The Free Germany Manifesto and the German People

This chapter examines the significance of the Free Germany Manifesto to the German people. Three facts made the Free Germany Manifesto significant: the backing it apparently received from the Soviet Union; the revolutionary implication of the manifesto; and its appeal to the desire for national self-preservation. The chapter first provides an overview of the content of the Free Germany Manifesto before discussing its target groups, which included workers, peasants, those strata of the middle classes which have been proletarized in the process of total mobilization, and a large part of the intelligentsia. It then considers National Bolshevism and its two origins, one in the Communist Party of Germany and the other in the nationalistic organizations, especially the Free Corps. It also analyzes the strength of communism and of other anti-Nazi groups in Germany.