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

640 DER FUEHRERNational Socialism had not been very vociferous; it had been drownedout by the fight against Communism. The stock exchange had receivedHitler's first successes with good cheer; after the elections of March 5,stocks had risen sharply. Then, by his Jewish boycott, Hitler hadsuddenly scotched this hope and confidence and stocks had crashed;they remained low when one staggering law on racial purity and coordinationfollowed another. The conquest of the trade unions did notrelieve the fear of the capital. For after the radicalism of the workersseemed to be crushed for the moment, capital was faced with thepossibly more dangerous radicalism of the armed bohemians.This radical spirit took possession of the party when increasingpolitical success failed to benefit the mass of the membership. It wasimpossible to satisfy immediately the avid masses who had harnessedtheir future to this party; and at the head of these disappointed massesstood some of the first men. Rohm, whom Hinden-burg had refusedonce and for all to tolerate in the government, had been put off with thebeggarly post of a minister without portfolio in Bavaria. GottfriedFeder, as though there were no National Socialist government, had to goon fighting bitterly and hopelessly for the main point in the partyprogram he had helped to frame, the breaking of interest slavery; he hadreceived no post at all. He had indeed a strong support in R. W. Darre,Hitler's prophet among the peasantry; but Darre himself had no positionin the government. True, thousands were already provided for, but thisaroused the envy of tens of thousands who had been left out in the cold,who felt that in view of their great services to the movement they hadbeen kept waiting too long.The chief dispenser of lucrative posts in the government was Goring,the Prussian Premier, who also headed the still mysterious Ministry ofAviation. In both capacities he provided for a swarm of personalfriends, who for the most part were quite unknown to the party. Therewas Goring's friend Korner, who became Secretary of State in thePrussian Ministry of the Interior, hence the most powerful dispenser ofpatronage in the Reich. There was Erhard Milch, director of theLufthansa, whom Goring appointed Secretary of State in his newaviation ministry, partly because