The visitors were greatly startled by the Führer's response, delivered with the force of a blow:
"You have not been conducting yourself as a friend, and therefore you have not been
summoned as a friend!" The speaker rose to his feet and, pointing an accusing finger at the new
arrival, went on: "Learn once for all, I have had enough of your insubordination! You
continue at your peril!" It set the big man back on his heels, and his large mouth dropped
open.
Would the Führer of the Nazis have attacked his subordinate in that abrupt and violent way if
he had not already got steamed up? Impossible to say; but the astonishment and dismay of Herr
Strasser were apparent. He opened his mouth as if to ask what was the matter, but then he
closed it again, for he got no chance. Hitler was launched upon a tirade; he rushed at the man
—not to strike him, but to thrust the accusing finger within a couple of inches of the big nose
and shriek:
"Your intrigues are known! Your insolence is resented! Your public utterances are
incitements to treason, and if you do not mend your ways you will be driven out. Go and join
your brother's
Adolf Hitler, am the Führer of the N.S.D.A.P., and it is for me to determine policies. I will not
have opposition, I will not have argument, I will have obedience. We are in the midst of a
war, and I demand loyalty, I demand discipline.
German words which require a clearing of the throat, and the unfortunate Strasser flinched as
if from a rain of small particles of moisture.
"Adolf, who has been telling you stories about me?" He forced the sentence in while the
Führer caught his breath.
"I make it my business to know what is going on in my movement. Do you imagine that you
can go about expressing contempt for my policies without word of it coming to me?"
"Somebody has been lying, Adolf. I have said only what I have said to you: that now is the
time for action, and that our foes desire nothing but delay, so that they can weaken us by
their intrigues".
"They weaken us because of arrogance and self-will in my own party officials; because these
presumptuous ones dare to set themselves up as authorities and thinkers. I think for the
National Socialists, I—and I have ordered you to hold your tongue—
orders, follow my policies and not your own stupid notions. Your brother has turned himself
into a criminal and an outlaw because of that same arrogance"
"Leave Otto out of it, Adolf. You know that I have broken with him. I do not see him and have
no dealings with him."
he added:
He rushed on: "You stay in the party and carry on Otto's agitation in favor of discarded
policies. I am the captain of this ship, and it is not for the crew to tell me what to do, but to do
what I tell them. Once more, I demand unity in the face of our foes. Understand me, I
command it! I speak as your Führer!"
Lanny thought he had never seen a man so beside himself with excitement. Adolf Hitler's face
had become purple, he danced about as he talked, and every word was emphasized as with a
hammer blow of his finger. Lanny thought the two men would surely fight; but no, presently
he saw that the other was going to take it. Perhaps he had seen the same thing happen before,
and had learned to deal with it. He stopped arguing, stopped trying to protest; he simply stood
there and let his Führer rave, let the storm blow itself out— if it ever would blow itself out.
Would the ocean ever be the same after such a hurricane?
X
Lanny had learned much about the internal affairs of the Nazi party from the conversation of
Kurt and Heinrich. Also, during the summer he had been getting the German papers, and
these had been full of a furious party conflict over the question of the old program, which
Hitler had been paring down until now there was nothing left of it. Here in North Germany
many of the Nazis took the "Socialist" part of their label seriously; they insisted upon talking
about the communizing of department stores, the confiscation of landed estates, the ending of
interest slavery, common wealth before private wealth, and so on. It had caused a regular civil
war in the party earlier in the year. The two Strasser brothers, Gregor and Otto, had fought
for the old program and had been beaten.
Gregor had submitted, but Otto had quit the party and organized a revolutionary group of
his own, which the Hitlerites called the "Black Front" and which they were fighting with
bludgeons and revolvers, just as they fought the Communists. Later on, immediately before the
elections, there had been another attempt at internal revolution; the rebels had seized the offices of
