Chapter 69 Chapter Eleven "Stumble" (4)

A revolution is underway.But because of the apparent lack of bloodshed, many Germans don't understand—or don't want to—that the early days of this "Brown Revolution" had a very unobtrusive name called "coordination."It seems that the process of unifying the motherland is progressing smoothly without causing much panic.It did nothing more than bring German political, economic and social life under Nazi rule and sow the seeds of a dictatorship.The reason why the resistance was not strong was mainly because Hitler insisted on the law.As a result, the opposition believed that what he wanted to establish was a government similar to the Weimar Republic.On the day the Enabling Act came into force, the Social-Democratic Party sent a set of instructions to the local branches, which showed how obtuse the Social-Democratic Party was.The instruction gave detailed instructions on how to answer various questions and other secular questions, except for how to treat the ongoing Nazi revolution, which contained only one paragraph.At a time when the Nazis are searching the homes of their leaders for weapons at night, when thousands of communists and suspected communists are being thrown into prison, the Social Democrats are supposed to be the bastion of democracy.But they are warning party members not to make mistakes again!

“The whole city is in a terrible contagion, and everyone is cautious about what they say and do,” Isherwood wrote of Berlin that spring. “I feel it in my bones, like the flu.” The whole city “is Whispering, saying that people were illegally arrested there at night, and that the stormtroopers hung and beat prisoners in the barracks, forcing them to spit on the Lenin statue, swallow castor oil, eat old socks, etc. They were shouted by the government in anger Inundated. The government retorts through its thousands of people." Outside the capital, especially in smaller towns, people were dazzled by a series of rallies, processions and spectacle.Mass organizations were voluntarily "collaborated" into the National Socialist organization.Slowly, each citizen finds himself involved with the authorities.The old street that people are familiar with has been replaced with a new name.In Helna, for example, Radausplatz became Adolf Hitlerplatz and Bebelstrasse became Hermann Göringstrasse.Almost every Sunday a new organization pops up: mother country schools, mother and child welfare organizations, children's camp groups, food supply welfare organizations, and so on.

A month after Hitler failed in his efforts to persuade voters to vote for him, he temporarily won the confidence of most Germans by adopting an incremental and collaborative approach.Isherwood saw these friendly citizens eyeing the young stormtroopers approvingly.These young men "strutting through the streets in big leather boots, determined to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles, rejoicing that summer is approaching again, that Hitler promised protection for small traders, and that their newspapers told them of the good times It is coming... They are secretly happy and excited like schoolchildren, because their business counterparts, the Jews, and the Marxists, who are called a minority and have nothing to do with them, are guilty of the failure of the state and inflation, and be punished."

Both Jews and Marxists have been systematically persecuted since the regime change.Since a bread knife was found in the room - arbitrarily said to be a murder weapon - Albert Einstein's bank balance was confiscated.In Germany these were falsely accused of foreign propaganda, while in the United States Secretary of State Hull assured American Jewish leaders that the physical persecution of German Jews was "virtually over."Even so, the cries of liberals abroad annoyed Hitler even more.He declared that unless the Jews in Britain and America ceased their malicious propaganda, the German Jewish business community would suffer.

However, the calls did not stop. On April 1, Hitler resisted with this sentence: "I think that my actions today are in line with God's will: opposing the Jews is fighting for God." This is only a tentative step.Hitler seemed to be testing to see how far his countrymen would take him.On the eve of the boycott, the Italian ambassador Seruti, in the name of Mussolini, persuaded him to soften his attitude towards the Jews.Hitler replied that there were only a handful of Jews in Italy, that the president did not understand the Jewish question, and that he himself had "studied it for many years from all angles, and no one has done it this way."He predicted with "absolute certainty" that in five to six hundred years the name Hitler would be revered in every country "because he wiped out the Jewish people forever from the whole world in one fell swoop."

