[START]
At the end of November 1918,
Adolf Hitler returned to Munich and then
proceeded to a military camp in Traunstein in south-eastern Bavaria.
When
the camp was disbanded in April 1919, he went back to Munich, which was
still being ruled by a Soviet republic founded by a Polish Jew Kurt Eisner
(real name Salamon Kosmanowsky).
At the beginning of May, a few days after the communist revolution had been
terminated on May 1, 1919 by the Bavarian Freikorps, Hitler was summoned as
a member of the 2nd Infantry Regiment to attend a course on political
instruction. The purpose of this course of lectures was to provide the
soldiers with a background of politics, which would enable them to monitor
the many revolutionary and political movements present in Munich at that
time.
One of the lecturers was a former construction engineer turned economist, Dr
Gottfried Feder (1881-1941).(1) His first lecture was entitled
“The Abolition of the Interest-Servitude”.
Hitler was enthralled by what he heard, and this
was to be a turning point in his political career.
The following quotations from
Mein Kampf
reflect
his initial thoughts.
“For the first time in my life I heard a
discussion which dealt with the principles of stock exchange capital and
capital which was used for loan activities.
After hearing the first
lecture delivered by Feder, the idea immediately came into my head that
I had found a way to one of the most essential prerequisites for the
founding of a new party.
To my mind, Feder’s merit consisted in the ruthless and trenchant way in
which he described the double character of the capital engaged in stock
exchange and loan transactions, laying bare the fact that this capital
is ever and always dependent on the payment of interest.
In fundamental
questions his statements were so full of common sense that those who
criticized him did not deny that au fond his ideas were sound, but they
doubted whether it be possible to put these ideas into practice.
To me this seemed the strongest point in
Feder’s teaching, though others considered it a weak point.(2)
And again,
…I understood immediately that here was a
truth of transcendental importance for the future of the German people.
The absolute separation of stock exchange
capital from the economic life of the nation would make it possible to
oppose the process of internationalization in German business without at
the same time attacking capital at such, for to do this would be to
jeopardize the foundations of our national independence.
I clearly saw what was developing in
Germany, and I realized then that the stiffest fight we would have to
wage would not be against the enemy nations but against international
capital. In Feder’s speech I found an effective rallying-cry for our
coming struggle.” (3)
Further, he wrote,
“The struggle against international finance
capital and loan capital has become one of the most important points in
the program on which the German nation has based its fight for economic
freedom and independence.” (4)
A few weeks later Hitler received an instruction
from his superiors to investigate a political association called the
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers Party).
At this meeting held in the Sterneckerbrau Inn
in Munich, about 20 to 25 persons were present. The main speaker was Dr
Gottfried Feder.
Shortly thereafter Hitler joined this party and received a provisional
certificate of membership numbered seven. His first act on assuming control
of the party was to rename it the Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party).
Feder, who was the principal drafter of the party’s 25 points, became the
architect and theoretician of the program (5) until his
unfortunate dismissal as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in August
1934.
Approximately 40 percent of Feder’s ”The Program of the NSDAP” is devoted to
economic and financial policies. Below are some of the highlights.
Adolf Hitler prints its two main points in leaded type:
“THE COMMON INTEREST BEFORE SELF-THE SPIRIT
OF THE PROGRAM ABOLITION OF THE THRALLDOM OF INTEREST – THE CORE OF
NATIONAL SOCIALISM.”
“Once these two points are achieved, it
means a victory of their approaching universalist ordering of society in
the true state over the present-day separation of state, nation and
economics under the corrupting influence of the individualist theory of
society as now constructed.
The sham state of today, oppressing the
working classes and protecting the pirated gains of bankers and stock
exchange speculators, is the area for reckless private enrichment and
for the lowest political profiteering; it gives no thought to its
people, and provides no high moral bond of union.
