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

THE BLOOD PURGE 729As for Hitler, he bought his house and estate at Berchtesgaden withhis own funds, so to speak, acquired from the sale of Mein Kampf —even though the largest part of his income as an author originated in thefact that the German people had to buy Mein Kampf whether they likedit or not. But Goring, who wished to have his own estate in closeproximity to his Fuhrer, got the cabinet of the Bavarian state to give hima piece of land ten thousand meters square, about a hundred yards aboveHitler's residence; as a matter of principle, he did not spend any moneyfor this piece of German soil. In Prussia, which he ruled personally, heappropriated for his own use the state hunting grounds of Schorfheidenear Berlin; and where a modest hunting lodge of the German Kaiserhad formerly stood, he erected a sumptuous villa. He imported the bodyof his dead wife from Sweden and named the whole estate in her honor,'Karinhall.' However, he was considerate enough not to declare all thismagnificence his formal property. Year after year, the Prussian budgetcontained an item showing that the state hunting grounds ofSchorfheide, the private residence and hunting domain of PrimeMinister Goring, were maintained at a cost of a million marks out of thetaxpayers' pockets.The corruption of the Third Reich is connected with the worship of'great men,' which is a sort of religious principle of the new state.According to this principle, the people owe it to its great men to givethem rich gifts. German industry had presented Hin-denburg, or, moreaccurately, his son, with the estate of Neudeck and helped him to pocketthe inheritance tax. Later, it had given him an additional gift of almosthalf a million marks in order that he might lack nothing on the estate.But Goring gave the old gendeman a much more magnificent gift bypresenting him — or again, more accurately, his son — with thegovernment-owned neighboring estate of Langenau along with the stateforest of Reus-senwald. Fittingly enough, this was done on August 27,the anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg (1914), which had actuallybeen won by Generals Hoffmann, von Francois, and Ludendorff; thegift was made 'in fulfillment of the duty of national gratitude.' Four dayslater, the German people learned that Hindenburg, 'in recognition of his[Captain Goring's] distinguished services in war and