The German Labour Party

ONE DAY I received an order from my superiors to investigate the nature of ‘The German Labour Party’.

It was soon to hold a meeting at which Gottfried Feder would speak. I was ordered to attend this meeting and report on the situation.

The Revolution had granted the soldiers the right to be active in politics. This made the army authorities curious about political parties

But the Centre and the Social-Democratic parties realized that soldiers’ sympathies was not with the revolutionary parties, but with national reawakening.

And so they withdrew from the army the right to vote take part in political activity.

If the Centre and Marxism had not curtailed these rights, then the government established in November 1918 would have been overthrown within a few years.

At that time the soldiers were ridding the nation of the vampires and valets who served the cause of the Entente within the country.

The so-called ’national’ parties voted enthusiastically for the doctrinaire policy of the criminals who organized the Revolution in November 1918. This rendered the army ineffective as an instrument of national restoration.

I decided to attend the meeting of this Party, which had hitherto been entirely unknown to me. When I arrived that evening in the guest room of the former Sternecker Brewery–which has now become a place of historical significance for us–I

The meeting of the German Labour Party had approximately 20-25 persons, most of them belonging to the lower classes.

The theme of Feder’s lecture was already familiar to me.

I had a neutral impression of their party as there were many new societies being formed at that time.

In those days, everybody wanted to found a new Party whenever he felt displeased with the course of events and had lost confidence in all the parties already existing.

Thus, new associations sprouted up all round, to disappear just as quickly, without exercising any effect or making any noise whatsoever.

Their founders did not know what it means to bring together people for the foundations of a party or a movement. So they disappeared because of their lack of the necessities of the situation.

At the meeting, a professor threw doubt on what Feder had said. Then Feder replied very effectively.

He recommended the young party most urgently to introduce the secession of Bavaria from Prussia as one of the leading proposals in its programme.

He kept on insisting that German-Austria would join Bavaria and that the peace would then function much better. He made other similarly extravagant statements.

At this point, I told him what I thought. He then slipped out of his place, like a whipped cur, without uttering a sound.

While I was speaking, the audience listened with surprise on their faces.

When I was just about to leave, a man came after me quickly and introduced himself and asked me to read the political pamphlet he put in my hands.

At that time I was living in the barracks of the 2nd Infantry Regiment.

I read their pamphlet “My Political Awakening” which described how the author had thrown off the shackles of the Marxist and trades-union phraseology, and that he had come back to the nationalist ideals.

A week or so later, I received a postcard telling me, to my astonishment, that I had been admitted into the German Labour Party. I was asked to answer this communication and to attend a meeting of the Party Committee on Wednesday next.

This manner of getting members amazed me. I did not know whether to be angry or laugh at it. I wanted to found my own.

Wednesday came. The tavern in which the meeting was to take place was the ‘Alte Rosenbad’ in the Herrnstrasse, into which apparently only an occasional guest wandered.

Under the dim light shed by a grimy gas-lamp I could see four young people sitting around a table, one of them the author of the pamphlet. He greeted me cordially and welcomed me as a new member of the German Labour Party.

I learned that the REICH National President of the Association was a certain Herr Harrer and the President for the Munich district was Anton Drexler.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read out and a vote of confidence in the secretary was passed. Then came the treasurer’s report. The Society possessed a total fund of 7 marks and 50 pfennigs (a sum corresponding to 7s. 6d. in English money at par), whereupon the treasurer was assured that he had the confidence of the members.

This was now inserted in the minutes. Then letters of reply which had been written by the Chairman were read; first, to a letter received from Kiel, then to one from Düsseldorf and finally to one from Berlin. All three replies received the approval of all present.

Then the incoming letters were read–one from Berlin, one from Düsseldorf and one from Kiel. The reception of these letters seemed to cause great satisfaction.

This increasing bulk of correspondence was taken as the best and most obvious sign of the growing importance of the German Labour Party. And then?

Well, there followed a long discussion of the replies which would be given to these newly-received letters.

It was all very awful.

This was the worst kind of parish-pump clubbism. And was I supposed to become a member of such a club?

The question of new members was next discussed–that is to say, the question of catching myself in the trap.

I now began to ask questions. But I found that, apart from a few general principles, there was nothing–no programme, no pamphlet, nothing at all in print, no card of membership, not even a party stamp, nothing but obvious good faith and good intentions.

Those few young people had been induced to join in such a ridiculous enterprise was merely the call of the inner voice which told them intuitively that the current party system could not restore the German nation.

I quickly read through the list of principles that formed the platform of the party.

Here again I found evidence of the spirit of longing and searching, but no sign whatever of a knowledge of the conflict that had to be fought.

I myself had experienced the feelings which inspired those people. It was the longing for a movement which should be more than a party, in the hitherto accepted meaning of that word.

When I returned to my room in the barracks that evening I asked myself: Should I join this party or refuse?

Intellect urged me to refuse. But my feelings troubled me. The more I proved to myself how senseless this club was, the more did my feelings incline me to favour it. During the following days I was restless.

This ludicrous little formation, with its handful of members, had the unique advantage of not yet being fossilized into an ‘organization’. It offered a chance for real personal activity.

As the movement was still small, one could all the easier give it the required shape. Here it was still possible to determine the character of the movement, the aims to be achieved and the road to be taken, which would have been impossible in the case of the big parties already existing.

The longer I reflected on the problem, the more my opinion developed that just such a small movement would best serve as an instrument to prepare the way for the national resurgence, but that this could never be done by the political parliamentary parties which were too firmly attached to obsolete ideas or had an interest in supporting the new regime.

What had to be proclaimed here was a new WELTANSCHAUUNG and not a new election cry.

After two days of careful brooding and reflection I became convinced that I must take the contemplated step.

It was the most fateful decision of my life. No retreat was possible.

Thus I declared myself ready to accept the membership tendered me by the German Labour Party and received a provisional certificate of membership. I was numbered SEVEN.