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

THE AGE OF GOLD 251the number of their seats in the Reichstag fell from thirty-two tofourteen, and most of these fourteen soon ran away to other parties.Both the successes which he had not expected, and the defeats which hecould not prevent, depressed Hitler deeply.People of ability and importance instinctively avoided the fallenfigure, which again vanished into the mass of the unknown. A RoyalBavarian infantry captain, for instance, could not very well be expectedto worship this man like a god, to set him above his King Rupprecht orhis General Ludendorff — particularly if the captain himself hadactually created the man. In grave disappointment Ernst Rohm partedwith Hitler. Rohm was one of the four or five who addressed Hitler as'Du,' and, to the leader's own secret relief, dared to treat him like acommon man. For this very reason, Rohm resented his friend'smegalomania which, since his debacle, had become intolerable even inhis own inner circle.Against the terrible feeling of defeat, Hitler armed himself with aninner arrogance which stopped at no human relation. During hisimprisonment he led a more comfortable existence than ever before, buthe claimed — and ended up by believing it himself — to have beenlanguishing in a dungeon; he dreamed himself into the role of a saint,suffering in chains for Germany; he was the hero for whose freedomGermany was waiting; he was the German people itself, humiliated andmisunderstood, yet destined and secretly marked by Fate forinconceivable future greatness, a laughing-stock to the masses and themighty, a miracle and consolation to the faithful and the seeing.Rohm was loyal, but for him Adolf, in the Munich dialect 'Ade,'nevertheless remained a man. When he went to see him during his imprisonment,he found him each time more demoralized and lacking indecision. From the heights of a theatrical, brilliant activity, Hitler hadrelapsed into inert lurking and listening; he waited for voices,inspiration, opportunities, let himself drift, allowed his party to fallapart, friendships to break. In the end it was impossible for him to speakobjectively to anyone on political questions, needs of the movement,present or future tasks, because he interpreted any statement of fact as acriticism. When there were difficulties, or when successes wereachieved, when in the beginning, despite his arrest,