On Not Repudiating Versailles--Yet (1932)

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I found this scarce, offset publication¹ written in 1932 by Dr. Otto Kiep (who was the German Consul General in New York) which addressed the worldwide Depression and the German interpretation of it. At this point, nearly two years after the U.S. market collapse, and still in the last lingering months of the Hoover presidency, the Depression had not yet earned the sobriquet "Great", though that would come soon enough. In these dark days before the Dark Days Kiep  addressed the German intention of honoring the Versailles Treaty, stating that "Germany is not  r e p u d i a t in g [sic] her contractual obligations" and that no government had anything to fear. Of course that would not last long, though it is highly doubtful that Kiep had anything to do with the Nazi plans shaping up behind his back. 

Following his great success in the election of 1930, Hitler decided in February 1932 to run for the presidency against von Hindenburg, from which emerged the Great and Impossible Tragedy, and the series of horrific events that would see Hitler in power in 1933. It was then, nearly immediately following his consolidation of power that Hitler promptly decided to drop the Versailles Treaty in all of its ways and means.  

So, if this pamphlet was printed in January/February 1932 there was only a year left to Kiep's claim of non-repudiation. Kiep moved on from his position and in short order would advance to a new job in charge of the Reich's Press Office. It turns out that Kiep was an ardent German and fervent anti-Nazi, and became one of the nearly 5000 people Hitler executed for their real or imagined role in the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944. He was tried by the reprehensible Freisler², found guilty, and like the great mass of others was hanged or shot within two hours of his verdict. 

 

Notes:

1. [KIEP, Otto.] Germany's Attitude Towards the Present Crisis (Remarks of Dr. O.C. Kiep, German Consul General in New York, before the Eastern Regional Conference... No place and no date, though it is dated February 1932 by hand on the back of the first sheet. 11x8", 6 leaves. Provenance: H.L. Mencken, and then the Library of Congress. WorldCat/OCLC locates 0 copies. 
2.  Roland Freisler was a Wannsee attendee and President of the People's Court, an architect of the Nazification of German law enabler of the Holocaust. He died in February 1945, killed by falling debris in a bombing raid in Berlin. He was a widely despised man who was the presiding judge of countless show trials, and his death was evidently mourned by no one.