862.00/3526
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 23.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that the Chancellor unexpectedly emerged from his Bavarian summer retreat long enough to deliver a speech at the celebration on August 11 of the fifteenth anniversary of the Rosenheim Old Guard branch of the National Socialist Party.
Coming at this time, the otherwise ordinary, aggressive, challenging expatiation on the accomplishments and triumphs of the Party during the past 15 years, seems to have a special importance, as giving an intimation of the Chancellor’s attitude on the Church question. It is believed to be the first time that he has broken his ominous silence in this respect since the launching of the new offensive against the Church, which looks like an illustration of his canny instinct of permitting an issue to become acute but clarified before giving voice to his attitude and thus making the effect of his personal intervention surer and more marked.
[Page 361]At Rosenheim, while he apparently made no direct reference to the Church or other internal “enemies” of the state (it is perhaps significant that the complete speech is not available), it requires but little imagination to read his meaning in such passages as “Those who are opposed to us will not be disappointed in us (as opponents): We have never feared a battle in the past, nor do we today. If they want a battle they can have it. We will throw them down so hard that for the next 15 years they will have no desire to continue to fight.…15 I may say to those who think they have monopoly on Heaven’s blessings that 15 years ago I had nothing but my faith and my will. Today the movement is Germany—today this movement has conquered the German nation and shaped the Reich. Would that have been possible without the blessing of the Almighty? … What we are, we have become not against the will of Providence, but by its will … we will continue to have the blessing of Providence.” To those “who ruined Germany in 15 years”, thinking their day is once more dawning because of the constructive achievements of National Socialism, he says: “That would just suit them, now that there is something else they could squander” … [“] if fate intends to afflict us again, let such blows that Providence gives us make us doubly hard and firm.”
The Chancellor then went on to sound his “battlecry of peace”, and to reiterate his conviction that there is no happiness in a country subordinated by an alien will. The speech ended on the note of glorifying the new flag, and with it, to “keep marching into Germany’s future!” In connection with Nazi pronouncements that the movement will last 1,000 years, or several hundred years, the Führer’s prophecy that the Swastika will be the German flag 500 years may be noted.
Hitler’s personal attitude towards the Church controversy has hitherto been the subject of considerable conjecture. This unblushing claim that divine providence is on his side, would, however, seem to bode ill for the claims of the Churches and to confirm the growing belief that there will be little quarter and no surrender in the Kultur-kampf.
There is transmitted herewith a translation of such portions of the speech as were given out by the semiofficial Deutsehes Nachrichtenbuero of August 11.16
Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy