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

HINDENBURG'S STICK 467gardless of prohibitions; no, first the President had to give his permission.It finally came on June 15. Now this new type of democracy could runits course unrestrained. On July 31, six weeks hence, the people vvere toexpress their opinion at the polls. In giant swarms, the S.A. appearedagain in the streets, to hammer the right opinion into them. Hitler wasdrunk with enthusiasm for elections and the people; the former despiserof parliament and the masses was unrecognizable. 'I do not know,' hesaid, 'whether these Reichstag elections will be the last. I hope not. Ihope that the time will never come when our leaders say to themselves:now we shall rest!'On June 26, he gathered his S.A. leaders in the village of Schoenau,near Berchtesgaden, and gave them a severe lecture. They must notbelieve that they were at their goal. Power must be won every day anew;that was what the National Socialist Party had been built for; and thatwas what made it stronger than the 'government of the barons,' whichfelt secure in the possession of machine guns and lacked the intelligenceto see that seven noble ministers are an insult to an impoverishedpeople. Papen declared freely that he governed on the strength ofauthority and not by the will of the people. 'A strong government,' hesaid, 'does not need to prescribe the convictions and inner fife of thepeople'; at any rate, it pays no attention to these convictions.Hitler told his S.A. leaders in Schoenau that these unpopular masterswould soon come into conflict with the Reichswehr. For the Reichswehrwanted the people, and the S.A. was the military-minded Germanpeople. Conditions in Germany were not the same as in Italy, saidHitler. A dualism, such as existed between the Italian army and theFascist militia, was fundamentally impossible in Germany, for one thingbecause in Italy the militia to a certain degree had to replace an obsoleteofficers' corps, while in Germany the army had a first-class officers'corps. The tasks of the S.A. would always lie in the field of domesticpolitics, not in military matters; for this the Reichswehr was thankful tothe S.A., and the SA. should in turn be thankful to the Reichswehr forleaving it a free hand in the shaping of German conditions. The SA.leaders listened to Hitler with consternation; without enthusiasm