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NAZI CULTURE: INTELLECTUAL, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN THE THIRD REICH |
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10. Workers and Shopkeepers The Volk was to be an eternal unity and an its members were supposed to be equals in status if not in function. Hierarchy there must be, but the place of individuals within it should be determined by their service to the Volk, and though one member might be an employer and the other a worker who did the employer's bidding, both, theoretically, were equal in status, for they were united by a common ideology and a common purpose. It is clear from the statistics of party membership that this point of view did not greatly appeal to the German working classes; that it attracted instead those who were in fact losing status as their economic position deteriorated. The strong socialist tradition among the German working class made it difficult for the Nazis to win converts among them, though obviously some of the "proletariat" did join the party. Once Hitler was in power the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeits-Front) was formed to take the place of the traditional trade unions. Indeed, by the summer of 1934 all salaried employees were required to become members of the Labor Front, which was organized according to the industries in which the workers were employed. Robert Ley (1890-1945), who became the leader of the German Labor Front, proceeded to build an empire which not only organized and looked after the social well-being of the salaried workers, but also attempted to surround them with the "right" cultural atmosphere. An official publication summed up the nature of the Labor Front: "Above all, the German Labor Front is not an economic organization but a political one. As an organization affiliated with the NSDAP, it is a part of the National Socialist movement." [1] The party and the all-encompassing labor organization were one: the definition of politics as a total culture, which we have had occasion to mention so often in this book, applied in this area as in all others. The salaried worker could not escape the tentacles of the Labor Front, for it controlled hiring and firing, workmen's compensation and insurance, as well as care for the elderly and disabled workers. The "socialism" in the party title was given concrete expression through a paternalism which was supposed to end class differences on behalf of the unity of the Volk. The essence of this paternalism was represented by the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) movement, which had been created as an independent organization in 1933 but had been made a part of the Labor Front a year later. The idea behind Strength Through Joy was to help the worker improve himself in his leisure time -- joining travel groups, going to the theater and the opera, attending lectures, and participating in sports. In 1934 some nine million workers took part in these activities; by 1939 their number had risen to fifty-five million. Through Strength Through Joy the Labor Front owned enterprises of its own, from seagoing ships to the Volkswagen factory -- which was attempting to develop a "worker's car." But ideology played a dominant role here too, and one of the most important branches of this movement was that concerned with educating the workers in the Nazi world view. The description of the ideal Nazi spirit in the plant (1938) illustrates how this educational effort operated at the shop level. Here the example is set by the Youth Labor Service, which consisted of those workers (Werkschaaren) singled out as "Nazi fighters" within each plant and who formed an elite cell within each plant organization. As competition was thought to be essential to efficient industrial management, the Labor Front sponsored contests among the workers. "The Struggle for the Achievement of German Socialism" describes such a competition among elite workers from different crafts and plants -- among those who wore the blue blouse, the uniform of the Werkschaaren. Socialism, in Nazi terminology, meant competition in the service of the Volk as opposed to a supposed Marxist proletarian class equality. From 1934 on, the German Labor Front sponsored nation-wide competitions (Reichsberufwettkampf) -- starting at the local level, where the contestants gave "Testimony of German Workmanship," and leading to finals on the national level, where the rewards were an audience with the Fuhrer and further professional training at state expense. Militant dedication was desired, and the phraseology of war was taken over by the Labor Front to describe the quest for maximum output; indeed the term "front" as used here is a direct appeal to the mentality of the trenches. Typically enough, this competition was not confined to increased production or better workmanship, but included tests of the workers' knowledge of the Nazi world view. The Labor Front wanted to produce a "new type of worker," far removed from the class-conscious workman of earlier days: thus the picture of the workers sitting on school benches being instructed by the educational branch of the Strength Through Joy movement. But old habits die hard, as the condemnation of loafing and absenteeism by the Reich Trustee of Labor shows (1938). This individual was responsible for the increased production required under the Four-Year Plan, whose main goal was to strengthen Germany's military might. In this context, however, loafing means more than merely slackness on the job; it was the government's fear of strikes which was in large part responsible for this regulation. Striking had been strictly forbidden ever since the abolition of the old trade unions and the arrival of the Labor Front; nevertheless, some (unreported) wildcat strikes did take place during the Third Reich. How the workers were coerced, what form of "discipline" could be imposed in actual practice, is shown in the official warning to plant managers to respect the rights of the workers. The "border fortifications" mentioned. in the document were those