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

360 DER FUEHRERmire, but he's embarrassed. — Hitler: They are all prepared. For tenyears they have heard of me, for the last year they have heard of nothingelse but me. What does he expect ? — Hess: Authority, of course. Youcan speak at length. Your will is unshakable. You give laws to the age.— Hitler: Then I'll speak with the firm voice, without yelling?—Hess:Of course.Hitler utters a few sentences. Hess, the human tuning-fork listens: '. . .No, not like that, quiet — no passion, commanding. You want nothingof him. It is Destiny that speaks. . . .' At length the adviser falls silent.Hitler is in the swing and speaks evenly for several minutes, with the'firm voice': ' ... It is indulging in a self-deception as harmful in the longrun as it is catastrophic in its effects, to believe that a movement such asthe one led by me can for all eternity be held down by the night-sticksof Messrs. Severing and Grzesinski. I warn you against regarding us asa movement comparable to the usual party formations. We areGermany's destiny and her future, regardless whether people think theyhave to question us on this point or that point in our program. We arerestoring to the nation a faith and a will, and by concentrating all ourstrength on action, revolutionary action if you will, we are gathering inour ranks every member of the German people who still has energy andcapacity for life. . . .' And so on. After six or seven minutes he breaksoff, already somewhat moved by his own words. 'Good, now I think wehave it,' he concludes. Then the time and place of the reception are set.He has conceived a picture of himself, and in all his philosophizingand politicizing he is constantly mixing colors for this picture. When heassured his bankrupts that their failure in civil life was really a proofthat they were an elite — he meant himself, seen in the picture of thesuperman misunderstood by the people: 'There is nothing great in theworld that does not owe its origin to the creative ability of an individualman.' The human mass, reflecting rank, exuberant, undirected life, mustbe shaped, it must be given meaning and purpose: 'Genius is not in themajority, but always in the single individual. The Napoleonic era didnot give Napoleon his name, Napoleon imprinted it on the era. . . .People talk of woods, meadows, fields, mines, buildings, and believethat these