Political Psychology of German Liberalism
Pinson, Koppel S.
Political Psychology of German Liberalism By Koppel S. Pinson PRELUDE TO SILENCE. The End of the German Republic. By Arnold Brecht. New York. Oxford University Press. 1944. Pp. xxi,154. PRELUDE...
...08), To apeak this way of Hitler and his gang after a well-known record of brutality, terror, and perfidy, may truly be called an affront lo American intelligence...
...He even credits Mindenburg and Papen with "a political fight against Totalitarianism in the latter days of the German Republic" (p fi...
...And Dorothy Thompson and H. R. Knickerbocker were appraising accurately and realistically what was happening...
...Summarizing the first six months of Hitler rule he asys: "It was characterized by the 'sliding' form of the National Socialist revolt, i.e., by its legalistic disguise, which made it im-possble to ascertain a definite date on which the Constitution was violated" (p...
...14), and that "there was no distinct fascist philosophy in Germany »t thst time" (p...
...In using such a narrow and purely juristic definition the author fails to distinguish fascism from other forms of tyranny in the past and from other types of dictatorship in the present...
...After It years af agitatioa by Hitler aad bis gaageters aad Ids still fresh telegram af sympathy tf the Potempa murderers, Prof...
...TllK height of political naivete Is reached by the author in his treatment of the Reichstag fire and its effect on the German people...
...That is what paralysed the leaders of the Socialist and trade union movement*, and not the constitutional and legal questions...
...Prof...
...Truly amasiag...
...Brecht aad his fellow observers still hoped that Hitler might "have the aaabitiea te become a great and cans tractive etstoamea, accessible ta reasonable advice.'' Aad after describing Hitler's viol eat reaction to the address af the speaker af the Federal Council on February X, and indicating the fary of the Nasi press...
...wait for the first grave violation of the Constitution by Hitler" (p...
...Even after several months of Hitler in power Prof...
...Much is made of (iiegor Strasser and the "moderate wing of the National Socialists...
...It is thb) very "neutral aloofness" to which Prof...
...And then the author has the temerity to add that "If the first stage of their politicsl fight against Fascism had ended in failure . , , no one can justly say that it was because of the absence of any fight...
...Prof...
...There were factional struggles and clashes of personalities but no real ideological differences...
...In the same way the author gives Brflning a clean bill of health with the ststement that "Rarely have errors in judgment been committed with a cleaner moral conscience than were those of Bruning's cabinet" (p...
...It is rather that of political immaturity and absence of conviction t« tht moral necessity to pur-ttripo4e actively in party politics...
...There was another alternative and that wss to sppesl to the Supreme Court snd hope in this way to outmaneuver Von Papen...
...By this arbitrary elimination of the factors of militant nationalism, aggressive expansionism and pan-Germanism from his definition of fascism he is, of course, able to arrive at the conclusion that "the overwhelming:, majority of the People at the end of the imperial period and during the democratic regime were distinctly anti-totalitarian and antifascist in both their ideas and their Principles" (p...
...Brecht's volume is full of statements that are truly amazing to one familiar with German history and politics and to one possessed of a positive faith in democracy...
...The whole analysis is utterly unrealistic...
...Every average reader of an American newspaper saw behind ths Reichstag fire as soon as it happened...
...Brecht really took Hitler's oath seriously...
...There is something tragically sick in the political mentality of the German intellectual classes when such judgments are possible...
...Yet Rudolf Jung, Drexler, Moeller van den Bruck, Alfred Rosenberg, Schonerer, Ludendorff, Claass end the Pan-Germans, not to speak of Free Corps and the secret operations of the Reiehswehr were already finding • Isrge and enthusiastic following...
...How puny are these pygmies thst fate has made for our enemies...
...Prof...
...74-75...
...And then he gives a glorified account of the nnel Supreme Court decision...
...Edgar Ansel Mowrer knew what was coming and he warned American readers as far back as November, 1932, when he published his (lertnany Puts tht Clock Back...
...Only the politically immature German liberals were still waiting for a "serious violation of the Constitution...
...By temperament, by sentiment, by reason, and by loyslty ta my sworn duties," he says, "I wss positively on the side of the republican principles of the Constitution at all times, and outspokenly so...
...His treatment of the ouster of the Prussian socialist government by Von Papen in June, 1932 and the appeal to the Supreme Court is a case in point...
...And so, "after Hitler's constitutional appointment by the legitimate Reich President and the passage of the Enabling Act by the majority required in the Constitution, there seemed to civil servants and judges no choice as officials but to obey" (p...
...Brecht and hie friends did net knew what Hitler would do...
...Neither the police," says he, "nor other civil servants, with a very few exceptions would have fought against the legitimate President who had the constitutions...
...A perusal of a book like Ernst Toller's / Wnm a rtemuia will show how utterly without foundation such a stata-ment is...
...Hitler raged, his followers wers furious, the preas waa vieieat and yet Mr...
...They offer no resistance, no opposition snd only ask for financial compensation...
...As for the Supreme Court's derision, it was a masterpiece of political evasiveness and weasel like lip service to the moral claims of the law while leaving actual control of Prussian affairs in the hands of von Papen* representative...
...The Bavsrian terror of IVl» ze was the ministure model for all the subsequent gruesome aspects of Nasi bestiality...
...Brecht confesses that helps to explain the consistent weakness of German liberalism and the absence of political judgment and realistic appraisal of pub-lie policy which is so necessary for .a vigorous democratic society...
...As we come closer to January 30, 11*33, the fantastic unrealism increases...
...Brecht arbitrarily restricts the use of the term fascism to mean "that physical force, er the systematic threat of physical force (terror) ia employed for the purpose of suppressing any expression of opinions that are opposed to those either held or tolerated by the fascist group" (p...
...The proclamation of the new csbinet of February 1 "seemed to support such an optimistic outlook...
...Brecht's thesis is that the anti-Nazi forces in Germany could do nothing to ward off Hitler because they waited for a serious breach of the constitution by Hitler, and since Hitler used legal means to get into power and consolidate his authority, there was nothing to he done about it...
...Brecht glosses over the assasinations of the ear,y an-, Djr paying...
...Til K author's tolerant and unrealistic estimate of lliiidenbuig, llrunirtg and von Papen has already been mentioned...
...OnCK set KOinif with this definition, Prof...
...Brecht makes a statement taat is in itself a serious condemnation af German liberals...
...His public utterances differed in no essential ways from those of Hitler, Goering, Gocbbela and the rest...
...Prof...
...To rise against him on the first night," he says, "would make the rebels the technical violators of the Constitution that they wanted to defend . . . They had to wait...
...More important, he thereby avoids consideration of the "mass basis" of fascist dicts-torthip and hence is able to ignore deeper historical, cultural and psychological factors...
...Strasaer was the leader of the Party organisation of the Nazi Party all during its period of terroristic activities against the Republic...
...No wonder that Dr...
...xviii...
...Can anything be more revealing than this...
...Within con Ititutional limits, however, / did chug to a neutral nlnofness from party polities in public life" (p...
...It remained guesswork I Well it was no guesswork for able and experienced foreign observers in Germany...
...Brecht explains and justifies the submission of the Prussian government to forcible ouster by the following" basic considerations...
...The authoTTails to n.ention the fact that the police of Prussia (including the chief inspector, Die la) had become infested with Nasi cells...
...xvii...
...Brecht still concludes...
...It was not of such stuff that Tom Paine snd Jefferson and the architects of the American Revolution were made...
...No volume on German National Socialism reveals so clearly the heavy hand of the Kantian conception of "legality" that served so effectively to keep even ascent ana aaaaaae Germans froan ea-gacuif actively in preventing the rise of Hitler ta power and which led them later to sabatit aa theeplithly ta Naii dictates, grerht's book is significant not for ita account of tha eanatitational problems af the Weimar Republic hut as a most revealing doc assent of the mentality and peiiteeal paytltoJoe~y of the German lib oral...
...PrOM the very start the author sets up an extremely narrow definition of fascism, which makes it possible for him te prove some of his points but which takes him sway from the more important snd vital aspects of Nazism...
...Goebbels could enter into his diary*on February 10, 1933, the following notation: "A group of red Bonzen have been deposed by Goring, among them also Oberpfasident Noake in Hanover...
...How any liberal, reading the text of this proclamation, which breathed • bitter hostility to all the ideals af the Reamblk aad of Western domsrrery, can eat it "optimistic," is beyond tha comprehension af this reviewer...
...105...
...it was no such spirit that moved the Jacobins and the Paris communsrds, Massaryk and Benes, end both the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in revolutionary Russia...
...A thoroughgoing revolution in German political behavior will be necessary before the rest, of the world can relax ita vigilance...
...It was too fantastic," writes Prof...
...And thee why should the civil servants and the police here obeyed the President when the President himself had violsted the Constitution T There wss s realistic basic consideration for not openly resisting the government at that time—but this the author does not mention...
...Kuppel S. Pin son, Professor of History at Queens College, is an outstanding authority on nationalism and German history...
...Brecht, "for orderly and law-abiding citizens to think thst men who had just invoked God's blessing in the cabinet's solemn proclamation should be so base as to use such a disbolic device, snd that afterwards thsy should be so brazen as to bring the cass before the Supreme Court" (p...
...Prof...
...In his preliminary autobiographical remark...
...authority to call them up...
...PRELUDE TO SILENCE ia an attempt by a distinguished former member of the German civil service to ex-plain the coming of Hitlerism and to show that most German* were really anti-fascist in principle and ready to rmiMt fascist...
...Yet what Hitler's actual intentions were and bow far he would respect the Constitution remained a matter of guess work" (p...
...Despite the personal integrity of Prof...
...Carried out by immature youths, they were not approved even by the reactionary parties" <P< 18...
...Professor Brerht's legalistic chain of reasoning illostrates this perfectly...
...Brecht and the unquestioned sincerity of his own anti-Nazi eonvic-tioas, his attempted ttfelogm for Germany shows up the utter weakness of German liberals with respect to democratic ideology and their utter lack of that which Plato calls "noble wrath,"—that quality whkh even the most disinterested philosopher must have to resist injustice and oppression...
...Aytd the future leaders af a peaceful and democratic Germany will have to develop quite another politicsl outlook than that displayed by the very learned, efficient and able civil servant...
...As leader of the Nazi faction in tha Reichstag he was responsible for all the rowdyism and gangster tactics used by the Nazi representatives...
...Prof...
...Chapter VII of the book has the heading "Hitler's Oath" and the subheading "Hitler Paralyzes His Opponents by Swearing Allegiance to Their Constitution...
...In this hope," says Brecht, "they were not deceived" (p...
...Now the case against German liberals is not that of cruelty, moral depravity or baseness of individual character...
...F^t-^ht' * ™emb