of the West Wall, which faced France, and the hundreds of thousands of workers needed to build them were supplied by the Labor Front. The wage controls set up by the Four-Year Plan affected all salaried employees, not just the stenographers mentioned in our selection (and it must be remembered that at that time there was as much competition for good stenographers as there is in our own day). Comrade Muller illustrates the "ideal type" of worker, the true German man. Like so many other workers, Muller has been taken in by international Marxism, typified here by Herr Flex. But his true Aryan nature rebels when he finds out that Flex is a traitor to the Fatherland and, in addition, a tool of the employers. Honesty versus hypocrisy is the theme of this story, as of so much else in Nazi literature -- the German Volk is as straight as the trunk of a tree. Walter Dach was a prolific author who more often than not wrote in the service of the Strength Through Joy movement. For that movement he specialized in writing travel books and stories about "true workers," such as the one given here. The price which had to be paid for the Third Reich involved more than cultural conformity. The wages of salaried workers were frozen and their ability to move from one job to another was rigidly controlled. And there were other financial sacrifices, as the examination of the Nazi taxation system shows. The ideology intrudes into the tax structure. Single persons had to pay significantly higher taxes than people with children; in fact, premiums were paid on an ascending scale for the bearing of children. The "family rich in children," as the Nazi vocabulary has it, not only was a guarantee for the future of the race but also was important for Germany's military strength. Such families had to be Aryan, and the children of women of mixed marriages did not count for tax purposes. Jews themselves had to pay special taxes which were meant to be confiscatory, and which are not mentioned in this account of the Nazi tax structure by a leading democratic Swiss paper. The rise in the cost of living has to be considered in relation to both the wage freeze for salaried employees and the tax structure. Quite clearly these factors produced a price-wage squeeze for those below the top-income levels. For all the talk of equality in the Volk community, the salaries of the "top brass" in the nation were high enough to provide an escape from the increasingly tight economic situation in which the rest of the Volk found itself. Small business was affected in a special manner, a fact which is not lacking in irony. For the Nazis in their rise to power had made themselves the champions of small business, and our statistics on party membership show that the merchants were responsive to this Nazi appeal. Throughout the first years of the Third Reich small business fought for leadership in the economy. But it was big business which won the fight in 1936 (increasing economic centralization was one feature of the Four-Year Plan). By 1939 the situation of the retail trade was desperate, as the account of the highly reliable Swiss Neue Zuricher Zeitung demonstrates. The SS paper, Das Schwarze Korps, in its attack on the retail trade a few months before the outbreak of the war, suggested that the merchants adopt another profession. There is no doubt that what it had in mind was the armaments industry -- as the Neue Zuricher Zeitung realized. Price control worked to the same end, though the merchants tried to defeat its purpose. However, punishment for violations of the price-control regulations was instantaneous and severe, as the butchers' guild in Bockum-Hove (a small town near Hamm in Westphalia) discovered. Such united resistance is a measure of the desperation of a whole section of the retail trade, coming as it did at a time when the Third Reich was already six years old and its terror and cultural control in full swing. The butchers lost their battle; indeed, economically speaking, the middle classes were betrayed. But, for all that, no real resistance movement developed and the manifestations of middle-class restlessness are isolated and minimal. Nor do we have any accounts of significant dissatisfaction among the working classes. To be sure, the risks involved in protest grew greater as the years wore on, and protests eventually led to prison or concentration camps rather than to economic change. But it would not be amiss to see here, once more, the results of a successful cultural drive. Belief in the world view, drummed into the population from all sides, must have helped in overcoming economic dissatisfaction. In addition to the personal security so many people found in the ideology, the workers also enjoyed the security provided by the paternalism of the Labor Front. Not only did the workers benefit from the economic aspects of this organization, but Strength Through Joy opened up cultural vistas hitherto accessible only to the upper classes and made it possible for them to travel to foreign and exotic lands. To a certain extent, at any rate, this chapter demonstrates the Nazi success in "denying primacy to economic considerations in the ordering of the social structure." [2] G.L.M. _______________ Notes: 1. Die Deutsche Arbeits-Front: Weseu-Ziel-Weg (Berlin, 1943), p. 8. 2 Die Deutsche Arbeits-Front: Wesen -- Ziel -- Weg. p. 14. Statistics on Occupational Composition of Members of the Nazi Party
