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

594 DER FUEHRERports that the trade unions were on the brink of financial collapsebecause so many members had ceased to pay their dues. The demoralizedorganization was scarcely in a position to withstand an act ofviolence, but perhaps only an act of violence could save the unions andforce the members to go on paying their dues.What Hitler decided was an act of violence against a section of hisown party; he decided to crush the remnants of Strasser's once powerfulapparatus. Not the leaders of the N.S.B.O., the Bruckers and Muchows,should infiltrate and buy their way into the unions; representatives ofthe new party leadership created in 1932 should seize the trade unionsand at the same time sweep aside the N.S.B.O. The leader of theundertaking was to be Robert Ley, who had always hated Strasser andidolized Hitler. One of Hitler's most faithful satraps, he was leader ofthe party's 'political organization,' meaning its whole non-politicalapparatus. On April 17, Goebbels, too, received his directives from theLeader on the Ober-salzberg: 'We shall mold May First into a grandiosedemonstration of the German popular will. On May 2, the trade-unionheadquarters will be occupied. Co-ordination also in this field. Theremay be a fuss for a few days, but then they will belong to us. . . . Oncethe trade unions are in our hands, the other parties and organizationswill be unable to survive. ... It is too late to turn back. Now things musttake their course. In a year all Germany will be in our hands.'Hitler's optimism and self-confidence rose by leaps and bounds; in thecabinet he demanded an end to voting: he as chairman would simplymake all decisions; and how often decisions had been made before theywere even presented to the cabinet! The conservatives were still at theirposts of command, but the ground was receding from under their feet;throughout the country the S.A. was in power, but when Papen crossedthe Wilhelmstrasse from the Chancellery to the Prussian Ministry ofState, he was still ostensibly Vice-Chancellor, Premier of Prussia, thePresident's confidential adviser, the man without whom the Chancellorcould not say a word to the old Chief of State. On these few squareyards of asphalt, in these few offices, Papen still seemed a powerfulman; Hitler was his ward and Goring his 'subordinate.' On April 7, alaw was