GERMAN POLITICS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 526, 9 May 1933, Page 7

GERMAN POLITICS

THE NAZi'S METHODS CONNECTION WITH POLICY ADOPTED IN RUSSIA. ARTISTS ARRESTED. A hlock of buildings in the southwest of Berlin which is known as tKe "ArtistsV Colony," and which is roughly the Berlin equivalent of Bloomsbury, has been raided hy 350 policemen and Storm Troop "auxiliaries." All tha houses were searched, and a large number of their oceupiers, mostly writers, painters, and :architects of "Left-wing" tendencies, as well as other "drawing-room Bols.heviks," as the Nazi "Angriff" calls them, were packed into lorries and 1 taken off to prison, says the Manchester Guardian. According to the Nazi Press, there was a close connection between this German Bloomsbury and the "progi'amme of murder and terrorism" ' which, it says, was diseovered in the Karl Liebknecht House, the Communist headquartsrs in the Bulowplatz. The "Angriff" alleges that revolvers and other dangerous weapons were, found in the flats and studios, and describes in the following terms th'e search made in the house of Dr. Schafer, a well-known educational authority of Left-wing tendencies: — "At 11.45 the auxiliary police finally penetrated into the flat of Dr. Schafer, that 'famous' pedagogue of the Koerner High School. As the flat was locked up, they had to smash the door, and then carried out a systematic search. It is amazing to think what stuff this pedagogue used to read in his spare moments. Numerous illegal pamphlets were found there and a lot of Communist literature, ■as well as drawings hy Gross and other 'artists,' all of which betrayed a Communist tendency. Cultural Revolution. Gross is admittedly one of the most brilliant German artists, and the fact that the Nazi Press should describe Gross, and other artists of the same school as artists in quotation marks is highly significant of the cultural revolution which the Nazis propose to undertake. The Nazi rehellion

against the modern German echool I of painting, which may he decsrihed as cosmopolitan and which is related to the great art movements of Western Europe, and particularly to that of France, is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the "cultural" side of Nazism. Some indication of what "Art for Germany's sake" means is given hy Herr Goebhels, the new "Minister of Public Enlighten- : ment," in an interview in the "An- [ griff." The purpose of the /e wly formed I department, he said, was to form pubi lic opinion. The National GovernJ ment could not he satisfied with only 1 52 per cent. of the German voters; it I needed the whole nation. The new Ministry would consist of five departJ ments: — (1) Propaganda, (2) WireI less, (3) the Press, (4) Cinema, (5) | the Theatre and Popular Education. | Dr. Goehhels denied that the emphaj sis on propaganda would make the wireless programme boring. "I am a sworn enemy of dullness," he said, i "but nowadays the German people ! must no longer he left to themselves. There must be a eonstant contact between the Government and the people, and wireless will establish this contact. IL will greatly help in our work of national reconstruction. Function of the Press. The function of the Press, Dr. Goebbels continued, will not only he information, but also instruction. It will also act as a middleman hetween the Government and the people. "We shall create a Press which will he gladly conscious of its responsibility towards the German people and the future of Germany. The Press may criticise the Government, hut it must no't he allowed to steal the people from it." Dr. Goehhels had no time to go into the question of the theatre, the cinema, and art in general, but it may be taken that all these fields will now be nlaced in the serviee of the

national revolution. The process which German culcural life will undergo will probably be similar to that which Russian art, literature, and drama underwent at different periods of the Soviet Revolution, when everything had to become "Revolutionary. In Germany everything will have to become "National." The results of the work which will now he undertaken by Dr. Goehhels and hy the other cultural and educational departments will be watched with much interest. Will German painters now conccntrate on Nazi professions, just as for a long time- Russiaii painters were made to concentrate on Red Flag prof essions ? An order prohibiting Herr Bruno Walter, the world-famous conductor, from conducting a concert at the Gewandhaus at Leipzig has been issued hy the Saxon Minister of the Interior, a Nazi of well-known anti-Jewish persuasion. No reason has been given for the order. The British periodicals, the New Statesman and Nation," and the Week-end Review," have been hanned throughout Germany until Sep-

tember 4. It was explained in offieial quarters in Berlin that -the step had been taken because of articles published about the Reichstag fire. Because they are "tainted with Marxism," German postage stamps bearing the head of the late President Ebert, a Socialist, are to he withdrawn from circulation as soon as possible. They are to be replaced by a new series of stamps bearing the heads of famous men in German history, such as Frederick the Great and other Prussian kings, p'oets of the war of liberty, and leaders in the Great War, including President von Hindenburg. Now that Socialist and Republican Government officials, hurgomasters, magistrates, and municipal councillors have been dismissed to make way for Nazis, the work of "cleansing" boards of directors of companies controlled by the city of Berlin is to be taken in hand. Meanwhile, Communists in many parts of Prussia are giving up the fight. At Landsherg, the leaders of the Communist Party have surrendered their flags, posters, photographs, and even musical instruments. Nazis ceremoniously hurned the flags and smashed the musical instruments in the market square in the presence of "repentant" Communists. At Cracow, Mecklenberg, the local Communist Party has disarmed itself and sent all its documents to the police, with the remark, "We have had enough." Police in Elbing, East Prussia, however, report that Communists are ac- ! tivje and many arrests have been j made. Two Communists, it is added, ! were shot while trying to escape. It j is alleged that plans were found in ( their houses for setting villages on . flre and p'utting certain of the inhabi- j tants to death. In Konigsberg seve- j ral Socialists and Communists have 1 been released. j