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

488 DER FUEHRERcaught in his own web of intrigues, and through the meshes he hadslowly lost sight of the real world and of the whims and wishes of thatstill powerful old man whom, through many years, he had flattered,pleased and cajoled with seemingly unending success. The old man,firm in his few ideas but fickle in his personal likes and dislikes, slowlybegan to be annoyed with Schleicher and occasionally went so far as tosay that it would not do him any harm if he were to take over again thecommand of a division in the provinces in order not to forget what asoldier had to look like.Around this family tragedy between Germany's military men spun thewheel of the greater fate which in these days seemed to swing Hitlerdownward — perhaps definitely. Outwitted by the junkers, forsaken byheavy industry, not supported even by the Reichswehr in the decisivemoment, Hitler had retained hope only in what, in his own judgment,was the most unreliable power of all: the people. 'I am writing aneditorial with sharp attacks on the upper crust,' wrote Goebbels onSeptember 4 in his diary. 'If we want to keep the party intact, we mustagain appeal to the primitive mass instincts' — to the instincts of the'stupid, lazy, cowardly.' And so Hitler's speeches during the next weeksand months were filled with remarks such as: 'Who is against us? Only alittle group of old junkers.' And: 'We have long expected that whenthings were very bad with the Jews, they would find a few rundownaristocrats to help them.' But 'These old excellencies will not get usdown!' Yes, he meant Hindenburg. 'My great adversary, ReichsPresident von Hindenburg,' he said at a meeting, 'is eighty-five years oldtoday. I am forty-three and feel in the best of health. And nothing willhappen to me, for I feel clearly what great tasks Providence has in storefor me. By the time I am eighty-five years old, Hindenburg will havebeen dead a long while.' He meant Hindenburg again, when he said thatthe revolution of 1918 had come to success only because 'at the head ofthe nation there were only old men, impotent statesmen, overweeningleaders, raised in class arrogance.' He said what most of his armedintellectuals thought; for Rohm, too, meant Hindenburg when he wrotein the Volkischer Beobachter: 'The system that was ingloriously overthrownon November 9, 1918, capitulated without manliness in a