The first hastily convened Council meeting was opened by Goering as President of the Council. He gave a short but flowery speech welcoming everybody and reminding them of the grave responsibility that rested in their hands.
The first person to speak, at his own request, was the Minister of Economics. He had been appointed only the previous day. His address was simple and to the point.
“Gentlemen, since my appointment as Minister of Economics was only confirmed two days ago, I have had no chance to collect any meaningful information on the state of the country’s finances and economy. Three years ago I was aware that the rearmament of Germany had strained us financially. Since then, the war has obviously imposed an additional huge burden.
With effect from today I have cancelled all staff leave for Ministry of Economics and Finance staff. I have issued strict orders for all relevant information to be collected, analysed and collated, and to be made available to me within a maximum of two weeks, without fail.
I hope to be in a position to present this Council with an emergency budget four weeks from today. I must warn, however, that because of the haste at which it will be compiled, it cannot be considered a truly accurate budget. That will take a little longer.”
He paused for a sip of his water.
“It is, of course, impossible to draw up a meaningful budget unless I know the requirements of each of your own ministries for the next year, and longer. I urge you to give this your urgent attention and let me have details within the next two weeks. As I said, in view of the time constraints, and the unusual situation Germany is in at present, I do not expect complete accuracy but we will at least have something to work with.
Finally, I ask all present to direct all departments and ministries under their control to institute a regime of austerity with immediate effect. Any unnecessary expenditure should be curtailed, or at least delayed, for the present, until we know where we stand.”
He then spent another fifteen minutes answering various questions as well as he was able, given his current lack of detailed information and short time in the job.
Goering now asked the Interior Minister for his contribution.
“My new deputy Minister is heading a task force which is examining closely each of the departments under my ministry. At first glance they appear to be functioning reasonably well, subject to various distortions caused by the war, and directives from the previous regime. Many experienced staff were lost through conscription into the German armed forces.
The only radical change I would like to look at immediately, subject to the Council’s approval, is in the manner in which the police are administered. I recommend that control of police matters reverts to the old system of local and individual state control, who in turn will be responsible to the Interior Ministry.
I would also like to abolish our ‘esteemed’ secret state police” — he said this with a grimace — ‘the Gestapo’. These people are most unloved — I should say feared — by the populace in Germany. I am not saying that police should be loved, but they should certainly be respected and trusted. This is not the case with the Gestapo.”
This drew murmurs of agreement from the rest of the members with the exception of Goering who kept quiet.
“My intention is that all Gestapo members shall be decommissioned immediately, but are then allowed to reapply to the police for a new job. They will, of course, be carefully vetted to weed out undesirable elements, which I suspect will be many. There have been constant rumours of bullying, torture and even killings by them while they were under the control of Heinrich Himmler.
There is one other matter I ask this Council for clarification. We are all familiar with the anti-Jewish laws and the anti-Semitism encouraged by the previous regime. These are something which other nations find abhorrent. Indeed, I believe they are cruel, unnecessary, and do not recognise the contributions made to science, industry, finance and the arts by the German Jewish community.
I suggest we institute a Commission of Enquiry under the Justice Ministry to look into this as a matter of urgency and make appropriate recommendations.”
This suggestion received the immediate and unhesitating support of the rest of the Council with the exception of Goering, and even he acquiesced when he saw the unanimity of his fellow members.
Speer spoke again. “As regards, the requests from the Minister of Economics, my departments will reduce unnecessary expenditure, and a report on my budgetary requirements will be ready in two weeks.”
He was finished. No wasted words.
Von Brauchitsch thought to himself that with men such as this — talented, hard-working, conscientious, non-political, and no personal hidden agenda — Germany would become the most prosperous and stable country in the world.
Von Altendorf was next. He outlined the current state of Germany’s relations with various countries, but more particularly with Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. These he dealt with in detail. Then he moved on to his main priority.
“I propose that we now re-establish, as a matter of urgency, full diplomatic relations with Great Britain and exchange ambassadors. I need this in order to use the good offices of the British to open talks with the governments-in-exile of the occupied territories.
Only after I have talked with these people can I have an idea of what it will cost to normalise relations with their countries. I think if the British government can coerce them into talking to me, I could see them all in one visit to London lasting only a matter of days.”
All the members approved this, although Goering mentioned that von Altendorf should proceed with caution when talking to the ‘so called’ governments-in-exile, and not be soft in any negotiations.
The other Council members listened politely to Goering but paid little serious attention to his remarks. Goering was ‘yesterday’s man’ in their opinion.
Now it was the turn of the Minister of Defence to speak.
“My two deputy Ministers, Admiral Donitz and General Kesselring, and I, have initiated a full scale review of the armed forces, which will include manpower, equipment, future strategic role — in fact all military aspects. To enable the Minister of Economics to plan ahead we undertake to have at least a preliminary report completed in the next two weeks.
One measure under active consideration is demobilising some of our troops. This will be carried out in an orderly fashion so as not to flood the labour market. In this respect we will liaise with the Interior Minister.
It is also our intention to disband the SS. There have been some disturbing reports of atrocities committed by them in Poland. These cannot be overlooked and are now being investigated by the Wehrmacht military police.”
Here Goering interrupted. “Is that necessary General? Whatever happened in Poland happened nearly a year ago. Cannot it be allowed to die a quiet death?”
“No. Absolutely not. It is a stain on the German army and the German people. How can we ever expect the Poles to trust us if we just pretend nothing bad happened? I expect to be in a position to report on this matter in a few weeks. In the meantime the Minister of Foreign Affairs should be prepared for some hard words from them, if and when he meets the Polish government-in-exile.”
He continued.
“Another radical change we are looking at, is scrapping the Kriegsmarine’s large surface fleet — the battleships, battlecruisers and heavy cruisers — to make way for a stronger submarine fleet and aircraft carriers. We are inclined to believe that the age of the big surface warships, other than carriers, is dead.