Austerity or Death #6: Hitler and the National Socialists
Finding the connection between Hitler and the National Socialists… I would simply call them the Nazis. The effort to uncover their links had been made considerably easier by that newspaper known as The People’s Observer. While sharing the same views could not serve as concrete evidence that Hitler was deeply involved in its publication, it was more than enough to establish a strong suspicion.
“Excuse me, but do you happen to know anything about the publisher behind this paper—Eher Verlag?”
“Eher Verlag…? It’s an old outfit, but for the past eight years or so they’ve been churning out papers at rock-bottom prices. There’s definitely some enormous capital backing them.”
“Enormous capital…?”
“Well, there was a time when it was fashionable for industrialists to sponsor nationalists. They were especially busy printing every kind of newspaper and magazine to whip up anti-communist hysteria. But after listening to Assemblywoman Heinz, I realize it was all lies.”
From what the newsstand owner told me, some major corporation was clearly financing the paper. In any case, it was exerting far more influence over society as a whole than I had imagined.
National Socialism. True to its name, the paper revolved around that ideology… To put it simply, it was a bizarrely twisted amalgamation of extreme racism, anti-communism, antisemitism, and German supremacism. One might wonder what sort of ideological stew this was, but that really was all there was to it.
“Can this even be called an ideology?”
“If it claims to be one, then it is. Besides, the way they use the word ‘socialism’ is quite cunning.”
There was a calculated reason behind adopting the name National Socialism.
“When they speak of socialism here, there is no mention of social ownership of the means of production. Instead, they drape the word in nationalist rhetoric. Let me show you…”
I flipped through the newspaper until I found the illustrated page.
“For too long the German people have lived under the oppression of Jewish capital. The Jews have shamelessly stolen the honest wealth of Germans and squandered it at will. We must now overthrow these capitalists. All classes within Germany must cease their struggle and instead cooperate to establish a unified national community—Volkgemeinschaft—thereby restoring ethnic purity and rising once more.”
“There was no need to use the word socialism at all.”
“Precisely because ordinary people only associate socialism with words like class, struggle, and capital without truly understanding it. They’re exploiting that ignorance.”
It was certainly too suspicious to be dismissed as mere nationalist journalism.
“And that symbol? The one that looks like a swastika.”
“Ah, that?”
Did the symbol itself carry some deeper meaning? It surely wasn’t entirely meaningless.
“I haven’t come across any mention of it in what I’ve read so far.”
“As far as I know, it’s a symbol used in Buddhism…”
“Buddhism?”
Wasn’t Buddhism an Asian religion? In my previous life, my father had taken me to temples when I was young. In this world, however, I had gone to church instead.
“What does Buddhism have to do with any of this?”
“I have no idea. I only know it’s somehow connected.”
“Hmm…”
There were plenty of hints, yet I lacked the breakthrough that would tie them all together. And so my days continued—listening to tedious number-crunching in the Reichstag by day and conducting fruitless investigations by night.
Then came Saturday, October 18, exactly four weeks after the first vote. The second vote was held. Having gone through it once before, I cast my ballot without much nervousness this time. I was still a little anxious, wondering what would happen if the German National People’s Party had been persuaded, especially since the Social Democrats were barely holding on, but—
“What in the world…!”
The Chancellor seemed to lose his composure, furious that all his efforts to persuade the Social Democrats and the German National People’s Party had come to nothing. The Social Democrats, while proud that they had held firm to their party line of opposition until the end, also appeared anxious—wondering whether they had just signed Germany’s death warrant with their own hands.
We, of course, cheered. As for the German National People’s Party… had they given up? They couldn’t have abandoned persuasion entirely. In any case, Brüning’s expression as he left the chamber after the vote was one of profound disappointment.
“You’ve all lost your minds! If this budget is rejected to the end, Germany is finished!”
“How long will you continue to devour Germany with your shortsightedness? You are spitting in the faces of starving citizens and His Imperial Majesty the Kaiser! Do you not realize you are conducting Germany’s funeral?!”
“That is enough, Deputy Curtius, Deputy Moldenhauer.”
Brüning led the raging members of the National Front out of the parliament building. Having lost twice, he likely had nothing left to say. For the Communists and me, it felt like a festival.
“To victory! To revolution! To the people—cheers!”
That night, the Communist Party threw a modest party at a tavern in Frankfurt’s Bornheim district.
“Once again! Once again the capitalists’ attempt to starve the people has failed. By now even they must realize that the hollow democracy they created is perfectly sufficient to dismantle their own power.”
Thälmann raised his full mug of beer and shouted.
