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

Chapter XII'FEW FLAMES BURN INGERMANY'IN THESE SOFT YEARS, EVEN HITLER SUCCUMBED TO thetemptations of the age. In public he remained the prophet of doom; butin his private life he could not help enjoying the blessings of whatseemed to be a time of peace and ease.He lived in a little house on the 'Obersalzberg,' above the marketvillage of Berchtesgaden; to some extent a hide-out from which hecould escape at any time into near-by Austria if the German policeshould again be on his heels. Since his Vienna days he had feared thepolice like any tramp. He now strove passionately for what Nature haddenied him: an orderly domestic life. If he publicly swore that he meantto observe the laws strictly, he meant it more seriously than friend or foesuspected. At the Feldherrn Halle, he had learned his lesson. Therestless spirit still hungered for power, but the unassuming mortal had aneed for peace and quiet. He wanted to achieve power in a quiet way,without risk or personal danger. He no longer wanted to fight and playfor high stakes; he wanted to 'grow organically and with mathematicalcertainty' into power — even if it took ten years! 'Perhaps we are onlyforerunners,' he sometimes said comfortably. 'Twenty or even a hundredyears may pass before the National Socialist idea is victorious; thosewho believe in the ideal today may die: what is a man in thedevelopment of a people, of mankind?'