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

THE DEATH OF MONEY 141jective world; it expresses the silent command of Fate in a mysteriousmurmur. It is the art of the great propagandist to detect this murmur andtranslate it into intelligible utterance and convincing action. If he can dothis, his utterances and actions may be full of contradictions — becausethe contradictions lie in the things themselves; they may be deceptiveand misleading. The lies of propaganda reveal the deeper truth of thewhole world's cynicism and dishonesty. By his lies the greatpropagandist involuntarily shows himself to be an honest, self-revealingprophet of the Devil.Hitler's profound, rapacious, avid eye for the weakness of thisintellectual age, awaiting only the man who can master it, is revealed inthe natural affinity between a depersonalized soul and a depersonalizedworld. The more passionately Hitler harps on the value of personality,the more clearly he reveals his nostalgia for something that is lacking.Yes, he knows this mass world, he knows how to guide it by'compliance.' He is like the crafty dope addict who manages to get hispoison despite all efforts of his physicians and guards to prevent him.Hitler's mind directs a personality without center, a restlessly pulsatingforce without constancy and firmness, oscillating like the needle of amagnet, trembling and dancing, but always finding the — momentary— north.Hitler never wearied of studying his own experiences and the worldabout him to discover the secrets and conditions of this world! He didnot have a plan and act accordingly; he acted, and out of his actions aplan arose. At first he sincerely believed that The Protocols of the WiseMen of Zion were the instructions for establishing Jewish worlddomination. Later, when the time came for him to formulate his ownaims, he was forced to recognize that they were laid down in thissupposed Jewish book.With a detachment of Reichswehr soldiers he founded his party,because this party had to be based on power. Accustomed to militarydiscipline, his men shouted 'Heil!' as their leader entered the meetinghall; after certain phrases, the speaker learned to make a barelyperceptible pause and give a silent sign of which he himself was barelyconscious, and the troop, with quick understanding, again broke out in a'Heil!' Then, one day, they, for the first time, clubbed off the platform ahostile speaker, who had innocendy be-