From Wolfgang Schafer, NSDAP: Entwicklung und Struktur der Staatspartei des dritten Reiches (Hannover and Frankfurt: Norddeutsche Verlagsanstalt O. Goedel, 1956), pp. 17, 19. (Reprinted by permission.) The Struggle for the Achievement of German Socialism No Need for Cultural Snobbery In Silesia we watched platoons of hand-picked National Socialist shop and factory workers (Werkschaaren) at work, and saw their energetic commitment to the battle for Volkdom and their enormous accomplishments in the "Testimony of German Workmanship." To those for whom this is no more than a mere concept, in the "Testimony of German Workmanship," the work platoons prove not only that they are willing to solve political and cultural problems, but also that they want to set a high standard for their vocational skills. In the "Testimony of German Workmanship," the work platoons prove that they personify the whole varied world of German labor, that everywhere in the Reich where a hammer is swung or a flywheel turns they represent the principle of voluntary maximum output and the most intense spirit of militant dedication. Thus, in the "Testimony of German Workmanship," the work platoons are creating products of superlative quality from their various shops. Electricians demonstrated their skill at splicing telephone cables in the most instructive manner. Woodworkers produced inlay work of the most intricate designs. Glassblowers, using skills of the greatest antiquity, created beautiful vessels out of their shining, diaphanous material. These are the work platoons in the "Testimony of German Workmanship." We found them as enthusiastic in their participation in festivities as they are in emergencies and in the construction of homes. Wherever men wear the blue blouse, [1] they feel themselves wholly committed to leap into the breach, to tackle any task without reservations; they stake their honor on being the activist storm troop of their workshops and factories. Now we are among Hannoverian platoons of Werkschaaren. Here we find the same display of a sense of duty; here, too, we find the same principle of such platoons at work: Fulfillment of one's daily duties, especially in the life of labor, is the supreme task of every member of the platoon. To be a helper, to be the best comrade in the shop, is the aim of every Werkschaar man. Where could the National Socialism of the Heart be more honestly exemplified than in the workshop itself, amidst the thousand needs and problems of our everyday working day? There is a greatness about the events of our times, yet there are many among us who are full of doubt and of questions that are of burning and essential importance. The Werkschaar man wants to help his shop comrade, wants to show him the way, wants to give him enlightenment to the best of his will and ability. But the answers can't be pulled out of one's sleeves, at least not by National Socialists with a sense of responsibility. "You will find a rare scene here," the District Leader of the work platoon told us when we arrived. And it was indeed a strange scene that confronted us as we entered the red-brick school building and found grown men squeezed together on the low school benches. "Women are not admitted here, nor are civilians," the District Leader explained. "This is a general course of the 'German People's Educational Work' program, and our men come here mainly to get basic answers to any problem that comes up in their shops!" "German People's Educational Work"? Isn't that a special branch of the NSG [2] Strength Through Joy, which has set up a gigantic education apparatus throughout the Reich? The office whose task it is to make the German worker familiar with the treasures of his national art, to give him the basic foundation of a good general education, and which thus, alongside the vocational training of the "Vocational Education and Shop Management" of the German Labor Front, does the most for popular education? The office which opens up for the German worker one of the many possible ways in which he can achieve social advancement through his own vocational skill and general knowledge? From SA. -- Geist im Betrieb: Vom Ringen um die Durchsetzung des deutschen Sozialismus (Munich: Zeutralverlag der NSDAP, Frz. Eher Nachf., 1938), pp. 152-153. _______________ Notes: 1. The uniform of the elite workers, the Werkschaaren. 2. Nationalsozialistische Gemeinde, or National Socialist Community. The Correct Attitude Toward Work To assure the success of Reich defense measures and the Four-Year Plan, General Field Marshal Minister-President Goring, as the authority responsible for the Four-Year Plan, on June 25, 1938, issued regulations concerning wage structures and transmitted to the Reich Trustee of Labor and the Special Trustee of Labor full power to take all necessary measures for the prevention of any damage to the rearmament program or the Four-Year Plan which might come about through spiraling tendencies in wages and adverse developments in working conditions. In an important industrial enterprise in the Middle Elbe Economic Region, which had important obligations to fulfill within the framework of the Four-Year Plan, the working discipline was seriously impaired by the fact that part of the labor force frequently absented itself from work -- or, as it is called, "loafed" -- without any excuse whatever and on the slightest pretexts. As a result of such practices, production was so severely endangered that I was forced to exercise the power vested in me by the regulation of June 25, 1938, to order the strictest adherence to the regular work schedule set for this enterprise, and to declare that any further offenses would be subject to criminal prosecution. Nonetheless, after a short time various members of the work force, who did not yet possess the right attitude toward work and the correct understanding of their duties within the National Socialist state, endangered the productivity of the plant again by repeatedly absenting themselves without cause or permission, giving invalid reasons for their absence. The attitude of these members of the work force evidenced such a lack of responsibility toward the goals of the Four-Year Plan and such deliberate disregard of the idea of the plant community that these offenses could no longer go unpunished. On my request, therefore, the State Prosecutor immediately instituted a criminal court trial against the guilty persons. In accelerated proceedings, three members of the work force of the plant were found guilty of violating Paragraph 2 of the Regulation for Wage Structure of June 25, 1938, and were consequently sentenced to jail for one month, three weeks, and six weeks, respectively. Several other similar cases are still pending. Magdeburg, December 2, 1938 The Reich Trustee of Labor for the Middle Elbe Economic Region From Official Communications from the Reich Trustee of Labor for the Middle Elbe Economic Region, No. 1, January 5, 1939. