Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

ARYANS OF ALL NATIONS, UNITE 113liked to share his leadership, and this may have been his intention. Butthis was just the bait which hooked a certain type of the masses; thoselonely minds who believe themselves (mistakenly) to be an elite. Hitlerdid not hesitate a moment; he immediately gave up the idea ofbecoming a leader over all of Germany and contented himself withabsolute authority over his followers in Munich and later in Bavaria.Instead of risking a doubtful struggle on unknown terrain, he kept to thecomparatively small field where he was sure of success — sure of themasses, sure of protection by the state power, sure of men and money.The Reichswehr lent soldiers, and when the soldiers shot and beattheir victims, Police President Pohner's men saw nothing; but if thevictims defended themselves, they were arrested for disorderly conduct.Money poured into the treasury. 'The party,' Hitler claimed later, 'wasfinanced almost exclusively by my meetings. The membership duesstood in no relation to the money brought in by my speeches. To besure, the party did have one big backer at that time; our unforgettableDietrich Eckart.' The unforgettable, in turn, had backers of his own,General von Epp, Bechstein, the piano manufacturer, and others. Andthese backers and backers of backers — most of them outsidersthemselves among the rich — were able, with comparatively smallmeans, to buy for Hitler more and more of this stock of passion anddaring that was embodied in the party. It was the time when murdercould be had for small change.Some facts about Hitler's resources in these first years were found outlater by an investigating committee of the Bavarian diet. The spendersmostly were headstrong individualists, lone wolves among the bigadministrators of Germany's wealth; as a rule, small or medium-sizedindustrialists, not seldom half-broke themselves. In Germany, bigmoney for political purposes used not to come from individual backers,but from corruption funds which were administered by the bigassociations of manufacturers, employers, bankers. Up to the last daybefore he finally came to power, for the most part, Hitler had access tothese funds only when he was associated with other and more moderategroups — that is, when he seemed to come with tied hands. SometimesHitler was not