Brown shirts line the doors of most Jewish shops and offices.There was little violence; and the young stormtroopers were mostly polite when they reminded customers that they were visiting a kosher store. “Groups of passers-by looking on — amused, amused or indifferent.” Isherwood observes a department store.Many people went into that department store.He also walked in, bought a crushed cardamom, waved the package, and walked out the door.A young stormtrooper winked at him in answer to his provocation.Although the boycotters were supported by organizations that called on farmers to support them, they could not boycott the big department stores and the banks.In less than three days, the boycott was over.

Hindenburg himself expressed opposition to continued anti-Semitic measures.He wrote a strongly worded letter to the prime minister condemning discrimination against Jewish war veterans. "If they were worth fighting and bleeding for Germany, they were also worth dying for their Fatherland in their respective posts." The Don, however, was no match for that man.Hitler replied that the Jews, who monopolized 80% of the legal and medical professions, were now drilling into government departments. "One of the reasons why old Prussia was so clean was that only a limited number of Jews were admitted in the public service. The officer corps was almost absolutely pure." This argument could not but convince the old Field Marshal.This, and his vague promise of some consideration to war veterans, enabled him to implement on April 7 a decree dismissing Jews from civil service and restricting their freedom to serve in the legal profession.On the same day, Hitler told the Union of Doctors that he knew personally the difficult situation they were in, especially the young doctors.In this way, he subtly exposes his dual worldview. "Precisely for these young people, it is necessary for us to use strong methods of suppressing alien races to create living space and possibilities for them to practice medicine and employment... This ongoing national purification work may take centuries to complete. Important The important thing is that we want to lay the groundwork for future political development."

A few weeks later, under the "Law Against Overcrowding in German Schools", the number of Jews in the higher schools was reduced.In a conversation with the Bishop of Benin and Catholic dignitary His Excellency Steinmann, Hitler defended the move.He reminded the two pastors that the Church had banned the Jewish diaspora, only allowed them to live together, and did not allow Christians to work with them.He went on to explain that, in his eyes, the Jews "were enemies of the State and the Church, and he wanted to expel more and more Jews, especially from the academic and public professions."He was effectively doing what the Roman Church had been trying to do for centuries.

Many Jews left Germany; others felt that the anti-Semitic program was not aimed at them personally.For centuries, they survived by following the herd.What will the nation that produced Goethe and Beethoven do with them?Also, Hitler's real target was the Jews in the East. The National Socialist Party, despite its apparent victory, was itself disunited and disorganized.When it came to power, its cadre structure was weak, and there were too many "veterans" in key positions.The party is developing rapidly, the number of party members has reached 1.5 million, and there are still 1 million people who have applied to join the party for approval.However, Hitler was not happy to see that the party had become so bloated, so on May 1 he ordered Schholz to stop accepting applications for membership.

It also marked the beginning of his attack on unions.He declared that day "National Labor Day" and celebrated it as a day of solidarity between workers and the government.That night, a large mass rally was held at Tamberhof Airport, attended by tens of thousands of workers and labor leaders.They listened to the head of state speak about the dignity of workers and the need for national unity.All but the lamp illuminating the Führer were extinguished; the audience was terrified and silent.He talked in generalities, but his enthusiasm was so touching that when he concluded, the workers cheered as if he had promised them the world.The workers were singing "Song of the Wessel Forest" before they woke up from the magic of his language.The enthusiasm of the crowd had just disappeared, and fireworks appeared in the sky again. "It was a brave and magnificent show," recalled the French ambassador. "When they left the venue, both Germans and foreign guests were convinced that a wave of reconciliation had swept through the Third Reich."

