Vogelsang spy affair
The Vogelsang spy affair was a scandal in the Principality of Liechtenstein ,
which rocked the small country on the Alpine Rhine in 1937 . It was triggered by spy reports and denunciations by the journalist Carl von Vogelsang about the activities of Ludwig Hasler, the head of the Liechtenstein tax office, from 1934. The Liechtensteiner Volksblatt published these reports on January 23, 1937 and triggered the scandal. Carl von Vogelsang had to leave the country and his party, the Fatherland Union (VU), got into a credibility crisis as a result of this affair.
prehistory
After the Liechtenstein Constitution was changed in 1918, parties were permitted in Liechtenstein. The Christian-Social People's Party ( People's Party for short ) was founded as the first party . In 1919 the Progressive Citizens' Party (FBP) was founded. While the FBP had its backing in the Liechtensteiner Unterland and represented more pro- Austria positions, the People's Party was more present in the Oberland and was mostly in favor of Switzerland . In the elections of 1922, the People's Party received a majority of the votes and provided the government in the principality. With the official introduction of the Swiss franc on January 1, 1924, Liechtenstein was closely bound to Switzerland by the customs treaty.
In 1928 the situation changed suddenly. Due to a fraud scandal in the Liechtensteiner Sparkasse, in which leading members of the People's Party were involved, the Prince of Liechtenstein dissolved the state parliament. There were new elections, which the FBP won. The state parliament elected Josef Hoop as the new head of government. The People's Party was only represented with four out of 15 votes in the state parliament. After Adolf Hitler came to power , the journalist Carl von Vogelsang, who came from Germany, founded another party, the Liechtenstein Homeland Service (LHD), together with fellow National Socialists . The party published a newspaper of the same name. Vogelsang, who had been a citizen of the community of Schellenberg since 1931 , became its editor-in-chief .
Vogelsang continued to maintain close contacts in Germany, for example with Hermann Birkel from Bludenz , who was employed at the Friedrichshafen tourist office. Through this he reported activities of the Liechtenstein government and Hitler-critical German emigrants to the Friedrichshafen police department and the border protection department in Lindau . On October 28, 1934, Vogelsang wrote a report about an upcoming meeting between the Liechtenstein tax officer Ludwig Hasler and German investors . At a meeting in Germany, a larger amount of money should be handed over. Vogelsang also mentioned the license plates of the two Liechtenstein vehicles involved in the letter. In a report he called on the German authorities to arrest the tax officer and his helpers at the border.
The Austrian Hermann Birkel, who received the letters to be forwarded to the police in Friedrichshafen, had meanwhile lost his job at the Friedrichshafen city administration and was preparing to return to Bludenz. He put the letters in his pocket and they were forgotten. Ludwig Hasler was not arrested. The planned scandal that was supposed to bring the FBP government into distress did not materialize. In the following years, Birkel found no more permanent employment. He earned his living by giving slide shows and as a mountain guide . In November 1936 he was invited by Josef Hoop to a series of slide lectures at Liechtenstein schools. At a meeting with Hoop, he delivered the letters to the head of government.
In the meantime, the People's Party and the LHD merged to form the Fatherland Union . Although Vogelsang did not find approval from all members of the People's Party because of his anti-Semitic articles, he took over the editing of the newspaper of the new Liechtenstein Fatherland party . Among the 100 or so Jews in Liechtenstein was a former bank director from Saarland , Sally Isenberg . He sought a defamation lawsuit against Vogelsang. The Liechtenstein fatherland had taken over articles from the Nuremberg newspaper Der Stürmer and apparently also delivered articles to them. In the striker , Isenberg was portrayed as a cheater from the Saarland.
