Berlin:
President Paul von Hindenburg asks Heinrich Bruening, floor leader of the Centrist party, to form a cabinet. And he’s given him 24 hours to do it, telling
him to focus on constructing a cabinet that can get approval by the Reichstag,
regardless of which parties it contains, and then can push through financial
reforms necessary to get Germany’s financial house in order.
Bruening is reportedly
considering asking Martin Schiele to join his cabinet. Schiele is a member of Alfred Hugenberg’s
National People’s Party, the nationalist group that spearheaded the Liberty Law
campaign. By including Schiele in his
cabinet, Bruening would be hoping to create a rift within the National People’s
Party and divide their vote, possibly giving his government a better chance to
succeed. The nationalists, however,
announce today that they won’t participate in a new Bruening cabinet, and
demand that the Reichstag be dissolved and new elections held.
Meanwhile, a scathing
article by Gen. Erich von Ludendorff is published, in which he calls
Hindenburg a “false hero” for signing the Young Plan. Ludendorff says the world war veterans’
organization of which both he and Hindenburg are members should expel
Hindenburg for “violation of duty.” Ludendorff
was a participant in Adolf Hitler’s “Beer Hall Putsch” in 1923 and a former
Reichstag member, but he has been largely out of the public eye since 1928. “Through four hard years, Hindenburg did what
I told him to do,” Ludendorff writes.
“Now he has forfeited the right to wear the field-gray uniform or carry
it to his grave.”
Elsewhere:
Washington: It’s all bad news on the economic front. Retail sales through February in the United
States are down 4% from same period last year.
And farm prices are at their lowest levels in 3 years – wheat the lowest
in 17 years.
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