The power of money, most ruthless of all
powers, holds absolute control, and exercises corrupting, destroying
influence on state, nation, society, morals, drama, literature and on
all matters of morality, less easy to estimate.(6)
“Break down the thralldom of interest” is our war cry.(7)
What do we mean by thralldom of interest?
The landowner is under this thralldom, who has to raise loans to finance
his farming operations, loans at such high interest as almost to eat up
the results of his labor, or who is forced to make debts and to drag the
mortgages after him like so much weight of lead.
So is the worker, producing in shops and factories for a pittance,
whilst the shareholder draws dividends and bonuses which he has not
worked for. So is the earning middle class, whose work goes almost
entirely to pay the interest on bank overdrafts.(8)
Thralldom of interest is the real expression for the antagonisms,
capital versus labor, blood versus money, creative work versus
exploitation.
The necessity of breaking this thralldom is
of such vast importance for our nation and our race, that on it alone
depends our nation’s hope of rising up from its shame and slavery; in
fact, the hope of recovering happiness, prosperity and civilization
throughout the world. It is the pivot on which everything turns; it is
far more than a mere necessity of financial policy.
Whilst its principles and consequences bite
deep into political and economic life, it is a leading question for
economic study, and thus affects every single individual and demands a
decision from each one: Service to the nation or unlimited private
enrichment. It means a solution of the Social Question.(9)
Our financial principle:
Hence our aim to break the thralldom of interest.
Relief of the state, and hence of the nation, from its indebtedness to
the great financial houses, which lend on interest.
Nationalization of the Reichsbank and the issuing houses, which lend on
interest.
Provision of money for all great public objects (waterpower, railroads
etc), not by means of loans, but by granting non-interest bearing state
bonds or without using ready money.
Introduction of a fixed standard of currency on a secured basis.
Creation of a national bank of business development (currency reform)
for granting non-interest bearing loans.
Fundamental remodeling of the system of taxation on social-economic
principles. Relief of the consumer from the burden of indirect taxation,
and of the producer from crippling taxation (fiscal reform and relief
from taxation).(10)
Wanton printing of bank notes, without creating new values, means
inflation. We all lived through it. But the correct conclusion is that
an issue of non-interest bearing bonds by the state cannot produce
inflation if new values are at the same time created.
The fact that today great economic enterprises cannot be set on foot
without recourse to loans is sheer lunacy. Here is where reasonable use
of the state’s right to produce money which might produce most
beneficial results.” (11)
Feder was appointed Secretary of State for
Economic Affairs when the National Socialists came to power on January 30,
1933, but his efforts to implement official National Socialist economic
policy were immediately frustrated by Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, who had
been appointed President of the Reichsbank in March 1933.
Schacht was an enigmatic character.
Although he
was born in Tingleff, Schleswig-Holstein in 1877, his family
originally came from Hungary. In 1903 at the age of 26 he joined the
Dresdner Bank, and in 1908 he became a Freemason.
He was also a student of Hebrew (12) as he deemed that knowledge
of this language was necessary if one wished to advance one’s career in
banking.
Schacht immediately set out to destroy Feder’s plans, which culminated in
the latter’s removal from office in August 1934, after Schacht had been
appointed head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
This tragic dismissal may be partially attributed to Hitler’s lack of a deep
understanding of financial and economic matters.
He admitted as much when he
first met Feder in 1919,
”Thus the judgment arrived at by Gottfried
Feder determined me to make a fundamental study of a question with which
I had hitherto not been very familiar.” (13)
A somewhat attenuated version of monetary reform
was introduced.
In order to finance the state’s work and
rearmament programs, two dummy corporations called Gesellschaft fuer
Offentliche Arbeiten (Offa) and Metallforschung Gesellschaft (Mefo)
were established. These corporations accepted bills of exchange from
suppliers who fulfilled state orders.
These bill of exchange were then
discounted at the Reichsbank at a rate of 4 percent.
