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

CHANCELLOR AT LAST 519on the man who had overthrown him, uncontrollable lust for power. Bythe dark winter of 1932, the primitive delight in power of most Germanpoliticians had long since turned to terror. That is why the SocialDemocratic leaders, resigned and weary, had allowed themselves to beforced out of their positions of power in Prussia with an indifferencewhich would have been unthinkable five years before; Groener hadabandoned his post full of disgust; Bruning had tragically accepted thefact that one day he would have to cede his place to Hitler. The miseryof the nation, the disintegration of society, destroyed the confidence andenergy of most men; cynicism, herald of all world twilights, had agreater share in the political commissions and omissions of the day thanany calculation or lust for power.Unofficially, Papen, the dismissed Chancellor, remained Hindenburg'sadviser. The old man requested him to remain near him; and soPapen, though a private citizen, still retained his former officialresidence in the Chancellery. It so happened that in the winter of 1932-33 alterations were being made in Hindenburg's adjacent palace; and sothe old man moved into the Chancellery for a time. Hindenburg andPapen lived door by door; with Oskar von Hindenburg and Meissnerthey formed a sort of family. One of their chief topics of conversationmust have been: What shall we do with the National Socialists? Afterall, we wanted to educate them, not destroy them. Aren't we missing ouropportunity?Over and over again the idea that National Socialism was rich indemonic force, but poor in brains, beguiled this upper-class type into thearrogant experiment of 'curbing' and 'sifting.' The question was onlywhat should be sifted out and what retained. Formerly Groener hadargued with Abegg whether Hitler or Stennes was better. Now thatSchleicher wanted to draw Strasser's 'sensible' National Socialists to hisside, the question arose whether they were really the 'sensible' ones? Ithad not yet been proved that Strasser could bring important parts of hisparty with him; but supposing he could, what kind of men were they? Inthe National Socialist program it was stated that the trusts must besocialized; Gottfried Feder wanted to abolish capital interest, or reduceit to a minimum, to flood Germany with inflation money; and it wasStrasser and his