SECRET REPORTS ON NAZI GERMANY
The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort
By FRANZ NEUMANN, HERBERT MARCUSE, OTTO KIRCHHEIMER, Raffaele LaudaniPRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2013 Raffaele Laudani
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-13413-0
Contents
Foreword, by Raymond Geuss.................................................ixAcknowledgments............................................................xvNotes on the Texts.........................................................xviiOn the Authors.............................................................xxiIntroduction...............................................................1PART I THE ANALYSIS OF THE ENEMY..........................................1 Franz Neumann Anti-Semitism: Spearhead of Universal Terror..............272 Herbert Marcuse Possible Political Changes in Nazi Germany in the Near
Future.....................................................................313 Herbert Marcuse Changes in the Reich Government.........................384 Franz Neumann and Paul Sweezy Speer's Appointment as Dictator of the
German Economy.............................................................485 Herbert Marcuse and Felix Gilbert The Significance of Prussian
Militarism for Nazi Imperialism: Potential Tensions in United Nations
Psychological Warfare......................................................616 Herbert Marcuse German Social Stratification............................74PART II PATTERNS OF COLLAPSE..............................................7 Franz Neumann German Morale after Tunisia...............................958 Herbert Marcuse (assisted by Franz Neumann and Hans Meyerhoff) Morale
in Germany.................................................................1009 Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Felix Gilbert Possible Patterns of
German Collapse............................................................10610 Franz Neumann The Social and Political Effects of Air Raids on the
German People: A Preliminary Survey........................................11811 Franz Neumann The Attempt on Hitler's Life and Its Consequences........133PART III POLITICAL OPPOSITION.............................................12 Franz Neumann The Free Germany Manifesto and the German People.........14913 Herbert Marcuse The German Communist Party.............................16714 Herbert Marcuse The Social Democratic Party of Germany.................199PART IV DENAZIFICATION AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT............................15 Otto Kirchheimer The Abrogation of Nazi Laws in the Early Period of
MG.........................................................................22916 Herbert Marcuse Dissolution of the Nazi Party and Its Affiliated
Organizations..............................................................25317 Franz Neumann German Cartels and Cartel-Like Organizations.............26418 Herbert Marcuse Policy toward Revival of Old Parties and Establishment
of New Parties in Germany..................................................28519 Otto Kirchheimer General Principles of Administration and Civil
Service in Germany.........................................................30120 Otto Kirchheimer Administration of German Criminal Justice under
Military Government........................................................31821 Franz Neumann The Problem of Inflation in Germany......................345PART V A NEW GERMANY IN A NEW EUROPE......................................22 Franz Neumann and Paul Sweezy The Adaptation of Centralized European
Controls of Raw Materials, Industry, and Transport.........................39723 Franz Neumann The Revival of German Political and Constitutional Life
under Military Government..................................................41224 Franz Neumann The Treatment of Germany.................................436PART VI TOWARD NUREMBERG..................................................25 Otto Kirchheimer and John Herz The "Statement on Atrocities" of the
Moscow Tripartite Conference...............................................45126 Franz Neumann Problems Concerning the Treatment of War Criminals.......45727 Otto Kirchheimer and John Herz Leadership Principle and Criminal
Responsibility.............................................................46428 Herbert Marcuse Nazi Plans for Dominating Germany and Europe: The Nazi
Master Plan................................................................47529 Otto Kirchheimer Nazi Plans for Dominating Germany and Europe:
Domestic Crimes............................................................522PART VII A NEW ENEMY......................................................30 Herbert Marcuse Status and Prospects of German Trade-Unions and Works
Councils...................................................................55731 Herbert Marcuse The Potentials of World Communism......................591Notes......................................................................611Index......................................................................659
CHAPTER 1
Franz Neumann
ANTI-SEMITISM:SPEARHEAD OF UNIVERSAL TERROR
(May 18, 1943)
Editor's note: R&A 1113.9. This text was published in theinternal newsletter of the OSS's Research and AnalysisBranch (Psychological Warfare Weekly Roundup no. 9, May18–May 24, 1943, section II). Neumann's authorship is explicitlyindicated on page 17.
