PROFILE: KONRAD ADENAUER

After First World War he served

French interests, now it’s U.S.

ON May 26, 1952 a 76-year old

man with a face like rumpled
and decaying parchment signed
a contract selling the youth of
West Germany to the recruiting
sergeants for a new war—aAche-
son, Schuman and Eden.

He was Konrad Adenauer, @
man who has sold his country
and himself so often that he
easily qualifies for the title of
Europe’s senior quisling.

When Adenauer signed the
Bonn Treaty he knew well that
he was not saving his country-
men but simply selling them to
the big business interests in
West Germany, Britain, France
and above all America. Why?
So that these big, busine’smen
could make even more money
than before in preparing a new
‘war.

e

Adenauer, who was born- in
the Rhineland in 1876, has been
’ @ professional politician all his
adult life; rising steadily until he
became lord mayor of the rich
city of Cologne in 1917. This
post put him into contact with
international politics for the
first time, for when the German
Kaiser fled in November 1918,
and the German Empire seemed
to be breaking up, he became one
of the miost fervent behind-the-
scenes advocates of the Rhine-
land Separatist movement. This
movement aimed at setting up
a puppet-state, under French
control and protection, on the
Rhine and the Ruhr.

Main moving force behind the
scheme, was the steel and coal
barons of the Ruhr, who wanted
the protection of French bayon-
ets against the socialism which
they feared was spreading from
the east. :

Adenauer worked hard, mainly
in the background, to achieve
this aim, but he is on record as
having made several public pro-
nouncements which sound very
much like treason to any patri-
otic German. Speaking on Feb-
yuary 1, 1919 to a specially sum-
moned meeting of leading Co-
Jogne citizens Adenauer said:

“Bither we attach ourselves
directly to France, or we join
France as a buffer state, or we
become a West German Repub-
lic. There is no other way.”

Th Rhineland Separatist
movement, which received large
sums of money from French sec-
ret service funds as well as from
the Ruhr industrialists, broke
down when it became clear that
the “forces of law and order’? —

‘Cologne,

that it to say the Kaiser’s old
generals — had regained control
throughout Germany; when it
became clear in fact that French
bayonets would not be needed to
keep the German workers down.

Adenauer continued in office
as semi-permanent lord mayor ef
and during the pre-
Hitler republic he steadily climb-
ed the ladder in public life, be-
coming finally chairman of the
Prussian Council of State.

It was this post which gave
him the chance to be on the re-
ceiving end of a really nice large
bribe, one million marks — then
about two hundred thousand dol-
lars — from the German Arti-
ficial Silk Trust — for the part
he had played in pushing

through a revision of the import ~

taxes on artificial silks.

e

Adenauer had often chosen
the right side in the game of
politics, but he made a mistake
in the years before 1933 in not
backing Hitler as future ruler of
Germany. His support went to
other candidates for the dictator-
ship, with the result that after

Hitler came to power Adenauer

had to go into retirement.
Nonetheless, an interesting
sidelight on his attitude towards
international fascism was given
by a telegram which he sent to
Mussolini in 1929 which stated:
“The name Mussolini will be
entered in the book of history in
golden letters.” * ;
Real anti-Nazis had a hard
time during the Hitler dictator-
ship, fighting underground, in,
prisons and concentration camps.

and in foreign lands, but Aden- -

auer took it easy.

A semi-official biography of
the chancellor, which appeared
in the official American Neue
Zeitung, on September 16, 1949,
describing his life on full pen-
sion during the Nazi period, stat-

ed “He did not worry. He pot- -

tered about in his garden, and,
tended his roses.’’

€

After the war Adenauer sud-
denly recalled that he had been
a “victim of Nazism’ and got
the British military authorities
to appoint him lord mayor of
Cologne again, In the first weeks
he bowed and scraped, seeking
favor with the new bosses with
such statements as this, made in
July 1945;

“It is ‘urgently necessary
that the Allies keep Germany
occupied for a long period,
since (Germany is quite incap-

able of ‘governing itself. It is
necessary however to give the
people a little freedom of
movement, like a horse in har-
ness when you give him his
head.”’

After a few weeks as lord
mayor of Cologne he was fired by
the British military authorities
for incompetence, but this did
not worry Adenauer, since he
had already used his extensive
family connections to sell his
services to the American occu-
pation forces.

Here are a, few examples of
these family ties:

His son-in-law is banker Josef
Wehrhahn, financial magnate
and himself a cousin of Cardinal
Frings, influential Roman Cath-
olic.

His wife Gussie Zinsser is the
cousin of Mrs. Ellen McCloy, wife
of U.S. High Commissioner John
McCloy; and also cousin of Mrs.
Peggy Douglas. wife of Lewis
Douglas, American banker and
former U.S. ambassador in Lon-
don.

With the help of his influ-
ential relations, and many fin-
anciers, both German and Am-
erican, with whom he did not
happen to be related, Konrad
Adenauer started climbing the
ladder once again, until finally,
in 1949, he was elected chancel-
lor of West Germany by the West
German parliament,

There has always been an air
of fraud and trickery about Ad-
enauer, and it is perhaps approp-
riate that he was elected by a
majority of exactly one — and
that majority of one has since
turned out to be invalid, since
one of the deputies has been ex-
posed as a former Nazi who was
sitting and voting under an as-
sumed name.

