Germany After Six Years of Hitler BY TEUTONICUS
From Feb 1939 issue of Labour Monthly
Is FASCIST ECONOMY a new form of capitalism? Is it a new stage in the development of capitalism such as is imperialism as compared with 19th century capitalism ? Has fascism done away with so many essentials of capitalism that one could conclude : although there are still many capitalist elements left in Germany, society as a whole is no longer capitalistic ? These and similar questions have come up again and again, and before speaking about conditions in Fascist Germany it is necessary to attempt an answer to them.
Two things are essential in every capitalist society : first, that the means of production are privately owned while production is social, everybody taking part in the process which secures an increasing number of products to a decreasing number of individual owners of the means of production ; second, that the leitmotiv, the economic incentive, is the quest for profits.
Fascist Economy in Germany
The first question we have to answer is therefore : do these two characteristics apply to Fascist Germany and her economy ? At first glance this does not seem to be the case. How can one say that the quest for profits is the underlying motive for economic action among the ruling class if prices are state-regulated ? How can one speak of private ownership of the means of production if the distribution of raw materials is state-regulated, if foreign trade is state-regulated, if a considerable part of the home trade is state-regulated, if crops have to be given up to the state, if the state builds factories and creates the largest iron ore mining undertaking in the country ? But let us recollect the historical development of capitalism. The period of liberal capitalism, of almost purely competitive capitalism, was followed by a period of monopoly capitalism, when finance capital, i.e., combined monopoly industrial capital and monopoly bank capital, has achieved a preponderant position. The taxation system, the cus- toms system, the banking system, the whole system of legislation are changed in such a way as to favour more and more the development of trusts and combines. The economic freedom of the small capitalists is increasingly restricted. If, for instance, electricity prices are fixed so as to be lowest for the consumers of the greatest quantities, if trans- port rates are lowest for the senders of the greatest quantities or for the senders of specific industrial goods, then the economic freedom of the smaller employers or of certain industries is undoubtedly infringed upon. Under monopoly capitalism the non-monopolists are no longer in a position to draw full profits as they did formerly because the monopolies realise super profits at their expense ; non-monopolists have no longer the same freedom to use the means of production, custom duties, for instance, being fixed in such a way as to discriminate against the raw materials which they need, transport charges being fixed in such a way as also to discriminate against them, both being fixed in favour of the monopolies. Full freedom for all capitalists to use the means of production is therefore not an essential feature of capitalism ; it was characteristic of a certain period of capitalism only.
Now let us look at conditions in fascist Germany. True, the distri- bution of raw materials whether imported or produced at home is regulated by the state. If we study the regulations and the actual distribution of raw materials, we find that one group of capitalists is especially favoured : the armament and semi-armament producers. The iron and steel industry, the pure armament industries, the chemical industry producing in part armaments and in part civilian goods, the building and construction industry, producing in part armaments (barracks, military roads, aeroplane hangars, etc.) and in part civilian goods (dwellings)—these are the favoured industries. If we examine the kinds of commodities which the state regulated imports bring into Germany, we find that they are chiefly commodities needed by the armament industries. If we investigate what kind of factories the state itself erects we find : the state either erects or heavily subsidises factories which produce raw materials either for direct use in the armament industry or for such civilian industries which are dependent upon imported raw materials (the idea being that the saving of imports of raw materials for civilian industries would leave more foreign exchange for imports of armament raw materials).
The gigantic Hermann Goering Werke which produce iron ore represent nothing but a gigantic state subvention for the armament industry. They mine ore of such poor quality that the mining cannot be profitable ; after the ore has been mined and transformed into pig iron the Hermann Goering Werke sell it at the prevailing market price to the armament industry, the difference between market price and costs of production being paid for by the state, that is chiefly by the masses of the people. The new Zellwolle (staple fibre) factories are subsidised by the state as long as they do not return profits. Crops have to be delivered to the state in order to regulate food consumption so as to import as little food and as many armament raw materials as possible. The freedom of many capitalists, even of large capitalists, is infringed in favour of the armament capitalists. Textile trusts are treated almost like an ordinary smaller capitalist enterprise ; the chocolate trusts suffer from labour shortage ; thousands of small craftsmen are forced into bankruptcy—and all this is done in order to improve still further the position of the armament industries. Fascism implies rule of, by, and for the most reactionary part of finance capital ; it implies rule of, by, and for the armament and semi- armament industries. They have first claim on the economic and political machinery and therefore it is peculiarly they who control the state. Before fascism came to power the state served the various interests of the textile trusts, the food trusts, the tobacco trusts as well as the iron and steel trusts, the big banks, the big agrarians, etc. To-day, under fascism, the state is especially the instrument of the most reactionary part of finance capital, of the heavy industries, the armament, the iron and steel, the chemical, the construction trusts. This most reactionary part of finance capital runs the economic system for its own ends so that not only the masses of the people are exploited and plundered, so that not only the small craftsmen and shopkeepers and the small employers have to pay tribute, but the employers outside the heavy industries also have to submit to a certain clipping of their privileges and contribute part of their profits to the profit collection of the armament industry.