Classification: Secret
In one of the recent issues of Das Reich, Dr. Goebbels pledges the exterminationof the Jews in the East. The Voelkischer Beobachter in a recentissue equally threatens the complete extermination of the Jews in Poland.The New York Herald Tribune of May 15, l943, reports the complete liquidationof the Warsaw ghetto, and a large number of reports indicate thatthe threats are being realized.
1. This most recent stage in the long process of the extermination of theJews makes it mandatory to re-examine the function of anti-Semitismwithin the framework of the Nazi system. Anti-Semitism has been, fromthe very foundation of the Nazi Party, the most constant single ideologyof the Nazi Party. No other element has so constantly figured in theforefront of Nazi ideologies and Nazi activities. We may, indeed, say thatanti-Semitism is the sole ideology that can possibly cement the NaziParty, and it is this unique function of anti-Semitism that gives it itspeculiar character.
The understanding of anti-Semitism is impaired by the widely acceptedscapegoat theory according to which the Jews are used as scapegoatsfor all evils of society. The slaughter or the expulsion of the scapegoat,however, marks in mythology the end of a process, while thepersecution of the Jews, as practiced by National Socialists, is only theprologue of more horrible things to come. The expropriation of the Jews,for instance, is followed by that of the Poles, Czechs, Dutchmen, Frenchmen,anti-Nazi Germans, and middle classes. Not only Jews are put inconcentration camps but pacifists, conservatives, Socialists, Catholics,Protestants, Free Thinkers, and members of the occupied peoples. Notonly Jews fall under the executioner's ax but countless others of manyraces, nationalities, beliefs, and religions. Anti-Semitism is thus the spearheadof terror. The Jews are used as guinea pigs in testing a method ofrepression. It is, however, only the Jews who can possibly play this role.National Socialism, which has allegedly abolished the class struggle,needs an enemy who, by his very existence, can integrate the antagonisticgroups within this society. This foe must not be too weak. If he were tooweak, one could not justify in the eyes of the peoples to make him thesupreme foe. He must clearly not be too strong because otherwise theNazis would become involved in a serious struggle with a powerfulenemy. It is for this reason that the Catholic Church has not been raisedto the rank of the supreme foe. It is the Jews who admirably fill the rolebeing neither too strong nor too weak.
It follows that in this anti-Semitic ideology and practice the exterminationof the Jews is only the means to the attainment of the ultimateobjective, namely, the destruction of free institutions, beliefs, and groups.We may call this theory of anti-Semitism the spearhead theory ofanti-Semitism.
2. While anti-Semitism has thus been a constant and consistent policyof National Socialism, its manifestations have changed considerablyfrom 1933 to 1943. It is these changes in anti-Semitic policies which allowus to gain an insight not so much in the fate of the Jews but rather in thestructure of the Nazi system.
The first manifestation of an all-out anti-Semitism was April 1, 1933,the day of the anti-Jewish boycott. This period of anti-Semitism may becalled the SA anti-Semitism. At that time it was the lower middle classes,the scum of the proletariat, and many professionals—lawyers anddoctors—who either actively participated in, or at least rejoiced at, thisoutburst of anti-Semitic activity. It is known that the boycott was prematurelybroken off at the insistence of Schacht2 and of the Anglo-Americanpowers, and that the economic disadvantages resulting fromthis anti-Semitism far outweighed the advantages accruing from thesatisfaction of base instincts. It is thus the regard for public opinion andthe hope for economic collaboration with England and America whichprevented the outbreak of a full-fledged Jewish persecution in 1933. TheNazis had tested foreign opinion, found it unfavorable, and abandonedtheir attempt.
3. The succeeding period up to November 1938 is one of a cold, calculated,legalized persecution of the Jews in Germany, a step by step enactmentof anti-Jewish legislation. The situation changed in November 1938when, under the impact of the assassination of vom Rath, a pogrom wasstaged and the complete exclusion of the Jews from German economicand social life was carried out. To understand the anti-Jewish activitiesduring this period, it will be necessary to find out whether or not thepogrom was a spontaneous popular reaction or a skillfully organizedand manipulated manoeuvre. Each and every correspondent who hadoccasion to observe the pogrom agrees that there was no spontaneity inthe anti-Semitic manifestations. Every single report that has since comeout of Germany affirms the view that spontaneous anti-Semitism is unknownin Germany today and that anti-Semitic manifestations are manipulatedfrom above.
