Chapter Sixteen Continued: Armed Intellectuals

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"Only the ruin of all made him ruler over all." Konrad Heiden

Adolf Hitler was an unlikely politician, and even less likely a world leader. And yet this very ordinary man became an extraordinary public figure, whose face is one of the most recognizable in the western world, even more than half a century after his death.

There have been many books written about his rise to power, using his childhood as an excuse for his later evil.

But I see something else. I see him as more of a protagonist. The central character in a literary plot. The leading actor cast by successful playwright and stage director Dietrich Eckart, who was with him almost constantly after discovering him in a beer hall in Munich.

He taught him how to speak and how to use his arms for dramatic effect. Characteristics that might have been seen as flaws by others, were exploited. Hitler's natural jerky movements, and gravelly voice as a result of mustard gas during the war, all played into the mystique.

His character: Vladimir Soloviev's Antichrist.

And when studying the creation of Adolf Hitler, it's not too difficult to recognize a familiar pattern. He is probably the best case study for the phenomenon of image politics. A chameleon who would become the perfect personification of the leader of many causes, while being the champion of none.

Because the only thing that Adolf Hitler really believed in, was his own greatness.

The Validity of a Movement

When members of the Thule Society came up with the idea of creating a party, it was the natural progression of an organization that was becoming increasingly political. They viewed the lawlessness of post-war Germany as a threat to their cause.

Rape, promiscuity and abortion was on the rise. The grand plan of creating a perfect Aryan race was becoming less attainable. There was a "Jewish conspiracy" to take over the world. They needed a miracle.

But that miracle did not arrive as the result of the efforts of the upper echelon of the Thule Society, who were holding seances to conjure one up; but from one of the lower members who creatively "conjured up" the long awaited saviour of the Teutonic races.

And while the resulting party would be one based purely on ideology - the ideology of a society that dabbled in the occult; the infrastructure for such a party was built through earthly endeavours.

Before assuming power they spent more than a decade creating a shadow government, shaping public opinion and selling the idea of a noble cause. To German citizens they were going to save Germany and to the moneyed people of the Thule Society, they were going to save the Aryan race.

But such lofty goals could not be achieved without a veritable army. An army of what Heiden would call "armed intellectuals".

... thousands of youthful, ex-Army officers were streaming back from defeat to poverty and unemployment in the Weimar Republic. They were "armed intellectuals," war-hardened products of Germany's prewar universities. They became an army of the armed bohemians, of heroes and murderers by conviction .

. . They had lost prestige, social position, ideals—"tossed this way and that way," wrote one of them, "just for the sake of our daily bread; gathering men about us and playing soldiers with them; brawling and drinking, roaring and smashing windows—destroying and shattering" . . . They drew to them the flotsam, the stragglers living on the fringe of their class . . . the unemployed . . . the declassed of all classes .... an upper layer that has lost its hold in society seeks the people and finds the rabble ...

... They found their leader in the lowest mass of their subordinates. The spirit of history, in its fantastic mockery, could not have drawn an apter figure. Raving Dervish ... the [formerly] homeless derelict from the Viennese melting pot ...this man who exhorted them with all the semi-education of his age, using miserable German, defective logic, tasteless humor and false pathos ... (1)

And they would soon draw more foot soldiers from all levels of society. Labourers, teachers, public servants et al; all saw in Adolf Hitler what they wanted to see. A man who represented them.

Gottfried Feder and Party Economics

Just as William Aberhart's Social Credit Party was intent on changing the way that Alberta handled it's finances, the Thule Society that was grooming Adolf Hitler, also had plans to change the way the Germany did business.

As part of his indoctrination Adolf was introduced to another Thule member, Gottfried Feder, and it is said that he finally agreed to join the German Worker's Party after listening to Feder speak. (2)

Feder's lecture was about "Jewish finance capitalism" and he showed an open hostility towards wealthy bankers and spoke of 'breaking the shackles of interest'. He believed that all German banks should be nationalized and he called for the abolishment of interest.

In February 1920, together with Adolf Hitler and Anton Drexler, Feder drafted a paper, called the "25 points" which became the party's platform. When the paper was announced on February 14, 1920, more than 2,000 people attended the rally.

