African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1543 Germany's Response
The textile workers' movement in Liberec was like a firecracker, instantly creating a huge bang across Central Europe and spreading rapidly to surrounding areas.

This is thanks to its location; Liberec is bordered by Germany's Silesia industrial region to the east, Saxony's industrial region to the west, and Austria-Hungary's Bohemian industrial region to the south.

The Saxon industrial region is Germany's second largest industrial region, the Silesia industrial region ranks third, and the Bohemian industrial region was the most important industrial region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, without exception. These three major industrial regions are actually connected, and Liberec is located in the center of them.

Therefore, the workers in Liberec stirred up a hornet's nest from the very beginning, causing a ripple effect in Germany's second and third largest industrial regions, and the largest industrial region in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Silesia's textile workers, in particular, responded on the second day of the Liberec movement.

……

Berlin.

Prime Minister Adolf received news of the textile workers' rebellion in the Silesia industrial region immediately. He was furious and summoned Himmler to the Prime Minister's residence at the first opportunity.

"Heinrich, the key reason why the riots broke out in Silesia is that they occurred the day after the Liberets incident. I strongly suspect that the riots were instigated by the German Labor Party, which is something we absolutely cannot tolerate!"

"Does this mean that our stormtroopers in Silesia were completely unaware of the local Labor Party's operations, and that German Labor Party members had infiltrated the area so thoroughly that we received no information whatsoever?"

Himmler's expression was also somewhat grave, but he responded to Adolf's questioning without changing his expression: "Your Excellency, although the rebellion of the Silesia textile workers was somewhat beyond our expectations, I can guarantee that the local rebellion has little to do with the Labour Party."

"This was entirely due to Liberec's example, which resonated with local textile workers in Silesia, mainly due to economic issues."

Adolf was not satisfied with this answer and said, "How can you be sure that the Labour Party wasn't involved?"

Himmler said, "Our SA's intelligence organization has always been well-informed about the situation in various industrial areas of Germany, making it difficult for the German Labour Party to make moves under our noses."

"The Silesia industrial region has always been a key area of ​​our surveillance. Recently, there have indeed been some unusual movements by the Labour Party members in the Silesia region, but they have not yet had time to take action."

“Your Excellency Prime Minister, we just gave a briefing last week on the activities of the local Labour Party, and I believe you will understand this after reading the briefing.”

"Two days ago, as is our custom, we reported to you on the local Labor Party activities in Silesia, so I can say with certainty that there has been no unusual activity from the Labor Party in the Silesia industrial region."

After Adolf came to power, he naturally did not relax his surveillance of the German Labour Party. As a result, the Labour Party organizations throughout Germany were under the close surveillance of the National Party and regularly reported to Adolf.

Industrial areas like Silesia are under close surveillance, with the local National Party intelligence agency reporting every three days and summarizing its work every week.

Of course, these intelligence reports, once delivered to Adolf's office, did not necessarily attract his attention unless a major event occurred.

Before becoming Chancellor of Germany, Adolf was already extremely busy. After becoming Chancellor, he had even less time left. His desk was piled high with documents, so he often just glanced at information.

It is worth mentioning that Adolf has not immediately begun to purge the German Workers' Party since coming to power; he has recently been busy consolidating his power.

Adolf's rise to power was largely due to the German elite's fear of the Workers' Party. Therefore, Adolf still needed to exploit the German Workers' Party and squeeze out its last remaining value, which was to intimidate the German elite.

The German elite originally intended Adolf to be a "puppet" or a "marionette," which was naturally unacceptable to Adolf.

Therefore, after coming to power, he did not immediately suppress the Labour Party, but instead confronted the German elite, and ultimately aimed to seize control of all power in Germany by placing his cronies in various government departments and the military.

Recently, Adolf and the German National Party have focused on personnel changes within the German military, winning over lower-ranking officers, rank-and-file soldiers, and senior generals aligned with the National Party, in order to maintain the National Party's control over the military.

Although some high-ranking officers in the armed forces were very dissatisfied with Adolf's actions, they were helpless because Adolf had become the Prime Minister of the Empire and held the reins of power.

