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GEORI

OR

QERHARD H

GERMANY-HOPE OR PERIL?

by

GERHARD HAGELBERG

THE GERMAN-AMERICAN

New York

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gerhard Hagelberg is associate editor of the progressiveGerman-language monthly, The German-American, andhas also written numerous articles on foreign affairs forother publications.

The material in this pamphlet is based on a series of ar-ticles by him which appeared originally in Jewish Life.

Published by THE GERMAN-AMERICAN, 130 East 16th Street

March, 1952 so09 New York 3, N. Y.

GERMANY-

HOPE OR PERIL?

by Gerhard Hagelberg

ON January 31, 1952, nineteen years and a day after Hit-ler's seizure of power, large police contingents in syn-

chronized pre-dawn raids throughout West Germany ran-sacked the headquarters of the Communist Party and pri-vate offices and homes. of Communist members of parlia-ment. In charge of the operation was Dr. Robert Lehr,interior minister in Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's cabi-net, formerly lord mayor of Duesseldorf under Hider.Under the pretext of looking for proof to aid the govern-ment's case in a proceeding to have the CommunistParty and thirty-seven organizations allegedly "controlled"by it declared "unconstitutional," all documents and cor-respondence, publications and financial statements wereconfiscated. The authorities had to admit a few dayslater that no incriminating material was found. Aden-auer's government instituted court action to outlaw theCommunist Party last November on the principal chargethat the party supported a national plebiscite against re-militarization carried out by the German people.

It began with just such raids on the Communist Partyin 1933. Then they marked the advent of Hitlerism,the culmination of the remilitarization of Germany afterWorld War I, and the start of the road that led to geno-cide and a second world war. Today again they symbolizethe threat of rearmament and the resurgence of nazism.

Last October, after the forced admission by Aden-auer that 134 functionaries in his foreign office are for-

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mer members of the nazi party, the New York Timesreported the bitter prediction of a French official in Ger-many that "soon there won't be any anti-nazis left in thegovernment." Adenauer himself sets the tone for theresurrection of the Hitlerian tradition with warnings againstthe "biological dangers" of the east and appeals to WestGermans to have bigger families "to assure the future ofour people against the onslaught of eastern bolshevik primi-tives" (New York Times, September 23, 1951).

But the re-entry into power of the surviving instigatorsof a war in which 27,000,000 people perished is only onephase of the alarming trend of post-war developments inWest Germany. It is mainly the result of an American for-eign policy, which focusses in Europe on the creation of aremilitarized West Germany as the principal ally of theUnited States.

The establishment of a West German army and the con-stant build-up of foreign troops in West Germany makeGermany the center of the preparations for another war.It is openly acknowledged that the remilitarization of WestGermany is pointed directly towards the Soviet Union andthe East European people's democracies. German reactionis historically marked by an unrivalled lust for aggres-sion. The remilitarization of West Germany offers tothe German imperialists the temptation to seek once more,this time with the help of the United States, the objectivesthey pursued in World War I and II.

The heavy industry of West Germany is being concen-trated in the hands of the same cartelists who preparedWorld War II. Rebuilding of economic war potential,which accompanies the process of remilitarization, presentsto the peoples of Western Europe again the threat of sub-jection of their national economies to German imperialism.

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WEST GERMANS REJECT REARMAMENT

In the face of these dangers it is most significant that re-militarization is meeting with growing resistance in WestGermany itself. Millions of Germans are joining in astruggle for the future of their country against those whowould arm West Germany for another war as an ally ofWashington. This peace movement of the Germanpeople is today an essential part of the struggle of all thecommon people of the world for peace.

Open and organized opposition to rearmament and theadvocacy of peaceful reunification of Germany are notconfined to the Left in West Germany, but are of nationalmagnitude. Among the leaders of this movement are namesfamiliar to most Germans. A comparable situation in theUnited States would have a former president, the leadingProtestant layman, a former secretary of the interior, pro-minent members of Congress and clergy and respectednewspapers taking a stand against the draft and in favor ofEast-West negotiations.

Such a movement began to emerge in West Germanyin the fall of 1950 under the impetus of the decisions ofthe New York and Brussels foreign ministers' conferencesto remilitarize West Germany as part of the Atlantic Pactbloc. Public opinion surveys conducted by institutes andconservative newspapers showed great sentiment againstrearmament and military service. This led prominent WestGerman personages to demand that the government initiatea popular referendum on remilitarization. The first to urgesuch a step were the former interior minister of the Bonngovernment, Dr. Gustav Heinemann, a member of thegovernment party, the Christian Democratic Union and aleading Protestant layman who resigned his cabinet post in

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protest against rearmament, and Pastor Martin Niemoeller,president of the Protestant Church in the state of Hessen.

"Save the Peace" Conference

By the beginning of 1951, a widespread but still largelypassive movement existed whose attitude was expressed bythe popular slogan Ohne uns (count us out). A conferencewith the theme "Save the Peace," attended by I700 WestGerman delegates, met on January 28, 1951, in the Ruhrcity, Essen. Indicative of its composition were some of thefigures elected to a continuations committee: Baron vonSchoenaich, president of the German Peace Society;Wilhelm Elfes, former lord mayor of Munich-Gladbachand member of Adenauer's Christian Democratic Union;Claudia Kuhr, second chairman of the "Neutral Germany"association of Hamburg; Karl Hentschel, former majorgeneral; City Councillor Edith Hoereth-Menge ofMunich; Commander Helmut von Muecke, naval hero ofWorld War I; and racing driver Manfred von Brauchitsch.

