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

142 DER FUEHRERlievcd in the promised freedom of speech; after another meeting theymarched, for the first time, four abreast through the city, singing: 'WhenJewish blood gushes from our knives, things will be better.' And Hitlerlearned from his followers. He learned that this kind of troop possessesmore than the power of its fists; it possesses an almost irresistible powerover men's souls. The troopers tramped through the streets like the stateitself. Five hundred marching storm troopers expressed more power andauthority than ten mounted policemen. In the onlooker, doubts arose;was this marching monster rebellion, or was it already state power?These men had to learn through accidents to create a distance betweenthemselves and other men, to distinguish themselves by threats. At firstHitler merely knew that his men were disguised soldiers, a fragment ofthe Reichswehr like himself; and so he demanded a military salute, handto their caps. But the enthusiastic, adventurous young men who began togather round the hardened old soldiers had never known real militarytraining. To them the regular military salute with its bent elbow was astrain. They took to greeting their comrades with a simple wave of thehand, which soon stiffened into an abrupt thrust. Thus the so-calledFascist or Hitler salute was born. The new storm-troop salute developedshortly after the appearance of the first Fascist symbols in Italy. Awhole system of gestures, cries, songs, attitudes, insignia, and flagscame into being; and this multicolored, many-voiced expression of aninner attitude made it clear that these people had more than a program,that they had more than an objective aim: the symbols embodied awhole manner of being and feeling. A definite type of men had cometogether; and it was by their totality and likeness that they produced aneffect. Seldom could any of them say what they really wanted; but theywanted it with a determination which was expressed in their symbols.The original mind, who had contributed most to creating these symbols,was the Italian poet, Gabriele d'Annunzio, co-founder of the FascistMovement, later forced aside by his robuster rival, Benito Mussolini.But d'Annunzio did not create the most original emblem of the newmovement — the swastika.What the swastika first meant, whence it came — that is one of