They couldn't oust Adolf through a military coup because there were also divisions within the armed forces. Although Adolf and the National Party had divided control of the army, Adolf's attitude and approach to expanding the military were in the interests of the armed forces.

In short, it was only a matter of time before Adolf controlled the Wehrmacht, and once he had complete control of the German military, his position would be firmly established.

It was precisely for this reason that Adolf himself relaxed his attention to the German Labour Party during this period, but the rebellion of textile workers in the Silesia industrial region brought Adolf's attention back to the matter.

Adolf said, “I have indeed seen your intelligence, but this rebellion of textile workers in the Silesia industrial region coincides with the Liberec incident in Austria-Hungary. It is hard to believe that the two are not related and that it is a coincidence.”

Himmler, however, said: "No, Your Excellency, it's just a coincidence. After all, not all worker riots are necessarily linked to the Labour Party."

"For example, many worker riots in Britain and France at the beginning of the last century were organized entirely by the workers themselves, while at that time, the European Labour Party had not yet gained momentum."

"The current riots of textile workers in Silesia are of the same nature as some of the worker riots in the early 20th century. However, the Liberec incident did play a role in fueling the unrest."

"The motivation for the Silesia textile workers' riot was quite simple: since the outbreak of the global economic crisis, Silesia has consistently been the region with the highest unemployment rate within the empire."

“Many workers have been laid off and lost their source of income. Even though we have absorbed some of the unemployed into the SA and the National Party, it has not changed the fundamental problems of the local economy.”

"There are still a large number of unemployed people who are destabilizing factors, and textile workers are the most numerous among them."

"The textile industry in Silesia is one of the largest in the empire. Before the economic crisis, it directly employed more than 100,000 people. If you include related workers, such as dyeing and machine repair, the number is more than 100,000. This does not include the agricultural population engaged in planting."

"The textile industry in Silesia accounts for more than 20 percent of the local workforce, yet the current unemployment rate exceeds 30 percent." "Therefore, the hardship of life has long made Silesia the most unstable region in the empire, and local riots are only a matter of time. The Liberets incident in the Austro-Hungarian Empire ignited the local unrest in Silesia ahead of time."

"That's why I asserted that this matter had nothing to do with the Labour Party. If it were the Labour Party, it couldn't have been just the textile workers in Silesia who were involved. In fact, the place where this kind of thing first happened might not have been Silesia, but Saxony."

Currently, the main participants in the riots in Silesia are textile workers, but this is different from the Liberec incident in Austria-Hungary.

Liberec was just a city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and its industrial structure was simple, heavily reliant on the textile industry. Therefore, the majority of workers in Liberec were textile workers.

While Silesia has a sizable textile industry, its local industries are more diversified than those of Liberec, especially in the coal and steel industries. Silesia is Germany's second-largest coal-producing region, after the Ruhr region, with an annual production capacity of over 40 million tons.

Therefore, since Silesia's industry is based on both coal and textiles, the fact that only textile workers are now involved in the riots suggests that it is unrelated to the Labor Party.

Even in a city like Liberec, which relies entirely on the textile industry, the local Labor Party tried its best to recruit workers from other industries when organizing the rebellion. Therefore, if the rebellion in Silesia had a Labor Party organization, it would inevitably have recruited a large number of workers from the coal and steel industries to participate.

In addition, Himmler mentioned Saxony and believed that if the Labour Party were to launch an uprising, it would certainly choose Saxony as its first location.

This is because Saxony is more developed than Silesia, especially in the textile industry. Saxony is the most developed region for textile industry in Germany and even Central Europe.

Saxony is currently Germany's second largest industrial region, with its industries centered on textiles and light industry. While Silesia's textile industry is large in scale, it is concentrated in the low-to-mid-end sectors, whereas Saxony's industrial chain is more complete, larger in scale, and more technologically advanced.

Overall, Saxony's industry is more developed than Silesia's, which also means that Saxony has a larger workforce.

At the same time, although Silesia is Germany's third largest industrial region, its agriculture accounts for a significant portion of its economy, and its population is relatively dispersed. Apart from the rural population, Silesia's urban population is concentrated in some small and medium-sized cities, with no large cities in the region, which is not conducive to the activities of the Labour Party.

