THIS STORY MAKES SENSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 112, 15 August 1941, Page 12

THIS STORY MAKES SENSE

The Mystery Of Hess, Haushofer, Hitler. Russia And The Scientists Of Munich

Here are some related questions: Why did Hitler attack Russia before he was ready? Why, if he wanted more oil, did he not go straight through Turkey to get it?-a much easier route and a much quicker reward? Why did Hess fly to Britain? Why was Dr. Haushofer in a concentration camp? Why did Dr. Haushofer commit suicide?

NTIL two months ago Hitler made no single mistake in either military or political strategy. His Mein Kampf conceptions fell one after the other into place. He had all of Europe under his control, and all Europe’s resources of materials ready to be assembled, organised on the German plan, and thrown against his single remaining enemy-Britain. A pact of friendship immobilised Russia. Japan in the Pacific and Italy in the Mediterranean immobilised many ‘of the resources of those parts of the outside world which still might worry him. Not only Europe, but almost the whole world was organised in favour of his final strategic move in Europe-the move against the British Isles. Then, suddenly, he attacked Russia; and when this was written, six weeks later, the two dinosaur armies were still locked in indecisive combat, Hitler still had "two flanks, less oil than before, fewer men, fewer tanks, fewer aeroplanes, and the slowly-growing strength of both Britain and the U.S.A. behind his back. Prophets are usually wrong about Hitler, but this time there seems to be more reason than usual for believing that a mistake has been made. German armies do not usually enter into a cam-

paign likely to take more than a month in reaching the deciding point. Speed is their method, and speed their necessity. The Story Begins The story of this mistake begins with Karl Haushofer. When he was aged 37, Haushofer was already a teacher on the German staff school. Among various outside assignments he spent time in Tokio studying the Japanese Army and instructing in artillery. He learned Japanese, as he had learned French, Russian, and Chinese. This was in 1908.

He had bold strategical ideas. He proposed alliances for Germany with Russia and Japan, to break the AngloSaxon powers. He was turned down by Berlin, and after the first Great War he retired from the army and became a Professor at Munich. Here at last he was_able to turn to account his study of "geopolitics."

Among his audiences was Hess, Rudolf Hess, an eager student. Also among his listeners was Adolf Hitler, prisoner in a Munich gaol, busy writing into Mein Kampf the doctrines of a political strategy awakened in his mind by Haushofer’s theories. It was part of this. strategy, of which Hess approved, to engage in a concerted drive against Britain and the United States. Up to this juncture Hitler’s political strategy had led unerringly — until he came to the point where everything was ready to carry it out. Then Hitler, or somebody, muffed badly. Flight And Suicide Hess flew to Scotland. Haushofer, shortly after the then mysterious flight, was reported to have been détained in a -concentration-..camp. Russia was attacked. Japan was left confused among conflicting pacts and treaties. Britain and the United States were given breathing space. The sequence of events followed a perfect train of logic: The BBC announced in a broadcast in German to Germany on July 28 that Hess, on his arrival, had revealed to the

British Government that Hitler intended to attack Russia. The Russian campaign went, for the German Army, comparatively badly. Six weeks passed without decisive success. Haushofer committed suicide. The man responsible for perfecting Hitler’s wonderfully efficient formula of destruction, and the man who encouraged Hitler to believe in it-both were gone, one by death, the other in flight. The obvious assumption is that Hitler disregarded. their advice. The hope is that he will fail without that advice.

The value and extent of the advice Haushofer made available for Hitler is described in a re--markable article by a former foreign correspondent in Germany, Frederic Sondern, jun., in the June issue of Current History. Here are some extracts: Hitlers Scientists "Major-General Professor Dr.

