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HITLER IS A SHOWMAN, BUT HE HAS DONE GREAT
THINGS, SAYS VISITING CLERIC
"A mouth speaking great words,"
the prophet Daniel's description of a
despot, was applied to Herr Adolf Hit-
ler by Rev. Edward E. Kiek, M.A., B.D.,
of Adelaide, in the course of an ad-
dress on "The Secrets of Hitler," at
the weekly luncheon of the Launces-
ton Fifty Thousand League at the Na-
tional Cafe yesterday.
"Hitler is a showman," he said, "and
his appeal is fundamentally emotional.
It is not an appeal to intellect, logic,
or reason. Yet it must be acknow-
ledged that he has done great things.
He has recreated the German national
soul."
In order to understand the melo-
dramatic rise of the Fuehrer, continued
Mr. Kiek, an appreciation of the dark
background 'of Germany in the years
1918-33 was needed. The country
emerged from the war beaten and
broken, and the rise of the Nazi party
was the outcome of the despair of a
great and once proud people. Ger-
many was driven to desperation by the
policy of the Allied Powers.
The Treaty of Versailles, emerging
from a condition of war hysteria, was
based on the false theory that Ger-
many was solely responsible for the
war. The peacemakers stripped the
Reich of its most valuable sources of
raw material, forbade it to maintain
more than a skeleton army and navy,
and did not allow it an air force at
all. If these measures had been a
prelude to universal disarmament, there
might have been an excuse, but Ger-
many was left helpless, surrounded by
powerful foes.
Astronomical Bill
In addition, it was laid down that
there should be no war indemnities, but
by an ingenious piece of sophistry all
kinds of reparations were not covered
by the clause, and a bill of astronomical
magnitude was piled up against Ger-
many. Successive Governments strug-
gled partly to fulfil treaty obligations.
against the will of the people, and
partly to ameliorate the terms. Infla-
tion of the mark was an outcome, and
the middle classes found themselves in
a few weeks reduced to economic ruin.
Business came to a standstill, no long-
term contracts were possible, and the
result was universal unemployment and
destitution.
"It was in these circumstances," said
Mr. Kiek, "that Hitler came to power.
The hero of modern Germany he is not a
German, but an Austrian. He came
from a humble home, and, unlike Mus-
solini, who does not appear to suffer
from such snobbery, he has cut lose
from his relatives and early friends.
His family remain in obscurity, except
when it is necessary for him to de-
monstrate that there is not a drop of
Jewish blood in his veins."
The Nazi party grew out of the dis-
content of the returned soldiers. Hit-
ler was not one of the original mem-
bers, but he joined about 1921 and
speedily became leader of the National
Socialists. He had no education or
culture, but undoubtedly was a person-
ality of extraordinary magnetism. Psy-
chologists called him a crowd com-
peller or crowd symbol. He repre-
sented the affronted pride and resent-
ment of the German people and the de-
termination of a great nation to recover
the place in the sun that it conceived
to be its right.
Racial Purity
"Hitler's theory that the state is
based on purity of race is laughed at
by all competent anthropologists," de-
clared Mr. Kiek. "The Germans are a
mongrel race, like us. Saxon and
Norman and Dane are we, and good-
ness knows what else has entered into
our composition. Probably Hebrew
and Scotch blood, and I think we are
all the better for it."
The philosophy of Hitler was some-
thing that had been evolved to justify
what had happened. The Russian re-
volution was the outcome of a philoso-
phy, but in Germany the philosophy
was the outcome of a revolution.
"There can be no doubt, however,
about Hitler's sincerity and magnetism,
and that with all his failures and
crimes he has succeeded in bringing
Germany back to honour and self-re-
spect," the speaker continued. "Like
Communism in Russia, National Social-
ism was the alternative to anarchy and
chaos. Hitler came forward and of-
fered the people a programme, not very
intelligible or clear-cut, and a large
portion of the public was carried away
by it. He believes that all business
and industry should be state-controlled
for the public good. The great indus-
trialists and capitalists backed him
because they were afraid of Commun-
ism, but he represents primarily the
ordinary folk, or petit bourgeoise. He
offers them security for their small in-
vestments and properties."
Deplorable Tendency
The exaltation of the abstract idea of
state and the depression of the indivi-
dual was a deplorable tendency, and on
that ground Christianity could never
have any truck with National Social-
ism. Education had been reduced to
propaganda. Reverence for truth and
fact as such had no part in the Nazi
philosophy. Truth was what the state
decreed.
"While we can submit the Nazi sys-
tem to damaging criticism," concluded
Mr. Kiek, "we must recognise that it
has recreated the soul of Germany, now
reaching out with coveteous hands in
all directions, seeking to expand its
power and prosperity at the expense of
other peoples. Austria will probably
become simply a part of the German
Reich, and I am afraid the next attack
will be on Czechoslovakia. That coun-
try is bound by military and political
alliances with France and Soviet Russia,
and any interference must provoke a
general European war. Let us hope
that Hitler will be content with what
he has achieved."
A vote of thanks to Mr. Kiek, pro-
posed by the chairman (Mr. H. C. Barn-
ard, M.H.R. was carried by acclama-
tion.
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