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

ARYANS OF ALL NATIONS, UNITE 117It was at this time that he began to believe in his own God-givenmission. It was no accident that — in his own words — he 'learned fromthe Bible with boundless love how our Lord and Saviour seized hiswhip,' and marched on Jerusalem. Was not he himself armed with aheavy crocodile whip, marching through the streets of his belovedMunich, which he sometimes called the 'Mecca' of National Socialism?A short time previous, it is true, he had admitted in a chastened mood tohis friend Georg Schott: 'All of us are nothing but little Saint Johns. Iam waiting for a Christ.' But the period of modesty was drawing to aclose. Were not all the signs by which Heaven customarily announcesits prophets being fulfilled in him? The fanatical faith of the disciples,the rejoicing of the masses, the hostility or contempt of those in highplaces — and now wasn't he going through a sort of Golgotha? His Golgotha,to be sure, was nothing more impressive than the month in prisonwhich he wished so fervently to avoid; but before going in, he tookleave of his people with the words: 'Two thousand years ago the mob ofJerusalem dragged a man to execution in just this way.'Then the prison gate closed behind him. For a month he sat furiousand silent in Stadelheim near Munich. In this month happened theinevitable: Germany was saved from being saved by a Jew. Right-Wingfanatics, just the common type that believed itself to be an elite, shotWalter Rathenau from a speeding car (June 24, 1922). The measureseemed full. The workers rose in great demonstrations; for a whole daythings looked like a new revolution. But the revolution was spent beforeit began; the movement found no leaders. The counter-revolution, whichhad crawled into its corner for a moment, emerged and breathed easy.The only tangible result of the revolutionary move was that theReichstag in Berlin passed a 'Law for the Defense of the Republic' as asupposed curb to extremist agitation on the Right. The gesture was morethan feeble. The law led to a few more or less serious prison sentencesfor agitators who called the state a Jewish republic, the SocialDemocratic President Friedrich Ebert (without the shadow ofjustification), a brothel-keeper, and the banner of the republic, a filthyrag. Nowhere in the world would such a law attract attention. But the