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) Plant Managers -- This Must Not Be! ... And something else: If someone wants to better himself financially in his position, he has a perfect right to do so and nobody can blame him. On the other hand, nobody can blame an industrial enterprise if it tries to stop an inexpedient migration of its skilled workers and attempts to keep those with experience. But the best way to accomplish' this is not by subjecting a worker who could earn more somewhere else to threats and by implying that he will be sent to the "border fortifications." For every German, work on the frontier fortifications is a matter of honor! It would be a shameless degradation of this great work of the Fuhrer if attempts are made to convert it into a form of punishment! From Der Angriff, Dec. 3, 1938. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection. )
A Wage Freeze for Stenographers On entering a new employment, female employees may not demand a salary or any other consideration of any sort higher than that received in their previous employment. Business managers may hire such employees only at their previous salary and considerations. If, however, the prevailing salary scale of the new place of employment provides for higher pay, then the higher salary must be paid. Female employees who have finished their apprenticeship, on entering a new employment or on becoming full-fledged clerks, may not receive pay higher than their salary scale. The same applies to females being employed for the first time. Increases over the basic salary rates at the time of hiring may not be granted for a period of at least six months from the day the employee entered upon her duties. Any increase -- even if granted in individual cases -- must be communicated in writing, at least three weeks before becoming effective, to the Reich Trustee of Labor with a full explanation of the reasons for it and with a statement of the previous and proposed salary rates. It is not necessary to report salary increases which fall due within the framework of regular and contractual salary scales..... Anyone found guilty of violation or evasion of this regulation is subject to a jail sentence and a fine, the latter of undetermined amount, or either one of these penalties. This regulation comes into force July 1. From the Frankische Tageszeitung (Nuremberg), July 1, 1939. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) The Conversion of "Comrade" Muller, by WALTER DACH "I must leave again right away," Muller said quickly, after he had swept up his boys, all three of them, in the circle of his mighty arms, the while shouting "Loafers! Vagabonds!" and, in accordance with a long-established custom, carried them out of the kitchen and threw them onto the beds. The youngest, a six-year-old, enjoyed it most, but all three roared and bellowed like lions. "Must you go out again?" Muller's wife asked with a touch of apprehension. She knew that something was gnawing at him and boiling inside him. He was a regular fanatic in everything he did, and on occasion he easily became thoughtless. The cause of Labor seemed definitely lost; it had been drilled into him for a generation, so that he had to believe it now. But what wholly confused him was that he had no evidence for it. "Hitler is a slave of the bourgeoisie'" they had shouted for many years at political meetings. And now they saw how captains of industry and banker-princes had to ask this Hitler for favors. "And they will certainly take him in!" Muller had tried to tell himself. They want to. Could be. But will he permit himself to be taken in? That is the question. Frau Muller had never been particularly interested in politics. But this much she understood (in fact, she felt it): Hitler wants the best for the worker; one can trust him. He has himself stood on a scaffold as a simple worker, and he knows what's in the poor man's heart. "He will forget, just like all the other big shots we've had before," grumbled Muller. "I don't believe that," said his wife. "The man lives so simply, you can see that by his clothes. Of course, time will tell. By the way, there's a letter from the Association of the Saarlanders ... about the plebiscite." [1] Muller mumbled something. Then he shaved, washed up, and changed his clothes -- and in between managed a few bites of food. "I tell you, this may be my lucky day. This Flex is quite a boy." "That's just what I don't like," Frau Muller objected. "If some body is kicked out for swindling ..." "I don't like that either," Muller said. "But what's it to do with me? All that was a long time ago, and none of us knows what really happened. Perhaps the board of directors may not be quite so clean either.... If you wanted to investigate every individual ... I tell you, then . . ." *** At the Friedrichstrasse cafe Muller asked for Herr Flex, because he was unable to find him right away. "Herr Director Flex?" "Damn it all! Is Flex a director? Yes, he always had the devil's own luck!" There he was. He was dressed differently now and appeared even more well-to-do. He approached Muller with mincing steps and stretched out both hands. Muller was glad to escape being the center of attention. The elegant manner in which the customers filled their comfortable seats, the frock-coated waiters, and the music threw Muller into a state of confusion. This was not a beer joint for working stiffs. Flex escorted Muller through several large rooms, prattling incessantly, nimble as a weasel. Finally they came to a smaller, more cozy-looking room where it was more quiet and just right for a friendly chat. Here Muller became more talkative.... "Yes," said Flex, as he blew a series of smoke rings -- he could always do that; sometimes he'd blow ten rings, one right after the other. "The world is large and yet so small. At the chemical plant there was really nothing doing for me. Shall I remain an insignificant clerk all my life and slave for three