Before the First World War the Münchner Beobachter (Munich Observer) was a weekly newspaper that was described as 'a gossip sheet devoted to scandal mongering'. In August 1919 it was obtained by the Thule Society and its name was changed to Völkischer Beobachter (Racial Observer). It was an anti-socialist and anti-Jewish newspaper. For example, its headline on 10th March, 1920, was 'Clean Out the Jews Once and for All.' The article urged a 'final solution' of the Jewish problem by 'sweeping out the Jewish vermin with an iron broom.' The newspaper also campaigned for the concentration camps to house Germany's Jewish population. (1)

1. Articles In English Torah
2. Volkischer Beobachter 1944
3. Volkischer Beobachter Articles In English Pdf
4. Volkischer Beobachter Articles In English Translation

The Völkischer Beobachter was not very popular with the German people and by the end of 1920 it was heavily in debt. Major Ernst Röhm was informed of the situation and he persuaded his commanding officer, Major General Franz Ritter von Epp to purchase it for 60,000 marks. The money came from wealthy friends and secret army funds. This now became the newspaper of the German Worker's Party (GWP) and Dietrich Eckart became its editor. (2)

Adolf Hitler took control of the newspaper in 1921 when he became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler appointed Max Amann as the NSDAP business manager and he now took responsibility of the newspaper. Hitler later explained: 'On my request, party comrade Amann took over the position of party business manager. He told me at once that further work in this office was absolutely impossible. And so, for a second time, we went out in search of quarters, and rented an old abandoned inn in Corneliusstrasse, near the Gartnerplatz.... A part of the old taproom was partitioned off and made into an office for party comrade Amann and myself. In the main room a very primitive wicket was constructed. The S.A. leadership was housed in the kitchen.' (3)

James Pool, the author of Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power (1979) believed that Hitler had made an excellent choice in Amann. 'Efficient, parsimonious, incorruptible, and without personal political ambition, Amann was exactly the right man for the job. He brought a commonsense business approach to Party affairs.' It was said that his motto was 'Make propaganda pay its own way.' Hitler later praised Amann in particular for his financial management of the Party newspaper: 'The fact that I was able to keep the Völkischer Beobachter on its feet throughout the period of our struggle - and in spite of the three failures it had suffered before I took it over - I owe first and foremost to... Amann. He as an intelligent businessman refused to accept responsibility for an enterprise if it did not possess the economic prerequisites of potential success.' (4)

• THE ITALO-GERMAN ALLIANCE, MAY 22, 1939 Volkischer Beobachter, May 23, 1939.The German Reich Chancellor and His Majesty the King of Italy and Albania, Emperor of Ethiopia, consider that the time has come to confirm through a solemn pact the close relation of friendship and affinity which exists between National Socialist Germany and Fascist Italy.
• English words for Beobachter include observer, watcher, watchers, observator and observers. Find more German words at wordhippo.com!

TheVölkischer Beobachter enabled Hitler to put across his political message. He also recruited Heinrich Hoffmann as his official photographer, who travelled with him everywhere. William L. Shirer said his 'loyalty was doglike'. According to Louis L. Snyder: 'Hoffmann's personal and political relationship with Hitler began in Munich in the early days of the National Socialist movement. The photographer, sensing a brilliant future for the budding politician, became his constant companion. For some time he belonged to Hitler's inner circle. Hitler often visited the Hoffmann home in Munich-Bogenhausen, where he felt he could relax from his hectic political life.... Much of Hitler's early popularity was due to Hoffmann's superb photography.' Hoffmann was the only man permitted to take pictures of Hitler and he had to get permission from him before the photographs appeared in the newspaper. (5)

In February 1923, Ernst Hanfstaengel provided $1,000 to ensure the daily publication of Völkischer Beobachter. (6) As the author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1964), has pointed out: 'It became a daily, thus giving Hitler the prerequisite of all German political parties, a daily newspaper in which to preach the party's gospels.' Alfred Rosenberg, the NSDAP's unofficial philosopher, became its editor. Rosenberg filled its columns with anti-Semitic material such as the anti-Jewish poetry of Josef Czerny. He also reproduced The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. (7)

The Junkers Ju-52 'Iron Annie' Was the Backbone of Nazi Germany's War Effort 14 Jun 2020 15:37 Video Games UK & Ireland Yahoo Click here to read the full article. Shortly before dawn on May 20, 1941, a flight of 500 transport planes took off from seven airstrips on mainland Greece.

