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certain National Socialist leaders, was dismissed from his post and
found the death he sought at the beginning of the war.
Thus, the
prosecution no longer insist in this trial on the alleged collusion of these
infernal powers: industry, the army, and the Party, as far, at any rate, as the
seizure of power by the NSDAP is concerned; they no longer insist on conjuring
up the spirit of militarism. They are content with stating quite simply, that
Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and the German industry with him enabled
Hitler to seize power. In proof of that statement the prosecution have in the
main adduced the following four events:
Hitler’s speech in the
Industrie Club at Duesseldorf 17 January 1932; the discussion between Papen and
Hitler in the house of the banker Freiherr von Schroeder in Cologne on 4
January 1933; Hitler’s speech to the industrialists on 20 February 1933
prior to the Reichstag elections in March 1933; and finally, the Enabling Act
of 24 March 1933.
I shall discuss these four events in detail in the
course of my presentation of evidence, but I should like at this point to make
the following general statements:
The speech in the Duesseldorf
Industrie Club was anything but a success for Hitler with the liberal circles
of western industry, skeptical as they were. Liberalism and broadmindedness,
progress and the common weal had been the motto of the men from Rhine and Ruhr
ever since to mention but a few, Friedrich Grillo, Alfred Krupp, Adolf von
Hansemann and, last but not least, the Irishman Thomas Mulvany had laid the
foundations of the industrial development of the Ruhr district. Thus, the
descendants of these men received Hitler’s vociferation at Duesseldorf
with distaste and reserve. Even had it been a success it is hard to see what
part the directors of the firm of Krupp who now stand accused could possibly
have played in making it so. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was not
present when Hitler made his speech in the Duesseldorf Industrie Club in
January 1932.
The subjects of discussion between Hitler and Papen in
the house of the banker Freiherr von Schroeder at Cologne on 4 January 1933
were undoubtedly very interesting and of great national political importance to
the development of Germany and the world. The witness Freiherr von Schroeder
described the intensely interesting encounter to us under cross examination. He
added, however, at the same time, that he had absolutely no contact with Krupp.
Of what the part played by the Krupp firm in this discussion consisted, thus
remains yet another riddle which the prosecution have not solved.
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