In this third ZGram in a series of excerpts taken from "Germany's Hitler" by Heinz A. Heinz, published by Hurst & Blankett, London, 1934, we get a glimpse of the extraordinary energy with which the National Socialist Party went to work "with an iron broom", as it was called, to bring relief to the German people still suffering from having lost a war, having the enemy within its own gates, and being in the midst of a global depression. This chapter is titled "Hitler sets his hand to the plough":
For fifteen years Hitler had directed his Movement; during the whole length of this period had he, in thousand meetings and assemblies, sought to inculcate the masses with his ideas. At length the German people had come to look to him for their resuscitation, for their salvation from the menace of Bolshevism, and they trusted that once in power he could, and would, make good his promises.
When Hitler came to power he did, indeed, proceed at once to carry out the purposes and promises of a programme conceived so many years before. We have seen him working it out, point by point, boiling it down, pinning it down under twenty-five "Headings" in Anton Drexler's little Wohnzimmer (living room) while Frau Drexler (prepared) the frugal supper. We have seen him submitting it point by point to the Munich public in the Hofbräusaal, when hundreds of dissident beer mugs were hurled at his head. We have seen him pacing up and down his narrow room at Landsberg pouring out the whys and wherefores of it all to Rudolf Hess, who rattled as hard as he could go on the typewriter to get the teeming content of this energetic brain into some sort of literary order.
And now, after fifteen years of struggle, he saw himself at long length on the threshold of achievement.
Together with Hitler two other National Socialists were included in the new Cabinet, Herr Wilhelm Frick as Minister of the Interior, and Captain Hermann Goering as Minister without Portfolio, and Commissary for Air.
With the coming of this new Government, and the setting aside of the old duality as between Prussia and the rest of the Reich, was the basis laid for a universal German policy, and for the elimination of all elements inimical to German life.
In his first address to the people the Chancellor called for a sense of national discipline. He asked for four years in which to make good the blunders of the post-war administrators, in which to re-erect the State, in which to cope with the problem of unemployment, in which to redeem German peasantry from its misery and helplessness.
In the night of February 27th-28th, 1933, the Communists set fire to the Reichstag. A few days previously a raid on the catacombs of the Karl Liebknecht House in Berlin had brought to light a great quantity of material which proved beyond cavil that the forces of Bolshevism were girding themselves for a mass offensive in Germany.
The Chancellor replied by draconian measures to ensure the safety of the State.
On the evening before the great elections of March, on the "Day of the Awakened Nation," the Chancellor addressed the entire people by means of the radio. The result of his speech was to renew in every heart in Germany the will to succeed, the passion for freedom, the sense of nationality. Everywhere, bells were pealed, bonfires were ignited on the hills, flags bedecked the streets in every town and village - as Horst Wessel, indeed, had predicted in his song.
The National Socialists brought off a complete and overwhelming victory on March 5th with a return of 17,300,000 votes, and a win of two hundred and eighty eight seats in the Reichstag. Adolf Hitler, who headed the voting list, entered the Parliament House, himself, for the first time. The Government could count on a majority of 52%. These results at the polls inducted the "National Socialist Revolution" - perhaps the most bloodless Revolution known in history. The National Socialists, everywhere, "took over."
In Munich the Minister President Held boasted that were Hitler to send a Reichs Commissary thither, he would have him arrested on the frontier. When, however, on March 9th, the Reichs Commissary, in the person of General Ritter von Epp, duly appeared, the Minister President immediately climbed down and withdrew from the scene of action.
Herr Minister Esser, who took part in these proceedings, told (the author) how exactly all had been arranged beforehand. Everything went by clockwork, according to plan, without the least confusion or miscarriage.
"As a matter of fact," he said, "we had been prepared for a good deal more opposition, Held had been so full of threats and fulminations."
The opening of the Reichstag on March 21st was an act symbolising the unity of the entire German people. Not less historically significant was the handclasp exchanged between the aged and revered General Field Marshall von Hindenburg and the new young Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. The dignity of immemorial tradition extended a welcome to the younger generation straining towards a new and happier future.
At the first session of the new "Reichstag" an "Enabling Bill" was passed whereby Hitler was made absolute Dictator for a period of four years. The purpose of this was to free him from the shackles and delays of parliamentary procedure in bringing his programme into immediate action. We shall see in a subsequent chapter how, and to what first ends, he availed himself of this measure.
Many noteworthy things occurred in quick succession. On March 12th, a day when flags hung at half mast in honour of those fallen in the War, Hitler issued a decree concerning the German Colours. The old black-white-red flag, bound up with German history, was to be retained, but the new Hooked Cross flag was always to be flown at the same time.
Next day the Ministry of Propaganda was created, with Dr. Goebbels at its head.
Another important step towards the general weaving together of all the aspects of government was the appointment everywhere of new Reichsstatthalter, i.e. of Provincial Premiers. These, Hitler suggested, should be nominated by the President. The Chancellor himself is Reichsstatthalter for Prussia in order personally to bind that country and the whole Reich together. The duties of these Provincial Premiers, as they may be called, are numerous and important.
In April came the law which would recapture for those of German birth and extraction the majority of representation in the learned professions and in official life. This law, bearing heavily as it did upon the Jews, makes exception in their case for all those who had fought for Germany in the War, and for those whose fathers and sons had so fallen.
Tomorrow: The country rallies as never before
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Thought for the Day:
"Nothing of importance in life is merely given to man. Everything must be struggled for. Thus the uplifting of a nation does not come lightly, by chance or fate, but must be the outcome of effort." (Adolf Hitler)
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