Chapter 614： Prime Minister Hitler came to power

While the whole world is talking about the Great Famine in Ukraine, Germany has fallen into political turmoil.

In early November 1931, Hindenburg met with Hitler. Hindenburg did not have any favorable impressions of this "Bohemian corporal". Afterwards, he said to his cronies: "He can only be post minister at best."

Since all the democratic parties in the parliament including the German Social Democratic Party and the German Central Party supported Hindenburg in order to prevent Adolf Hitler from becoming German Chancellor, Hindenburg was able to reappoint Bruning as Chancellor in 1932.

In the spring of 1932, the seven-year term of Hindenburg expired. The old president had intended to retire. However, due to the ridicule and irony of the party members, the eighty-year-old Hindenburg decided to come out again and he was nominated again as a candidate. The party nominated Hitler as the candidate. ********* The candidate is Thaelman.

In the first round of elections, Hindenburg had 496 votes, Hitler had 30 votes, and none of the candidates received an absolute majority. The second round of elections was held on April 10. Hindenburg was elected by 53 over Hitler's 368. However, a few weeks later, the old comrade-in-arms Grener was framed by the Schleicher conspiracy and was forced to resign as minister.

In the course of this election, Hitler knew that his prestige among the people was inferior to Hindenburg, so he put forward the slogan "Respect Hindenburg and vote for Hitler" in an attempt to use Hindenburg's power to raise his own. Worth.

Hitler lost the election, but left a good impression on Hindenburg. After Hindenburg was re-elected as president, he disregarded the opposition of the general public, prepared to use Hitler, and said to those who persuaded him to be wary of Hitler: "I should turn poachers into forest guards."

Hindenburg reached 85 years old in 1932. Because of his age, strength, and mental and physical failures, Hindenburg increasingly relied on his own small group of right-wing friends and advisors of comrades-in-arms. These people include his son Oscar von Hindenburg, neighbors of his estate, Lieutenant General Kurt von Schleicher, and Franz von Papen.

These people persuaded him to fire Bruning and nominate Papen as prime minister because they wanted Papen's policy to be more right. After this plan failed, these people considered a coup to achieve this goal, but Schleicher refused to provide the army for the coup, so this plan was also abandoned. Later, it was proposed that Franz von Baben organize a "noble cabinet", and Baben has close ties with the forces. In order to fulfill its "miracle of taming the party", he tried to invite party members into the cabinet.

Hindenburg was very fond of Baben, so he respected his authority, but Baben failed to tame the party. Hitler did not buy Hindenburg's account at all. Hitler saw that his German Workers' Party had a certain strength in the general election, so he categorically rejected Hindenburg's request for him to form a cabinet with Baben. And put forward: "As the leader of Germany's largest political party, I am responsible for the entire power including all aspects."

Hitler not only despised Baben, but also held a hostile attitude towards Schleicher, who took over as Prime Minister of Baben in December, insisting on forming his own cabinet, while Hindenburg dismissed Hitler as being domineering and disagreeing. Seeing that Hitler might threaten his political status, he couldn't help but become annoyed. He immediately turned 180° and publicly declared: "Out of my duty and conscience to the motherland, I have no right to transfer the power of the entire government to a movement that wants to monopolize power. "

In November 1932, a group of industrialists and bankers submitted a *** letter to Hindenburg, requesting the appointment of Hitler as prime minister. However, on December 2, 1932, Hindenburg dismissed Prime Minister Baben who had close ties with the forces and let Schleicher form a cabinet. This move directly threatened Hitler's plan to seize power in an all-round way, because at the time the power was still fledgling, and Schleicher had a plan to split the party.

Therefore, Hitler asked Baben to "amend his guilt" on the one hand, and on the other hand, he invited the leading figure of the German monopoly consortium to submit a *** letter to Hindenburg to accommodate him. Hindenburg, who was originally a representative of the right, saw that Hitler had "changed his heart" and was willing to cooperate with him, and then he had the idea of ​​using this "forest guard".

At this time, Schletcher made a move that made Hindenburg extremely old. He planned to confiscate the bankrupt Junker's manor in East Germany. Hindenburg, as the spokesperson, certainly opposed this plan to support Juncker, but Schleicher could not get Hindenburg's support, but made an amazing move. Not only did he refuse to contact Juncker who opposed him, but he publicly declared war on them.