The conference issued a manifesto calling upon thegovernment to institute a plebiscite on remilitarization,which stated in part: "We, the representatives of millionsof men and women from all sections of the German peo-ple, workers and farmers, engineers, doct rs and scientists,clergymen of both Christian denominations, writers andartists, soldiers, officers and generals of World War II,have come together at a time of historic crisis for our home-land in order to consider earnestly and without prejudicehow to banish the danger of war. We note that non-Ger-man powers intend to force the German people to partici-pate in the immediate preparation of a third world war.Such a war would start in Germany and would hit our peo-

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ple first of all with its full intensity. Germans would fightagainst Germans. A third world war would be, at the sametime, a German civil war. It would lead to the destructionof our life and the annihilation of our people."

The conference demand for a plebiscite went unansweredby the government. Thus rebuffed, the leading committeemet again on April 14 and called upon the German peoplethemselves to carry out the referendum. The Adenauergovernment reacted with a decree prohibiting the poll incrass violation of the West German federal and stateconstitutions. Nevertheless hundreds of local committeesorganized themselves to poll the population on the ques-tion, "Are you against the remilitarization of Germany andfor a peace treaty with Germany in 1951?" As of Decem-ber 1951, despite severe harassment, 4,200,000 persons hadvoted in West Germany, and 92 per cent of them votedagainst remilitarization. In the German Democratic Repub-lic [East Germany], where the plebiscite was conductedofficially, 12,690,000 out of a total electorate of 12,750,000voted, with 12,153,000 opposing remilitarization.

The substantial accuracy of the West German plebisciteis confirmed by independent polls. The New York Herald-Tribune of September x8, I951, reported that according tothe West German Institute for Market and Opinion Re-search, "the number of Germans opposing rearmament hadincreased from 60 per cent in June 1949 to 75 per cent atpresent."

Labor Resists

The plebiscite is not the only expression of the Germanpeople's desire for peace. From the working class comesigns of a growing gulf between the Schumacher leader-

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ship and the rank and file of the Social Democratic Partyon the question of rearmament. Over iooo functionariesand members of the SPD met in April 1951, in a conferenceagainst remilitarization.

A month earlier, the European Workers ConferenceAgainst the Remilitarization of Germany, at a meeting inBerlin attended by 894 delegates from nineteen countries, in-cluding 378 West Germans, had expressed its belief that"the German working people possess the strength to pre-vent the remilitarization of Germany."

This spirit among the membership has been reflectedlately for the first time by some of the parliamentary repre-sentatives of the SPD. The former Social Democratic in-terior minister of Prussia, Carl Severing, wrote in the FreiePresse of Bielefeld that "the peace of the world dependsnot least on the solution of the German problem. . . . Thefamous 'man in the street' therefore would undoubtedlygive priority to the reunification of Germany through freeelections." It would thereby be possible "to remove one ofthe most dangerous poison fangs from the jaws of war."

Opposition among labor to rearmament is growing at atremendous rate. During the arms debate in the Bonn par-liament in early February, numerous "warning strikes," last-ing from fifteen minutes to twenty-four hours, took placethroughout West Germany. On February io a state con-ference of the West German Trade Union Federation inBavaria, representing 9oo,ooo of the federation's 6,ooo,ooomembers, categorically rejected remilitarization and de-manded that the leadership take "suitable measures to pre-vent a German defense contribution," which was interpretedto mean preparation of a general strike. In an account ofthe meeting the New York Times reported that "ChristianFette, chairman of the federation, was greeted with laughter

8

and jeers when he tried to 'sell' rearmament to the dele-gates." On February 29, a conference of 365 local unionleaders, representing the entire West German Trade UnionFederation, despite an appeal by Fette, denounced the lead-ership for having accepted Adenauer's armament plans andcalled for general elections to let the people decide on re-militarization.

Broad Peace Leadership

Leading figures of the Protestant church, whose mainstrength lies in East Germany, have condemned the rear-mament and division of Germany. The recent visit ofPastor Niemoeller to the Soviet Union evoked world atten-tion. The New York Times of December 28, i95i, reportedfrom Bonn that "although Pastor Niemoeller has neverhad any governmental status in Germany, his projecteddemarche was compared here with the unilateral exchangeof letters between former Vice President Henry Wallaceof the United States and Premier Stalin in May 1948."

Bishop Otto Dibelius, chairman of the Protestant ChurchCouncil of Germany, declared on October 30, 1951, thatthe church found the division of the country "unbearable."The West German Protestant youth organization Jung-maennerbund, representing 84,000 members, has called fora law guaranteeing the right to refuse military service.

Dr. Heinemann and Madame Helene Wessel, chairmanof the Catholic Center Party, announced on November 22,

1951, the establishment of an Emergency Committee toSave European Peace which, according to the New YorkTimes "marked the entrance into German politics of aneutralist anti-rearmament party appealing to both Pro-testants and Roman Catholics." On this occasion Dr.

9

Heinemann declared that "Adenauer, in his present policy,has completely allied himself with the American conceptof creating bases against the Soviet Union everywhere....The remilitarization of West Germany will deepen thedivision of our homeland and intensify the war danger....Contrary to this we desire the reunification of Germanyin a state based on unity and humanity. This can beachieved only through negotiations and never throughwar."

