Gallery

 

Rauschning later proved to be a thorn in the side of the Third Reich. His appointment to the Senate upset members of the Nazi old Guard A lie Kamj;fer). who were eager for a piece of the action thems elves. The Senate president succeeded in gaining a treaty with Poland. which superseded the League of Nations in future authority in Danzig. on August 5. 1935. Although Rauschning was the point man for introducing Hitler’s policies into 1)anzig. he SOOll became disillusioned and fled to Swllzcrland in the next year. 1936. Rauschning’s love of and study of the classics caused him to rethink the Nazi position vi.c a i’is the democracies. As a result, he turned out a number of hooks that revealed the true character of hitler and his entourage. One of his hooks. The Redemption of Democracy, was written while in a London air raid shelter, with German bombers grinding down buildings all around him. His prose in that hook shows his love for philosophy as applied to the world situation in 1940. His name appeared Ofl Himmier’s Special Search List -- G’ai Britain. which meant that the names listed were subject to search and punishment by the Gestapo. Rauschning survived to retire on a farm in Oregon.

Fig.4: Three separated cards, not Joined as a triple-group. From the left 030) Neptune Fountain, Langer Markt 017) Harbor in Moonlight: 028) Old Danzig Kanzelhaus. Address sides of these three used cards are shown on Pg.6.


Other “Personalities” in this Series: Batzer, Forster and Greiser
In addition to Rauschning. there were three other Germans who qualified for having their photos on the HP- 1 postcards. Sonic are well-known today. while others may he forgotten. here is how I Herbert S. Levine sums up activities as the Nazis took over in 1933. in Hitlers Free city. A history of the Nazi party in Danzig, 1925-39. University of Chicago Press, published in 1973:

Rauschning was by no means happy with his vice-president IGreiser!. He originally had someone quite different in mind, an official of the Reich Finance Ministry. The plan fell through because a scheme could not be devised that would satisfy the high commission’s (League of Nations] likely objections to the election of a Reich official as vice-president. The matter was pursued with utmost secrecy through government rather than party channels, and it is possible that Grelser, and even Forster, never learned of it. It is apparent from Rauschnlngs reluctance to accept Greiser that the senate president understood clearly the distinction between his own policies and those likely to be followed by his Nazi colleagues. Rauschnirig failed to prevent Greiser from becoming vice- president, and party influence in the senate increased further when Bertling was replaced by Gau propaganda chief Paul Ratzer, who created the Department of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, patterned after Goebbel’s. Worse yet, from Rouschnlng’s point of view, was the growth of a conflict between NSDAP and Center...

There you have all I’oiir of the party hierarchy who made it onto the 1934 HP- 1 cards, mentioned in one paragraph by Levine.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 101 - October - November - December - 1998, Page 5.