Most fateful of all were the illusions that miserable and weak radio speeches could somehow make these decrees popular.
In my first open letter you to, Mr. Reich Chancellor, I pointed out the serious error in your opinion that Germany must first put its finances and economy in order if it were to have any hope of success in revising the Young Plan. I said then that such an improvement depended not only on revisions to the Young Plan, but also with regards to the Treaty of Versailles. And even were that to succeed, there would be no practical way to eliminate the burdens heaped upon us. How could we persuade the world of the impossibility of meeting these treaties if we proved them to in fact be possible by maintaining our financial and economic health? You, Mr. Reich Chancellor, attempted to present my opinion as mistaken in a speech to the Reichstag, saying that only by reaching into our last resources could we prove to the world the impossibility of fulfilling those treaty obligations.
New Desperate Attempts to Meet Treaty Obligations
First, Mr. Reich Chancellor Brüning, that impossibility has already been proven to the world. Second, one could have proven that to the world at any time during the past six years if one had wanted to. Third, is it true that the present government, in contrast to former ones, attempted to prove the impossibility of meeting what was demanded of us by depending exclusively on our own German resources. No!
In fact, the present government looked for new loans all over the world. Had they been given, it would have been new “proof” that the policy of meeting reparations demands was possible.
Each such tender blossom, no matter how unrealistic, has to strengthen the world’s mistaken belief that the reparations nonsense may not be nonsense after all. That, too, is a policy of illusion, Mr. Reich Chancellor.
I also found the proposal of a customs union an incomprehensible “daydream.” The whole thing was a classic example of a “policy of illusion!” What an illusion it is to think that without a “rehabilitation” of the inner nature of our people, it is possible to effectively represent our national interests to the outside world.
The Great Illusion of the Emergency Decrees
It is yet another “illusion” to believe that one can “rehabilitate the nation,” shaken by worldview conflicts as it is, through police measures authorized by laws.
It is an illusion to believe that we can pay two-and-half billion in tribute each year and two-and-a-half billion more in interest payments, just as is the idea that one can find domestic political support for such an impossibility for very long. No, Mr. Reich Chancellor! For thirteen years a ghostly Pegasus has flown through the blessed realm of limitless illusions: that animal is called German domestic and foreign policy!
Mr. Reich Chancellor, you asked that critical judgments on the new proposed laws be withheld until their effects are clear and demonstrable. I do not understand how a government unsure of itself could say this. A statesman convinced of the correctness of his actions and who expects success can only hope that his opponents will criticize them prematurely so that he can refute them once those actions are successful. However, a government that has learned from past experience to be uncertain of its success will naturally prefer to ban any criticism. It realizes in advance that the failure of its promises will later prove critics justified. It will, therefore, prefer to prohibit farsighted men from speaking and writing about developments in order to keep the opposition from later referring back to its prophecies and thereby earning the nation’s respect.
Brüning’s Social Policy
From a political standpoint I completely understand your desire for a Christmas peace. However, Mr. Reich Chancellor, I would like to look back to your speech during the parliamentary debate defending the first emergency decree. The results are not open to doubt. Back then you gave yourself over to illusions that are unforgivable for a statesman.
At the Reichstag session of 16 October 1930, Mr. Reich Chancellor, you said:
“The Reich government has developed a major economic and financial plan to overcome the crisis.”
Mr. Reich Chancellor, that major plan has proven to be an illusion, since the crisis was not overcome.
At the same session, you also said:
“With this emergency decree (of 26.7.30) the Reich President and the Reich government, based on Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, have taken the first steps to ameliorate the financial, economic, and social crisis.”
Mr. Reich Chancellor, neither the financial, nor the economic, nor the social crisis has been ameliorated. Such a view rests on an illusion. You further said:
“Important parts of the welfare system have been revised to make it possible to rescue the welfare system.”
Mr. Reich Chancellor, the welfare system seems to me to be less rescued that it was before. Instead, it is seriously threatened. I have the feeling here, too, that this statement will prove to be an illusion.
