Hitler failed.

Q* JULY is year the
West

the Co
which 19-year-olds

I i
nscription Law,
A

be called up for
new West German

On. August 17, jr
later, the West German Con-
stitutional Court in Karlsruhe
erdered the dissolution of the
Communist f the seizure
ef ell its assets by the state,

and a permanent ban on any

acht.
< weeks

successor ns

It was ence that
shese two measures followed
each other so closely.. The

men who run the West German
overnment know that the
I are the most con-
sistent and hard-hitting oppon-
ents of the policy of remilitar-
sation and ification in
West Germany: the

do what they c

r decided to

to sweep
away this obsta

Who are the men*behind the
n

ban of the West German Com-

Jali

munist party ?

First of all there is Gerh
2r, West German Min-

He joined
tted Storm
Troops in 1933, and later work-
ed for Hitle financial advisor
Hialmar Schacht.

After the constitutional court
had banned the Communist
party it was Schroeder who
sent out the police all over
West Germany to raid Com-
raunist office down the

‘news-

ymmunist
Then there is Dr.
irich, of the West
German Constitutional Court,
which pronounced the ban. He
is a skilled jurist, and

preside

nt

. ly
took

great pains to ban
} Pai 7

with ail of
}

legality inter

By JOHN PEET

esting to note, however, that
4e served as a state prosecutor
tn Nazi courts throughout the
Hitler regime.

In 1940, when he was pro-
posed promotion to the
post of senior prosecutor, he
obtained a letter of recom-
nendation from the Bavarian
branch of the Nazi party certi-
ying his “undoubtedly
National Socialist attitude.”

But men like these, and
many. more with
imilar records, are only the
executors of the policy of the
West German government.

The forces behind the West
yerman government today are
sely the same forces which
Hitler to power in

stock banks

there are

ought

— the join
and big industry.
Just two examples should
be sufficient here. Banker
Rohert Pferdmenges, member
of the board of directors of 24
West German banks and heavy
industrial undertakings, is
generally. regarded as the
closest confidant of Chancellor
“onrad Adenauer.
Throughout the Nazi. period
he was one of the most  in-
luential bankers and indus-
trialists, and in 1938 he “Ary-
enised” the Jewish-owned
Oppenheim Bank in Cologne.
He figured on the list of
ceconomi¢ war criminals pre-
ired by the U.S. authorities,
but was never brought to trial.
nother adviser to Chancel-
Adenauer is banker Her-
ann J. Abs. member of the
lirectors of the

ard oles

Deutsche Bank and director of
35 industrial undertakings in
West Germany at the last

count

During the Nazi period he

played a main part in the Ger- .

manisation of the banking sys-
tem in occupied Europe. He,
too, was placed on the list of
var criminals prepared by the
U.S. authorities but never
brought to trial.

The Monthly Report of the
U.S. Office of Military Govern-
ment for November 1946 stat-
ed:. “Abs devoted his entire
energies to extending German
dominance over Europe.”

The banks and heavy indus-
try in Germany played a de-
cisive part in bringing Hitler
to power in 1933, and a de-
cisive part in extending Nazi
domination over Europe.

This was documented in the
Potsdam Agreement signed in
1945, which stated:

“At the earliest practic-
date the German
economy shall be decentral-
ized for the purpose of elim-
inating the present excess-
ive concentration of econ-
omic power as exemplified
in particular by cartels, syn-
dicates, trusts and other
monopolistic arrangements.”

In the early postwar years
both Britain and the United
States actually took some. re-
luctant steps to put this prin-
ciple into practice. The big
joint stock banks, dominated
by merf like Abs and Pferd-
menges, were split up, and
heavy industrial undertakings
like the Thyssen Trust were
split up into smaller units
which theoretically could not
wield such unlimited power.

But today, only 11 years
after the signature of the
Potsdam Agreement, the vari-
ous smaller banks have re-
amalgamated in their old
form, and industrial firms are
openly flaunting their — re-
cartelisation.

In July West German news-

able

papers printed full-page ad-

vertisements from the Thyss-
en concern blatently proclaim-
ing that “Eight years after the
de-cartelisation of the German
iron and steel_industry” the
trust formed by. August Thyss-
en had been “partially re-
formed.”

And it is only logical that
the bosses of these banks and
trusts should be interested in
the banning of the Communist
party, which they know from
experience to be the most con-
sistent opponent of their plans.

Not only are the Commun-
ists the léaders ‘in the fight
against war preparations and
re-fascisation in West Ger-
many; they also lead the fight
in the factories against ex-
ploitation and speed-up.

Results of the elections to
works councils in heavy in-
dustrial undertakings in re-
cent months have shown a
marked increase in Commu-
nist influence in the factories.

In the main Krupp factory
in Essen the 35-men works
council now includes ten Com-
munists, compared to only
seven last year.

The workers of the Phoenix
Rhein-Ruhr Steel Factory,
part of the Thyssen Trust
mentioned in the bragging ad-
vertisement already quoted,
elected nine Communists to
their 25-men factory council.

And the 21-men works coun-

West German Chancellor’ Konrad Adenauer is
with U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles:

cil at the Haspe Foundly
great Kloeckner Trust
cludes nine Communh®
Following the bat
Communist party,
man heavy industry ®
be able to rid itself %
uncomfortable repres®
of the most. militant
of the working class: —
As part of the TeP
measures being uS€@ |
all persons suspected ©
munism in West ‘
steps have already been
to ban the 500 factory
papers issued by Con ‘i
groups in factories and }
But Chancellor
with his financier )@”
going to find out th@
Litten off more than
chew. Hitler, with of
enormous machinery |,
pression, concentration”
e

ont
pack",

and executioner’s
never abie to stifle
of the Communist Pp? *
pletely. .

And on the day of /
the central board of
munist party, now G4"
derground in West

proclaimed: ‘é
“We Communis
everywhere wh®

working class is,
people are the

party lives! Forw*”
the Communist
against militarism oy
action, for demoe
socialism!” ‘

Young trade unionists
scription laws.

a

in Munich demonstrate against the Adenauer government’s con-

What German youth thi

PPOSITION in Western Germany to the ™
Wehrmacht is steadly mounting, despite bee
sive government propaganda to try to make milit

service more palatable.

This is the clear result of a recent poll con
by the well-known EMNID Institute of ! Me
Opinion in Bielefeld, Western Germany.

In December 1955 and again in July 1%:
institute questioned a representative select
men under 65 on how they felt about conscriPt i,
In July 1956 65 percent rejected joining the a i
compared to 59 percent in December 1955.

Highest preportion of opposition was eX
by men between the ages of 25 and 30 and
particularly strong in all age groups among

and farmworkers,

Young men between the ages of 1
showed themselves to be even more reluctant 0 af,
uniforms than they had been at the end of Jast YA
The number willing to do so sank from 16 P&
in December 1955. to 7 percent in Tuly 1958

duct?
b

956 ©
on

of

pre
i WE
fact?

6 and

SEPTEMBER 7, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE —