Hermann Goering

14. THE VICTORY - JANUARY 30, 1933

And so January 1933 began, the month which for long will be reckoned as perhaps the most memorable in German history. By the middle of the month it was already clear that the final decision was coming. There was feverish activity on all sides. From January 20th on I was, as political delegate, in constant touch with Herr von Papen, with Secretary-of-State Meissner, with the leader of the Steel Helmets, Seldte, and with the leader of the German Nationalists, Hugenberg, and was discussing with them future developments. It was clear that our goal could only be reached by the union of the National Socialists with all the remaining national forces under the sole leadership of Adolf Hitler. And then it was seen that Herr von Papen, against whom, for political reasons, we had once been forced to fight, now realized what a momentous occasion this was. With sincere cordiality he entered into alliance with us, and became the honest mediator between the aged Field Marshal and the young lance-corporal of the Great War. Without hesitation Seldte threw the Steel Helmets into the National Socialist scale and took up his stand loyally and firmly behind Adolf Hitler. The agreement with the German Nationalists was more difficult, for there the remains of the Party system were too firmly lodged. It was clear, and in the first weeks I often said so to Hugenberg, that it was high time that the German Nationalist Party should dissolve itself in order to flow into the great river of National Socialism.

But at that time an agreement had to be come to, or everything would have been destroyed. The President was willing to appoint Adolf Hitler if the unity of the national forces would thereby be assured. The difficulty in coming to an agreement was due to the fact that on the one side stood the National Socialists, superior to all other Parties in numbers and above all in power, and on the other side stood the leaders of a Middle Class Party which, on account of its parliamentary past, demanded powers out of all proportion to its size or importance. The chief difficulty, however, was that Adolf Hitler demanded as a sine qua non that immediately after the formation of the Cabinet a general election should be held. The German Nationalists, on the other hand, passionately opposed this idea. They saw quite rightly that the wheel of history would pass over them, and they knew that the mighty forces of National Socialism would be doubled or trebled, particularly as they would have the additional nimbus of having seized power. But at last an agreement was reached.

On Saturday, the 28th January, 1933, I could report to the Leader that in its essentials the work was finished and that now at last one could count on his being appointed. But we had had such bitter disappointments in the past that we did not dare to speak about it or to mention it to even our closest friends. And so it came about that Adolf Hitler's appointment, which followed on the 30th January, 1933, surprised not only all the public, but the whole Party as well. Right up to the night from the 29th to the 30th one could still reckon with all kinds of intrigues on the part of the former Cabinet. For a moment it almost seemed as if Schleicher would not retire without putting up a fight, but he had already hopelessly lost the battle; everything was fixed. On Monday, the 30th January, at 11 o'clock in the morning, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor by the President and seven minutes later the Cabinet was formed and the Ministers sworn in. Previously it had taken weeks, sometimes months, to form Cabinets; now everything was settled in a quarter of an hour. With the words of the aged Field Marshal: 'And now, gentlemen, forward with God!' the new Cabinet started on its work.

I had, as Hitler's representative, often in the past year gone backwards and forwards between the Kaiserhof and the Wilhelmstrasse, and I shall never forget the moment when I hurried out to my car and could be the first to tell the expectant crowds: 'Hitler has become Chancellor!' At first there was breathless silence, but then the crowds dispersed in wild haste. One saw boys, men, even women rushing away to spread the glad tidings, to tell others that Germany was saved. I cannot describe what our feelings were as we once more came together in the room at the Kaiserhof. How wonderfully had our luck changed at last and how wonderfully had the aged Field Marshal been used as an instrument in the hand of God. On the 13th August, 1932, and in November of the past year he had refused to appoint Hitler; but now, at the right and decisive moment, he had appointed him.

The first Cabinet meeting was fixed for five o'clock in the afternoon. We were all filled with a solemn feeling when, for the first time as Chancellor, Hitler addressed us and in wonderful words described our goal and the tasks which lay before us. But outside in the streets of the capital, and in all the towns of Germany and in all the villages, bells were ringing, men were rejoicing, were embracing each other, were happy in the intoxication of a great and noble enthusiasm. Everywhere singing columns marched through the streets Suddenly the cry went up that in the evening there was to be a torchlight procession for Hitler and Hindenburg. With lightning speed the tidings spread. From all districts, from all the suburbs of Berlin, the crowds streamed in. Storm Troops, Guards (SS), Steel Helmets and patriotic associations assembled in close columns at the various meeting places, lit their torches, and then marched past the President's palace in such a procession of thanks as had never been seen before in the history of the capital. There, at the lighted window of the Palace, stood the aged and venerable Field Marshal and, deeply moved and filled with gladness, looked down upon a people that had become free and happy again. And a few houses further on there stood, motionless, the man who had earned the thanks of the whole people - the man who had never weakened in the bitter, unceasing struggle, who had always held the banner firmer when others faltered, who, through thick and thin, had always remained true to his people - the Leader of the German people, its Chancellor: Adolf Hitler.

And that was the memorable night in which the new German freedom was born.

Soon after the seizure of power and during the elections of the 5th and 12th March, 1933, the revolution slowly, and without any visible stimulus from outside, grew stronger and stronger and prevailed. The Ministers who were not National Socialists had to realize, and have in fact realized, that they could achieve nothing with ordinary reforms, because a whole people was girding itself for action. The people wanted at last some outward sign that it had become free and that a new age was dawning. The only outward symbol of this fight for freedom which the people knew was the Swastika flag. It was therefore only logical that in the course of the revolution this battle standard should have been hoisted on all public buildings. The Field Marshal, being conscious of the vast significance of what had happened and desiring to show his recognition of the revolution, ordained that the Swastika, together with the black, white and red, should be the official flag of the Reich. We are deeply thankful to him for this wise decision.

Activity in all spheres was given a new direction. An important task for me was the reorganization and building up anew of the Prussian bureaucracy. And so the law was passed for the purging of the bureaucracy. This law gave me at last the power to remove all officials whose attitude or character made it unlikely that they

could usefully collaborate in building up the new state. But it also gave me the power to purge the bureaucracy of the excessive influence exercised by the Jews.