862.60/105
The Consul General at Berlin (Messersmith) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 26.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that according to the newspapers of August 7 and 8, Dr. Ley, the head of the “Deutscher Arbeitsfront” has made a public statement to the effect that the “Kampfbund fuer gewerblichen Mittelstand” has been dissolved, and the functions which are to remain are to be incorporated in the so-called “Deutscher Arbeitsfront”, of which he is the head. This is in a way an epoch-making event in the history of the National-Socialist movement.
The “Kampfbund fuer gewerblichen Mittelstand” was created through an order of the present Chancellor, Mr. Hitler, in 1932, as leader of the Party. As I have informed the Department in previous despatches, it was to be the fighting organization of the German middle-class merchants and manufacturers. Its organization led to the creating of many similar “Kampfbunde” or fighting bodies, which were pressing the aims of individual sections of industry and trade. When the National-Socialist Party came into power, the “Kampfbund fuer gewerblichen Mittelstand” became a very important organization and as the Department is aware from the reports of this Consulate General, became the means through which were put into effect many of the measures from which our trade in Germany is suffering today. It is the organization which had for one of its objects the practical destruction and elimination of all foreign capital and which aimed to destroy the American owned and other foreign owned manufacturing plants in Germany through unfair competition measures. In other words the “Kampfbund” was the first means of the Party to put into effect its economic program and had it been successful in its efforts, or had its efforts not been curbed by the Party which created it, it would eventually, in the opinion of all thinking persons, have destroyed the whole German economic structure. It was made up of selfish individual interests which knew only individual problems and had no idea of foreign trade or foreign relations.
In a conversation with Minister President Goering several months ago when we were discussing the unfair methods which were being used against American interests in Germany, I pointed out to him that the “Kampfbund” was the most dangerous instrument which the Party had and that it would find that the “Kampfbund” would have to be dissolved and that in their own interests it would be better to dissolve it before it had done too much harm. Minister President Goering at the time indicated that he understood the situation and that he was about to dissolve the smaller fighting organizations but would let this [Page 282] one stand. I stated that I felt this would have the contrary effect, as by dissolving the smaller ones he would merely make the main one stronger, but that on the other hand if he dissolved the strongest organization first, it would be very easy to destroy the smaller ones afterwards. In making this statement I knew that it was good advice both from the point of view of our very important interests in Germany as well as from the point of view of the German economic system. This conversation was shortly thereafter followed by an order of the Minister President, dissolving all the “Kampfbünde” with the exception of the “Kampfbund fuer gewerblichen Mittelstand”.
Thereafter the “Kampfbund fuer gewerblichen Mittelstand” increased in power and became increasingly arrogant until its activities became a subject of very serious concern to the Party and to the Government. The declarations of the Chancellor and of the leading officials of the Government that peace must be brought back into the industrial and business field, did not have their full effect although they were well meant, because the radical elements had concentrated in this “Kampfbund” and were loath to give up any of the measures for which it was striving. One by one the “Kampfbund” had to give up its main objectives; but with every decrease in its power certain radical elements in it became more disturbed until recently it was apparent that the dissolution of the organization could no longer be put off. The order of August 6 dissolving it, therefore, and incorporating some of its functions in the “Deutscher Arbeitsfront” is not unexpected and was a necessary development as part of the decision of the higher authorities that peace must be established in the economic field.
Although the “Kampfbund” is now incorporated in the “Deutscher Arbeitsfront”, it is not believed that it is entirely dead. Some of the elements in the “Kampfbund” will be slow to die and Dr. Ley himself, who is the head of the “Deutscher Arbeitsfront”, is a radical at heart and is only moderate when he is forced to be so by his superiors. He is now the principal spokesman of the radical economic advisers of the Party.
I am confidentially informed that Dr. Ley is one of the men who is slated for gradual retirement from the public eye. I am informed that the retention of men like Ley and Feder is for the time being necessary, as after all perhaps a majority of the membership of the Party is still more in accord with their views than with the more moderate views which the primary leaders now have and are trying to carry into effect. The present movement, therefore, seems to be one where the more moderate higher leadership is trying to put its views into effect but is permitting men like Ley and Feder to continue to make an inflammatory and radical speech now and then in order that the mass of the Party may not be too rapidly disturbed by the change of front.
[Page 283]As the Department is aware, the so-called “Deutscher Arbeitsfront” is supposed to have consolidated in it all the former trade organizations and unions which have now been dissolved. The working class miss their trade unions and trade organizations, and I am informed that they have no enthusiasm for the “Arbeitsfront”. They feel that instead of bread they have been given a stone. Those who are in contact with the working class are of the opinion that this particular situation represents quite a real danger. The inflammatory and radical nature of Dr. Ley’s speeches with which he is trying to keep alive the enthusiasm of the working classes is clearly indicated by a speech which he made in Breslau on the 20th July. A translation of the principal parts of his speech is given in a letter dated July 21, 1933 which Consul Heard at Breslau addressed to the Ambassador and of which the Department has a copy.77 The following paragraph, however, is significant and worth quoting here:
“The age-old fight between blood and gold will remain no matter how firmly the state is ruled or how rigorously industry is regulated, and the new Germany will have to give the signals in this struggle for Europe to follow. If Fascism in Italy rightly says that it is not an export article, then we say that the Socialism of Adolf Hitler is and will be an export article”.
The dissolution of the “Kampfbund fuer gewerblichen Mittelstand” can be considered, so far as our interests are concerned, as a very great step in advance as it is the organization from which have come so many of the difficulties which American firms and American goods in Germany are experiencing. On the other hand it is quite clear that there is not yet room for optimism, for although the “Kampfbund” has been dissolved, the “Arbeitsfront” remains, and the ideas for which the “Kampfbund” was fighting are ideas which are held by a very considerable mass of the German people and for which the present movement will directly or indirectly continue to strive.
Respectfully yours,
- Not found in Department files.↩