We had no need to act illegally; we are coming into power with absolute certainty: and all these present manoeuvres which precede the second ballot of the presidential election, and the elections in Prussia which follow it, cannot do away with this unalterable fact: that young Germany, the Germany of to-day, has shown the world which way its steps are tending.”
With these words Major Goehring, Herr Hitler’s Chief of Staff, only stated officially an opinion that judicious onlookers have been forming for themselves during the past week, the Berlin correspondent of the “Observer” writes in to-day’s issue of the paper, in reporting an interview which he had yesterday with Major Gochring in regard to the allegations made during the past week in the German Republican Press that an organised raid on Nazi headquarters in different parts of the country had revealed material proving that the Hitlerites were planning to overthrow the Republic. The heavy vote for Hindenburg last
Sunday-which was expected and is certain to be repeated in the second ballot-can not hide the fact, the correspondent says, that so many millions have voted for Adolf Hitler, who was regarded as a mere agitator and rank outside until less than a year ago.
One of the entirely unsatisfactory aspects of Hitler’s mission, he remarks, is his fanatically anti-Jewish policy. It must not be forgotten that the major part of the German Republican Press is in Jewish hands, and that the polemics against Hitler, which verge occasionally on the ridiculous, are dictated by a real and in some cases, almost hysterical fear, which is entirely personal.
The surest safeguard for the future in Germany, he suggests, is in the increase in the percentages of the Nationalist vote last Sunday, which was revealed in many districts. This implies that the wavering middle-classes, disgusted with present conditions, desire no false experiments, and would be the first to check any extravagances on the part of Hitler’s followers. That the Hitler propaganda has been financed by a Nationalist group means that there is a strong hold in the safest and sanest quarters on ideologists whose theorios will look far different in practice than on paper.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.