Changes in the Structure of Finance Capital under Fascism
This predominance of one part of finance capital over the whole of economy (including some trusts and monopolies) has brought about certain changes in the character of capitalist society. If the state as instrument of government is mainly at the disposal of the armament industries the role of the banks, for instance, becomes of minor importance. Before fascism came into power the banks were in a way the partners of the big industrialists ; to-day, in Germany, the banks have become the cashiers, or even functionaries of still minor importance of the armament industry ; for the state has taken over the business of financing the armament industries, it gives them all the necessary credit facilities and makes the investments considered necessary by the armament industrialists, etc. The freedom of invest- ment, of the disposal of products, of the buying and selling of raw materials is taken away from many employers. In many respects the employers become increasingly officials in a state regulated business. This is true even of employers in the semi-armament industries and in the armament industries themselves. Even Krupp and Thyssen and the other big monopolists could easily be replaced to-day in their business by a state official. And yet capitalism, the profit motive and private ownership of capital, are still effective. For to-day Krupp and Thyssen and their brother monopolists are state-rulers. Their economic basis is still their business enterprise. But their platform is the state. And they rule the state in such a way that their business flourishes. They are motivated by the lust for higher and higher profits, they own the means of production, the use of which is necessary for the extrac- PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITEDG e r m a n y After Six Years of H i t l e r 83 tion of surplus value from the workers. But the position of many other employers has changed in certain respects. In many ways they have become functionaries, and nothing more ; they have not become rulers of Germany like Krupp and Thyssen and others. Their freedom as employers has been curtailed, indeed ; just as fifty years ago the freedom of many small employers was curtailed by the big cartels and trusts. In fascist Germany to-day many a trust chairman presiding over a civilian undertaking is in the position of the small employer of fifty years ago : a force, economically considerably stronger than he himself, is reducing his freedom to exploit and plunder, and, in addition, robs him of a considerable part of his profits. The rise of the armament monopolists to absolute power has led to a two-fold development of monopolisation in general. On the one hand, it has led to a large increase of the holdings of the armament and semi-armament monopolists who have taken over many a firm in the old Reich and who have made large gains by absorbing many Austrian and Sudeten firms. On the other hand, the general process of monopolisation has been stopped. During the first year of fascist rule many new cartels and trusts and monopolies had been formed or were in the process of being formed. They have almost all been dissolved again. And this is quite natural. For the monopolies have the advantage of getting super profits, that is of robbing the other capitalists of part of their profits. The more monopolies exist the more capitalists tend to get super profits and the less extra profits can go to the individual monopolist ; for monopolisation does not create more profits, it only changes their distribution. The fewer the monopolies the higher their super profits. It is understandable, there- fore, that late in 1933 the old monopolies began a campaign against this general spread of the monopolisation process, and within a short time they had dissolved the newly-formed trusts and cartels and monopolies.
