Pop-Up Reichstag

Tramp, tramp in field boots and brown shirts, Deputies of the new Reichstag chosen in Germany's "Ja Election" (TIME, Nov. 20) marched into Berlin's Kroll Opera House last week, poured in brown streams down the aisles and oozed into their seats. Almost the only ununiformed Deputy was Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen, a Papal Chamberlain and Nazi-dom's valued link with Rome. His immaculate cutaway made a black plum in the brown Nazi pudding. For the first time since the War no Deputy was a Jew, a Communist, a Socialist, a woman.

Stomping up onto the stage with theatre spotlights trained upon him. Speaker General Hermann Wilhelm Goring, 210-lb. Premier of Prussia, took his place on a swastika-decked dais and waived the formality of a roll call. It did not matter who was present, since everyone was going to vote "Ja." To set all Germany an example of speed, General Goring startlingly dispensed with even the Nazi anthem, the "Horst Wessel Song" (see col. 1). In crisp, commanding sentences, shouted in parade ground tones, Speaker Goring "requested" the Deputies to leap to their feet in unison when they wished to signify approval. Popping up and down like a roomful of marionets, the Reichstag transacted all business of the week in seven and a half minutes flat, re-elected Speaker Goring, elected three Vice Presidents, empowered Speaker Goring to appoint all committees and adjourned sine die, subject to the Speaker's call.

Pointedly absent was Chancellor Hitler. Night before the Reichstag met he had summoned all the Deputies, made them swear personal fealty to himself and then rushed off to Wilhelmshaven to greet the German battle cruiser Koln on her return from a round-the-world "goodwill cruise."

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