Adolf Hitler (1933-1945)
The first German leader to assume the role of both Chancellor and President, he did not live to enjoy the fruits of German victory that he worked for years to attain.
Adolf Hitler might have not even been a footnote in history if his sheer animal instincts did not serve him so well. He clawed his way into power in the Nazi Party, politically out-maneuvered some otherwise much more polished politicians in the early 1930s, and then sent Germany into a seemingly impossible re-armaments program with the result of making the "Third Reich," as he called it, the ascendant state in Europe. Using the Presidential "emergency powers" allowed by the Weimar Constitution after the passing of the Enabling Act, Hitler ruled more like a brutal dictator than a statesman. However, this was true of several of the world's great powers, particularly the Soviet Union (Joseph Stalin as the Soviet dictator in the mid 1920s) and United States (Huey Long was catapulted into power on a tidal wave of resentment against the centrist wing of the Democratic Party, who still nominally held power after the Businessman's Plot of 1933.)
Like Long, and unlike Stalin, Hitler was particularly popular among the citizenry. The German people supported Hitler because of the economic resurgence he supposedly commanded and bold foreign policy moves that miraculously worked out. It bolstered German pride. After making a treaty with the Soviet Union, the Germans started the Second World War by invading Poland. Both France and Britain declared war on Germany, but merely months later were completely out-maneuvered leading to the mass-surrender of the flowers of their respective armies when the Germans captured Dunkirk. France soon made peace with the Germans and the Hailfax Administration followed suit in order to pre-empt any Italian designs in North Africa. France, as part of their reparations, had to allow emigration of Europeans from German territories.
Hitler did not live to see his final conquest, that of the Soviet Union. It was a long, four year slog that the whole world saw coming. Millions of Germans, along with Serbians, Hungarians, Greeks, Finns, Romanians, and other Eastern Europeans who were pressured into giving military assistance to the ongoing campaign. Hitler took a very active role in the conduct of the war, often using methamphetamine and other "medicines" prescribed by Dr. Morrell in order to receive briefings all evening pertaining to the needs of the military. During this time, Herman Goering took an increasingly active role in the day-to-day operations of German civil governance and Heinrich Himmler positioned himself to take a greater role in military affairs. Due to intransigence, the Abwehr was abolished in 1944, it's main functions taken over by the SS in the Reich Main Security Office. This would become particularly significant as military intelligence would evolve to be the primary function of the SS, while its secondary function was still to arm and equip non-Germans for military service. Just weeks away from final Russian capitulation, Hitler died of a stroke which was caused by the deteriorated state of his body. Dr. Morrell, suspected of poisoning the dictator, was secretly tortured and executed. Stalin would commit suicide during the Battle of Moscow and much of the Soviet high-command and military leadership were suspected of treason, and in hiding. On May 7th, 1945 Herman Goering would be the triumphant leader who would sign the surrender terms with Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, the de facto leader of the Soviet government at that time.
Herman Goering (1945-1953 )
A surprisingly able and energetic President who was the architect of a working democracy in the Third Reich, he would bounce back mentally and physically from his third stint at Långbro mental hospital (pictured here) to be a popular guest on political radio and television until his death.
Herman Goering may be remembered now as the great elder statesman of the Third Reich and a surprising reformer, but new research has shown how his psychological problems have played a large role behind much of his decisions. Goering, being institutionalized several times, had always found his sanity in directing his energies to a purpose that he found productive for himself. If others benefited from it, well, that was just fine.
During World War II, Hitler was greatly pleased with Goering's work. The economic plans must have been working, as Germany was winning the war, the Luftwaffe's management was superb as they were the most successful branch of the Heer, and Goering's loyalty was unquestioned as he made no moves for increased power, even as he managed more and more on the homefront. When Hitler died, Goering was the unquestioned heir apparent. He came at a politically opportune time, as he got to be the Fueher who oversaw German victory in the war.
Goering acted in a fashion very much out of step with his apologists, and his own statements on the record during his nearly 20 year retirement. He did not rescind any emergency powers after the war, and very much ruled as a dictator just as Hitler had done. The post-war economic recession was short, but very painful. The forced emigration of European Jewry to Madagascar and Syria was very costly in several ways. Thousands, if not a million Jews, died in the process of being rounded up and sent to concentration camps in French colonies, where lack of economic opportunity and niggardly facilities meant widespread disease and death. The British were angry, as these conditions encouraged mass illegal immigration into the British territory of Palestine, which declared independence in 1947--the same year as the Indian insurrection. It also politically cost him with Nazi conservatives, who were irritated that the Germans would actually spend money feeding and clothing subhumans and not commandeer absolutely all of their assets for state use.
His dealings with occupied peoples was somewhat more enlightened. Wartime starvation measures were rescinded and the whole "living space thing" never seemed to gain steam. After losing millions of young men fighting the Soviets our of Europe, Germany and her cronies had no more stomach for losing millions more in an occupation. Pragmatism won the day, though the "wild east" was known for its dangers. Many German boys serving their mandatory two years in the Wermacht hoped and prayed that they would avoid service in the East, or Germany's other adventures. Often, the poor and uneducated were not so lucky.
Ever the pragmatist, Goering's foreign policy proved to be very cautious. Goering became very much aware that his main enemy was Great Britain. Still holders of the world's largest empire, their stocks of Anthrax and soon to be nuclear weapons were enough to humble his mindset. German designs in the Middle East were inflaming tensions, and Goering was convinced he couldn't both solve the Jewish question
and fight the British in another costly war. This did not please Nazi extremists, such as Martin Bormann. They insisted Germany had no equal in the world as the United States was in civil war, Japan was still bogged down fighting the Chinese and the Russians, and the British were "soundly defeated at Dunkirk." Goering knew better.
