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

HINDENBURG'S STICK 483prise to him; but that they should have lured him to a conference andhumiliated him by such absurd offers — that was too much. And thecruel events of that day were not yet ended. Thoughtlessly Hitler, sixweeks before, had given Hindenburg his word to support Papen. Nowthe old man insisted that Hitler appear before him. The telephone rang;Frick answered; Papen's aide, State Secretary Erwin Planck, asked himto tell Herr Hitler that the President expected him at four in theafternoon. Frick shouted back, what would be the use of it? Thedecision, he shouted in an accusing tone, had already been made — hemeant, 'by your side.' Planck answered that no decision had been made— he meant probably that Hindenburg refused to accept officiallyHitler's going back on his promise as long as he had not heard it fromhim himself, and in his own words. Hitler came, escorted by Rohm andFrick. Hindenburg had a horror of Rohm and little sympathy for Hitler;he received the three standing, leaning on his cane; a man of eighty-five,he forced himself to undergo this discomfort in order to make thequarter of an hour as painful as possible for his visitors under the coldlystaring eyes of the onlookers: Oskar von Hindenburg, Meissner, Papen,and Schleicher.Hindenburg began the conversation abrupdy: 'Herr Hitler, I have onlyone question to address to you: Are you prepared to offer me yourcollaboration in the Papen cabinet?' Hitler was so humiliated that hecould scarcely speak; he muttered that he had already named his termsto Papen and Schleicher. Hindenburg, rather pleased that things were ashe had imagined: 'So you want the whole power?' Hitler, almost in awhisper: Only as much as Mussolini . . . Hindenburg, too,misunderstood about Mussolini, but was right, nevertheless: That, hesaid triumphantly, meant the whole power. The official communique onthe interview continues that Hindenburg 'definitely rejected Herr Hitler'sdemands, stating that his conscience and his duties to the fatherlandcould not permit him to give the entire governing power exclusively tothe National Socialist Movement, which wished to make one-sided useof it.' If the fight must continue, Hindenburg went on, he would requestHerr Hitler at least to conduct it chivalrously. Then the blow fell, thesharp blame for not keeping his word: Hindenburg,