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

WAR IN THE RUHR 169This agreement had been made by Rohm. To his mind, the goal of allhis desires was virtually achieved. His side had a large army for civilwar; they had the power; all they needed was the will. But just this wasthe weak point. The will had to be aroused in the generals. And hereHitler, unlike Rohm, sensed an almost insuperable difficulty: thesegenerals would never want civil war. Hitler was in a desperate position,requiring of them a political decision they had no intention of making,since they no longer thought it necessary. They already had their army.In these straits, Hitler decided to employ the magnetic force of hisvoice on Lossow. Perhaps the general could be bewitched. Hitler calledon him week after week, and in April, 1923, nearly every day. Hebesought him to raise the banner of civil war, to summon the entireReichswehr to revolution, to overthrow the government in Berlin.Lossow later admitted that Hitler's eloquence made a great impressionon him — though only for a time. But one thing Lossow could neverdeny: '. . . that in our conferences of spring, 1923, Hitler never wantedanything for himself. He wanted no position, no government post; all hewanted was to make propaganda and prepare the terrain for him whowas to come. . . .'Who was to come? Directly questioned, Hitler would have replied,perhaps with some embarrassment: Ludendorff, the great QuartermasterGeneral of the World War. He did not yet dare to say: myself. Hemodestly declared that he was only a drummer who would awakenGermany. In those days Hitler always hid behind this myth of modestywhen the influential leaders of the German counter-revolution began tosuspect that they were nurturing their own gravedigger.Meanwhile, in the Ruhr, little troops of men crept at night through theindustrial territory. They laid dynamite on railroad trestles, bridges, andjunctions. French military trains were blown up. In the canals shipssank, and for days the westward stream of coal was interrupted. Thesecret army had again found a task. These dynamite squads were led atnight by guides who knew the country. The dynamiters were the creamof armed bohemia. The guides, however, were often even more dubiouscharacters, who for