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

NOW I HAVE THEM IN MY POCKET! 423be superseded by something like the future Petain regime. He trustedthat the Catholic Church would reconquer France spiritually andpolitically. In Germany, the Catholic Church was less strong, but it didhave a strong direct influence on parliamentary politics. And so theuhlan and saboteur joined the Center Party. Under the pressure of theCatholic working masses the party had moved steadily towarddemocracy. A lonely voice, Papen had vainly tried to buck the current.His fellow parliamentarians found him irritating or absurd. Now inOctober, 1931, he raised his voice again; he told Bruning not to pretendthat he was still governing democratically; he was already a dictator andthat was good; but why conceal it? 'The concealed dictatorship of theChancellor must strip off its parliamentary trimmings. The Chancellorshould and must direct a national cabinet, a government, a dictatorshipon a national foundation.' With a sense of insult, Bruning replied that hehad no intention of parting from his parliamentary base. But Papen wenton preaching that the strength of Germany lay with the NationalSocialists, and that it was Bruning's duty 'to forge these glowing massesbefore they overflow with hostility; above all, this youth, stillundisciplined, to be sure, but valuable material, must be fitted into thestate, and by education won for the state.'The man who had invented the Bruning government thought alongnot quite identical but similar lines. After a year and a half ofdisappointments, General von Schleicher had become convinced thatthe popular base of a strong government could no longer be foundwhere Bruning, half reluctantly, had so far found it: with the democraticparties of the Reichstag. Schleicher had studied the National Socialiststhrough personal contacts and his private spies. By the fall of 1931 —this can be discerned from his policy — his decision was made. TheGerman government must detach itself from the Left parties; thestrength of the National Socialists must no longer be wasted in mereopposition. Reichswehr wanted the people, here they were. TheChancellor himself confided to his visitor, Laval, that in one year theNational Socialists would sit in the government.A few days after the German bank crash, Bruning had a conversationwith Hermann Goring; he tried to persuade Goring to