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

114 DER FUEHRERashamed to promise his backers utter obedience toward 'capital' when heshould come to power; at other times he was proud, especially if thegame did not seem worth the candle.'In the summer of 1921,' Hitler continues, 'work in the business officehad grown impossible. So many people kept milling around in thenarrow room that organized activity was out of the question. Everybodywas in everybody else's way. Slowly there began to be consequenceswhich I have since then often observed in similar circumstances: ourpeople grew nervous. Finally, the summer of 1921 brought a drasticchange in the business management of the party. . . .'In the whole management. This was when Hitler won the leadership.At the head of its business administration he placed a man in whom hehad unlimited personal confidence, who was responsible only to him,and who, by his extreme brutality and unpleasantness, made himself sodetested in the whole party that only Hitler's authority kept him in hispost. But he was an effective business manager. This man was Hitler'sformer war comrade, Max Amann, a second sergeant in the sameregiment: 'On my request, party comrade Amann took over the positionof party business manager. He told me at once that further work in thisoffice was absolutely impossible. And so, for a second time, we wentout in search of quarters, and rented an old abandoned inn in Corneliusstrasse,near the Gartnerplatz. ... A part of the old taproom waspartitioned off and made into an office for party comrade Amann andmyself. In the main room, a very primitive wicket was constructed. TheS.A. leadership was housed in the kitchen. . . .' At this time the partyalready had large, double-doored, steel cabinets.This homey comfort was suddenly endangered. A new governmenthad come in, a new police too; and these new Pharaohs did not want toknow too much of Joseph. Up to this time Hitler and his gang had beenable to beat up their enemies without interference from the state. Nowthe state began to open its eyes. For breaking into a hostile meeting withone of his gangs and chasing the speaker off the platform with a club, acourt sentenced Hitler to three months' imprisonment. Two of themonths were suspended: that is, he would not have to serve them if inthe future he refrained