Hitler's Temptation

AMANN        But Munich is a Catholic city Adolf.

HITLER       There has been no scandal so far and there will be none, no damaging scandal. If the press or wireless talk, that is something else, but why should they? There is nothing to talk about.

AMANN        Gregor doesn't think so.

HITLER       Gregor listens too much to his brother for his own good. If I had always followed Gregor's advice this movement of ours would consist of the proverbial one man plus dog. We would still be meeting furtively in sleazy back rooms, plotting revolution on beer mats! The Strassers, Otto especially, are too theoretical. We need practical men, men like you Max, a friend, a comrade and above all, a man with his feet on the ground. The simple fact is that without your work the Party would not be solvent.

AMANN         You flatter me Adolf.

HITLER        I am not in the business of flattery. We'll leave that to the democrats! I say your contribution to the cause is worth more than 100 pages of ideological discussion and all the waffle of party programmes. Without people like you the NSDAP would be what it was when I found it, a drinking club for prattlers, plotters and arm-chair revolutionaries. German Nationalists have laboured from the beginning with the burden of too much talk and too little action. There are always any number of persons who are quick to write and talk but slow to move. Whatever proposals you have to solve a problem, to start something going, you can be absolutely sure that these gentlemen will come up with the most plausible arguments to show that none of them can work; if by any chance you are unlucky and something goes wrong, they will tut tut and wag their finger and say, "but we told you so", and if, as you anticipate, everything does work, then they will shake their heads and say, "what a fluke". If one of their objections is laid to rest so thoroughly that even the dim-witted can see through their prevarications, why, they come up with another objection, and so it goes on, and nothing effective is done. Fruitless internal bickering, which is the only thing sure to come out of this approach, is of course music to the ears of our opponents. Whether we are plotting or bickering, so long as we are not doing, the System feels safe. Those who always object to an irrevocable decision do so in most cases to hide their own indecision and cowardice.

AMANN        Adolf, Gregor Strasser is no coward.

HITLER       No, but his hair-splitting encourages weakness and cowardice. He is influenced by his brother; and for Otto, theory is always more important than action. He does not see that theory without action is worthless. I tried to make that clear in the book.

AMANN        And what a book that was. I felt so proud when I found my name in it!

HITLER       Dismissively      The book was nothing special.

AMANN        It is a superb book-every German should read it!

HITLER       It is not superb, as you say, nor incoherent, as our enemies say. It had to be written, that's all. It provided a certain solidity to my image, a certain respectability if you will, and it makes money; it has helped to buy me all this gestures to room, not that this is what I should chose personally for a living room, but people need impressive trappings-they feel, how shall I say, reassured in them. Any successful businessman will tell how half the key to success is bluff.

AMANN       And the other half?

HITLER      Single-mindedness of course. That's how the