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

292 DER FUEHRERchange was made only in one point. Concerning the party struc-tureHitler had written in the first edition: 'The first chairman of a localgroup is elected, but then he becomes its responsible leader. . . . Thesame principle applies to the next higher organization, the district,county or gau. The first chairman is always elected, but then vested withunlimited power and authority. And the same, finally, applies to theleadership of the party as a whole. The chairman is elected, but then heis exclusive leader of the movement.'But in the following edition the passage runs: 'The first chairman of alocal group is appointed by the next higher leader, he is the responsibleleader of a local group. . . . The same principle applies to the next higherorganization, the district, county or gau. The leader is always appointedfrom above and at the same time vested with unlimited power andauthority. Only the leader of the whole party, because of the associationlaws, is elected in a general membership meeting. But then he isexclusive leader of the movement.'And thus, after seven years of existence, the National Socialist Partyceased to be a democratic party. Its founders had preached and practicedviolence, intolerance, and hatred; but they had not desired to bow to adictator. Their program had declared that the future Germany must begoverned by a central 'parliament.' The strongest personalities hadwithdrawn from the movement, unwilling to recognize Hitler'sdictatorship (Ludendorff, Rohm); others had openly rebelled against thisdictatorship (Strasser, Goebbels), or accepted it with embittered silence(Rosenberg, Feder). On purpose Hitler had sowed hostility among hisfollowers and now finally harvested power.But he had not harvested money. One of the best providers, despiteprinces and princesses, still remained Streicher in Nuremberg with hislarge following and sometimes more than murky sources. Streicherboasted that one of his most reliable contributors was a wealthy partycomrade whose wife was his, Streicher's, mistress. But then youngHermann Esser, a great lady's man, claimed that he, in his own personalway, had found a more direct access to this wealth, and that he had doneso with the full knowledge