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

136 DER FUEHRERAt first when his opponents wanted to depreciate Hitler, they accusedhim of 'always saying the same thing.' When later, somewhat chastened,they comforted themselves: oh, well, he was nothing but a propagandist,though 'a very clever one, to be sure,' then they thought they had made aprofound discovery when they declared his 'always saying the samething' to be the essence of his cleverness. Hadn't Hitler himself calledattention to his constant repetition and 'hammering'? But here Hitler ismistaken about himself, and his opponents, with their sweet-and-sourpraises, have misunderstood him completely. He by no means alwayssays the same thing. After he had mocked the masses long enough,earned their applause by calling them inferior, cowardly, stupid, blind,and degenerate, he suddenly changed his tune. His public had longconsisted of intellectuals or those who liked to consider themselves assuch. But in the spring of 1923, a few hundred workers, driven from theoccupied Rhineland by the French military occupation, came to Munich.Hitler tried to recruit these homeless, unemployed, uprooted proletariansfor his storm troops and did succeed in inciting them to attack Socialistnewspapers and party houses. In addressing this new class of people, heslavishly adapted himself to their old habits of thought — the eternalopportunist. Yes, earlier he had boasted: 'We want no majorities. For thetruth is always recognized and upheld by minorities. Every newinvention has been a protest of genius against the masses' — even thestyle of these remarks is imitated from Nietzsche. But now: 'We are sufferingfrom overeducation. We respect only knowledge. But thebookworms arc enemies of action. What we need is instinct and will.Most people have lost both by their so-called "education." Yes, we havea class of people who are intellectually high, but they are poor inenergy. If by overemphasis on mechanical knowledge we had not goneso far from popular feeling, the Jew would never have made his wayinto our nation. . . .' Not a word about the elite and the forceful minority,nothing about the leading role of the national intelligentsia, nothingabout 'genius versus the mass'; no reference to the dullness andcowardice of the majority, only praise and admiration of its power.Hitler had flattered the middle class that it was the real national class,for 'those on the Left [read: