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

370 DER FUEHRERunderstood by 'total action'; it is an intrinsic part of the political art toleave most things undone, trusting that they will take care ofthemselves; in the decisive moment, however, to act ruthlessly — andwhat the layman calls political determination is the gift — a rare one, tobe sure — of knowing when the decisive moment has come; ofunderstanding where action in this moment will lead. Hitler's impatientstaff and sub-leaders expected him to act like an armed intellectual;instead, and this is what made him their superior and leader, he actedlike an armed bohemian. The best of them were prepared to sacrificeeverything for the party machine; he and his most trusted cronies weredetermined if necessary to smash the machine to bits for his ownperson: '... It would be better,' he wrote in controversy with rebellioussubordinates, 'that there should be no National Socialist movement at allthan a movement of indiscipline and disobedience.' For he is a politicianto his last fiber — that is, a man for whom everything is a means to anend; and the whole universe, from God down to the cheese-mite,including all love and all hate, including man and beast and theelements, is only raw material for power.Most of the S.A. leaders did not fully realize that they had a politicianfor a leader and must incline to his political will. For many of them, theLeader myth was a lie, serviceable perhaps within limits. Hitler's abilityto chain masses with the power of the word aroused in some a ratherdisparaging admiration; he talked so much, they said, that he never gotaround to action. Aware that this doubting and mocking S.A. must besubjected once and for all, he had recourse to the one old-timer forwhom he was still 'Ade,' the bosom friend: Ernst Rohm, lieutenantcolonelin the Bolivian army. Rohm's position in Bolivia had been madedifficult by a revolution in which Kundt had involved himself; atelegram was sent from Munich to La Paz, and by the end of 1930 theman who had created the National Socialist Party was back in Germany.Again Hitler had beside him the man who knew him too well for anypretenses on either side. Rohm clearly understood that his task was tobuild up Hitler as 'Der Fuhrer.' To a collaborator endowed with suchtalents, ironic clearsightedness, and at the same time good-will, Hitlerhad to allow the greatest liberties, despite Rohm's faults and