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

THE GREAT TURNING POINT: 1942 STALINGRAD AND EL ALAMEIN817Prince, who was anathema to most of the others. Schacht favored the oldestson of the Crown Prince, Prince Wilhelm, and Goerdeler the youngest survivingson of Wilhelm II, Prince Oskar of Prussia. All were in accord that the Kaiser’sfourth son, Prince August Wilhelm, or ”Auwi,” as he was nicknamed, was outof the question since he was a fanatical Nazi and a Gruppenfuehrer in the S.S.By the summer of 1941, however, there was more or less agreement that themost suitable candidate for the throne was Louis-Ferdinand, the second andoldest surviving son of the Crown Prince. ∗ Then just thirty-three, a veteran offive years in the Ford factory at Dearborn, a working employee of the Lufthansaairlines and in contact and in sympathy with the plotters, this personable youngman had finally emerged as the most desirable of the Hohenzollerns. He understoodthe twentieth century, was democratic and intelligent. Moreover, he hadan attractive, sensible and courageous wife in Princess Kira, a former RussianGrand Duchess, and – an important point for the conspirators at this stage –he was a personal friend of President Roosevelt, who had invited the couple tostay in the White House during their American honeymoon in 1938.Hassell and some of his friends were not absolutely convinced that Louis-Ferdinand was an ideal choice. ”He lacks many qualities he cannot get alongwithout,” Hassell commented wryly in his diary at Christmas time, 1941. Buthe went along with the others.Hassell’s chief interest was in the form and nature of the future Germangovernment, and early the year before he had drawn up, after consultation withGeneral Beck, Goerdeler and Popitz, a program for its interim stage, which herefined in a further draft at the end of 1941. 1126 It restored individual freedomand pending the adoption of a permanent constitution provided for the supremepower to rest in the hands of a regent, who, as head of state, would appoint agovernment and a Council of State. It was all rather authoritarian and Goerdelerand the few trade-union representatives among the conspirators didn’t like it,proposing instead an immediate plebiscite so that the interim regime would havepopular backing and give proof of its democratic character. But for the lack ofsomething better Hassell’s plan was generally accepted at least as a statementof principles until it was superseded by a liberal and enlightened program drawnup in 1943 under pressure from the Kreisau Circle, led by Count Helmuth vonMoltke.Finally that spring of 1942 the conspirators formally adopted a leader. Theyhad all acknowledged General Beck as such not only because of his intelligenceand character but also because of his prestige among the generals, his goodname in the country and his reputation abroad. However, they had been solackadaisical in organizing that they had never actually put him in charge. Afew, like Hassell, though full of admiration and respect for the former GeneralStaff Chief, had some doubts about him. ”The principal difficulty with Beck,”Hassell wrote in his diary shortly before Christmas, 1941, ”is that he is very theoretical.As Popitz says, a man of tactics but little will power.” This judgment,as it turned out, was not an ungrounded one and this quirk in the General’stemperament and character, this surprising lack of a will to act, was to provetragic and disastrous in the end.Nevertheless in March 1942, after a good many secret meetings, the plottersdecided, as Hassell reported, that ”Beck must hold the strings,” and at the end∗ Prince Wilhelm, the oldest son, had died of battle wounds in France on May 26, 1940.