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

THE AGE OF GOLD 255could easily deal; men whom he could impress even when he was in thehumblest circumstances, who would take anything from him; who wereliterally willing to be beaten, and remained loyal because they could notfind easier or more abundant bread anywhere else. He consciouslygathered little men around him — and this quite literally; for it isnoteworthy that the intimate circle of Hitler's old guard, the Streichers,Amanns, Hoffmanns, Webers, Berchtolds, were physically puny, someof them dwarf-like.To his little men peering up at the summit of the social pyramid thatseemed so hopelessly distant, Hitler said consolingly that this summitwould some day come down of its own accord: 'Believe me, this timewill come. The illusory foundation of our economic life will againvanish beneath our feet and then perhaps people will be able tounderstand our words better than now.'This he said to four thousand people who assembled on February 27,1925, inside and outside of the Burgerbrau Keller. Carnival was past,the. faithful were on the spot. They had come from all Bavaria, andthere were four thousand of them — no more.Be simple, be primitive, be brutal!—that was the command which inmany different versions Hitler kept hammering into his four thousandfor two hours. Let them not rely on reason, but rather trust in theiremotion: 'Reason can treacherously deceive a man, emotion is sure andnever leaves him.' Nowhere in the present day has politics beenconducted with so much calculating intelligence as by Hitler; but it wasa cardinal rule of this intelligence to bring the masses into a condition inwhich they were conscious of a goal, but uncritical. Go to the masses!he cried to his discharged lieutenants, professors, and bank clerks. Onlyamong the masses will you find idealism and spirit of struggle, and thatis because they possess little material or spiritual goods: 'For possessions,whether of a spiritual or a material nature, will always paralyzethe desire for struggle.' Therefore, go to the masses; however, do notbeg from them, but beat your fanaticism into them according to themethods which for five years you learned as armed bohemians; do notforget: 'The key to the heart of the people is not "if you please," butpower.' In this the masses are like women: 'It is not for nothing that yousee so many women here in this hall.