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

250 DER FUEHRERin 1923, but dressed differently — you had a Swastika and a gun then,you loafer!' The man thus addressed removed his scarlet cardboard nosefor a moment, fastened his artificial mustache more securely, and saidwith embarrassment: 'Well, in those days we were crazy.'In 1925, Mardi Gras, the high point of the carnival, fell on February24, the anniversary of the day on which Hitler in 1920 had made hisfirst public speech. Released from his comfortable arrest two monthsbefore, Hitler had again found himself free, but alone and little noticed,in semi-obscurity. Now, with his playful belief in symbols and numbers,he would have liked to raise his thundering voice again on a twentyfourthof February. And it had to be a Mardi Gras! On this day Hitlerwouldn't have found a hundred people wanting to hear him talk onGermany's defeat, Germany's disgrace, or Germany's future. He wouldhave found no hall, no free wall space for his posters, no trumpeter togreet his entry into the hall with the old familiar heart-lifting fanfare.Germany, Bavaria, even Munich, had almost forgotten him— as theyhad forgotten the war.Within a year after his defeats and false prophecies the prisoner ofLandsberg had become an embarrassment to his friends, and a laughingstockfor the masses, in so far as anyone mentioned him at all. Themovement had fallen apart; the leaders reviled one another to theamusement of the public; there was scarcely one whom the others didnot accuse of stupidity, cowardice, financial irregularities, or anunsavory private life. They fought for a share in sudden fame, for theapproval of the masses, for frequent mention in the newspapers; andmost of all they fought over money. This was one of the main reasonswhy they suddenly participated in parliamentary elections, although theimprisoned leader loathed parliaments. For a member of parliamentreceived a monthly remuneration of four hundred to eight hundredmarks — by German concepts a considerable sum, and at that epoch ofbeginning stabilization positively gigantic. In the various parliamentaryelections, under the aura of Hitler's great speeches before the bar ofjustice, they registered at first considerable successes; later, theirsuccesses rapidly diminished and turned to bitter defeats. In twoelections in 1924,