It should be stressed that this delegation of cabinet functions and authority to various secret and semi-secret groups composed largely of its own members, helped to conceal some of the most important policies of the Reichsregierung, particularly those relating to preparation for war.
Thus, step by step, the National Socialist party succeeded in putting its policies into effect through the machinery of the state, the Reichsregierung, in its revised form.
Chapter VII
MEANS USED BY THE NAZI CONSPIRATORS IN GAINING
CONTROL OF THE GERMAN STATE
I. COMMON OBJECTIVES, METHODS, AND DOCTRINES OF
THE CONSPIRACY
In 1921 Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader or Fuehrer of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party), also known as the Nazi Party, which had been founded in Germany in 1920. He continued as such throughout the period covered by the Indictment. As will be shown, the Nazi Party, together with certain of its subsidiary organizations, became the instrument of cohesion among, the defendants and their co-conspirators and an instrument for the carrying out of the aims and purposes of the conspiracy. And as will also be shown, each defendant became a member of the Nazi Party and of the conspiracy, with knowledge of their aims, and purposes, or, with such knowledge, became an accessory to their aims and purposes at some stage of the development of the conspiracy.
A. Aims, and Purposes. The aims and purposes of the Nazi conspirators were:
(1) To abrogate and overthrow the Treaty of Versailles and its restrictions upon the military armament and activity of Germany. The first major public meeting of the NSDAP took place in Munich on 24 February 1920. At that meeting Hitler publicly announced the Program of the Party. That program, consisting of 25 points (annually reprinted in the National Socialist Yearbook), was referred to as “The political foundation of the NSDAP and therewith the fundamental political law of the state,” and “has remained unaltered” since the date of its promulgation. Section 2 of the Program provided as follows:
“We demand equality of rights for the German people with respect to other nations, and abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.” (1708-PS)
In a speech at Munich on 13 April 1923, Hitler said: