This the party did with the following notice in the December 5 issue of the German news-
paper Roter Sport(Red Sport), stating that Reich’s pamphlets would no longer be circulated
because they were contrary to the true Marxist .education of youth^23.
Following the edict, bitter disputes arose between youth groups strongly in favor of
the sex-political publications and the party hierarchy that opposed them. The party brought
in its big guns to crush the opposition. Its leaders declared that Reich was “counter-revolu-
tionary,” that “Reich wishes to make fornication organizations out of our associations,” that
his publications “discredited Marxism,” that “there were no orgasm disturbances among the
proletariat, only among the bourgeoisie,” and that Reich was replacing the “class struggle”
with the conflict between the young and the adults.
Under such pressure, a woman representative who had previously been enthusias-
tic about sex-political meetings now took the position that “anatomic details” and “unaes-
thetic irrelevancies” should not be discussed^24. Reich was impressed that people could
change their opinions so rapidly, moving with the tide and particularly with the leaders’ shifts
in sentiment. Later on he made a point of not fully trusting students and associates until “I
first see how you are in a crisis.”
He received considerable personal support, even though he did not actively wage a
campaign against his opponents. In one meeting of GAPSP, he gained 32 votes, the
Communist Party representatives 39. But the force of party leadership eventually swung sen-
timent fully in its favor—and against Reich.
Reich’s defeat within the Communist Party coincided with the left’s defeat at the
hands of the Nazis. On January 30, 1933, General Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor
of Germany, the first step toward his total dictatorship a few weeks later. On February 27,
the Reichstag fire broke out, an incident the Nazis used as a pretext to arrest 1,500 left-wing
officials and intellectuals. Many of Reich’s Marxist friends had gone underground or been
arrested. On March 2, an attack on Reich’s youth book appeared in the Nazi newspaper
Volkischer Beobachter.Reich felt he had to flee quickly, so about March 3 he left for Vienna.
His children had left shortly before to stay with their grandparents in Vienna. Soon after-
ward, Annie Reich would also leave for Vienna. However, by this time the marriage was over,
as we shall see in Chapter 15.
On March 5, Hitler received 44 percent of the vote in a national election, enough
of a plurality to assure him dictatorship. There was now no question of Reich’s returning to
Berlin.
In retrospect,it is clear that Reich never had a chance of organizing a major sex-
political effort against the Nazis. A few years later, in People in Trouble, he compared his effort
to that of a physician who faced the facts while the party continued to believe “in the heal-
ing power of useless medication.” He realized that he was dealing with a “moribund patient”
who could not be helped^25.
Yet part of Reich still could not believe that the patient was moribund, and felt that
his approach couldwin.Such optimism is puzzling in someone like Reich who realized the
164 Myron SharafFury On Earth