The attitude of some West German industrialists who"want no part of arms manufacture" (New York Times,January 17, 1952) was reflected in a letter to the West Ger-man parliament by former Chancellor Joseph Wirth, pub-lished at the beginning of January during a visit to theGerman Democratic Republic. These are industrialists whodepend on the now prohibited trade with Eastern Europeand who find themselves squeezed out of the WestEuropean cartels. Wirth, who was the Center Party headof the German government that negotiated the Rapallotreaty with the Soviet Union in 1922, wrote: "The fatefulpolitical and economic consequences of the Schuman planthreaten the German people in its peaceful existence,transform the heart of German economy into a foreign warindustry and prevent the development of our peaceful ex-port industry." (New York Herald-Tribune, January 3,1952).

Rounding out this picture of the all-inclusive characterof the West German anti-remilitarization movement isthe work of a variety of groups which generally advocatea position of neutrality for a united Germany. Such are thewell-known Nauheimer Kreis, led by Professor UlrichNoack, the "Association of Military Service Resisters" andthe "Neutral Germany" association. Particularly note-

Io

worthy was a meeting of over 400 former Wehrmachtofficers, including eight generals and two admirals, in Juneir95, which called upon all former soldiers to oppose re-militarization.

Why Germans Don't Want War

This resistance, ranging from an all-pervading skepticismtoward Western intentions and the desire to be neutraland left alone to the conscious opposition of the peace fight-ers, has many causes. It was conceived in the defeat offascism and the experience of Soviet power, of which Ger-mans are still reminded by the sight of their ruined citiesand the black-bordered pictures on their walls. Germanylost about five and a half million dead in World War II;75 to 85 per cent of the losses of her army occurred on theRussian front. The Korean war demonstrates to them theconsequences of a new war . a divided country. Drawingthe parallel between Korea and their own situation, theysee the necessity of preventing a fratricidal war that wouldsee-saw back and forth between the Rhine and the Oder,leaving behind the complete destruction of their homeland.

Although the remilitarization effort is still in its earlystages, the burden of its cost already weighs heavily onthe working people. Their plight is summed up in theNew York Times headline on January 21, 1952, "A Thirdof West Germans on Dole Despite Nation's EconomicGains." More and more German workers realize the con-nection between remilitarization and worsening economicconditions. Many farmers have had their crops destroyedand their lands confiscated for air bases and training areasby the occupation armies. A harbinger of destruction whichevoked widespread indignation last year was the mining

II

of bridges over the Rhine and other rivers, in order todemolish them in case of war. There is also the irritationengendered by the sight of the luxuriously living occupa-tion forces, part of the "occupation fatigue" referred to byUnited States High Commissioner John J. McCloy in hisDecember 1951 report. In the last year West Germans haveseen these foreign troops increase rather than diminish-the army of occupation turning into an invasion.

Growing out of the national needs of the German people,the West German peace movement has successfully with-stood severe repression. It is surmounting the division ofGermany and forging close ties with the people of the Ger-man Democratic Republic. Thirty-five thousand West Ger-man youths attended the 1951 World Youth Festival inBerlin, 200 representatives of West German communitiesparticipated in a conference of municipal officials in Dres-den in November 1951, iooo West German farmers wentto Leipzig in December for a Farmers' Day.

The effectiveness of this movement is acknowledged bythe proponents of remilitarization. "German MisgivingsDelay Agreement with the West," read a headline in theNew York Times of December 23, 1951. The New YorkWorld-Telegram of December 15, reported: "A Germancontribution in men, materials and money has figuredprominently in all of NATO's defense calculations. Butthis contribution is not likely to be forthcoming in the nearfuture."

The Western powers have had to resort to "carrot andclub" methods. West Germany has been told that it "willcease to be an occupied country under Allied authorityonly if it joins the European Army" (New York Times,November 23, 1951). A speech by High CommissionerMcCloy before the legislature of Wuertemberg-Baden on

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December 17, 1951 was described by the New York Timesas a "warning" and the sharpness of his remarks wasascribed to the "deteriorating political situation in WestGermany."

HIS MAJESTY'S LOYAL OPPOSITION

The obvious political crisis in West Germany has raisedthe possibility of a new administration. This focusses at-tention on the main opposition party, the Social DemocraticParty (SPD), and its attitude toward the touchstone ques-tion of rearmament.

Many American liberals, who are dismayed at the neo-fascist tendencies of the government of Chancellor KonradAdenauer, are looking to the Social Democratic Party asthe force which may eventually come to power and con-struct a "democratic" and denazified West Germany. Suchhopes have been encouraged by the fact that recent electionfigures show that the SPD has gained while Adenauer'sChristian Democratic Union has been losing votes.

Past Role of SPD

The favorable view of the SPD seems to be based onthe reputation of the party as a strong opponent to the riseof Hitler in Germany prior to 1933 and the belief that, un-like the present government parties, it was never taintedwith nazism. Thus the SPD is considered to offer an alter-native of a democratic, peaceful future to the threat of aremilitarized and renazified Germany.