And just as Social Credit clubs were springing up across Alberta, a momentum was building for a regime change in Germany. Finally there was a political movement with clear plans to rescue the country from sure ruin.

Chapter Sixteen Continued: The Beer Hall Putsch

Footnotes:

*He would later have to tone down the rhetoric, because of the heavy support to the party by wealthy industrialists and would only become the under-secretary to the minister of economics, when the future Nazi Party formed a government.

Sources:

1. Master of the Masses, Time Magazine, February 07, 1944

2. Hitler: Profiles in Power, by: Ian Kershaw, Longman House UK, 1991, ISBN: 0-582-08053-3, Pg. 21

Chapter Eight Continued: The Socialism of Fools

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

While Hitler and his friends spent much of their time on the streets of Vienna, another regular on those streets was the mayor, Karl Lueger, who was the leader of the Christian Social Party.

Lueger would spend his time talking trash about his political opponents, and convincing his audience that the only reason they were unsuccessful, was because of the Jews, though many of his political opponents suggested that he only became anti-Semitic to appeal to the masses.

It soon became apparent that especially in Vienna any political group that wanted to appeal to the artisans had no chance of success without an anti-Semitic platform. It was at that time that a well-known phrase was coined in Vienna: "Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools." The situation was exploited by the Catholic politician Karl Lueger, the leader of Austrian Christian-Social party. In 1887, Lueger raised the banner of anti-Semitism. (1)

So it's quite possible that with Lueger, his prejudice was mostly political, but he did draw in a large number of supporters from all levels of society.

A much greater development was that of a second anti-Semitic movement embracing the mass of the German petty-bourgeoisie and parts of the working class ... in Vienna: this was the Christian Social Party, led by an intellectual who had arisen from modest circumstances: Doctor Karl Lueger. A strong personality, a powerful tribune of the people, a party despot who made him-self the all-powerful mayor of Vienna. Young Hitler admired him greatly, handed out leaflets for the Christian Social Party, stood on street corners and made speeches. (2)

Adolf became a fan and would often campaign for the popular mayor, standing on street corners, barking out anti-Semitic rhetoric, before returning to his Jewish friends.

How he could do that was pretty simple though. One was personal and the other was politics.*

And he learned a few lessons from that experience, though not all from the party he supported, but from those he challenged.

What he witnessed there, was not the organized campaign, complete with marching bands and scripted rhetoric; but the passion of a growing political movement of workers. And most of the leaders of these groups were university educated intellectuals. But not just any intellectuals ... Jewish intellectuals. The reason being that while they were qualified to be judges or government workers, they were not allowed, because those jobs were often forbidden to them.

Later, he would try to figure out how to find non-Jewish intellectuals, capable of inspiring the kind of passion he saw in the faces of the proletariat. And that opportunity would present itself, in the aftermath of war.

And on the Other Side of Town

When Adolf Hitler arrived in Vienna to hone his artistic "talents", a young lad from that city was also trying to find his place.

Known to his family as "Fritz", he was tall and gangly, and often described as "untidy". And while a disinterested student, was extremely bright and an avid reader. (3)

Like Adolf, he was told he couldn't draw and as a result was sent to a lesser school. But drawing was not part of his desired vocation, not that he really knew what that might be then.

However, he would not have experienced life on the Vienna streets, or spent time in flop-houses. His father was of a minor nobility and his mother a member of the upper-class bourgeoisie. He never knew hunger or had to cringe from an abusive father.

He led the lifestyle of the privileged and was influenced by the intelligentsia of Viennese society.

And while Adolf was running messages from trench to trench for the Bavarian army, during the war; Fritz was in an aeroplane, acting as a spotter for the Austro-Hungarian Army. The same army that Adolf had wanted to join but was turned down for being too frail.

When the war was over, a very grown-up Fritz decided to pursue an academic career, and vowed to work for a better world. As he would later say: "The decisive influence was really World War I. It's bound to draw your attention to the problems of political organization."

Most people know "Fritz" better as Friedrich August Von Hayek, and he has been called the man ".. who snatched the Conservative Revolution from the jaws of defeat" (4) and was the inspiration of among others: Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Stephen Harper.

