862.00/3232
The Chargé in Germany (White) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 20.]
Sir: With reference to despatch No. 550 of February 19, 1934,12 I have the honor to report that according to an “agreement reached between Ernst Röhm, the Chief of Staff of the S.A., and Franz Seldte, the Leader of the Stahlhelm Association of Front Line Soldiers,” the Stahlhelm has been “re-founded” as the “Nazi German Front Line Fighters’ Association (Stahlhelm).”
The agreement between Röhm and Seldte, approved by Hitler and Hindenburg, provides for the “re-foundation” and change of name “now that a part of its aims and tasks have been accomplished by the Nazi uprising.” Seldte is to remain nominal leader of the new organization, which envisages as members the older members of the old Stahlhelm (those who joined after January 30, 1933, must be approved by the S.A. command), as well as members of the S.A., S.S., S.A.R.I, S.A.R.II, and N.S.K.K. (Nazi Motor Corps), who have been German soldiers and want to collaborate in the building of the Nazi State. While the new organization is to foster soldierly tradition and soldierly comradeship, its objectives no longer include “Wehrsportliche und Wehrpolitische” activity (i. e., semi-military field training and military propaganda). The inclusion of Stahlhelm members in the S.A.R.I (see despatch No. 481 of January 30, 193412) is to continue.
[Page 222]One of the first acts of the new command of the “(Stahlhelm)” was to decree a new uniform for those members not in the S.A. or S.A.R. A field-gray cap will be used bearing the Nazi emblem and the national colors. A coat of the same color, with Swastika emblem on the sleeve, is to be worn over a brown shirt with a green tie. Only Seldte is to have a title, and is to be addressed as “Comrade Association Leader,” all other, subordinate, leaders being addressed by name with the additional word “Comrade.” Salutes are to be executed in the form of the “Deutscher Gruss,” by raising the right arm.
It would seem that this reorganization—in which the “Stahlhelm” only appears in parenthesis in a new Nazified title—marks the final, though perhaps no longer very significant because inevitable, step in the gradual transmutation of the Stahlhelm. Once the proud ally of Hugenberg and, with the Reichswehr, regarded as the ultimate resort of all conservatives against the upstart radical Hitler, it has now, step by step, suffered Nazi Gleichschaltung in everything, including name.
Disappointment is undoubtedly widespread among the rank and file of the old Stahlhelm, their feeling being that, if they have not been abandoned by their former leaders, Hitler at least has proven too clever for them. They are now in an unwelcome position, and are impotent even to voice an effective protest. Now that the field-training (Gelandesport) has been taken away from the Stahlhelm and the able-bodied members incorporated in the S.A. and S.A.R.I, the organization has been truly emasculated and all possible dreams of forceful self-assertion definitely destroyed.
This at least is the impression one obtains when conversing with members of the Stahlhelm, and it is an attitude one can well understand.
Respectfully yours,