Prager Tagblatt
- A General Staff of Peace.
- The Miners' Last Chance.
- The Seeckt Case.
The Prager Tagblatt of 8 October 1926 opened with a Prague editorial, "A General Staff of Peace," which begins by recalling how the intellectual movements of the Enlightenment prepared the French Revolution; the page also carried the name of Prof. Otto Peterka, the new rector of the German University. From London the paper reported that the British miners' delegate conference had rejected Baldwin's offer of arbitration after the districts voted down the government proposal by 737,000 to 42,000, and that it had then voted 594,000 to 194,000, against the executive's strong objections, to pull the safety crews out of the pits. From Berlin it reported that the decision on General von Seeckt's request to resign as Chief of the Army Command was still awaited.
Translation
A General Staff of Peace.
Prof. Dr. Otto Peterka, the new rector of the German University, A General Staff of Peace. Prague, 7 October. The French Revolution, the model of all revolutions, was prepared by a series of intellectual movements that today are summed up under the catchword "Enlightenment," without people always being clear about how these [?]
The Miners' Last Chance.
The Miners' Last Chance. Safety work in the pits halted. London, 7 October. The miners' delegate conference today rejected the arbitration offered by Baldwin, since, according to the result of the ballot in the districts, the government proposal had been rejected by 737,000 votes to 42,000. South Wales moved that the safety crews be withdrawn from the pits. This proposal was vigorously opposed by the union executive. The union president, Smith, threatened to resign if the propo [?] sal were adopted. Nevertheless, the conference adopted the South Wales motion by 594,000 votes to 194,000, to withdraw the safety crews from the pits immediately -
The Seeckt Case.
since the safety crews are mostly organized in the …niker, who a participation The Case No decision yet. - Mediat… Protest of the Ambass… Over the exceeding of the time-volunteer… of the Hohenzollern Berlin, 7 October. The decision on the resignation request of the Chief of the Army Command, which had been eagerly awaited for today, [?]
Context
The 1926 peace movement behind "A General Staff of Peace"
The Prague editorial borrows a military term, the general staff, for the cause of peace, and its opening sentence traces how the Enlightenment prepared the French Revolution intellectually; the readable part stops before the author explains what such a general staff of peace would be. The idea had organised supporters in 1926. The International Fellowship of Reconciliation, founded in 1914 in response to the horrors of war in Europe, organised several international conferences between the two world wars, at which members discussed the need for disarmament and a new role for the churches. In August 1926 some 4,000 pacifists from 30 countries gathered at Rheims for the Fifth International Democratic Peace Conference, and Time reported that 900 of the delegates were young Germans. The editorial's title also had a pointed edge in the Germany of the time: the Treaty of Versailles had restricted the size of the German military and disbanded the General Staff of the Imperial German Army.
The miners' vote of 7 October and the end of the 1926 coal dispute
According to the paper, the miners' delegate conference on 7 October rejected the arbitration Baldwin had offered, after the district ballot had gone 737,000 to 42,000 against the government proposal, and then adopted a South Wales motion, by 594,000 to 194,000, to withdraw the crews doing protective work in the pits, even though the executive opposed it and the president, Smith, threatened to resign. This was a late stage of a long confrontation. The miners' delegate conference had already rejected the Prime Minister's proposals on 20 May 1926. On 5 July the coalowners posted new terms of employment based on an eight-hour day; on 15 July the Trades Union Congress General Council refused a coal embargo but promised financial support for the locked-out miners. Talks on 19 August ended in deadlock when the owners made clear they would accept only unconditional surrender. About seven weeks after the vote reported here, between 27 and 30 November 1926, the miners returned to work on lower pay and longer hours, an outcome the Warwick timeline calls total defeat.
Why Seeckt had to go: Prince Wilhelm and the manoeuvre
The Berlin report says only that on 7 October the decision on the resignation request of the Chief of the Army Command was still pending; its garbled subheadings show the words mediation, protest and Hohenzollern. The Weimar Republic timeline records that Seeckt was forced to step down as head of the Heeresleitung at the insistence of Defence Minister Geßler and Reich President Hindenburg. It gives as the reason the participation of the Hohenzollern Prince Wilhelm in a Reichswehr manoeuvre that the Defence Minister and the Reich President had not approved in advance. The same timeline notes that relations between the Reich leadership and Seeckt had already deteriorated because of his open opposition to the government's Locarno policy. Seeckt did leave his post as commander in chief of the army in October 1926; his term as Chief of the Army Command ended on 9 October, so the suspense the Prague paper describes was resolved within days.
Seeckt's place in the Reichswehr
The affair weighed so heavily because of who Seeckt was. It fell to him to build the new Reichswehr within the strict limits imposed by the peace settlement: the Treaty of Versailles capped the army at 100,000 men, only 4,000 of whom could be officers. He served as commander in chief of the German Army from 1920 until his resignation in October 1926. Seeckt was a monarchist who encouraged the retention of traditional links with the old Imperial Army. Against that background, a member of the former imperial family appearing at an army manoeuvre without the approval of the republic's civilian leadership raised the question of where the army's loyalties lay, which helps explain why the incident reached the head of the army himself.
Original
Ein Generalstab des Friedens.
Prof. Dr. Otto Peterka, der neue Rektor der Deutschen Universität, Ein Generalstab des Friedens. Prag, 7. Oktober. Die französische Revolution, das Vorbild aller Revolutionen, wurde durch eine Reihe geistiger Bewegungen vorbereitet, die man heute unter dem Schlagworte " Aufklärung " zusammenfaßt, ohne sich immer darüber klar zu sein, wie diese [?]
Die letzte Chance der Bergarbeiter.
Die letzte Chance der Bergarbeiter. Einstellung der Sicherungsarbeiten in den Gruben. London, 7. Oktober. Die Delegiertenkonferenz der Bergarbeiter lehnte heute das von Baldwin angebotene Schiedsgericht ab, da nach dem Abstimmungsergebnis in den Bezirken die Regierungsvorlage mit 737. 000 gegen 42. 000 Stimmen abgelehnt wurde. Süd-Wales beantragte die Abberufung der Sicherungsmannschaften aus den Gruben. Dieser Vorschlag wurde vom Vorstand der Gewerkschaft lebhaft bekämpft. Der Gewerkschaftsvorsitzende Smith drohte mit seiner Demission, wenn der Vorsc [?] lag Annahme finden sollte. Trotzdem hat die Konferenz mit 594. 000 Stimmen gegen 194. 000 Stimmen den Antrag von Südwales angenommen, sofort die Sicherungsmannschaften aus den Gruben ab -
Der Fall Seeckt.
da die Sicherungsmannschaften meist in den niker organisiert sind, die eine Beteiligung Der Fall Noch keine Entscheidung. - Vermitt Protest der Botscha Wegen Ueberschreitung des Zeitfreiwillig des Hohenzollern Berlin, 7. Oktober. Die für heute mit Spannung erwartete Entscheidung über das Abschiedsgesuch des Chefs der Heeresleitung [?]