Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression 2. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE THIRD REICH
The prosecution has prepared another chart (Chart No. 18)
delineating substantially the organizational structure of
the government of the Third Reich, as it existed in March
1945, and "the chief leadership personnel of the Reich
Government and the Reich Administration during said years."
This chart has been prepared on the basis of information
contained in two well known official publications: The
Taschenbuch fuer Verwaltungsbeamte, and the
Nationalsozialistischer Jahrbuch, above mentioned, of which
Robert Ley was publisher. The chart has been examined
corrected, and certified by Wilhelm Frick, whose affidavit
is submitted with it. It seems plain that Frick, a former
Minister of Interior of the Reich from January 1933 to
August 1943, was well qualified, by reason of his position
and long service in public office during the National
Socialist regime, to certify to the substantial accuracy of
the facts disclosed-in this chart.
It may be useful to commence with consideration of the
Reichsregierung, a word which may not be translated
literally as "government of the Reich." The word
Reichsregierung was a word of art applied collectively to
the ministers who composed the German cabinet. The Reichsregierung,
which has been named as a defendant group in this
proceeding, includes the following:
a. Members of the ordinary cabinet after 30 January 1933, i.e Reich ministers with and without portfolio and all other officials entitled to participate in the meetings of this cabinet.
b. Members of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich (Ministerrat fuer die Reichsverteidigung).
c. Members of the Secret Cabinet Council (Geheimer Kabinettsrat).
Unlike the cabinets and ministerial councils in countries
not within the orbit of the former Axis, the
Reichsregierung, after 30 January 1933 when
Adolf Hitler
became Chancellor of the German Republic, did not remain
merely the executive branch of the Government. In short
order it also came to possess, and it exercised, legislative
and other functions in the governmental system developed
under the domination of the National Socialist party.
It is proper to observe here that, unlike such NS party
organizations as the SS and the SA, the Reichsregierung
before 1933
[Page 180]
was not a body created exclusively or predominantly for the
purpose of committing illegal acts. The Reichsregierung was
an instrument of government provided for by the Weimar
Constitution. Under the Nazi regime, however, the
Reichsregierung gradually became a primary agent of the
party with functions formulated in accordance with the
objectives and methods of the party. The party was intended
to be a Fuehrerorden, an order of Fuhrers, a pool of
political leaders; and whole the party was -- in the words of a
German law -- "the bearer of the concept of the German
State," it was not identical with the State. Hence, in order
to realize its ideological and political objectives and to
reach the German people, the party had to avail itself of
official state channels. The Reichsregierung, and the
agencies and offices established by it, were the chosen
instruments by means of which party policies were converted
into legislative and administrative acts binding upon the
German people as a whole.
In order to accomplish this result, the Reichsregierung was
thoroughly remodelled so as to coordinate party and state
machinery, in order to impose the will of the Fuehrer on the
German people. On 30 January 1933 the Reichsregierung
contained but few National Socialists. But as the power of
the party in the Reich grew, the composition of the cabinet
came to include an ever-increasing number of Nazis until, by
January 1937, no non-party member remained in the
Reichsregierung. New cabinet posts were created and Nazis
appointed to fill them. Many of these cabinet members were
also in the Reichsleitung of the party.
To give a few examples: Rosenberg, the Delegate of the
Fuehrer for Ideological Training and Education of the Party,
was member of the Reichsregierung as Minister for the
Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsminister f. d. b.
Ostgebiete). Frick, the leader of the National Socialist
faction in the Reichstag, was also Minister of the Interior
(Reichsinnenminister). Goebbels, the Reichsleiter for
Propaganda, also sat in the cabinet as Minister for Public
Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsminister fuer
Volksaufklaerung und Propaganda).
After 25 July 1934 1934, party participation in the work of
the cabinet was at all times attained through Rudolf Hess,
the Deputy of the Fuehrer. By a decree of the Fuehrer, Hess
was invested with power to take part in the editing of bills
dealing with all departments of the Reich. Later this
power of the Fuehrer's Deputy was expanded to include all
executive decisions and orders published in the
Reichsgesetzblatt. After Hess' flight to England in 1941,
Martin Bormann took over, as his successor,
[Page 181]
the same function and, in addition, was given the authority
of a Reich minister and made a member of the cabinet.
On 30 January 1937 Hitler accepted into the party those last
few members of the cabinet who were not then party members.
