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

452 DER FUEHRERsexual life had become fully public; there was great bitterness in theranks against this leader who brought shame to the organization; Hitlerhad defiantly covered Rohm. 'Captain Rohm,' he said, 'remains my chiefof staff, now and after the elections, despite all slanders.' Theunderground hostility to him was all the bitterer. A few months later, aMunich court actually did sentence two obscure National Socialists,Horn and Danzeisen, to short jail terms for having talked of murderingthe chief of staff; but the court believed them when they said that it hadbeen mere talk.The conversation between Rohm and Mayr seems likewise to havegone no farther than talk, because Mayr had lost his influence on theIron Front.But the fact remains that Rohm was willing to subordinate the S.A. tothe state. Groener, however, wanted no part of this and insisted that thearmy of civil war must be destroyed; Schleicher clung to his opinionthat this was impossible, Groener threatened to resign, and put through aunanimous cabinet resolution; Hinden-burg gave his consent. Threedays after his re-election, the S.A. and S.S. and their subsidiaryorganizations were dissolved. For, said the government proclamationsigned by Groener: 'No Reich government can tolerate an attempt byany party to form a state within the state and create for itself an armedforce. . . .' Hin-denburg was not fully convinced until Groener told himabout the treasonable orders to the S.A. in Pomerania.Neither Hitler nor his followers dared to resist for so much as amoment. First they had been beaten by the voters, now they werecrushed by the army. Was Adolphe Legalite on the right way? Woulddemocracy really destroy itself? And if so, would National Socialismstill live to see the day? The movement grew and grew, but it did notbecome more powerful, only more needful of power. 'You know, I amone of Germany's biggest business executives,' Hitler used to sayhumorously, when he met with industrialists. For the S.A. in the form ofits 'ordnance department' had become a great department store withlarge stocks of clothing, uniforms, boots. The annual turnover in thesegoods was estimated at seventy million marks in 1932. In addition, theparty had its own insurance against homicide and disability, which paidout a few hundred