“Secret Meeting of 20 February 1933”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Secret Meeting of 20 February 1933 ({{lang-de|Geheimtreffen vom 20. Februar 1933}}) was a secret meeting held by Adolf Hitler and 20 to 25 industrialists at the official residence of the President of the Reichstag Hermann Göring in Berlin. Its purpose was to raise funds for the election campaign of the Nazi Party.^[1]^[2]

The German elections were to be held on 5 March 1933. The Nazi Party wanted to achieve two-thirds majority to pass the Enabling Act and desired to raise three million Reichsmark to fund the campaign. According to records, 2,071,000 Reichsmarks ({{Inflation|DE|2071000|1933|fmt=eq|cursign=€}}) were contributed at the meeting.

Participants

Georg von Schnitlzler said in his 10 November 1945 statement before the Office of US Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality^[5] that Dr. Stein, chairman of Gewerkschaft Auguste Victoria, a mine owned by IG Farben, and member of the German People's Party was also present at the reunion.

Sequence of events

First Hermann Göring gave a short speech in which he emphasized the importance of the current election campaign. Then Hitler appeared and gave a ninety-minute speech. He praised the concept of private property and argued that the Nazi Party would be the nation's only salvation against the communist threat. The basis of the Nazi Party is the national idea and the concern over the nation's defense capabilities. Life is a continuous struggle and only the fittest could survive. Concurrently, only a militarily fit nation could thrive economically.{{r|stegmann}}

In his speech, Hitler declared democracy culpable for the rise of communism. The following is a translated excerpt of what remains of his speech:

Then Hitler declared that he needed complete control of the state to bring communism to bear:

After Hitler's speech, Krupp expressed thanks to the participants and put special emphasis on the commitment to private property and to the nation's defense capabilities. Hitler then left the meeting. Göring gave a short speech in which he pointed out the emptiness of the Nazi Party's campaign war chest and asked the gentlemen present to help remedy this shortage. Then Göring left and Hjalmar Schacht took the floor. Schacht requested three million Reichsmark.{{cn|date=February 2019}}

The money was made out to Nationale Treuhand, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht and deposited in the Bank of Delbrück Schickler & Co. A statement from the IG Farben Trial indicated a total of 2,071,000 Reichsmark had been paid. The money then went to Rudolf Hess who transferred it to Franz Eher Nachfolger.{{cn|date=February 2019}}

Contributions

The total contributions made to the Nazi Party totalled 2,071,000 Reichsmark. Below the sum is broken down by transaction.

According to Marxist researchers, including Kurt Pätzold, this meeting provides further evidence of the financing of the Nazi Party by big business.^[8] On other hand, Historian Henry Ashby Turner pointed out that the contributions were not entirely voluntary, designating that meeting as a "milestone: the first important material contribution of organizations of the big business to the Nazistic cause".^[9] British historian Ian Kershaw, in his biography of Hitler, sees the contributions as "political blackmail."^[10]

See also

References

1. ^{{cite book |author=Daniela Kahn |year=2006 |title=Die Steurung der Wirtschaft durch Recht im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland. Das Beispiel der Reichsgruppe Industrie |isbn=978-3-465-04012-5 }}
2. ^{{cite book |author=Rüdiger Jungbluth |year=2002 |title=Die Quandts. Ihr leiser Aufstieg zur mächtigsten Wirtschaftsdynastie Deutschlands |isbn=3-593-36940-0 }}
3. ^recording of Martin Blank for Paul Reusch printed in: {{cite book |author=Dirk Stegmann |year=1973 |chapter=Zum Verhältnis von Großindustrie und Nationalsozialismus 1930-1933: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der sog. Machtergreifung |title=Archiv für Sozialgeschichte |volume=13 |pp=477-8 |language=de |url=http://library.fes.de/jportal/receive/jportal_jparticle_00011608 }}
4. ^{{cite book |author=Gerald Feldmann |year=2001 |title=Die Allianz und die deutsche Versicherungswirtschaft 1933-1945 |location=Munich |publisher=C. H. Beck |pp=92 |isbn=9783406482557 }}
5. ^{{cite book |year=1946 |chapter=Affidavit of Georg Von Schnitzler (Document EC-439) |title=Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression |volume=VII |location=Washington |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |pp=501-2 |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NT_Nazi_Vol-VII.pdf }}
6. ^¹The Mazal Library: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120213004038/http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/07/NMT07-T0557.htm NMT, Volume VII, pp. 557] (Document D-203 can be found on pages 557-562), [https://web.archive.org/web/20120415021424/http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/07/NMT07-C001.htm The Farben Case]
7. ^The Mazal Library: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120213004041/http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/07/NMT07-T0567.htm NMT, Volume VII, pp. 567] (Document NI-391 can be found on pages 565–568), [https://web.archive.org/web/20120415021424/http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/07/NMT07-C001.htm The Farben Case]
8. ^{{cite book|author1=Pätzold, Kurt |author2=Manfred Weißbecker |title = Hakenkreuz und Totenkopf, Die Partei des Verbrechens|location = Berlin|year = 1981|pages = 213}}
9. ^{{cite book|author = Henry A. Turner|title = Die Großunternehmer und der Aufstieg Hitlers.|publisher = Siedler Verlag|location = Berlin|year = 1985|pages = 393–396}}
10. ^{{cite book|author = Ian Kershaw|title = Hitler 1889-1936|location = Stuttgart|year = 1998|pages = 567}}
11. ^{{cite book|author = Adam Tooze|title = The wages of destruction|publisher = Penguin books|location = London|year = 2006|pages = 101}}