THE GERMAN OPPOSITION TO HITLER An Appraisal by HANS ROTHFELS Translated from the German by LAWRENCE WILSON New Revised Edition 1962 HENRY REGNERY COMPANY CHICAGO 4 FOUNDATION FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS SEMES, NUMBER 6 The Foundation for Foreign Affairs, 64 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago 4, Illinois, is a non-profit corporation devoted to the promotion of a wider under standing of international relations political, economic, and cultural. Books in the Foundation for Foreign Affairs Series are published in the interest of public information and debate. They represent the free expression of their authors and do not necessarily indicate the judgment and opinions of the Foundation. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 62-1562 MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE GARDEN CITY PRESS LIMITED LBTCHWORTH, HERTFORDSHIRE CONTENTS FOREWORD INTRODUCTION . The Basic Character of the Opposition 1 1 2. Obstacles on the Road to Truth 16 CONDITIONS AND POSSIBILITIES 1. German Submissiveness 23 2. Degrees of Non-conformity 27 5. Attitude to Jews 31 4. Intellectuals and Churches 33 PLANS AND ACTIONS 1. Early Centres of Resistance 45 2. Crisis in the Autumn of 1938 56 5. Military Sector 63 4. Political Structure of the Opposition 84 5. Ideas on Constitutional and Social Reform 98 6. The Kreisau Circle 108 THE OPPOSITION AND THE ALLIES . Peace Feelers 125 2. Unconditional Surrender 142 SUMMARY 5 2, 6307426, oo 5 FOREWORD f 1ms study of the German Resistance movement is based in I essentials on a public address which was delivered in 1947 JL at the University of Chicago in memory of soth July. Being one of the central themes of recent and not only of German his tory, the subject has preoccupied me ever since.Hence the first undertaking was followed in 1948 by a short book written in English The German Opposition to Hitler, Henry Regnery, Hinsdale, 111.. This edition contained fairly extensive notes re ferring to the evidence available at that time and offering a means of checking controversial questions. It was followed in 1949 by a somewhat expanded German edition which was published by the Scherpe-Verlag, Krefeld. Through the years the book appeared to fill a certain gap and as it repeatedly found new readers I was later urged from many sides to prepare a new and revised edition corresponding to the state of our present, greatly extended know ledge. This edition, of which the present book is a translation, was published in the Fischer Bilcherei, Frankfurt am Main, in 1958. While retaining the original structure of the work, it con tained notes which were further expanded to cover the source material which had become known since 1949. With all this it neither was nor is my intention to write a history of the German Resistance, let alone a complete one. My concern throughout is to discuss rather than to narrate, that is, to place the material in certain factual and interpretive contexts with, as an indispensable prerequisite, a basis of fact that shall be as assured as possible. The book abstains from any kind of Pharisaism, for no one has the right to pass facile judgement on conflicts of conscience and the possibility of unqualified resistance who has not himself fully experienced the trials of life under a totalitarian system. This applies to the standpoint of an author who was only able to ob serve from the outside the final and most tragic culmination of events that occurred afterSeptember, 1939. But the avoidance of 7 8 THE GERMAN OPPOSITION TO HITLER exclusive and Pharisaical criteria should not lead to an exagger ated extension of the term resistance such as was customary for a time as a form of comfortable self-deception...