Evening star., 1938-02-03
Nazi Army Crisis.

seven other Russian generals were
"purged' by Stalin's firing squads last
June. opinion was widespread. and no
more vehemently voiced than in Ger
many, that Soviet military conditions
were SO demoralized that neither Europe
nor Asia need any longer look upon the
Red Army as a menace. Now the Ger
man soldier, who occupied relatively the
same status in the Reich as Tukacheyskv
held in the U. S. S. r., Field Marshal
General Werner Won Blomberg, has been
"purged'-bloodlessly. 1t is true, but none
the less effectively rubbed out.
Various causes are assigned. An
Edwardian-Simpsonian affair of the heart
the generals recent marriage to COM
moner far below his own age and social
rank-with consequent violence to the
code of the military caste, is advanced
as the immediate pretext for his re-
moval from the war ministership. The
fact that Won Blomberg's retirement is
apparently accompanied by that Of the
next highest ranking army chief, Colonel
General Werner Won Fritsch, commander
OF the Reichwehr, strongly suggests that
circumstances graver than the 59-year-
old war minister's unconventional ro-
nance underlie the first Nazi military
crisis.
AS in Russia, the events that have now
simmered to boil had their origin in
conflict between the professional soldiers
and the politicians. Tukachevsky, Kork,
Yakir, Uborevich, Putna and the other
doomed Soviet generals were accused Of
plotting to sell out Russia to Germany
or Japan, or both. Their real, and unfor-
givable offense was their insistence upon
an army independent of Communist
party control Eventually, they paid for
that "insubordination" with their lives.
Precisely the same sort of ferment has
seethed within the Reichswehr. The
ultra conservative, old-time officers,
moharchist at heart and filled with deep
If unuttered, contempt for Hitler, the
corporal upstart, and his group, so pro-
gressively increased their authority that
the army has become the ruling force
IN Germany. Won Blomberg was long
suspected by the dominant Junker ele-
ment in the officers corps of forsaking
traditions and entering too whole
heartedly into the doctrinaire Nad
party spirit. His unorthodox marriage
to young girl Of debatable social stand
ing probably was merely the last straw
to precipitate his downfall. II it was
actually dictated by the army clique,
which demands that Nal infiltration
cease at barrack gates, the die-hard
militarists have won over the die hard
Hitlerites victory that may have mo-
mentous consequences both at home and
abroad.
Another major cause Of strife is diff
ference of opinion over foreign policy.
Army leaders, conscious that Germany,
despite rearmament, is not yet strong
enough to accept military commitments
involving danger Of European war, look
askance at Hitlers firtations with
Mussolini, lest they entangle the Reich
in perilous Fascist ventures. The soldiers,
too, are little enamored of Nazi ideologi-
cal considerations that harness Ger
man military prestige to Frances un-
certain fortunes In Spain. Over all loom
the ambitions and jealousies of would
be Fuehrers like the No. Na1, Colonel
General Goering,
With Hitler's four-year plan COM
batted by big business, his anti-Christ
philosophy fought by the churches, his
national economy rooted in sand, and
now the bulwark of his power, the-army,
shaken to its foundations, Nazidom's
second quinquennium, to say the least,
opens under anything but auspicious
skies.