To the extent that these expectations are based on memo-ries of the SPD's role during the days of the Weimar

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Republic, they are historically inaccurate. It is a fact thatthe nazi dictatorship could have been prevented even onthe eve of or immediately following Hitler's appointment asReichskanzler on January 30, I933, through united actionon the part of the German working class. This couldonly be achieved by agreement between the Communistparty and the SPD, the two principal parties of the Ger-man working class. However, from 1930 to 1933, althoughthe menace of the National Socialists had become apparent,the leadership of the SPD repeatedly rejected the unitedfront offers of the Communists. Where the SPD controlledthe national or local administration, it carried out measuresof anti-Communist repression. As a matter of fact, a num-ber of middle class democratic representatives at that timeopposed reaction more strongly than the leadership of theSPD, which in 1932, worked with the right as the "lesserevil" to Hitler. While the Communist Party also committederrors in this period, it was primarily the leaders of theSPD, the larger of the two parties, who refused to heal thesplit in the German working class and so prevent Hitler'sseizure of power. The SPD even had the illusion thatit could continue to function under a fascist government.Even after hundreds of SPD functionaries had alreadybeen thrown into concentration camps, its halls occupiedby the nazis and its entire property confiscated, the SPDrepresentatives participated in the Reichstag session ofMay 17, 1933, and endorsed Hitler's foreign policy.

However, is it not likely that in the dozen years betweenHitler's rise to power and his defeat in 1945 the attitude ofthe SPD leadership and its adherents changed, as a resultof their experiences in the struggle against nazism? Thisdid happen for a period. There was a widespread desire in1945 among the membership and many leaders of the

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reconstituted SPD to join with the Communist Party inunited action to build a democratic society in Germany. Itwas recognized that this could be accomplished onlythrough the unity of the working class. A movement didbegin to merge the two parties organizationally throughoutthe four occupation zones and to establish a united partyas the expression of a united working class. The mergerwas consummated in East Germany early in 1946 with thebirth of the Socialist Unity Party. In the Western zones,however, the intervention of the occupation powers andthe virulent anti-communist campaign of Dr. Kurt Schu-macher prevented unification. The position of the SPD lead-ers on remilitarization today becomes quite understandablewhen viewed in the light of the party's history in the pasttwenty years.

SPD On Rearmament

As early as August 23, 1950, Dr. Kurt Schumacher, chair-man of the SPD, declared: "We are ready to bear armsagain, if the Western Allies share the same risks and thesame chances in war against the Soviet Union." From thevery beginning the discussion on German rearmamentproceeded with the knowledge of the SPD leaders. WhenGeneral Eisenhower went to Germany in January 1951,he conferred also with the deputy chairman of the SPD,Erich Ollenhauer. According to the Social DemocraticBerlin paper Telegraf of January 24, 1951, Ollenhauerevaluated this interview as "entirely positive." On March2, 1951, Dr. Schumacher met with the Germany militaryadvisers, Generals Speidel and Heusinger. The Rhein-Neckar Zeitung of Heidelberg revealed on April 21, 1951:

"Moreover, the Blank Office [department of Theodor

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Blank, the de facto defense minister of West Germany-G.H.] appears to cultivate, with the agreement of the Fed-eral Chancellor, constant contact also with the leader ofthe opposition, Dr. Schumacher. It is reported that theGerman generals also pressed for informing Dr. Schu-macher. One sees on the part of the government in Bonnalready a favorable result of this understanding in Dr.Schumacher's restraint in his criticism of the military-technical conversations."

In addition, the American High Commissioner John J.McCloy had what Dr. Schumacher called "repeated con-versations" with him on the Western plans for a Germanarms "contribution."

Schumacher & Co. not merely acquiesced in the pro-gram for German rearmament, but projected their ownset of principles. These are, in Schumacher's own formu-lations:

(I) "Engagement by the Anglo-Saxon powers in Europeand Germany for a defense by land forces that would spareGermany the damage of a scorched earth policy and obviatethe possibility of the withdrawal of forces from Germany"(New York Times, December i, 1951). In other words,"concentration of the armed forces of the Western worldon German soil" and "defense of Germany by worlddemocracy offensively toward the East" (Neuer Vorwaerts,

July 13, 1951). The full implication of this was broughtout in a report of the Nuernberger Nachrichten of October25, 1950, which said that Schumacher demanded "alreadyfor months the establishment of numerous allied divi-sions in Germany so that in case of war the first battlewould be fought on the Elbe and the second on the Vis-tula."

Advocate of Inevitable War

To judge by these statements, Schumacher not onlyaccepts the inevitability of war and does nothing to preventit, but he also advocates the preparation of a surpriseattack against Eastern Europe, for only thus can he hopeto reach the Vistula. After the military experience ofWorld War II this must be characterized as the schemeof a madman.

(2) "Unconditional political, economic and militaryequality" for West Germany (Neuer Vorwaerts, July 13,i95i). This entails, according to the New York Timesreport of Dr. Schumacher's demands at a press conferenceon October ig, 1951, "that the Western allies renouncethe Potsdam Agreement as a guarantee of West Germansovereignty under the contractual agreement now beingnegotiated by the Western powers and the Bonn govern-ment." For, Schumacher asserted, "unless the PotsdamAgreement is repudiated, the West can revive it any timeit chooses and return to the occupation regime." Schu-macher supported this demand by citing the recent ex-change between United States Ambassador to the SovietUnion Alan G. Kirk and Soviet Foreign Minister AndreiY. Vishinsky, which "proved that the United States andthe Soviet Union were having dealings."

