Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

NOW I HAVE THEM IN MY POCKET! 417came agitated. Was this the beginning of Lord Rothermere's newMitteleuropa, built upon the ruins of the Czechoslovakian state? It isnevertheless tragic that in 1931 the small country could find no betteranswer to an act arising from the right of self-determination than a sharpprotest. France, fearing everything that made Germany stronger,likewise protested. Italy wavered for a moment, but then decided againstGermany. All three powers, France, Czechoslovakia, and Italy, issuedtheir protest, for practical purposes a command: the customs union mustbe dissolved at once, for it was nothing other than a disguised Anschlussof Austria to Germany. The world was solemnly called to judge; theissue was put before the Hague World Court. Dino Grandi, Italianambassador in London and the real director of Fascist diplomacy, saidcynically to Doctor Julius Curtius, the German Foreign Minister, that,regardless of the World Court's decision, Italy would never permit thecustoms union.Italy was right, said Hitler, and Bruning was wrong: for 'it is simplyinconceivable to carry through a measure in foreign affairs if at homethere are no forces to fight for it consistently and per-severingly or ifthey are left entirely unused. . . .' Bruning's failure confirmed his oftexpressedtheory 'that it is not foreign policy which decides the courseof a nation; it is first and foremost the nation itself, in its organizationand education that prescribes its own course within the surroundingworld.' To the German public, smarting under this last of the greatdiplomatic humiliations at the hands of the victors of Versailles, Hitlersaid dryly: 'Not Versailles is the cause of the catastrophe. Your partiesare the cause.'The hardest blow against the customs union was financial pressurebrought by France; short-term loans to Austria were called off, and thishelped to bring the little country to her knees. The slow economicdecline turned into a crash. The Oesterreichische Creditanstalt, Austria'slargest bank, controlled by the Viennese branch of the Rothschildfamily, collapsed in May, 1931, and this crash may be considered thebeginning of the second period of the European economic crisis; in itsdarkness and despair comparable to the German inflation. Collapse ofGerman banks was imminent, and collapse in other countries was boundto follow. Europe (with