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

THE BEER HALL PUTSCH 207fled to Italy and later went to his wife's native Sweden. His unfoundedfear of Munich justice kept him for nearly three years in unnecessaryexile. Hess was cleverer; he returned, and an equally mild and briefsentence brought him to the same so-called 'prison' as Hitler, asanatorium-like building in the little city of Landsberg am Lech.Hitler's cause had collapsed more than he had at first realized. In May,the French people elected a new parliament. It was a crushing defeat forPoincare, virtually a revolution of the French people against the war inthe Ruhr, a severe condemnation of French military policy, a clear 'No'to all aspirations on the Rhine, a renunciation of the policy ofadventures and conquests on German soil. The victorious parties of theSocialist and democratic Left had the power and determination tooverthrow not only Poincare but Alexandre Millerand, the President ofthe republic, who had favored Poin-care's policy. To be sure, elementsof domestic policy were also to blame for the landslide; to be sure, theFrench people stood as firmly as ever for security on the Rhine. But foryears to come they were to seek this security by a policy ofunderstanding; not only with Germany, but also with England, a threecorneredrelationship of peace with the foe under the aegis of aprotector. After five years of vain, costly preparation, France renouncedmilitary hegemony over Europe, and withdrew to the line of securityand defense. This was the clear will of the French people as expressedby the French parliamentary majority. In 1918, the 'last' of all wars hadended; this was the most sacred axiom in all French politics. WhenGermany bled economically as a result of the Ruhr, even when shecapitulated, she had made the French military aware of the limits oftheir power; thus, in spite of the capitulation, the Ruhr War was thevictory for Germany which Hitler had always feared, vainlyprophesying that it would not come to pass.In the summer of 1924, at a conference in London, English, French,and German statesmen met as equals for the first time in years.Stresemann, shouting and red in the face, argued with French PremierEdouard Herriot, but they arrived at an agreement. The Dawes Plan wasaccepted by all parties on August 16, 1924, in London, the Frenchbegan to evacuate the first places in