hundred marks a month or probably even less? While others grow fat and rich? Should I waste my talents in a back-breaking joint like that?" And how about the swindle at the chemical plant? Muller was thinking. "No, no, my dear Muller," Flex continued. "I made a big jump from Berlin to Paris. Then I was in Lyons and Strassburg. Not long ago I spent several weeks in Saarbrucken. You can see I'm on top of things now. As director of the agency of a great French-Luxemburger manufacturer.... Yes, yes, for the time being I've pitched my tent again in Berlin. But it's different from before, altogether different. ..." Muller was saying to himself that you've got to believe him. Flex was wearing a suit of excellent material and workmanship. A golden watch fob dangled from his vest pocket. And he had rings on his fingers that must have cost a fortune. You could say the same of the pearl stickpin in his tie. He must also have a full wallet and a substantial bank account, Muller thought to himself. "But things like that don't just happen by themselves," Flex continued. "You have to struggle for them. You have to know how to exploit advantages. You have to be alert, Herr Muller. You cannot allow yourself to stumble over obstacles and prejudices." Muller was thinking: Why does he tell me all this? "But how about you, my dear Muller? Let's have a good drink. Your health!" Muller found it difficult keeping up with him. Flex had always been a great wine drinker. "So you fellows here in Germany have made a little revolution since I've been gone, eh?" Flex looked around carefully and then broke into a boisterous laugh. But he continued in a whisper: "Muller, I must tell you: The Germans ... they can't even pull off a real revolution ... something like in France ..." "Oh, we've had plenty of changes," Muller broke in. "I can't get over them." Flex was taken aback for a moment. "But you personally? When they fired Chief Shop Steward Muller, how many hundred marks in pension did they give him?" He laughed again, openly mocking now. "These are hard times," Muller said, and thought of his old ideals and the many functions and offices he once held. [2] "In other words, dribblings, real dribblings!" Flex agreed with Muller's complaint. "Abroad we know all about it. I've met enough emigrants." He bent forward. "And will you take it all lying down? I can tell you, there's something cooking in the Saar region. The vote won't go for France, unfortunately. But status quo votes.... In the long run it will turn out to be the same thing, I hope. The coal mines will have to go to France. They are vitally important ... as is the whole Saar ... in peace as well as in war." Flex moved his chair closer. "Muller, I have a real big deal -- and I need you." Martin Muller was startled by the green glints in Flex's eyes. "You mean you can offer me another job?" "Yes. Can you keep silence?" "Of course, if it's necessary." "It is, Muller, unconditionally. But you must promise me that you will tell nobody, not a single soul." That must be a pretty peculiar job if there's so much secrecy involved, Muller thought. But he said: "I promise." Loud and clear. "I brought along my papers and letters of reference from my former positions." He drew them from his inside pocket. Flex waved him silently away. His hand played with his wineglass. He swallowed another gulp for encouragement and then he began to speak as if he were in a business conference. "Herr Muller, I have a special commission from the French armaments industry. For many years your chemical factory has been planning the production of a particular gas for industrial purposes. The experiments have now come to a successful end. That much we know. But we are interested in learning about all the details of the technical processes that are involved. My plans are made, but it would not suit my purpose to approach the engineers directly. The whole matter will have to go through three or four different hands. My contact must be a completely unsuspected man, someone who can be led by intermediaries to the secret. I have worked out how that will be done in detail. What I still need is the first man in the chain. And that will be you, Muller." Muller sat motionless. He stared at Flex without blinking. Look how Flex was changing! His nose was growing longer and turning into a beak. His eyes grew craftier and now they were piercing and sharp. His hair seemed to stand on end until it grew into a regular cock's comb. A bird's head, a vulture, a regular carrion kite. "Here is your chance," Flex continued. "You will receive a sum of money -- and nothing to sneeze at either. Besides, you will get your revenge. You will be satisfied, Muller. You don't have any misgivings, do you? You have always been an honest man, my dear Muller. I know. Too honest, in fact. Even as shop steward you could have looked out for yourself a little more. What did it get you? A kick in the behind. But this has nothing to do with honesty or the lack of it. It is merely a business deal, pure and simple. The capitalists of the whole world are related to each other anyway. In another year we would have found that secret in France ourselves. And you can believe me, there are excellent minds in the West, too. But why conduct experiments if there is another, quicker, and more direct way? Let me give you a tip, Muller, just in case you should develop moral scruples. Look at this thing from a political angle. Play a trick on the new regime in Germany. The gas, I can tell you, is a positively horrible thing. It eats its way through tanks and concrete cellars. The next war will be damned funny for Germany...." Muller still sat motionless and silent before Flex. What things you can see if you select a point on the wall and keep staring at it! Gray, nebulous swaths seem to fill the room. Somewhere, someone was hammering on a piece of iron rail: Gas alarm! Columns of soldiers broke out of their trenches -- storming forward, gas masks on their faces. No artillery. A ghostly, silent combat in the field. They drop in ranks, like grass before the blade of the scythe. From the other side a