The Thousand Conspiracy - Secret Germany Behind the Mask Paul Winkler Charles Scribner’s Sons©1943 New York 381 pps. – First Edition – Out-of-print ----- "I know no way of judging the future but by the past." PATRICK HENRY [Speech at the Virginia Assembly, May 1765] --[4b]-- A Job Well Done The C Organization as a unit, or its members, can be traced in most of the post-war assassinations of outstanding political personalities. In the regulations of the revived Fehme, where the "punishment of traitors" is mentioned, not only those who actually betray secrets of any of the organizations involved are intended. All who wanted Gennany to take the path of democracy were considered "traitors"—traitors because they opposed the direction desired by the Prusso-Teutonics, the only direction "worthy of a German"—according to the very particular understanding of this clique. Since they were traitors, they must be killed. . . . And as a result of this reasoning, the German democratic leaders were all disposed of, one by one. Of course the Fehme had even better reasons for acting promptly in cases such as that of the Bavarian Deputy Gareis in 1921, when Gareis threatened to expose the Fehme crimes and those responsible for them. It must be admitted that the methods applied were effective. By 1920 all the democratic parties had lost their leaders through assassination. Those who remained at the head of these parties were men who had neither power nor prominence—and they were terrorized. (It is thus not surprising that the German emigration which followed Hitler's accession to power has not yet been able to produce an able leader from among the German statesmen of the different democratic parties.) Thus the stage was set for the seizure of power by a group which would control Germany according to the desires of the Prusso-Teutonics and which would serve as a front to the latter. The Nazi Party, which was one of the candidates for this role, was mentioned more and more frequently. Less and less was said about the Felune crimes and the Consul Organization. Since the tasks entrusted to this organization had been finished the latter could now sink into oblivion. By 1930 we can find the men who had been Ehrhardt's trusted lieutenants occupying important posts in the Navy, in the Administrative offices of the Admiralty and in the General Staff of the Fleet. Werner Tillessen, one of the foremost "men of many tasks" in the Consul Organization, whose name, together with that of his brother, had figured frequently during the course of most of the trials involving Felime assassinations, was by then Vice-Admiral. Services rendered were well paid! When the officers had accomplished their tasks as Fehme assassins, they returned to the Army or the Navy-holding higher rank than before because of time passed in the performance of "duties of a special nature." The Black Reichswehr While the staff of the Consul Organization consisted of naval officers, that of the Rossbach Organization was composed of army officers. Both organizations worked hand and glove. No difficulties arose between them, and from time to time—they lent each other their strong-arm men. The absence of conflict between these two terrorist groups, which one might expect to find competing with one another, can easily be explained by the fact that both organizations were acting in separate spheres but on behalf of the same controlling interests. The C Organization was concerned primarily with disposing of major political figures—men in the public eye. The Rossbach Organization was dedicated to the execution of lesser lights, who might hinder the Junkers as well as the day-by-day work of secret rearmament. The C Organization functioned throughout Germany, and was particularly active in areas where a certain strengthening of the democratic parties. was noticed. The Rossbach Organization was more active in Prussia itself, looking after the local interests of the Junkers, on whose estates the units of the organization had been set up. Therefore the connections of the Rossbach Organization with the Junkers. were of necessity more apparent than those maintained with the same interests by the C Organization. The Rossbach Organization was founded in December, 1918, by Lieutenant Gerhard Rossbach of the 175th Infantry Regiment with the remnants of his regiment. He tried to keep together the men who rallied around him after the debacle by hiding them on the estates of the East-Prussian landlords. Out of this a few months-later Rossbach formed a "Sturintruppe" (assault troop), now admitting to membership officers and soldiers from all the armed forces. The Rossbach forces called themselves an "Arbeitsgemeinschaft" (work cooperative) to conceal the military character of their organization from the Armistice Commission. They were to be placed in small units on the estates of the Junkers where they would carry out their activities. The Junkers had decided -to hide on their estates the implements of war which the army was able to salvage after Germany's defeat. For the Prusso-Teutonics these were a. powerful trump, to be used in the future reconstruction of their forces. They had no doubts as to this. reconstruction, although they did not yet see clearly the exact form it would take. It is enlightening that the secret rearming, which was being carried on in defiance of the Armistice Commission, took place mainly on the very estates of the Junkers (i.e., in the only section of Germany controlled entirely by the Prusso-Teutonics). It is also interesting that all Junkers thus placed their lands at the disposal of