They were issued for three months only, which
was clearly unsatisfactory in view of the long-term nature of the various
projects they were financing. They could, however, be extended at three
monthly intervals for up to five years.
In January 1939 matters came to a head when Schacht refused extension of RM 3
billion worth of Offa and Mefo bills, because of fears of “inflation”.
On January 7, 1939, he sent Hitler the following
memorandum:
-
The Reich must spend only that amount
covered by
-
Full financial control must be returned
to the Ministry of Finance (Then forced to pay for anything the
army desired)
-
Price and wage control must be rendered
effective. The existing mismanagement must be eliminated
-
The use of money and investment markets
must be at the sole discretion of the Reichsbank (This meant a
practical elimination of Goering’s Four Year Plan) (14)
By these means Schacht intended to collapse the
German economy, which during the period 1933-39 had increased its gross
national product by 100 percent.
From being a ruined and bankrupt nation in
January 1933 with over six million unemployed persons, Hitler had
transformed Germany into a socialist paradise and the most powerful and
prosperous state in the history of Europe. He angrily rejected the
recommendations of the Reichsbank, describing them as “mutiny”.(15)
On January 19, 1939 he sacked the impudent lackey of international finance.(16)
Without further ado he instructed the Reichsbank
to issue all credits requested by the state. A form of Federgeld (Feder
money) was now in circulation, although the bills of exchange still
attracted nominal interest.
A new Reichsbank law, which was promulgated on June 15, 1939, made the bank
“UNCONDITIONALLY SUBORDINATED TO THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE STATE.” (17)
Article 3 of the law decreed that the bank
should be,
“directed and managed according to the
instructions and under the supervision of the Fuehrer and Reich
Chancellor.” (18)
Hitler was now his own banker, but having
departed from the fold of international swindlers and usurers he would, like
Napoleon Bonaparte, suffer the same fate:
an unnecessary war followed by the
ruination of his people and country.
Events quickly unraveled.
On March 31, 1939, Poland received a blank check
(19) from England, which unilaterally offered to guarantee her
sovereignty; not only if Germany invaded Poland, but also if Poland invaded
Germany!
This merely served to stiffen Polish resistance
to Hitler’s genuine desire to achieve a permanent solution of all
outstanding issues emanating from the Treaty of Versailles.
During the next five months the Polish government progressively intensified
the oppression, harassment of and attacks on the 1.5 million ethnic Germans
living in Poland. These attacks, in which over 58 000 German civilians were
killed by Poles in an orgy of savagery, culminated in the Bromberg Massacre
on September 3, 1939, in which 5 500 people were murdered. These
provocations and atrocities were stoically ignored.(20)
Eventually Hitler was forced to employ military
intervention in order to protect the Germans in Poland.
On August 30, 1939, in an act of great statesmanship, Hitler again offered
to the Poles the Marienwerder proposals,(21) namely retention of
the existing 1919 borders, the return of Danzig (97% German), the
construction of a 60-mile autobahn and rail link connecting West and East
Prussia (from Schoenlanke to Marienwerder) and an exchange of German and
Polish populations.
On the orders of the international bankers, the
British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, strongly advised the Poles NOT to
negotiate. This is how and why World War II was started.
The ensuing forced war resulted in,
Today the bankers reign supreme.
The European Union with its commissars in
Brussels and its so called “European” Central Bank headquartered in
Frankfurt,(22) increasingly resembles the old Soviet Union.
However, with the recent ongoing “sovereign” debt crisis and the collapse of
the Euro, the plan for a united Europe anchored in perpetual debt
enslavement has received a major setback and has indeed started to
disintegrate.
Notwithstanding the inability of Adolf Hitler to permanently liberate
Europe, it behooves us to appreciate that what he achieved was not done in
vain.
It is incumbent on us to learn and understand
the fundamentals of usury and to spread that knowledge relentlessly, until
our material and spiritual liberties have been restored.
[END]
