The Emergence of Hitlerism
A History of National Socialism. By Konrad Heiden. (Methuen. 18s.)
Wrrnour doubt this book, which is a combination of two German books published in 1932 and 1934, is the most valuable contribution to the literature of the National Socialist Revolution which has yet been made and is indis- pensable to an understanding of the movement. For although Herr Heiden's attitude is frankly hostile, and the reader is left in no uncertainty that he hopes and believes that, at least in its present form, the regime will fail, yet he is at great pains to be objective and especially so in his very excellent analysis of Herr Hitler himself.
Here for the first time is told the whole story—and there are many incidents which are not recounted in orthodox Nazi publications—of the rise and victory of the National Socialist Party from its inception by its now almost entirely forgotten founder Anton Drexler in Munich in March, 1918, and a more checkered and tortuous political history it would be hard to find. The early years were chiefly occupied with a. struggle for power between the original founder and Party Member No. 7, Adolf Hitler, culminating in the latter's victory and appointment as President of the Party in 1921.
From then on we see the growth of the Party into a great national movement, in which the strange personality of the Fulmer, aided by the social and political factors which thrust greatness upon him, drew men from every walk of life to his banner. And it is here that Herr Heiden's intimate knowledge of his subject is so valuable. Since the crisis of 1931-2 the names of the more prominent Nazi leaders, such as Goring, Goebbels and ROhm have become conspicuous, but little was known of their early careers in the Party nor the circum- stances of their joining it. All this Herr Heiden recounts, showing that whereas Goring and Rohm were early recruits to Hitler, Goebbels joined him only with the revival of the fortunes of the Party in 1926. The other figures who have come up before the public since the Revolution, such as Frick, Foder and Hess, are also shown in their relation to past events.
An understanding of the early history of the Nazi Movement is essential for, a full appreciation of the position today and to comprehend the real inwardness of the present crisis within the Party. Herr Heiden shows that from their first organ- ization in 1921 the control of the S.A. has been the subject of constant friction between the Leader and Commandant
Rohm. It was Rohm who first formed the Storm Troops, and it was his intention to use them as a nucleus for a military organization to supplement the small professional Reichswehr• allowed to Germany by the Peace Treaty. Herr Hitler contended that the S.A. should be a purely " party-force " and should have no military aspect. The dispute brought about the resignation of Riihrn from the Party in 1928 and ended in a revolt of the Berlin S.A. under Pfeffer von Salomon in 1930. Herr Hitler, who unsuccessfully appealed to their devotion to the cause—" He drove from one S.A. house to another, dissolved into tears, and besought his ' boys ' not to fail him in this decisive hour "—was only able to bring. them to heel by instituting a system of payment and thereby turning them into something little more than mercenaries. He used the opportunity, however, to make himself supreme S.A. Leader, and in 1931 he recalled Minn to become the Chief of Staff. The present crisis is but a recurrence of the old quarrel between these two warring personalities—the civilian versus the soldier. The German offer of April 16th, 1934, to accept the conditions guaranteeing the non-military character of S.A., is being fiercely opposed by ROhm, who hoped to organize it as a trained reserve for the 300,000 Reichswehr now claimed by Germany. Upon the issue of this struggle which Herr Heiden shows has been in progress almost throughout the life of the Party, the peace of Europe may depend.
But the deepest impression left on the mind of the reader is that the whole history of the Party has been a series of miracles, and that it has only come to power through the most unexpected strokes of good fortune. On three separate occasions, first after the failure of the Munchen Putsch in 1923, secondly, during the serious internal crisis of 1929 and 1930, and thirdly, after the electoral losses in November, 1932, it appeared impossible for the Party fortunes to outride adverse circumstances. But after each disaster a stroke of luck lifted the movement once more out of the rut. The reorganization of the Party in 1926, the national opposi- tion to the Young Plan in 1930, and the gratuitous action of Herr von Papen in January, 1933, in each case gave the required fillip to continue the struggle.
Herr Heiden omits all mention of the Sparticist Terror of 1918-1919, and does not sufficiently indicate the importance of the growth of the Communist Party in the Reichstag. He fails also to do justice to the efforts of Dr. Briining to reach an agreement with the Nazis in 1932, and is in error in stating that Dr. Schacht joined the National Socialists in 1931. Dr. Schacht was sufficiently astute to avoid definite identification with any one particular Party. He concludes by urging the necessity of having in existence a movement which can fill the gap when the chbdek, which he regards as
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