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

306 DER FUEHRERlast year of the World War as an ensign (aspirant to the officer's career)in a Bavarian regiment, but never reached the front. Defeat andrevolution put an end to his dream of becoming an officer, and a dull,gray life began. Himmler chose a simple and practical course of study.He wanted to become a farmer but with an academic title; from 1919 to1922, he studied agriculture at the Technische Hochschule in Munich,and, on passing the easiest of all academic examinations, won a diplomafor agronomy. Off and on, he was active with Rohm in the secretmurderers' army and stood beside him on November 9, 1923, when hedelivered the Munich District Military Command to General von Epp.After the putsch he led a hard life; for a time he served as privatesecretary to Gregor Strasser, succeeding Goebbels. In 1928, he madehimself independent in a modest way by acquiring a poultry farm inWaldtrudering.Himmler is an excellent example of what a task can make of a man.He had a task of the first order to solve, and the task made him; to anature mediocre at best it gave a weightiness which the apparatus thatgrew up around him helped him to bear. Men whe combine the gift ofcreation or leadership with deep insight or independent judgment arealways rare; in the National Socialist Movement they can be counted onthe fingers; Himmler in any case is not one of them. His great qualities,infrequent in his milieu, are industry, precision, thoroughness. It is aquality inherent in a body of men working for a common purpose thatgreat results can be achieved by the men who are not great. Apreponderance of strong personalities can even force a split, and onlythrough the addition of average qualities can an efficient machine bebuilt up. Himmler is the living, actual proof of Hitler's thesis, 'that thestrength of a political party lies, not in having single adherents ofoutstanding intelligence, but in disciplined obedience. A company oftwo hundred men of equal capabilities would in the long run be moredifficult to discipline than a group in which one hundred and ninety areless capable and ten are of greater abilities.'In the National Socialist machine Himmler is a wire activated by theelectric current, connecting important parts. He looks like the caricatureof a sadistic school-teacher, and this caricature conceals the man like amask. If one takes away the pince-nez and uniform,