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

FIRST TRIUMPH 345rnann Muller lost his majority in the Reichstag. His was a coalitiongovernment based on half a dozen parliamentary parties, some amongthem representing capital and industry, others the workers. In a disputeover a government contribution of seventy million marks to theunemployment insurance fund, the party of the industrialists withdrewits votes from the government which then no longer had a majority.Chancellor Muller asked President Hinden-burg for his support; hedesired him to invoke his constitutional emergency powers (as a rule toowidely construed) and impose the cabinet's measures over the head ofthe parliament; in other words, a bit of dictatorship. This was theexpected cue. Hinden-burg solemnly asked the Reichswehr if it wouldbe advisable to govern against the parliament; the Reichswehr, namelyGroener, and even more Schleicher, said 'No.' Schleicher toldHindenburg that there was another candidate who would be able to gaina majority in the reluctant parliament. Thereupon Hindenburg refusedMuller his emergency powers; Muller tendered his resignation (March,1930); and, according to plan, Bruning was appointed Chancellor.He began his career by denouncing the methods by which Germanyhitherto had been governed, accused the Reichstag of not living up to itstask, and told the representatives that they must find a way to make theReichstag 'work,' or else the parliamentary system would dig its owngrave. The centuries-old complaint about German disunity came to lifeagain in this bitter denouncement of party strife. Bruning was by nomeans the first to accuse the political parties of helping to disrupt the'communion of the people (Volksgemeinschaft)'; by him, however, in adecisive hour, the question was definitely put before the nation: wasdemocracy able to 'work' in Germany?It did not seem so.Bruning, also unable to govern with parliament, had to askHindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag (July, 1930) in the hope that theelection would bring a reliable majority. Seldom has a politicalspeculation been so cruelly disappointed.It is always the greatest triumph for an opposition when a governmentbecomes its own opposition, attacks its own system, adopts the criticismof its adversary. This happened in Germany in 1930.