Chapter 42

May 7, 1932

In April, Chancellor Brüning banned the SA and the SS again. Wolf and I were in party headquarters in Berlin, discussing the situation when the phone rang. It was Kurt von Schleicher. When Wolf replaced the receiver, he was jubilant.

“They continue to think up new ways to resuscitate a government on life support. They fail to see that their futile efforts play into our hands.”

“What did General von Schleicher want?”

“He wants me to attend a secret meeting this evening. He would not give any details.”

“Is it about Chancellor Brüning?”

“It’s possible. Schleicher was emphatic that Brüning would not be at the meeting.”

“It sounds like Schleicher may be plotting to remove Brüning. If it comes to that, can Schleicher be trusted?”

“Trusted?” Wolf snorted. “He is the last man in Germany to be trusted. He’s been at the Old Man’s side for the seven years that Hindenburg has been president. Everyone knows that Hindenburg has been at Germany’s helm, but few understand that Schleicher is the one who has set the course that’s driven us into this bloody mess.”

“I thought the 25/48/53 formula was Hindenburg’s idea.”

This formula—taken directly from the Weimar constitution—created a presidential government that could ignore the popular vote if no party had a majority in the Reichstag.

Under the Constitution, the chancellor was responsible only to the president, not to the elected members of the Reichstag. Article 25 gave the president power to dissolve the Reichstag whenever he chose. Article 48 authorized the president to sign emergency bills without the consent of the Reichstag. Article 53 gave the president the power to appoint the Chancellor. The only counterbalance to presidential power was given to the Reichstag. The Reichstag was able overturn a presidential edict within sixty days of passage by a simple majority. But with no majority party and a refusal to form a coalition because parties refused to compromise, this check was illusory.

“You can say much about the old Field Marshal, but being an innovative bureaucratic manager is not one of his strengths,” Wolf explained. “The magic 25/48/53 formula was Schleicher’s idea. His and his alone.”

“You’re telling me that Hindenburg never intended for Germany to be a democracy?”

“That’s not quite right,” said Wolf. “The Old Man defends the republic because he gave his oath, but he has always been a monarchist at heart. But the more the parties bicker, the more Hindenburg gets frustrated.” Wolf threw his hands up. “Who can blame him? We’ve had eleven chancellors—thirteen, if you count the second stints of Wilhelm Marx and Wilhelm Müller—plus seventeen different cabinets since the war ended. Of course Hindenburg is frustrated.”

“It’s no wonder we are where we are. We never really had a democracy, did we?”

“Only a bastardized version that was doomed to fail,” said Hitler, rubbing his hands. “This discord within the democracy is strangling democracy itself to death.”

*

Schleicher’s apartment was antique-filled. We sat around an oval mahogany dining room table extended by adding a leaf. Schleicher, the president’s secretary Otto Meissner, and the general’s son, Oskar, sat across from us.

I studied Schleicher. He was barrel-chested with a short neck. At fifty he was already bald. He had a low brow, hooded eyes, a beak-like nose, and thin lips.

Schleicher’s influence on the president was rooted in his relationship with the president’s son. Schleicher entered the Prussian army in 1900, where he soon befriended fellow junior officer, Oskar von Hindenburg, when both served in the Third Foot Guards. As the senior Hindenburg’s importance grew during the Great War, Schleicher made certain to cultivate the politically green Oskar, who by then served as his father’s aide-de-camp. Schleicher moved even closer to Oskar once the old man became president. As senior grew more infirmed and Oskar took control of access to his father, Schleicher became the most powerful man in Germany.

Schleicher took charge of the meeting. “Let me be blunt, Herr Hitler. The president has grown frustrated over Chancellor Brüning’s inability to forge a working majority in the Reichstag. Brüning is finished.”

“Like those before him, I am well aware of his limitations,” Wolf said.

“No one blames you directly, but you have a heavy hand in these matters.”

Wolf bowed his head. “If anything, I am a constitutionalist, General Schleicher. I support the wishes of the electorate. They expect us to remain true to our principles, not to compromise them away.”

Oskar Hindenburg spoke next. “Brüning hammered the final nail into his political coffin when he proposed to divide up the Junker estates. He plans to hand our lands over to farmer-peasants to serve as a buffer between Germany and Poland. This is foolhardy.” He pounded the table with his large fist. “Taking land from the aristocracy is unthinkable. My father will not tolerate this.”

“That was the final straw,” said Meissner. “It is the field marshal’s wish that Brüning must go.”

Wolf looked from Meissner to Oskar Hindenburg to Schleicher. “Is this your way of asking me to be chancellor?”

Schleicher answered. “President Hindenburg cannot support you. He is not ready to turn the republic into a dictatorship.”

