4 - With Papen in the Eye of the Storm the Final Years (1932–34)

Summary

BY THE END OF 1931, Jung had witnessed not only the collapse of his hopes with the VKV and his own Konservative Kampfgemeinschaft in Munich, but fortune had struck several other blows. His contract with Münchner Neueste Nachrichten had been terminated after personnel changes on the paper's editorial board, his father-in-law had died, and he and his family had all suffered from ill health. The year 1932, therefore, began with Jung at a low ebb, both psychologically and with regard to his political activities. Now that his contract with Münchner Neueste Nachrichten had been terminated, he was left with only two outlets for regular articles—Mündler's Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung, and Pechel's Deutsche Rundschau. However, this also meant he had more time to produce longer articles. 1931 had already seen the publication of “Föderalismus aus Weltanschauung” (Federalism from a World View), and, in collaboration with his close friend and mentor, Leopold Ziegler, “Fünfundzwanzig Sätze vom deutschen Staate” (Twenty-five Sentences of the German State). 1932 would see the publication of “Deutschland und die konservative Revolution. Die Stimme des unbekannten Politikers” (Germany and the Conservative Revolution. The Voice of the Unknown Politician) in Deutsche über Deutschland.

However, in 1932, Hindenburg's seven-year term as president was nearing its end. During the 1925 elections Jung had been instrumental in securing support for Hindenburg in Bavaria. Knowing that elections for the post of president were now imminent, Jung—always quick off the mark—wrote to Pechel early in February 1932 asking him to set up meetings with himself, Treviranus, Otto Meissner (Hindenburg's secretary) and Fritz Klein (chief editor of Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung), in his own words, to get clarity over the reelection of Hindenburg for a second term and to win possibilities connected with it for their circle. He asked Pechel to put in a word for him with Treviranus and to try as hard as possible to make sure that he, Jung, was appointed as chairman of the election campaign. Alas, another disappointment was to await him. Only a few days later, Oberst von Seißer (former Chief of the Bavarian State Police) was appointed Chairman of the Hindenburg Election Committee, the position Jung had hoped for.