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

480 DER FUEHRERpelled his illusions. Schleicher had expected a parliamentary governmentof or with Hitler; now he found himself faced with the specterof a bloody coup d'etat. Even good friends suddenly became wary.Industry did not want to put economic life at the mercy of such men asGregor Strasser or Gottfried Feder, who marching at the head of smallproperty owners incited to revolution, wanted to hurl a bomb at largescalewealth. Feder announced that the coming Hitler governmentwould create a new form of treasury bills, to be given as credit toinnumerable small business men, enabling them to re-employ hundredsof thousands and millions of workers. Would this be inflation? Yes! saidWalter Funk, one of the many experts who for the past year or two hadadvised Hitler; an experienced and well-known finance writer,collaborator of Hjalmar Schacht, and, in Hitler's own eyes, a guarantythat big business would treat him as an equal. Funk, too, arrived on theObersalzberg with a message from Schacht: important people were soupset by Feder's plans that these threatened to become a serious obstacleon Hitler's road to power.On August 11, Chaos, in the form of a long column of automobiles,again left Berchtesgaden for Berlin. On the shore of the Chiemsee, witha view of the Alps and a majestic castle that had belonged to the 'mad'King of Bavaria, the company paused at an inn for rest. Hitler sat withStrasser, Frick, Goebbels, and others, and for the last time theycalculated the chances. Should they govern with the Center? Thisseemed a good threat against Hinden-burg if he was not ready to appointHitler dictator with full powers. But the truth was that seriously theycould have done nothing with the Center. This moderate party wouldnot consent to the long adjournment of the Reichstag, and even less tothe projected blood-bath. The blood-bath had gradually become themain point in Hitler's plans. Eating a big omelet, he declared to hishenchmen: 'If we are not given an opportunity to settle accounts withMarxism, it is perfectly useless for us to take power.'Most of the sub-leaders then went on to Berlin by train. Hitlerfollowed slowly by car. Announcing his Fuhrer, Rohm, on August 12,went to see Schleicher and Papen. He spoke calmly, as man to man,inquiring as to their intentions. Had Hitler misunderstood?