An alley for truth

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One Alley for Truth is the title of the autobiography of the former German Chancellor Franz von Papen . The volume of memoirs was first published in 1952 under the title Memoirs by Verlag André Deutsch in Great Britain and a little later in the same year in German translation under the title mentioned by Verlag List .

content

In his autobiography, Papen traces his life as a German officer, diplomat and politician from his birth in 1879 to the early 1950s on almost 700 pages. He devotes a lot of space in particular to the controversial periods and events of his life, in particular his role in the formation of the Hitler government in January 1933 ("Hitler's Stirrup Holder") and his responsibility for the politics of the National Socialists up to the catastrophe of World War II and the Holocaust . Papen also deals extensively with his work as a military attaché in the United States and as an officer in the Mesopotamian theater of war during the First World War ; his role as a member of the Center Party in the Prussian state parliament from 1921 to 1932 and as the majority shareholder of the center newspaper Germania; his time as Reich Chancellor in the second half of 1932; his activities in the Third Reich as Vice Chancellor of Hitler in 1933 and 1934 and as Ambassador in Vienna and Ankara from 1934 to 1944; as well as the indictment of Papen as a war criminal before the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1945/1946 as well as the subsequent arbitration chamber proceedings.

Edition history

The book was originally written in English by Brian Connell . The basis were documents that Papen made available to him. Then Papen and his son made a translation of Connell's English text into German.

title

Papen erroneously referred to the expression "The Truth One Alley" from Arnold Winkelried , who is said to have proclaimed this at the Battle of Sempach in 1386. Winkelried is said to have seized the spears of the enemies facing him and thus opened a breach (= alley) for his fellow combatants in the enemy front. By his sacrificial death, the Swiss could have achieved victory over Austria. This misspelling of the term was common in the past. With the title of his memoir, von Papen wanted to suggest to the reader that the author, in Eschenburg's words, “wants to be a Winkelried of truth”.

The title of the work is therefore not an allusion to Theodor Körner's appeal “Der Freiheit ein Gasse”, which had become a household word in the German national movement in the 19th century.

reception

Papen's autobiography received a largely negative response in both the German and international press. The same applies to the judgment of historical research. Exceptions were Turkey and Francoist Spain, where Papen was honored.

The main focus of the criticism was the basic apologetic tendency of Papen's writing: Often reference was made to Papen's tendency to either silently omit facts that would have been likely to put his person in a negative light or by giving incomplete, decontextualizing or simply incorrect information gloss over. Johann Rudolf Nowak, for example, judged in this context that the book is based “on the principle of omissions” and that in parts it has sunk “to a mere falsification of history ”.

Theodor Eschenburg presented one of the first reviews of Papen's memoirs. A characteristic of the book is "how much in his case vanity and political talent are in inverse relationship to one another." For Eschenburg, Papen's "childlike, primitive notion" of politics is characteristic of Papen's political failure:

“He neither thinks about the consequences of his plans and measures, nor does he take into account the opponent's reaction. He lacks the experience of the practical politician and therefore also the imagination to see imaginary constructions in their real potential for effect. He doesn't think in terms of a dynamic play of forces, but in an authoritarian-static way. "

Eschenburg found the book's low knowledge content disappointing: “The content does not meet the requirements of this [high-flying] title. The memorabilia, with their distortions and omissions, are a moderate form of defense. But the fact that Papen has chosen such an ambitious title for this content marks it. "

Other reviewers made similar statements regarding Papen's tendency to be self-important and his inability to deal self-critically with his own decisions and actions. Robert Wistrich, for example, in “ Who was who in the Third Reich ?” Complained that Papen's work was “remarkable as a testimony to boundless overestimation of himself and complacency”.

Karl Dietrich Bracher characterized Papen's autobiography as "the penetrating book of justification of the naive and conceited man".

On the other hand, Karl Heinz Roth Papen, despite a strict rejection of his person and politics, admits that he had demonstrated certain literary skills with his book:

“Papen's spelling was a bit baroque and cumbersome, but quite coherent, logical in itself and often astonishingly powerful. Even if he loved to vary the set pieces of his ideological stories metaphorically, he was quite able to present complex constellations of cultural, military, economic and foreign policy clearly and to bring them to the point. "

Ulrike Hörster-Philipps assessed the scientific source value of Papen's memoirs as very low: They were “driven by the effort to put your own person in the most advantageous light possible. They contain little usable material, often give a distorted representation of reality and are therefore almost unusable. "

Political journalists ridiculed Papen's book as “the street hit of truth” ( Rudolf Pechel in the mirror) or “dead end of truth” (Stern), or satirized the title of “The truth in the gutter”.

Reviews

Important reviews of Papen's memoirs are available from:

  • Ludwig Bergstrasse : Political Literature , 1st year, 1952, pp. 173–176.
  • Max Braubach : Historisches Jahrbuch , 73rd year, 1954, p. 161.165.
  • Werner Conze : "Papens Memoiren", in: Historische Zeitschrift , Vol. 175, pp. 307-317.
  • Karl Dietrich Erdmann : History in Science and Education , 4th year, 1953, pp. 41–43.
  • Theodor Eschenburg : "Franz von Papen", in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 1st year, 1953, pp. 153–169.
  • Erich Eyck : "Papen als Historiker", in: Deutsche Rundschau , 78th year, 1952, pp. 1221-1230.
  • Otto Heinrich von der Gablentz : Merkur , 8 vol., 1953, issue 9, pp. 874–880.
  • Friedrich Glum : Political Literature , Vol. 159, 1952, pp. 176-180.
  • Walter Hubatsch : German Memoirs , 1945–1955, 2nd edition, Ulm 1956, p. 15.
  • Werner Jochmann : "To Papen's memories", in: The historical-political book , 1st year (1953), pp. 2-4.
  • Rudolf Pechel : "The truth in the dead end", in: Deutsche Rundschau , 78th year, 1952, pp. 1231-1234.
  • Heinrich Sanden : "The Memoirs of Herr von Papen", in: pp. 31–34.
  • Richard Sexau : "Papen on his own account", in: Neues Abendland , 7th year, 1952, pp. 671–675.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Theodor ESCHENBURG: Franz von Papen. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on June 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ifz-muenchen.de
  2. ↑ Nowak: Schleicher , p. 1384.
  3. ↑ a b Theodor ESCHENBURG: Franz von Papen. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on June 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ifz-muenchen.de
  4. ^ Robert S. Wistrich: Who's Who in Nazi Germany . Routledge, 2013, ISBN 978-1-136-41381-0 ( google.de [accessed June 13, 2017]).
  5. ^ Karl Dietrich Bracher: The German Dilemma. Paths of suffering of political emancipation. 1971, p. 119.
  6. ^ Karl Heinz Roth : Franz von Papen and German Fascism . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft (ZfG), vol. 51 (2003), pp. 589–625, here p. 621.
  7. ↑ Hörster-Philipps: Conservative Politics in the Final Phase of the Weimar Republic , 1982, p. 7.
  8. ↑ z. B. Hans Georg Graf Lambsdorff: The Weimar Republic. Verlag Lang, 1990, p. 337
  9. ^ Rainer Orth: "The official seat of the opposition" ?: Politics and state restructuring plans in the office of the Deputy Chancellor in the years 1933–1934 . Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2016, ISBN 978-3-412-50555-4 ( google.de [accessed on June 13, 2017]).

expenditure

  • An alley for truth. List, Innsbruck 1952.