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

404 DER FUEHRERout delay.' Strasser, Feder, and Frick had for years put forward thissuggestion at every new session of the Reichstag, and no one had paidmuch attention to the little group. But now a hundred and sevendeputies, a sixth of parliament, were demanding the expropriation of thebanks, and the bourgeois public, Hitler's financial backers among them,was shocked: that was Bolshevism!So these were the aims of the mouse and snake heroes, the libertarianbands, the Brown People's Army! Goebbels had been speaking of it foryears —'. . . certainly we fight with Marxist methods, only we will do itbetter than the Marxists' — but who had listened ? For a long time it hadbeen one of his favorite images to say that the National Socialists wouldone day 'mount the barricades.' He had been looking for a poet andmusician to provide a revolutionary song, 'whose chords would ring outon the barricades of freedom.' At length he found his poet of thebarricades. It was the son of a Protestant military chaplain namedWessel, a student, National Socialist, and storm trooper. This youngHorst Wessel was the exact mixture of ruffian and idealist thatconstitutes the armed bohemian. As a student, he suddenly broke withhis family and student connections, to lead the life which in his opinionwas suitable for a young savior of the lost national soul; he lived in aslum section of Berlin with a girl who had formerly been a prostitute. Itwas an exaggeration to call this minister's son a pimp, but it is true thathe lived, fought, and finally died surrounded by pimps. He was theleader of the S.A. in his neighborhood, a militant and extremelysuccessful leader. A gang, doubtless instigated by Communists and laterhidden by Communists for a time, forced their way into his room inFebruary, 1930, and killed him. After his death, Goebbels blew up thissomewhat shady hero into a National Socialist legend; after all, he haddied for the party. Horst Wessel had left behind him a marching song,three stanzas not unskillfully pieced together from the party's mostfamiliar slogans; he had borrowed the melody from various existingtunes. The rather melancholy, unpretentious piece became the party'sofficial song; later the 'Horst Wessel Song' became a second nationalanthem. Two of the fines in the last stanza ran: 'For the last time therifle is loaded . . . Soon Hitler banners will wave over the barricades. . ..'