The Völkischer Beobachter published in full all of his speeches. In 1923 Dietrich Eckart and Alfred Rosenberg, selected and published one hundred and fifty speeches, entitled Adolf Hitler, His Life and Speeches. Over the next few years several new editions of the book appeared. However, the speeches in the books were often different from those in the newspaper. This included the removal of attacks on powerful foreign politicians. Hitler was especially concerned with not upsetting politicians in the United States. (8)

According to Louis L. Snyder Rosenberg was often in conflict with Max Amann: 'Rosenberg wanted to politicize his readers by stressing the Nazi way of life, while Amann called for a sensational newspaper that would make money for the party... In the shabby Munich office Rosenberg worked zealously on editorials, while Amann exploited the reporters on starvation wages. Rosenberg and Amann often had furious arguments that ended with each throwing scissors and inkwells at the other.' (9)

In September 1923 the Völkischer Beobachter attacked General Hans von Seeckt, the chief of staff of the German armed forces, as an enemy of the people and described his wife as Jewish. Von Seeckt ordered General Otto von Lossow, to ban publication of the newspaper. Von Lossow consulted Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Premier of Bavaria, who refused to carry out the order. However, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, the Völkischer Beobachter was banned. (10)

Völkischer Beobachter reappeared on 26th February, 1925. Adolf Hitler wrote the long editorial entitled 'A New Beginning'. Under the editorship of Alfred Rosenberg, the Völkischer Beobachter became increasingly anti-Semitic. Rosenberg saw English capitalists, as long as they were not Jews, as the Aryan rulers of 'coloured sub-humanity'. He argued in July 1930 that 'German master-men must systematically and peaceably share Aryan world domination... England's task is the protection of the white race in Africa and West Asia; Germany's task is to safeguard Germanic Europe against the chaotic Mongolian flood and to hold down France, which has already become an advance guard of Africa... None of the three states can solve the task of destiny alone.' (11)

Joseph Goebbels became a regular contributor and used it to communicate party political propaganda. The circulation rose along with the success of the Nazi movement, reaching more than 120,000 in 1931. However, in 1932 it ran into financial difficulties and was in danger of closing. Goebbels wrote: 'Financial worries make all well-directed work impossible'. He even resorted to sending the Stormtroopers out on the street to beg for money. It was General Kurt von Schleicher who came to the rescue by paying off the newspaper's debts. (12)

After Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933 he appointed Max Amann as President of the Reich Association of German Newspaper Publishers. In this role he established Nazi control over the industry and gradually closed down those newspapers that did not fully support Hitler. In a speech he made in Nuremberg in 1936, Amann explained why it was necessary to ban opposition newspapers: 'A look back before our seizure of power reminds us how numerous the problems of the press once were. Our few newspapers with their limited circulations fought heroically in the front lines to gain power. They stood against several thousands newspapers that represented other ideas and interests. There were many differences between the leading newspapers back then, but there was one thing they all lacked when compared to the National Socialist press: they had lost their connection to the people. They were responsible not to the people, but to some other group, be it parties, churches, economic interests or corporations, or they looked to their own good without considering the general good of the people. Such a press promoted class struggle, the confusion of social standing, religious incitement or moral decay. They did not promote the good of the individual and the strengthening of the community, rather collapse and decay. These newspapers that appealed to people's lowest instincts had lost their national and moral sense of responsibility, and had little influence. Such a press could not be tolerated by National Socialism, whose task is the mobilization of all good and healthy strengths of the individual and the community, encouraging their expression and development. The German people is being rescued from a fragmentation of parties, classes, interests and special interests to enable them it to find its own nature and its own strengths once more. This requires that the whole of the German press serve German tasks. Our party's press is always a model, for it developed only to serve the idea and thereby the people.' (13)

With nearly a complete monopoly, the sales of Völkischer Beobachter reached nearly 2 million copies during the Second World War. It was the task of the newspaper to report German military victories. In 1944 the tone of the newspaper changed. One editorial argued: 'Not a German stalk of wheat is to feed the enemy, not a German mouth to give him information, not a German hand to give him help. He is to find every footbridge destroyed, every road blocked - nothing but death, annihilation, and hatred will meet him.' (14) The newspaper came to an end with the death of Adolf Hitler in April 1945. (15)

Articles In English Torah

'Völkischer Beobachter' on Nazi book-burning

Copyright © 1999 by Hugo S. Cunningham

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Index

Introductory notes about article and Goebbels speech
The article in 'Völkischer Beobachter'
Footnotes to the article

Further references and links
Heinrich Heine's book-burning quote
Books
a photo
Nazi-related links
Free-speech-related links [to be added later]

Introductory notes:

'Völkischer Beobachter' ('Populist Observer')
was the official daily newspaper of the German Nazi Party. There were regional editions published in different cities. Some other newspapers were allowed to continue publishing after the Nazis took control (Jan 1933), as long as they didn't challenge Nazi policy.

