Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-02/nca-02-15-criminality-03-03 Last-Modified: 1997/09/02 (2) Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich. The same procedure was followed in the Council of Ministers when that body was created. And the decrees of the Council of Ministers were also circulated to the members of the ordinary Cabinet. A memorandum found in the files of the Reich Chancellery and addressed to the members of the Council of Ministers, dated 17 September 1939, and bearing the typed signature of Dr. Lammers, Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery states (1141-PS): "Matters submitted to the Council of Ministers for the Reich Defense have heretofore been distributed only to the mem- [Page 100] bers of the Council. I have been requested by some of the Reichministers who are not permanent members of the Council to inform them of the drafts of decrees which are being submitted to the Council, so as to enable them to check these drafts from the point of view of their respective offices. I shall follow this request so that all the Reichministers will in future be informed of the drafts of decrees which are to be acted upon by the Council for the Reich Defense. I therefore request to add forty-five additional copies of the drafts, as well as of the letters which usually contain the arguments for the drafts, to the folders submitted to the Council." (1141-PS) Von Stutterheim, who was an official of the Reich Chancellery, comments on this procedure at page 34 of a pamphlet entitled "Die Reichskanzlei": "*** It must be noted that the peculiarity in this case is that the subjects dealt with by the Cabinet Council (Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich), are distributed not merely among the members of the Cabinet Council, but also among all the members of the Cabinet (Kabinett) who are thereby given the opportunity of guarding the interests of their spheres of office by adding their appropriate standpoints in the Cabinet Council legislation, even if they do not participate in making the decree." (2231-PS) For a time the Cabinet consulted together through actual meetings. The Council of Ministers did likewise, but those members of the Cabinet who were not already members of the Council also attended the meetings of the Ministerial Council. And where they did not attend in person, they were usually represented by the state secretaries of their Ministries. The minutes of six meetings of the Council of Ministers, on 1, 4, 8, and 19 September 1939, on 16 October 1939, and on 15 November 1939, demonstrate this procedure. (2852-PS) At the meeting held on 1 September 1939, which was probably the first meeting since the Council was created on 30 August 1939, the following were in attendance: "Present were the permanent members of the Council of Ministers for the Reich Defense: The Chairman and Generalfield Marshall, Goering; the Deputy of the Fuehrer, Hess [a line appears through the name Hess]; the Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration, Dr. Frick; the Plenipotentiary for Economy, Funk; the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; and the Chief of the High Com- [Page 101] mand of the Armed Forces, Keitel, represented by Major General Thomas." (2852-PS) These were the regular members of the Council. Also present was the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, Darre, and even State Secretaries: Koerner, Neumann, Stuckart, Posse, Landfried, Backe, and Syrup (2852-PS). These State Secretaries were from the several Ministries or other supreme Reich authorities. Koerner was the Deputy of Goering in the Four Year Plan; Stuckart was in the Ministry of the Interior; Landfried was in the Ministry of Economics; Syrup was in the Ministry of Labor. The minutes dated 8 September 1939 (2852-PS) note that in addition to all members of the Ministerial Council, the following were also present: "The Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture *** Darr; State Minister *** Popitz;" Then come the names of nine State Secretaries from the several Ministries, and then: "SS Gruppenfuehrer *** Heydrich;" The close integration of the Ministerial Council with the ordinary Cabinet is seen by the following excerpt from the minutes of the same date (8 September 1939): "The Council of Ministers for the Reich Defense ratified the decree for the change of the Labor Service Law which had already been passed as law by the Reich Cabinet. (Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1744.)" The minutes of the meeting of 19 September 1939 (2852-PS) show the following Reich Ministers to be present in addition to four members of the Council: "Also: The Reich Minister for Finance, Count Schwerin von Krosigk. The Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, Darre. The