gray fog rolls in. Gas! Gas! There is no defense against it. And three of the thousands who are dying there -- are they not Muller's boys? -- stretch out their arms toward Muller as they run, drop their rifles helplessly, threatening and cursing -- and then they themselves drop, tearing the masks from their faces in the agony of death, still moaning, crying: Father! ... Father! ... Traitor! ... Traitor! "Muller! What's the matter with you? Wherever I am well off, there is my fatherland! Think of the pile of money! No other worker would hesitate a moment. The world will always go on like this: I come first, what do I care about the others?" Now Muller stood up, very slowly, his eyes still fixed on the man across the table. He stretched himself to his full height, drew back his right hand -- and with the force of a blacksmith's hammer planted his fist in the middle of Flex's face. Blood sprang from his nose like water from a well. Flex stumbled backward, then took hold of himself, turned the table over, and flung himself at Muller. "A madman! He's gone crazy!" Muller moved as if to strike Flex again. Flex backed away. Suddenly Fraulein Wackerhagen, a secretary at the plant, was there, as though she had been lurking in the next room. Waiters and other guests carne rushing in. "Now I'm beginning to see it," Muller said after one glance at the secretary. "You've been spying on me at the plant gate for the longest time, just to see whether I might be willing to do your dirty work for you. But without me, friends. Without me ..." There was confusion all around. People were shouting questions and running among the chairs and tables. Everyone was pushing somebody else. Fraulein Wackerhagen was pulling Flex's nose to stop the bleeding. "I probably will never be a real National Socialist," Muller said, quivering with emotion, "but one thing I do know: The workers don't want another war -- and neither does Hitler, he still has his stomach full from the last one. And he has already done several things about it -- at least more than any other government before him. That has to be admitted. And the Saar region has nothing to do with war. And a traitor I will not be. My three youngsters ..." Suddenly the manager of the cafe appeared with a policeman, and Flex began to roll his eyes. "What happened here?" the policeman asked. "I belted him one," Muller said. "How could you do such a thing? Are you crazy? A blow of such force ..." "It's not too bad," Flex gurgled behind his blood-drenched handkerchief. He sounded so comical that everyone started laughing, including the policeman. But it also showed that some game was being played which the police must not know anything about, especially since Flex anxiously demanded to pay the bill and to depart with his female associate. The policeman grabbed him. "All right, off to the precinct station! And then to Alex!" [3] From Walter Dach, Volksgenosse Muller II: Erzahlungen der Arbeit (Berlin: Schaffer-Verlag, 1935), pp. 21-31. _______________ Notes: 1. At the Treaty of Versailles the coal-rich Saar was given the status of an independent nation (though economically tied to France) pending a plebiscite scheduled for 1935. The population could vote to join either France or Germany or retain its present status. In January 1935, 90 per cent voted for a return to Germany. 2. In the trade union and the Social Democratic party. 3 "Alex" is Berlin slang for police headquarters, in those years located at the Alexander Platz. What the German People Pay in Taxes, 1939 In addition to the armaments race, in terms of numbers of guns, planes, trained soldiers, cadres, etc., there is another "race" among so-called civilized nations that is frequently overlooked -- that is, the monstrous growth of taxes with which the citizens are burdened. In this field, too, the Third Reich has registered top accomplishments. It is devoutly to be wished that those in some capitalistic circles in Switzerland and other democracies who are afflicted with admiration for the "order" existing in dictatorial countries, also occasionally give this problem of taxation some attention. In particular, the 1 per cent arms-defense tax over which we are now wrangling in Switzerland must appear as very moderate when compared with what the "racial comrades" in Greater Germany have to pay for their Fuhrer's dreams of glory. We have before us an official summary of the direct and graduated taxes at present prevailing in Germany. It is a brochure of 120 pages with many statistical tables. The last page holds forth the consolation that "the introduction of changes is always possible." ... The tax blessings flow constantly further and the nerves grow more tense. Altogether, there are 21 different taxes in the Reich today -- 12 property taxes and 9 communication taxes, not counting, of course, the purely local assessments with which municipalities try to cover their own special needs. And beyond those, there are the not inconsiderable "voluntary taxes," such as that of the "Winter Aid." [1] The twelve property taxes are:
1. Income tax The brochure concludes with a "Tax Dates Calendar," which clearly indicates the days of each month on which part payments on one or another tax are due. There is not a single month in which a part payment on some tax is not due. February and August, for instance, each have eight such Tax Dates -- with two different taxes due on the 5th, three more on the 10th, two on the 15th, and one on the 20th. The brochure states: "These payment dates must be strictly observed." Grace periods have been abolished. The basis of the whole structure is the Reich income tax. Here, from a social point of view, it is worthy of notice that sizable tax reductions are granted to married people in proportion to the number of children they have. The tax burden for single persons is so heavy that they find it next to impossible to put aside sufficient savings for the establishment of homes of their own. Widowed and divorced persons, up to a certain age, are classified as "single." We give here some of the tax ratings for several categories: single persons (1); married couples without children (2); and married couples with two children (3).