Fascism and the Crisis
There is one final question of importance which must be dealt with here. If German Fascist economy is still capitalist, does this imply that it is governed also by the law of cyclical crises as developed in Marx's Capital, or has this law been modified ? It has not been modi- fied. German fascist economy is also governed by the law of over- production crises. The crisis of 1929-32 had reached its lowest point already before Hitler came into power. When Hitler moved to the chancellery, production already had risen to 10 per cent, above the lowest point, the official index of sensitive commodity prices had increased already by 20 per cent, and the index of stock exchange prices had even gone up by 30 per cent. Fascist economy had had nothing to do with the beginning of the increase of business activity after the low point of the crisis had been reached. PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED84 The Labour Monthly But what about the next crisis ? How is over-production possible if more and more goods (armament goods) are produced only when ordered. This problem seems at first quite perplexing. But it is easy to solve. Over-production means that while the purchasing power increases the production increases even more, and a crisis develops. This can easily happen also in the growing sphere of armament pro- duction where the state orders armaments. If the state gives larger armament orders than it can pay for from revenues, it has to borrow more and more, and if it can no longer borrow enough it has to print the money. Therefore, under fascism the cyclical crisis may begin in a " third sphere,"* the armament sphere, and it may start in another way than under finance capitalism " pure and simple " : it may begin as a financial crisis in the form of an inflation, but the underlying cause of the crisis, over-production, remains the same. Fascist economy is capitalist economy. It is not a new stage of capitalism, it is not a new period following upon that of finance capital- ism or imperialism. It is only a special form of finance capitalism, of imperialism. It is evolved and used by a certain section of finance capitalism under certain historical circumstances. To put it briefly, it is an expedient adopted by the ruling class but not a stage in the development of capitalism like imperialism. # # # On January 27, 1932, Adolf Hitler addressed a meeting of prominent industrialists and big bankers of Rhineland-Westphalia, the most industrialised province of Germany. The meeting which took place at the Park Hotel in Diisseldorf, one of the most fashionable places in the Rhineland, had been arranged by Fritz Thyssen, the trust magnate, who had become one of the chief backers of the Nazi move- ment some years before the outbreak of the world economic crisis. On that occasion Hitler made a remarkable speech, the contents of which may be summarised as follows : "You industrialists stand for the maintenance of private property, which is an aristocratic principle ; but you have not yet made up your minds whether or not you are to oppose democracy. Make no mistake about it: if you do not destroy democracy it will do away with your rights and privileges ; for the logical outcome of political equality is equality in the economic sphere, i.e., communism, which has already conquered one-sixth of the earth and is spreading. You must give me political power, for I am the only man who with the help of the Nazi movement can crush democracy and all it stands for, and can restore Germany to that position which she enjoyed before the Great War, nay, to an even stronger one."
The Fascist "Constitution"
This programme met with the whole-hearted approval of German big business and a year later, on January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed •The two other spheres are those of civilian capital goods and civilian consumption goods production. Reich Chancellor. Although there is no signed and sealed Constitution in Germany to-day (to speak of the fascist " constitution " is perhaps a contradiction in terms) the outstanding features of totalitarianism are very clearly marked in the German political structure and may be described in the following way: There is an enormous concentration of political power in the hands of the Government or, to put it more precisely, in the hands of the " Leader and Reich Chancellor " who, after the death of Hindenburg, added the functions of President to those of Chancellor. Because of the growing discontent of the generals with his adventurous war plans, Hitler made himself Minister of War at the beginning of 1938 ; in his defence of the murderous purge of June 30, 1934, he announced that he had been the " Chief Justice " of the German people on that very date. It is evident that the man who combines the offices of President, Chancellor, Minister of War, and Chief Justice is simultaneously head of the monopolist Nazi party. There is to-day a distinct inclination in Nazi circles to regard Hitler as a kind of God-Caesar with practically unlimited powers ; this tendency becomes sometimes manifest in Hitler himself, for instance when he shouted at poor Schuschnigg : " Don't you realise that you are speaking to the greatest German who ever lived ? " The legislative functions which, in a parliamentary democracy, are performed by the freely-elected representatives of the people have been completely absorbed by the Government. The " Reichstag," or what still passes for such, is very seldom called together and then either to listen to a speech of Hitler's and applaud it enthusiastically or to confirm a measure which had already been decided upon. All the deputies are either Nazis or at least elected on the Nazi list ; during the " election campaigns " there is no legal opposition party which can submit its views to the electorate and canvass for votes. Under these circumstances the outcome of an election or a plebiscite is always a foregone conclusion ; it is moreover secured by methods ranging from the intimidation of individual voters to shameless forgery of election results. Democracy not only requires that the citizen enjoy the right to participate in the shaping of his country's political life, but that he be protected from arbitrary encroachments upon his life and liberty (inviolability