Hitler Limits Press

HITLER RESTRICTS THE PRESS AND CIVIL RIGHTS
Strict Emergency Decree Enacted, Even Stricter Ones Expected

Berlin. Chancellor Adolf Hitler has begun planning comprehensive restrictions, including restricting the press and limiting the right of assembly, in order to reduce the civil unrest that has been leading to continuous conflict in the Reich. A new emergency decree is expected.

The edict that limits the freedom of the press, signed by Imperial President von Hindenburg, is titled "Act for the Protection of the German People." It allows the government to close any newspaper that incites insurrection or criticizes the administration for a period of six months. Strict penalties are promised for any publisher that violates the law.

As justification for the new measures, the government has asserted that the actions of opposition parties have exceeded permissible limits, mandating a bold course of action. The Nazi publication Der Angriff ["The Assault," founded by Joseph Goebbels in 1927] blames the situation on the Jewish press. As stated by this Hitler newspaper: The unheard-of incitement of dissent against the political and economic regeneration of Germany by the Jewish press forced the government to take drastic measures.

The right to assembly in Germany has also been curtailed.

Two additional Social-Democratic newspapers and one Communist paper were closed and their press runs confiscated.

The Interior Minister of Thüringen shut down two Social-Democratic papers for a period of ten days due to their publication of articles from the Berlin newspaper Vorwärts, which had been confiscated earlier.

An underground Communist printing press was discovered in Arnstadt; flyers and posters encouraging a general strike by all workers were suppressed.