Hitler's Table Talk

THE I92I PROGRAMME 627
good gentlemen told me solemnly that all Germany's hopes
rested on Kahr ! The further away from Bavaria one went the
greater the stature that Kahr seemed to acquire in the people's
eye ! And in a nonentity like that they placed their hopes of
salvation! It was there that I met the old Admiral Schröder,
our first supporter.
Next day I went to the Officers' Club in the Pariser Platz.
Of them all, it was Schröder who made the best impression on
me. A grand old bull of a man, charged with energy! My
1921-22 programme had filled most citizens with consternation.
They were even terrified lest people should know they had even
heard of it ! The purging of all foreign elements in Germany,
introduction of compulsory military service, re-constitution of
the German Army, abolition of the freedom of the press,
suppression of provincial governments ! Good heavens ! Such
ideas were pure blasphemy! People swore solemn oaths that
they had never lent an ear to such things ! But old Schröder,
that most energetic of men, that uncompromising fanatic,
accepted the whole thing without further ado. He was to the
Navy what Lützow was to the Army. Hutier, too, was a
national figure, and a fine one at that! But he had, I think, a
tiny streak of the Catholic in him. When I discover a man like
Schröder, I grab him at once.
Schröder had already retired, when, during the war, he received
the order to join up and raise corps of Marines. What we
accomplish to-day is child's play in comparison with the efforts
we were called upon to make then. Schröder had absolutely
nothing! But in no time he was leading his corps to battle. I
myself saw these Marines in action for the first time at the battle
of the Somme ; and compared with them, we felt we were the
rawest of recruits.
We then received orders to march to Ostend for a test. The
Regiment arrived there in a most deplorable state. Any
Russian regiment, after a five-hundred-mile retreat, would have
looked like the Brigade of Guards in comparison. While in
Ostend I had the chance of going for a short trip on a submarine,
and the sailors, smart, efficient, turned out always as if for a
review, were magnificent! It made one ashamed to be seen in
their company.