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

THE RACE WITH CATASTROPHE 493vanced a few steps; pale and agitated, he set Hindenburg's note on thetable in front of Goring; there was a shuffling of chairs, the otherministers arose, and the whole cabinet, with Papen at its head, left thehall. Goring did not so much as look; he proceeded calmly with his act,and the entire Reichstag, stupefied, angry, or amused, obediently voted,not knowing that legally it no longer existed. Five hundred and thirteenvotes of nearly all parties were cast against Papen, only thirty-two forhim. Germany had gone on record against Hindenburg's Chancellor; butHindenburg, by dissolving the parliament, demanded that Germanyreconsider her vote.'The Leader is beside himself with joy,' wrote Goebbels. 'Again he hasmade a clear, unmistakable decision.' The party did not share this joy;Strasser and Frick, angry and desperate, predicted a grave defeat.'Money is very hard to raise at the moment,' Goebbels reported; no onewould give money for an evidently lost cause. For a moment it seemedas though there might be no more Reichstag. Papen wanted to postponethe elections indefinitely; to force a new constitution on the countryfrom above; to create a second parliament in the style of the EnglishUpper House and eliminate equal suffrage by giving every head of afamily two votes, and three to every family head who had served in thewar — but this was prevented by Schleicher. Nevertheless, the electionswere set for November 6, the latest date allowed by the constitution; bythat time, Papen hoped, his economic laws would have poured forththeir blessings on the German people.On the day after the dissolution, Hitler assembled his deputies andgave out the election slogan: 'Against reaction!' His hope was that thepeople would rise up for him against the 'Barons.' He knew the people,he declared in his election speeches, and the people knew him; 'but fivemonths ago nobody knew Herr von Papen. ... I am a child of the peopleand shall remain one. ... I am fully aware that especially the workers inthe National Socialist Movement are blindly devoted to it. I shall neverbetray them and will never break with the people.'The 'people' nailed him to his word. A few days before the elections,the Communists paralyzed traffic in Berlin by drawing the