Germany had a number of fascist paramilitary organizations, with the Steel Helmets frequently involved in street confrontations with the workers’ organizations and the Left, with their main foes being the Communist Red Front Fighters. Here, a positive spin on the fascist march through proletarian Berlin in 1927. For the restoration of the monarchy, the Stahlhelm did not survive long as a separate organization after 1933, with its membership either liquidated in a long-knifed night, or mostly folded into the new regime’s forces.
‘The Stahlhelm Parade in Berlin’ by P.R. Dietrich from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 7 No. 29. May 12, 1927.
According to the words of its leader, Herr Seldte, the Stahlhelm has been marching round the “red fortress” for seven years. This year the blow which had been planned for years was to be delivered. Things have turned out otherwise than the leaders of the Stahlhelm and the circles of heavy industry and big agrarians who are behind them had expected.
Although the Stahlhelm was assured the monopoly of the streets by the social democratic police president of Berlin, and although the counter-demonstrations of the class-conscious workers announced by the Communist Party and the Red Front Fighters League were prohibited by the same police president, hundreds of thousands of Berlin workers came out on the streets so that the Stahlhelm people, instead of enjoying a triumphal march of “national conquest”, were forced to run the gauntlet of the hostility and derision of the working class.
Already the opening of the eighth War Veterans Conference in Berlin foreshadowed the defeat of the march of the Stahlhelm in Berlin. The bombastic words of the leaders of the Stahlhelm at the opening celebration were unable to conceal their annoyance and disappointment caused by the fact that the attendance from the country was numerically far less than had been loudly proclaimed.
Herr Seldte was forced to admit that the “counter-action of the Left radicals” had succeeded in preventing thousands of Stahlhelm supporters in the provinces from taking part in the march on Berlin. Grinding his teeth with rage, Seldte was further compelled to admit that, owing to the protest actions of the Berlin working class, numerous quarters which had been originally granted had been since refused so that the programme had to be considerably shortened. Thus all the recruiting demonstrations which had been arranged for Sunday evening in Berlin, were struck out of the programme. The transport had to be rearranged at the last minute, with the result that the greater part of the provincial organisations did not arrive in Berlin until the night from Saturday to Sunday, and then had to return already on Sunday evening. Seldte replied to these first successful proletarian defensive measures with a furious cannonade of abuse against the population of Berlin. Even the demonstration in the Stadium, in spite of the military tattoo and other imitations of former military spectacles, remained far behind the expectations of the organizers of the Stahlhelm march.
The march through the streets on Sunday, however, resulted in a complete defeat of the “national conquerors”. The martial music and the military battle songs of the marching bourgeois-block guard were drowned by the powerful sounds of the “International”, the cries of “Down with the Stahlhelm” and cheers for the red front. The workers’ quarters were a blaze of red flags and bunting. In spite of the continued appeals of the national press, the black-white-red flags (German nationalist colours) were hardly to be seen even in the bourgeois quarters. The population of Berlin were completely cut off from the demonstration in the Lustgarten by a strong cordon of police. But even there, where the Stahlhelm people had it all to themselves, no fighting mood was to be discerned. The proclamation of the Stahlhelm leaders, which was read by Seldte and Düsterberg, was received without any noticeable enthusiasm. It was only when Seldte and Düsterberg demanded the recogni tion of the black-white-red colours and the strengthening of the authority of the President of the Republic for securing the well-being of the country and the people, that the demonstrators answered with applause.
The march from the Lustgarden, which was delayed until the late evening hours, encountered in a still greater measure the proletarian counter-demonstrations. The excitement of the Berlin working class increased beyond measure in view of the open fraternising of a great portion of the police with the bourgeois-block guard and the arbitrary wholesale arrests. In view of the formidable character of the proletarian demonstrations, the police were compelled to draw a wider cordon round the quarters of the Stahlhelm. According to official reports, the “national conquerors”, protected by the police of the Social Democrat, Zörgiebel, remained isolated. On Monday, nothing more was to be seen of the Stahlhelm plague.
The Berlin working class has inflicted a severe defeat on the national conquerors. This defeat is an equal defeat for the German bourgeoisie, which wished by means of the Stahlhelm march to demonstrate, not only to the Berlin working class, but to the working class in the whole of Germany the forces it has at its disposal in the economic and political fight against the proletariat.
And this defeat also hits the Social Democracy, which in the last few days openly sided with the bourgeois-block guard. Thousands of social democratic workers, thousands of members of the Reichsbanner (Republican Defence Corps) have, in spite of the “slogan of neutrality” of the social democratic Central Committee and of the Reichsbanner leaders, in spite of the infamous and lying campaign of the social democratic press, which provided the Stahlhelm press with the catch word for a fresh anti-bolshevist campaign, demonstrated along with the Communist workers against the Stahlhelm and proclaimed their determination to intensify the fight until the civil war army of the German bourgeoisie is completely defeated. Zörgiebel, Grzesinsky and the social democratic Central Committee have again provided the Berlin working class with an object lesson in regard to the development of bourgeois democracy and of the democratic republic into an outspoken instrument of the bourgeoisie for the purpose of holding down the working class.
As against the defeat of the Stahlhelm, of the German bourgeoisie and of the social democracy, there is a great increase in the sympathy and confidence of the Berlin working class towards the Communist Party.
The Berlin working class has followed the slogans of the Communist Party only. Under red flags it has demonstrated its will to fight, and has at the same time by firm determination prevented every attempt to instigate bloody collisions, which the S.P.G. leaders and the bourgeoisie wanted as a pretext for increased surpressive measures against the Communist Party. The 7th and 8th of May, which was to have seen the national defeat of the Berlin working class by the civil war guards of the government of the Right bloc, has ended with an increase of Communist influence among the Berlin working class.
International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. A major contributor to the Communist press in the U.S., Inprecorr is an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.
PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1927/v07n29-may-12-1927-inprecor-op.pdf