Since his election as chancel-
lor his history has been one of
treachery and betrayal, culmin-
ating in the signature of the
Bonn Treaty with the Western
allies on May 26,

“Adenauer always collaborat-

‘ed in a loyal and correct manner,

always ready to seek a comprom-
ise, often at the cost of German
interests,’ stated the London
Observer on August 28, 1949,
He collaborates, not only at
the cost of German interests.
but at the cost of the interests

of all people in the world who

want peace. The German people
will see to it that he receives
his just deserts. ee 4

“Sacrifie to Serve.”

second Rolls;

ranks

lords of the Yanks!

REMARKED to Lady Borge-Warre over
cocktails and hors d’oeuvre ;
That the working man has got to learn
And I'm settling an example. laying up the

And I’ve sacked three maids.
freeze the wages! Peg the doles!

Team up, Tories. Rally round and close the
With the Nazis and Falangists and the war

Belts in, workers; butter later, guns before.

Tory blueprint

(A contributor to the London Daily Worker
comments on the Churchill government’s new
austerity measures.|

Now, unions,
anew!

We'll ban the horrid Red and dye. the white
till all is blue!

Toes in, Tories, save the side and play the

game!

For howe’er the world may alter, things must
always stay the same! |

Quick march, Tories, to another lovely war!
‘ :

I was saying to Lord Dytherre in the grill-
room at the Ritz,
That I'm proud of how we got the mob con-
ditioned to the blitz,

And I know they'll brave the A-bombs when
our firm inspiring call

Rings its challenge from the shelters 90 feet

Chests out, Tories. let's oe ae the flag

Konrad Adenauer, West German chancellor, signs
agreements to restore German military might—under U.S.
tion—while Baron von Haspen, assistant chief of protocol,

the Be"
aire’
jook#

on, After the First World War he worked to set up a French P

state on the Rhine and the Ruhr.

state.

WILLIAM KASHTAN

uppe
Now it’s an American puppet

Union conventions wil

face big business’ threé!

pees August and September
the Trades and Labor Con-
gress, the Canadian Congress of
Labor and| the Catholic Syndi-
cates will be holding their an-
nual conventions, They may
have a different tone than prev-
ious ones, The conventions of
the past few years have been

_characterized largely by endless

red-baiting which was both

monotonous and dangerous —-

the smokescreen used by the
right-wing leaders to cover up
bankrupt policies and to tie the
trade union movement to the war
policies of the government.

The conventions this year will
be taking place in a somewhat
different climate, both economic-
ally and politically, which is
bringing about a new and more
powerful upsurge in the working
class movement.

This is to be seen particular-
ly in the wage movement which
has become nationwide in scope,
and; now embraces close to 250,-
000 workers in the main indus-
tries of the country.
€ ~

Coincident with this develop-
ment there are other factors
which are bound to influence
convention proceedings.

One factor is the “get tough
with labor” policy that the Can-
adian Manufacturers Association

' and the Canadian Chamber of

Commerce have laid down. The
objective of that policy is to
force the workers to accept cheap
settlements this year even if it
means provoking strikes to ac-
complish it. In British Colum-
bia, big business has gone even
further and tried to force wage
cuts on the workers. This has
been the case with, the lumber
workers, the carpenters, the
fishermen.

These provocatory actions of
big business have been answered
by the workers and their trade
unions in the form of strike
action. In past weeks 50,000
workers took strike action in
British Columbia alone and, if
the railway, big steel and other

- companies reject the legitimate

demands of the workers there is

every possibility of the strike

‘stand out.

ughol

0
movement spreading thr jos?

the country and embracin&
to 200,000 workers.

Still another factor to pear
mind is the efforts of DIB ig
ness to whittle away the ae
union rights of the worms
These interests know the! is
long as the workers nave lt
trade unions, no matter ¥
they are under right-winé
ership or not, they act aS as?
rier to wage-cutting. They |
therefore undertaken the ask
union-busting — but iD ‘ti
ferent way than in the *thi

Then they tried to PM iw
unionization of the mass pro
tion industries. Now theif
jective is to transform union q
to their opposites so that ©” je
of these unions defen
membership they will a¢t it
struments of the, employ®
discipline workers. ,

This is to be seen in 4 ie"
number of cases, Labor By
all over the country are ©.
ing instruments of the en
ers, Unions are being 4°
from coast to coast.

A new tactic is reveslet
General Blectric where #
is fined because worke™
out on strike, This ne a
ticular ominous connot@”
cause implicit in it is t a
of the employers to }®
union discipline its Me" 14)
and prevent them fro™ oot!
whatever action they of
cessary to protect theit nS
And if they fail to 40°’
will be fined.

In all these cases enree 4
First is the “10?
prevent workers from © ,p0!
to. unions of their ow? ft
Second, the effort t? 0!
workers from digg. itd
their own leaders. orket®
| a

effort to prevent W
striking.

This is particularly,
respect to Bill H-8
amend the Criminal aot
such an extent as +0 ne
weaken and hamper —
union movement.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 8, 1952