didn't. A hundred thousand of them met in the Berlin Lustgarten, clamoring for the defense
of the Republic against its traitor enemies. "Something is going to pop," wrote Johannes,
American fashion.
discussed in the Reichstag. Schleicher is considering with the labor unions the idea of refusing
to resign and holding on with their backing. I am told that the Catholics have assented, but the
Socialists are afraid it wouldn't be legal. What do you think?" Lanny knew that his old friend
was teasing him, and didn't offer any opinion on German constitutional law.
Johannes didn't say what he himself was doing in this crisis, but Lanny guessed that he was
following his program of keeping friendly with all sides. Certainly he possessed an extraordinary
knowledge of the intrigues. Now and then Lanny would call him on the long distance
telephone, a plaything of the very rich, and Johannes would speak a sort of camouflage. He
would say: "My friend Franzchen wants to be top dog, but so does his friend the publisher, and
their schemes will probably fall through because they can't agree." Lanny understood that this
meant Papen and Hugenberg; and when Johannes added: "They may harness up the Wild
Man and get together to drive him," Lanny had no trouble guessing about that. Presently
Johannes said: "They are telling the Old Gent that the General is plotting a
him." It was like reading a blood and thunder novel in instalments, and having to wait for the
next issue. Would the rescue party arrive in time?
IV
On the thirtieth of January the news went out to a startled world that President von
Hindenburg had appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of the German Republic. Even the Nazis
were taken by surprise; they hadn't been invited to the intrigues, and couldn't imagine by what
magic it had been brought about that their Führer's enemies suddenly put him into office. Franz
von Papen was Vice-Chancellor, and Hugenberg was in the Cabinet; in all there were nine
reactionaries against three Nazis, and what could that mean? The newspapers outside
Germany were certain that it meant the surrender of Hitler; he was going to be controlled,
he was going to be another Ramsay MacDonald. They chose not to heed the proclamation
which the Führer himself issued, telling his followers that the struggle was only beginning. But
the Stormtroopers heeded, and turned out, exultant, parading with torchlights through Unter
den Linden; seven hundred thousand persons marched past the Chancellery, with Hindenburg
greeting them from one window and Hitler from another. The Communist call for a general
strike went unheeded.
So it had come: the thing which Lanny had been fearing for the past three or four years. The
Nazis had got Germany! Most of his friends had thought it unlikely; and now that it had
happened, they preferred to believe that it hadn't. Hitler wasn't really in power, they said,
and could last but a week or two. The German people had too much sense, the governing
classes were too able and well trained; they would tone the fanatic down, and the soup would
be eaten cool.
But Adolf Hitler had got, and Adolf Hitler would keep, the power which was most
important to him—that of propaganda. He was executive head of the German government, and
whatever manifesto he chose to issue took the front page of all the newspapers. Hermann
Goring was Prussian Minister of the Interior and could say to the world over the radio: "Bread
and work for our countrymen, freedom and honor for the nation!" Dwarfish little Jupp
Goebbels, President of the Propaganda Committee of the Party, found himself Minister of
Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment of the German Republic. The Nazi movement had been
made out of propaganda, and now it would cover Germany like an explosion.
Hitler refused to make any concessions to the other parties, and thus forced Hindenburg to
dissolve the Reichstag and order a new election. This meant that for a month the country
would be in the turmoil of a campaign. But what a different campaign! No trouble about lack
of funds, because Hitler had the funds of the nation, and his tirades were state documents.
Goebbels could say anything he pleased about his enemies and suppress their replies. Goring,
having control of the Berlin police, could throw his political opponents into jail and nobody
could even find out where they were. These were the things of which Adi Schicklgruber had
been dreaming ever since the end of the World War; and where else but in the Arabian Nights
had it happened that a man awoke and found such dreams come true?
V
Lanny Budd lived externally the life of a young man of fashion. He accompanied his wife to
various functions, and when she entertained he played the host with dignity. Having been
married nearly four years, he was entitled to enjoy mild flirtations with various charming
ladies of society; they expected it, and his good looks and conversation gave him reason to
