12th December 1935
Osthilfe

Osthilfe

From 1926 to 1937, the Eastern Aid was an agricultural policy support program of the Reich government and the Prussian state government for the eastern Prussian provinces . The starting point for this aid measure for East Prussia Germany was the previously agreed East Prussia Aid.

At the turn of the year 1932/33, the explosive Eastern Aid scandal developed . The possible involvement of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg may have played a role in Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor on 30th January 1933.

Lina von Hindenburg , the widow of Hindenburg's brother, could not keep the old Hindenburg estate Neudeck because of hopeless over-indebtedness and offered it for sale in the fall of 1927. It was given to Hindenburg on his 80th birthday on 2nd October 1927. His friend Oldenburg-Januschau had collected the funds for this primarily from members of the Reich Association of German Industry and the Reichslandbund.

On 13th January 1933, the Reich Finance Minister Count Schwerin von Krosigk reported to the Budget Committee on the financial situation of the states and municipalities. With the German National People's Party abstaining , the committee adopted a motion by the Centre to clarify:

1. which areas were refinanced and

2. what amounts of money have flowed to large landowners on the one hand and to medium and small businesses on the other hand from the Eastern Aid,

3. what size the settlement assumed in 1932 and what settlement areas were made available in 1933.

The DNVP had held back. Alfred Hugenberg offered his party a part in the government in a conversation with Schleicher. His condition was that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Food would be merged under his control.

On 19th January 1933, the Centre Party MP Joseph Ersing revealed details of the misuse of public funds from the Eastern Aid in the Reichstag 's budget committee:

'And if the money given by the Reich was not used to cover debts, but to buy luxury cars and racehorses and for trips to the Riviera, then the Reich would have to demand repayment of the money. The large landowners were trying to make further parliamentary negotiations impossible. Therefore, behind the scenes, the strongest activity was being developed for an immediate dissolution of the Reichstag'.

The allegations attracted interest not least because in connection with Ludendorff's revelations the names of Hindenburg and others were mentioned. Oldenburg-Januschaus had been mentioned in the press. These families should also have been favored in the allocation of public resources. It had also become known at the end of 1932 that Neudeck had been transferred to the president's son Oskar von Hindenburg in order to avoid inheritance tax. This could not be legally challenged, but it damaged Hindenburg's image as an 'honest and correct Prussian without fault' and increased interest in the new revelations.

On 21st January 1933, the DNVP also announced open opposition. It spoke of the dangers of 'Bolshevism in the countryside' – as they did against Brüning in 1932.

On 22nd January 1933, Hitler, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Göring, Paul Körner, Franz von Papen, Otto Meissner and Oskar von Hindenburg met in Joachim von Ribbentrop's house. The discussion focused on the formation of a Hitler-Papen cabinet and the overthrow of the Schleicher cabinet. Hitler and Oskar von Hindenburg spoke for about two hours in private in the next room. Meissner later reported at the Wilhelmstraße Trial that Hindenburg said on the way back in the taxi that 'there was now no other option' than to make Hitler chancellor. Historians such as Karl-Dietrich Bracher suspect that Hitler threatened Hindenburg with further revelations; moreover, Papen himself agreed to be vice-chancellor; the DNVP and Stahlhelm had the majority in the cabinet and further revelations could be prevented.

On 28th January 1933, Schleicher announced in the Tägliche Rundschau that he would ask Hindenburg for the authority to dissolve the Reichstag. In the event of rejection, he announced his resignation. At the same time, he warned of a 'Papen-Hugenberg dictatorship cabinet'. At the cabinet meeting in the morning there were no significant objections from ministers to Schleicher's plan. At midday he met Hindenburg. He refused and fired Schleicher. Although it was expected that Schleicher would resign, the news was treated as a sensation in the press.

Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor on 30th January 1933. He formed a government of German Nationalists and National Socialists. Hugenberg became Reich Minister for Economics and Food, in this role also Commissioner for Eastern Aid.

The Berliner Tageblatt reported on the collection of the already delivered files on the Eastern Aid scandal by officials of the Reich Commissariat for Eastern Aid on the morning of 2nd February 1933. Five days later, the same paper published an article about riots that prevented the investigation into the Eastern Aid scandal from continuing. Under the title 'The Eastern Aid Swamp', the social democratic newspaper Vorwärts reported on 25th February 1933 that the Berlin police chief had forbidden the SPD representative Kurt Heinig from publishing a brochure as a reporter for the investigative committee on the Eastern Aid scandal - because of alleged threats to public order.

Source: Wikipedia

Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page