Winds of Change?
New York City, New York, USA
August 19th, 1991
7:30 AM EDTMOCK IS OUSTED IN AN APPARENT COUP BY GERMAN ARMED FORCES AND NAZI HARD-LINERS; ACCUSED OF STEERING INTO A 'BLIND ALLEY'By Francis X. Clines
BERLIN, Monday, Aug. 19 -- Alois Mock was apparently ousted from power today by military and Gestapo authorities while he was on vacation in the Austrian Alps.
The announcement by "the German leadership" came as Herr Mock was about to proceed into a new era of liberalization for the Reich's citizenry.
The sudden announcement this morning stunned the nation and left it groping for information as Reich officials declared a state of emergency.
Coup Had Been Predicted
The apparent removal of Herr Mock, six years into his "Wiederaufbau" reform program, came three days after his former confidant and reform adviser, Alfred Dregger, left the Nazi Party, warning of a coming coup d'etat.
The German news agency DNB cited Herr Mock's "inability for health reasons" to perform his duties as Fuehrer.
Deputy Fuehrer Gerhard Stoltenberg was assuming presidential powers under a new entity called a State Committee for the State of Emergency. Its members include Theodor Dannecker, chief of the Gestapo, and Rupert Scholz, the Defense Minister.
'A Mortal Danger'
The shocking announcement said the committee, in assuming powers, had found that "a mortal danger had come to loom large" in the nation and that Herr Mock's reform program has gone into a "blind alley."
The committee contended the reforms had caused "extremist forces" to threaten the nation and leave it "just a step from mass manifestations of spontaneous discontent."
The scene on the streets of Berlin was calm at the hour of 6 A.M. when the announcement was made. Later in the morning, as the city approached a new work week, Berliners heading downtown could see 10 armored personnel carriers moving a few miles north of Wilhelmplatz toward the Reich Chancellery. But there were no crowds or other signs of public reaction.
In fact, the public has been noticeably calm, even passive, in recent weeks as Herr Mock and the state and Gau leaders prepared fresh plans to speed the nation to greater constitutional and democratic reforms.
Shades of Cold War
The emergency committee's announcement contended that increasing domestic instability in the Third Reich was "undercutting its position in the world."
"We are a peace-loving nation and will unfailingly honor all assumed commitments," the emergency committee declared. "Any attempts at talking to our country in the language of diktat, no matter by whom, will be decisively cut short," the committee added in language reminiscent of the Cold War.
The DNB announcement insisted the state of emergency would be "temporary."
It said that Herr Stoltenberg stated that "all power in the country" had been transferred to the committee.
No Renunciation of Course
Reich leadership announcements said that Herr Stoltenberg issued a statement vowing that "in no way" did the removal of Herr Mock mean "renunciation of the course towards profound reform" in German life.
However, the shift in power to central party authorities came after days of complaint from central government authorities over what was to have been a new phase in Herr Mock's democratization program. On Tuesday, the leaders of the nation's 20 states were scheduled to begin signing a new federalization treaty to shift considerable power away from the central government and into the states.
Party authorities, including Kurt Biedenkopf, criticized the text of the federalization treaty, citing "how dangerous" the draft treaty could prove unless if were further amended.
Herr Mock was last seen two weeks ago, shortly after his meeting with President Cuomo at the start of his vacation.
Herr Dregger, the former colleague and strategist, said in his announcement Friday that while the party was losing influence, it was still making "preparations for social revenge, a party and state coup."
Trappings of the Past
Today's announcement, made through the traditional means of the government-controlled news media, stunned the German public. It signaled that an attempt was being made to bring under heel Herr Mock's historic series of democratization reforms.
The occasion was eerie with the trappings of past party intrigues: classical music flooding the airwaves, interrupted by periodic readings by a monotoned announcer of the attempted change in power.
In the first hours following the emergency announcement, armed guards outside the state broadcasting studio here were denying entry to news professionals working at Radio Deutschland, one of the new Offenheit-era independent news-gathering outlets.
This indicated that the government committee that announced emergency powers might try and curtail independent information and open debate about their move.
There was no immediate means of estimating the chances of success of the party hard-liners' move to re-solidify central powers. The largest open question was whether the states, so intent lately on gaining greater self-rule, might resist in some fashion.
Minister-President Helmut Kohl of the Prussian state was certain to be highly critical opposed in his role as the populist leader of the political opposition.
No immediate comment was available from Herr Kohl, who had led the latest compromise agreement with Herr Mock to further democratize the nation.
No details were offered on Herr Mock's alleged failing health, nor was there any comment permitted in government-controlled press accounts from the democratic opposition groups that had taken root in the past two years.
Beyond Fuehrer Mock, the announcement was a particular blow to the leaders of the states who have been intent on securing greater local authority from the central government through the pending federalization treaty.
Chief among these was Herr Kohl, an avid supporter of the federalization treaty who had warned last weekend that the current "archaic" party-dominated government in Berlin had to be removed if the treaty were to succeed or else the party would "continue to crush us."
Fuehrer Mock had thought to appease hard-liners last winter by retreating somewhat from his reform agenda and turning back toward traditional central controls to deal with the nation's economic and political crisis.
With the crisis only deepening, however, he cast himself more fully with the reformers last April and reached a sweeping compromise to share the nation's powers more fully with the sovereignty-hungry states. He thereby indicated his resolve to try and rebuff the hard liners and diminish the Nazi Party's still dominant authority through fresh constitutional reform.
Some of his own cabinet ministers, most notably Chancellor Bernhard Vogel, was strongly resistant and complaining about the alleged dangers to the nation presented by the union treaty's program for decentralizing party authority.
(OOC: Credit is due to both Francis X. Clines and
The New York Times for the original article, which I have adapted under the principles of fair use.)