In this way, Hindenburg’s living room was crowded with representatives of Juncker’s family, angrily calling for the dissolution of the Schletcher government. Not only that, Schletcher also attracted the anger of the military to himself. As a prime minister with a military background, Schletcher should remember that Juncker and the officer corps have been closely linked for two hundred years.

The beneficiary of Schletcher's folly was Adolf Hitler, and Hitler skillfully took advantage of the growing dissatisfaction. In order to make a comeback from the defeat in November and regain prestige among the masses, he made a desperate move and gave a speech in almost every city and village in Lippe. Wherever he went, he was warmly welcomed. On January 15, he won 396% of the popular vote, an increase of 17%. This proves that his personal speech is quite attractive.

At this time, according to reason, Hitler should be the prime minister, but Hindenburg was still dissatisfied with it. The biggest obstacle is not the president himself, but the president's son-he publicly despised Hitler. However, Oscar Hindenburg’s feelings are based on arrogance, not ideological differences. In order to resolve their differences, Oscar accepted the invitation and met at Ribbentrop's house on the evening of Sunday, January 22.

Baben, Hitler, Goering and Frank were already waiting in the living room. The atmosphere is tense. After an awkward greeting, Hitler suddenly suggested to Oscar that the two of them should go to the next room. As a result of the secret talk between the two, according to Oscar, Hitler monopolized the topic. Only Hitler can rescue Germany from the reds, and only Hitler can be a powerful prime minister. Because without the support of the National Socialist Party, no other government can stand up.

Then Oscar also agreed to let Hitler serve as prime minister. So the biggest obstacle was lifted, and now Hitler only had to wait for Hindenburg to be appointed as prime minister. Although Hindenburg agreed to Hitler as prime minister, he required that the new government must have General Warner von Blomburg as the Minister of Defense and Baben as the Deputy Prime Minister.

In the morning of the next day, Baben met with Hitler's request for Hindenburg, and Hitler agreed to Hindenburg's request. But Hitler also made his own request, that is, to hold a new general election and issue an authorization law that grants him more power than the previous prime minister. In the afternoon, Baben reported to Hindenburg that all parties had agreed to this new government. Only then did Baben mentioned the requirements of Hitler's new election, and it sounded reasonable. He emphasized Hitler's promise: This is the last election.

Now that everything has been negotiated, Hindenburg then signed an order to end Schletcher's post of prime minister, and then People's Hitler became prime minister.

At this point Hitler finally ascended the throne of prime minister. The man who could not even graduate from high school, the man who failed to pass the Academy of Fine Arts, the man who had been a tramp on the streets of Vienna, now, on January 30, 1933, became the chancellor of Germany.

Adolf Hitler suddenly became prime minister, and it was the Berlin party members who were most surprised. For many years, they lived in poverty, risking their lives on the streets of the capital, often against the wishes of the head of state. Now, their dream has been realized in one fell swoop However, most people learned that the torch will be held that night through newspapers.

Every strong stormtrooper and SS member went out in uniform. Many people thought that they would have trouble with the police again, but they were surprised to find that even the police were smiling, and some people even wore swastikas. The stormtroopers, holding the torch, set off from Thiegarden in the evening, marching in military music, and in good order, lined up through the Brandenburg gate. Thousands of national defense forces joined them.

Hour after hour passed, they still sang "The Song of Wiesel Forest" and other war anthems, and lined up along William Street. They first paid tribute to Hindenburg-he was standing in front of a window of the presidential palace; after a while, they greeted Hitler. Hitler stood in front of a window in the Chancellery, looking down at them affectionately.

The trees on both sides of William Street are full of young boys, and the children are like "a bunch of grapes" covered with iron fences. In the cold winter night, the fire illuminates the night, and the intoxicating warm atmosphere is getting stronger and stronger. All of this was rehearsed by the performer Goebbels.

Even Hitler asked inexplicably: "In just a few hours, where did he change these tens of thousands of torches?"

The reason is that Goebbels controlled the radio station, and through live broadcasting, the whole of Germany enjoyed the magnificent view of the torch.

Baben stood behind Hitler and watched the torch. He found that when the team approached Hindenburg, people shouted respectfully to him. When they saw Hitler, they cheered frantically.

"The contrast is very stark, and it seems to highlight the transition from a dying rule to a new revolutionary force... This is an extraordinary experience, the never-ending shouts of cheering and victory "Cheers!" cheer! Cheers for victory! It’s like a wake-up call, echoing in my ears."