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

294 DER FUEHRERconcealed their own names. The S.A., for instance, denied that theywere a 'storm section' (Sturm Abteilung), pretending to be merely a'security section' (Sicherheits Abteilung); the initials S.A. stood forboth. They boasted of their old Prussian discipline, but disobeyed theirleader to his face. Edmund Heines, a choice example of the armedbohemian and political murderer, was the leader of these malcontents inMunich; and, what really made him dangerous, led them in the name ofRohm, who stood aside. Heines was a born ruffian, tall and broad as abarn door, yet as agile as a greyhound; his mighty form was graced by arepulsively girlish face. He would sit with Rohm and other friends in theBratwurst-glockl, a tavern in the inner city; the host, a certain Zentner,also an S.A. man, was one of the group. They accused Hitler of lettingthe S.A. go to ruin, not training it in sufficiently military style, givingthe soldiers in it unworthy jobs to do. With a heavy heart, Hitler had tointervene — with a heavy heart, because he regretted the loss of a singleman; but his personal authority came first. At the end of May, 1927, hecalled the Munich S.A. together in the 'Hirsch-brau-Keller' beer hall; thepublic was strictly excluded. Hitler shouted at the crushed assemblage:'The clique from the Brat-wurstglockl are all fairies: Heines, Rohm,Zentner, and the rest. Am I expected to take accusations from suchpeople!'A serious matter, worse than a scandal. The perversion waswidespread in the secret murderers' army of the post-war period, and itsdevotees denied that it was a perversion. They were proud, regardedthemselves as 'different from the others,' meaning better. They boastedabout their superiority in more or less the same terms which Plato hadcoined in his Banquet:They [the homosexuals] are the best among the boys and young menbecause they are the most valiant of them. This is strikingly demonstratedby the fact that, after growing up, they — and they alone — are fit forruling the state.Rohm said that the misfortune of the present age was domination bywomen; he praised the epochs that had been dominated by figures likeAlexander the Great, Caesar, Charles XII of Sweden, Prince Eugene ofSavoy, and Frederick the Great — five great war-