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

456 DER FUEHRERhopes on the young intelligentsia, in whom I know that the spirit of1914 is not yet extinguished.'In the spring of 1932, a new archbishop had to be appointed inFreiburg im Breisgau, a city of southern Germany. For a hundred yearsthis dignitary had been chosen by the archdiocese of Freiburg andmerely confirmed in Rome. But the Holy See suddenly broke with theold custom and appointed a man whom the Freiburg diocese did notwant. This archbishop, Doctor Mathias Groeber, made a speech to theclergy of his diocese, in which he said that the Church must graduallyassume a more conciliatory and more 'prudent' attitude toward NationalSocialism; it must, as the archbishop put it, 'put on the brakes.'This was the changing, shifting ground on which Bruning desperatelystrove to keep his feet; eventually this man who, in 1918, as an armyofficer, had attempted to stop the German revolution, fought almostagainst himself. Adolf Hitler sensed a certain affinity between himselfand the silent chancellor and expressed his feelings by an unalterableattitude of deep personal respect.Behind the scenes the Reichswehr also felt the shifting of the ground.To put it bluntly: the Bruning experiment had failed; parliament had notbeen conquered; the popular will was not captured. To Schleicher'ssurprisingly narrow reasoning, the problem presented itself inoversimplified form: Was there another man who, like Bruning, wouldhave the confidence of the Center, and, unlike Bruning, the confidenceof the National Socialists, too? Who could deliver to the Reichswehr a'functioning Reichstag'? Schleicher hit on his old pal, Franz von Papen,the major of Uhlans, the diplomatic spy, the son-in-law of heavyindustry — and the Catholic nobleman. For months he built up this newtool. In Schleicher's seemingly shrewd, actually superficial judgment,Papen, with his smiling worldliness, seemed a great leader and diplomat.'In most things there must be a certain frivolity,' he said. 'Peoplesometimes say that Herr von Papen is frivolous. But that is what weneed.' Both men belonged to the Herrenklub, and Papen's political ideascan be regarded as a genuine product of this spiritual atmosphere; but itis only a legend that Heinrich von Gleichen, the secretary of the club, orCount Bodo von Alven-