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

HITLER VERSUS NATIONAL SOCIALISM 631force in the party, but it could not be left unchecked. A decision andreckoning were due some day. It was more than ten years since Hess, inhis portrait of Hitler, had foreseen this decision and had calmlyprophesied that to attain his goal the Leader would 'trample his closestfriends.' For years Hitler had seen this type of crisis approaching; he hadseveral times fought his way through similar crises. He had surroundedhimself more and more with the type of supporter he would need intrampling his friends; in exactly such a crisis, he had drawn Hess out ofalmost total obscurity and raised him to the party leadership. Now, inthe spring of 1933, he put Hess in charge of the whole party apparatus— once again demonstrating by his choice that the party was hisproperty. After Hess had tacitly held this position for some time, Hitlerappointed him, on April 27, 'my deputy, with the power to takedecisions in my name in all questions relating to the conduct of theparty.' In so far as ruling meant work, Hitler transferred his power andhis worries to his industrious helper, a man conscious of his own limitations,almost enjoying them.Thus there arose a new apparatus of leadership with the task ofcurbing, and if necessary breaking, National Socialism as a massmovement in conflict with the Hitlerian system of authority andobedience; both ostensibly one and the same thing, in reality twoopposed principles. For while Hitler's policy was directed towardconquering and dominating the existing political conditions, within theNational Socialist movement forces were still working which were outto destroy and break them; for some time they had their way becauseHitler as yet did not sec his own way clearly enough.These were concerned with more than power; many were out for morethan advantages. They wanted their life to have a new meaning, theirexistence in society a purpose; their value for their own people was theone thing that gave their careers on earth any value. To many, and notalways the worst among them, only faith in their fatherland had retainedany meaning, their own nation had become God; if they hesitatedopenly to declare themselves religious unbelievers, Hitler had providedthem with a suitable formula: 'We know two Gods: one in heaven andanother on