English Translation

46 A 24 should be counted on a greater following in the officer corps of the German army. One should not fall into the feud abroad to look at the sympathy of individual officer groups for these old generals from the Reichswehr for a sign of a serious crisis in the army. These offensive groups are too small and too isolated to have meaning as long as the regime is firmly established. They are opposed not only to the rapidly advanced younger generations in the army, such as Reichenau, etc., and the generals that Göring used for his economic staff, but also to the air force and the fleet. The fleet is quite in agreement with a war against England and has great hopes. As far as industry is concerned, it can be seen that the circles that were at the beginning opposed to the Hitler regime now have a positive attitude towards it. There is a great deal to be expected of the business with Russia in the somewhat longer term, since the Hitler regime had just been accused of destroying this business, which was so well initiated in earlier years. It is also expected that the south-east policy, which has been so strongly activated since the Romania Treaty last year, can be successfully continued. As far as I can see, serious concerns have only caused the collapse of the hopes placed on Turkey, but it is believed that German consultations may still be able to reach an agreement with Turkey. On this point, there are also hopes in Italy in particular, which is believed to become more active outside the political sphere in the spring, in the sense of the old axis policy. It is, in these circles' view, an error to believe that the axis would be liquidated. At the moment, Germany has no interest in an extension of the conflict and therefore does not urge Italy to intervene in the war. It is now much more useful than a supplier of indispensable raw materials. In the spring, however, Italy will present its demands and thereby create a new situation in which it will decide whether there will actually be a great war or still an agreement with Germany and Italy. On a completely different field lies the criticism raised by the economic circles against the Hitler regime because of the methods of economic management. This criticism, which refers to bureaucratism, unrational administrative methods, expensive parasitic party bureaucracy etc., was already very great before the outbreak of the war and is also