Germany 1919

Germany 1919 It was the landed aristocracy that put Hitler into power. It is interesting to note that before World War II, German agricultural land was owned primarily by the Junkers, the old military nobility, who considered themselves to be inherently superior to the lower classes. It was not uncommon to observe these lower classes bowing and removing their hats when the nobles rode by. Bruno Heilwigs: 'Why the German Republic fell.' It makes for depressing reading. Heilwig tells how fortunes were made by the well connected through the ownership of just a few square metres of dirt in large German cities. In Berlin alone, land prices escalated over 700% in less than six years. Under Hitler, the original Nazi program called for a complete overhaul of this antiquated agricultural system, a program with mass appeal to lower class resentment at the power of the nobility. Indeed, at Munich on March 6th 1930, Hitler, to thundering “sieg Heils”, proclaimed; “The land of Germany, acquired and defended by the German nation, must be at the service of the German nation as a means of livelihood. Those who occupy the land must administer it in this sense. German land must not become an object of financing speculation, nor may it provide an unearned income for its owner. It may only be acquired by him, who is prepared to cultivate it himself. Therefore the state has a right of pre-emption on every sale of land.” In 1933, Hitler cut a deal with the Junkers and their Chancellor at the time, General Von Hindenburg. Or was the deal the other way around ? It’s irrelevant anyway since what happened is history. In uniting with the Nazis, and appointing Hitler as Chancellor, the Nazi party shelved the land reform programs, extended subsidies to big land owners and stopped an investigation of a tax scandal involving Hindenburg himself. Hitler took full advantage of the opportunities as they presented themselves to firmly establish his ascension to power. Vlad Zhirinovsky - 1995