of person and property, privacy of letters and telephone, right to trial). Immediately after Hitler's appointment to the Chan- cellorship the Nazis started to abolish these liberties, and this process was speeded up after the Reichstag fire. The bench was " cleansed " of all judges who were either Jews or held mildly progressive views ; the same measure was adopted with regard to those lawyers who belonged to one of the above categories or were " Marxists." From that time dates the permeation of the Courts by individuals who owe their appointment not to their juridical capacities, but to their Nazi party allegiance. Special Courts were instituted which are exclusively PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED86 The Labour Monthly composed of steadfast Nazi supporters of the Nazi creed : some of them are jurists, others are officers either of the army or of the Black Guards or Storm Troopers ; still others are higher grade party officials. These special tribunals (the " People's Court" is the principal one) have taken away from the Ordinary Courts all major political cases and a lot of others. The practice of the People's Court may be illustrated by one striking example : from 1929 to 1933 many clashes took place between working people and Nazi gangs who tried to invade the workers' quarters and terrorise the inhabitants ; on these occasions many workers and a few Nazis were killed. The People's Court now reopens closed proceedings and decides first, that the workers were always guilty whereas the terrorists exercised the right of self-defence and if killed were murdered ; second, that those morally responsible for these " murders " were the leaders of the workers' organisations in the respective district. On this legally monstrous ground Edgar Andre was condemned to death and executed. It is a recognised principle in all civilised countries that nobody can be prosecuted and sentenced under a law which was not in force when the alleged crime was committed ; this principle was first aban- doned in Nazi Germany in the case of the unfortunate van der Lubbe. Later on the Nazis established the rule that an offender who has com- mitted a wrong which is not legally punishable but stands forth con- demned by the " sound feeling of the people " is to be punished under a law referring to similar crimes. The last barriers of personal security were swept away by the institution of " protective custody " according to which an individual can be arrested and detained on a warrant now usually issued by the Secret Police. What happens after his arrest is a matter of chance ; he may be released after a few hours or imprisoned for life—even killed—in a concentration camp ; there is no charge, no legal defence, no prescribed rules of procedure. Finally, there are the numerous cases where the Nazis take the law into their own hands, where people are fetched from their homes, robbed, beaten up, and often murdered while the police and the public prose- cutor either remain neutral or assist the assailants. If legal proceedings are instituted, they are against those who try to protect the victims or express their abhorrence. In the 17th century Hobbes foresaw the rise of " Leviathan." The great " Leviathan," the omnipotent State which deprives the individual of his freedom and dignity as a human being, has materialised in the Third Reich. The End of Trade Unionism The destruction of democracy involved the attempted destruction of all voluntary organisations (economic, political, cultural, philan- thropic, even social). Whenever he deals with the dissolution of the Marxist organisations in the totalitarian State, Hitler never forgets PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITEDG e r m a n y A f t e r Six Y e a r s of H i t l e r 87 to mention that he has dissolved the old bourgeois parties too. There is a notable difference between the destruction of the workers' parties on the one hand and that of the " old bourgeois parties " on the other. The dissolution of the latter indicates that the capitalists have changed their weapon ; the suppression of the former means that the rising working class has been temporarily deprived of some of its most effective weapons. Alongside the attack on the workers' parties developed the onslaught on the trade unions ; here the most important date is May 2, 1933 (the day after the first fascist " May Day."), when the " Free " Trade Unions were taken over by the Nazis. A little later the trade unionists, like many other people, were forced into the newly-formed " German Labour Front," headed by Dr. Ley. The " Labour Front," in its present state,* is a bloated organisation of about 18 million members, including employers as well as employed, professional people and many others. Its main task, as officially laid down, is to further " social peace and to educate the German workers in the true spirit of National Socialism." The membership in the Labour Front is said to be volun- tary ; actually it is compulsory as the Labour Courts have more than once decided that withdrawal from the Labour Front or refusal to join it is a sufficient reason for dismissal without notice. Dr. Ley himself has emphatically stated : " We hope and believe that no one will find work in Germany who is not a member of the Labour Front." The major portion of the dues which the Labour Front extracts from its members is spent on the maintenance of a bureaucracy which is both vast and corrupt, and on the financing of " work creation schemes," i.e., on investment in armament shares and armament loans. Fascist elements in the democratic countries like to assert that there is " 100 per cent, trade unionism " in the totalitarian states. The answer to that is simple : there is no trade unionism at all. The Labour Front, on account of its origin, composition, leadership, and guiding principles is as unable as it is unwilling to fulfil a single one of those functions which are performed by an independent trade union in a democracy. If some officials of the Labour Front have interfered in the interest of the workers with the management of certain factories, they did so in defiance of the rules of their own organisation and under pressure from below exercised by workers who utilise for their own ends the fascist mass organisations.
