Peace speech of May 17, 1933

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On May 17, 1933, Adolf Hitler gave an approximately one-hour speech in the German Reichstag (in the Kroll Opera House ), which is known as the so-called " peace speech" because of its apparently conciliatory tone . In historical research there is a unanimous view that he was deceiving the public about his political plans.

history

background

The background lay in the German position before the League of Nations , especially in the Geneva Disarmament Conference . After the negotiations were on the verge of lifting numerous restrictions on the basis of equal rights for Germany at the end of 1932, the will of the former allies to make concessions had clearly dwindled when Hitler came to power . The “Maundy Thursday debate” on April 13 in the British House of Commons was a striking feature. The former British Foreign Minister Austen Chamberlain considered it inopportune, in view of the events in Germany, to think further about a revision of the Versailles Treaty. In terms of foreign policy, the German Reich was completely isolated. Only Japan brought a certain movement into the international system when, after the threatened sanctions against Japanese aggression in Manchuria in 1931/32, on March 27, 1933, it announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations. This ushered in a crisis of the principle of collective security , which offered German foreign policy an opportunity. The German position was favorable in that the League of Nations was in the process of disintegration and Hitler's claim to fend off Bolshevism was well received before the impression of Stalinist terrorism in Western Europe. Nevertheless, on May 5, 1933, after the long hesitation of his predecessors, Hitler finally extended the Berlin treaty with the Soviet Union by three years, which created new uncertainties about the need to develop German-Russian cooperation.

Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath , like State Secretary Bernhard von Bülow, had the confidence of Hindenburg and protected the tradition-oriented diplomats and specialist officials from Hitler's interference. In May 1933, Neurath wanted to use a more self-confident tone to represent the demand for equality and German armament in Geneva more emphatically in order to give a signal for a change of course. This could have included a demonstrative extract from the Geneva negotiations and there were also agreements with the Reichswehr leadership around Minister Werner von Blomberg . Hitler had already secretly announced a course of armament and conquest of new living space with "ruthless Germanization" ( Liebmann recording on February 3, 1933), but he saw a phase of internal consolidation for the Nazi state lasting at least four years (" Hold still ") as necessary. After the left-wing parties and then the trade unions had been broken up on May 2, 1933, it was also unclear whether German society would still offer resistance to further “ conformity ”. The Reichstag elected in March was only convened for the third (and last time) on May 17th. The immediate reason for this was the League of Nations decision of May 11, according to which, under French influence, German militia-like associations such as the SA , SS and Stahlhelm should be included in the calculation of military strength and conscription should remain prohibited. However, Hitler had planned their reintroduction as the basis of future military strength for the Reichswehr.

Content and classification of the speech

In this difficult foreign and domestic political situation, Chancellor Hitler gave his first major foreign policy speech on May 17, 1933. With the address broadcast by radio, he wanted to emphasize the generally peaceful character of German goals in the tradition of moderate Weimar foreign policy since Gustav Stresemann to obtain further concessions. Otherwise, after a rejection, a withdrawal from the League of Nations could be better justified before the eyes of the world. At that time, Hitler was even more defensive in demeanor than the Foreign Ministry. In advance, he even agreed on this in a personal meeting with the former Chancellor Brüning . The new US President Roosevelt passed him another chance chance in his message to 54 heads of state on May 16, in which he proposed a general ban on offensive weapons. Germany officially had no planes or tanks at all (only top secret preparations had been ongoing internally and in league with the Soviet Union since the 1920s ). Hence, Hitler could rhetorically adopt the idea, which would fail with the other powers anyway.

Hitler began with the shortcomings of the peace treaty and the unresolved political and economic problems that followed, leading to mass unemployment. Like his predecessors, he underlined the false construction of the Versailles peace order , but also the German will to fulfill the treaty in a "suicidal way". But the treatment of defeated Germany as a second-class power is untenable in the long run. Allegedly, Hitler and his "revolution" were only concerned with defending against communism and regaining social and state welfare. He spoke of the "madness" of a new war and of the German neighbors France and Poland respectfully and demanded the appropriate equal treatment, as had been granted to other nations. The involvement of the national armed forces, on the other hand, was completely wrong because of their lack of military training. He compared them with the French potential of the “colored armed forces” in the colonies, which would be available at any time without being taken into account. In agreement with Roosevelt, Hitler expressly offered further German disarmament such as the renunciation of offensive weapons, which are already banned in Germany anyway. Central terms from Wilson's concepts such as self-determination , equality or formulations such as “to secure the peace of the world” created the impression of a peace-oriented, moderate statesman who only demanded what many at home and abroad considered right and fair. Hitler only weakly indicated the alternative of leaving the League of Nations if the suffering German people - Hitler cited 224,000 suicides since signing in 1919 - continued to be defamed.

Quotes

“If I am speaking consciously as a German National Socialist at this moment, I would like to say on behalf of the national government and the entire national uprising that we in this young Germany have the deepest understanding for the same feelings and attitudes as well as for the well-founded claims to life of other peoples . The generation of this young Germany, which in its previous life only got to know the need, the misery and the misery of its own people, has suffered too much from madness to intend to do the same to others. "

“That's why we don't know the term Germanization. The intellectual mentality of the last century, from which it was believed that Poles and French could perhaps be made into Germans, is just as alien to us as we passionately oppose any attempt in the opposite direction. We see the European nations around us as a given. French, Poles, etc. are our neighboring peoples, and we know that no historically conceivable process could change this reality. "

“These demands do not mean armament, but a demand for disarmament by the other states. On behalf of the German government, I once again welcome the far-sighted and correct plan of the Italian head of state to establish a close relationship of trust and work between the four major European powers England, France, Italy and Germany through a special pact. "

"As a constantly defamed people, it would be difficult for us to continue to belong to the League of Nations."