There is a second factor which supports this thesis. The anti-Semiticlegislation of November and December 1938 which excluded the Jewsfrom economic life was carefully prepared in advance. A decree of April26, 1938, had already compelled the Jews to "register and evaluate theirtotal domestic and foreign properties" and an executive decree of thesame date forbade them to acquire any industrial, agrarian, or forestryenterprise.
The fact that as early as the spring of 1938 registration of Jewish propertywas ordered makes it clear that the decrees of November and December1938 were planned long in advance and that the death of vomRath merely served as a pretext for unleashing the concentrated fury ofthe regime.
4. There still remains the question why the period between the spring of1938 and December 1938 was chosen for the enactment of the radicalanti-Jewish legislation. Two factors explain the selection of that period.On February 4, 1938, Hitler assumed the supreme army command. OnMarch 13, 1938, Austria was united with Germany. On May 20, 1938, theconstruction of the Western Wall was started. On September 12, 1938,at the Party conference at Nuremberg Hitler initiated the destruction ofCzechoslovakia. The year 1938 is thus the year in which for the first timethe power of resistance of the democracies against Nazi Germany wasput to the most severe test. It is in this connection that the radical anti-Semiticlegislation must be understood.
But there is a second consideration. Early in 1939 the two decrees forthe combing out of handicraft and retail were enacted and the governmentthus, for the first time officially, proclaimed the exclusion of considerablesectors of the middle classes from an independent economicexistence. The economic exclusion of the Jews had thus been merely aprologue of the blow directed against the independent middle class.
5. The physical extermination of the Jews in the spring of 1943 takesplace in similar circumstances. The Labor Mobilization Act of January27, 1943, has again deprived hundreds of thousands of middle class menof their independence. The political situation is as difficult as it can possiblybe imagined. The antagonisms within German society are onlyconcealed by an all comprehensive terrorist machine. The denunciationof bolshevism, socialism, democracy, liberalism, capitalism as Jewish,together with the planned extermination of the Jews, has the followingfunctions:
1. Dr. Werner Best has, in 1942, clearly defined the function ofanti-Semitism for consumption abroad. A country, he said,that surrenders to anti-Semitism has thereby already surrenderedits liberal tradition. It has thus abandoned its bulwarkagainst totalitarianism and is on its way of becoming a totalitariansociety.
2. D omestically, anti-Semitism is still the testing ground for universalterrorist methods directed against all those groups andinstitutions that are not fully subservient to the Nazi system.
3. Persecution of the Jews, which is practiced at the order of theNazis by ever larger strata of the German people, involvesthese strata in a collective guilt. The compulsion to commit sovast a crime as the physical extermination of the Eastern Jewsmakes the German army, the civil service and large masses perpetratorsand accessories in the crime and makes it thereforeimpossible for them to leave the Nazi boat. It is, I believe, safeto assume that the new wave of anti-Semitism is also intendedto make separate peace negotiations by non-Nazi members ofthe ruling class impossible. The Nazis want them, each andevery one of them, to be stained by the crime that is now beingcommitted.
Use: The above remarks must prevent us from making anti - anti-propaganda.It would be futile to refute the anti-Semitic propaganda ofthe Nazis since this propaganda is probably not believed. It would bedangerous to praise the Jews for their contributions to civilization or fortheir patriotic attitude or for their anti-Nazi activities.
Anti-Semitic propaganda should be treated as has been indicatedabove.
CHAPTER 2
Herbert Marcuse
POSSIBLE POLITICAL CHANGESIN NAZI GERMANY IN THE NEAR FUTURE
(August 10, 1943)
Editor's note: R&A 1034. Marcuse's authorship is indicatedin Political Intelligence Report no. 21, section I.1 (R&A1113.21).
