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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 Bessie Budd. The politicians
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: "Ich will
meine Ruhe haben!"
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
the reins in his hands and governed the country until the economic crisis had passed and the
people could settle into a normal state of mind.
"But wouldn't that mean the end of the Republic?" asked Lanny.
"Republics come and go, but nations endure," said Oberst Meissner.
VII
Heinrich Jung called up, bursting with pride over the triumph of his party. He offered to tell
Lanny the inside story, and Lanny said: "But I am consorting with your enemies." The other
laughed and replied: "Then you can tell me the inside story!" He seemed to take the view that
Lanny, an American, was above the battle. Was it that a young Nazi craved the admiration of a
foreigner? Was there in his secret heart some pleasure in free discussion, the ex pression of
unbiased opinion which he did not get from his party press? Or was it that Lanny was so rich,
and looked like a figure out of a Hollywood movie?
The Jung family had been increased again. "More Junkers," said Lanny, with what seemed a
pun to him. Heinrich's salary had been increased and he had moved into a larger home. He
had invited Hugo Behr, and the three of them sat for a couple of hours sipping light beer and
settling the destiny of Germany and its neighbors. Lanny was interested to observe that there
were disagreements among Nazi intellectuals, as elsewhere; the two names of Hitler's party
covered widely different and inconsistent points of view. Heinrich was the National and Hugo
was the Socialist, and while they agreed in workingclass consciousness and the program of
socialization; whereas Heinrich, son of one of Graf Stubendorf's employees, had the mentality of
a Prussian state servant to whom Ordnung und Zucht were the breath of being.
Lanny thought there was drama in this, and that it might pay an English playwright to
come to Berlin and study what was going on. He had suggested the idea to Rick, who hadn't
thought the Nazi movement important enough; but maybe the recent vote would change his
mind! Anyhow, Lanny was interested to listen to two young zealots, setting out to make the
world over in the image of their inspired leader; it pleased him to take a mental crow bar and
insert it in the crack between their minds and make it wider and deeper. Just how deep
would it go before they became aware of it themselves?
Lanny couldn't tell them what he knew. He couldn't say to Hugo: "Your Führer is in the
thick of negotiations with Thyssen, and Krupp von Bohlen, and Karl von Siemens, and others
of the greediest industrialists of your country. He is making fresh promises of conservatism
and legality. He will do anything to get power, and anything to keep it. You and your friends
are just so many pawns that he moves here and there and will sacrifice when his game requires
it." No, for they would ask: "How do you know this?" And he couldn't reply: "Fritz Thyssen
told my father yesterday." They would assume that he had got the stories from Johannes
Robin, a Jew, which would mean to them two things: first, that the stories were lies, and
second, that some Nazi patriots ought to visit the Robin palace by night and smash all its
windows and paint Juda verrecke! on its front door.
No, among Catholics one did not question the purity of the Holy Virgin, and among Nazis
one didn't question the honor of the Führer. When he said in his book that he would have no
honor, he meant as regards his foes; but for his Parteigenossen he was a loving shepherd, to
be followed after the manner of sheep. All that Lanny could do was to ask impersonal
questions. "How can the Führer get commercial credits, if Germany defaults in payments on
her bonds? I don't mean reparations, but the bonds of private investors." Hugo Behr, naive
young Socialist, didn't even know that there were such bonds. Lanny said: "I have several of
them in a safe-deposit box in Newcastle, Connecticut. I bought them because I wanted to help
your Socialist republic."
"It is a bourgeois fraud!" said the ex-Marxist; and that settled all Lanny's claims.
VIII
Kurt had written, begging Irma and Lanny to come for a visit. Lanny had never been to
Stubendorf except at Christmas time, and he thought it would be pleasant to see the country in
midsummer. They drove with a speed greater than the wind over the splendid level roads of
Prussia, past fields where gangs of Polish immigrant women labored on the potato crops. The
roads were lined with well-tended fruit trees, and Irma said: "We couldn't do that in America.
People would steal all the fruit." She had never seen vast fields so perfectly cultivated:
every inch of ground put to use, no such thing as a weed existing, and forests with trees
planted in rows like orchards. She renewed her admiration for the German Volk.
