TN the June Windsor, W. G. Fit*-Gerald, while carefully avoiding political bias, recounts the romantic and amazing story of Hitler's elevation; how competently the following extracts indicate:
“ A poor * foreign ’ artisan (he only, became a German two years ago!) sits to-day in Caesar’s seat. What is the secret of Hitler’s meteoric rise as a world figure? The story is stranger than any novel.
“ Dire poverty packed this Austrian village lad off to Vienna, where the contrast of Court luxury and slum misery, speedily made him a Socialist.
“ Young Hitler all but starved in that dismal time.
“ Over the Border he goes now into Bavaria, with an eager plea to King Ludwig III. that he may be allowed to serve in the German trenches when the Great War burst upon us all in 1914.
“ No more than Corporal was Adoll Hitler at any time; just a humble Austrian ‘ Tommy ’ of the ranks all through his service, with nothing to distinguish him from millions of others. Destiny had not yet called his obscure name. Then came the great German collapse of 1918.
“ In the Socialist Revolution that followed Hitler came to loath its leaders —‘ the wretched gang of party hacks who had betrayed the nation.’ At long last the Man felt the press and surge of his mission—* I resolved to become a Politician!’
“ As such he had no lueir. A few conspirators rallied to the unknown exsoldier. These met in the Biirgenfrau beer-cell a r, outside Munich, and there Hitler planned a forlorn stroke. He invited high officers of State, both civil and military, to a * lecture.’ When this was over his notable guests were staggered by the action of their crazy and reckless host. Leaping up, Hitler drew a pistol and fired at the ceiling:
‘ To-morrow,’ he yelled. * we shall have a new Government—or we’ll all be dead men!’ 1
“Hitler led his buccaneer band across the Ludwigbriicke, disarming the gendarmes on the. way. In the Odeonsplatz the rioter's were chat-. Ienged by a body of Regular troops. Asked three times to disperse, a volley was fired at them, and sixteen Hitlerite 1 martyrs ’ fell dead or bleeding in what looked an ulterly hopeless cause. The rest fled in all directions.
“ Hitler himself escaped into hiding. Hermann Goering, now Premier ot Prussia, dragged His broken leg as fat as Innsbruck. Captain Roehm was soon captured, with bis fugitive chief, The pair of them were now put in a felon’s dock, and Adolf Hitler got four years as a disturber of the peace.” To-day he wields a power beyond that of any Kaiser or Tsar. “ Physically he is a frail man, and the emotional orgies which accompany his public appearances leave him limp and shaken.”