In calling for the abrogation of the Potsdam Agreement,Dr. Schumacher plays right into the hands of the Ameri-can government, which has already violated it by spon-soring not only remilitarization of West Germany, butalso renazification. Schumacher is thus demanding therepudiation of the pledges of the Allies to maintain a de-nazified, demilitarized and decartelized Germany. His ref-erence in this context to United States-Soviet conversations

17

again shows that he not only believes war to be inevitable,but opposes any effort to ease the tension.

The lack of principle in Schumacher's opposition tocertain measures of the military and economic rearmamentof West Germany which do not conform to his own pro-gram, has been indicated by a number of observers. BasilDavidson of the London New Statesman and Nation, forexample, characterized the SPD leaders on February 17,1951, as "tacticians," adding, "What Schumacher wants,and more or less says he wants, is no rearmament unlessand until the SPD is in the government." Stewart Alsopin the New York Herald Tribune of October 12, 1951,reported:

"Schumacher haughtily dismisses the Schuman Planand the European army, now the twin pillars of Americanpolicy in Europe, as French trickery. He would permitGerman rearmament only on the impossible condition thatthere were sufficient Anglo-American ground strength tohalt a Soviet attack at the Elbe, and once this condition wasfulfilled, he strongly implies, Germany would rearm onlyin order to march to the Vistula."

Shady Characters in SPD

The nature of the SPD leadership is further indicatedby the fact that it continues to include men in high posi-tions despite unsavory revelations regarding their politicalpast. The Social Democratic Lord Mayor of West Berlin,Ernst Reuter, is a case in point. Reuter is a former Commu-nist who became a bitter and loud adversary of Com-munism. He spent the war years in Turkey, working forthe Turkish government. Although Reuter represents him-

i8

self to have been a political refugee, his passport was re-newed annually by German Ambassador von Papen. It iscommon knowledge that the nazis did not generally soaccommodate political refugees nor would such a personhave dared to enter a German embassy and put himselfin danger of being arrested and shipped back to Germany.

Another example is the Social Democratic vice presidentof the Bonn parliament, Carlo Schmid, who was with theGerman occupation in France during the war. The Frenchnewspaper Ce Soir published a facsimile of a proclamationof the German authorities in Lille announcing the shoot-ing of French miners as hostages. The document wassigned by Carlo Schmid.

Lastly, mention must be made of Herbert Kriedemann,member of the SPD executive. A Communist newspaperin Lower Saxony accused him of having been a Gestapoagent in 1936 and of having denounced to the nazis 60members of the underground socialist front, most of whomwere later executed. Kriedemann lost a libel suit againstthe paper before a British court after the documentaryproof was submitted, including his Gestapo dossier.

Adenauer and Schumacher

What, then, is the distinction between Schumacherand his colleagues and the Adenauer government? Schu-macher is not opposed to West German rearmament pro-vided the United States pays a high enough price forGerman participation and accords West Germany "equal-ity" in the anti-Soviet crusade. He is not opposed to war,provided it is carried on offensively on Polish and Russiansoil. He opposes the Schuman Plan not because it meansthe intensified exploitation of French and German work-

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ers by an international super-cartel, but because it doesnot offer even greater opportunities for aggrandizementto the coal and steel barons of the Ruhr.

Such a line is not new. Another kind of "socialists," theNational Socialists, also rearmed Germany under theslogan of Gleichberechtigung (equality), which is Schu-macher's favorite demand. The difference between Ade-nauer and Schumacher is that the latter represents evenmore actively the interests of West German imperialism,at the same time as he speaks to pull the wool over theeyes of the German people with demands for social gains.The relationship between Adenauer and Schumacher isnot so much of opposition as of rivalry. In the drawn-outconferences between the West and Bonn on the revisionof the occupation, this has worked out as a useful divisionof labor, with Adenauer doing the negotiating and Schu-macher presenting the demands.

While Schumacher's demands for the reinforcement ofWestern troops in Germany and the repudiation of thePotsdam agreement are basically in accordance with UnitedStates policy, his outspokenness appears to be causing someembarrassment. The New York Times correspondent DrewMiddleton characterized the latter demand on October 20,i951, as a "rather irresponsible statement," and Jack Ray-mond warned in the Times on December 23, 1951: "Dr.Schumacher has denounced the European army in shrillnationalist tones that may yet reawaken those untidy ele-ments in Germany that once before sent people like him toconcentration camps."

Historically, this is a new low for Social Democracy. In1914, it was only after the outbreak of war that the SPDwent over to the side of German imperialism. In 1933, itwas only after Hitler's seizure of power that the party en-

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dorsed his foreign policy. Today, however, the SPD leader-ship is openly associated from the very beginning withthe reactionary forces and aids the war preparations.

REBIRTH OF IMPERIALISMThe West German reactionaries owe their existence to a

reviving German imperialism. The Potsdam Agreement, itwill be recalled, was intended to remove Germany's poten-tiality for plunging the world into war. To achieve this, theAllies agreed at Potsdam, that Germany was to be denazi-fled, decartelized and demilitarized. Under United Statescontrol, however, West Germany has been renazified, re-cartelized and is advancing dangerously toward remilitariza-tion. These developments, taken together, mean that WestGermany is reviving as an imperialist power.

