Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1933. Editorial: Curb Hitler's authority

The new chancellor vowed to rescue Germany from depression, and asked the world media not to prejudge his administration.

"I want to appeal to the press of the world," said Adolf Hitler, in a 1933 wire story carried in The Journal, "not to form premature judgments on the events that are taking place. Please judge Germany's new government by its deeds, and take its deeds as a whole, not as isolated incidents."

The new German leader denied making "firebrand" speeches. "Anybody who knows war as I know it knows what a tremendous waste of effort, or rather, what a waste of strength it is," Hitler said. "We can only guess what the results of another war would be, and nobody wants peace more than I do -- more than the German people."

The Associated Press reported that Hitler "spoke with tremendous earnestness."

The Journal on Jan. 31, 1933, carried a long interview with Hitler by H.V. Kaltenborn, who was better known for his radio journalism.

The first question Kaltenborn asked concerned the new chancellor's anti-Semitism.

"I am not opposed to Jews as such," Hitler replied. "I have no concern with Jews in countries outside of Germany, but I regard many of the Jews in Germany as foreigners. . . . We have a right to be concerned about those whom we consider anti-German."

Later in the interview, Hitler asserted that Europe "cannot maintain itself with the uncertain currents of democracy." Europe needed authority, he declared. "Government must be derived from the people, but the people can declare their confidence in one man and ask him to lead."

On the editorial page the same day, The Journal suggested that curbs on Hitler's authority (which Hitler would soon overcome on his way to taking total power) would moderate his administration:

"If in the present circumstances the new Chancellor can actually put his theories of government and of leadership into practice, he will deserve to be called a genius," The Journal argued. "But if he cannot do so, he will have a lot of explaining to do to his Nazi followers. One strongly suspects that [German] President Hindenburg wants him henceforth to be an explainer and an apologist rather than a commander and a militant political buccaneer."