A long hysterical outburst against the Jews and against President Hindenburg as “the candidate of the Jews” was made in the Federal Parliament to-day by Deputy Goebbels, the leader of the Hitlerists in Berlin, after General Groener, the Minister for Defence, had made a formal announcement that the first ballot in the presidential elections would take place on March 13th.
“Tell me what company you keep, and I will tell you what you are, Deputy Goebbels said, quoting an old German saw. Seven years ago, we elected Hindenburg as the representative of German nationalism, he complained, but instead of standing with us and serving the German Nationalist cause, he deserted to the enemy, and now the Jews are his great supporters.
The Socialist Deputies raised such a storm of protest against Deputy Goebbels’ speech, that he could not make himself heard above the uproar, and the President of the Reichstag, Herr Loebe, suspended the sitting. When it was reopened, Herr Loebe announced that Deputy Goebbels had insulted the President of the Republic, and he would therefore be excluded for the remainder of the sitting.
There will be four candidates standing for the presidential election, President Hindenburg, Hitler, Colonel Duesterberg, the candidate of the Steel Helm Brigade, and Thaelmann, the Communist candidate.
In order to make him a German subject so that he should be eligible as a candidate, Hitler has been appointed by the Coalition Government of the State of Brunswick, in which the Hitlerists have a representative as Minister of the Interior, to be Professor of “political Instruction”, a purely formal appointment, which would, however, make him automatically a German citizen, by virtue of the fact that he holds a Government appointment.
Some important legal authorities, on the other hand, contend that the appointment will not be valid, and that the Reichstag Electoral Commission will therefore refuse to recognise Hitler as a German subject, and will rule his candidature out of order.
The fact that the Steel Helm are putting up a candidate of their own and are not supporting Hitler, shows that the much-advertised united front effected last October at the big opposition parade of Hitlerists, Steel Helm and Hugenbergists has already broken down.
Deputy Goebbels’ paper, the “Angriff”, prints to day a full page cartoon showing a crowd of Jews with hooked noses carrying boards with “Vote for Hindenburg” signs.
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.