Recartelization of West GermanyThe oligarchy of industrial and financial magnates which

before the war was closely connected with British andAmerican interests is being reconstituted. While a numberof leading West German industrialists, like Krupp, wereimprisoned for a short time under pressure of world opin-ion, the "decartelization" program left untouched the foun-dations of the model German system of economic concen-tration exemplified by cartels, syndicates, trusts and othermonopolistic arrangements. It was revealed before the Kil-gore committee that this program helped to modernize andstreamline the structure of certain of these combinations,which had become topheavy through their acquisitions dur-ing 12 years of war and fascism. In fact, a number of Ameri-can military government officials resigned when the realcharacter of the "decartelization" program emerged. JamesMartin, the head of the Decartelization Bureau of American

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Military Government, who resigned his post in July 1947,declared on his arrival in New York:

"I have resigned in protest against the intrigues of thegreat American companies in Germany, in particular theGeneral Electric Company, General Motors and the Stand-ard Oil Company. The American people are led by monop-olistic groups who have their own ideas of how to treatGermany. My efforts were frustrated by the Americangroups interested, who want to establish in the heart ofEurope a Germany controlled by monopolists." (Retrans-lated from the German.)

Thus, for example, the coal mining syndicates were dis-solved, but their staffs were used to establish the GermanCoal Mining Management and its subsidiaries which enjoyeven greater power than their predecessors. Likewise, theVereinigte Stahlwerke (United Steel Works), which for-merly consisted of 14 companies, has been reorganized into12 "work units." The big central German banks wereofficially suspended but their business was taken over by"regional banks," which are nothing but their former pro-vincial branches. In addition to the old monopolistic banks,a new control center has been created with the Kreditanstaltfuer Wiederaufbau (Credit Institution for Reconstruction),which is the distribution agency of all American credits.This bank is headed by Hermann J. Abs, who was in 1937chairman of the board of the Deutsche Bank, a director ofI. G. Farben and dozens of other leading enterprises. TodayAbs is the most powerful figure in German finance.

Coupled with the name of Abs is that of Dr. RobertPferdmenges, reputedly the richest man in Germany, ownerof the Cologne banking house of the same name. Priorto 1938 this banking house was called Sal. Oppenheim &Cie., and Pferdmenges "aryanized" it in the course of Hit-

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ler's persecution of the Jews. Employers' associations corre-sponding to those which functioned during the Hitlerperiod have been reestablished, headed by the FederalAssociation of Industry. Their activities were described bythe Frankfurter Rundschau of March 8, 1951, as follows:"Very serious boycott threats have been made against firmswhiLh will not take part in such illegal price arrangementsand which do not want to subordinate themselves to a busi-ness association."

The rule of the leading families in the Ruhr, Krupp,Thyssen, Kloeckner, Mannesmann, Haniel, Hoesch andStinnes, has survived all war crimes trials and purges, al-though their names and personal power are today con-cealed behind vast monopoly organizations.

Interlocking of Government and Industry

The West German government is today dominated bythe monopolies and their personnel are interlocked withthat of the government organs. The first example here isAdenauer himself. For many years Adenauer was a di-rector of the Deutsche Bank. Adenauer has also a familyconnection with American financial interests as a brother-in-law of the American High Commissioner for West Ger-many, John J. McCloy, formerly counsel for the ChaseNational Bank. Another brother-in-law of McCloy is adirector of the banking house of J. P. Morgan & Co. Asecond example is Dr. Robert Lehr, who until his appoint-ment as minister of the interior was a director of a num-ber of corporations, including the Vereinigte Stahlwerke.Prior to 1933, Lehr was lord mayor of Duesseldorf and atrusted representative of West German heavy industry.There he met Hitler in 1932, under the following illuminat-

23

ing circumstances: "As lord mayor I was a member of theindustrialists' club and accepted the invitation to the eveningmeeting at which Hitler gave his lecture. At the end of thelecture Herr Florian, who later became Gauleiter, arrangedthat I be introduced to Hitler."

A further example is that of Dr. Guenter Henle, son-in-law of the late industrialist Peter Kloeckner and vice-chairman of the board of Kloeckner Werke AG, the parentcompany of the far-flung Kloeckner group. Imprisoned fora short period in 1946 as a war criminal, Henle has been arepresentative of the Christian Democratic Union in theBonn parliament since 1949. He is also chairman of thecommittee for steel questions and a member of the Schu-man plan committee of the Bonn government and of theadvisory council of the Federal German Railway. A WestGerman newspaper wrote that "his opinion largely influ-ences the position of the government in Bonn."

Also a member of the board of Kloeckner Werke AG isthe above-mentioned Dr. Robert Pferdmenges, who is finan-cial advisor to Chancellor Adenauer. Another advisor andWest Germany's representative at foreign economic con-ferences is Hermann J. Abs.

A strong indication of the returning strength of WestGerman big business is its attempt to restore its positionin the colonial areas. The Duesseldorf Handelsblatt of Feb-ruary 22, 1951, was a special issue dealing with Africa inwhich the chairman of the Afrika-Verein Hamburg-Bremenwrote: "It must be our endeavor to participate in everyway, both scientifically and economically in these tasks inAfrica." A number of subsidiaries and branches of WestGerman companies have already been set up in SouthAfrica. About 400 West German technicians have gone toNorth Africa on projects of interest to German business.

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Producing for War

The West German economy is being converted to warproduction and as a consequence consumer industries andEast-West German trade are being strangled. One of themain reasons why the United States government has givenpreferred treatment to West Germany is the strength ofWest Germany's economic war potential. Hearings beforea Senate military affairs subcommittee in 1945 broughtout that at least 75 per cent of German industry was intactor easily restorable at the end of the war. Like the "decartel-ization" program, so also the reparations and dismantlingrequirements of the Potsdam agreement were circumventedby the Western occupation authorities and used only toeliminate undesirable German competition. In fact, theWest German war potential was not only scarcely reducedin the postwar period-it has increased in some branches.