scandal
On the morning of January 23, 1937, Prime Minister Hoop and the FBP published facsimiles of the letters under the name Sally Isenberg in a free special edition of their national newspaper Liechtensteiner Volksblatt . For the same day, the head of government, as head of the police, ordered house searches at Vogelsang and in the areas of the Liechtenstein fatherland . Vogelsang denied the allegations and accused John Büchel, the former secretary of the LHD, to have written the letters. After investigations it turned out that these were written on the LHD party's typewriter. During a search of Büchel's apartment nothing was found. Vogelsang, Alois Vogt , Alois Ritter and Otto Schaedler from VU wrote a protest letter while the house was being searched in which they announced that they were innocent and that they would report the Volksblatt for defamation. They agreed to be questioned by the police at any time. Due to this statement, Vogelsang was not arrested. In the afternoon, Hoop met with the top of the VU. The police had found out that some of the letters were clearly from Vogelsang. They then dropped it and accused him of acting alone without the knowledge of the LHD.
Vogelsang was not present at the meeting; he had fled to Germany. This escape was organized by the VU leadership after the house searches. Vogelsang had become unsustainable as the party's future was at stake. He was threatened with treason charges. Schaedler brought Vogelsang to safety in his car across the Rhine to the Swiss Hague . Alois Ritter was also involved in the escape.
In the following days, the Volksblatt published further incriminating material under the name of Sally Isenbergs. On January 31, the LHD leadership protested their innocence at an extraordinary party conference in Vaduz , saying that they had only found out about Vogelsang's spy activities through newspaper reports. The party unanimously backed its leadership, claiming that the government was trying to crush the opposition with a dirty campaign. On February 12, the state parliament dealt with the spy scandal. At the meeting it was also found that the VU party leadership had supported Vogelsang's escape. The opposition in the state parliament accused the government of violating the constitution through the house searches. Hoop asked the vote of confidence. 11 of the 15 MPs voted for the government. Hoop then introduced the "Law on the Protection of the Security of the Country and Its People". This law was popularly known as the "Spy Act". It was decided unanimously on March 3rd. Actions on behalf of foreign powers were banned and freedom of speech was restricted. The law was an almost identical copy of a Swiss law from the previous year.
In the months that followed, clashes between the government and the opposition continued. The opposition accused Hoop of acting unconstitutionally by single-handedly conducting the house searches without approval from the rest of the government. Hoop thought about resigning. He was strengthened as head of government through a signature campaign, which 73% of the voters signed. Experts from Switzerland also confirmed that Hoop acted in accordance with the constitution.
reconciliation
It was only when the new Volksdeutsche movement in Liechtenstein (VDBL) party was founded in 1938 after Austria was annexed to the German Reich that the government and the opposition were reconciled. The VDBL called for Liechtenstein to join the Greater German Reich . That went clearly too far for the VU party. Members of the VU had sympathy for Adolf Hitler and demanded extensive economic relations with Germany, but joining was out of the question for them. They formed a coalition government under the leadership of Hoop to fight the ethnic Germans.
literature
- Peter Geiger : Krisenzeit Volume 1, Chronos Verlag Zurich, ISBN 3-906393-28-3
Individual evidence
- ^ Office for Culture, Principality of Liechtenstein, State Archives: Spy affair. Retrieved June 29, 2019 .
- ^ Liechtenstein National Archives Press campaign of the National Socialist newspaper "Der Stürmer" against the Jews in Liechtenstein
- ^ The state parliament passes the State Protection Act ("Spy Act"). Retrieved June 29, 2019 .
- ↑ The Fatherland Union calls on Prime Minister Josef Hoop to resign in the course of the spy affair. Retrieved June 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Prime Minister Josef Hoop and Deputy Prime Minister Anton Frommelt offer Prince Franz I their resignation. Retrieved June 29, 2019 .
- ↑ According to the law professor Hans Nawiasky, Prime Minister Josef Hoop did not act unconstitutionally or unlawfully in the "spy affair". Retrieved June 29, 2019 .
- ↑ August Müssner informs his comrades about the goals and structure of the ethnic German youth. Retrieved June 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Peter Geiger: Krisenzeit Volume 1, Chronos Verlag Zurich, ISBN 3-906393-28-3, pages 450 - 472