Classification: Secret
1. It is certain that the German ruling groups have come to realize thatthe war is militarily lost. There may be Nazi groups which would like todie honorably rather than live in what they regard as shame and which,for this reason, would want to resort to desperate military measures, suchas an all-out bombardment of England or an attack on the Middle Eastthrough Turkey. This is extremely unlikely. Quite apart from the factthat Germany's military capabilities are probably not adequate to carryoutsuch measures of despair, they would certainly meet the determinedresistance of the military, the industrialists, and the Junkers, whoknow that desperate measures would not only destroy Germany's militarymight but would also lead to their own complete destruction.
2. If military measures thus do not offer an escape from certain militarydefeat, the only hope of Germany lies in the field of politics. It may notbe an exaggeration to maintain that the political aspects of the war willhenceforth lead to overshadow military operations, which would leadinexorably to the ultimate destruction of Germany's military machine.The problem therefore arises what political activities the German governmentis going to pursue in order to avoid utter political and militarydefeat. Two lines of strategy are open to the Germans. The one is toexploit political and social differences in each of the enemy countries,to utilize soft spots in each enemy country to undermine their moraleand to help pro-German or anti-war elements into power. Germany mustrealize that this is a hopeless endeavor. As to England, such hopes hadto be abandoned at a very early stage of the war. In the Nazi anti-Americanstrategy, hope was pinned on the election of a president whocould be counted upon to conclude an early peace. But time is now tooshort to wait for the American elections, and it is certain that in theirhearts the Nazis know that 1944 will again frustrate their expectations.The creation of the National Liberation Movement and the NationalLiberation Army under General Vlassov, the attempt to split the Ukrainiansfrom the Russians have met with but little success and any hopeto undermine the Russian home front will thus have to be abandoned.This does not mean that the Nazis will abandon their propaganda in thisfield. They will undoubtedly continue it for domestic consumption, butit is safe to assume that they realize the hopelessness of this kind of politicalstrategy.
3. There thus remains the second strategic approach, namely to split theUnited Nations and to unite a negotiated peace with one or the other,either with Russia or with the Western Powers. This they may hope toachieve by demonstrating to the Western Powers, the danger of the Bolshevizationof Europe and to Russia, the danger of an Allied interventionagainst Soviet Russia.
The German leadership, however, realizes that both Russia and theWestern Powers have committed themselves not to deal with Hitler andthe Nazi Party. As a consequence, the German ruling groups are facedwith the problem of finding a constitutional arrangement that would satisfyeither Soviet Russia or the Allied Powers without actually destroying the basicfeatures of the Nazi system. It is in this light that the news from Berlin andMadrid must be evaluated. The Berlin report states that important discussionsof a military and political nature have taken place at Hitler'sheadquarters and that Goering, Ribbentrop, Speer, Himmler, Goebbelsand Bormann of the Nazi Party and Keitel, Doenitz, Milch, Jeschonnek,Zeitzler and Jodl of the military participated. The Japanese ambassadorto Berlin was present and was received in the presence of Keitel andRibbentrop.
The Madrid report indicates that a triumvirate, composed of Keitel,Doenitz and Goering, has taken charge of all military and political affairsand that "powers of enormous magnitude" have been centered in thehands of Reichsmarshal Goering.
4. It may be assumed that the latter report is essentially true. It wouldconstitute, in the first place, an attempt to coordinate fully all military, politicaland economic activities by subordinating everything to the final considerationof defending the German-controlled Fortress.
It implies that Hitler recedes for the time being into the backgroundand that the Nazi Party is transformed into an organ of this triumvirate.This triumvirate may be said to constitute a compromise between thearmed forces and the Nazi Party. Goering, it must be remembered, isthe only outstanding Nazi political figure who has no official post withinthe Nazi Party. He is a simple Party member—to be sure with great influencein the Party—but he is not a functionary of the Party or of anyof its auxiliary organizations. He is above all not a Reichsleiter of theParty and may thus be said to be more useful than any other Nazi leaderto an army leadership willing to sue for peace. It is known in additionthat through the Goering Combine, Goering has mobilized the supportof powerful industrial and financial leaders and that he has made itpossible for them to participate in the economic spoliation of occupiedEurope.
(Continues...)Excerpted from SECRET REPORTS ON NAZI GERMANY by FRANZ NEUMANN, HERBERT MARCUSE, OTTO KIRCHHEIMER, Raffaele Laudani. Copyright © 2013 Raffaele Laudani. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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