The one-sided development of West German industrythrough the limitation of consumer goods and the expansionof those branches necessary for rearmament is indicatedby the following figures. With 1936 as ioo per cent, theoutput of oil reached 283 per cent in the first five months

of 1951, vehicle construction 192 per cent, engineering i50per cent, electro-technical industry 315 per cent, chlorinei6o per cent and caustic soda 200oo per cent. However, leatherproduction was 24 per cent below prewar, shoe production9 per cent below and the food industry in the first fivemonths of 1951 declined 2 per cent from the 1950 average.

No better example of the restoration of the arms poten-tial can be cited than the Krupp factory itself. According toinformation furnished by the works council of the Kruppplant in Essen in August 1951, the number of employeeshas risen from 3,70oo0, at the time of Krupp's release from

25

jail, to about 14,000.As to direct war production, a compilation made by Ger-

man trade unionists early in 1951 shows that 17 concernsmade anti-aircraft motors and parts, over 30 produced tankparts, and 35 made artillery ammunition. Others put outgun barrels, camouflage nets, canteens, uniforms, bayonets,army gas cans and carbine parts. I. G. Farben was againproducting explosives and rocket propellants. The senti-ments of German big business, which knows how profit-able war is, were expressed by the president of the FederalAssociation of German Industry in October 195, when hedeclared, "As industrialists we support Adenauer's courseioo per cent" and demanded the "integration of Germanindustry in the common European rearmament."

Build-up of Armed Forces

Armed forces are being re-established in West Germanyas well as militaristic organizations with the same aggres-sive aims that have always motivated German imperialism.The existence of a caste of professional officers experiencedin war against the Soviet Union is another reason for thekey role assigned to West Germany by the United States.Despite its disastrous defeat in 1945, the German generalstaff, just as after 1918, has continued under many disguises.

In October 1950, the secret activities of various Germanofficers were brought under an official roof with the namingof Theodor Blank, an official of the Catholic trade unionmovement and representative of the Christian DemocraticUnion in the Bonn parliament, as "de facto defense minis-ter of West Germany."

Discussions on West German remilitarization havetaken place on various levels since January 1951. On Jan-

26

uary. 25, 1951, the Kasseler Zeitung reported that on theoccasion of General Eisenhower's visit to Germany, theGermans "handed the Allied military experts a detailedplan on remilitarization which included exact plans of re-cruitment and organization of the future German units."

In July 1951, it became clear that the divergencies betweenthe plans for West German remilitarization developed si-multaneously in Paris and in Petersberg (a town nearBonn) were to be resolved in favor of the latter, whichoffers greater latitude to the German general staff. TheGermans proposed, with American support, (i) an armyof 250,000 organized in 6 army corps of two divisions each;(2) reconstruction of the German general staff; (3) estab-lishment of a war ministry headed by a civilian; (4) smallnaval forces in the North and Baltic Seas; and (5) an airforce of 40,000 men with 2000 planes, including 600 jets.But this is only the beginning.

The cadres for the planned mass army are being organ-ized in the various police formations, particularly theBereitschaftspolizei (alert squads) and the frontier guard.Die Welt of February 1o, 1951, gave the following figuresfor these units: "The total strength of the police in theFederal Republic will amount to 9o,o00 ordinary police inthe various provinces, a first installment of io,ooo Bereit-schaftspolizei (to be increased to 30,000 in accordance withthe New York decisions) and o0,00oo men in the federalfrontier guard, according to a spokesman of the ministryof the interior."

Since then the Bonn government has requested permis-sion of the Allied High Commission to increase the strengthof the frontier guard to 9o,ooo. The real character of this"police force" has also been exposed. It consists of encampedtroops, which according to a press interview of Interior Min-

27

ister Lehr on February 16, i95i, can be stationed and usednot only in the frontier areas but in emergencies also at anypoint within Germany. The Duesseldorf Mittag of Febru-ary 17, 1951, reported that Lehr had told its correspondentthat the frontier guard would be highly motorized andequipped with carbines, machine guns and automatic pis-tols. More recently, Lehr has demanded armored cars andartillery. During a debate in the Bundestag on October Io,

1951, a prominent Social Democratic member revealed that62 per cent of the frontier guard officers are former Wehr-macht officers and that leading positions are reserved forgeneral staff officers. He further pointed to numerous in-stances of nazi behavior, such as the singing of "The BrownArmies are Marching."

"Legal" and "Concealed" Army Cadres

On October 26, 1951, the West Berlin paper, Der Tages-spiegel, reported the organization of a new gestapo in theshape of the Secret Federal Defense Service which "collab-orates with the secret service of the Western occupationpowers," according to an Associated Press report on Octo-ber 25, 1951. Interior Minister Lehr explained this develop-ment on the ground that "the danger from the left isgreater than that from the right."

Earlier the "war correspondent" of the British-licensedDie Welt complained on September 21, 1951, in his accountof maneuvers held in Germany, "The eighth nation par-ticipating in this war game is hardly mentioned-the 7,500members of the German service organization." The Kas-seler Zeitung of February 23, 1951, placed the total strengthof "industrial police and guard companies," reinforced byunits of the former Vlassov Army (assorted deserters from

28

the Soviet Union who fought on the nazi side during thewar) and displaced persons. At that time this force alreadynumbered 125,000 men.

