Another EU Shock!
Vernon Coleman
Konrad Adenauer (German 1876-1967) was Germany’s first ‘proper’ post-War German Chancellor. He took the top job in Germany on 20th September 1949 and immediately, made it clear that he was a Nazi sympathiser and intended to continue with Hitler’s policies.
When he took office, as German’s Chancellor Adenauer announced: ‘We shall continue along the road of the economic policies on which we have already successfully travelled.’
In other words, he intended to follow in Hitler’s footsteps.
Adenauer was himself known to be a Nazi supporter and is regarded as an important figure in the history of the European Union. He is usually described as one of the ‘leading founding fathers’ of the EU and his attitude towards the Nazis is, therefore, extremely important.
You might imagine that Germany’s first post-War Chancellor would take great care not to favour Nazis or to include Nazis in his government. In fact, no one could have done more than Adenauer to ensure that Nazis played an important part in the development of the ‘new’ Germany, and immediately after the end of the War, Adenauer deliberately allowed senior Nazis back into positions of great power. The fact that the EU still regards Adenauer as an important and respected figure tells us everything we need to know about the organisation’s attitude towards Nazism.
Adenauer’s Chief of Staff (Minister of the Chancellery) from 1953 to 1963 was a man called Hans Globke.
Globke was a Nazi supporter who was involved in drafting the Nuremberg race laws, which revoked the German citizenship of Jews in 1935. Globke admitted that he knew that Jews were being killed in large numbers.
As the most important man in Adenauer’s post War Government, Globke was responsible for hiring men for senior appointments. (Adenauer, who had previously only been mayor of Cologne, was inexperienced and leant heavily on Globke.)
And so, thanks to Globke, the new secretary of state at the Ministry of German Affairs was Franz Thedieck, a man who had betrayed opponents of Nazism to the Gestapo. The secretary of state at the Finance Ministry was Alfred Hartmann, who had supervised the confiscation of Jewish property. The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Economics and so on and on were all in the hands of former Nazis. Many of Adenauer’s appointees were Nazis with the worst records and when this was pointed out to him, the German Chancellor defended the appointments. Nazis were welcomed and protected by Adenauer.
As soon as Germany regained autonomy, Adenauer’s new Government reversed Allied laws which had been introduced in 1948 in an attempt to introduce a little more democracy into the German civil service. Globke made changes which allowed former civil servants who had been removed from their positions because of their Nazi activities during the War to be returned to their positions (or to higher ones). The Nazis were back in power in Germany. Astonishingly 184 former Nazi party members immediately returned to the Foreign Affairs Department. No fewer than 153 of these had worked under Ribbentrop.
The Adenauer years were a bonanza for Nazis. In the early 1960s, more than 60 West German ambassadors and foreign officers were former Nazi party members who had helped organise the Final Solution.
Adenauer’s personal assistant, a man called Herbert Blankenhorn, was a former Nazi but would in due course become an increasingly influential German diplomat. Almost unbelievably, the former Nazi was West German ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1965 and 1970. Prior to that, Blankenhorn had been West German ambassador to NATO, to France and to Italy.
It is inconceivable that Adenauer did not know what Globke had done during the War. And it is inconceivable that he did not know that Globke had restored the Nazis to power in Germany. It is however conceivable that he wholeheartedly approved of what had been done in his name.
Today, Adenauer, a committed supporter of Hitler and Nazis, is regarded by the European Union as one of its founding fathers.
Taken from The Shocking History of the EU by Zina Cohen (available as an eBook and a paperback on Amazon.) Adenauer is one of Zina Cohen’s 40 founding fathers of the European Union. The other 39 founding fathers are detailed in ‘The Shocking History of the EU’.
Copyright Vernon Coleman April 2019
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