amusedly years later, “rushed over to Hindenburg and fetched
his authority for the decree to dissolve the House.... I could see
he had the red dispatch box tucked under his arm, and I knew
of course what that meant, so I speeded up the calling of the di-
vision.” Papen frantically tried to attract his attention, but
Göring looked the other way: “Gentlemen, we shall take the
vote!” Papen sprang to his feet and dumped the dissolution de-
cree in front of Göring who recognized, without looking, the
signatures of Hindenburg and Papen on it.
“Mr. Chancellor,” he admonished Papen. “You’ll have to
wait. Not until the vote is over!”
Grinning elfishly, he turned the document around so that
he could not read it. In the ensuing vote of censure, Commu-
nists and Nazis joined forces: Papen attracted only votes, to
votes against him. After announcing the result, Göring
picked up the document and read it out to guffaws all around
the chamber. “I informed Papen,” he recalled in , with huge
enjoyment, “that he could not dissolve the Reichstag as he was
no longer chancellor!”
The upshot was yet another libel action. Papen furiously
wrote accusing Göring of violating Article of the Constitution
by preventing him from speaking. “The Reichstag was dis-
solved,” his letter of that same day claimed. “But you continued
the session and took a vote, both of them actions that violated
the Constitution.” Since he published his letter, Göring sued
him for libel. Papen apologized, but only in private, and the
episode left feathers ruffled on both sides.
Hindenburg was equally unamused by Göring’s parlia-
mentary prank. Overriding Göring, he left the Reichstag dis-
solved, by presidential decree, with Papen still in office.
The episode showed how rapidly Göring had mastered the
intricacies of parliamentary procedure. “If I had hesitated for