Equally important as these "legal" cadre formations arethe over 70 militaristic youth and veterans groups whichhave been organized by nazi and Wehrmacht officers as abasis for their renewed activities and to preserve their com-mands in organized form. Among these are: (I) Bunddeutscher Jugend (Federation of German Youth), led byformer officers and Hitler youth leaders, reportedly heavilysubsidized by big business and the American counter in-telligence corps; (2) Erste Legion (First Legion), secretsociety, not unlike the Ku Klux Klan which describes it-self as a "fighting community of German men." UnitedPress reported in January i95i, that it had about ioo,ooomembers, including "prominent politicians"; (3) Bruder-schaft (Brotherhood), founded in i950 as a rallying pointfor nazi officers; (4) Veterans associations of the ArmoredCorps "Grossdeutschland," "Afrikakorps," parachutists,Waffen SS, and catch-all organizations like the Stahlhelmand the Association of German Soldiers, which seek to laythe phychological groundwork for remilitarization. TheNew York Times of September 25, 1951, described them as"a powerful political force whose nationalist strains, oncemuted, now are brazen."

The New German Imperialism

We have thus given the reader some idea of the out-standing earmarks of the rebirth of German imperialism.In evaluating this development it would be, however, agrave error to assign sole or even primary responsibilityto the Germans. The overall characteristic of the new Ger-

29

man imperialism, distinguishing it from the earlier models,is that it does not and cannot play an independent role inworld afairs. The reconstruction of the German monopo-lies and the restoration of their foreign interests, the revivalof the war economy and the establishment of a new armyall have their inception in United States policy, are directedby and can continue only at the pleasure of the UnitedStates. They were constructed as an integral part of UnitedStates policy. Moreover, these measures are being advancedin the face of the open opposition of the German people.

The basis of this United States domination of West Ger-man development is the attachment by the United Statesof the West Germany economy. Through such schemesas the Marshall Plan and Government Appropriations forRelief in Occupied Areas a debt of more than 15 billionmarks has been saddled on West Germany. This indebted-ness, accumulated in six years, is 50 per cent larger than theentire long term debt of the whole of Germany in 1931after the great American post World War I loans hadpoured in. Of a total foreign debt of some 35 billion marksoutstanding today, Bonn owes to the United States between27 and 30 billion marks.

But the relationship of German and American capitalis not confined to one of debtor and creditor. It also takesthe much closer form of partnership. American big busi-ness has a direct share in German enterprises exceeding onebillion marks, invested primarily in key industries.. Thelargest American investments are in the West Germanoil, electric, and motor industries-the very industries whichhave expanded most over their prewar level.

American intervention in all spheres of German life isindicated by the recent virtual bribery of a section of theWest German press. Associated Press reported on August

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2I, 1951, an announcement of the American high commis-sion that it was providing 15 million marks "to assist 'demo-cratic' newspapers in West Germany and West Berlin tofinancial independence." The "altruistic" character of thiscredit was revealed in an article by the American journalistErnest Leiser in the Deutsche Zeitung und Wirtschafts-zeitung of October 13, 1951 , which stated: "The assistantsof the high commissioner have left no doubt that the loanwill be given only to those papers which follow a pro-nounced pro-Western line." The credit is offered after, asLeiser put it, "American press experts have noticed in therecent period the unanimous attempt by the German papersto criticize the Allies; this development has reached aclimax in the last weeks. Newspapers which still maintaina line in favor of the Allies or at least not against them,can be counted on ten fingers. It is these, which theAmerican loan is designed to help in the first place."

Germany-Urgency and Inspiration

The collaboration between the governments of the UnitedStates and West Germany and the preferred status to whichWest Germany has been elevated in American policy showthat the United States has chosen the Bonn governmentas its principal ally in Europe in order to make West Ger-many the main base of its war preparations.

In estimating the dangers that flow from this policy it isimportant to remember that the German imperialism of to-day is substantially weaker than its predecessors. Its tradi-tional path of expansion, expressed in the slogan Drangnach Osten, is barred by the establishment of people's de-mocracies in Eastern Europe and by the might of the Soviet

31

Union. Within Germany itself, it has been confined to thewestern part of the country.

We have demonstrated that the people of West Germanyare in large majority opposed to rearmament and a newwar. While chauvinism and anti-Semitism are still verymuch evident in West Germany, encouraged by the Amer-ican policies of renazification and remilitarization, the WestGerman peace movement much more truly reflects thespirit of the common people. This movement represents thedemocratic rehabilitation of the German people. Its strengthwill grow to defeat the rearmament plot and drive nazismfrom influence and power, as has been done in the GermanDemocratic Republic. The positive contribution of theGerman people to world peace today is the best restitutionfor the crimes they committed against the Jewish andother peoples under Hitlerism.

Thus the situation in Germany should instill in the mindsof peace-loving Americans at once a sense of urgency and ofinspiration. The Lisbon conference of the Atlantic Pactpowers fully reveals the war program of our government.Yet the strength of the peace movement of the Europeanpeoples has extended the opportunities of halting the driveto war. Germany shows the necessity for negotiations anda peaceful settlement with the Soviet Union. An agreementamong the Big Powers can remove the threat of a renazifiedand remilitarized West Germany and provide the basis forthe creation of a united, democratic and independent Ger-many.

32

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