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

FIRST TRIUMPH 343had filled his treasury; and Hugenberg, who owned Germany's greatestnewspaper and film organization, had for the moment been obliged toput this power at his disposal. For the first time since 1924, thethundering voice of the unknown was heard in the great political arena.Hitler had found a friend on whose back he could climb — whose head,by way of gratitude, he was later to trample. Hugenberg announced thealliance to the public, declaring that the Nationalist parties had unitedfor life and death; Hitler said dryly that the alliance was only temporary,and that later, 'in the free play of forces, the clearest and boldest Germanmovement would fight through to final victory.' One of his sub-leaderscharacterized the alliance by saying that the Fuhrer would know how tohoodwink Hugenberg.Why had the plebiscite been a failure? Because the people had feltthat this was not the real issue. Young Plan, reparations, Treaty ofVersailles — these worries of yesterday began to be engulfed by themuch bigger monster, the world crisis. At first the victors had tried tobreak Germany. When this failed to improve their own position theyhad then shared their own prosperity with Germany, but still under thefiction of victor and defeated. Now victor and defeated alike wereoverwhelmed by the greater common enemy, the depression. Abroad,many people still saw in the crisis nothing but an unfortunate accident.But many Germans saw in it a millennial event, the definite proof thatsomething was rotten in this kind of state and society. While the SocialDemocratic chancellor, Hermann Muller, carried to power by theelections of 1928, defended high wages and social insurances againstthe attacks of the employers, the anti-democratic forces grew everstronger. No particular foreign or domestic issue was responsible, thesimple fact was that democracy more and more seemed unable to 'work.'The strongest of these forces had been, up to 1929, the Stahlhelm(Steel Helmet), a union of former soldiers, well organized on semimilitarylines, practically an outgrowth of several of the former 'freecorps.' The Stahlhelm, boasting of a coup d'etat rather than actuallyplanning one, was confronted by a similar gigantic troop, consistingmostly of trade-union workers, the loyal Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold. These private armies marched