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

458 DER FUEHRERbody of the German administrative apparatus, and the police as well.Prussia, by far the most important state, for years governed firmly andreliably by democratic parties, among them Bruning's Catholic friends,had thus far, despite occasional conflicts, been a reliable support of the'last parliamentary chancellor.'The elections shattered this Prussian support. The National Socialistswon a hundred and sixty-two seats in the Prussian diet, the Communistsfifty-six; together, they had two hundred and eighteen seats, a clearmajority. That decided it: the Prussian parliament was against thePrussian government. In other words, the last parliamentary majority inGermany on which Bruning had been able to rely to a certain degreewas no longer in existence.From this moment on, personal intrigue dominated the political game.All the real forces had so enmeshed and paralyzed each other that a fewaccidental figures, enjoying irresponsible freedom in influentialpositions, seemed to make history. That was the outward appearance,but the truth behind it was that in two bitter, dark years the Bruningexperiment had not brought the people to the Reichswehr, and thereforethe Reichswehr began a new experiment.On April 26, Rohm and Helldorf again called on Schleicher. This timethe conversation was far more hopeful; the Berlin S.A. leader reportedto his gauleiter, who wrote in his diary: 'Count Helldorf has been to seeSchleicher. Schleicher wants to change his course.' Two days later, onApril 28, Hitler himself spoke with Schleicher; Goebbels contentshimself with saying: 'The conversation turned out well.'In this conversation, as later events show, Hitler must have informedSchleicher that for the present he did not want to take power. He wassatisfied if Bruning fell and the S.A. were again allowed to function.And so he would create no difficulties for a new government picked bySchleicher.Hindenburg in those weeks must have seen himself as a tragic figure.He had been triumphantly elected President — by more or less the samepeople who in 1918 had created the republic! And when he looked outat his junker's estate in Neudeck, he must have been pained by thethought that most of his neighbors had re-