Footnotes:

*It never ceases to amaze me, how people can be openly anti-Semitic, yet claim it has nothing to do with the Jewish people. William Aberhart could lash out at them from the pulpit, but when confronted would claim that he was not prejudice, genuinely believing that he could separate his 'Biblical beliefs' from his humane beliefs. The late Reverend Jerry Falwell, after claiming that the Antichrist was a Jew, defended his position by saying that many of his friends were Jewish and he loved Israel.

And now as Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney, have become two of the most pro-Israel men on the planet, even shaping foreign policy to appease the Christians United for Israel crowd, they believe that they are the best friends the Jewish people ever had. This despite the fact that if the prophesy is fulfilled it will have devastating results for the 'Israelites'. It is a strange world indeed.

Sources:

1. The History of Anti-Semitism. By: Leon Poliakov, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. ISBN 0812218639. p.24

2. Der Fhehrer, Hitler's Rise to Power, By: Konrad Heiden, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944, Pg. 63-64

3. Friedrich Hayek, By Alan Ebenstein, Palgrave, 2001, ISBN: 0-312-23344-2

4. The Legacy of Friedrich von Hayek: Fascism Didn't Die With Hitler, by Jeffrey Steinberg, The American Almanac, September 23, 1995

Book Two Introduction Continued: Konrad and Adolf

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

It is twenty-three years now since I first attended a National Socialist meeting, saw (without particular enjoyment) Herr Hitler at close range, and listened to the flood of nonsense—or so it then seemed to me—that he was spouting. It was only gradually that the effects of these speeches made me realize that behind all the nonsense there was unrivaled political cunning. (1)

Those words were written by Konrad Heiden, an author and journalist, who was a contemporary of Adolf Hitler. He had tracked the German dictator's career for 23 years (2), and while he was eventually forced into exile, he continued to sound the alarm.

While living in France in 1939, he wrote a book, "The New Inquisition", in which he laid out his predictions for the Holocaust:

"To drive 600,000 people by robbery into hunger, by hunger into desperation, by desperation into wild outbreaks, and by such outbreaks into the waiting knife -- such is the cooly calculated plan. Mass murder is the goal, a massacre such as history has not seen -- certainly not since Tamerlane and Mithridates. We can only venture guesses as to the technical forms these mass executions are to take. In his book Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler suggested that the people to be killed be kept "under poisonous gas"; however, he speaks of a mere twelve to fifteen thousand. Doubtless the destructive instinct in the ruling class of the regime has grown in the meantime..."

I wanted to start the second part of this work with Heiden, because he offers a completely different perspective of Adolf Hitler; one that I think many of his biographers have ignored.

Was Adolf Hitler driven only by anti-Semitism, or was there a genuine thirst for power? Was it only hatred or also exploitation?

So I am now going to reexamine Hitler's career from a strictly political (and somewhat sociological) viewpoint. And I think you'll see that the philosophies of Leo Strauss during this time, become even more important to this movement in Canada, than William Aberhart's. Or at least as important.

But before going any further, I want to explain a few things. The Holocaust was very real and absolutely devastating. There is no justification for what took place and there is no intention with this book, to excuse, rationalize or vindicate Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in any way. It can't be done. It simply can't.

I also wanted to discuss the religious elements to my work, since I will be talking even more about Christianity and Judaism.

I am not a theologian, so my interest is purely historical and I will only discuss them in their historical context.

William Aberhart represented the extreme elements of dispensationalism. His theories were not just based on Cyrus Scofield but also on Ethelbert Bullinger, who incorporated numerology, witchcraft and the occult; into his teachings.

Many pastors discounted William Aberhart's theories and the columns in the religious sections of newspapers, often rebuked what they heard on his radio programs. Even his own wife*, did not "always share her husband's more extreme religious views, and there was a certain amount of tension in the home" because of them. (3)

Preston Manning once said that when he was in university, he would be teased about the religious elements in the Social Credit Party, by what he called 'Marxist' or socialists followers of the NDP. So he would show them old pamphlets of the CCF (the forerunner to the NDP) which then called itself "a Christian Party". (4)

However, there was a big difference between the Christianity of Tommy Douglas (CCF) and that of "Bible Bill". Douglas, and members of the CCF belonged to the social gospel movement, that combined Christian principles with social reform. Students of the social gospel were actually encouraged to question fundamentalism, and focus on Christian ethics. (5)

So for the next part of this story, I am going to allow Konrad Heiden to present his version of events, while I interject with their relevance to Leo Strauss, William Aberhart and Ernest Manning; who is by now a devout disciple of the father of the Social Credit Party in Canada.

