The Secret Meeting of 20 February 1933 (known in German as the Geheimtreffen vom 20. Februar 1933) was a secret meeting between Adolf Hitler and 20 to 25 industrialists at the official residence of Hermann Göring in the Reichstag Presidential Palace aimed at financing 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 campaigns. According to records, two million Reichsmarks were contributed at the meeting.
Contents |
The meeting was attended by the following business representatives:[3]
According to historian Gerald Feldmann:[4]
Georg von Schnitlzler said in his statement on November 10, 1945 that:[5]
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.[3]
In his speech, Hitler declared democracy culpable for the rise of communism. The following is a translated excerpt of what remains of his speech:
We are today facing the following situation. The Weimar Government imposed upon us a certain constitutional order by which they put us on a democratic basis. By that we were, however, not provided with an able governmental authority. On the contrary, for the same reasons for which I criticized democracy before, it was inevitable that communism, in ever greater measure, penetrated the minds of the German people.[7]
Then Hitler declared that he needed complete control of the state to bring communism to bear:
We must first gain complete power if we want to crush the other side completely.[...]In Prussia, we must still gain another 10 seats, and in the Reich proper, another 33. That is not impossible if we exert all our strength. Then, only, begins the second action against communism.[7]
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.
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.
The total contributions made to the Nazi Party totalled 2,071,000 Reichsmark. Below the sum is broken down by transaction.
Date | Depositor | Sum |
---|---|---|
February 23 | Bergbauverein | 200,000 Reichsmark |
February 24 | Karl Hermann | 150,000 Reichsmark |
Automobil-Ausstellung, Berlin | 100,000 Reichsmark | |
February 25 | Dir. A. Steinke | 200,000 Reichsmark |
Demag | 50,000 Reichsmark | |
February 27 | Telefunken | 35,000 Reichsmark |
Osram | 40,000 Reichsmark | |
February 28 | IG Farben | 400,000 Reichsmark |
March 1 | Hjalmar Schacht | 125,000 Reichsmark |
March 3 | Dir. Karl Lange, Engineering industry |
50,000 Reichsmark |
Bergbauverein | 100,000 Reichsmark | |
Karl Hermann, Berlin Dessauer Str. |
150,000 Reichsmark | |
AEG | 60,000 Reichsmark | |
March 7 | Fritz Springorum | 36,000 Reichsmark |
Accumulatorenfabrik AG, Berlin (Owner: Günther Quandt) |
25,000 Reichsmark | |
March 13 | Bergbauverein | 300,000 Reichsmark |
Final Balance | 2,071,000 Reichsmark |
According to Marxist researchers, including Kurt Pätzold, this meeting provides further evidence of the financing of the Nazi Party by big business.[9] 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.[10] Even the British historian Ian Kershaw, in his biography of Hitler, sees the contributions as "political blackmail."[11]