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A German Vision

Germans like to be visionaries. It runs in the national character. One group of Germans in recent history had ample time and reason to develop visions: the resistance against Hitler. For six long years, from 1938 to 1944, they were plotting to overthrow the Nazi regime.

During the first years of World War II the tide had turned against them. Germany was reaping surprise victories on all fronts; Hitler appeared to be gifted with exceptional strategic talent and luck on the battlefield. Clearly, the German people would then not have understood the need to overthrow this powerful and successful regime.

Even foreign politicians had in the late thirties often not been willing to listen to warnings from members of the German resistance that Hitler was planning war and terrible mayhem: they merely suspected Hitler's opponents of being poor patriots.

Only after the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in 1942/43, a successsful coup could hope to find some degree of acceptance among the German population. But it took the plotters another two years to find the tiny hole in Hitler's armor which permitted to explode a bomb at his Wolfsschanze headquarters which, however, failed to kill him. Even thereafter, a majority of Germans considered the plotters as traitors rather than heroes. It took years of postwar experience and re-education to change that attitude.

Still today, the view is not uncommon that the resistance movement consisted of a small group of mainly conservative nationalists isolated from the German mainstream whose endeavors were more heroic than well conceived.

One of the few lucky survivors of Nazi fury, Rudolf Pechel, had been set free in April 1945 at his son Peter's daredevil request, after having spent years in prisons and concentration camps. He immediately wrote a comprehensive report “German Resistance” (Deutscher Widerstand) which was published in 1947, long before historians and two new German governments started to interpret past events and sometimes muddied the picture.

Dr. Pechel's account provides impressive testimony of how broadly the resistance was anchored in the German society. With the traditional elites, the churches, the trade unions, public administration, academia and the military, most walks of German life were represented in the various circles of the opposition. The only group conspicuously missing were the capitalists: owners and managers of industry, trade and banks. It would be interesting to discover why.

Dozens of persons are mentioned and described in Pechel's book. He knew most of them personally from his decades as publisher of the Deutsche Rundschau and as a conservative politician, from his own anti-Hitler activities, or from talking to them in prison courtyards — sometimes only days or hours before they were executed. A powerful statement based on comprehenseive knowledge and a remarkably sharp memory.

Amazing is the fact that none among these dozens of opponents, their close friends and families tipped off the government. In some instances protagonists themselves were too outspoken and naïve for their own good, and were arrested. Written documents such as Dr. Goerdeler's — the prospective chancellor of a post-Hitler government —- list of ministers made it easy for the secret service Gestapo to obtain death sentences for all involved. Later, Gestapo did not need political sentences any more, they killed suspected opponents at wanton.

Interestingly enough, other important people had been contacted by the conspirators and urged to participate. Some did but others refused — among them top generals and field marshals — but some expressed their willingness to support the cause after Hitler had been removed. This attitude might be considered lukewarm but it still expressed courage by running the personal risk of persecution should their names ever come up under torture of arrested conspirators.

Many among those who were contacted by the plotters and did not join harbored considerable doubts whether the conspirators would be efficient and lucky enough to remove Hitler and wrest power from his followers. In fact, due to a string of bad luck, hesitation and organizational shortcomings the conspirators did not succeed. Yet, none among the lukewarm outsiders tipped off the government — another proof how much tacit support the resistance movement enjoyed among German elites and how deeply they felt that Hitler had to be removed, the sooner the better.

While Hitler's alcolytes were planning his role after victory, the resistance movement was busy with opposite plans.

Dr. Goebbels and others were considering elevating Hitler to divine status by turning all churches in occupied Europe into temples for the Führer. (regards from Kim Il Sung of North Korea) His eventual death was to be concealed: it was to be interpreted as mythical disappearance into Nazi heaven, with the troubling possibility of eventual reappearance (regards from emperor Barbarossa).

The opposition movement used the leaden years of waiting by developing blueprints for a post-Hitler Germany. Originally, Dr Goerdeler had been dreaming of a Germany within its pre-World War I borders — including Alsace-Lorraine, parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. After Stalingrad, plans became more realistic.

However, due to the eclectic mix of conspirators from many parts of the political spectrum, the plans for Germany remained diffuse. Historic sources indicate that the plotters would have opted for a parliamentary system of limited democracy by establishing a parliament with part of the members appointed rather than elected. Very strong was the intention to abolish tyranny and to re-introduce the rule of law and the civil liberties enjoyed during the Weimar republic without, however, creating a party-based democracy which — according to widespread views — had abysmally failed during the chaotic Weimar years.

