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

Chapter XITHE AGE OF GOLDFOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE WAR THE GERMAN peoplewere happy. Again there was work for all; there was money for thosewho knew how to make it; there was enough food; for those with thesweet tooth there was whipped cream — a sign of prosperity thatappeared very late in the German post-war world. Again there were silkstockings and even pure silk dresses; women began to use lipstick; thefirst radios croaked; even people who were not immeasurably wealthybegan to buy automobiles; more people began to travel in the littleairplanes permitted by the Versailles Treaty — and negotiations forlarger ones were proceeding in Paris. Passport regulations, travelrestrictions, closed borders vanished; it was as though a cloak of mistwere removed from Germany. The world opened up like animmeasurable blue sea full of golden islands. Again all water and landroutes led into the infinite; again each man was free to go out and searchfor his horn of plenty. American financiers went to Germany looking forfactories willing to borrow good American dollars from them. Germanscholars again appeared at foreign scientific congresses. French studentswent to Germany and invited their German comrades to youthcongresses and festivals at Paris or Geneva. A Zeppelin flew fromGermany to America; a German car won the first prize at a bigautomobile race in Italy; a German of Jewish descent won the worldchess championship.This was the great year of recovery, 1925. Everything was to be asbefore. Back to 1914 was the unuttered command. The bitter