to most Germans and Hitler and his brownshirts obviously have vigorous plans to attract non-Marxists, non-Catholics and hyper-nationalists, all of whom together constitute a majority of the populace.  Talk of oppressing minorities seems not to bother the average voter one pfennig.

Playing to the anti-Semitic feelings of many German Christians is to be expected. My question is, what constitutes a Jew in the Nazi mind? Full-blooded Jew? Half Jew? I am one-quarter Jew on my mother’s side. Am I to be sterilized if Hitler comes to power? Could it come to that? I would seriously consider leaving the county, perhaps for England or America ( I can’t abide the French ).

Later this year marks ten years of intimidation by the Sturmabteilung (SA) of the Hitler’s National Socialists. These thugs distinguished themselves on Nov. 4, 1921 when during a speech by Hitler at the Munich Hofbräuhaus they supposedly thrashed larger numbers of the Marxist Left who were interrupting the meeting. Eyewitnesses claim it was the Munich police who restored order and pushed out the Reds. Hitler writes of the scene differently in Mein Kampf and to this day this ‘Saalschlacht’ (meeting hall battle) retains legenary status with Hitler and his henchmen.

Sources tell me that Otto Meissner, von Hindenburg’s personal secretary, has paid a special visit to Adolph Hitler just down the street at Hitler’s apartment in the Kaiserhof hotel. This is an unusual event and shows the growing power of Herr Hitler. Until now,  it has been Hitler who, when required, has saddled up to visit von Hindenburg and aides. Today the mountain has come to Mohammed.

Kaiserhof Hotel

Von Hindenburg’s presidential term is over this spring. The old man  is hoping that Hitler and Rosenburg will accept the idea of extending his term without an election. This is not likely to happen. Hitler wants an election. I am sure he thinks he can win this time around. 

Von Hindenburg  has indicated he will run again only if he is unopposed. Hitler apparently has invoked the Constitution and demands that the election take place. No extension to von Hindenburg’s current term is likely. It appears we will be having another national election soon. It will be another opportunity for the Nazis to legitimately take power. I hope the German people will see the National Socialists and Hitler  for who they are: thugs. There are reports from Danzig of continuing street fighting between Nazis and the Left. Some deaths are reported.