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

BURNING HEAVENS REFLECTED IN MUD PUDDLE 89which Hitler could follow the pattern that had been familiar to him sincechildhood: — hatred of authority.In those months a transformation took place in Hitler. Up to that timehe had acted only under orders. In a decisive moment, when he shouldhave acted, he had done nothing: he had failed to denounce therevolutionary sailors. That, on an insignificant scale, was the samecrime that Wilhelm II had committed in failing to put down therevolution and in fleeing to Holland. To him, Hitler, such a thing wouldnot happen a second time.He worked in the political department of the District Army Command.This office called itself press and news bureau, which was tantamount topropaganda and espionage center. As an employee of this bureau he hadto participate in the manifold attempts the Munich Reichswehr made tofind the ideal form for their projected political movement. For sometime Hitler belonged, with Ernst Rohm, to an officers' and soldiers'group which called itself 'The Iron Fist,' tried to terrorize loyal followersof the republican regime, and very probably had its share in many of thesecret murders. The real reason for this political activity was by nomeans clear to most of the men from the beginning, perhaps to none ofthem. During this activity, Hitler fell — by accident, he says — amonga small grouplet called grandiloquently the 'German Workers' Party'; itwas so much to his liking that he joined it and ultimately became itsleader.'In the year 1919' — he said, ten years later — 'when I met thehandful of men who held their little meetings under the name of GermanWorkers' Party, there was neither a business office nor any employee.There was no paper with letterhead; in fact, even rubber stamps werelacking. The entire property of this seven men's club consisted of abriefcase, in which the incoming and outgoing mail were kept, and acigar box which served as cash-box. This portable party office in theform of a briefcase traveled under the arms of party comrade Harrer, our'president'; into every conceivable beer hall and cafe, in which the partycommittee — which at that time was the party itself — met.'The grouplet at this time was in a pitiable state. But although themembers, and even more the so-called leaders, were, stricdy