Wolf focused on Oskar. “The moment your father became president, a course was set for dictatorship.” Then he turned to Schleicher, ignoring the others. “From the beginning, it was your idea to erode the last vestiges of democracy with your 25/48/53 formula. You knew what you were doing. You never intended Germany to be democratic.”

Schleicher bristled. “Herr Hitler. Six million are unemployed. One-third of Germany’s working force sits idle, if you include those who have given up searching for a job. How can you run a democracy under those conditions with dozens of parties that cannot agree on anything?”

Wolf conceded nothing. “When Brüning started, half as many were out of work. The economy was in recovery. But when the world markets crashed, you used Article 48 to sign proclamations into law . . .” then he turned to Oskar, “. . . and your father went along.”

The silence was deafening. Wolf had struck a chord.

Then he raised both hands to the ceiling, curling his fingers into tight fists in the way he had practiced in those early photo sessions in Hoffman’s studio. “Brüning has used the president to rule by fiat for close to two years. What do we have to show for it? Chaos in the streets and the worst unemployment in our history. Our people are hungry not only for food, but for new leadership. Make me chancellor and I promise to change all of this.”

While Oskar and Meissner were spellbound, Schleicher remained unfazed. He presented his proposal, ignoring anything Hitler said. “Field Marshal Hindenburg is prepared to give you a number of concessions, Herr Hitler. Specifically, he is willing to lift the ban on the SS and the SA.”

The aura that encircled Wolf began to dissipate. “What else?”

“We know that the NSDAP is on the rise. We also know that your party has garnered close to fifty percent in various Landtag elections. With each election, you grow stronger.”

“All the more reason to make me chancellor. I, alone, can form a majority coalition with the Catholic Centre Party.”

Meissner offered a compromise. “The Reich president has had enough of chancellors promising to form coalitions only to have them fail. You will be no different. What he is prepared to do is to disband the Reichstag to give you a chance to earn a clear majority. He promises to schedule new elections as soon as Brüning submits his resignation.”

“When will these elections be held?” I asked.

“In July,” responded Meissner,

Doggedly, Wolf asked a third time, “Who will be the new chancellor in the meantime?”

Oskar delivered a previously scripted answer. “My father is tired. Since no chancellor has a majority, he will form a gentlemen’s cabinet made up of aristocrats who are not beholden to any party. Using Article 53, he will appoint Franz von Papen chancellor.”

What they proposed was preposterous. It guaranteed failure. My hackles rose. “How is that better than what we have now?” Everyone turned to me, surprised that I spoke. “We need a strong leader with a single purpose. Otherwise, Germany will be relegated to the discarded heap of once great powers.”

Oskar directed his answer to Wolf. “We know you intend to transform our country into a dictatorship. Under no circumstances will my father let that happen. He was elected to guide the republic and that is what he will do.”

I expected Wolf to explode . . . but he didn’t.

“What do you require of me?” Wolf asked in a tone belying his anger and disappointment.

“That you give the next chancellor a chance to succeed.”

All in the room expected Wolf to say, “No.”

His answer shocked us all. “I agree.”

I was bursting to ask the obvious, but I had to wait until we left.

Outside, I asked, “Why did you give in to their demands?”

Wolf pinched my cheek. “Friedrichshen, a concoction of barons and aristocrats can never make a difference. They’re doomed to fail. We have no choice but to go along because Schleicher has the Reichswehr behind him. Without the army, we can never succeed. We suffered that painful lesson when our putsch failed. So let them put Papen in. He will have no majority in the Reichstag. In fact, Papen no longer has a party supporting him. The Catholic Centrum threw him out. Rest assured that Papen will only last a few months. The good news is that they handed us a new election and an opportunity to gain a majority in July. With a majority, I will be chancellor. In the meantime . . .” his lips curled upward, “. . . the services of the SA and the SS have just been returned to us in time for the election.”

*

Two days later, Schleicher’s plan went into motion. Hermann Göring sent a clear message from the chamber floor of the Reichstag. “The people do not exist to be ruined by a government that cannot master a situation. The Brüning cabinet must go so Germany can live!”

Brüning had no alternative: he resigned. Next, Hindenburg appointed Papen as chancellor. Papen, as promised, then lifted the ban on the SA and the SS. The final step—the call for new elections—would fulfill the last promise to Wolf.

Within three weeks, Minister of Defense Groener resigned. This paved the way for Kurt von Schleicher to assume that post and he wasted no time “advising” Chancellor von Papen who he should appoint to the remaining cabinet positions. Papen accepted all of Schleicher’s “suggestions.”

The year’s fourth major election was scheduled for July. We held meeting after meeting to select our best candidates to run against incumbents, with a singular goal: to gain a majority in the Reichstag in order to make Wolf Germany’s next chancellor.