Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Interwar Period - Sudetenland Crisis (3)
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< Interwar Period - Sudetenland Crisis (3) >
May 14, 1938
Schmenzin, East Pomerania, Northern Germany (Present-day Poland, east of Stettin)
“We shall request British support to oust the Nazi regime, but we must also have our sovereignty over the Sudetenland and Danzig recognized.”
At the declaration from Ludwig Beck, the leader of this gathering, the high-ranking generals nodded as if it were a matter of course. They then began discussing who would take which position after their plan succeeded.
Talk circulated of Ludwig Beck serving as Imperial Regent until the Kaiser was restored, of Franz Halder becoming Minister of Defense.
I honestly felt like I was going to pass out.
“...Excuse me, esteemed Colonel General, sir. Might I say a word?”
I could see Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow sipping his wine with a look of half-resignation, but this was a matter I simply could not let slide.
How could I stand by and watch them craft such ludicrous plans when we were already short on time?
I’d wondered what this group had been doing all this time during the long interwar period, and it turned out they were wasting time on unrealistic discussions even as war loomed on the horizon!
“I’m afraid this is not your place to speak out of turn, Captain.”
Chief of the General Staff Franz Halder rebuked me outright, but when I didn’t back down, my father, Hjalmar Schacht, stepped in.
“This ‘Captain’ is the one who brought me here. If you have no intention of listening to him, I’ll take that to mean you have no intention of listening to me or the financial sector, and I shall take my leave.”
As my father and Halder clashed, the host of the meeting, Herr von Kluge-Schmenzin, subtly intervened.
“Ah, of course not, former Minister Schacht. We have yet to negotiate with the British, and no concrete plans have been set. It wouldn't hurt to hear various opinions.”
Halder retreated, looking slightly displeased.
Come to think of it, didn't Halder dislike the radical faction pushing for mechanization, including Guderian? I recalled he also disliked Major General Model, who was one of my connections.
“...Thank you for your permission, Herr von Kluge-Schmenzin. If I may be so bold, if you wish for British support, are you not negotiating as a… resistance force (Widerstand) against the Nazi regime?”
“That is correct.”
When Ludwig Beck coolly acknowledged it, I paused for a moment before continuing.
“In that case, esteemed Colonel General, sir, a diplomatic negotiation can only succeed if both parties stand to gain. To have our sovereignty over both the Sudetenland and Danzig recognized, what can we offer them in return?”
Britain had little interest in a resistance movement against Hitler. If they had seen supporting the resistance as a better option than negotiating with Hitler, an unprecedented event like the Munich Agreement would never have happened.
“Will we not be ousting their enemy, Hitler?”
Dr. Goerdeler, the former mayor of Leipzig and a famous monarchist politician, answered as if the question were absurdly obvious.
“...With all due respect, Doctor, the reason Hitler is their enemy is because he continually reveals his ambitions for territorial expansion. What reason is there to think we, who covet the very same things, would not also be their enemy?”
Dr. Goerdeler’s face turned crimson as he shouted at my words.
“What outrageous nonsense is this! Are you suggesting we abandon the Kaiser’s territory, the German people’s territory!”
The high-ranking Junker-born officials and military generals who formed the core of the Black Orchestra sent me icy glares, seemingly in agreement with Dr. Goerdeler.
This is maddening, truly.
“You are surely aware, Captain, that under the Locarno Treaties, Germany only formally recognized its western territorial losses from the Treaty of Versailles. We have a legitimate claim to our eastern territories.”
As Herr von Kluge-Schmenzin spoke in a placating tone, chuckles could be heard here and there.
It was true that in the 1925 Locarno Treaties, Germany had acknowledged its western borders with France and Belgium while leaving the issue of its eastern borders open.
But that was merely a provision Stresemann, the chancellor at the time, had included to appease the hardline right-wingers at home. Britain and France had left room for arbitration over the eastern territories, but that was hardly an invitation to march in and seize them!
“That was to leave room for diplomatic arbitration. I am not suggesting we abandon them completely, but I do not believe they would help us while also recognizing our territorial claims. If we truly intend to receive Britain's help, shouldn't we at least show them that we are somehow different from the Nazi regime—that they have something to gain if they support us and the government is replaced? If we begin negotiations by discussing sovereignty, we risk them losing any will to even hold a conversation.”