The Introduction of Serfdom
The state of serfdom to which Nazism wants to reduce the wage earners is most clearly defined in the basic " Law for the regulation of National Labour " (issued on January 20, 1934). This law sets *More details about the position of the German workers in general and the Labour Front in particular are contained in the still topical pamphlet, Fascism—Fight It Now (Labour Research Department, January, 1937). The reader may also refer to " The Spirit and the Structure of the German Labour Front " in Germany To-day, July, 1938, p. 4. down the relationship between employer and employed as that between " leader " and " followers " wherein the benevolence and foresight of the former is to be met by the obedience and gratitude of the latter. In this connection we recall that those coal, iron and steel magnates who stand behind the dictatorship from which they reap the benefits, always wanted to be " master in their own house." Now they have become " leaders " of their factories. The totalitarian state leads to a new serfdom for the worker ; this is clearly shown by the growing restrictions on his freedom of move- ment. He is not allowed to leave his place of work in order to accept a better paid job ; by doing so he shows " criminal selfishness " and makes himself liable to a fine or term of imprisonment. The Nazis have introduced a labour passport (Arbeitsbuch) which must be kept by all workers, employees, clerks, etc., who earn less than Rm. 8,000 (£650) a year (so that only the highest paid categories are exempted).* In keeping with the above tendencies is the institution of compulsory labour. This, thinly disguised, has already operated since the early days of the dictatorship, for the means test is applied more strictly than ever and a typist, e.g., who refuses to become a farm hand on the advice of the Labour Office is struck off the list of unemployed and deprived of her relief. The transformation of voluntary into compulsory labour service (which was promulgated together with the re-introduction of conscription in March, 1935) provided the legal basis for compelling the youth of both sexes to cultivate land, drain swamps, help in the building of strategic roads and fortifications. Last year the system of compulsory labour was further extended ; on June 22nd, 1938, Goering, who is in charge of the Four-Year Plan, issued a decree, the first paragraph of which reads as follows : " For a fixed period, every German,"}" either man or woman, is bound to serve at that place to which he (she) is allotted or to undergo special vocational training." On the strength of this decree, tens of thousands of German workers were torn from their homes and drafted to the frontier regions, particularly in Western Germany, where the building of the Siegfried line was hurried on at top speed to enable Hitler to pretend that he could invade Czechoslovakia without having to fear an attack in the West. With the outbreak of war the last distinctions between conscript soldier and conscript worker will be completely wiped out.J The workers will be put under martial law, they will get their meals and, if possible, will be housed in the factories to which they are assigned ; •Civil servants and party officials are exempted irrespective of the amount of their salary. fit is remarkable that the decree refers to " every German subject " (deutsche Staatsangehorige) instead of to " every German citizen " (deutsche Reichsbiirger). This has been done so as not to exclude the Jews from the army of conscript labourers. Those Jews who are already engaged in building roads, etc., are usually inmates of concentration camps. JSee the instructive examples in Germany To-day, November, 1938, p. 6. PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITEDG e r m a n y After Six Years of H i t l e r 89 the Nazis are zealously preparing the ground for the abolition of wages and their replacement by a sort of soldier's pay. " Stay-at-homes," so runs the demagogic slogan, " must not be allowed to earn more than the soldier in the trenches."