They stayed at the Schloss, even though the Graf was not at home. Kurt had a new "Junker,"
and so had his brother's family and his sister's. Herr Meissner was feeble, but able to talk
politics; he renewed his complaints of corruption and incompetence of the Polish government
under which he was forced to live. Just now there was wrangling over religious questions; the
old problem of the relations of church and state was being fought over with bitterness
inherited through six centuries or more. There were Polish Lutherans and German Lutherans
who couldn't and wouldn't say the Lord's prayer together. There were Polish Catholics trying to
polonize German Catholics. There was the Volhynian Russian church, and the Uniat church
which was half-way between Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic—they accepted the Pope,
but their priests married and had large families. Superimposed upon all this was a new Polish
ecclesiastical system, which subjected all the churches to the government. Herr Meissner, soon
to depart from this earth, found the making of a proper exit as complicated a problem as had
ever confronted him while staying on.
Lanny had been looking forward to having a frank talk with his old chum. He wanted to tell
Kurt what he had learned about the Nazi political machine, and make one last effort to get him
out of it. But he realized that it would be a waste of effort. Kurt was in a state of exultation
over the election results, for which he had been hoping for ten years and working for five. He
considered that Germany was being redeemed, and he was composing a Victory March to end
all marches. Lanny decided sadly that it was better to play piano duets and consider politics as
beneath the notice of inspired musicians.
He and Irma had intended to return to Berlin for another cruise; but there came a telegram
from Miss Severne, who was under strict orders to report the slightest sign of indisposition
on the part of her charge. She reported a digestive disturbance and a temperature of 101; that
didn't mean much in a child, and the nurse was sure it wasn't serious, but Irma fell into a
panic right away—she was a neglectful and selfish mother who had run away from her
responsibilities, amusing herself all over Europe. She wanted to take a plane; but Lanny
said: "By the time you get to an airport and arrange for one we can be half way home. You
spell me and we'll drive straight through."
So they did, and reached Juan in a little over two days—not so bad considering the
mountains in Austria and Italy. Twice on the way they stopped to telephone, and when they
arrived they found that the fire was all out. Was it the magic of Parsifal Dingle, or just the
natural tendency of very young children to get over a fever as quickly as they get it? There was
no way to know; suffice it that Lanny's stepfather had done his best, and Miss Severne had
done hers, and Baby Frances was well—and ready to take full advantage of a reformed and
penitent mother! Irma was so happy to prattle and dance and play with her darling that she
couldn't understand how she had ever wanted to be fashionable.
IX
They settled down to domestic life. In the evening Sophie and her husband would come over
to play bridge with Irma and Beauty. Marceline had begun attending a private school, where
fashionable young ladies didn't learn very much but were watched and kept out of mischief.
That left Lanny free to read the magazines which had accumulated in his absence, and to play
the music that took his fancy; also to attend the workers' school and tell them what he had
learned in England and Germany, and advise them how to avoid the misfortunes which had
befallen their comrades in these countries.
The only trouble was, the data appeared so complicated and the conclusions so uncertain.
"MacDonaldism" appeared to indicate the futility of "gradualness" and legality; the moment
you mentioned it, up popped some young Red to say: "You see what happens when the
workers put their trust in parliaments!" When you mentioned Hitler, right away a wrangle
started as to what had caused him. Was he an agent of German heavy industry, and a proof that
capitalism would not submit peaceably to any form of limitation upon its rule? Or were the
Nazis-a product of the fears which Bolshevism had inspired in the Kleinbürgertum— the small
business men, the petty officials, the white collar workers who had no unions and couldn't
protect their status?
You could take either side of this debate, produce a mass of facts to prove your case, and
come out feeling certain that you had won. The uncomfortable person was the one like Lanny,
who wanted the whole truth, and could see that there was some of it on both sides. Nobody
could look at an issue of a Nazi newspaper without seeing that they were exploiting the fear
of Red Russia to the limit; on the other hand, who could look at Hitler's Braune Haus with its
costly equipment, or see the Stormtroopers marching with their shiny new uniforms and
weapons—and not know that this movement was being financed by big money of some sort.
Großkapital was afraid of Russia, just as the white collar workers were; but Großkapital was
exploiting all the workers, and these two groups couldn't agree on any domestic policies.
Sooner or later the Nazis would have to make up their minds which master they meant to
serve.
