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

THE REICHSTAG FIRE 551do with these things of the past. Blomberg went to Munich and made aspeech to the Munich Reichswehr garrison, 'which stands watch in thesouth of the Reich.' He assured them that the 'armed forces are stretchedover the Reich like a steel claw,' and it did not matter 'which tribe theindividual soldier belongs to'; for when he entered the armed forces, 'hehas obligated himself without reservation, by oath and by will, to theentire German fatherland.' As for the National Socialists and their S.A.,Blomberg stated without false caution 'that we [the Reichswehr] are andshall remain the armed might of Germany.' When he said this, he knewthat the S.A. was armed; he also knew that Rohm had been working formonths to make his private army the 'Brown People's Army' in thehands of the state. But Blomberg trusted in Hitler's word, and perhaps itsufficed him that the Brown auxiliary policemen were forbidden by lawto take their pistols home with them. In any case, he called on theReichswehr to regard the S.A. as their friends: 'Behind us and beside usstand many millions of determined men, disarmed, to be sure, but asdetermined as we are to live and to fight for the fatherland. Let us sealour alliance with them with the cry: Our beloved fatherland, the proudGerman Reich — Hurrah!'With these words the Reichswehr put its stamp of approval on theacts of the S.A. — present and future. It was becoming clear that theHitler regime was more than an experiment, that its power wasconsiderably greater than the 'less than thirty per cent of voting power inthe cabinet'; for the will to power cannot be measured in percentages,and no will in Germany approached Hitler's, either for determination orbreadth of aim. Next to his movement, it was the Communists who hadthe greatest historical ambition; but the Communists clung stubbornly totheir strange, mysterious conception of history. On February 23, MaxBrauer, Social Democratic mayor of Altona, met Ernst Torgler,chairman of the Communist Reichstag fraction, in Berlin. Pointing outthat 'it is five minutes to twelve,' he asked Torgler whether the Communistswould not at least give up their fight against the SocialDemocrats and conclude a united front alliance. Torgler answered: 'Itdoesn't enter our heads. The Nazis must take power. Then in