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Article 117: "Secrecy of letters and of postal, telegraph and telephone services may not be impaired. . . ."
Article 118: "Every German has the right within the limits of the general laws to express his opinion by word, in writing, printing, by picture, or in any other way. . . ."
Article 123: "All Germans have the right to gather in meetings peaceably and unarmed without announcement or particular permission. . . ."
Article 124: "All Germans have the right to form societies or associations for purposes not contrary to the penal law.
Article 153: "Property is safeguarded by the Constitution. . . ."
After cutting from under every German these vital parts of his Constitution, the President fixed Death as the penalty for attempting to secure or disclosing important military secrets. Imprisonment for ten years was provided for transmitting to foreign governments "news, even if false, which should be kept secret in the interests of the Reich." Finally foreign correspondents in Germany were gagged with the threat of "not less than three months imprisonment" for transmitting abroad "news which should be kept from foreign governments, even if false."
When apprehensive U. S., British and French correspondents gathered to hear this ukase read out last week, the whole Opposition Press of Prussia had already been suppressed. "We simply will not let the Communist and Marxist Press rise again!" cried Chief Government Press Officer Walther Funk. "We have definite evidence that all the money now being received by German Communists comes from France! What's that? No, I cannot divulge the details.
"You must realize, Heine Herren, that what has happened in Germany is no ordinary change. A new era has begun! Parliamentary and Democratic times are past."
Grimly one of Herr Funk's assistants recalled that 6,000,000 Germans or one-sixth of all Germans who went to the polls voted Communist in November 1932. "This time," he exulted, "every Communist ballot will be thrown out!"
On to Potsdam! Just what kind of a man he is Chancellor Adolf Hitler amply revealed in his final Berlin campaign speech, cheered almost continuously by 20,000 frenzied Nazis packed into the vast Sportpalast. Lumping Communism. Democracy and Socialism under one head, Orator Hitler did his best to cut it off. ''Marxism proceeds on the assumption of all being equal!" he roared. "As a corollary to this principle Democracy also postulates that not only must nations be appraised as equal in quality but that individuals also must not be differentiated. This obviously leads to the throttling of individual capacity! [cheers]. . . .
"The Communists would turn [moderate Marxism or Democracy] into a radical form. . . . Well, we will take up the struggle against this insanity! [thunderous cheers] Not because we are in love with Capitalism—I am myself a child of the lower classes [deafening huzzahs]—but because we want to spare the people. . . . We will rebuild the German Reich by tenacious work! . . . The rise of the German people cannot be prevented!"