Kieler Nachrichten, Monday, 16 May 1949
Work on the small coastal escort vessel Alpenföhn was completed today, and she will now embark upon trials before commencing operational training. A sister vessel, Höllentäler, was also completed at the Wilhelmshaven dockyard.
London, The German Embassy, Tuesday, 17 May 1949
Walter Schellenburg was walking down the corridor that led to his office when he heard the laughter coming from the office of Georg Bosbach, the cultural attaché. Being naturally curious he stepped through the half-open door and found Bosbach seated at his desk together with Otto von Bolschwing, the commercial attaché and Erich Andres, the press attaché. Their chortling wound down as Schellenburg entered and inquired about the source of their amusement.
“Andres was reading to us the Attlee’s latest speech in the Commons, his rejoinder to Churchill’s rhetorical polemic.”
Schellenburg was familiar enough with Churchill’s fiery discourse, haranguing the House for what he considered insufficient preparedness in defence of Britain’s imperial legacy. He had studied it, and was somewhat concerned about the old lion’s accurate description of German military developments. He had paid less attention to the Prime Minister’s response, and admitted such.
“Andres, start over again for Schellenburg’s benefit, from the beginning.” The press attaché picked up the folded newspaper, adjusted his glasses, and adopted an affected English accent.
"My right honourable friend makes his case as robustly as ever. But this government is not inactive nor unaware of what is going on. The previous Tory governments largely cooperated with the Germans, showing them battleship plans and making little deals while turning a blind eye to Germany's annexation of Austria and her growing thirst to dominate the European mainland and largely wipe out her perceived poor treatment at the hands of the Allied powers in 1917 when a harsh peace was forced upon her. Germany has been driven by threats from the previous Tory government into preparing for the worst case scenarios. That she chooses to pump so much of her resources into building up her armaments and raw materials is a sign of fear and weakness, not strength.”
Schellenburg raised an eyebrow. “That is a masterpiece of hyperbole…”
Von Bolschwing nodded, “Quite… I was wondering if Major Attlee had been drinking. He would have to far overestimate our defence expenditures and underestimate the strength of the national economy to deduce something like that. And Andres – you are from Klagenfurt – do you consider yourself ‘annexed’?”
“No, the union of the Austrian provinces with the rest of the Reich was probably the best thing that could happen – integration into a larger political and economic whole.” He went back to reading from Hansard.
“It is Germany's population who can look to our Welfare State while they wonder why their government chooses guns over butter and why stockpiling of raw materials is driving world commodity prices higher and causing the price of goods in the shops to rise further and further.”
“Driving commodity prices higher?” Schellenburg shook his head. “The last time I looked at Deutsche Börse commodity prices were down due to the bumper crops in Eastern Europe and the Americas.”
“That’s correct. The Major was probably listening to the porters at the London Commodity Exchange. Unlike the Deutsche Börse or the American Chicago Board of Trade the London prices for many commodities are skewed due to Britain’s crutch of ‘Imperial Preference’.” Von Bolschwing said the words as if they were an expletive. “Neither does he understand that moderate rates of inflation – reflected in rising prices – are an indication of the general higher wage rates in Germany. It would be anathema for him to admit that his ‘Welfare State’ policies have effectively capped wage growth and non-public investment across the board.”
Bosbach added, “And he certainly not read history books. Our social policies date back to the 1840s, certainly to the great Bismarck, with health insurance, the accident insurance, old age pensions, and disability insurance; not to mention the Sozialgesetzbuch adopted in 1927.”
“I think he was trying to defend Labour’s policies for the electorate.” Andres was a keen follower of the British political scene. “Despite their motorways, their New Towns, and all their talk of social welfare Labour is in trouble. Their parliamentary majority is paper thin and there are legitimate concerns that they will lose the next election.”
Andres went back to reading the remainder of Attlee’s speech.
“And to those who say this Government sits on its hands, I can confirm that talks have been held with several leading powers about defensive alliances, but of course secrecy prevents me of course from providing details at this stage.”
That got a chortle from Schellenburg. “Their intriguing with Italy? That would be a broken reed for them to lean upon.”
“I still feel our best course is to follow diplomatic courses that reduce the tensions between us. The age of Grand Alliances makes less sense in the new modern free-market world, no nation can gain by war. If Germany cannot see that then it is her ruin and not this country's for Britain is a member of the world open to all and not a closed shop.”
“Not a closed shop? Then what is the purpose of Imperial Preference and maintaining an empire that spans the globe?” Schellenburg shook his head in disbelief. “What then is PETA? It is practically a common market.”
Frankfurter Zeitung, Wednesday, 18 May 1949
Minister of Agriculture Hermann Höcherl dedicated the new storage facility at Ingolstadt today. The first phase of the project comprises sixteen steel storage silos for bulk grain and transfer facilities that permit direct discharge from river barges to its storage areas. Additional phases are anticipated to see construction of additional silos as well as climate-controlled warehouses for other agricultural products.