the cause without a moment's hesitation; and that not one traitor was to be found among them who dared to oppose the shouldering of these obligations or to carry tales to the democratic parties. The reason for this lay in the strict secret organization of the Junkers. If this secret organization had not existed, a simple "community of interests," would certainly not have been enough to force decisions so rapidly and to insure secrecy and perfect synchronization of all actions. The only leakage which the Junkers had reason to fear might have come from their farm workers. The latter, of course, unlike the Junkers, were not bound by the secrecy of the Junker organizations. They were, further, in a position to know and reveal the spots where arms had been hidden. It was a question, then, of terrorizing these workers and impressing on them the fact that by talking too much they would be risking the wrath of the Fehme. The organization of this Fehme unit was the task of the various "work cooperatives" composed of ex-service men. Among these "cooperatives," the Rossbach Organization soon became outstanding by virtue of the initiative and ruthlessness of its leader. Collectively these secret units were known as the "Black Reichswehr." Indeed, their purpose was to keep together the staffs of the former army. These staffs could not remain in the official Reichswehr, which had been considerably reduced in accordance with the terms of the Armistice. A close liaison was maintained between the two Reichswehr. This was considerably facilitated by the fact that officers of both were serving the same cause and obeying the same orders. An Honorable Enterprise The Rossbach Organization established central offices in Berlin. It was from here that recruiting was carried on and that contact was maintained with leaders of the Rcichswehr. These offices themselves organized a front known as the "Deutsche Auskunftei" (German Information Bureau). The Deutsche Auskunftei was under the official direction of Lieutenant Rossbach, and one can imagine what was meant by the official description of the services rendered: "Investigations, Shadowing, Escorted Journeys." The prospectus of the bureau contained the following directions: DEUTSCHE AUSKUNFTEI Main Business Office: Berlin Wannsee, Otto W. Erichstrasse to; Open Day and Night. Telephone Warmsee 613 and 793 Branch Office: Berlin W 62, Bayreutherstrasse 10—3rd floor. Business Hours: 10-4. Telephone Steinplatz 11663 Agents and Representatives sent out on your request by phone Piivate automobile service from Berlin or Wannsee Terminal on request Cable Address: Deutsche Auskunft Wannsee Bank References: F. W. Krause & Co. Berlin W Behrenstrasse 2. Industrie und Landwirtschafts Bank Berlin, Markgrafenstrasse 35 Criminal Division: Criminal Police Inspector Wilss (retired) Political Division: Executive Director-First Lieutenant Rossbach (retired)—Major von Berthold Information, Stock Exchange and Cashiers' Division: Director M. L. Eberhardt Guards and Protection Division: First Lieutenant D. H. Lukash (retired) Legal Department: Major Bartold (retired)—Kurt Oskar Bark, Editor Telephone Service connects with all departments. The German democratic press of that period tried in vain to unmask the Deutsch e Auskunftei by demonstrating that all its resources were of Junker-Prussian origin; that it had been organized to provide those forces with strong-arm men -the so-called "detachments of guards" for their estates; and that it had been responsible for all Felime assassinations in Prussia east of the Elbe. If a Prussian landlord had the slightest difficulty with his farm workers, if he suspected them of wanting to organize a strike or of wishing to betray the rearmament activities, the "Rossbach volunteers" would show up immediately and attack the workers with clubs; they would not hesitate to kill those who might become too troublesome. All "volunteers" were armed with guns, knives and blackjacks. They were obedient to the strictest military discipline, going so far as to snap into "at attention" in the presence of their superior officers, although they were generally in mufti. Despite the name, "Work Cooperative," they were not concerned with any actual work. In a tight spot, however, the Rossbach volunteers were prepared to furnish large armed forces at almost a moment's notice. Petty Executions The responsibility of the Rossbach Organization for some of the assassinations was clearly established in the course of trials which also ended without any significant results. The democratic press conducted inquiries and made some interesting revelations. Gumbel tried very hard to demonstrate the connecting links between all these Fehme assassinations but his efforts did not arouse public opinion. In July, 1920, the non-commissioned officer Max Krueger, of the Rossbach corps stationed at Stecklin, learned that one of the farm workers, Willi Schmidt, age twenty, wanted to abandon his job-and that it was being whispered in the village that he intended to inform the police of the spot where certain secret arms had been cached. The local Fehme of the Rossbach corps decided to take action immediately. Four members of the organization, Heines, Bandemer, Vogt and Ottow, paid a visit to Schmidt, pretending to be police inspectors. Intimidated, Schmidt left with them, supposedly to attend a hearing at the police station. Actually he was led to an isolated spot in the vicinity and there Ottow beat him over the head with a blackjack. It was decided to take him to the Kehrberg forest and his wounds were dressed. On the way there Schmidt tried to draw the attention of passers-by and cried out: "They want to kill me." No one paid any attention to him. Two other members of the Rossbach corps, Baer and Fraebel, now joined the others. At last Heines ordered Baer to shoot Schmidt. Baer could not quite make up his mind, so Heines himself shot at Schmidt twice. He was joined by Ottow, who also fired twice. Schmidt still had sufficient strength to cry out for help. He was knocked down and his face was pushed into the ground. Fraebel trampled on his head and finally Ottow finished him off with ten raps of the blackjack. Baer now dug a pit in which the corpse was buried. But the pit was not deep enough. A few days later the knees of the victim pushed up out of the ground and people in the neighborhood began to speak of the assassination. After that the assassins went back to the grave and buried their victim in a much deeper pit. Walter Cadow, age twenty-three, employed as overseer on an estate at Wismar in Mecklenburg, had been admitted into membership in the local Rossbach volunteers, having been a second lieutenant during the war. After some time he was suspected of intending to turn witness against the Rossbach Organization, in a trial concerning the Organization's activities, then in session. On May 31, 1923, following previous arrangements, members of the local Felime got him drunk, and then all his papers were removed. It was midnight. He was placed in a car with eight men, who, under the command of Second Lieutenant Hoess, held their guns against him. The car was driven out to the woods. Cadow was dragged out, stunned by blackjack blows, and, dripping with blood, was put back into the car. They now drove him to a clearing, where he was knocked to the ground. The entire gang trampled him with booted feet. One of these men, Wiedemeyer, slit his throat, and Second Lieutenant Hoess finally killed him with a bullet in the head. Jurisch, one of the members of this particular unit, later became remorseful and recounted the incident to the Vorwaerts—socialist newspaper of Berlin. The crime was thus brought to the attention of the attorney-general, who could not refuse to act. Two minor helpers in the assassination, as well as the informer, were arrested. Finally all three were released. The local chief of the Rossbach Organization hurriedly transported those who had participated in the assassination to other estates in Upper Silesia. He thus made sure that the affair would have no further repercussions. Later it was learned that he reprimanded Hoess, leader of the unit, severely: "If you had been a member of the Rossbach Organization for a longer time, you would have known how such -affairs should be handled. Two men and one bullet-at night in the woods-are all that is needed." Around 1922-1923, the Rossbach Organization found means of introducing its methods into the Reichswehr itself. In numerous areas throughout Germany, local cells were organized within the regular army. These cells were named "Reichswehrblock Rossbach" (R. W. B. R.)—Rossbach Reichswehr Section. Indiscretions had exposed the relations between the Rossbach Organization and a certain regiment of Magdeburg. Following this, the local R. W. B. R. issued, in May, 1932, the following command (later revealed by the Left press): "In the name of the Chief: In view of the prevailing espionage, the leaders have decided to form a so-called Fehme-unit. This will be composed only of trustworthy men, who have been trained in pistol shooting, and shall be under the direct command of the leaders. It will be the duty of the Fehme to observe the movement of those who appear suspect to the leaders and to dispose of traitors as well as politically undesirable individuals. Because of the difficulties of this work, and the great demands it makes, only the most reliable and trustworthy men are to be chosen." Fehme assassinations increased in number within the Reichswehr and the various Black Reichswehr organizations. The magazine Das andere Deutschland pu blished in its issue of January, 1927, the following "confession": "I, the undersigned, Hubert Caida, worker at Wreschcn, was, in 1921, a member of the 'self-defense' organization, section Dedewitzhof, near to Twerkau, district of Ratibor. On the night of the 18th or 19th of May, 1921, I, along with another member of the organization, received orders from Lieutenant Petrich to follow the tavern proprietor Miketta, from Dedewitzhof to Benkowitz, and to shoot him dead, somewhere along the way. On the road from Dedewitzhof to Twerkau, Miketta walked a few steps in front of us, his hands in his pockets, smoking his pipe, and without suspicion. We said that we would accompany him right up to the door of his house where his wife awaited his return. Miketta was three steps ahead of me when, in accordance with my instructions, I shot him in the head. He died on the spot. I am sorry to have killed Miketta, but I thought I had to carry out the orders of my superior, Lieutenant Petrich. "Wreschen, November 27, 1926 Hubert Caida." Erich Pannier, a young baker aged twenty-one, was active in a Ruhr detachment of the Black Reichswehr in 1923. He became suspect to his superiors and when, in May, 1923, he did not return from a leave within the required time, Sergeant Schirmann was sent out after him, arresting him at the home of his parents. On the street, Pannier slipped away from Schirmann, cried out for help from the Black Reichswehr, and begged a policeman to protect him. Despite protestations by the Sergeant, who showed his papers to the policeman, the latter conducted Pannier to