The next day SA and SS troops, assisted by the police, seized trade union offices across the country.Labor leaders also pledged support for the new government yesterday.Today he was arrested at home; all union files and bank deposits were confiscated, and labor newspapers were blocked.By evening, organized labor unions had been wiped out across Germany.But Hitler assured the workers that their rights would be protected and their lives better off under the leadership of the new German Labor Front.There were no uprisings, no organized protests; by the end of the month, the huge army of labor marched obediently behind the swastika flag.They turned from red to brown before they were out of order. Success did not over-radicalize Hitler.Hitler became cautious, leaving party radicals scratching their heads.This can be seen in the mid-May reply to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's appeal for world peace.Hitler replied that Germany might welcome the president's proposal to involve the United States in European relations as a guarantee of peace.The belligerent demands of his first days in power disappeared. "The German government hopes to reach a peace agreement with all difficult problems of other countries. Germany is well aware that any military operation in Europe, even if it is completely successful, will be sacrificed out of proportion to what may be gained." (*Hitler on The president's decisive New Deal approach was genuinely admired.) "I have sympathy for Mr. Roosevelt," he told a New York Times reporter two months later, "for daring to step beyond the corridors of Congress and the institutions of the state and direct Goals ahead." Hitler went on to say that he himself was the only leader in Europe who dared to express "understanding of President Roosevelt's motives and methods." Only someone who has taken full control of his own party would dare to change direction so radically. "This is the best Hitler speech I've ever heard," Rotzner wrote to his children. "I've often wondered why the Nazis were able to wipe out their opponents in one fell swoop - such as Streismann and Brüning - and yet he dared to make such a consoling speech! Anyway, it's a piece about the dictatorship Interesting fact: when it comes to foreign policy, they are as tame as lambs, such as Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Piłsudski (*Josef Piłsudski, 1867-1935, Polish general and statesman; 1918 -President of Poland in 1922, Prime Minister of Poland from 1926 to 1928 and 1930—annotation). Because they know that there are many troubles in order to consolidate the *? thing, they tried to avoid it. It was clear that Hitler didn't want war." This speech not only comforted the West, but also further proved to Hindenburg that the new chancellor could be trusted.By this time, Hitler had succeeded in currying favor with the old man.To the old man he was courteous and humble; the force and logic of his arguments had blotted out the last trace of the old man's disrespect for him. "In less than three weeks," Hitler recalled, "he was already fatherly to me because we were progressing so quickly." Now that Hindenburg was under his influence, there was nothing in the way of his gradual ascension to full power.By early summer, a series of new decrees had established the Nazi Party's dominance in Germany.Under farm-limited inheritance laws designed to "preserve irresolvable ties of blood and sweat," it was the agricultural organizations that first succumbed.Combined with a "race-based" settlement policy, this laid the groundwork for Hitler's settlement of the eastern region with only Germanic settlements after his conquest.While the government was firmly in control of the land through a peasant political organization led by the National Socialists' regional and state powers (inappropriately called the Reich Nourishing Estate), Hitler himself was committed to subjugating the German economy. Less than a month after the adoption of the Reich Land Trade and Handicrafts Act on May 3, it assumed the role of the "German Chamber of Commerce and Industry".More significantly, the "Adolf Hitler Foundation for German Business" was established on June 1, benefiting both industry and the Nazi Party.Thus, with the control of the market and price policy and organization, German industry has embarked on the road of complete servility to the government. At this point, Hitler was preparing to take the next, perhaps most important step: eliminating his political enemies.The Communist Party had long been eliminated; on June 22, the Social Democratic Party was outlawed on the grounds that it was "hostile to the nation and the state."Social Democrats in parliament were expelled, and many Social Democratic leaders were thrown into newly established concentration camps, along with other heretics.A few days later the Nationalist Party disbanded of its own accord; two weeks later - just as Hitler was saying to the Reich Governors "Now we must wipe out the last remnants of democracy" - the German People's Party disbanded. By this time, Hitler had added 5 Nazi members to the cabinet, so when Hitler proposed to turn Germany into a one-party dictatorship, there were very few opponents.This new proposal disregards not only the Constitution, but the enabling law itself, by stripping Congress of all powers and distorting the Congressional system. "When we discussed this measure in the cabinet, there was almost no opposition," recalls Papen.Hitler announced the vote - unanimously.It became law on July 14, the anniversary of the French Revolution. Like the Soviet Union, Germany became a one-party state where the party was controlled by a single person, and the person who controlled the party was delusional.