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SECTION FOUR: THE COLLAPSE OF THE REPUBLIC - 1930-1933
Source A
Count Harry Kessler, a friend of the murdered Rathenau, laments the death of
Stressemann on 3 October 1929 in his diaries.
At the barber about midday overheard a conversation: ‘Stressemann is dead’ … It is
an irreplaceable loss, whose effects cannot be predicted. That is how it is viewed
here, too … The general feeling is one not only of consternation, but also of anxiety
about what will happen now. I am afraid above all that the death of Stressemann will
have very serious domestic repercussions, such as a rightward trend in the People’s
Party, a breach in the coalition, and the facilitating of dictatorial tendencies.
The legend is born; Stressemann has become an almost mythical figure through his
sudden death … He is the first to enter Valhalla as a truly European statesman.
Source B
A letter to the Army from the Minister of Defence, General Groener, 22 January
1930.
National Socialists as well as Communists aim at the destruction of the existing
system by means of violence. That means civil war … The Reichswehr has to find its
way free from these extremes. It cannot entertain fantastic plans, vague hopes,
high-sounding slogans. It carries an enormous responsibility for the continuance of
the national state. It knows that its attitude in the hour of peril will decide the fate of
the nation … It is the sacred task of the Wehrmacht to prevent the cleavage between
classes and parties from ever widening into suicidal civil war.
Source C
Count Harry Kessler is dismayed at the electoral success of the Nazis on 14
September 1930. (diary entry)
A black day for Germany. The Nazis have increased their representation tenfold, they
have risen from 12 to 107 seats and have thus become the second largest party in the
Reichstag. The impression abroad is bound to be catastrophic, the aftermath, both
diplomatically and financially will be dreadful. With 107 Nazis, 41 Hugenbergers,
and over 70 Communists, that is to say some 220 deputies who radically reject the
present German State and seek to overthrow it by revolutionary means, we are
confronted with a political crisis which can only be mastered by the formation of a
strong united front of all those forces which support or at least tolerate the
Republic… In fact, the next move must be (if there isn’t a Putsch) the formation of a
‘Grand Coalition’ between the present governing parties and the Social Democrats,
as otherwise government will simply come to a halt ...
National Socialism is the feverish symptom of the dying German petty bourgeoisie;
but this poison of its illness can bring misery to Germany and Europe for decades to
come. This class cannot be saved; but in its death-throes it can bring terrible new
suffering to Europe.
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 63