The copies of 'Völkischer Beobachter' I saw (early 1933) were printed in the hard-to-read Gothic ('Antiqua') script preferred (as distinctively German) by Nazis.

Goebbels's speech summarized.
Only a summary of Goebbels's speech (approx. 320 words) was reported in this article. I couldn't find the full text in any other German periodical of the time either.

Helmut Heiber or François Genoud apparently found a recording of the full text at the Deutsche Rundfunk-Archiv (DRA, 'German Broadcasting Archive') in Frankfurt [DRA Nr. C 1144, 15 minutes 15 seconds long, approx 1330 words]. Mr. Heiber edited 37 Goebbels speeches into:
Helmut Heiber (Herausgeber), Goebbels-Reden, Band 1: 1932-1939 ('Goebbels speeches, Vol 1'), Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1971; in German, cloth, 337 pp.
This 10 May 1933 speech is Number 14, given on pp. 108-112.

Caution-- my German is not of the best, so there may be some minor errors in the German transcription below, and especially in the English translation. --HSC

'Völkischer Beobachter'	'Populist Observer'
Ausgabe A/Norddeutsche Ausgabe	Edition A/ North-Germany Edition
Berlin, Freitag, 12 mai 1933	Berlin, Friday, 12 May 1933
Zweiter Beiblatt (Seite nicht bezeichnet)	Second additional section (page # not given)
Der Vollzug des Volkswillens	Carrying out the Will of the People
Undeutsches Schrifttum auf dem Scheiterhaufen	Un-German Literature to the Bonfire
Nächtliche Kundgebung der deutschen Studentenschaft	Nightly rally by the German Student Union
Die deutsche Studentenschaft der Berliner Hochschulen hatte sich gestern zu einem Fackelzuge auf dem Hegelplatz versammelt und war geschlossen unter Mitführung von etwa 25,000 auf Lastwagen verladener Bücher und Schriften volkszerletzenden Inhalts zum Opernplatz marschiert, wo als symbolische Handlung, dieses undeutsche Schrifttum auf einem Scheiterhaufen den Flammen übergeben würde.	The German student body of the Berlin universities assembled yesterday for a torchlight procession on Hegel Platz [Plaza]. They formed up, accompanied by a truckload of 25,000 books and writings harmful to the people. The procession ended at Opera Platz, where as a symbolic act, these Un-German writings were set aflame on a pile of logs.
Tausende und aber Tausende von Menschen wollten dem Schauspiel beiwohnen. Schon lange vor Beginn der Veranstaltung wer der Opernplatz won Menschen dicht umsäumt. Als die studentischen Formationen und Verbindungen eintrafen, wurden die von der Menge mit donnernden Heil und Jubelrufen begrüßt.	Thousands and even more thousands of men wished to attend the spectacle. Already long before the start of the event, the Opernplatz was thickly lined with people. As the student formations and associations entered, many greeted them with thundering 'Heils' and shouts of rejoicing.
Die Verbindungen nahmen dann rings um den Scheiterhaufen Ausstellung und warfen Haufen von Büchern in die Flammen. Studenten traten vor, Bücherstöße auf den Arm, und riefen die Flammensprüche:	The associations then took positions around the bonfire and threw heaps of books into the flames. Students stepped forward, piles of books in their arms, and shouted the flame verses:
«Gegen Klassenkampf und Materialismus, für Volksgemeinschaft und idealistische Lebenshaltung!»	'Against class warfare and materialism, for the community of the people and an idealistic way of life!'
«Gegen Dekadenz und moralischen Verfall, für Zucht und Sitte in Familie und Staat!»	'Against decadence and moral degeneracy, for decency and custom in family and government!'
Die Schriften von Marx1 und Kautsky2, Heinrich Mann3, Gläser4, Kästner5, Emil Ludwig Cohn6, Hegemann7, Tucholsky8, Kerr9, Ossietzky10, und anderer Skribenten wurden den Flammen übergeben.	The writings of Marx1 and Kautsky2, Heinrich Mann3, Gläser4, Kästner5, Emil Ludwig Cohn6, Hegemann7, Tucholsky8, Kerr9, Ossietzky10, and other scribblers were consigned to the flames.
Dann sprach Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels:	Then Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels spoke:

Volkischer Beobachter 1944

«Das Zeitalter eines überspitzten jüdischen Intellektualismus ist zu Ende gegangen, und die deutsche Revolution hat dem deutschen Wesen wieder die Gasse freigemacht. Diese Revolution kam nicht von oben, sie ist von unten hervorgebrochen. Sie ist deshalb im besten Sinne des Wortes der Vollzug des Volkswillens. Hier steht Arbeiter neben Bürger, Student neben Soldat und Jungarbeiter, hier steht der Intellektuelle neben dem Proletarier.	'The age of an overly refined Jewish intellectualism has come to an end, and the German Revolution has made the road clear again for the German character. This revolution came not from above; it broke out from below. It is therefore in the best sense of the word the fulfilment of the will of the people. Here stands the worker by the professional, the student by the soldier and young worker, here stands the intellectual with the proletarian.
«In den letzten vierzehn Jahren, in denen ihr, Kommilitonen, in schweigender Schmach die Demütigungen der Novemberrepublikg1 über euch ergehen lassen mußtet, füllten sich die Bibliotheken mit Schund und Schmutz jüdischer Asphaltliteraten.	'In the last fourteen years, comrades, as you have been forced in silent shame to suffer the humiliations of the November Republicg1, the libraries became filled with trash and filth from Jewish asphalt-litterateurs.
«Während die Wissenschaft sich allmählich vom Leben isolierte, hat das junge Deutschland längst schon einen neuen fertigen Rechts- und Normalzustand wieder hergestellt.	'While academic knowledge gradually isolated itself from life, young Germany has already long prepared a new, right, and normal condition.(?)
«Die Bewegung, die damals den Staat berannte, ist jetzt in den Staat hineinmarschiert, ja, mehr noch, sie ist selbst Staat geworden. Damit hatte der deutsche Geist eine ganz andere Wirkungsmöglichkeit bekommen. Revolutionäres Tempo, revolutionärer Elan und revolutionäre Durchschlagskraft, die die deutsche Jugend in den vergangenen Jahren erlebte, sind nun Tempo und Elan des ganzen Staates geworden.	'The movement, that formerly [competed with??] the state, has now marched into the state, indeed it has become the state. Thus the German spirit has gained an entirely different potentiality. The revolutionary tempo, revolutionary elan, and revolutionary breakthroughs that German youth experienced in past years, are now the tempo and the elan of the entire state.
«Revolutionen, die echt sind, machen nirgends Halt. Es darf kein Gebiet unberührt bleiben. So wie sie die Menschen revolutioniert, so revolutioniert sie die Dinge.	'Revolutions that are genuine do not stop anywhere. No area can remain untouched. As men are revolutionized, so are things revolutionized.
«Deshalb tut ihr gut daran, in dieser mitternächtlichen Stunde den Ungeist der Vergangenheit den Flammen anzuvertrauen. Hier sinkt die geistige Grundlage der Novemberrepublik zu Boden. Aber aus den Trümmern wird sich siegreich erheben der Phönix eines neuen Geistes, den wir tragen, den wir fördern, und dem wir das entscheidende Gewicht geben.	'For that reason you do well, in these midnight hours, to consign the unclean spirit of the past to the flames. Here the spiritual foundations of the November Republic sink into the ground. But out of the ruins will triumphantly rise the phoenix of a new spirit, that we will carry, that we will promote, and to which we will give decisive weight.
«Ich glaube, niemals war wohl eine junge studentische Jugend so berechtigt wie diese, stolz auf das Leben, stolz auf die Aufgaben und stolz auf die Pflicht zu sein. Niemals hatten junge Männer so wie jetzt das Recht, mit Ulrich von Hutteng2 auszurufen, 'O Jahrhundert, o Wissenschaften, es ist eine Lust zu leben!'	'I believe there were never student youth so qualified as these, proud of life, proud of their tasks, and proud of their duty. Never have young men ever had the right so much as now to cry out, with Ulrich von Hutteng2, 'Oh Century! Oh Science! It is a joy to be alive!'
«Barrieren, die uns trennten, sind niedergerissen. Volk hat wieder zu Volk gefunden. Und wenn die Alten das nicht verstehen, wir Jungen hatten es schon durchgeführt.	'The barriers that divided us are torn down. People have again discovered the people. And even if the old do not understand this, we young have already carried it out.
«Das Alte liegt in den Flammen, das Neue wird aus der Flamme unseres eigenen Herzens wieder emporsteigen. Wo wir zusammenstehen, und wo wir zusammengehen, da wollen wir uns dem Reich und seiner Zukunft verpflichten.	'The old lies in the flames, but the new will arise from the flame of our own hearts. Where we stand together, and where we go together -- there we will serve the Reich and our future.
«Wie oft in den Zeiten, da wir noch in der Opposition kämpften, so auch jetzt, da wir die Macht und damit die Verantwortung in den Händen halten, schließen wir uns zusammen in dem Gelöbnis, das wir früher so oft in den abendlichen Himmel hinaufgeschickt haben:	'As often in the times, when we still fought in the opposition, let us again, now that we have the power and thus the accountability in our hands, close ourselves together in the promise, that we earlier so often hurled into the evening sky:
«Umleuchtet von vielen Flammen soll es ein Schwur sein! Das Reich und die Nation und unser Führer Adolf Hitler Heil!»	'Let it be an oath illuminated by many flames! Heil to the Reich and the nation and our leader Adolf Hitler!'