In that same speech, Mr. Reich Chancellor, you assured us that a basic principle of the reforms back then was the “simplification of the administrative system, in particular a taxation policy that does not unacceptably burden the productive process, but instead encourages savings by small savers, and finally sound financial accords between the Reich, the provinces, and the municipalities.”
Since all of these hopes went unfulfilled, we can relegate to the area of illusions as well.
It also turned out to be an illusion that everything would be done as part of this economic plan to put as many people to work as possible.
Finally, you assured us:
“In view of the spiritual and economic crisis of our fatherland, the government considers it one of its most important tasks to do all it can to combat cultural decline as energetically as possible. The severe crisis that Germany must overcome (as already mentioned, that was said on 10.10.30) demands moral strength and courageous solidarity on the part of all who love the fatherland.”
Mr. Reich Chancellor, was that an illusion, was it wishful thinking, or are the filthy films in Germany today, along with the Marxist-Jewish cultural subversion we see everywhere, among those efforts to combat cultural destruction?
It was an illusion, however, when you said back then that:
“Sacrifices must be demanded that will lead the way to freedom and recovery.”
Economic sacrifices are only secondary to the freedom of peoples. It must primarily be achieved through political sacrifices and achievements. Any other viewpoint is an illusion.
Brüning Admits the System’s Illusions
Mr. Reich Chancellor, the new emergency decree on which one places such hopes will also prove an illusion. Early in your speech you said the following:
“On the eve of the publication of a fateful emergency decree I consider it my duty to explain to the German people the goals and decisions of the Reich government. The new measures are the result of world economic conditions, of the burdens laid on the German people, and of our own mistakes. Every day there are new signs of world-wide economic collapse. The sinking of England’s currency affects other currencies.
A wild economic war of enormous proportions has broken out.
The causes of the general crisis, and of Germany’s particular role in it, are known. Nonetheless, there are serious worries as to whether the governments can draw the necessary conclusions from this knowledge quickly enough.
Holding to formal legal principles cannot solve the world’s problems. Broad solutions free from the outdated thinking of the past must be found. Partial solutions for the world are insufficient.”
As a National Socialist, Mr. Reich Chancellor, I owe you thanks for noting for the first time that the responsibility for the present catastrophe is the result of mistakes that our governments have made.And since you are further of the opinion that “holding to formal legalities” cannot solve the world’s problems, you are also admitting indirectly that your own government is apparently continuing these mistakes by relying on formal legal measures in the form of these emergency decrees. I assume that none of the former governments made these mistakes with bad intentions or ill will, instead presumably later recognizing as mistakes what they first though to be correct and helpful; however, these governments erred in the most important and critical matters. They fell victim to “wishful thinking” and chased after “illusions.”
You minimize this reproach by adding “world economic conditions” as another reason. Here German governments have succumbed to the worst illusions. However, Mr. Reich Chancellor, you yourself were convinced that the Young Plan was practical, and would lead to improvements because of “world conditions.” What a terrible illusion! When you speak of the “outdated thinking” of the past and propose broad solutions that are free of such thinking, I can probably say that this outdated thinking was yours, Mr. Reich Chancellor, and that we have proposed such broad solutions free from outdated thinking for years now.
Your criticism of holding to formal legal principles stands in sharp contradiction to the fear evident in your thinking that the National Socialists might achieve power legally, but thereafter sin against the formal legal principles of the constitution. Why so so broad-minded on one case and so worried in the other?
I have not addressed the particulars of the emergency decree. I only intend to establish for the future that its results, too, will be an illusion.
Laws and Implementation Decrees
If an emergency decree is to be unveiled to the world with such aplomb, it cannot be justified by references to this or that aspect of the general crisis, but rather it has to make a fundamental contribution to alleviating causes of the crisis. All great laws have the advantage of having some immediate effect. The lawgiver in such cases the task of finding the cause of the difficulties in the life of the community, and of changing things. There must, therefore, be a sharp distinction between the law and its methods of implementation. The law must not only meet its goal, but also the goal must be clear in every regard.
What is the goal of the new emergency decree?
If the general claim is to “heal” the damages of the present, that purpose should be clear in the individual details.
The present situation can be characterized by the following points: