Although HIAG's leaders discouraged political affiliations, any leanings were to be "in the spirit of European and patriotic sentiment," as described in a 1951 issue of Wiking-Ruf ("Viking Call").[25] Internal disagreements began to emerge in the mid-1950s as to the stance of the organisation: Steiner, Gille and Meyer favoured a more political, outspoken orientation. The rest of the leadership favored a moderate approach in order not to jeopardise HIAG's goals of legal and economic rehabilitation, which, in their opinion, could only come from the establishment: the government and the Bundestag.[26]