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

506 DER FUEHRERhis own responsibility. This was Doctor Robert Ley. He sat with otherNational Socialist deputies in the Kaiserhof and tried to convince themthat Hitler was right while Strasser was in the wrong; he telephoned tothe provinces and inquired about the mood. Finally he reached Hitler onthe telephone and told him that 'the situation is becoming more acutefrom hour to hour.' He implored him to come out of his hiding-placesince he alone could save something. Meanwhile, a letter arrived fromGottfried Feder resigning his offices and asking for a vacation; heboasted that by his propaganda he had won millions of supporters to theparty, but that since Hitler obviously meant to break off this anticapitalistpropaganda and dissolve Feder's economic bureau, millionswould drift away in addition to the millions who already had gone.Hitler now awakened from his lethargy and decided to destroy themutineers before they could strike. Late that night he went back to theKaiserhof and dictated a decree, deposing the party leadership.Strasser's state within the state was smashed, the whole machine readyto take power was broken to pieces; it was of no use, anyway, saidHitler, for in the next months the party need concern itself only with onething, with holding the vanishing voters; all the project-makers in theBrown House would do better to go out into the villages and speak tothe people. Ley was set at the head of the organization; his title of 'staffleader' made it clear that he was merely supposed to be Hitler's helper.A 'Central Commission' was set over the party, with the function ofsupervising the policy of the movement in the provincial diets, todetermine such matters as strike policy; the chairman of this mightynew party committee was a man almost unknown in the movement, theLeader's personal friend and private secretary, Rudolf Hess.But the question remained: Should the party, at the risk of cracking,continue in its struggle against the government? Should it continue todemand the chancellorship for Hitler? Did the mass of partyfunctionaries possess the moral strength to persevere in desperateopposition, if going over to Strasser offered a prospect of becomingministers, provincial presidents, mayors, superintendents of welfareoffices, sergeants in the labor service, or nightwatchmen in somemunicipal gas works? Hitler knew that his loyal followers in