Karl Haushofer and his Geo-Political Institute in Munich with its 1,000 scientists, technicians and spies are almost unknown to the public, even in the .Reich. But their ideas, their charts, maps, statistics, information and plans have dictated Hitler’s moves from the very beginning. "Here is an organisation for conquest, a machine for scientific planning, which no conqueror before Hitler ever had at his command. Ribbentrop’s diplomatic corps, Himmler’s Gestapo. organisation, Goebbels’ huge propaganda ministry, Brauchitsch’s army and the Party itself are but the instruments of this superbrain of Nazism. *" But Haushofer’s Institute is no mere instrument which Hitler uses. It is the other way round. Dr. Haushofer and his men dominate Hitler’s thinking. That. domination began 17 years ago when the famous World War general flattéred the ex-corporal by paying him visits in prison (the meeting had been arranged by Hess) ... The ascendancy has grown as Dr. Haushofer again and again has proved the accuracy of his knowledge and the wisdom of his advice. ...

"Tt was natural, therefore, that when Hitler came to power in 1933 he should at once give Haushofer a free hand and almost unlimited funds. ... The General insisted that he and the Institute be protected from interference by the Army or the Party, and should have unquestioned authority to demand information and action from the propaganda and espionage systems. Hitler agreed. "From the universities, museums, institutes, and laboratories, Haushofer recruited more than a thousand economists, military strategists, psychologists, anthropologists, meteorologists, physicists, historians, geographers, and other specialists. These experts checked and analysed the reports from the espionage services. Their siftings were incorporated into Haushofer’s vast ‘Strategic Index’-the geo-political map and file of the world. "The Strategic Index tabulates every phase of every nation’s life-every detail of its military, economic and psychological strength-of its political, social, and religious thinking-of its geography, topography, and weather conditions-all these are important factors in General Haushofer’s calculations. Detailed Espionage "For detailed espionage, Dr. Haushofer relies upon the Foreign Section of the Nazi Party, which, through the Foreign Institute in Stuttgart, subsidies and controls some 3,500 organisations of Germans living abroad, including the Volksbund in the United States. . "For really difficult espionage jobs, Haushofer relies upon Section UA-1, the foreign division of the Gestapo. Its agents take a two-year course in which they learn everything useful to a spy, from recognising. battleship silhouettes to cracking safes. When the war started thete were about 9,000 of them. " As Haushofer’s picture of a country becomes complete, a condensed analysis of its ‘potential’ is sent to Hitler. With the analysis goes Haushofer’s recommendation on what to do. These recommendations are tantamount to commands, ." Temporary Helpers " "To Karl Haushofer the Battle of Europe was but a prelude to the total domination of the world by Germany. In this conquest, Russia and Japan were to be the Reich’s temporary helpers. ... Every German General Staff Officer has been thus indoctrinated by hundreds of books. and pamphlets — all emanating from the Geo-Political Institute, and the (Continued on next page)

HESS, HAUSHOFER, HITLER (Continued from previous page) idea has completely permeated the Nazi satrapy from the Fuhrer down. "The General, despite Hitler’s faith in him, had a hard time against the antiBolshevik zealots of the Party. But in August, 1939, he completed the first step in his programme. The Stalin-Hitler pact was signed, and the War of the Continents was ready to begin. Last September, Haushofer achieved his next goal: the pact with Japan. And then, by a third: treaty, Stalin gave Japan a free hand in the Pacific. Hausofer’s pattern was complete. . ..." "Is" Becomes " Was" Much of the foregoing quotation we have had to change to the past tense. Russia and Japan "were" to be the

Reich’s temporary helpers, for instance. Haushofer’s pattern "was" complete. Perhaps this strange sequence of events may be the beginning of another that might soon turn "Hitler is" into "Hitler was.’ It is only a few months since Britain alone opposed him and the great system which Haushofer built for him. Now the world is sorting itself out. Many of the men who helped Hitler have left him or have been spurned. Not only Hess and Haushofer, but ‘also the generals who drove his armies so swiftly against his enemies. And against him he no longer has one unarmed island. He has Britain, he has Russia, and indirectly he has four hundred million Chinese, with the oil wells, mines, fields, and factories of the United. States. looming larger in the background, |