spearheaded by that same Ernst Thälmann. For three days and three nights the rebels fought behind barricades in the city and on its outskirts. Neither did national socialists participate in these fights. Adolf Hitler had his own “number one” problems to take care of – the planning of his takeover operation, later known as the Beer Hall Putsch, had entered the homestretch.
On the 8th and 9th of November, the Nazi attempted a takeover in Munich. Hitler himself was heading the demonstration, pistol in hand and helmet on head. The police opened fire, and the Führer had a very narrow escape. His party comrade, Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, who was marching by his side, was killed by a shot, and in falling, he clutched at Hitler and pulled him down on the ground, dislocating his collar bone. Hermann Göring was badly wounded about his groin – that injure would prove so intolerable as to force him to take to analgesic drugs forever after, and eventually reduce the future Reichsmarschall to an inveterate drug addict. In total, some fourteen Nazi and three policemen remained were left dead and prostrate on the ground.
We can see that all the attempts by the communists at a military takeover were always brought down by the government in power. Not only did the Nazi fail to offer any assistance, but they actually made things worse. See for yourselves – only a fortnight after the Red Putsch in Hamburg, the Brown, or Beer Putsch struck Munich!
Now, if you were in Krupp’s or Thyssen’s shoes, who would you give money to? The ruling social-democratic party that could beget some outstanding “bloodhounds”, if need be, or someone else? Why would you pay the radicals? Why would you burn your house if it became infested with rats, once there are other good ways to get rid of them? Hitler with his radical party may be indeed compared to burning the house to rid it of vermin. Why would the German industrial elite sponsor the Nazi – the radicals – the mad heads? The Nazi were evidently not a protection against the “Red menace”; what is more, they even tried to take over the reins.
It seems more probable that the capitalists of that time would have thought that it’s as broad as it’s long. And it is not the similar colours of the Communist and Nazi banners, or their similar ways of propaganda that matter. It’s another thing: both Communism and National Socialism, albeit antagonistic, are revolutionary doctrines!
We demand that profits not earned by labour and the slavery of interest rates be made away with.
We demand that military profits be confiscated without pity.
We demand that industrial concerns be nationalised.
We demand that industrial and office workers have their shares in the profits of large commercial enterprises.
We demand that a healthy middle class be brought up and supported; that large commercial stores be immediately withdrawn from private ownership and leased at moderate fees to small entrepreneurs.
We demand that a land reform be enacted that would meet the interests of the German nation; that a law on irrevocable confiscation of land for public needs be adopted; that land lease interests and land speculation be forbidden.
If you thought you were reading an extract from a communistic brochure, you are mistaken. These are all clauses from a Nazi political programme. These are the “protectors of the national capital”. They were even prepared to deprive owners of their land irrevocably. Some Bolsheviks, you would say! So again – would you give money to such radicals whose slogans are so much like those of your hated communists? Or would you instead try to reinforce the existing Weimar Republic? Say, inject money into the police and increase their size, and raise salaries in the army. I imagine you would be more at rest if your life and your private savings and enterprises were protected by government bodies and not Brownshirts, right?
If that be so, then go on with your propaganda and make a hero of Gustav Noske who brought down the communists in 1919. He is a defence minister as one should be, with his heavy hand, iron nerve, and readiness to answer for his actions. But no – already in 1920, the “Bloodhound” is made to retire, never to reappear on the political stage. Why would anyone want an even bloodier ruler in the person of Hitler who would evidently make even the “bloody” Noske look like a blue-eyed boy scout? You would do well to create images of the “true German courage” from the police who have proved so efficient in depleting Thälmann’s gunmen at the Hamburg barricades. Here’s a good replacement to Gustav Noske. These policemen were surely commanded by someone who had guts.
Why would you pay Adolf Hitler? When will he be capable of putting down riots and crush the German Communist Party? How would you know at all if he can do that? As of 1920-ies, Hitler is not even “a bird in the hand”, not to say “two in the bush”; he is a crocodile, so far a little one, but with sharp teeth. And you house is already alive with rats… You could, of course, take up taming the croc, teaching him to catch rats. But this is a dangerous enterprise – someday your new “pet” will devour yourself together with (or instead of) the rats. And so he did. Together with the Communists, all the other parties were disbanded – the Social Democratic party; the Independent Social Democratic party; the Economic party; the German Centre party; the Bavarian People’s party; the German Democratic party; and even the German National People’s party, as well as all the smaller ones – all at the same time[24]. The Nazi packed all these into concentration camps “to think better”. Do you really need this, you German industrial magnates?
Ironically, after their almost synchronic attempts to overthrow the government, the Nazi and the Communists waxed strictly law-abiding, again almost at a time. When out of prison in 1924, where he had been kept but a short time, Hitler took a once-and-for-all pledge to gain power by purely legal means. A clandestine Ninth Convention of the German Communist party held in April 1924 also adopted a completely legal roadmap. From then on, the Communist party made its presence in the Parliament and struggled for power by legal elections, discarding the idea of a coup d’état. Communists were now occupied by propaganda, public demonstrations and meetings, and the manufacturing of red banners and flyleaves. True, they did have their own armed squadrons, just the same as the Nazi, but they never conspired for another coup. At least, there is no dependable historical document to prove the opposite – none at all!
The “Red menace” in Germany had subsided. Communists could hardly come to power, even by parliamentary elections. The best result that these followers of bearded Karl Marx could achieve was on November 6, 1932, when they garnered 5,980,200 votes, or 16.9 % of the electorate. Was that a risk? Not at all. A Communist majority in the Parliament was definitely out of the question. Knowing that, one would wish nothing more than to let them keep their quiet struggle for the rights of the proletariat, sitting, as it were, in the Parliament. Why would one think of fuelling the Nazi who would then ban all the other parties and declare themselves the best protectors of the German working society?
Most ironically, the German “Red menace” was not believed even by its prime antagonist, Adolf Hitler. “Such a danger [Bolshevism in Germany] does not exist, and has never existed”, he told in his conversation with Hermann Rauschning. “I have always made allowance for this circumstance, and given orders that former Communists are to be admitted to the party at once. The petit bourgeois Social-Democrat and the trade-union boss will never make a National Socialist, but the Communist always will”[25].
And so they did. A great many former communists entered the NSDAP. Such immigrant party members were later dubbed “beefsteaks”, being “brown” on the outside, but “red” inside.
Germany would see no other riots from that time – neither from the right wing, nor from the left one, which to us is of special importance. Once there was no fear of poison, there was no need for an antidote. It would have been reasonable to start fortifying the law and its enforcing bodies, cracking down on the left and right radicals. Yet someone did want to see Hitler
The Weimar Republic had a total of 38 active political parties.