Labour Conditions
The problem arises: how has the enslavement of the workers in the Third Reich affected their labour conditions ? In order to under- stand the changes in labour conditions we must realise that the Nazis have placed Germany's economic life on a war footing. This is the predominant factor. The increase in the total income of German wage-earners since 1933 is mainly due (1) to the reduction of unem- ployment owing to the boom in the armament industries ; (2) to the lengthening of working hours in the same industries ; (3) to the trans- fer of workers from the lower-paid consumption goods industries to the relatively higher paid armament industries (without any raising of wages in individual industries). This upward tendency is to some extent counter-balanced as follows: (1) Time-rates of wages have slightly decreased. (2) Prices have gone up and for some commodities the quality has deteriorated, or they are only available in very small quantities, or sometimes not at all. This is first and foremost a result of the restric- tions which, in the interest of the armament industries, have been placed on the import of foodstuffs, fodder, and raw materials for the consumption goods industries. (3) The difference between gross wages and net wages has increased owing to the growth of compulsory deductions for various purposes, such as, e.g., Winter Help, Strength through Joy, Air Raid Precau- tions, dues for membership in Nazi organisations, subscriptions to Nazi papers and journals, etc. (4) Labour has been intensified and is likely to undergo a further intensification in the future. This means that the worker needs more and better food in order to restore his working power (5) The working day has been further lengthened. According to the most accurate statistics now at hand* the following conclusions on the wage position are justified : for the same number of working hours as in 1933 a worker has since then suffered a reduction of his earnings by about 13 per cent. ; only those who were unem- ployed in 1932 and who have again become full time workers have experienced any real improvement in their earnings. As unemploy- ment had practically disappeared in 1937 any improvement in the standard of life of the workers can only be achieved by a rise in the wage level ; but in Nazi Germany the major part of the productive forces is devoted to the equipment and strengthening of the army, and •See P. Forster, Studien zur wirtschaftlichen Lage der Bevolkerung in Deutschland. In Zeitschrift fur freie deutsche Forschung. Vol. i (1938), p. 85. the manufacture of consumption goods, essential complement of wages, is restricted. So we observe the strange phenomenon—for the first time in the history of modern capitalism—that, in the Nazi State, a trade boom is accompanied by falling wages.
Disintegration at Home—Expansion Abroad
It is a race against time. In a countiy like Germany with so strong a working class and so old a labour movement the Nazis could not hope to keep the reins of government exclusively by means of terror and propaganda. They had to do something spectacular ; and this was the reduction of unemployment through an artificial boom in the war industries. The process of rearmament, in its turn, brings the public finances to the verge of a second inflation, undermines the once flourishing foreign trade, sharpens all internal contradictions and leads to the possibility of an alliance of all peace-abiding countries against Europe's principal aggressor state. The same force which drove the Nazis forward to rearmament, the re-introduction of conscription, the re-occupation of the Rhineland, intervention in Spain, the rape of Austria, the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia will force them to use the sword which they have been so eagerly forging since 1933 in order to bring about a redistribution of the world markets in favour of German imperialism. The rulers of the Third Reich want Germany to become a second Great Britain—this is the ultimate goal and its attain- ment would be the final victory.
The Peasants' Problems
It is a well-established fact that the vast majority of those who flocked to the Nazi party between 1929 and 1933 were not workers but peasants, petty bourgeois, employees, students, dismissed officers, etc. What has happened to these people since the setting up of the dictatorship ? It may be conceded that some of them (young, energetic, ruthless men) climbed up the social ladder by joining the army or by being admitted to the vast bureaucracy of the state or the party ; but the bulk of these classes are now worse off than ever before. In order to show this we will first glance at conditions among the peasants. The middle and upper peasants in Germany had under a law passed in September, 1933, got their holdings transformed into " entailed farms " ; these can no longer be divided up, sold, mortgaged, put up for auction, etc. The farmer had to pay a price for this relative security ; he can no longer raise a mortgage or get credits on his farm. For this reason many of them have become completely unenterprising while others tiy to obtain credits in the only way still open to them : by mortgaging their crop and their cattle. It goes without saying that it is very uneconomic to finance long-term investments (improvements, etc.) with expensive short-term credits. Furthermore, the law provides that the " entailed farm " passes on undivided to the nearest male heir of the present holder whose younger sons and daughters are thereby proletarianised to the advantage of the privileged successor. According to the census of June 16, 1933, there were in Germany 3.05 million farms of 0.5 hectares ( i j acres) and over ; since the introduction of the entailment law, 700,000 farms have been brought into the entailed category. Many medium and the small peasants on the other hand can still be driven from their homesteads and this happens frequently, as the statistics of forced sales prove. The impoverishment of these groups is brought about in a number of ways of which we enumerate only the most important. In Germany, as in other capitalist countries, a division of work between the larger and smaller farmer had taken place, the former concentrating on the production of grain (rye and wheat), potatoes and sugar beet, whereas the latter chiefly went in for cattle, butter, milk, eggs and vegetables. Owing to the continuous pauperisation of the German