connection between the two, and now that modern science had moved away from the old
dogmatic notion of a physical atom as the building material of all existence, it was time for the
Socialists to find themselves a philosophy which justified creative effort and moral purpose.
The eager girl student was glad to hear someone say that, in the long philosophical terms
which made it sound right to a German. She said that she had observed this error working in
everyday life. Men who preached that matter and force were the bases of life, the sole
reality, were tempted to apply this dogma in their own lives; when they got a little power
they thought about keeping it, and forgot their solidarity with the humble toilers. People had
to believe in moral force, they had to let love count in the world, they had to be willing to
make sacrifices of their own comfort, their own jobs and salaries, yes, even their lives, if need
be. It was lack of that living spirit of brotherhood and solidarity which had made it possible for
Otto Braun, Social-Democratic Premier of the Prussian state, and Karl Severing, Minister of
the Interior, to bow to the threats of monocled aristocrats, and slink off to their villas without
making the least effort to rouse the people to defend their republic and the liberties it
guaranteed them.
Lanny thought: "Here, at last, is a German who understands what freedom means!"
VI
On a Sunday, the last day of July, more than thirty-seven million citizens of the German
Republic, both men and women, went to the polls and registered their choice for deputies to
represent them in the Reichstag. As compared with the elections of two years previ ously, the
Socialists lost some six hundred thousand votes, the Communists gained as many, while the
Nazis increased their vote from six and a half million to fourteen million. They elected two
hundred and thirty deputies out of a total of six hundred and eight-outnumbering the
Socialists and Communists, even if combined, which they wouldn't. So from then on it became
impossible for anyone to govern Germany without Adolf Hitler's consent.
There began a long series of intrigues and pulling of wires behind the scenes. Johannes
would report events to Lanny, and also to Lanny's father, who had come over for a
conference with his associate and went for a short cruise on the
of the right, who had polled less than five per cent of the vote, nevertheless hung on to power,
trying to persuade Hitler to come into their cabinet, so that they might flatter him and smooth
him down as had been done with MacDonald in England. They would offer him this post and
that; they would try to win his followers away from him—and Adi would summon the
waverers to his presence and scream at them hysterically. When he couldn't get his way he
would threaten suicide, and his followers never knew whether he meant it or not.
A great event in Berlin life when the haughty old Field Marshal consented to receive the
"Bohemian corporal." Hitler was driven to the Wilhelmstrasse, with crowds cheering him on
the way. He had lunch with von Papen, the Chancellor whose post he was demanding, and
when he was escorted into the presence of Hindenburg he was so nervous that he stumbled
over a rug; he started one of his orations, just like Gladstone before Queen Victoria, and had to
be stopped by his old commander. Hindenburg told him that he would not turn over the
chancellorship to a man whose followers practiced terrorism and systematic violations of the
law; he thought the vice-chancellorship was enough for such a man. But Hitler refused it,
demanding full power. The aged Junker stormed, but the ex-corporal had been brought up on
that, and all he would reply was: "Opposition to the last ditch." Said Hindenburg:
There began a new wave of terrorism; attacks upon Reds of all shades by the Nazi
Stormtroopers in and out of uniform. Irma heard about it and began begging Lanny to cease
his visits among these people; she tried to enlist Robbie's help, and when that failed she
wanted to leave Berlin. What was this obscure tropism which drove her husband to the
companionship of persons who at the least wanted to get his money from him, and frequently
were conspiring to involve him in dangerous intrigues? What had they ever done for him?
What could he possibly owe them?
Lanny insisted that he had to hear all sides. He invited Emil Meissner to lunch—not in the
Robin home, for Emil wouldn't come there. Kurt's oldest brother was now a colonel, and Lanny
wanted to know what a Prussian officer thought about the political dead-lock. Emil said it was
deplorable, and agreed with Lanny that the Nazis were wholly unfitted to govern Germany.
He said that if von Papen had been a really strong man he would never have permitted that
election to be held; if the Field Marshal had been the man of the old days he would have taken