As regards economic policy, the resistance was split between a free market school of Freiburg academics and a powerful thrust toward nationalization supported by the trade unions, the social democrats and many nationalist conservatives who considered capitalism as running against the German character and its typical qualifications.

By 1944, all dreams of negotiating an honorable peace had vanished, and the conspirators were, according to Dr. Pechel and others, united in the conviction that unconditional surrender remained the only option. That might have been a reason why key field marshals in command of the armies such as v. Kluge and v. Manstein refused to participate. (It is an interesting thought that Hitler's removal from power might actually have strengthened the German military by eliminating a long and unpredictable line of command and giving more power of decision to the commanders in the field)

Less controversial than the ideas for shaping future Germany were ideas for the future of Europe and the world. But how could a bunch of German dissidents even dare to develop ideas for a new global order?

The answer is simple: By 1938, Germany had become the second largest world economy after the United States. The annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia made Germany Europe's powerhouse, and it looked set for still more gains.

Small wonder that the resistance, among them the cream of conservative nationalists and also some disgruntled former Nazis, initially habored grand ideas about the role of a post-Hitler Germany. To look at these ideas today provides some surprises.

A paper prepared by Dr. Goerdeler and others for Field Marshal von Witzleben was discovered by the Gestapo and reproduced as a top secret government document, quoted by Dr. Pechel.

The paper recommends the creation of larger economic spaces, taking national sentiments into due account, by establishing state unions (Staatsunionen) which would group several countries. These unions were to have common foreign, economic and defence policies. Germany was to be integrated with Austria, Italy with Libya. Poland was to form an East European union with the Baltic states. Belgium was to join France and possibly Switzerland. A re-united Yugoslavia, together with Greece, Albania and Bulgaria would form a Balkans Union, etc.

In addition to the state unions, the paper proposed the establishment of a European Reconstruction Community (Europäische Wiederaufbaugemeinschaft) for joint procurement of raw materials, mutual assistance and exchange of experience. The community was to be served by a secretariat, led by a directorate and supervised by a council on which all unions were to be equally represented.

Going a big step further, the document envisaged the creation of a European Federation (Staatenbund) aiming at reducing customs tariffs, harmonizing economic legislation and transport, facilitating joint air traffic, debt consolidation, bank clearing, joint administration of European colonies (which cease to be national ones but for the loss of which the “mother” countries would receive due compensation), a joint police force and joint continental defence.

Three years after the peace agreement. European citizens should again (as before World War I) be able to travel freely across Europe without passport and currency controls.

A curious aspect of the document was the creation of a world airborne police corps (Weltluftpolizei) to be jointly directed and funded by the member states, and to be headed by a Swede, with deputies from Switzerland and Portugal. The airborne police was supposed to fight crime in general, especially air and sea piracy and smuggling, and to provide emergeny assistance.

To complete the bold design of a new world order, the paper recommended the creation of a World Federation of Nations (Weltbund der Nationen) implementing decisions of an International Court. Members of the World Federation would be unions and large communities rather than individual countries (A Panamerican Union, or the U.S. and Latin America, separately; the British Empire, the European Federation; the Soviet Union; China, Japan, Turkey and Iran, and the Arab countries).

This structure would be complemented by an International Court of Arbitration (Weltschiedsgerichtshof).

The Federation of Nations was supposed to work for peace, settle conflicts, improve international law, favor world trade — especially by establishing a World Trade Bank (Welthandelsbank) — and enhance public health.

The World Trade Bank was to be a powerful institution to which governments were liable to submit their budgets, their public accounts as well as information on their level of public debt. Central banks should be obliged by national law not to exceed certain limits of credit to their governments, and central bank governors should be personally responsible for any excess credit they approve.

Ideas which may sound rather pertinent in modern day Europe, more than sixty years after the paper was crafted. None of its authors survived World War II. None of the architects of postwar Europe is likely to have read this paper which Pechel called “eerily unreal.”

In hindsight it is surprising that Germany achieved the much admired miracle of reconstruction shortly after the cataclysm which not only had nearly wiped out a generation of young men but also deprived it of many of its best and bravest future leaders.

—— John Wantock