people the balance of the food market is all in favour of the large farmer who produces necessities as against the small peasant who produces the relatively more expensive foodstuffs. This development is accentuated by the restrictions on the import of fodder. For a time the peasants managed to replace imported by home-grown fodder. But because of the reduction in the actual acreage under cultivation, and as a result of several poor harvests, there was a shortage of wheat, rye and even potatoes, and it is now strictly for- bidden to use them for fodder. First the peasant was deprived of foreign, then of home-produced feeding-stuffs ; he is therefore com- pelled to slaughter his most valuable asset, his livestock. The shortage of eggs, butter, cheese, milk and meat, from which the urban con- sumers as well as the peasants suffer is not an accident but one of the logical results of the Nazi war economy. The taxes which the peasant has to pay are higher than ever and are collected with a ruthlessness hitherto unattained ; in all his economic dealings the farmer is sub- jected to the most meticulous supervision by the officials of <ihe " Reichsnahrstand " (the organisation of the agriculturalists) and the agents of the Gestapo. The Nazi war preparations necessitate the transformation of formerly cultivated land into fortifications, subter- ranean hangars, aerodromes, barracks, strategic roads, no man's land around armament factories, etc. For these purposes the land required now amounts to about 1,730,000 acres (the size of the province of Thuringia) and it is usually taken from the poor peasants instead of from the large landowners or the entailed farmers.
The " Small Man," the Intellectuals and the Church
Let us now look at the " small man " in the Nazi paradise. No matter whether it is Mosley in England, de la Rocque and Doriot in France, Degrelle in Belgium—they are all " saviours " of the small man who is being ground between the upper and the nether millstones of high taxation, high costs of production, lack of credit facilities on the one hand and poverty of his customers (employees and workers) on the other. Instead of lightening this burden the Nazis made it much heavier and added to it the shortage of raw materials and food- stuffs which spells ruin to the handicraftsman, the shopkeeper, and the publican. Sometime ago Dr. Ponse, head of the Nazi organisation for German handicraftsmen, stated that there were about 700,000 one-man workshops ; of these between 500,000 and 600,000 earned less than enough to live on and from time to time had to apply for poor relief. " The question arises whether it is not better to take away his shadow independence and transfer the handicraftsman where skilled men are needed . . . naturally these one-man businessmen would later have to be re-instated." This is the vicious circle ; the Nazi war economy produces crisis in the public finances and foreign trade on the one hand, and the desire for skilled workers on the other. So the small man is first crushed by taxation, lack of raw materials, etc., and subse- quently drafted into the armament industries as a conscript worker. The Nazis promised the small man to protect him from expropriation by the Conmmuists, and they kept their word in their own way since they expropriated him themselves. It is the same with the intellectuals. The doctor, the lawyer, the writer, the artist, the journalist, the teacher, the scholar—all are oppressed by the growing militarism, the dominance of the armed forces and their requirements over all other spheres of public life. These people also suffer particular hardships from the common fate: they are deprived of the liberty of thought and are forced to profess doctrines, which—like the racial twaddle—do not stand the test of objective examination. It follows that there is a growing discontent, not only among the workers but also among the petty bourgeois, the intellectuals, the middle-class. Up to now this dissatisfaction found a quasi-legal expres- sion in the Church struggle. We do not mean that the followers of the Churches are exclusively non-proletarian. The Catholic Church was always deeply rooted among the Catholic workers and there are marked signs to-day that Protestant workers who, prior to the estab- lishment of the Nazi regime, had turned their backs on the Church have now changed their minds because of the possibilities of opposition, offered by some sections of the " Professional " Church. The citizen of a democratic country is often at a loss to understand what it means if in a totalitarian state doctrines are preached from the pulpit which are non-Nazi in origin and become anti-Nazi if they are consistently pursued and critically applied to the present situation. The Fight of the Workers Nevertheless, it is a fact that the Church Struggle is of a more bourgeois than proletarian character and that the rallying-point of the German opposition is and remains the working class. The proletarian opposition to the dictatorship is embodied in two different forms : in the existence of small groups on strictly conspirative lines and in the application of the tactic of the " Trojan horse," i.e., the utilisation of the Fascist mass-organisations for anti-fascist purposes. This can be done if and when the workers insist on the putting into practice of the demagogic slogans and catchwords of the Nazis (" Hon- our the hand hardened by toil," " To every worker his livelihood," " A fair wage for all "). If the workers are successful they reap the benefit from the material as well as from the moral point of view ; if for the moment they are defeated the Nazi rank-and-filers and the lower functionaries of the Nazi hierarchy are taught the lesson that the promises of their party are not meant honestly and that every serious attempt at their realisation brings all workers (whether Nazis or not) into conflict with the higher Nazi officials and the " Leader of the factory," i.e., the employer backed by the Nazis. Moreover, anti-fascists (of course, not publicly known as such) try to get into official positions in the Nazi organisations, to become " Confidential Councillors," Block-wardens, House-wardens, etc. In spite of all misrepresentations this type of work is urgently needed as it provides the anti-fascists with the opportunity to remain in constant contact with the broad masses of the German people, who are to-day willy-nilly organised on Nazi lines.