“Isn’t that a rather arrogant thought for a mere captain who is not even a diplomat?”
Halder openly expressed his displeasure at my words, and the other senior military figures also wore expressions of deep disapproval.
Damn it, is it not getting through…
Just as I thought so, support came from an unexpected quarter.
“The Captain’s opinion has merit. There is nothing to be gained by telling the British in advance that we plan to reclaim our eastern territories. The matter of sovereignty can be negotiated more favorably once we are at the table as an equal government.”
“Hmm…”
The one who sided with me was Ernst von Weizsäcker, the State Secretary of the Foreign Office (second in command after Ribbentrop).
This was an unexpected assist.
The high-ranking officials who had scoffed when a mere captain spoke now seemed to consider it more seriously, now that a working diplomat had offered his support.
Surprised by the help, I glanced toward Weizsäcker and saw the man who had been whispering to him raise a hand slightly with a smile.
The man, whom I’d never seen before, looked to be in his thirties. Who was he?
The meeting, which proceeded while I was still wondering, ultimately ended without much of a result.
For now, it was decided that Herr von Kluge-Schmenzin would be dispatched as a special envoy to Britain to request their support.
What I really wanted to know was *how* they planned to oust the Nazis, but they said that couldn’t be discussed because the mastermind, Lieutenant Colonel Hans Oster, was absent on a mission.
Today’s gathering was for members of the resistance to get acquainted and discuss what positions they would take once the coup succeeded.
To these men, that was more important than the actual execution of the plan. They were politicians, after all.
…It was all too obvious that relying on these leisurely nobles would lead to no progress.
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“Captain Schacht. I thought so when you were shouting at me, but your nerve… it’s truly something else. I’m too scared to follow your lead.”
“Uhm… my apologies, Lieutenant Colonel.”
I had to offer an awkward, smiling apology to Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow, who was puffing on a cigarette and speaking sarcastically.
“Well, you have former Minister Schacht as your backer, so I suppose you can afford to act that way. But if you keep this up, you’ll leave a bad impression on your superiors.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be more careful.”
My father was conversing with some of the higher-ups who had shown interest. Having left first, I was now being lectured by Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow, but my mind was a complete blank.
Honestly, I hadn’t come here with high expectations for the Black Orchestra’s leadership.
I knew that the actual operators who would carry out the coup were far more important than the figureheads who would take up positions after the fact.
But I had at least expected to get a rough outline of the plot from Lieutenant Colonel Oster, the mastermind of the conspiracy…
To be let down even when my expectations were low… perhaps I should have had no expectations at all.
Just as my spirit was about to drift away, a bright voice, out of place with the mood, cut through.
“Ah, there you are!”
It was the man who had been standing next to State Secretary Weizsäcker. He was probably the one who had actually helped me.
“Thank you for earlier. I am Captain Dietrich Schacht.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Captain Schacht! I am Erich Kordt. I serve as the Director of the European Department at the State Foreign Office! I’ve heard a great deal about you from Ms. Jung of the *Frankfurter Zeitung*.”
“Ah, so you know Ms. Jung. A pleasure to meet you.”
The network of our workaholic reporter spread far wider than I thought…
Director Kordt greeted me with a rather energetic tone.
“My goodness, I should be the one thanking you for bringing up the basics of diplomacy in a military crowd! My younger brother is in charge of the London embassy, so you can consider Britain to be our brothers’ domain!”
“That’s wonderful to hear. Director of the European Department, that’s very impressive.”
Director Kordt and I shook hands with smiling faces.
“Haha, it’s nothing much. Actually, I was an underling of his when Minister Ribbentrop was the ambassador to London. When that man became minister, I got a promotion along with him.”
So that’s how it works. Since Ribbentrop became Foreign Minister this year, he must not have been Director for long.
“I see. It’s a bit late, but congratulations.”
“Haha, thank you. I was a little surprised earlier. To be honest, I didn’t come to this meeting with high hopes, but you spoke as if you had personally met those high-nosed British gentlemen.”
“...I was merely considering that in diplomacy, one must think from the other side’s perspective.”
Even without knowledge of the future, it was common sense. What would Britain have to gain by recognizing the territorial claims of a resistance movement that wasn't even a formal government?
