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

74 DER FUEHRERand hold endless lectures; and a certain precision and clarity wereapparent in his style. He loved to prophesy and predict politicaldevelopments; he was convinced of the impending downfall of Austria.His new Austrian roommate made the same observation as Hanisch hadmade: as soon as there was any mention of politics, Hitler abandonedany work, however urgent. He sat in the 'Schwemme,' the low-priceroom in the Hofbrauhaus, made speeches to anyone available and soonhad many listeners.An eccentric, screaming in taverns, a hermit among six hundredthousand people; without wife, friend, family, or home. In Austria, for atime, the military authorities regarded him as a deserter; for three yearshe simply did not report for the prescribed supplementary examinations;he was entered in the list as 'illegal' and 'address unknown.' Then heseems to have become aware of the dangerous and ambiguous aspect ofthis conduct; on February 5, 1914, he went to the Austrian border city ofSalzburg and had himself examined. To his relief the doctor's findingswere: 'Too weak for armed or auxiliary service, unfit to bear arms.' 'Notfit for service' was the verdict of the commission. Now he was throughwith Austria.Now he had achieved what had been his unconscious goal through allthe years of misery in Vienna: obscurity. He had disappeared from hisfamily, shunned close friendships, shyly avoided the eyes of people hespoke with; then he had left the hated land of his fathers and dissolvedhis last relations with it. Now he was living in Germany, the land of hislonging, yet only tolerated, not actually belonging to it. He went abouthis beloved city of Munich like a visitor in a museum on Sunday whenthe admission is free. He was a stranger in his world and his time; andeven if he had asked himself honestly, he would always have had toanswer: this alien condition was the only one in which he felt secureagainst life. It was the haven of his failure. Since he could not have beengreat, the only tolerable thing for him was to be nothing. The greatnessof the historical phenomenon which was one day to step forth from thishuman shadow cannot be contested; but human nonentity is actually thepremise and one of the explanations for the superhuman power of thephenomenon. It