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When Professor Dr. Goerens, whom the prosecution characterized as a
“coconspirator”, in his capacity as the chairman of the “Verein
deutscher Eisenhuettenleute” (Association of German Foundrymen) spoke on
17 December 1936 about the economy plan ordered by the government, he said:
“The first Four Year Plan is behind us.” He referred thereby to the
crisis years 1931-1932 which initiated the Four Year Plan program. With these
words he voiced the prevailing opinion. At that time an impoverished country
for which even the Bruening government was unable to secure aid from abroad was
obliged to try that way out.
Today we are in the fortunate position of
viewing this necessity more clearly from the given facts. The development of
the world economic situation proved clearly that four and five year plans
became a necessity far beyond the scope of Germany and without any connection
with warlike intentions. The British Labor Government carried out universal
government control. America calls on Europe to participate in the Marshall
Plan, and this plan, apart from its economic design, includes a political
anti-Communist program.
America, rich in oil, utilizes those processes
for the extraction of gasoline from coal, which 12 years ago the German Four
Year Plan developed on a large scale. Is it therefore unjustified to ask
whether the German economists, well aware of the desperate situation in central
Europe, did not anticipate this development correctly as early as 1936? The
statement of Professor Goerens confirms this. An essay of my client Houdremont
concerning purely technical-scientific problems of the iron industry of the
year 1938 — the lectures were held in 1937-1938 at international meetings
— shows at least the worldwide conception concerning the events which took
place at that time in the field of the iron industry in Germany. That
conception is more than the personal opinion of my client, because it was
expressed in almost all publications about the Four Year Plan. If the
prosecution now drags in isolated temperamental outbursts, which Goering made
behind closed doors, none of which were known to the defendants, then those
statements are contradicted by others even contained in the same speech, which
had quite a different meaning. The preface with which Goering, in 1937,
inaugurated the new monthly magazine “The Four Year Plan” refutes
explicitly any thought of warlike preparations. Enterprises of the Four Year
Plan were planned for many years ahead and are incompatible with short-termed
war intentions; rearmament and Four Year Plan are often apt to be at cross
purposes. I need not waste any time which is so essential for other stages of
the trial and will pre- […sent] |
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