Book Two Introduction Continued: Secret Societies and Armed Intellectuals

Footnotes:

*Laureen Harper, wife of Stephen Harper, has also stated that she is not Evangelical. She claims to "hate that stuff" and the pastor at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, where Harper belongs, confirms that she doesn't attend. (6). I myself, have often wondered whether Harper is in fact, a religious person at all. Leo Strauss advises his followers to tap into religious fervour, but claims that it is not necessary for a leader to be moral or devout. In fact he hated organized religion and he hated it religiously.

Sources:

1. Der Fhehrer, Hitler's Rise to Power, By: Konrad Heiden, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944, Preface

2. Books: Master of the Masses, Time Magazine, February 7, 1944

3. Eva Reid: girl reporter, By: Jennifer Hamblin, Alberta History, September 22, 2004

4. The New Canada, Preston Manning, 1992, MacMillan Canada, ISBN: 0-7715-9150-0, pg. 95

5. CCF: The Anatomy of a Party, By: Walter D. Young, University of Toronto Press, ISBN: 0-8020-5221-5, Pg. 159

6. Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons: The rising clout of Canada’s religious right, By: Marci McDonald, Walrus Magazine, October 2006

Chapter Sixteen Continued: The Beer Hall Putsch

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Soon after joining the German Worker's Party, Adolf Hitler suggested that they change their name to the National Socialist German Worker's Party. Not because he was embracing socialism, but because he remembered the passion of the socialist groups in Vienna, and he thought that they could tap into that.

They had also learned how to use the press to their advantage, by making Hitler's Brown Shirts visible. Constant marches and rabble rousing, kept their name and images in the newspaper, and they were able to feed off that notoriety.

Not that they didn't meet with opposition. After hearing Hitler speak, Konrad Heiden, then a university student, tried to organize against them:

In 1923, as the leader of a small democratic organization in the University of Munich, I tried, with all the earnestness of youth, and with complete lack of success, to annihilate Hitler by means of pro test parades, mass meetings, and giant posters. And so I am entitled to call myself the oldest - or one of the oldest anti-Nazis now in the United States, for there cannot be many in this country who came into conflict with Adolf Hitler and his handful of followers at: so early a date.

Those who experience history and have a share in its making rarely see the enduring threads but only the whirl of exciting and quickly forgotten details. In 1920, and the years following, my friends and I certainly did not view our modest fist-fights and other encounters with the National Socialists as an attempt to put a premature end to the career of the modern Genghis Khan, and I would have jeered at anyone who had prophesied that this was the beginning of a new epoch in world history. (1)

It was actually Heiden who first gave them the name Nazi, a Bavarian slang word meaning "country bumpkin". He would later infiltrate the group as they marched toward a beer hall in Munich, ready to overthrow the government and seize power in November of 1923.

The Beer Hall Putsch

Besides a large following and a platform, the 'Nazis' (country bumpkins) also had their own little army under the leadership of General Ludendorff * (who reminds me of Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes), and their own newspaper. It was time.

They chose the five year anniversary (November 9, 1923) of the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm and prepared for battle in his name.

Under cover of darkness General Erich von Ludendorff, flagitious, inscrutable, unrelenting, sallied forth into the streets of Munich, capital of Bavaria, accompanied by his faithful Austrian, Herr Adolf Hitler, to make a coup for the Hohenzollerns by way of celebrating Nov. 9, the fifth anniversary of the abdication of the then Kaiser of Doorn.

With unerring instinct they led their men to a beerhouse, called the Bügerbrau Keller, famed Bavarian cellar. Within was Bavarian Dictator von Kahr, Minister President von Knilling, Minister of Interior Schweier and some others. Dr. von Kahr was in the middle of outlining his state policy in which he denounced Marxism, when the door opened and in walked Herr Hitler and General von Ludendorff with some of their followers, who fired a few shots into the ceiling by way of effect.

