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

THE RACE WITH CATASTROPHE 505ences that went back to 1925, the beginning of Strasser's collaborationwith Hitler; Goebbels was not spared, while Rohm was covered withvilification. Strange was the reproach that Hitler, in order to come topower, was consciously playing with the German catastrophe: for yearsStrasser had done nothing else. In conclusion, Strasser resigned from theparty leadership. This letter reached Hitler the next day, December 8.It was a 'bombshell' as Goebbels put it. In the Kaiserhof, Hitler metwith Frick, Goring, Goebbels, Hess, Doctor Robert Ley, the gauleiter ofCologne; Wilhelm Kube, deputy in the Prussian diet. For weeks theyhad felt their party tottering; and now this blow! Many regarded Strasseras the man who might have saved the party and thought Hitler hadprevented him out of injured vanity. Frick openly said as much. Thoughno great thinker, he was a man of independent mind. Now he rebukedHitler in the presence of his lieutenants. Strasser, he declared, might beright about many things, and though his letter was a calamity, it was onethat could be repaired; Hitler must make his peace with Strasser. Hitlergave in and permitted Frick to drive about Berlin looking for Strasser.But that morning Strasser had left the Hotel Excelsior; he had checkedhis suitcase at the Anhalt Station and had vanished. With a friend by thename of Moritz, he sat in a wine room, drinking and cursing Hitler. InItaly the sun was shining, he cried out boisterously, and that was wherehe was going — with his wife and children. In unprintable terms hepredicted that within a month Hitler would come to him crawling.Meanwhile, Hitler, Goring, and Goebbels racked their brains. Whereand with whom was Strasser intriguing now ? Was he working out planswith Schleicher ? It seemed a bad sign that his friend Frick should beunable to find him. Restless and unnerved, Hitler went to Goebbels'shome; here, as Goebbels writes, everyone was 'very depressed,especially because there is now a danger that the whole party will fallapart and all our work will be in vain.'By this time Strasser had called for his suitcase and had started for hishome in Munich. But the bomb rolled on, and where it struck, it burst.While Hitler was sitting with Goebbels in irresolute gloom, an energeticman made vain attempt to save the party on