(Subsequent reprints have been published acknowledging Alexander Schwab's authorship on the cover.) Between 1928/29 and 1933 Alexander Schwab was employed as chief press spokesman for the . The position was one in which it became his duty to be confronted every day with the country's social, political and economic difficulties. The Nazis took power in January 1933 and lost very little time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship. Schwab was dismissed from his job as a press spokesman under the provisions of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (""Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums"") enacted in April 1933. The law is frequently cited as an antisemitic device, which it was, but it was also directed at eliminating political opposition from the public services, and Schwab's very public political record would have been repugnant to the Nazis. That same month he was taken into "protective custody" by the Gestapo on account of suspected anti-state activities (""wegen des Verdachts staatsfeindlicher Umtriebe""). Sources vary as to the duration of this initial period of detention, which seems to have last for approximately two or six months. One source indicates that his (relatively) early release resulted from the personal intervention of his father-in-law, Dr. Paul Felisch, with , the Berlin police commissioner. As a former senior naval official (), Paul Felisch was at this stage still not without influence within establishment circles. Even before 1933 Schwab had teamed up with old comrades from their KAPD days to form the secretive operation, an apparently broadly based association drawing members from various groups on the political left, intended to prepare for "underground opposition" in the event of a Nazi take-over. By its nature, details of the organisation are in short supply, but others involved in setting it up included Karl Schröder, Arthur Goldstein and Bernhard Reichenbach. Schwab had been seriously considering emigration to Mexico. However, shortly after his release his wife Hildegard died, which some sources implicitly connect with his new determination to stay in Germany and engage in (illegal) political activity in opposition to the government. He joined with Franz Jung to launch "Wirtschaftskorrespondenz", a press agency with its focus on business news. It evidently filled a genuine niche in the market for this type of service, at one stage supplying regular economic news items to more than fifty newspapers, including Völkischer Beobachter, the mass circulation daily newspaper of the ruling Nazi Party.