Evening Post. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1929. LUDENDORFPS CAMPAIGN

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 28 January 1929, Page 8

Evening Post. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1929. LUDENDORFPS CAMPAIGN

An extraordinary contrast is presented by the two men upon whom during the last two years of the WaiGermany's hopes were fixed and who eleven years ago were preparing lo realise them by a knock-out blow. When they were themselves knocked out Hindenburg stood up to the disaster like a man, led his defeated and demoralised armies home without a hitch, and by this fine performance and his subsequent service as President of the German Republic showed himself at least as great in peace as he had been in war. Ludendorff, on the other hand, to whom as Hindenburg's right-hand man there had been a strong tendency to assign the credit of all his victories from Tannenburg onward, appears to have suffered a collapse, both physical and moral, when the crash came. In the hour of defeat he is reported to have fallen in a fit, and after the Armistice he thought Tirpitz's lead a better one to follow than Hindenburg's. Disguised and under an assumed name, Ludendorff escaped from the wrath of his countrymen and the possibility of impeachment by taking refuge in Sweden. It would have been well for his reputation if he had stayed there. The part which he has played in German politics since his return has been that of a bitter and violent reactionary whose propaganda lias only been saved from involving his country. in further disaster by a futility which has made it deeply humiliating to himself. As a politician Ludendorff seems at fast to have taken a hand in all the Royalist plots against the German Republic without putting himself at the head of any of them. But his chance soon came. The misery into which Germany had been plunged by the terrible collapse of the mark and the fury excited by the French occupation of the Rhine gave the gospel of hatred and revenge a rare chance, and Ludendorff made the most of it. It was natural that at such a lime thousands should hear that gospel gladly who were previously reconciled, though not too eagerly, to the policy of peace and goodwill. In saying that Ludendorff made the most of that opportunity, we do not intend to suggest that he was merely exploiting popular feeling for personal ends. He has both sincerity and-courage, and in his wildest schemes appears to be inspired by a genuine love for the Fatherland. Writing of him as a dangerous portent under the title "Ludendorff Redivivus" in the "Fortnightly Review" just after he had been returned to the Reichstag at the General Election of 1924 as the head of the "Freedom" Party of 32 members,. Mr. Leonard Spray was nevertheless emphatic on this

point:— Ludendorfl! is, first of all, ii groat patriot. That is not denied oven by his enemies, though in their view it is his conception, or rather misconception, of patriotism that was the main factor in the downfall of the Gorman Empire. He is an absolute mediaevalist in tho profundity of a faith that is almost mystic. Nothing has shaken his belief in tho mission of. Germany. Nor, despite revolution and turmoil, agony and, confusion, does ho dream that the German people themselves have lost their faith. Germany was invincible; therefore Germany was never beaten. The German Army was "stabbed in the back" by socialists and revolutionaries, and .those socialists and revolutionaries were men of alien birth and blood. To this "explanation" of the collapse Ludendorfl: has devoted tens of thousands of written and spoken words.

Forgetting at the time of the Armistice and afterwards at Versailles that she was invincible, Germany was persuaded by her false friends and bullied by.her enemies into signing that terrible document which it is Ludendorff's ambition to treat as the Kaiser treated the Belgian Treaty, and of course by the same instrument, namely, war. This he solemnly proclaimed during that opera bouffe "Brewery Rebellion" at Munich.

I undertake, said Ludcudoril, the leadership of the Grand National Army, whose task is to hoist tho old Imperial flag and achieve new victories.

Elected to the Reichstag despite the ignominious failure of that harebrained performance, Ludendorff stated his object more explicitly almost immediately afterwards.

I speak in the name of the old army leadership and also as leader of the German People's Movement, whose aim is to arm the whole nation for the future war of revenge.

But since the recovery of the mark and the partial reconciliation with France, LudendorfFs mana has declined; and his party seems to have been annihilated as a Parliamentary force by the great swing' lo the Left at the General Election in May. We are at any rate told that "the extremists of the Right, the Voelkische Party, lost every seat in the Reichstag," and though the name is not that given to LudendorfFs party in the 1924 returns as published in .England, there are certainly no extremer extremists of the Right than they. Mr. Spray's description of the party is as follows:—

The party with which Ludendorff — a child in politics—has associated himself has thirty-two members in the Keichstag. Its subsidiary leaders in the country are composed of varied, discredited, and mostly discreditable elements—political desperadoes, ambitious and disappointed officers of the old Army, adventurers and pliantasista. A crude and cruel anti-Semitism is the principal weapon in its armoury ol fanaticism and political dementia, though that is not so much a weapon

;is an instrument to incite hatred and assassination. Its real strength, however, is dorivjed from the obedience to its tenets of the numerous illegal seraimilitary orgimisations, camouflaged under such titles as the "Bismarck/ "Young Germans," and "Steel Helmets" Leagues, and scores of others.

With the destruction of the Jews, the "tearing up" of the Treaty of Versailles, and the forcible expulsion of the French from German soil the Freedom Parly had three admirable and stirring objectives. Opposition to the Dawes Plan, which was more like practical politics, was, of course, a fourth.

To the dcvil's-worß of Versailles a second devils-work Is to follow —the so-called Experts' Report which signifies our perpetual slavery and - our being robbed of any prospect of achieving freedom.'

Now that Ludendoiff, after a brief spell of quiescence, is "redivivus" again, it is interesting to see that the anti-Semitism which Mr. Spray describes as his chief objective still occupies the first place in the black list, but with several important additions. "Jews, Jesuits, Freemasons, and other infidels" are all to be impartially attacked. But the inclusion of infidels is hard to understand, since Christianity itself has now come under the General's anathema. One of the objects of the "missionary campaign" which he and his wife were to opfeh on Saturday is said to be to induce their fellow-countrymen "to renounce Christianity and return to the worship of their ancient pagan gods." For this interesting enterprise Frau Ludendorff has already blazed the track by a treatise on the pagan theology of Germany. If the result of her advocacy is that more energy will be devoted to the eulogy of Odin and Thor than to the denunciation of France and _ the Dawes Plan, the influence of woman, even in what is meant to be a warlike crusade, will again be on the side of peace. The- campaign spells peace in another way, for when we last heard of Frau Ludendorff a year or two ago she was said to be seeking a separation from her husband on the ground that he was spending too much time on politics. After giving his political mission a religious turn she is now able to fight by his side. This is a double blessing for Ludendorff, for it ensures peace at home and at the same time gives him a fellow-worker in a mission in which he needs all the help he can get.