Therefore, if Himmler were a Labour Party member, he would certainly have preferred to launch an uprising in Saxony rather than in Silesia.

Adolf largely believed Himmler's explanation, not because he found it reasonable, but because he had greater faith in Himmler's abilities. Without a doubt, Himmler was a formidable intelligence strategist under Adolf.

Therefore, given Himmler's confidence and certainty, Adolf did not believe he would underestimate Himmler.

Adolf said, "Now, regardless of whether the Silesia uprising is related to the Labor Party, we must suppress it immediately and at the same time spread the word that this incident was orchestrated by the German Labor Party and the Soviets."

"Your Stormtroopers are trying to quell the Cilician riots under the pretext of investigating Labour Party members and spies. I don't want to see things get worse."

"Furthermore, martial law must be declared in Saxony immediately. The Liberec incident has been confirmed to be related to the Labor Party. I don't believe that the German Labor Party doesn't have its own agenda. They will definitely cooperate with the Austro-Hungarian Labor Party to cause trouble."

Himmler nodded and said, "Rest assured, Your Excellency, we will never allow the Austro-Hungarian Labour Party rebellion to spread into the Empire."

After discussing the handling of the Silesia incident, Adolf said, "It's time for us to settle accounts with the German Labour Party. We've been so busy with military issues that we've temporarily neglected the Labour Party, and this is what happened."

"Indeed, the Labour Party members are a cancer within the empire. We cannot keep them around forever. Next, we must take the initiative to create opportunities to wipe out all the Labour Party members in Germany."

At present, Adolf has implemented all the means to seize power, including the army, which is basically impossible to escape his control. In other words, most of Adolf's political concerns no longer exist.

Previously, he needed the German Labour Party to threaten the German elite, but now the German elite has been suppressed by Adolf and the German National Party, and has succumbed to Adolf's authoritarianism.

Therefore, with no worries about the future, Adolf planned to take action against the German Labor Party ahead of schedule, and the Silesia uprising provided him with an excuse.

Although Himmler's explanation convinced him that the Silesia textile workers' riots were unrelated to the Labor Party, this did not prevent him from using the incident to formally declare war on the German Labor Party and arrest all the Labor Party members.

So, on January 10, 1933.

That is, three days after the Liberec incident in Austria-Hungary and the second day of the Silesia uprising, German national party newspapers and German official news media, under Adolf's instructions, launched a full-scale "slanderous" propaganda campaign against the German Workers' Party.

The National Party's official newspaper, *Volksvänger*, stated: "The Silesia uprising was an activity jointly planned by the German Labor Party, Soviet spies, and Jews... attempting to destabilize the country and destroy the whole of Germany. The textile workers in Silesia were deceived..."

The newspaper "The Attack" went even further, stating menacingly: "The German Labour Party is a gathering place for traitors within the German nation, colluding with external forces such as the Jews and the Soviet Union. Therefore, it would be beneficial for the whole of Germany to completely eradicate the Labour Party members, both spiritually and physically."

These two newspapers not only attacked the German Labour Party, but also targeted "Jews" as a key group. The reason why the German National Party did this was very simple: to blame all the problems of the German economic crisis on Jews.

While the Jewish people certainly bear a great deal of responsibility for Germany's economic problems, not all of them can be blamed on them. After all, the Jewish people were mainly involved in speculation, economic crimes, counterfeiting, fraud, usury, and market disruption. However, the real power in the German economy rests with the German elite, represented by Juncker.

Both sides are birds of a feather, but the German elite are Germans after all, and everything they do is tied to Germany, while the Jews... are completely untrustworthy.

The former was able to stand up when Germany faced a life-or-death situation, while the latter only thought about making a quick buck and then going to other countries to continue causing trouble.

In the logic of the German National Party, the Soviet Union disrupts the German economy, and the Labor Party then uses the economic chaos to incite the victims to oppose the government, thus forming a closed loop. In the eyes of the German National Party, the two are actually one and the same.

Therefore, the German Labour Party was the primary target of the Silesian uprising, while the Jewish people were also a key target of the German National Party. Together with other opponents, a political persecution campaign that swept across Germany was thus launched.

(End of this chapter)