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

460 DER FUEHRERor less put the answer into their mouths: they thought that Groener hadbecome 'unsuitable' as their minister.On top of this, a political intrigue was heaped. The 'Iron Front' hadelected Hindenburg. Material was collected to prove that the 'Iron Front'was arming for civil war just as much as the S.A., and this material waslaid before Hindenburg with the implication that the prohibition of theS.A., upon which Groener had insisted so strongly, was at the very leastone-sided and unjust. To top it all, the Chief Reich Attorney(Oberreichsanwalt) found that Hitler's orders to his Pomeranian S.A.,juridically speaking, were not exactly high treason. Hindenburg had thefeeling that Groener had deceived him, or at least advised him badly onthis point; he wrote him a sharp, insulting letter and had it published.Groener's distress affected him physically. When Goring reviled himin the Reichstag for his prohibition of the S.A., and Goebbels helpedwith poisonous cries, both intimating that they were well informedabout certain confidential occurrences in the government, Groener'svoice failed him. In the midst of his speech he stood for a time openmouthed,unable to utter a word. When at last he sank back exhausted,Schleicher, his 'adopted son,' appeared beside him and said amiably thatthe army thought his resignation indicated. Groener still hoped thatHindenburg, whose legend he had in large part created and certainlydone much to preserve, would keep him out of gratitude; but Groener'sown prophecy was cruelly fulfilled: 'One thing you can rely on,' he hadsaid, 'is the old gentleman's disloyalty.' Two days later, on May 12, heresigned.Bruning, sensing that a heavy attack against himself was in progress,still believed that great political forces would carry him through theseapparently petty intrigues. President Hoover in America, theMacDonald government in England, were pressing for an end to theGerman reparations that were disorganizing world economy. Bruningsaw a great success close at hand. A day before Groener's resignation hecried out to the invisible intriguers in the Reichstag: 'Don't think youcan stop me now, a hundred yards before the goal!' Then he went toGeneva to a meeting of the League of Nations Council, to obtain theconsent of England and France for the end of reparations.