Call of the cultural workers

Joseph Goebbels: Call of the cultural workers . Excerpt from Völkischer Beobachter from August 18, 1934

The call for cultural workers , a manifesto formulated by Joseph Goebbels , appeared on August 18, 1934 in the Völkischer Beobachter , the party organ of the NSDAP , on the eve of the referendum on the head of state of the German Reich . With this plebiscite six weeks after the so-called Röhm Putsch and two weeks after the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg , the Hitler government wanted the head of government ( Reich Chancellor ) to take over the office of head of state ( Reich President ), which it had already decided on August 1, 1934 Adolf Hitler ) have the people confirmed.

The newspaper release reads:

Call of the cultural workers

Berlin, August 17th.

The undersigned personalities make the following appeal to the public:

Comrades, friends!

We buried one of the greatest German histories. At his coffin the young leader of the empire spoke for us all, and made confession for himself and the future will of the nation.

He put word and life as pledge for the rebuilding of our people, who want to live in unity and honor and be guarantors of the peace that unites the peoples. We believe in this leader who fulfilled our ardent desire for unity.

We trust his work, which demands devotion beyond all struggling rationality, we place our hope in the man who believes in God's providence beyond people and things.

Because the poet and artist can only create with equal loyalty to the people, and because he proclaims the same and deepest conviction that the most sacred right of the peoples is to determine their own destiny, we belong to the Fuhrer's allegiance.

We demand nothing else for ourselves than what we allow other peoples without reservation, we must demand it for this people, the German people, because their unity, freedom and honor is the need and will of all of us.

The Fuehrer asked us again to be faithful and loyal to him. None of us will be absent when it comes to expressing this.

The 37 signatories were Werner Beumelburg , Ernst Barlach , Rudolf G. Binding , Hans Friedrich Blunck , publishers Alfred Bruckmann (Bruckmann Verlag) , Richard Euringer , Emil Fahrenkamp , Erich Feyerabend , Gustav Frenssen , Wilhelm Furtwängler , Eberhard Hanfstaengl , Gustav Havemann , Erich Heckel , Eugen Hönig , Heinz Ihlert , Hanns Johst , Georg Kolbe , Erwin Kolbenheyer , Werner Krauss , Franz Lenk , Heinrich Lersch , Karl Lörcher , architect Walter March , Agnes Miegel , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , Börries Freiherr von Münchhausen , Emil Nolde , Paul Pfund, Hans Pfitzner , Wilhelm Pinder , Paul Schultze-Naumburg , Hermann Stehr , Richard Strauss , Joseph Thorak , General Manager Heinz Tietjen , Lord Mayor Johannes Weidemann , Arnold [Adolf?] Weinmüller .

The referendum on August 19, 1934 gave Hitler a clear majority of 89.9%.

In 1944 Goebbels and Hitler put the following signatories of the appeal on the so-called God-gifted list: Hanns Johst, Georg Kolbe, Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer, Agnes Miegel, Hans Pfitzner, Josef Thorak, Hans Friedrich Blunck, Gustav Frenssen, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Werner Krauss, Börries Freiherr von Münchhausen, Paul Schultze-Naumburg and Richard Strauss.

See also

• Confession of professors at German universities and colleges to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist state : a similar action at universities in the winter of 1933/34
• Pledge of loyal allegiance by 88 authors in October 1933

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gudula Mayr: Review of Peter Paret, An Artist against the Third Reich: Ernst Barlach, 1933-1939 . H-Artist, H-Net Reviews. October, 2003. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=8281
2. ^ Völkischer Beobachter , Edition A / North German Edition. Vol. 47, No. 230 from August 18, 1934. Oldenburg State Library, Sign. GE III 1 D 327
3. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 285.
4. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 326.
5. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 326.
6. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 409.
7. ↑ redok.de ( Memento from March 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Gerald Lehner, ORF.at  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.