European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse Term nov Wjk by Viln fan Keg in the opinions of the minister president of the zone the German nation is advancing what they Hope will become a Federal system of government in the second of two articles on the German ministers fanning presents their answers to specific questions about the internal problems of the first of these a published in the May 11 Issue of discussed the political backgrounds of each of the four state Heads and the problems they face As Germany is brought toward the ultimate goal of the four men who carry the weight of German government in the american zone Are unanimously confident that Germany is making Good political even while her economic health is the Heads of the zones four slate Hans Ehard Christian Stock of Reinhold Maier of Wurttemberge and Wilhelm Kaisen of Brem United in claiming Broad Public support for the Denali fiction in answering specific ques placed before them by week on the current problems of their administration and future prospects for each took Issue with certain specific elements in the Denali fiction procedure which military government has committed to their their answers to broader questions of Germany taken As representative of general trends in the zones political Point toward the objective of a Germany reunited under a Federal system of with limited Powers invested in a Central the an Swers Are presented Here As nearly As possible in the mens own words what Progress has been made in the Denali fiction program and what Are the principal difficulties which have been encountered in carrying out the program minister president Hesse we have been told by general Clay that our Denali fiction was the Best in the we have tried cases and have found persons guilty under categories i and ii major offender and in an Effort to clean up the whole pro Gram this year the state Assembly has passed a Law permitting the drafting of private businessmen for Spruch Kammer duty this is roughly com parable to jury draft in the we will be Able to double our Denali fiction personnel under the there is no doubt that the will to punish the nazi is in the hearts and minds of the we have had no crises in our Denali fiction ministry Bavaria and Wurttemberge Baden have had vigorous shakeup within their Spruch Kammer but As a minor criticism i might say that i feel that the detention Camp at Darmstadt is too Large and should be reconstituted with the various categories of offenders the Only serious difference of opinion we have with the americans is in the regulation requiring that we try the major cases we had hoped to handle the followers first so that they could return to but the people in America wanted it the other Way around the minister president said this with some slam Ming his fist Down on the minister president Bavaria the Denali fiction program in Bavaria has progressed in a reasonably satisfactory but we have come to the conclusion that real Progress cannot be made until several modifications have been introduced into the there is too Little attention paid to the differences be tween High party officials and the Petty nazis who Are generally Classi fied As the Law for liberation from militarism and National socialism a Ger Man approved by military gov generally called the Denali fiction Law in Many introduced a negative approach to the problem of democracy in the minds of the Ordinary we have not made provision for necessary reeducation and we have stressed punishment for simple party membership which was often More or less i believe we have made our greatest single mistake in forbidding followers the right to work until their cases come before a Spruch Kammer Denali fiction in enforcing this regulation we have permitted the Rise of a new nazi party which never really existed before Ehard explained this statement by saying that who were never really Active party Are now embittered and More sympathetic to nazism than Ever i believe the youth amnesty was a major step the right but until we make a greater separation Between the various categories of nazis the Law will remain extremely unpopular with the by and the people of Bavaria Are definitely the general idea of punishing Active nazi party minister president Denali fiction has been an extremely difficult task for us in Wurt Twenty seven per cent of the population Falls directly under the which Means that including their More than 50 per cent of the people in the state Are most of the Small officials usually employed in the clerical jobs necessary to operate a court system have been themselves classified As falling under the Law and we have had to resort to hiring inexperienced per a Large number of whom Are returned under the handicaps have made considerable despite a problem in Denali fiction Peculiar to is the difficulty of handling followers who Are not liable under the Law in other Many of these people have gone to the French zone to seek we have also discovered that a Large number of ardent nazis and High party officials have fled South to escape our it is unfortunate that the Spruch Gammern have been swamped with weeding out followers while Many important party officials have evaded Wurttemberge Baden has adopted the draft of businessmen Spruch Kammer As Hesse has minister president Bremen Bremen has been Dena Ifield under British regulations until very recent we Are just setting up the Amer ican zonal system followers Are allowed to work in Bremen and the actual percentage of nazi party members among the populations is relatively i do that the recent youth amnesty ruling do you that demo Cracy has been accepted to any marked de gite by people of your Hesse Hesse is composed former German states which have history filled with Independent the first German Reich Stag National Assembly met in Frankfurt in i believe that the germans in Hie zone despite their twelve years under the a natural inclination toward the individual free Dom possible Only under a democratic form of Bavaria i believe that the people in and in the have accepted democracy and democratic ideals to a remarkable extent but it must not be forgotten that these people lived for twelve years under a system which permitted no thinking for ones it would be too much to expect a com plete about face from the democracy has made excellent Progress at the county level m this which might be attributed to the basically democratic feeling of a people who had the first Constitution in at state Progress was Good at but has reached a crisis in the present quarrel Between the press and governmental this difficulty can be Over am and the state Constitution will survive the test the Case of Maier versus in which the publisher of the Power Ful stut Garter Franz Karl has charged minister president Maier and the former culture minister Wilhelm with pro nazi in voting for the enabling act in the 1933 considerably upset the political balance in Wurttemberge charged by the Newspaperman As a major has resigned his Post min ister president accused of being an so far has faced the matter out without submitting to a Spruch Kammer Franz Maier was dismissed from his position As special Denali fiction prosecutor on the order of Denali fiction minister Gottlob who claimed that Maier had been appointed to try the Case of Hjalmar and had overstepped his authority in accusing the top state Bremen democracy had never really been far from the hearts of the people in an old Republic the nazis polled Only 32 per cent of the vote in the last election before 1938 and actually showed a loss of four thousand supporters in this election what form of government do you believe Best for Ger Many when she is permitted to Rule herself Hesse am in Complete agreement with Bavaria Germany must have a Federal government with a Large part of the Power remaining in the hands of individual a Strong Central government is always nationalistic whether this takes the form of nazism other Type of and it must continually show its strength to clearcut restrictions and obligations must be allotted to any National government for it goes without saying that a to Strong Germany will not sit Well with France and with the other european countries recently overrun by the a constitutional Federal government for Germany will not create a stumbling Block to the future peace of As an immediate step i would suggest that the four zones be designated As states responsible to some Federal gov but continued on Page 23 i f 10
