862.911/97
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 10.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that President of the Reich Press Chamber, Amann, promulgated a set of decrees dated April 24 which carry to the limit the subjection of the press to the National Socialist State, since they not only provide for a stricter measure of control, but in effect clear the way for a potential abolition of all newspapers not Nazi-owned.
The salient provisions of these ordinances, which apply to the daily press, are as follows: (1) that in principle no newspapers may be owned or published by public corporations or limited liability stock companies; (2) the prohibition of papers designed for a limited confessional, professional or other special class of public; (3) the exclusion from publishing enterprises of persons who, with their wives, are unable to trace back Aryan descent to the year 1800, and the prohibition against Jews or persons employed by limited confessional, professional or class institutions, from engaging in newspaper work; (4) [Page 263] the power of State press authorities to order the suspension of certain newspapers in localities where it is deemed that unsound conditions of competition prevail.
The ordinances are drawn up by President Amann using the first-person form of address, and are as overbearing in tone as any Nazi decree published to date. It is understood that the Consulate General in Berlin is forwarding a translation of the ordinances and is commenting upon certain economic aspects of the question in continuance of previous reports prepared by that office on the same general subject. For the purpose of discussing the ordinances in their political implications, the following further details may be noted, however.
Newspapers are required to notify the Reich Association of Newspaper Publishers of their proprietors, beneficiaries and members of boards of control (all of whom, with their wives, must prove Aryan descent from the year 1800), the amount of their capital, the interest in the enterprise of third parties, and all changes in ownership. The right to publish is conditional upon membership in the Reich Press Chamber, and specifically excluded from membership are the legal and individual persons mentioned under the headings (1) to (3) in the first paragraph of this despatch. Organs of the Reich government or the Nazi Party are exempted from the provisions of the decrees.
It is stated that individual exceptions may be made with the approval of the President of the Reich Press Chamber. While this provision offers a loop-hole which makes it difficult to foretell definitely how the ordinances will be applied, there is no doubt that they furnish Nazi authorities with omnipotent power to exercise their will over the daily press. The exclusion from the publishing field of public corporations is likely to work particular hardship upon the ordinary “bourgeois” (bürgerliche) papers, if indeed it will not make it impossible for them to continue. They are given a year’s delay to adjust themselves to the law in this respect, and presumably will have to re-constitute themselves into partnerships or concerns owned by single individuals.
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Respectfully yours,
First Secretary of Embassy