Wednesday, June 11, 1930

Berlin:  As Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet continues to debate solutions to Germany’s financial condition, the number of unemployed needing public relief grows.  New government reports put the total unemployed at 2.6 million, of which nearly 1.9 million need government assistance.

Tokyo:  Kato Hiroharu, Chief of Naval Staff and recently appointed member of the Supreme War Council, makes good on his threat from May, and resigns in protest over the London Naval Treaty.  

Monday, June 9, 1930

Berlin:  While Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s tax increase proposals continue to meet with much public opposition, the German public is said to be pleased with the independent bilateral discussions going on between industrialists and labor unions on cutting prices and pay wages in tandem to spur the economy.  

Friday, June 6, 1930

Berlin: Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s plan for saving Germany’s finances by taxing workers’ salaries, corporate directors’ fees and bachelors, runs into immediate trouble.  Several political parties publicly oppose it.  They and their allied press outlets predict not only that the measure will fail to pass the Reichstag, but that Bruening’s cabinet will fall over it.  Meanwhile, the Prussian Trade Minister’s monthly report on economic conditions in that state (which makes up nearly 60% of Germany) describes “almost universal depression.”

 

Tokyo:  Government officials are said to be apprehensive about developments in Tsinan in the Chinese civil war: 2,000 Japanese students are trapped there as fighting approaches.  Tsinan was the scene of a brutal attack in 1928, when southern rebels overrunning the city killed 30 Japanese nationals. 

Gomel, Ukraine:  Kulaks (rich peasants) outraged at continued soviet collectivization of their farms, set fire to the two largest collective farms in the district.  Sheds containing agricultural equipment and machinery are destroyed, leaving the collectives without the means to produce food.  

Thursday, June 5, 1930

Germany:

Berlin:  Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet proposes a plan to rescue Germany’s ailing finances by an emergency 10% tax increase on workers’ salaries, on fees earned by corporate directors, and on . . . unmarried men.  The latter is being called the “bachelor tax.”  How popular this idea will prove remains to be seen.

Nienburgh:  More evidence of the depression’s toll.  Farmers in this northern community tear up paving and barricade two streets into their village, wielding clubs and pitchforks, to prevent tax bailiffs from serving notice of non-payment on drainage assessments.  No violence breaks out; the bailiffs leave without delivering their notices.

Nice:  French authorities expel an ethnic Italian fascist for his role in sending a group from Nice’s Italian community to Rome as representatives of “Italian provinces and dominions” at a ceremony there.  That Nice is not an Italian province seems clear to the French.  But many in Italy still consider Nice and Savoy lost territories from the last century, before Italy’s unification.

Bucharest:  Romanian police uncover a widespread soviet propaganda organization in Bessarabia, the northeastern region which Romania has governed since 1918, but which Russia still considers her territory.  Police say the network had 16 centers, intended to agitate for the region’s communization and unification with the Soviet Union.

Wednesday, June 4, 1930

Berlin:  Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet adjourns without agreeing on any new actions to solve Germany’s financial crisis.  Meanwhile representatives of the industrial community and labor unions, perhaps fed up with the government’s inactivity, reportedly hold their own bilateral discussions about cutting prices and pay wages in tandem, in an attempt to spur the economy.

 

Washington:  More evidence of the economic depression -- President Herbert Hoover considers a $3 billion federal bond issue to speed public works and get the unemployed working again.  The U.S. economic decline is said to total more than $63 billion to date.

Rome:  Foreign Minister Dino Grandi, in a speech to the Senate that appears intended to moderate (and “clarify”) Dictator Benito Mussolini’s bellicose comments from a few days before, says Italy is willing to postpone the aggressive naval building program it had announced earlier, if France does the same.  “The Italian government is disposed to postpone laying down its program for naval construction in 1930 provided the French government does the same for the program for 1930.  Considering the relative strength of the two fleets such a concession would have a greater effect on the Italian navy than on the French.”  

Tuesday, June 3, 1930

Berlin:  With Germany’s financial situation not improving, Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet holds an executive session to discuss the situation.  Rumors are that Finance Minister Paul Moldenhauer’s position could be on the line.  

Friday, May 2, 1930

Prague:  Communists and socialists in parliament come to blows for the second day in a row during debate of routine business.