The unmarried "racial comrade" who earns 100,000 Reichsmarks must cough up exactly one half of it. For other high incomes (from 50,000 to 100,000 RM) the tax rate (in percentage figures) remains the same as for a 50,000 RM income. Widowed and divorced men and women who have Jewish children are regarded as single and have to pay the higher tax rate. The rates for the wage tax, which is deducted in advance from the pay check, are also extremely high. In the middle brackets of wage and salary incomes, the tax amounts to about 15 per cent. The citizen's tax rises progressively from 2 to 50 RM for incomes of 20,000 RM. The real-estate and property tax amounts basically to 0.5 per cent. The inheritance tax is levied on five different levels; it increases from 2 to 15 per cent for small inheritances and amounts to from 7 to 34 per cent for inheritances of 500,000 RM and over. The license tax is based on the capitalization, revenue, and wage total of the individual enterprise. For the professional middle class, from which a great percentage of Hitler's original followers was recruited, it must be particularly disheartening to find itself now burdened down with this especially oppressive tax. At any rate, a careful perusal of the brochure conveys the impression that the oft-mentioned "limit of endurance" is a highly variable proposition when it comes to tax assessments. A democracy not only safeguards our civil liberties but also saves us from slaving several months each year exclusively to pay taxes. England also has a relatively high tax burden, especially for those with large incomes; but since the English and German legislative systems are altogether different, comparisons are extremely difficult to make. The German taxation system demands, in addition, a highly complicated executive and control apparatus, which in turn has to be paid for by the people. From the National-Zeitung (Basel), Feb. 23, 1939. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) _______________ Notes: 1. A supposedly voluntary collection to help supply the poor with warm clothing and coal. 2. In 1939 the exchange rate was $1.00 = 2.49 Reichsmarks. Berlin, May 14 -- For the first time in a considerable period, the Institute for Market Analysis has analyzed retail prices and the cost of living in Germany. While several weeks ago it was still maintained that the cost of living had advanced by only 3.4 per cent during the four years of National Socialist direction of the economy, the Institute now admits an actual increase of 7.2 per cent. The figures are based on the consumption of the average worker's family, but they can be regarded as only conditionally valid for the whole population, since numerous relief measures and special allowances have been created for certain low-income categories. For foodstuffs, prices increased by 11.5 per cent since 1933. Compared with prewar prices, costs have gone up 22.3 per cent, but compared with the price levels of 1929, there has been an actual drop of 23.4 per cent. For clothes, the price increase is as much as 17.5 per cent over 1933 and, in comparison with 1914,24.5 per cent. However, clothing prices are 28 per cent lower than in 1929. Rents show no great index changes during the past four years. In comparison with 1929, rent is generally 3.7 per cent lower, but in comparison with that of prewar days, 21.3 per cent higher. Among all categories included in the cost-of-living index, heat and clothing are the only ones whose costs have been reduced -- by 1.1 per cent -- since 1933. They are 11.3 per cent cheaper than in 1928, but 26.6 per cent more expensive than they were in 1914. "Miscellaneous" items are 41.9 per cent higher than in 1914 and 0.2 per cent higher than four years ago. In comparison with 1929, there has been a reduction of 17.6 per cent. The general price rise is even more obvious when present-day retail prices are compared with those of 1933. Butter increased by 35 per cent, margarine by 44 per cent, eggs by 31 per cent, potatoes by 22 per cent, meats generally by 18 per cent. The increase in beef is 18 per cent, in pork 11 per cent. But calf and lamb have risen by 40 and 41 per cent, respectively. Dairy products are generally 15 per cent higher, peas even 52 per cent higher, and beans 31 per cent higher. Oat cereals increased by 5 per cent, rice by 7 per cent, and sugar by 2 per cent. Vegetables are 2 per cent higher; whole milk 7 per cent. Bread is 2 per cent cheaper and other bakery products (pastry, etc.) 1 per cent. Rye bread and mixed breads are 2 per cent cheaper; specialty bread 1 per cent; mill products generally are noted as 2 per cent cheaper. Under the category of heat and light, coal, gas, and electricity likewise have been reduced -- by 1 per cent each. But prices for overcoats, shirts, and shoes advanced 24, 17, and 8 per cent, respectively. For hygiene and care of the body, there has been a cost reduction of 2 per cent, and for transportation of 3 per cent. But the cost of home furnishings has increased 6 per cent, entertainment 1 per cent, newspapers 2 per cent, and cultural activities, 1 per cent. On the whole, therefore, retail prices have advanced steeply. Price reductions have no relation to price rises. At the same time these figures do not take into consideration a general deterioration in the quality of goods and products. To mention only one example: the quality of bread has been sharply reduced by the complete outmilling of rye and by an admixture of 7 per cent corn meal to wheat flour. The progressive deterioration in quality, of course, is not easily perceptible in the index figures. But it may be said that it more than counterbalances any modest price reductions, aside from the fact that it forces the consumer to turn to higher-priced products. Thus the price increases for meats are in reality steeper than appears from the index. Since very frequently certain lower-price cuts of meat were not available on the market, there was an enforced changeover to better-grade meat products and in consequence a corresponding increase in the real cost of living. The same can be said in connection with dairy products and certainly also with textile goods, which show a large admixture of artificial silk and wool fibers. Thus it is difficult to understand how the Institute for Market Analysis can present these factors as merely incidental and without real bearing on the actual cost of living. From the Luxemburger Wort (Luxemburg), May 15-16, 1937. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) On the basis of a new Reich salary scale, according to reports from Berlin, the commander of a department of the armed forces, the chief of staff of the supreme command of the armed forces, and the chief of the German Reich police are now receiving a salary of 26,550 Reichsmarks annually. Secretaries of state, presiding judges of the superior courts, general-colonels, general-admirals, generals, and admirals receive 24,000 Reichsmarks per year. From Pester Lloyd (Budapest), Feb. 23, 1940. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) The Situation of the German Retail Trade One of the great slogans of the National Socialist economic program during the so-called "Period of Struggle" called for assistance to the small retail stores and handicraft enterprises and for the elimination of the giant department stores.... In the last several years the policy for supplying the population with consumer goods has undergone a complete reversal.... The index for retail trade sales has fallen behind the figures for 1928.... Even before the outbreak of the war, the scarcity of consumer goods impaired the viability of many small businesses to such an extent that their owners were unable to maintain a minimum standard of living and had to be supported.... The unfavorable position of the retail business gave the National Socialist offices charged with the recruitment of additional labor forces for the undermanned armament industry a welcome opportunity to subject small businesses and workshops to a careful combing over. In Berlin alone, some 10,000 shops and stores were closed under this sorting-out policy. The owners and members of their families lost their independence and were shepherded into the armament and building industries and into the administrative apparatus. If, because of the scarcity of goods, many small businesses had become unprofitable even before the outbreak of the war, the tendency was definitely strengthened by the ration-card and certificate system which was instituted with the coming of the war. Distribution of goods was further curtailed.... As could be expected, many additional business enterprises have now become unprofitable and are already in severe financial difficulties. From the Neue Zuricher Zeitung, Nov. 28, 1939. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) Das Schwarze Korps has repeatedly exposed the fact that there is an excess of manpower in the retail trade and has pointed to the imbalance it creates in the economic system. The recognition of this truth does not find a joyful echo everywhere, but that neither eliminates it nor does it spare our Reich leadership the task of creating a better balance and reducing the bloated apparatus of the distribution trade.... Thus it is evident that today we have more merchants than we can feed and at the same time a shortage of productive forces, which are utterly wasted in the hopeless endeavor to wrest a bare subsistence from superfluous retail-trade establishments. It is likewise understandable that those concerned see a great personal hardship in the proposal that they give up their hopeless profession and adopt another. But they and the German people as a whole have at long last the opportunity to rectify old mistakes and to bring a new order into the distribution of tasks in the community. We must reduce the number of small distribution businesses to the absolutely necessary minimum and thereby strengthen productivity, safeguard and improve the living of superfluous merchants, and reduce the cost of living for the whole nation. From Das Schwarze Korps, July 27, 1939. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) Berlin, January 20 -- Police administrative offices have been advised to pay increased attention to price control and to entrust this important task to specially qualified police officers, who are to be exempted from other duties.... Heretofore, when prices were checked by the police, many retail merchants excused themselves by claiming that they had just begun to mark their wares, or that the goods had just arrived for display. Such excuses are no longer to be accepted. It is of particular importance that imported produce -- fruits, vegetables, etc. -- should be clearly identified as such on their price tags or on the merchant's bill. The fixed maximum prices are known to be frequently exceeded. Some especially sharp merchants are marking their price tags on both sides. On one side they carry the correct price, and on the other the illegal higher price. When prices are inspected, they simply turn the tags around so that the correct price is showing.... Special care should be taken in the examination of bills and bookkeeping methods generally.... From the Frankfurter Zeitung, Jan. 11, 1939. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) The Government Office in Munster reports: At Bockum-Hove I, the members of the butchers' guild refused to abide by the prices for meats as fixed by the county administrator [1] at the behest of the Government Price Control Office. The spokesman for the butchers told the police: "We won't let the county administrator set the prices for us." He was thereupon ordered by the chief administrative officer of the region [2] to be taken into custody and was lodged in the police jail at Recklinghausen. From the Frankfurter Zeitung, Oct. 15, 1939. (Wiener Library Clipping Collection.) _______________ Notes: 1. Landrat, the appointed government official who administers a county. 2. Regierungsprasident, the appointed official who administers a whole region for the government.
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