1923-1933 - Krupp and the Rise of the Nazis
Certain ideas and attitudes which form part of the Krupp tradition were also a basic part of the ideology of the Nazi Party. That is why there was something like a "coalition" between Adolf Hitler and Gustav Krupp, that is why Krupp policy and Nazi aims fused so successfully. It is quite possible that Gustav Krupp never heard of Adolf Hitler, of the Nazi Party until years after its foundation; it is quite possible that, whenever he first heard of Hitler, he did not support the Nazis until Hitler's appointment as Chancellor. But the common ground upon which both stood was established immediately after the First World War. The solid working alliance which was formed between Krupp and the Nazi Party by, if not before, 1933, was based on more than an abstract agreement on political principles. Each was vitally necessary to the other; on matters of fundamental political policy, Hitler and Krupp fitted together like a mortise and tenon joint.
The name, prestige, and financial support of Krupp was used to bring the NSDAP into power over Germany and to put into effect its announced program. The program of the Nazi Party coincided with the aspirations of the Krupp firm to reestablish a powerful Germany, with Krupp as the armament center. The main points of that program, which were first announced in 1920, and thereafter continually and publicly reiterated so as to become matters of common knowledge, were to remove the restrictions which the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain imposed on the military armament and activity of Germany; to reconstitute the Wehrmacht; and to acquire, by any means deemed opportune, including war, the territories lost by Germany as the result of the World War of 1914-1918 and other territories asserted to be occupied by so-called "racial Germans" or to be required by "racial Germans" as "Lebensraum" or living space.
Hitler's selection by Hindenburg as Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933 grew out of a conference earlier in January between Hitler and von Papen which had been arranged by the Cologne banker, von Schroeder. But Hindenburg's appointmentof Hitler as Chancellor did not constitute or assure the Nazi seizure of power; a majority of the members of the Reichstag were members of other parties, and the leaders of other parties were included in the cabinet which Hitler headed. Indeed, despite Hitler's appointment, the situation of the Nazi Party was not, in all respects, promising. The Nazis, at the election of November 1932, lost 2,000,000 votes in comparison to the election of July 1932 and their representation in the Reichstag had fallen from 230 to 196 seats.
New elections were scheduled for March 1933, and the Nazi Party was in desperate need of support, financial and otherwise, to insure such a measure of success as would continue Hitler in office and make possible the completion of the Nazi drive to dictatorship. In this critical situation, on 20 February 1933, Goering invited about twenty leading German bankers and industrialists to his home, in order to obtain financial support for the Nazis in the coming election.
On 20 February 1933, immediately prior to the crucial Reichstag election of 5 March 1933, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen, together with other leading industrialists, met Hitler at Goering's Berlin house. Hitler declared his treasonable purpose to seize power by violence if the Nazis failed in this election. Among other things he stated that private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy; when the defense of the existing order is left to a majority it will irretrievably go under; it is the noblest task of a leader to find ideals that are stronger than the factors that pull the people apart; he found them in nationalism, in the denial of reconciliation between nations, in the strength and power of individual personality; if one rejects pacifism, one must offer a new idea in its place immediately; we must not forget that all the benefits of culture must be introduced more or less with an iron fist, just as once upon a time the farmers were forced to plant potatoes; we must first gain power if we want to crush the other side completely; only when one knows that one has reached the pinnacle of power, that there is no further possible upward development, shall one strike; now we stand before the last election; regardless of the outcome there will be no retreat; if the election does not decide, the decision must be brought about by other means; there are only two possibilities, either to crowd back the opponent on the basis of the constitution, and for this purpose once more this election, or a struggle will be conducted with other weapons, which may demand greater sacrifices; the question of restoration of the Wehrmacht will not be decided at Geneva, but in Germany.
At the conclusion of the speech Goering asked for money (D-203, Pros. Ex. 187) saying that, "The sacrifice asked for would be so much easier for industry to bear if it realized that the election of 5 March will surely be the last one for the next ten years, possibly for the next hundred years."
One other man spoke at this meeting, (D-204, Pros. Ex. 188) and that was Gustav Krupp von Bohlen, who expressed to Hitler "the gratitude of approximately 25 industrialists present for having given us such a clear picture of the conception of his ideas." Krupp also stated, on behalf of all the industrialists, that it was high time "to finally clarify the questions pertaining to domestic policies in Germany" and "that only in a politically strong and independent state could economy and business develop and flourish." Gustav Krupp von Bohlen then initiated the collection of over 3,000,000 RM from the assembled industrialists with a pledge of 1,000,000 RM from the Ruhr.
the Nazi Party received seventeen million votes out of thirty-nine million cast, and 288 Reichstag seats out of a total of 647. Still lacking a majority, Hitler applied the "other methods" which he had threatened to use in his speech on 20 February. Opposition members in the Reichstag were taken into "protective custody" and in their enforced absence the Reichstag on 24 March 1933 passed the "Enabling Act" which turned Germany into a dictatorship.
Soon after the elections of 5 March Gustav Krupp von Bohlen had taken upon himself the leadership in rallying German industry behind the Nazi dictatorship. The day before the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, he convened a meeting of the Praesidium of the Reich Federation of German Industries, to discuss the political situation; on 25 March, the day after the Reichstag decree, a resolution of the Federation supporting the Nazi government was transmitted to Hitler.
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