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

596 DER FUEHRER'lost.' But the exact opposite proved to be true; by the pressure of thegreat masses, National Socialism, to cite another of Hitler's formulas,had won the compliance of the Reichswehr and of a section of industry;and now the hurrahs of the millions forced the Herr President's consentto the further progress of the revolution. 'The revolution in the countrywill be continued' — this was the content of a three-hour, confidentialspeech which Hitler made to his S.A. leaders and gauleiters on April 22in Munich. Rohm coined the slogan that there must be a 'secondrevolution,' this time, not against the Left, but against the Right; in hisdiary, Goebbels agreed with him. On April 18, he maintained that thissecond revolution was being discussed 'everywhere among the people';in reality, he said, this only meant that the first one was not yet ended.'Now we shall soon have to settle with the reaction. The revolution mustnowhere call a halt.'The 'reaction' was well aware of this. Theodor Duesterberg, second incommand of the Stahlhelm, publicly complained that the fury of theS.A. against political opponents was destroying the 'nationalcommunity'; he quietly permiteed Social Democrats and members of theIron Front to join the Stahlhelm, in order to build up a mass force for theday of the great reckoning under the protection of the black, white, andred flag, under the protection of Hindenburg, when Hitler should have'shot his bolt' — in the fall at latest, said these optimists, for Hitler was a'madman.'Meanwhile Franz Seldte, his brother-in-arms, with the childish joy ofthe novice, buried himself in his work as Minister of Labor, and in allinnocence actually thought his post gave him the leadership of Germanlabor, hence the key to all political power; just as the far shrewderHugenberg did in his Ministry of Economics. Many Stahlhelm menbegan to regard Seldte as a traitor out of stupidity; and many thoughtthat something more than stupidity played a part.A human drama became intertwined with the political drama.Duesterberg, the former professional officer, considered his Stahl-helmthe army of the new Germany which could only be ruined by theNational Socialist bandits; while Seldte, bourgeois intellectual andWorld War captain, began to turn inwardly toward