“When the age of capital ends, the age of the people begins. An era in which everyone lives well, no one is excluded, and no one is oppressed! That age will surely come! So let us savor today. Everyone, raise your glasses!”
At Thälmann’s words I lifted my own crude wooden beer mug. White foam sloshed at the rim. Yes—this was exactly where I belonged, far more than in any chancellor’s residence.
“Cheers!”
“Cheers~!”
Not only the party members but even the other patrons and staff drinking in that shabby tavern shouted together. As befitted a day of celebration, everyone set aside their worries for a while and shared drinks. For that moment, I too forgot all the investigations I had been conducting and simply relaxed.
The following day, Sunday afternoon.
“Hoo…”
Brüning had traveled from his hometown of Münster, far from the Imperial Parliament in Frankfurt, all the way to Vienna. There was only one person he wished to meet.
He was still not accustomed to these audiences.
“Heinrich Brüning, Chancellor of the German Empire and loyal servant of His Imperial Majesty, requests an audience with the Emperor, sovereign of the Empire.”
He spoke to the guard at the palace gate. The guard immediately relayed the message to the duty room. In an instant, dozens of halberd-bearing guards formed a perfect line from the palace’s main entrance to the square beyond. Between them emerged a couple.
“Ah, Chancellor! Welcome to Schönbrunn!”
“It is an honor, Your Imperial Majesty.”
The Emperor of the German Empire, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, administrator of the German Confederation and its peoples, bearer of countless other crowns and titles—the sole remaining secular monarch in this democratized Germany, a middle-aged man now past forty: Karl I von Habsburg-Lothringen. Beside him stood his wife, Empress of Germany and Archduchess Zita of Bourbon-Parma.
“I have come to Vienna because there is an urgent matter I must discuss with Your Majesty.”
“Not at all. It is rather novel that the Chancellor should need me. Come inside.”
Thus Brüning walked beside the Emperor into Schönbrunn Palace.
“So… what is the reason the Chancellor has sought me with such urgency? Would you care for tea? Recently King George V of Britain sent me some Indian masala tea. It is quite sweet and rather pleasant.”
“No thank you, Your Majesty.”
The Emperor, who had been smiling innocently as he always did, erased the smile from his face when he saw how serious the Chancellor looked.
“…I see. I was too frivolous. What brings you to Vienna?”
“I believe Your Majesty is already aware that the budget bill submitted by the cabinet yesterday was once again rejected by the Reichstag.”
“Of course I am.”
He lifted the teacup a maid had brought him and spoke languidly. The cup was beautifully adorned with green, blue, yellow, and pink floral patterns.
“That rejection… carries far greater significance than one might think, Your Majesty. It pains me to say this, but Germany is a nation standing precariously atop the defeat of the Great War.”
While the Emperor savored the aroma of his tea, Brüning explained.
“Several years ago Germany joined the League of Nations, Your Majesty. That was tantamount to a vow that Germany would no longer cultivate independent military power or initiate war. The rejection of this budget bill negates all of that.”
The Emperor took a sip.
“At the time of the first vote, the margin was only five votes, so I believed persuasion was still possible…”
Brüning handed over the voting report he had requested from his secretary the previous day.
“This time it was rejected by a full fifty-seven votes.”
“Fifty-seven votes…”
The Emperor set his teacup down with a soft clink.
“The gap is larger than I expected. How did this happen?”
“It appears we failed to persuade the Social Democrats and the German National People’s Party, Your Majesty.”
“The German National People’s Party? You mean the one with Baron von Hugenberg?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“If I were to persuade them, they might side with you.”
“Ah… that would not be advisable.”
Deep in his heart, Brüning remained a republican. He truly did not wish to rely on the Emperor’s authority. Even if he did, it should only be the slightest amount—only enough not to damage democracy.
“A pity. Do you intend to persuade them through your own power, then?”
“…That is one option. However, I wished first to speak with Your Majesty about preparations in case every means fails.”
So saying, Brüning produced another sheet of paper.
If the state fails to fulfill obligations imposed by the constitution or laws, or if public safety and order within Germany are seriously endangered, the cabinet, under the emergency executive authority of the Emperor, may temporarily suspend constitutional obligations with the support of the armed forces as necessary…
His Majesty’s authority may be used to bypass the Reichstag’s approval process in times of emergency.
The Emperor read the clause with widening eyes.
“In other words, you are saying that by invoking Your Majesty’s powers we can skip the parliamentary approval process in an emergency.”
At the Chancellor’s words, the Emperor stared fixedly at the article with trembling eyes.