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

438 DER FUEHRERwanted to spend a merry evening and drove to Goebbels's house.Goebbels, then newly married, lived in one of the outlying sections inthe west of Berlin. His wife, nee Magda Ritschel, was born in the city ofDuisburg, not far from Goebbels's own birthplace in Rheydt. Hermother's husband had been a Herr Friedlander, so that the future FrauGoebbels had a Jewish foster-father. Magda Goebbels's first husbandhad been the industrialist, Gunther Quandt, by whom she had a son;Goebbels, then an unknown young man, had been engaged by thefamily as a tutor, a divorce had followed, and Magda Quandt for sometime had lived with Goebbels as his secretary. In 1931 they married,without the blessing of the Catholic Church to which they bothbelonged.In this household Hitler had established a third family; beside his ownMunich family, half destroyed by Geli's death; and that of the lateSiegfried Wagner in Bayreuth. On his visits to Berlin, he often appearedat the Goebbels', almost always accompanied by Wilhelm Bruckner,that tall, broad-shouldered silent ruffian, who had led his storm troops in193, had left the SA. with Rohm, and in 1930 had returned with Rohm.Often Hitler also brought Otto Dietrich, his 'press chief; another oftenpresent was Ernst Hanf-staengl, the Harvard student, who had likewisereappeared in 1930, and, with his excellent English and effervescentmanner, was used by Hitler as spokesman for the foreign press. WhenHanfstaengl wanted to cheer his leader, he sat down at the piano andplayed his so-called 'musical portraits,' and Hitler nearly laughedhimself to death when Hanfstaengl hammered out a portrait of thepompous and corpulent Goring, or played soft runs to portray Himmlermoving noiselessly across the carpet.And so Hitler appeared in his third family after Goebbels had swornto him on the telephone that the masses had cheered. After four weeksof anxious hesitation, his own decision had finally carried him away likea gust of wind, and in this moment he probably believed again in hissuperhuman force of decision. 'He is happy that the proclamation of hiscandidacy made such a good impression,' wrote Goebbels in his diary. '.. . Der Fuhrer told us long stories of his war days. Then he is very greatand moving. When he left, there was an almost solemn mood among thefew of us.'