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The political situation in Germany and Bolivia in the 1930s and 1940s
by Aitana Sánchez, Martina Prudencio and Mateo Martinez
The situation in Bolivia has always been characterised by political segregation and economic instability. The decade of the 1930s began with problems after Hernando Siles had the desire to stay in power longer than he should have. For this reason, Siles was forced to resign after a revolution. A military junta then took over the country. The military had close relations with Germany, and Ernst Röhm, for example, who was a troop trainer from 1928 to 1930.
(https://whoswho.de/bio/ernst-roehm.html) In 1931 Daniel Salamanca took power and under his leadership the problems with Paraguay began, which led to the Chaco War, lasting until 1935. However, international personalities also took part in this conflict, such as the German military man Hans Kundt and his lieutenant German Busch (with German father and Bolivian mother), who helped the Bolivian army against the Paraguayans.
Busch participated in three coups d’état: the first against Daniel Salamanca, the second against José Luis Tejada Sorzano and the third against David Toro. In 1934 Tejada Sorzano came into power in a coup d’état thanks to the support of the revolutionaries, including Bush, but was overthrown by the same revolutionaries in 1936. Busch was only in power for a few days until David Toro took over the presidency. But in 1937 there was a second movement and Busch came to power. In order to stay in power, Busch maintained a fascist stance and close contacts with the German National Socialism.
The Third Reich government gave the Busch government strong support by sending economic advisers and oil consultants to Bolivia. Months before his suicide in 1939, German Busch announced in April of the same year that he wanted to become a Nazi dictator and needed the support of the German government to do so. (Brockmann, Robert: Dos disparos al amanecer. Vida y muerte de Germán Busch, 2016). General Carlos Quintanilla took over the presidency after the death of Busch. He restored the 1938 constitution, which had previously been abolished by Busch, and stipulated that the army would take control of the country until new elections were held.
Sport event of the Schools of La Paz according to the fascist model in 1935
Following the 1940 elections, General Enrique Peñaranda, who severed Bolivia’s links with the Nazi “axis” and sided with the United States in the Second World War, declared war on Germany in 1943. Peñaranda did not take advantage of this relationship, however, and squandered the country’s raw materials by selling them at a very low price, unlike other countries which took advantage of the war circumstances to sell their raw materials at a higher price.
During Peñaranda’s government, General Bush’s militants managed to reorganise themselves after their capture and to found the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR). On 20 December 1943, Peñaranda was overthrown by a military group called Razón de Patria, and Gualberto Villaroel, supported by the MNR, took over the presidency. Three years later Villaroel was lynched by the population. After the 1947 elections, Enrique Hertzog took over the presidency and handed in his resignation in 1949. During the years of his term of office, for health reasons, he transferred power to his Vice-President Mamerto Urriolagoitia, thus ushering in a new stage for Bolivia that ended in the 1952 revolution.
On the other hand, Germany had already entered a phase of crisis and destabilisation after its defeat in the First World War. Many Germans believed that social democracy was to blame for the defeat in the war. Since the mid-1920s, however, the situation in Germany had improved. In 1930, due to the world economic crisis, Germany was not in a position to pay off the war-related debts, as had been laid down in the Versailles Peace Treaty. Unemployment rose dramatically. In addition, a political crisis caused more discontent. Cabinet formations were disbandend and new elections were held constantly.
After the founding of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), it enjoyed progressive popular support thanks to Adolf Hitler’s oratorical skills, so that it received more and more votes in the elections. The conservative parties did not receive sufficient popular support, and President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor in the hope that they could form a government with a majority with the NSDAP. On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of the Reich. Hitler came to power legitimately, although he had not been elected by a majority of the German people. From the beginning, Hitler began to accumulate power. The Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933 was a major event, as it was from this date onwards that the regulations suspending the civil rights of the population, such as freedom of expression, came into force. The political opponents of the Nazi regime were ostracised, persecuted and exterminated. On 1 April 1933 the government launched an official campaign against the Jews who were victims of Nazi’s harassment and oppression. The measures against the Jews began with the announcement of a boycott of Jewish products and ended with the tragic Holocaust. As the persecution of the Jews in Germany increased and later, during the German occupation, throughout Europe, their migration also increased, including migration to countries such as Bolivia. So by the mid-1940s the Jewish community in Bolivia had about 15,000 members, mostly from Germany, Austria and Poland (see video interview with Ricardo Udler, President of the Jewish Community of Bolivia). Although German Busch pursued a fascist policy, he was not anti-Semitic and, at the insistence of the German-born mine owner Moritz Hochschild, allowed several thousand Jews to enter Bolivia (https://www.n-tv.de/politik/War-Hochschild-der-Oskar-Schindler-Boliviens–article19903770.html).
After the end of the war, a great return migration set in, so that Bolivia’s Jewish community today comprises only about 500 members. Relations with Germany normalised in 1952 with the arrival of the new German ambassador. However, the conflicts within the German community were not yet over (see also page 4), as a letter from the ambassador to the German Cultural Community shows:
As we can see, there are similarities and differences between the two nations and their policies, particularly in the economic and political crisis. One important detail is the influence of National Socialism in Bolivian politics, from the Bush government to the beginning of the MNR administration, a party that, despite several socialist and integrative ideas, also shared ideas originating from Germany, but did not know of any hatred of Jews.