Herr Hitler declared the Bavarian Government had been superseded and elected himself not only head of Bavaria but Chancellor of all Germany.

Dr. von Kahr was offered the post of National Protector, à la Horthy in Hungary, which he accepted. His companions, Minister President von Knilling and Minister of Interior Schweier, were arrested and imprisoned. General Ludendorff was given command of the Army, which he accepted, and said: "We have reached the turning point in the history of Germany and the world. God bless our work!"

After this distribution of gifts by fairy godfather Hitler, there was wild talk of a march on Berlin, the destruction of the Treaty of Versailles, the deposition of President Ebert and the Berlin Government.

Everything seemed to be " going " well enough. The people cheered Ludendorff when he swaggered in or out of anywhere. The Hitler storm troops were in possession of the city and the sun was shining brightly on the following day. " Chancellor" Hitler and " Commander-in-Chief" von Ludendorff were within the War Office when the loyal Bavarian Reichswehr, commanded by the " disloyal" (to Berlin) General von Lossow, stormed the building, and after a short battle the "beer hall revolt" was crushed.

It appeared that Dictator von Kahr and General von Lossow were entirely out of sympathy with the movement and declared that their agreement with the Hitler move was forced by duress. After leaving the Bürgerbrau Keller, Dr. von Kahr had conferred with General von Lossow and they decided to suppress the revolt with the faithful Reichswehr (defense force). Ex-Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht, head of the Wittelsbach dynasty, emphatically repudiated the revolutionary movement.

In Berlin the news of the coup was received with undisguised alarm, despite subsequent contrary statements. President Ebert issued an appeal to the nation, an emergency Cabinet meeting was held, troops were ordered out by General von Seeckt, Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr. Hardly had this been done when the news was flashed from Munich that the revolt had been crushed.

Meanwhile in Munich Dr. von Kahr and General von Lossow quickly restored order. Minister President von Knilling and Minister of Interior Schweier were released and resumed their duties. Herr Hitler escaped from his enemies without hurt, but was found several days later hiding in the house of one, Ernst Franz Hanfstaengl, said to be a Harvard graduate and former Manhattan art dealer.

Ludendorff was captured by the Reichswehr, but released after having given his parole not to plot against the Bavarian Government. Once free, however, he determined not to become the scapegoat of a beer-house brawl. With characteristic defiance he declared that he was bound only by his honor to refrain from attacking the Government while his and Hitler's conduct were under consideration. Beyond that he considered himself free to work for the Hohenzollern's return.

Thus it was clear that the career of a great German general is not over; that his iron fist, which proved stronger than that of Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenberg during the latter part of the War, is not rusty; that he is still intent upon being treated as a monster and not a weakling, a soldier of the old brigade and not a great pure fool. Perhaps, next putsch, he will not frolic with political opportunists such as Hitler. (2)

Also involved in the Putsch, were Dietrich EcKart, who was arrested and imprisoned, but later released due to poor health. He died of a heart attack on December 23, 1923. And Max Scheubner-Richter, who walked arm-in-arm with Hitler as they marched toward laying claim to Berlin (yes, it would be a very long march). He was shot and killed, but took Hitler down with him, who dislocated his shoulder as he fell.

Hitler would indeed hide out in the home of Ernst Franz Hanfstaengl, a close confidante. But Ernest wasn't there. He had also taken part in the beer hall revolt, and had escaped to Austria. But Hitler spent the time with his wife, and when the police came to arrest him, it is said that she talked him out of committing suicide.

Many people who write the story of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party will cite many times when Hitler could have been stopped, and this is one of them. However, I don't believe that would have made much of a difference. This was a very powerful movement, and if not Hitler, then it probably would have been someone else.

But his arrest and subsequent conviction, only made him appear as a martyr for the cause, and though the movement was forced underground, Hitler's popularity continued to grow. He had created a charismatic cult, and the powerful forces driving the party, knew how to exploit it.

Chapter Seventeen: Martians and Evil Bankers

Footnotes:

* WWI veteran, General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff

Sources:

1. Der Fhehrer, Hitler's Rise to Power, By: Konrad Heiden, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944, Preface

2. Beer Hall Revolt, Time Magazine, November 19, 1923