Marburg speech

The Marburg speech was a speech of Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen at the University of Marburg on 17 June 1934. This speech is considered to be the last one that was held in the National Socialist German Reich at a high level and publicly against the broad claim to power of National Socialism.

The content and distribution

Encouraged by President Paul von Hindenburg, von Papen spoke about the excesses of the Nazis under Adolf Hitler from which he himself had only 17 months earlier helped to power. The Marburg speech calling for an end of intimidating "terror ," lamented the disappearance of a free press and included a warning of a " permanent revolution ", a "perpetual revolt from below" and the " talk of the second wave, which complete the revolution " will - a warning that clearly referred to the Sturmabteilung of the NSDAP (SA). Papen gave the speech in the Great Hall of the Old University for the annual general meeting of the Federal University of Marburg; he was invited on April 30, 1934 to after the favorite speaker had canceled.

Konrad Heiden took 1936 Papen statements together:

Alan Bullock held in 1952 determined that Goebbels had let the " Frankfurter Zeitung ", which had reprinted the speech seize, as a booklet with the text of his speech. However, some copies had been smuggled out of Germany, the speech had been published abroad, where I caused quite a stir. On June 20, Papen, Hitler had visited and demanded to lift the publication ban on the speech. Furthermore, he had threatened to resign and with that of other conservative members of the government. When Papen had shown on June 24 in Hamburg in public, he was greeted with loud cheers.

Golo Mann ruled 1958:

The speech was primarily written by the Munich attorney and writer Edgar Julius Jung, who acted as Papen's ghostwriter since 1933. Influence on the text had also Papen's press chief Herbert von Bose, who also organized the illegal distribution of the speech in 5000 secretly printed in the Germania print copies, and Papen's adjutant Fritz Günther Tschirschky. Claiming Erich Klausener have contributed to the text is almost certainly incorrect, probably goes back to German publications exile circles and has since gefristet as migrant error a persistent afterlife.

Hitler, who was at that time on a Gauleiter in Thuringia Gera, reacted furiously to the speech, Papen then showed him the congratulatory telegram to Hindenburg. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels stopped the publication of the speech and briefly responded publicly: " Ridiculous tots! Runts! Upstart subjects! The people are the days when these men ruled in the club chairs, not forgotten. ". In Germany, the speech was printed on June 17, only in the evening edition of the "Frankfurter Zeitung". By launched by Bose privately printed, however, circulated several thousand copies in Germany and abroad that have been circulated and copied by hand.

Papen was orchestrated by Hitler during the internal party purges ( Röhm - Putsch) two weeks later on personal advice of Goering in his apartment. His office was devastated, Young, Bose, Klausener and many others were murdered. Konrad Heiden said: "They all suffer a horrible death. Your guide Papen lives - and Hitler is on. " He stepped back as Vice-Chancellor, resigned on August 7, 1934 the Reich government and was sent by Hitler as ambassador to Austria.

After 1945, von Papen claimed repeatedly that he was the actual author of the speech and the young have only collected material for them and contributed minor stylistic improvements. The later testimonies Tschirschky and Heinrich Brüning and the Young Friends Edmund Forschbach and Karl Martin Grass agreed, however, agreed that Jung was the author. Tschirschky even claimed Papen got the speech only on the train to Marburg for the first time to face. Changes in the Jungian text he had Tschirschky, by pointing out that copies of the speech had already been sent abroad, prevented.

• Speech by Vice- Chancellor von Papen before the University Association, Marburg, on June 17, 1934 Germania, Berlin 1934, 16 pages octave ( catalog of the Austrian National Library, Vienna, Sigle 647 043 -B. NEW Mag) ( original version still in a few hundred, sent abroad, copies exist)
• Speech by Vice- Chancellor von Papen before the University Association, Marburg, on June 17, 1934: Edmund Forschbach: Edgar J. Jung. A conservative revolutionary June 30, 1934, 1984, pp. 154ff .. ( Full reprint of the speech in the appendix)