Reactions

For example, the highly respected British newspaper “ The Times ” commented on the following day: “Yesterday the world saw statesman Hitler for the first time.” In a letter to her mother, General Wilhelm Keitel's wife Lisa wrote on March 18: “Everybody Talk of the man is a work of art, so clearly u. factual u. from a lofty vantage point that one would never have expected the man to be. ”President Roosevelt, who understood German well, had heard part of the speech broadcast on the radio. The German press reported a positive reaction from Roosevelt and the American press. There were also critical voices with regard to his credibility, including the caricature of Hitler with a cannon and a dove of peace, known from many history books today.

A foreign policy reaction was the signing of the four-party pact between Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany , suggested by Mussolini on March 17, on July 15, 1933, which circumvented the League of Nations in the style of the old great powers, even if the agreement was later not ratified. In the Geneva negotiations, however, no progress was made; on the contrary, according to the proposal of British Foreign Minister John Simon in October 1933 , Germany should be subject to another four-year observation on armaments issues, above all to guarantee French security.

Resigned from the League of Nations on October 14, 1933

League of Nations Palace in Geneva

The continued withholding of an equal German position in the League of Nations justified Hitler's resignation, which took place immediately after Simon's lecture on October 14, 1933 after the spectacular departure of the German delegation from the Geneva Conference. In the evening he justified this in a lengthy speech broadcast on the radio, in which he again emphasized the German will for peace, but now one had to choose between "break or dishonor". The marches in Germany only served the fight against communism, but did not pose a threat to the neighbors. To confirm this move in propaganda, Hitler von Hindenburg had the Reichstag dissolved again and a referendum on November 12, 1933 (symbolically one day after the date of Armistice 1918), which was combined with a new election of the Reichstag, to which no parties other than the NSDAP were allowed. The November 1933 election to the Reichstag, which was no longer free , and the referendum resulted in the desired high approval ratings from all social classes and groups. Based on this plebiscite, Hitler stood there as a flexible and highly successful politician who was now no longer held in shackles from the planned armament.

Peace resolution with the consent of the SPD and the center

In order to demonstrate broad support for this position in Germany, Hitler submitted a "peace resolution" to the Reichstag for voting on May 17, 1933 (for the text, see the minutes of the meeting). The President of the Reichstag, Goering , had unanimous approval noted in the minutes after all the members of the parliament had stood up and sang the national anthem. At this point in time, Hitler's coalition from the March election in 1933 had a clear majority in the Reichstag because the opposition parties had already been decimated by imprisonment and persecution. Nevertheless, after a heated discussion on May 16, the remaining fraction of the SPD around Paul Löbe decided to approve the resolution. In doing so, she blurred the clear stance that the SPD had shown in the vote on the Enabling Act on March 24th. The joint action of the members of all parliamentary groups also had a fatal effect. For this reason in particular, the Sopade tried to prevent the group around Löbe from taking this course in exile in Prague. When that did not succeed, relations within the party were on the brink of a break, which only became irrelevant when the SPD was banned on June 22, 1933. Ex-Chancellor Brüning, who had taken over the party chairmanship again on May 5, 1933, ensured the approval of the Center Party in the false hope that Hitler would continue to involve him in politics. The forced self-dissolution of the party on July 5 in connection with the 1933 Concordat did this.

literature

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Single receipts

  1. ↑ Joachim Fest : Hitler. Licensed edition SPIEGEL-Verlag Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-87763-031-0 , p. 669.
  2. ^ This is how Hitler expressed himself e.g. B. to the German negotiator in Geneva, the diplomat Nadolny. See Rudolf Nadolny : Mein contribution , Wiesbaden 1955, pp. 130f.
  3. ↑ Max Domarus : Hitler. Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945 , Part I, Volume I 1932-1934, 4th ed., Leonberg 1988, pp. 269f. ISBN 978-0865163294 .
  4. ↑ Ronald D. Gerste: Roosevelt and Hitler: Mortal Enmity and total war . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2011, ISBN 978-3-657-77088-5 ( google.de [accessed on March 10, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Commentary in The Times, printed in: Josef and Ruth Becker: Hitler's power grab. Documents from Hitler's rise to power , dtv, Munich 1993, p. 309 ISBN 978-3423029384 .
  6. ↑ Ibid
  7. ↑ William L. Shirer : Rise and Fall of the Third Reich . Cologne / Berlin 1961, p. 207 .
  8. ^ Caricature in the New York newspaper The Nation in May 1933 of George's caricature
  9. ^ Deutsche Welle: Calendar sheet: Leaving the League of Nations. Der Spiegel, October 14, 2007, accessed on March 10, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Text in: Max Domarus : Hitler. Speeches and Proclamations 1932-1945 , Part I, I. Vol. 1932-1934, 4th edition, Leonberg 1988, pp. 308-314 ISBN 978-0865163294 .
  11. ↑ Volker Ullrich: “When he had finished speaking, the worst came”. In: Calendar sheet. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, October 14, 2008, accessed on March 10, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Joachim Fest: Hitler. Licensed edition SPIEGEL-Verlag Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-87763-031-0 , p. 671.