hitler

188way. It was a delicate operation to save the Reich and thesurgeon needed more than presence of mind, – he neededinspiration.In the fortnight after the financial collapse of July 13,1931, Bruening had President Hindenburg sign thirty emergencydecrees, giving the Chancellor almost absolute powerand making the work of the opposition all but impossible.The freedom of the press was curtailed and a financial dictatorshipof the utmost rigour was introduced. It was saidin those days that the most obvious use the possession ofmoney had was to facilitate one‟s march into a quiet jail.Money transfers were subjected to no end of limitations. Thebudget had to be balanced in order to prevent a recurrenceof inflation and it was balanced, but at an enormous price.Crushing taxes were imposed on the country and gave theNazis pretext for a new slogan:“German brother, five days out of six you are made tobe working for the enemy!”A carnival of spending had to be paid for on the morningafter. The Reich woke up to find that it owed seven billiondollars to foreign creditors. This was worse than nationalbankruptcy, the pessimists said; this was the beginning ofthe end. Even such a hopeful sign as the increase of exportsover imports turned out to be a sign of national calamity.In the economic warfare Germany had been forced backto her last line of defence. She had to use the raw materialshe could scrape together, so as to avoid having to pay forthe foreign product.The factories of the Ruhr slowed down and their roar