hitler

187on in the Chancery as well as outside of it, with Germanyand the world in the spectators‟ gallery.“Bruening is the best Chancellor we have had sinceBismarck,” Herr von Oldenburg-Januschau, a conservativebaron of the old stock, told a neighbour and republican Germanyhas given wide currency to his opinion.“He is worse than Stalin,” the National Socialists retortedand their cheeks were purple with anger.“Hunger Chancellor . . . Jesuit . . . Chancellor of theJews” the chorus joined the Nazis.“An indefatigable worker,” his intimates said and marvelledat his capacity to master details.Of problems there were many and more than ordinaryintellect was needed to visualize their connexions. Thesecond half of 1931 seemed like the funeral of extinguishedhopes. The world-wide depression had cut its widest swathsin the Reich. The Germans were wallowing in despair, andthe number of the unemployed was increasing by millions.The insolvency of the Darmstaedter & Nationalbank had notprecipitated but symbolized the great debacle. Reparationpayments had to be suspended. France was distrustful andthe Ami du Peuple kept on arming public opinion with theweapons of exaggerated fears.Breuning did not bang the table and did not wield thebig stick. He sat at his desk fourteen hours of the day, tryingto prevent a national suicide. The exhilaration to rule wasnot his in days when everything around him might go up inflames. A false step might start the country rolling downthe abyss and the Third Empire of Despair might be on its