Sontheimer, Antidemokratisches Denken in der Weimarer Republik. This feudal political point of view, which arrogantly denies rights of participation and co-determination to the public, is one of the dominating themes of a publication brought out by Papen under the title Appell an das deutsche Gewissen. Reden zur nationalen Revolution. In it he says, for example:
'Once it is claimed that everything wearing a human face already has the right to equality on this earth [!]; it need not be surprising if the collective idea [he means Bolshevism] grows to cover and stifle all of political existence';
and:
'It is nonsense and a misunderstanding of democracy if the exponents of the masses continuously try to have a say in running things. To be a statesman means first of all to be responsible to God, to history, and to one's conscience. Only then does one have to account publicly for one's actions.'