Reich Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr. Goebbels. State Minister *** Dr. Popitz." (2852-PS) Then come the names of eight State Secretaries. Others present included: "SS Gruppenfuehrer *** Heydrich; General of the Police (Ordnungpolizei) Daluege." (2852-PS) The minutes dated 15 November 1939 show the same co-mixture Of ministers, State Secretaries, and similar functionaries. In addition, the following were also present: "Reichsleiter, Dr. Ley; Reichsleiter, Bouhler; Reichsfuehrer [Page 102] SS, Chief of German Police in the Reich Ministry of Interior, Himmler; The Reich Labor Service Leader, Hierl *** Reich Commissioner for Price Control, Wagner *** as well as experts (Sachbearbeiter) of the German Labor Front and the Reich Labor Service." (2852-PS) Some of the decrees passed and matters discussed at these meetings of the Ministerial Council are significant. At the first meeting of 1 September 1939 14 decrees were ratified by the Council. Decree No. 6 concerned "*** the organization of the administration and about the German safety police in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. (RGBl, I, page 1681)." (2852-PS) At the meeting of the Council on 19 September 1939 the following occurred: "The Chairman of the Council, Generalfieldmarshall Goering, made comments regarding the structure of civil administration in the occupied Polish territory. He expressed his intentions regarding the economic evacuation measures in this territory. Then the questions of decreasing wages and the questions of working hours and the support of members of families of inducted workers were discussed." "The Chairman directed that all members of the Council regularly receive the situation reports of the Reichsfuehrer SS. Then the question of the population of the future Polish Protectorate was discussed and the placement of Jews living in Germany." (2852-PS) Finally, at the meeting of 15 November 1939 the discussion concerned, among other things, the "treatment of Polish Prisoners of War". (2852-PS) The minutes of these meetings (2852-PS) not only establish the close working union between agencies of the state and the party, especially the SS, but also tends to establish that the Reichsregierung was responsible for the policies adopted and put into effect by the government. C. Powers of The Reichsregierung. But mere working alliances would be meaningless unless there was power. And the Reichsregierung had power. Short of Hitler himself, it had practically all the power a government can exercise. (1) The Ordinary Cabinet. The Nazi conspirators secured the passage by the Reichstag of the "Law for the Protection of the [Page 103] People and the Reich," of 24 March 1933 (2001-PS), which vested the Cabinet with legislative powers even to the extent of deviating from previously existing constitutional law. These powers were retained even after the members of the cabinet were changed, and the several states, provinces, and municipalities, which had formerly exercised semi- autonomous powers, were transformed into mere administrative organs of the central government. The ordinary cabinet emerged all-powerful from this rapid succession of events. Frick waxed eloquent upon that achievement in an article which he wrote for the 1935 National Socialist Year Book: "The relationship between the Reich and the States has been put on an entirely new basis, never known in the history of the German people. It gives to the Reich cabinet (Reichsregierung) unlimited power it even makes it its duty, to build a completely unified leadership and administration of the Reich. From now on, there is only one national authority: The one of the Reich! Thus, the German Reich has become a unified state, and the entire administration in the states is only carried out by order or in the name of the Reich. The state borders are now only administration, technical are boundaries but no longer boundaries of sovereignty! In calm determination, the Reich Cabinet (Reichsregierung) realizes step by step, supported by the confidence of the entire German people, the great longing of the Nation. The creation of the national socialist German, unified state." (2380-PS) The heightened legislative power of the Cabinet is also emphasized in an article written by Dr. Franz Medicus, an official in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, and published in 1939 in Volume 4 of "Das Dritte Reich in Aufbau": "*** Worked out by the Reich Minister of the Interior, the 'Law for Alleviation of the Distress of People and Reich', in short called 'Enabling Law', was issued on 24 March 1933, broke with the liberal principle of 'division of power' by transferring the legislature from the Reichstag to the Reich Cabinet, so that legislation by personally responsible persons took the place of 'anonymous' legislation." (2849-PS)
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