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

496 DER FUEHRERand Rosenberg had gone to Italy to attend a 'European Congress' of theRoman Academy of Sciences. At a banquet on November 17, Goringhad the seat of honor beside Mussolini. He was still at table when wordreached him that Papen had resigned.Pushed by Schleicher, rebuffed by all parties, Papen had performed amaster stroke to prove that there was no majority. In accordance withstrictly parliamentary procedure, the Leader of the party that was stillstrongest was summoned to tell to the President how he would go aboutforming a new government. It is strange that every time Hitler wascalled to see Hindenburg, Goring was in foreign parts. On the morningof the eighteenth, Goring saw Mussolini, and assured him that theFascist century was about to begin in Germany. An Italian governmentplane rushed him to Venice, where a German machine was awaitinghim; in the record time of six hours he was in Berlin. The next morninghe went to see Meissner, negotiated a worthy form of reception for hisLeader, and when Hitler called on Hindenburg at noon, he was given achair and was permitted to speak for a whole hour. This time hesucceeded in arousing the old man's interest, though he could notconvince Hindenburg that the rearmament policy of Papen andSchleicher was false at this moment; the facts rather argued that it wascorrect, for four days after the Reichstag elections, on November 10, SirJohn Simon, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, had declared inthe House of Commons that England recognized in principle theGerman claim to equal military rights. Hindenburg was greatly pleasedand told Hitler that whoever governed, he, Hindenburg, would choosehis Reichswehr Minister and his Foreign Minister, and he himself woulddetermine the policy of these departments.Hitler requested that the actual negotiations should take place inwriting. At a second conference on the twenty-first, the two men satface to face and read manuscripts. Hindenburg: 'You know that I favorthe idea of a presidial cabinet. By a presidial cabinet I mean a cabinetthat is not led by a party leader, but by a man standing above parties,and that this man is a person enjoying my special confidence.' Thissounded as if the man enjoying Hindenburg's special confidence shouldgovern against parliament, but it was