Gareth Jones
[bas relief by Oleh Lesiuk]
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THE WESTERN MAIL,
Thursday February 9th, 1933
A WELSHMAN LOOKS AT EUROPE (iii)
HITLER IS THERE, BUT WILL HE STAY?
By GARETH JONES
LEIPZIG (Saxony).
My Saxon
host came rushing into my room, slammed the door and shouted: “Hitler is
Chancellor!” Even the Alsatian wolfhound in the corner barked with
excitement. The Saxon
continued: “Hindenburg has appointed Hitler Prime Minister. It’s a
coalition between the National-Socialists and the German Nationalist party.
Papen is Vice-Chancellor. At last Germany has a National Government such
as you have in Britain.” I went out into
the streets to see if anything were happening. All was calm. I
overheard snippets of conversation: “Adolf Hitler is a second Napoleon.” …
“Will there be a General Strike?” … “There’ll be some murders in
Berlin to-night.” … “It’s an attack on the working-classes.” …
“Hitler has gone over to the capitalists.” Then somebody
came up to me, pressed a leaflet into my hand and slipped away. I looked
at the pamphlet and read the letters: “GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST THE FASCIST
TERROR! HITLER IS CHANCELLOR.” “This new
Cabinet of open Fascist Dictatorship is a most brutal declaration of war against
the German working-class. Instead of Schleicher we have against us
bayonets of the Army and the revolvers of the Hitler bandits. It means
limitless terror, the smashing of the last rights of the workers. The
barbaric of régime of Fascism is to be set up over Germany. “COME OUT ON ” TO
THE STREETS? Lay down your tools! Down with Hitler, Papen and
Hugenberg! Long live the General Strike! Long live the struggle for
a Workers and Peasant Republic! The Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Germany.” Newspaper Banned
In the streets all was normal. I went to the station to look for any signs of revolt or of general strike. Nothing happened. I asked for a Communist newspaper. It’s banned to-day,” said the girl. “We’ve just been told that it is illegal to sell it any more.”
“Will there be a
general strike now that Hitler is in power?” I asked a friend.
“Will the Communists and the Socialists lay down tools?”
“No a bit of
it,” replied the German. “The Unions have got no money; and no man
would be fool enough to lose his job these days.” The advent of
Hitler has, therefore, been disappointingly calm. It is true that
thousands upon thousands surged through the Berlin streets to greet the new
Chancellor. It is true that the Hitler newspaper reports: “Storm-leader
Maikowski shot dead by Red murderer! On the march home after the
overwhelming welcome to Chancellor Hitler our comrade, Storm-leader Maikowski,
as he marched singing songs of battle, was laid low by a bullet fired by a band
of Communist murderers. … His death shall not remain unavenged!”
Otherwise, throughout Germany, all was calm. A few Nazi banners were
hanging from windows in the Leipzig streets. On one wall was written a
threat: “Nazi Storm Troops, the Red Trade Union Organisation Warns You!”
But that was all. A New Chapter
Nevertheless,
the advent of Hitler may well open a new chapter in German postwar history.
It makes the class-struggle in Germany more violent than it has been before.
The Nazis have now co-operated with the most capitalistic sections of Germany.
In the Cabinet, led by Hitler, there are Nationalist industrialists and great
landowners. The German workers will be more bitter in their opposition to
the Government than they were to Schleicher. Therefore, many people fear
that Hitler, in spite of his desire to unite all classes and all creeds, will
only succeed in making Germany more divided into master and worker than ever. Hitler will
find this problem of the workers the most difficult he has to deal with.
In his wireless speech he has promised that by his Four-Year Plan no unemployed
man will be left in Germany at the end of four years. Is this not too
great a promise? Will not the disillusion sweep away the present
foundations of Germany? Hitler has gone
so much to the Right, away from Socialism to Nationalism that he is bound to
lose the faith which Radical elements in his party have in him. Hitler’s Great Task
Hitler promises
to overcome Bolshevism in Germany and to crush the followers of Marx. But
it is misery and hunger, and not agitation, that have made 6,000,000 Germans
vote for the Communist Party. If Hitler fails to banish misery and hunger
many more millions will vote for the Communist Party, and the already
nerve-stricken Germany will again be on the verge of civil war. In German
politics, however, nothing can be prophesied. There are to be elections on
March 5th, and what will happen then no one knows. Perhaps there will be a
National Dictatorship. Perhaps … but no one can tell. The personality
of Hitler arouses no confidence in the calm observer. It is hard to
reconcile his shrieking hatred of the Jews with any balanced judgment. It
is hard to think that a telegram he sent congratulating certain Nazis who had
brutally murdered a Communist before the eyes of the murdered man’s family
reveals any spirit of justice. Nor have Hitler’s scornful hints about
the old age of Hindenburg and his reminder to the President that he (Hitler)
could wait, while a man of over 80 years could not, earned the Nazi leader the
respect of certain observers. Hitler’s neurotic behaviour in a December
meeting of Nazis, when he burst into tears and wept without control, was not
that of a Bismark. His Goal Reached
Hitler is
Chancellor. The former Austrian lance-corporal, with his thirteen million
followers, has reached his goal at the very moment when his fortunes seemed to
be turning and when defeat was staring him in the face. He has begun
quietly and legally. The strong whisky of the Nazi speeches has so far, in
practice, been milk-and-water. He has not destroyed the Republic. He
promises merely a Four-Year Plan to give employment. His is a tremendous
task. If he fails to
bring Work and Bread in Germany far more blood will flow in the streets of
Berlin than has ever flowed before. |
Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany. |
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