The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1934. THE TERROR IN GERMANY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 156, 4 July 1934, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1934. THE TERROR IN GERMANY

REIGN of terror now exists in Germany. Men in high places are taken away from their homes, tried before a “People’s” Tribunal, and shot with expedition. The mass murders of citizens who have been staunch all their lives to the German nation, strikes the world with horror. This is not the conduct of men who are sure of themselves, nor who are Secure in their power. It is the act of fear-driven individuals who think that they must either destroy or be, destroyed. The challenge to the Nazi State must be very real when it calls forth such bloody deeds. The suddenness with which the news was cabled to New Zealand would make it appear that the development had flared up in a night, but such is not the case. Towards the end of May the friction between the Stahlhelm and the Storm Troopers (detachments of the Nazi Brown Shirts) had reached such a pass that the officials were exploring means to alleviate the antagonisms which had arisen between them. In order to appreciate the nature of this situation it is well to remember the peculiar character of the two organisations which have come into conflict. Count Trauttmansclorff, Adjutant to the leader of the Stahlhelm, writes as follows of his organisation. After explaining the birth of the Stahlhelm among the ranks of the ex-servicemen, he says: “The Stahlhelm was based on the idea of the spirit of the fighting men at the front. It was supported by the belief in the duty of everyone to subordinate his own interests and to work wholeheartedly for, the nation and the country. While, in the years that have elapsed since the revolution in November, 1918, egoism flourished beyond measure, and individualism was glorified in its purest form, the Stahlhelm was animated by the great feeling of comradeship which did not place the individual in the foreground, but, on the contrary, set aside the individual and made it the duty of the man and the soldier to devote himself to his work, and his politics, to the service of others. Another party, or rather another movement, namely that of the National Socialists, which grew up alongside of the Stahlhelm, entered the political arena and succeeded in obtaining the reins of power because it defeated parliamentarism by parliamentarian means. The Stahlhelm was a league which could only appeal to certain very definite groups in Germany, namely, those in which the experience gained at the front was still well remembered and who, turning their backs on the political bargaining of the last few years, regarded it as their task to revive the idea of defence among the nation and endeavoured to oppose the soldierly to the political point of view, as long as the politicians believed that they must do without the valuable forces of the German ex-servicemen.” What is precisely meant by the closing sentence may be conjectured; it would appear to indicate that the soldier wanted to dominate in parliamentary Germany, which position the parliamentarians would not accept. The writer then proceeds:— W hen, on January 30, the leader of the the National Socialist German Labour Party, Adolf Hitler, was entrusted with the Chancellorship and thus with the reins of power, the Stahlhelm wa-s the first to recognise the situation and range itself on the side of the National Socialist movement and, owing to the course of events ... to strive for inclusion in the new State . . . Adolf Hitler, acceded to the request of the Stahlhelm and gave it the position to which it was entitled.” This concession was in contradiction to Hitler’s policy, for from the start, Hitler carried out the structural organisation of his entire movement in accordance with the principles of the. absolute authority of the leader,” writes Karl Bergman. It was but a natural development, therefore, that Hitler’s Storm 1 coopers should come into conflict with the only separate entity within the new Slate, the semi-military Stahlhelm. The Storm Troopers are young men, mostly in the twenties, whereas the ex-servicemen are on the far side of forty years. The compromise which Herr Selte tried to work out with Herr Hitler has failed to materialise, and the friction has increased. The natural development would appear to be that Hitler would stand with the Storm Troops against the Stahlhelm, and that any movement subversive to Hitler would endeavour to use Ihe latter organisation. But it is the Storm Troopers who have become recalcitrant. A month or so ago Storm Troopers were said to be dissatisfied with Hitler’s inability to improve the export trade. Chiefly, however, according to reports which have reached the outside world, the Storm Troopers have clashed with the Stahlhelm. Now it appears that they have clashed with the whole of the Nazi movement. The situation is so scattered that it is quite impossible yet to piece it together. President Hindenburg’s message congratulating Hitler, after having approved of Herr 1 ..pen’s speech, only adds to the confusion of the German scene.