8 Jan. 46
Minister without Portfolio. Shortly thereafter he
received the portfolio as Reich Minister for Air. When, in an early
meeting, the Cabinet discussed the pending Enabling Act, which gave the
Cabinet plenary powers of legislation, he offered the suggestion that
the required two-thirds majority might be obtained simply by refusing
admittance to Social Democratic delegates. I offer in evidence, as
Exhibit Number USA-578, our Document 2962-PS, which contains the minutes
of that meeting. If Your Honors will note, that meeting was held on the
15th of March 1933, and there were present, besides the Defendant Göring
the Defendants Von Papen, Von Neurath, Frick, and Funk. I read from Page
6 of that document:
"Reich Minister Göring expressed
his conviction that the Enabling Act would be passed with the
necessary two-thirds majority. Possibly a majority could be obtained
by banishing several Social Democrats from the hall. Possibly the
Social Democrats would even refrain from voting on the Enabling Act
... "
In 1935, with the
unmasking of a secret Luftwaffe, Göring became its
Commander-in-Chief. He sat as a member and the Führer's Deputy on
the Reich Defense Council, established by the secret law of the 21st of
May 1933. The purpose of that Council was, as stated by the Defendant
Frick in an affidavit that is in evidence — and I quote:
"To plan preparations and decrees in
case of war, which later on were published by the Ministerial Council
for the Defense of the Reich."
His assumption of ever greater responsibility seemed limitless. In 1936
Göring was made Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, whereby he
acquired plenary legislative and administrative powers over all German
economic life. In 1938 he became a member of the Secret Cabinet Council,
which had been established to act as "an advisory board in the
direction of foreign policy."
The Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich, created in 1939,
took over, in effect, all of the legislative powers of the Cabinet which
had not been reserved otherwise, and Göring became its chairman.
His efficient and ruthless services were recognized by Hitler in 1939,
when he designated Göring as his successor, as heir apparent to the
"New Order."
In April 1936 Göring was appointed Coordinator for Raw Materials
and Foreign Exchange and empowered to supervise all State and Party
activities in these fields. I offer in support of that fact, as Exhibit
Number USA-577, our Document 2827-PS, which is an