Berlin:  The cabinet of Chancellor Heinrich Bruening announces its budget for the fiscal year, which amounts to US$84 million more than last year, which already carried a US$75 million deficit.  The cabinet’s opponents are increasing their complaints that the government must get its financial house in order.

Tokyo: Rumors swirl that Kanja Kato, Navy Chief of Staff, will resign in protest of Japan’s acceptance of the London Naval Treaty. 

Harbin, Manchuria:  A mob of Chinese and Korean “radicals” attacks the Japanese consulate here.  Police arrest 32. 

Monday, 14 April 1930

Germany: 

Wilhelm Frick, nazi Minister of the Interior and Education in the state of Thuringia, issues an order that will revoke the licenses of entertainment establishments that present black performers or their music.  Frick says he is acting to save Germany from “negro culture,” which he says is corrupting morals in the country.

Berlin:  New Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s package of financial reform bills (mostly taxes) and agrarian relief passes the Reichstag by slim margins – in the case of the budget bill, by just four votes.  Bruening’s authority to dissolve the Reichstag, granted him by President Paul von Hindenburg, again looms large over the proceedings, with political parties sending cars and in some cases even planes out to bring legislators in for the vote, rather than face elections for a new parliament.  The measures implement new taxes on tobacco, sugar, beer and mineral water. 

Elsewhere:

Paris:  Two fascists are shot to death in the street by communists in revenge for recent arrests of communists in France.

New York: The Rand School of Social Science, a socialist institution, releases its American Labor Year Book for 1930, which states that the growing worldwide unemployment problem caused by the Great Depression is worst in Russia.

Thursday, 10 April 1930

London: 

At the London Naval Conference, the U.S. delegation comes up with a scheme that will allow all five participants to sign something, thus preventing a complete conference failure, although most of what France and Italy will sign is of less consequence.  The idea is to break the treaty into three parts.  The first calls for a temporary suspension of battleship building.  The second will deal with the “humanization” of submarine warfare.  France and Italy will reportedly sign those two.  The third part will be trilateral between the U.S., Great Britain and Japan, governing broader naval quotas. 

Berlin: 

The new cabinet of Heinrich Bruening is already finding the going rough.  One economic measure after another is defeated in committee: yesterday it was the cabinet’s proposal to raise the beer tax 75%; today it is plans for funding unemployment insurance.  President Paul von Hindenburg has called another meeting of all political party leaders to try to find a solution.  If he doesn’t, rumors are he will consider again his earlier threat to dissolve the Reichstag and have Bruening run the country by the constitution’s emergency provisions. 

Elsewhere:

Washington:  More bad economic news: farm wages are the lowest since the government started collecting figures in 1923. 

Belgrade:  13 people are sentenced to prison on charges of belonging to a communist organization. 

Tuesday, 8 April 1930

Berlin:  New Chancellor Heinrich Bruening introduces plans to try to solve Germany’s financial crisis by raising duties on a wide range of agricultural products.  Once finalized, the measures will be introduced in the Reichstag.

Washington:  More economic bad news: the government announces that exports to Europe are down $30 million from 1929 levels, and imports from Europe down nearly $20 million.

Thursday, 3 April 1930

Berlin: 

Heinrich Bruening’s new cabinet wins its first vote of confidence from the Reichstag, with the deciding votes ironically being cast by the party of nationalist leader Alfred Hugenberg.  The vote is 252-187, with socialists, communists and nazis voting against.  Hugenberg had threatened to defeat the new government, but after Bruening outlines his cabinet’s agriculture policies, which are under the care of Martin Schiele from Hugenberg’s National People’s Party, Hugenberg evidently changes his mind, and his party votes in favor of Bruening.  Hugenberg still says his party may desert the government and bring about its downfall, however, at any time it feels so inclined.

Moscow: 

Rabbi Lazarev, Chief Rabbi of Leningrad, and 15 others, are sentenced to 10 years in a concentration camp for alleged anti-soviet activity. 

London: 

At the London Naval Conference, the delegates from the United States, Great Britain and Japan officially agree to a three-way naval treaty which is intended to reduce the navies of all three, with the U.S. and British delegations accepting certain reservations from Japan.  U.S. Senator David A. Reed, a U.S. delegate who did most of the negotiating with Japan, says, “I cannot impress on you too strongly the fine spirit with which the Japanese and British have met us.  There was no disposition to quibble on the part of any one of the three delegations.  All three delegations have been frank and fair.  I cannot imagine a more pleasant negotiation than this has been.  The result is not a victory for anyone, but an honorable and reasonable settlement between the three powers.” 

