Hindenburg ‘will’ Slights Nazi Party

Little comfort for the Nazis was seen in the legacy to Germany by the late Reichspresident Paul von Hindenburg. The document, made public today, was considered something of a disappointment in official quarters, it was learned through reliable sources, because of its singular failure even once to mention the present regime or exhort the public to support it. It was noted that the only mention of Adolf Hitler was in the salutation and then only by his title of Chancellor.

The legacy, on the other hand, bears strong evidence that the sturdy old monarchist still cherished the wish that the glories that were the Kaiser’s might one day be restored. A passage in the document held significant in this respect reads as follows:

“I am firmly convinced that now, as in the past, the link with our great and glorious past will be safeguarded and wherever it was destroyed it will be restored. The old German spirit will fight its way up again through the fierce fire of suffering and passion.”

That von Hindenburg held no great love for the Nazis was a well-established fact. In view of this known lack of affection for the present regime, which he permitted to attain power only to avoid a bloody civil war, the failure to urge Germans to support the party is considered in many high circles of great import.

FOES TO MAKE CAPITAL

Of this studied avoidance of the Nazi party in his legacy, it is being noised about in many influential quarters here, that the undercover opponents of the regime are preparing to make considerable capital. Whether the document will have an effect one way or another on the so-called referendum to be held August 19 to obtain “official” approval of Hitler’s assumption of the presidential powers. is problematical.

The document as made public follows in full:

“To the German people and its Chancellor:

“In 1919 I wrote in my will to the German people: We were finished. Just as Siegfried fell under the treacherous spear of the evil Hagen, so our wearied front broke down. In vain it had sought to imbibe new life from the drying springs of domestic strength.

TO SAVE REMAINS

“It became our task to save the existence of the remains of our army for the later reconstruction of the Fatherland. The present was lost. Only hope for the future remained. Now to work.

“I understood the thought of flight from the world which took possession of many officers faced with the collapse of all that was dear to them. I understood the desire ‘not to know anything more about a world,’ in which surging passions overwhelmed, to the point of obliteration, the true inwardness of our people. It was humanly comprehensible.

SAW GLORY FOR GERMANY

“And yet—I must say openly what I think—comrades of the erstwhile great and proud German army: Can you speak of failure? Remember the men who more than 100 years ago created a new inner Fatherland. Their religion was a belief in themselves and the sanctity of their cause.

“You created the new Fatherland, not founding it on a frenzied doctrine foreign to us, but building it on the basis of the free development of the individual within the frame and responsibility of the entire nation.

“Germany will once again tread the same path as soon as it again is able to walk.

SPIRIT WILL TRIUMPH

“I am firmly convinced that now, as in the past, the link with our great and glorious past will be safeguarded and wherever it was destroyed it will be restored. The old German spirit will fight its way up again through the fierce fire of suffering and passion.

“Our enemies knew the power of this spirit. They admired and hated it in the daily work of peace; they wondered at it and feared it on the battlefields of the great war. They sought to explain it to their peoples with the empty word ‘organization.’

“But the spirit which created this garment, which lived and acted within it, escaped them. With and in this spirit we will courageously build anew.”