The People's Front
The most conscious and courageous fighters against the dictatorship set themselves the task of combining the numerous opposition trends and movements in a broad people's front aiming at the overthrowing of the Hitler regime. The German people's front would insist on the following three demands : (1) Economic prosperity and security—as against the impoverishment of the people by Hitler's war preparations ; (2) Freedom—against tyranny. (3) Peace—as against a policy which, if unchecked, is bound to lead the German as well as all other peoples into the catastrophe of a second world war. These three demands are obviously inter-related, and they are broad enough to serve as a common platform for all the opposition groups. Nevertheless, it is naturally enormously difficult to build up a people's front in Germany to-day. The terror and the fear of terror make themselves very strongly felt. There are people who are not Nazis, who among friends even confess to being anti-Nazis but who are so infected with Nazi propaganda that they have lost their faculty for independent judgment. Others are disillusioned and weary of politics ; they observe that the Nazi chief is visited by kings, princes and statesmen of many countries, that the Prime Minister of the largest Empire in the world comes twice to accept his ultimatums and helps force them on a small gallant nation ; they conclude that Hitler will always get away with his aggressive designs and that resistance to the dictatorship is a heroic but hopeless undertaking. Furthermore, it must be borne in mind that there was no United Front and People's Front in Germany before the establishment of the Nazi regime. (The main reason, of course, why it was established.) The social democratic leadership turned down all offers for a united front which were made by the Communists, and they still persist in this negative attitude. There are to-day numerous united front activities in German factories and workshops, but the Social Democratic workers who take part in them do so in defiance of the will of their leaders ; and in view of the very great loyalty with which the average German worker sticks to his organisation, the hostility of the Social Democratic leaders is bound to be a very grave obstacle to a working-class united front and a people's front. Despite all this the situation has greatly changed during the past year. During the first period of the dictatorship many Social Demo- crats, Democrats, Christians and Jews looked upon it as a storm which must subside before one could come into the open again. This illusion faded away when the war-clouds were gathering closer. To-day many more realise that those who will not fight and suffer for their own cause will be forced to do so for the sake of the Nazis. At the time of the war scare, in August and September, 1938, the artificial barriers between the individual opposition groups were swept aside and in the streets and workshops, on the tramcars and the houses of the people a spontaneous people's front sprang into being. People who hitherto had hardly dared to express their opinions in the privacy of the family circle, behind closed doors, suddenly spoke openly to strangers, and all these conversations centred on two points : fear of war and hatred of the Nazi war-makers. This German people's front was not yet strong enough to prevent the dismemberment of Czecho- slovakia but next time may it be strong enough to scotch Hitler's aggressive designs. The events since Munich—the war threats uttered by Hitler at Erfurt, Saarbriicken and Munich, the acceleration of war prepara- tions, the new burdens imposed on the German people, the utter barbarism of the Jewish pogrom—are not such as to make the Nazis recover the ground lost. And there are Germans at work who everyday stake their lives in order to transform the incoherent opposition into a consistent and coherent opposition, into a solid people's front. When this aim is achieved the Nazi tyranny will be overthrown and replaced by the democratic people's republic of Germany, to the immeasurable advantage of the German as well as of all other nations.[*]