Only one cabinet member had the strength of character to
reject membership in the party; he was the Minister of Ports
and of Transportation, von Eltz-Ruebenach, who stated at
that time he was unable at that time to reconcile membership
in the NSDAP with his beliefs in Christianity. But such was
not the case with Constantin von Neurath. He did not reject
any party membership. And if Hjalmar Schacht was not already
a party member at that time, then he too did not reject
membership on 30 January 1937.
The chart shows many other instances where party members on
the highest as well as on subordinate levels occupied
corresponding or other positions in the organization of the
state.
a.
Hitler himself, the Fuehrer of the NSDAP, was also the
Chancellor of the Reich, with which office the office of the
President of the German Republic was united after the death
of President von Hindenburg in 1934.
b.
Goering, the successor designate of Hitler as Fuehrer of
the NSDAP, was a member of the cabinet as Minister for Air
(Luftfahrtminister), and he also held many other important
positions, including that of Commander of the Luftwaffe, the
German air force, and Delegate for the Four Year Plan
(Beauftragter f. d. Vierjahresplan).
c. Heinrich Himmler, the notorious head of the SS
(Reichsfuehrer SS), was also Chief of the German Police,
reporting to Frick. He himself later became Minister of the
Interior after the attempted assassination of Hitler on
20 June 1944, which event also catapulted him into position
of Commander in Chief of the German Reserve Army.
The Reichstag, which was the German parliament, presents an
anomaly in this picture. Under the Republic it had been the
supreme law-making body of the Reich, subject only to a
limited check by the Reichsrat (Council of the Reich), the President, and the German people themselves, by way of initiative and referendum. Putting their opposition to all forms of parliamentarism at once into effect, the Nazis proceeded to curtail these legislative powers of the Reichstag, the Reichsrat, and the Reichspraesident.
By the Act of 24 March 1933 the cabinet was given unlimited
legislative powers, including the right to deviate from the
constitution. Subsequently the Reichsrat was abolished; and
later,
[Page 182]
upon the death of President von Hindenburg in 1934, the
posts of Chancellor and President were merged.
The development of the Reichstag into an emasculated
legislative body was an intermediate step on the road to
rule by Fuehrer decree, the ultimate goal of the National
Socialist party-and one which it achieved.
The Nazis then proceeded to delegate some of the functions
of the Reichsregierung to various newly-created agencies.
Cabinet functions were delegated:
1. To the Reichsverteidigungsrat, the Reich Defense Council,
possibly as early as 4 April 1933 but certainly not later than
May 1935. This was a large war-planning group of which
Hitler was chairman and Goering alternate. The group
included many cabinet members, and a working
committee, presided over by Fieldmarshal Wilhelm Keitel, was
also composed of cabinet members and Reich defense
officials, the majority of whom were appointed by the
cabinet members and subordinate to them.
2. To the Plenipotentiary for War Economy (Generalbevollmaechtigter f. d. Kriegswirtschaft) Hjalmar Schacht (and later Walter Funk), who by the Secret Reich Defense Law of May 1935 was authorized to "begin his work already in peacetime."
3. To the Plenipotentiary for Administration
(Generalbevollmaechtigler f. d. Reichsverwaltung),
Wilhelm Frick, whose deputy Himmler, later succeeded him, and who
was appointed by a Secret Reich Defense Law. Subordinate to
Frick as Plenipotentiary were the ministries of the
Interior, Justice, Education, Church Affairs and Raumordnung
(Spatial Planning).
4. To the Delegate for the Four Year Plan (Beauftragter f.
d. Vierjahresplan), Goering.
5. To the Dreierkollegium, the College of Three, consisting
of the two Plenipotentiaries for War economy and
Administration, and Fieldmarshal Keitel as chief of the OKW.
The duties of this Drierkollegium appear to have included
the drafting of decrees in preparation and for use in
war.
6. To the Geheime Kabinettsrat, the Secret Cabinet Council,
created by the Fuehrer decree in February 1938, of which von
Neurath was President; and
7. To the Ministerrat f. d. Reichsverteidigung, the Council
of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, established by
Fuehrer decree on 30 August 1939 and responsible to him alone.
Its membership was taken from the Reich Defense Council. It
had broad powers to issue decrees
with force of law insofar as the Reichsregierung itself had
not legislated on the subject.
[Page 183]
It should be stressed that this delegation of cabinet
functions and authority to various secret and semi-secret
groups composed largely of its own members, helped to
conceal some of the most important policies of the
Reichsregierung, particularly those relating to preparation
for war.
Thus, step by step, the National Socialist party succeeded
in putting its policies into effect through the machinery of
the state, the Reichsregierung, in its revised form.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
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Volume
I Chapter VI
The Organization of the Nazi Party &
State
(Part 2 of 2)