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

76 DER FUEHRERMarseillaise, Gott erhalte, Gott beschutze; shouting, 'A has l'Allemagnel''Nieder mit Serbienl' 'Es lebe der Krieg!' This stormy massexultation at the outbreak of the World War ot 1914, observed in all thecapitals of Europe and repeated in America in 1917, is totally strange tothe generation of 1942; nowhere, not even in Germany, was anythingsimilar seen at the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1914, if Hitleris to be believed, the war 'was not forced on the masses, but desired bythe whole people.' There must have been many Hitlers who, enclosed inthe mass, felt relieved from a painful and issueless state of peace, and,like Hitler, 'overpowered by stormy enthusiasm fell down on their kneesand thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart.'In Munich, on August 1, 1914, such a mass overpowered by enthusiasmstood on the Odeons Platz in front of the ornate Feld-herrnHalle and listened to the reading of a proclamation announcing thedeclaration of war. The people sang patriotic songs; at a window stood aphotographer. Ten or twelve years later, this photographer ran acrossone of the pictures taken on this occasion and published it. Among themany hundred heads he discovered a face which, despite theconspicuous ordinariness of his features, seemed illumined by anemotion unusual even in this crowd. It was a haggard, sickly face; thebroad bushy mustache gave it an artificially wild look; the protruding,hyperthyroid eyes sent forth an exaggerated gleam, as though the facewere addressing someone in Heaven and saying: Take notice of me, OLord! The man to whom this face belongs stands apparently alone in thecrowd; even in this hour of mass frenzy he seems solitary; the mouth isopened to sing, and we may believe that the words of the song are thefirst that have crossed his lips that day.Thus Adolf Hitler experienced the outbreak of the First World War.In this World War he at last found his home. He volunteered for theBavarian Army.