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Carl Wilhelm Severing (1 June 1875 – 23 July 1952) was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.
He was Interior Minister of Prussia from 1920 to 1926, Minister of the Interior from 1928 to 1930 and Interior Minister of Prussia again from 1930 to 1932. Along with fellow Social Democrat, Otto Braun, Severing agreed to General Hans von Seeckt's plans for a secret army to protect Germany's eastern border against a sudden attack from Poland. At the Nuremberg Trials on 21 May, 1946, Severing defended this strategy by saying:
"That the army of 100,000 men granted to Germany was not sufficient even for a defensive war was and is known to-day possibly to everyone in Germany concerned with politics. Germany got into a very bad situation with regard to her eastern neighbours since the establishment of the Corridor. The insular position of East Prussia forced Germany, even at that time (1920-22), to take measures which I reluctantly helped to carry out".[1]
According to Geoffrey Winthrop Young's diary entry for 14 December, 1929: "A dramatic incident was the entry of Minister Severing three hours late at the end of a cabinet meeting which had lasted two days, during which time he had saved parliamentary government in Germany, and incidentally avoided being appointed himself dictator by Hindenburg. He was naturally fatigued, but took part in our discussions for the remainder of a long evening".[2]
Severing introduced the law for the defence of the Republic and said of it on 13 March, 1930:
The right of assembly has become the wrongs of assembly, and press freedom has become press licence. We cannot permit demagogues to inflame the masses any further. Last year in Prussia alone three hundred policemen were wounded and fourteen killed in the course of their duties.[3]
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The Second Müller Cabinet |
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Notes
- ^ J. W. Wheeler-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power. The German Army in Politics. 1918-1945. Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 1964), p. 93, n. 2.
- ^ GHI Bulletin 26 - Feature
- ^ Franz von Papen, Memoirs (London: Andre Deutsch, 1952), p. 132.
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