862.00/3577: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany ( Dodd ) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 8—5:45 p.m.]
63. Following Hitler’s speech of yesterday2 Reichstag President Goering read the following message from Hitler:
“For the purpose of giving the German people the opportunity of being able to bestow their solemn approval on the 3-year policy concluded today of the restoration of the national honor and sovereignty of the Reich joined with upright endeavor for a true reconciliation and understanding of peoples on the basis of like rights and like obligations, I dissolve the Reichstag with the expiration of March 28, 1936. New elections to the Reichstag will take place on Sunday, March 29, 1936.”
Goebbels3 will open campaign by speech on March 10. It is generally considered that Hitler has been waiting the first available opportunity for a vote reaffirming his position. This affords a perfect occasion.
Repeated by wire to Paris, London; by air mail to Rome, Geneva, Moscow.
- New York Times, March 8, 1936, p. 32. For correspondence regarding the Hitler speech of March 7 and the reoccupation of the Rhineland, see vol. i, pp. 180 ff.↩
- Joseph Goebbels, Minister for National Enlightenment and Propaganda.↩