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

116 DER FUEHRERBy this they hoped to achieve peace and understanding at home. TheLerchenfeld government in Bavaria nourished the same hopes andstopped the fight against Berlin. Even the popular question of a return tothe Bavarian monarchy would for the moment be shelved. The politicaldomination of the majors and murder clubs must be ended.In April, Wirth and Rathenau set out for Genoa. At a conference of allgreat powers except the United States, a true peace was at last to beprepared. Lloyd George, the British Premier, was its author. His aimwas to devise an economic plan as a basis for a normal world. Savingthe world by economics was a favorite idea of all British governmentsfrom Lloyd George in 1922 to Ramsay MacDonald in 1933. In 1922,German leaders shared the same faith. 'Economics is destiny,' Rathenauhad said. Regretting his part in the Peace of Versailles, Lloyd Georgewas to spend twenty years combating it. In 1922, he still clung harshlyand firmly to the letter of the treaty, but strove to attenuate it byeconomic understandings. This might have led to a German-Britishfront against France; but Germany was not strong enough for such apolicy, and Lloyd George himself was not politically strong enough inhis own country. The sensation of Genoa was the Bolsheviki, who, ledby Foreign Commissar Chicherin, appeared for the first time at a conference.During the Genoa Conference, Rathenau, to the amazement ofthe world, concluded the Treaty of Rapallo with the Russians. In theface of France's hardness and refusal to compromise, Rathenau wantedto show that Germany, too, could carry on a strong policy. This wouldhave meant something if Russia had been strong, but internationally shewas almost as impotent as Germany. The conference ended in formal aswell as practical failure.Yet there had been a beginning of international conversations.Germany no longer sat at the council table purely in the r61e of aconquered country. Perhaps Rathenau would be the man to leadGermany back into the ranks of the great powers?Rathenau, the Jew! And perhaps tomorrow the savior of Germany!Hitler was not yet important enough to be in this play; but nevertheless,here was his dilemma. Could he wish to see Germany saved by a Jew?If he was sincere: he could not.