German Economic Penetration - An Historical Warning

Written in 1944 by Sumner Welles, US Govt Under Secretary Of State for Roosevelt, 1937 - 1943.

"The German General Staff is already well aware of Germany's inevitable defeat. It is playing for time in the hope that the present war, if sufficiently protracted, will stimulate differences between the United Nations in such a way as to benefit Germany and make a compromise peace more likely.
It has, however, made detailed plans for a later renewal of its attempt to dominate the world. Measures have already been taken throughout the globe to facilitate the execution of these plans when the favourable moment arrives, whether that moment be in ten years or two generations from now."

"The General Staff itself is only one-half visible. Half the mechanism is secret and will so remain. The General Staff considers the Anglo-Saxon powers the only antagonists that will be permanently and inevitably opposed to it. It bases all its preparations upon the cynical assumption that the policies of the Anglo-Saxon nations will not long remain constant. And, lastly, it is confident that the reasoning of Anglo-Saxon peoples is solely unplanned and reactionary, whereas it conceives of its own reasoning as being invariably planned and knowledge based."

"With this in mind, the German Officers who are to prepare the way for the next war will be guided by the following assumptions.
They have been told that the war which Germany forced upon the world in 1939 will be lost solely because the material resources of the German Armies were insufficient; that although the German Armies greatly excelled their adversaries in strategy, in tactics, and in audacity, their superior intelligence and bravery was finally outweighed by the superior industrial production of the United States, which her geographical isolation made possible. Therefore, in order to overcome this purely material handicap, the German General Staff must prepare for the new war by taking as its base of operations (and material supplies) the whole of europe, rather than Germany itself. All the industrial and scientific contacts and knowledge made available in the countries of Europe which Germany has occupied during the past four years, must be turned to advantage.

To do this, the economic and political sections of the German General Staff have perfected the theory of "Indirect Complicity".
By putting this theory into practice, primarily in the countries of Europe but throughout the rest of the world as well, and by no means least in the Western Hemisphere,  the German General Staff plans to complete its domination of the world."

"The theory of "Indirect Complicity" is simple in conception but extremely complicated in detail.
According to the bland assertions of German Officers captured in the present war, it will prove so incomprehensible to the Anglo-Saxon mind in its entirety that the idea will not be fully grasped.
The German reasoning is as follows:
Experience has shown that a purely military occupation by no means results in the complete political and economic domination of a conquered country. Only through actual possession of the key industries and through direct accomplices in the political life of the occupied country can satisfactory control be exercised.
If such foreign intervention becomes known to the public, it is bound to provoke a patriotic reaction difficult to overcome. If however, it is undertaken secretly by indirect accomplices,  preferably nationals of the country over whom a sure measure of control can be exercised, there can be constructed without any unfavourable public reaction, a system which slowly, little by little, can impose itself upon the life of the entire country.
When, as in the case with occupied France, Germany is able by imperceptible degrees to reach a point where there remains little practical difference between secret domination and open and avowed domination, she can pass from one system to the other without danger of an open revolt."

"In any modern war, the German military authorities maintain, a victory is possible only after indirect complicities have been created.
Finally, according to the German belief, the employment of this weapon against the Anglo-Saxon powers will be made much easier by reason of the fact that Anglo-Saxons react primarily to established facts, and only rarely to abstract theories. Neither the British nor the Americans are regarded as capable of understanding "Indirect Complicity". The German General Staff will endeavour to carry out this mission so long as there is breath in their bodies, no matter what upheavals or political changes may take place within Germany itself."

"At first glance the theory of "Indirect Complicity" seems very simple and easy to deal with. It obviously implies the use by a foreign power for its own ends, of the nationals of another power without their concious knowledge. But it would be disastrous to dismiss the danger lightly because of a belief that we can readliy construct the neccessary legal safeguards, or that we can meet it solely by expanding our existing intelligence agencies.
The principal danger is that after the present war the people of the democracies will wish once more, as in 1920, to plunge ourselves into the oblivion of "normalcy."
We wil be inclined to believe that because the war has ended with our victory, there need be no continuing process to maintain the safety won at so huge a cost. We will be inclined to accept at face value, the propaganda which will once more emanate from German sources, and unfortunately, from many wholly sincere sources susceptible to the influence of German propaganda. The very nature of the German plan will, in peace times, seem fantastic."

"The German General Staff will seek to put its theory into practice in three principle ways:
1. It will try to create doubts among the people of each country as to the ability, integrity, wisdom or loyalty of their leading statesman;
2. In critical moments it will attempt to paralyse or to diminish the capacity for cool thinking by the people as a whole;
3. It will search in each country for men who, through ambition, vanity, or personal interest, will be disposed to serve the causes which the German General Staff desires, at that particular moment, to further."

"In order that these plans may be carried out without interruption and with complete efficiency, agents of the German General Staff have already been naturalized , usually in two successive countries, so that their future activities will be less suspect.
The majority of them are being trained to appear as men of large commercial or financial interests, who will be able to dispose of considerable amounts of capital derived from the reserves which the German General Staff has already, during the past years, deposited under one guise or another in neutral countries.
These agents will be fully trained to folow at least two entirely distinct pursuits. They will have a direct and active part in large-scale industrial or commercial enterprises.
In this way, each agent will be able to cultivate a circle of indirect and unknowing accomplices, nationals of the country where he is stationed, who can determine opinion, control industrial production, and even influence the reslults of elections."

"The German General Staff is convinced that over a period of years it can gain a controlling influence in labour unions, in the banking world, in chambers of commerce and, through these channels, an indirect influence in the Press. It believes it can thus discourage the growth of industrial systems disadvantageous to Germany when Germany strikes again and, when the right time comes, stimulate internal dissension sufficiently to destroy the morale of the people in those countries marked as victims."


Sumner Welles met and negotiated on behalf of the US Govt in 1940, with all of the major players in Europe. This included meeting Hitler, Hess, Ribbentrop etc. He knew what he was talking about. Above excerpt from his book 'The Time For Decision' (Harper 1944).


For more on how this has been achieved, read Data Mining Or Espionage?, The Nazi Prize For Treason, Continuation Of War By Other Means, The Allies Were Mad, Is Germany Purposely Spooking Markets?, German Subversion Methods, Ignorance Or Propaganda?, Germany's Long Game