the police station. The commissioner there telephoned the general staff of the Third Army Division, requesting instructions. He was told that a second lieutenant would be sent over immediately to call for Pannier. Later a second lieutenant and another man presented themselves to the commissioner, and they took custody of Pannier, whom they then led away. The commissioner did not realize that the officer was really Second Lieutenant Benn of the Black Reichswehr. (In the course of the trial, where these incidents were revealed, it was never explained how a telephone call to the general staff of a regular division of the German army could have led to the dispatching of men of the Black Reichswehr.) Two days later, on orders of Berm, Pannier was killed in the woods with an axe by Sergeant Schirmann and Privates Aschenkampf and Stein. The day following the crime, Schirmarm. left for Berlin carrying a letter addressed to Lieutenant Paul Schulz, whose name figures in many of these assassinations. Schulz seems to have been one of the principal organizers of the Black Reichswehr Fehme. Sergeant Fahlbusch, who made accusations against Schulz during the course of a trial of Fehme crimes, was later, in January, 1931, found asphyxiated in a motor boat. His death was never cleared up. The Nazis and the Fehme It is curious to observe the relationship between the postwar Felime organizations and the Nazi party. That numerous murderers from the C Organization, the Rossbach Organization and the various detachments of the Black Reichswehr became members of the Nazi party around 1930, is in itself not astonishing. It can be explained simply by the general attraction which the party held for the masses, and particularly among nationalist elements. But we have seen how, as early as 1923, the Wikingbund, closely connected to the C Organization, adopted in its statutes the program of the National-Socialist party as its political ideal. On the other hand, Rossbach was official representative for Hitler in North Germany during this same period. When the police of Thuringia on January 26, 1923, arrested 373 members of the Rossbach Organization, including forty officers (as related in the Frankfurter Zeitung of January 28, 1923), it was discovered that all of them were to report to the Congress of the National-Socialist party, convening in Munich. The police found numerous guns and blackjacks on the men, and in many cases they wore uniforms beneath their civilian clothes. A great many of them wore swastikas. In 1923, the Nazi party was not yet as feared and as influential as it was to be at a later time. Nevertheless the two powerful Fehme associations, the C Organization and the Rossbach Organization, maintained consistent connections with it. This was due only to the fact that all three organizations were agencies acting for the same group of interests. The ties of the C Organization with the Junkers and with the Reichswehr, loyal servants of the Prusso-Teutonics, were clearly revealed during the course of various trials. That there was a connection between the Rossbach Organization and the Prussian landlords was an open secret, since almost all of their activity had taken place on lands of the latter. It is clear that by maintaining a regular relationship with both organizations, the Nazi party was cultivating its connections with the hidden powers which were at the same time behind both organizations—the entire Junker-Prussian clique. Yet there had been reason to believe from time to time that the Nazi movement would one day come to a head in a separatist revolt of the different German regions against Prussian centralization. This was true especially when Hitler—in the beginning of his movement—had close ties with the Bavarian separatists under the leadership of Kahr. The Number Two leader of the Nazi party, Gregor Strasser, thought he could maintain great independence with respect to the Prusso-Teutonic forces. Captain Roehm deluded himself with the idea that his "Praetorian Guards," the S. A., were sufficiently strong to enable the party to realize its own ends without the necessity of submitting to any outside forces. Hitler himself, entirely without scruples, did not oppose his lieutenants. He welcomed all alliances, and all slogans, so long as these might be of value to him. Basically, he was never under any illusion as to what were the truly dominant forces in Germany. He knew very well that his assumption of power in Germany some day would be made possible only if he gave these forces absolute guarantees that he would serve them faithfully from the moment he had the controls. Despite his passing flirtations in other directions, Hitler wisely maintained contacts with the Prusso-Teutonic elements through Rossbach and Ehrhardt, and through his own henchman, Goering. This state of affairs continued until the time in 1932 and particularly in January, 1933, when he concluded a "life and death" alliance with the Junker forces. This became possible only after the "neutralization" of Hifidenburg, who alone among these elements had, up to that time, refused to approve the choice of the Austrian corporal as the 64 super factotum" selected to serve the Prussian cause. As early as 1924, when appearances ran counter to the conclusion he set down, E. J. Gumbel in his book, Verscbwoerer, published in Berlin, had written the following: "In its deepest foundations, National-Socialism contains but little more than Prussian militarism." pps. 117-153 --[cont]-- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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