Page 31 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

18 The British Diplomats

1932, in which Hitler received 36.3 percent of the vote, rumbold reported
to sir John simon, the British secretary of foreign affairs, that some peo-
ple believed Hitler had “exhausted his reserves” and would not “go any
higher,” a judgment the ambassador did not contest. early in august 1932,
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when Franz von Papen was trying to cobble together a majority to form a
government, rumbold viewed the Nazis as a political party that could be
expected to act pragmatically, and he went so far as to refer to Hitler as a
“visionary, but quite a decent sort of man.” Papen’s aim was to “draw the
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teeth of the [Nazi] movement by saddling the National socialists with a
certain amount of responsibility.” the Nazis would then have to “come into
the open and no longer shelter themselves behind a nebulous programme.”
rumbold thought that Hitler and his supporters were in a tight spot and
would have to make some hard decisions. “it would appear that they have
shot their bolt and have exhausted the reservoir from which they drew
many of their adherents, and yet have failed to obtain an absolute major-
ity in the reichstag. their storm troops will soon begin to ask themselves
what their marchings and their ‘alarmbereitschaft’ (being on the alert) are
leading to. in other words, the time is fast approaching when Hitler will
be expected to deliver the goods. He cannot indefinitely play the role of
a revivalist preacher and yet even if he consents to the inclusion of one or
two members of his party in the Government he will be unable to fulfil his
promises to the electorate.” in december 1932, a month before Hitler’s
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appointment as chancellor, rumbold spoke of Nazism as similar to other
political movements and described Hitler’s camp as one of the “three great
parties of the left.” 9
rumbold clung to his view of the Nazis’ poor chances of gaining power
until the very moment that Hitler received the call to assume the office of
chancellor. On January 16, 1933, the ambassador informed secretary simon
that the Nazis were in serious financial straits and implied that this would
hinder their political work. erwin Planck, who served in the important post
of secretary of state under the last two chancellors before Hitler, had told
rumbold that the Nazis were so desperate that several of them had ap-
peared at a recent funeral and “had not scrupled to rattle their money-boxes
in the immediate neighbourhood of the grave, thereby disgusting all the
persons present.” 10
Yet there is evidence to suggest that by this time rumbold had some
inkling that many of the Nazi leaders were unscrupulous and dangerous. in
June 1932, he had referred to Joseph Goebbels, one of the more repulsive
leaders of the Nazi movement, in the following words: “He may be classed