Bonn Official Resigns Amid Furor Over Speech on Hitler : Says Talk Was Taken Wrongly

BONN — The Speaker of West Germany’s Parliament resigned today amid an uproar over a speech in which he said many Germans felt Hitler brought “glorious times” before the Holocaust and global war.

Philipp Jenninger called Hitler’s early years a “triumphal procession” in an address in which he tried to depict Germans’ enthusiasm at the time for Hitler, but not to justify or apologize for it. He condemned the Nazi attempt to annihilate European Jews.

The 56-year-old Christian Democrat said he had been misunderstood, was shocked by the reaction and felt “deeply sorry” for any offense caused by his remarks Thursday on the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the rampage against Jews that began the Nazi genocide.

Supporter of Israel

Jenninger emphasized his own record as a foe of totalitarian regimes and a supporter of Israel.

He said he had hoped to reach young people by describing horrors of the Nazi past, but “you have to learn that you can’t call everything by its name in Germany.”

Michael Fuerst, deputy chairman of the Central Council of Jews in West Germany, defended the politician.

“I welcome that the Parliament president described in full clarity what was happening in Germany between 1933 and 1938, especially the fact that everything that Hitler did was strongly supported by the masses of all Germans,” he said.

Despite his intention, Jenninger’s speech contained lengthy references to the euphoria many Germans felt after Hitler gained power in 1933, years after their humiliating defeat in World War I. Occasionally the speech lacked counterbalancing statements about the Nazi atrocities.

Rhetorical Device Misfired

In some passages, like this one, Jenninger tried to speak as a German of the time would have spoken and the rhetorical device misfired:

“And as far as the Jews were concerned, hadn’t they claimed for themselves in the past a role that wasn’t right for them? Hadn’t they deserved being put back in their place? And above all, didn’t the propaganda--apart from the wild exaggeration not to be taken seriously--correspond in essential points to their own conjectures and convictions?

“And when it got so bad, as it was in November, 1938, people could still say, using the words of a contemporary--’What’s it to us, look away if it terrifies you. It is not our fate.’ ”

About 50 members of Parliament began to walk out at that point in the speech, which was broadcast live on national television.

In the same vein, he described the positive feelings of many Germans in the early Hitler years:

“Didn’t Hitler bring to reality what (Kaiser) Wilhelm II had only promised, that is to lead the Germans to glorious times? Wasn’t he chosen by Providence, a Fuehrer such as is given to a people only once in a thousand years?”

In his resignation announcement, Jenninger said: “The reactions to my speech . . . have deeply shocked me and have greatly depressed me. My speech was not understood by many listeners the way I had intended it to be. I am deeply sorry and I am very hurt, if I have offended the feelings of others.”

Jenninger did not say whether he would continue in Parliament. The post of Speaker of Parliament is largely ceremonial, but in terms of diplomatic protocol is the No. 2 public office after the federal presidency.

An editorial in the Frankfurter Rundschau said the speech was “perhaps the most unfortunate speech that was ever made in the Federal Republic,” but also said of Jenninger: “You can grant him the good intention of wanting to give a worthy, perhaps even great contribution to the memory of the crimes of the Third Reich on this historic day.”