- Yg. 1933, No. 11 -
When these lines go to press, the "national revolution" following that Election result of the 5. March similarly enforced as the revolt 1918 after the military defeat. At that time, no hand in Germany raised to defend the Empire. This time, too, it went the same way. The bearers of the Republic of Weimar have recognized that this epoch is over.
It is not time yet obituaries to write. In quiet times, a fairer verdict will be made on the 14 years that have passed since this was possible in the heat of the election campaign, which was condemned by the national side, which on the left almost weeps like a lost paradise.
An objective examination of the balance of both eras clearly shows that the active Despite the four-year crisis, the republic of Weimar is much larger and of a higher quality than that of the empire, even though the republic with the oppressive Passives of the Empire was preloaded.
At that time there were no food or raw materials in the country. A run-down production apparatus had to be converted back to normal commodity production. The traffic was heavily burdened for months by the demobilization and the delivery of the best railway material still aggravated the condition. Of the other consequences of war only the uncertainty about the conditions of peace is mentioned.
All of this is omitted on the liabilities side of the opening balance sheet of the “Third Reich”. [...]
The comparison between the collapse of the German Empire and that of the Weimar Republic will show many parallels to future historiography. But there is also a fundamental difference between the emergence and rule of the Weimar State and the beginning of the “Third Reich”.
The Social Democrats accepted the military defeat of 1918 as a national misfortune and only reluctantly took those steps towards the political conversion and preservation of the Reich that were later chalked up as November crimes. In view of the national misfortune that must be borne and overcome together, she renounced any measure against those responsible for the collapse. The social democracy acted according to the Bible verse: "Do not judge that you will not be judged."
The national revolution proceeded quite differently. She made Marxism responsible for the crisis in Germany (effects of the global economic crisis!), As if the German economy had been run by party and trade union leaders since 1918, and not by the Stinnes, Thyssen, Cuno, Vögler, Kirdorf, etc. The fact that the crisis in the pure Marxist USA began earlier and had worse consequences did not for a moment confuse the “national” accusers against German Marxism. They did not act according to a biblical saying, but according to an age-old principle of the class struggle: "Judge that you are not judged!" [...]
The people want a way out of the crisis and at the same time have to get the impression that a movement uses all the energy for the realization of their program.
The "Marxists" did not understand their task. They let themselves be pushed into the defense from the start and did not understand how to use any weaknesses of their opponents to their success.
If they opposed a four-week or four-month program with clear demands to the uncertain four-year program, the government would have been forced to formulate its program. Their future policies would be in contrast to the socialist program of the socialist opposition.
The demands of such a program are literally in demand. First, trend-setting demand: eradication of poverty by full application of all technical advances, removal of all capitalist inhibitions of a planned demand economy, immediate increase of the purchasing power to the reinstatement of the whole production apparatus.
But the socialists felt so oppressed by the old reproaches and were so little aware of the order of the day that the opponents completely determined the struggle. Certainly the enemy employed unfamiliar means; but its history shows that an aspiring movement can only be hindered a little [...]
1933, 11 Fritz Sturm