Das Horst-Wessel Lied braust auf, und immer noch prasseln die Flammen, in die Stöße um Stöße der eingesammelten jüdischen Zerletzungsschriften geworfen werden. Mit dieser Kundgebung ist symbolisch der Kampf wider den undeutschen Geist, der nun seinen Weg nimmt, eingeleitet worden. Dieser Kampf wird nicht aufhören, bevor alle Deutschen wieder deutschen Geistes sind.

The Horst-Wessel song broke out, and the flames continued to crackle, in which heaps and heaps of collected Jewish poison-literature had been thrown. With this demonstration is the struggle against the Un-German spirit symbolically begun, a struggle that will now proceed. This struggle will not stop, until all Germans are again of the German spirit.

Footnotes

Some of the biographical notes below are extracted from 'Encyclopedia Britannica,' or from 'Brockhaus.' Any errors are mine.

1-- Marx, Karl (1818-1883)
Journalist, polemicist, leading Social-Revolutionary. Later deified by revolutionary 'Communists' ('Marxist-Leninists') of the 'Third International.' Highly respected by many Social-Democrats.
Go back
Writer, eg. dramatist, reader for publisher. Denounced for pacifist and Communist views. Emigrated to Switzerland 1933, but voluntarily returned in 1939. The official Nazi blacklist for 1938 only listed his works 'through 1933,' so apparently he had curbed his writing in exile, in hopes of returning home. In 1941 edited German army newspaper in Sicily.
His coming-of-age novel 'Jahrgang 1902' (translated as 'Class of 1902,' the year the narrator was born) still has some appeal to modern readers. It provided ample grounds for the Nazi blacklist, eg: sympathetic portraits of left-wing boys and their left-wing fathers, sarcastic put-downs of antisemites, a depressing home-front view of World War I from boys too young to fight, occasional mild hints of homosexuality (though emphatically not in the narrator), and tolerant mention of what Nazis would call 'Raßenschande' -- intimate relations between working-class German women and immigrant laborers.

Possibly Georg (Georges) K. Glaser (1910-1995).
German-French author, fled Germany to France in 1933, as French soldier captured by Germany in WW II. Since he survived, he was probably treated as a POW rather than a traitor. (In 1933, however, he had written less to attract attention of Nazi bookburners than Ernst Glaeser had.)

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(1) Commented on deficiencies in Germany's housing policy from a sarcastic Left-wing viewpoint.
(2) Wrote book debunking Frederick II 'The Great' (1712-1786), King of Prussia 1740-1786, a hero of Germany's nationalist Right. Among other things, WH pointed out that (a) as a spoiler preoccupied with fighting Habsburg Austria, Frederick left Germany's Western frontier undefended against French expansion, and (b) Frederick had contempt for Germany's language and culture. (This book was translated into English.)

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A more detailed list of authors publicly condemned at the 10 May bookburning was given in
Fischer, Klaus P., The History of an Obsession: German Judeophobia and the Holocaust, Continuum, New York, 1998; pp. 238-289.

g1-- November Republic.
The 'Weimar' democratic government, which emerged from Germany's military defeat in November 1918.
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Additional Links and References

Volkischer Beobachter Articles In English Pdf

Heinrich Heine

'Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.'

'They that start by burning books will end by burning men.'

--Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), from his play Almansor (1821) This site includes an article with the background of Heine's stunningly prescient quote.

Books on the 10 May 1933 Nazi book-burning campaign

Far more has been written in German. To German intellectuals, this is, as FDR might have put it, a 'day that will live in infamy.' To English-speakers, its significance is less immediate.

Photo

'The History Place' has a photo of Nazis burning books on 10 May 1933.

Nazi-related links

Prof. Randall Bytwerk's archive of Nazi propaganda

Free-speech related links

Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression (BCFE)

[more to be added later]

Volkischer Beobachter Articles In English Translation

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