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

254 DER FUEHRERpossessed. To the question: Who are you ? — they had answered: Weare nothing, but Hitler is everything! Now the best elements urgedHitler to break with these unsavory fellows; Pohner, the former policecommissioner and protector of the murderers, demanded that Hitler getrid of these two 'dunghills'; Ludendorfr demanded the same; alsoRosenberg and Anton Drexler, the founder of the party. Hitler, however,stubborn and insulted, clung faithfully to the two questionablecharacters, and on the telephone yelled at Drexler to go to the devil, atwhich the original founder left the National Socialist Party. But moreobscure figures gathered around Hitler. For some time the photographer,Heinrich Hoffmann, belonged to the inner circle; a good bit of Hitler'spopularity resulted from Hoffmann's photographs. Then there was thehorse-dealer, Christian Weber, to whom Hitler owed a thousand dollars;and finally his publisher and business manager, Max Amann, in whosehands his own material existence rested. In order to assure the supportof these men, who were useful and able in their way, he calmly threwoverboard his most respected followers whose names would only haveobscured his own.Yet through it all, Alfred Rosenberg remained true to him. He wasjoined by Wilhelm Frick, Pohner's former assistant, who had now goneinto politics completely, and had become a deputy in the Reichstag. Themost important of the new figures was Gregor Strasser, a druggist. Hehad not been prominent before 1923, but during Hitler's imprisonmenthe revealed himself to be a great organizer, an indefatigable speaker, apowerful personality, and Hitler's equal in self-reliance. It was a circleof unknown men. To the unswervingly loyal Rudolf Hess, Hitler said: 'Ishall need seven years before the movement is on top again.'It was not his task, he wrote in embarrassed apology, 'to attempt toimprove or even unify the human material at my disposal.' His task wasnot to educate these men, for human nature could not be changed in theindividual, only the type could be changed in the course of centuries;'ideal universal men' were not to be found; consequently he did not lookfor men 'ideally suited to my idea.'No, he purposely sought men of small stature with whom he