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

FEW FLAMES BURN IN GERMANY 289bade them 'study, and trust' the Fuhrer. Above all, they must realize 'thathe is more than you and I, that he is an instrument of the Divine Willwhich shapes history in the maelstrom of new creative joy.'When Goebbels issued this statement, he was twenty-nine years old,no longer a child. Hitler had brought him to Munich, thence toBerchtesgaden. Goebbels was introduced to Hitler's 'family'; he metHess and Rosenberg; he was unable to win Amann, who declared him tobe the 'Mephisto of the party'; but he did make friends with Schwarz,the party treasurer. In Goebbels, Hitler had found a man who couldlisten for days to his endless speeches; the arduously cultivated fire ofenthusiasm in his eyes never abated. 'A man who burns like a flame,'said Hitler to others, though the act was piled on so thick that it shouldnot have escaped him.Goebbels was a man who could control his nervous tension as well asHitler, if not better. In certain externals they were similar. Both camefrom poor families, both had made a failure of their start in life. ButGoebbels was by far the more worldly; he knew how to adapt andincline himself to circumstances amid which Hitler would simply havegiven up. Hitler felt a certain community of fate, and Goebbelsconscientiously developed it. The younger man copied the older inmanner, speech, ideas, even hobbies, partly because there was no betterexample of the political career, and partly because it unconsciouslywarmed the heart of the party leader and filled him with confidence inhis young admirer. Actually Goebbels learned much from Hitler:through him he achieved full certainty that this was an era of decay inwhich a minority that knew what it wanted could confidently reach forthe highest power, provided it found no means too evil, and shunned nolie, betrayal, or act of violence. In their Munich and Berchtesgadenconversations of February, 1926, the strange teacher must have shown awild contagious conviction — perhaps he had never found so willingand unquestioning a disciple; this was even better than Hess.'Dear, honored Adolf Hitler,' wrote Goebbels to his leader after theseconversations, 'I have learned so much from you. In a com-