Tuesday, 1 April 1930: Japan Announces it will Accept the Two-Thirds Ratio

Tokyo: 

The government of Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi announces that it will accept the terms of the London Naval Treaty being proposed by the United States and Great Britain, and instructs its delegates to the London Naval Conference to sign it.  This will preserve the requirement that Japan have a smaller ratio of capital ships compared to the U.S. and U.K. – a sore point among Japanese military leaders (although the ratio does improve).  The last treaty (with the 60% ratio) created a sharp rift in the Japanese navy between pro-treaty factions and nationalist admirals who wanted full parity with the other powers.  Many in Japan – in the military, the government and the public – view the reduced ratio as a national insult. 

Berlin: 

President Paul von Hindenburg gives Heinrich Bruening, his candidate to become chancellor of a new government, permission to dissolve the Reichstag and run the country under Article 48 -- the “emergency provision” -- of the German constitution, if the Reichstag doesn’t give Bruening a vote of confidence.  Armed with this, Bruening gives a curt speech in the Reichstag, telling the delegates the country needs work, not words, and action, not argument, if Germany is to dig through its financial issues.  Nonetheless, his speech is interrupted often by jeering from the communist delegates.

Elsewhere:

London:  More evidence of the Depression: the government announces that its plans to help the nation’s unemployed will cost the equivalent of US$350 million.

Washington:  More bad economic news:  William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, testifies before Congress that 3.7 million are out of work. 

China:  Civil war resumes in China’s northern territories.  It has been brewing for weeks.  The governor of Shansi province has allied himself with a general who was a leader in Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist army until he led a rebellion against Chiang late last year.  The two have moved their forces into Kaifeng, capital of Honan province, and into northern Shantung province, in a bid to challenge Chiang.  So far they are unopposed by government troops in the area – many of which have reportedly joined their rebellion. 

Saturday, 29 March 1930: Heinrich Bruening Forms a Government

Berlin:  New Chancellor Heinrich Bruening succeeds in forming a cabinet.  It is more nationalist-leaning than its predecessor, with Martin Schiele of the National People’s Party as Minister of Agriculture.  Seven of the ministers are holdovers from the previous cabinet.  

Friday, 28 March 1930

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. 

Heinrich Bruening

Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-2600 / CC BY-SA

Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license

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.

Thursday, 27 March 1930: German Chancellor Hermann Mueller's Government Falls

Berlin:  

The “Grand Coalition” government of Chancellor Hermann Mueller falls.  Having held together long enough to see the Young Plan through, against growing financial pressure, it falls apart now over a disagreement about funding unemployment insurance.  Two of the political parties that make up Mueller’s government, the German People’s Party and the Social Democrats –Mueller’s own party – cannot agree on the matter, and the Social Democrats announce they are withdrawing. 

 The Social Democrats, representing primarily socialists, want to see unemployment insurance funded to the fullest extent possible, despite the cry from many in the populace for relief from taxes.  The German People’s Party, representing primarily industrialists, want to see the cost of funding the unemployment insurance reduced.  Mueller and many of the socialists were prepared to negotiate a compromise, but Rudolf Wissell, Social Democrat Minister of Labor, wouldn’t budge and led the withdrawal.  Mueller tendered his resignation to President Paul von Hindenburg shortly thereafter.

Unemployment benefits are costing Germany $300-400 million annually. 

Mueller’s cabinet has governed since June 1928.  Early speculation centers on Heinrich Bruening, a centrist, as a replacement.  Mueller himself has recommended him. 

The Mueller cabinet 

Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1980-129-18A / Ruge, Willi / CC-BY-SA

Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license

Elsewhere:

England:  More evidence of the worldwide economic depression: a new survey shows that 100,000 mill workers are unemployed in Lancashire.  Sources call it the worst economic depression in that part of the country since the 1860s.

 Tokyo:  The government still hasn’t replied to a U.S.-backed proposal from the London Naval Conference that Japan accept a 66-2/3 ratio of capital ships compared to the U.S. and Great Britain (which is less than the 70% Japan sought).  Sources say opposition to the reduced ratio from within the naval general staff is so fierce, the government is fearful of precipitating a crisis if it moves too quickly.