We were the ones asking for a handout. It wouldn’t be strange if Britain, in return for their support, demanded we permanently renounce our claims to the eastern territories.
Of course, we couldn't just give that up, or we’d be torn to shreds by the Junkers and the German people.
“In any case, I don’t think we can get anything out of negotiations with Britain right now. The best we can do is make them aware of our existence beforehand, and create a situation where they might hold positive expectations for us when we later form a government.”
“Hmm, then what do you think we should do?”
For some reason, Erich Kordt was quite interested in me.
What in the world, Claudia? What exactly did you tell him about me? If you’re going to do that, at least let me know!
In any case, this was a chance to make a good impression on someone from the Foreign Office among the conspirators, so I wanted to seize it if possible.
“Britain is likely not yet ready for war. So they are trying to buy time without provoking Germany. Receiving their help at such a time will not be easy.”
In the original history, the prerequisite for the coup decided upon by the leaders of the movement during the Sudetenland crisis was that they would oust Hitler if Britain declared war on Germany.
The leaders of this movement did in fact contact Britain several times, but the result was the Munich Agreement.
This meant that to Britain, handing the Sudetenland over to Hitler, even at the cost of being branded as betrayers of the West, seemed more valuable than negotiating with these people.
“...No, to give you my honest opinion, the very idea of relying on Britain to overthrow the regime is flawed. Britain, with its strong anti-war sentiment since the Great War, is not going to risk war simply to help us take power in Germany. The same goes for their ally, France.”
Seeing the atmosphere of today’s meeting, I could understand why Britain had completely ignored the resistance and signed the Munich Agreement.
These men, not even in power, had failed to grasp their own situation and prattled on about the Sudetenland and Danzig. In contrast, Hitler had at least signed an agreement at Munich promising to make no further territorial demands.
At that point, it would have been hard to imagine that a promise made by the leader of a nation would become worthless scraps of paper in less than a year.
“The basis for every action they take in response to Germany is elections. They need to win elections to stay in power. Therefore, they will not go against the will of their people and start a war just to support a mere resistance group in Germany.”
A major reason Britain and France were dragged along by Germany during the interwar period was that their general elections were just around the corner.
Britain's general election was in November 1939, and France's was in April 1940. No politician would want to declare war at the end of their term to protect not their own country, but an ally.
In a democracy, elections are what matter most. Even if Hitler were to start a war, they would tolerate it as long as it didn’t affect their elections.
Weren’t they the ones who showed more interest in the lobbying of Spanish capitalists than in the countless lives lost in the Spanish Civil War?
Realpolitik is utterly cold and cruel.
“On the contrary, we must absolutely avoid a situation where they declare war on Germany. If they were to declare war on Germany, it would mean public opinion had shifted to stopping Germany even at the cost of war. At that point, no one could stop the war, whether we change the regime or do anything else. To them, we and Hitler are all just one enemy: Germany.”
This was the source of all the fundamental limitations of the German resistance in the original history.
They would oust Hitler and the Nazis, then make peace with the Allied forces? They would be lucky if the Allies didn’t completely dismantle a Germany paralyzed by a civil war with Nazi remnants.
Therefore, we absolutely had to accomplish something before World War II broke out, before Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Erich Kordt listened to my words in silence, lost in thought, before speaking.
“This is, hmm. A completely new perspective. But it has merit. To be frank, from a diplomatic standpoint, I believe it is more realistic than the plan being discussed in the meeting now.”
“But then, how do you intend to oust the Nazis? The people’s support for them is real.”
As Kordt agreed, Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow, who had been listening quietly while smoking his cigarette, asked the question.
Yes, that was the problem.
The masterminds of the conspiracy weren’t complete fools for wanting to rely on Britain.
In their view, it was difficult to overthrow the Nazi regime, which enjoyed popular support, unless Germany was shaken internally by a war with Britain.
That was why they tried to depend on such a desperate measure.
The key was to topple the Nazis, who were backed by public opinion, using only Germany's internal strength.
“...We must reveal that those who have painted themselves as a band of patriots building a great Germany are, in fact, a corrupt and monstrous group eating away at the nation from within.”
< Interwar Period - Sudetenland Crisis (3) > End