In order to placate the more extremist elements of his party, he started sending military support to assist the Japanese military in Korea, as the Chinese and Soviets were close to pushing them out of the peninsula. The idea was to exercise German muscle and to maintain a pro-Axis status quo globally. Great Britain, while not militarily supporting the Soviets or Chinese directly, did send quite a few jet aircraft and (secretly) pilots to assist the Japan's enemies. The stress of dealing with the ceaseless war and the talk of coups was more than he can bear. Goering's morphine habit started growing out of control and he soon would need to be institutionalized again, but typical of his acumen, he was able to pull himself together in a nic of time.
Striking a deal with the Wermacht, he exposed a putsch attempt among the SS. Interestingly enough, neither Heinrich Himmler or Reinhard Heydrich were supposedly involved, though it is more likely that they were given a deal they could not refuse. The ringleader "fanatics" were executed while the good, "cool and steady hand" bureaucrats like Heinich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich were given roles in maintaining the Reich Main Security Office and Waffen SS respectively. Without the SS acting as a military buffer against the army, Goering justifiably feared a potential coup.
Taking to the airwaves on radio and television, Goering railed against the elements opposed to German civilian government and warned against "the military industrial complex" taking over the affairs of German life. He rescinded emergency powers after forcing through changes to the Weimar Constitution. Goering was the last Fueher to be both President and Chancellor. The office of Chancellor was removed and the German people were given the opportunity to vote for a President directly, thereby preventing political wheeling and dealing. After setting a date for elections, Goering agreed to serve until the election was finished. At this point, the war in Korea had hit a stalemate and the Soviets and Chinese were merely waiting for the change in German leadership to sign an official peace.
German war-hero Walter Model was elected as President on the program of being tough enough to finish the war in Korea and maintain Germany's fragile democratic experiment. After taking a short vacation at the insane asylum again, Herman Goering would radically re-write his own history by living an otherwise happy and public life, frequently attending events and appearing on television. His autobiography
Profiles in Courage is second behind
My Stuggle and the
Bible as the top selling books in German history. He died peacefully in his sleep at 79 years old on December 26, 1972.
Walter Model (1953-1961)
Posing for the last time in his military uniform, Walter Model abolished the practice of politicians donning military regalia.
A seemingly apolitical man, Model's main passion was serving Germany in wherever he felt that he was called. He is remembered very positively simply because he served as President during an era of limited tensions and peace abroad. Surprisingly austere and unselfish, his middle class background made him popular with the masses and his great victories in Leningrad and Moscow made him revered among the army, who even at this early stage was mostly led by new generals of a similar background as himself.
While Germans became free at the voting booth, the Gestapo frequently spied on the lives of prominent people and the SS still conducted human experiments on Slavs, who were segregated from the general population. A far cry from wartime brutality, the SS still was not beyond purposely giving unwilling subjects syphilis and secretly testing others with psychedelic drugs in order to test their effects as late as 1972. Model was unconcerned, as his only real goal was law and order. Democracy was merely a means to prevent the German military from destroying the country via multiple coups. He was no fan of human freedom per se.
Yet, he cautiously allowed some racial reforms as well. In the Waffen SS, indigenous commanders were now allowed to lead units. Harsh anti-slav German repopulation policies, having failed terribly (most Germans wanted to work in the cities of Germany instead of slave away on Polish and Ukrainian soil), were increasingly rescinded until they only nominally existed, a nod to Nazi racial ideology that was becoming passe. Racial politics theoretically reigned supreme, as Germanization and Meritocracy demanded that only the very best Slavs would participate on an equal footing with Germans. However, the fact that they could even achieve equal footing politically and economically by merit was a huge departure from previous policy. With no hope of rebellion coupled with the fact that genocidal policies having mostly ended after the war, for now most of Europe remained pliant.
German society as a whole was not terribly concerned about politics. Everyone wanted the latest and greatest Mercedes or Krupp coffee maker. "Keeping up with the Schultz's" became a popular expression referring to always trying to one-up the neighbors.
Germany's booming manufacturing economy led to greater concentrations of household wealth. Many families invested heavily in their sons' educations, so as to assure that they would not be posted outside of western Europe when they served their obligatory military service (which was deferred until after college in this case.) The average factory job was no longer something that middle class Germans aspired to do, so Italian, Hungarian, and Ukrainian immigrants (as western Ukrainians were granted "Aryan status" by the Racial Purity Laws of 1954 due to their Varangian origins) flooded into Germany's cities.
Cities became increasingly racially integrated. Neighborhoods started changing and different peoples increasingly intermingled to the point that conservative Nazis (many of which still controlled local governments) started upholding racial laws to the letter. This included segregation in public and private places, as well as upholding miscegenation laws.
Many marriages were forced underground, which ironically created an entirely new social peril: The "unwed mother syndrome." It become a running joke in welfare offices that yet another German girl was doing her duty for the Fatherland by birthing more non-Aryan, Aryans. The fact that it was financially advantageous to have these out-of-wedlock children merely increased the allure for inter-racial marriages among many German women. By having an underground marriage they can save themselves the social stigma of not having a husband, but attain to the generous social benefits that true single-mothers were entitled to. Suffice it to say, German illegitimacy rates increased from 9% to 28% from 1950-1970.
After serving two four year terms as President, Model expressed no interest in a third (though the Weimar Constitution did not enforce term limits). He did not much enjoy politics and felt that by leaving on his own accord, he would help establish a tradition which would help make the German state more stable and less reliant upon strongmen. He would otherwise live a quiet retired life, unlike Goering. While Goering spent his retirement aggrandizing himself, Model kept to himself and out of politics, not even making so much as an endorsement--a trend that continued in German politics until the 1990s. He died of congestive heart failure on March 28, 1969 at the age of 69.
...to be continued...