rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

70 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHof in the witness stand as his chief accusers. Shrewdly he turned the tables onthe uneasy, guilt-ridden triumvirs:One thing was certain, Lossow, Kahr and Seisser had the same goalthat we had – to get rid of the Reich government . . . If our enterprisewas actually high treason, then during the whole period Lossow,Kahr and Seisser must have been committing high treason alongwith us, for during all these weeks we talked of nothing but the aimsof which we now stand accused.The three men could scarcely deny this, for it was true. Kahr and Seisserwere no match for Hitler’s barbs. Only General von Lossow defended himselfdefiantly. ”I was no unemployed komitadji” he reminded the court. ”I occupieda high position in the State.” And the General poured all the scorn of an oldArmy officer on his former corporal, this unemployed upstart, whose overpoweringambition had led him to try to dictate to the Army and the State. Howfar this unscrupulous demagogue had come, he exclaimed, from the days, not sofar distant, when he had been willing to be merely ”the drummer” in a patrioticmovement!A drummer merely? Hitler knew how to answer that:How petty are the thoughts of small men! Believe me, I do not regardthe acquisition of a minister’s portfolio as a thing worth striving for.I do not hold it worthy of a great man to endeavor to go down inhistory just by becoming a minister. One might be in danger of beingburied beside other ministers. My aim from the first was a thousandtimes higher than becoming a minister. I wanted to become thedestroyer of Marxism. I am going to achieve this task, and if I do,the title of Minister will be an absurdity so far as I am concerned.He invoked the example of Wagner.When I stood for the first time at the grave of Richard Wagner myheart overflowed with pride in a man who had forbidden any suchinscription as ”Here lies Privy Councilor, Music Director, His ExcellencyBaron Richard von Wagner.” I was proud that this man andso many others in German history were content to give their namesto history without titles. It was not from modesty that I wanted tobe a drummer in those days. That was the highest aspiration – therest is nothing.He had been accused of wanting to jump from drummer to dictator.would not deny it. Fate had decreed it.HeThe man who is born to be a dictator is not compelled. He willsit. He is not driven forward, but drives himself. There is nothingimmodest about this. Is it immodest for a worker to drive himselftoward heavy labor? Is it presumptuous of a man with the highforehead of a thinker to ponder through the nights till he gives theworld an invention? The man who feels called upon to govern apeople has no right to say, ”If you want me or summon me, I willco-operate.” No! It is his duty to step forward.