Evening star., 1934-07-01
Britain Sees Cracks
. In German Structure
BY A. G. GARDINER.


exercising the mind of Europe at this
time more than that of the internal
outlook of Germany. Grave cracks
are beginning to appear In the Nazl
structure and the personal position
of Hitler Is visibly shaken. The evi-
dences of this grow daily and the
reasons are not far TO seek. The &C.
stasy of last Summer has passed and
Germany is realizing that the vision
of the millennium has faded and that
Hitler has not delivered the goods. ="
1t may be said that Mussolini in
Italy has not delivered the goods"
either and that nevertheless his per-
sonal position is still apparently un-
challenged. But Germany is an in
finitely vaster and more difficult prob
lem than Italy. and Hitler is. for the
purposes of q dictatorship, not in the
same category as Mussolini. He is
made OF much softer metal than the
Duce, and the suspicion grows that,
in Bismarck's phrase. he is only "a
lath painted to look like iron"
y 4 4
Eitler's very virtues are a handi-
cap. He has a naive and disinterested
passion for his country, and, in spite
Of his fanatical prepossessions, he has
q certain open-mindedness that per-
plexes his followers. There were no
two issues on which his objectives
seemed more fixed and unalterable
than those of the Polish Corridor and
the incorporation of Austria in the
German system Surrender on these
issues seemed unthinkable. He has
surrendered on both.
The corridor question has been put
into cold storage for ten years by the
understanding with Poland, and the
Austrian question has apparently been
put into cold storage as result Of
the confabulations with Mussolini at
Venice. With these compromises, the
whole dream Of the extension Of Ger
man power in Eastern Europe, which
figured so largely in the grandiose
prospectus of empire that Hitler is
sued when he came to power, van
ished into thin air.
In both these cases his actions have
been wise, but the effect upon his
personal prestige has been disastrous.
1t exhibits him not as the strong man
debating to Europe, but as a man
yielding now in this direction, now in
that, and publicly eating the strong
words with which he had inflamed
his followers. And coupled with this
fexibility in external affairs is his
in-and-out running on the church
question, the most perplexing internal
problem with which he has had to
deal.
But the chief cause Of Hitler's
crumbling power is that he lacks the
colossal egotism of Mussolini. A die
tatorship is a "one-man show" The
limelight must fall on one sublime
figure and one only. If any ambitious
underling thrusts himself into the
beam Of light or even strays into it
inadvertently, he must be whisked
away to some distant sphere, an en-
bassy in some foreign country.
Hitler has never monopolized power
in this sense. He has had lieuten-
ants to whom he was, and Is, devoted
and who have shared the limeEght
with him. Moreover. Naziism has
never been the clear-cut issue that
Fascism has been In Italy. It has
been complicated with Junkerism on
one side and with Socialism on the
other. It drew its resources from big
business and its enthusiasm from the
working classes. It was used by the
landed interests to defeat Bruening's s
scheme for breaking up the great land
monopoly and it appealed to the peas
antry who wanted that monopoly
broken up.
It was Won Papen's activities which
overthrew the Won Schleicher regime
and paved the way for Hitler, and it
was the capture Of President Won Hin
denburg in the interests of the Junk
ers that completed the coup.
r X X X
Now this combination of opposites
Is disintegrating, as 1t was bound to
disintegrate. Terms had to be made
with Won Papen, who became vice
chancellor. For a year he has re-
manned in the background, watching
the tide, which he did so much to set
in motion, sweep by and waiting for
the moment to strike again. He did
so in his speech at Marburg Univer-
sity, In which he spoke frankly Of the
decline of the enthusiasm that accom-
panied the Nazi revolution and Of the
danger Of q "pseudo-religious mate
rialism," and denounced the idea that
critics Of the government should be
branded as enemies Of the state"
This speech marked a definite and
formidable rupture. Behind Won Pa
! pen is big business and the Junker
influence. In reserve is the Reichs-
wehr, now q powerful, well-armed
force which in a military sense could
make havoc of the Nazis.
And there Is the President also to
be reckoned with He made Hitler
and is still powerful enough to un-
make him. His sympathies are still
with the Junkers, and he is an evan
gelicai Of the old school who has been
| deeply disturbed by the attempt to
make the German church merely q
department Of the Nazi system.
Won Hindenburg is plainly near his
end, and If that end comes quickly
Hitler may buttress up his system by
assuming the presidency or putting 1t
In safe hands. But II he survives 1t
is difficult to see how q crisis can be
avoided which viii split the forces Of
Naziism asunder and may bring Hit
lerism to the ground.
(Copyrisht. 1e34J