confrontations that would lead to bloody fighting, and probably
a general strike and economic paralysis.” The Cabinet minutes
show that Göring backed Hitler and successfully suggested that
they call a new general election immediately and hope for the
two-thirds majority that would grant to the Nazi party the con-
stitutional power to pass an enabling act making Hitler dictator.
That night Hitler and Göring stood at the Chancellery
windows and took the salute as the SA and other Nazi forma-
tions staged a drum-beating, blaring, intimidating torchlight
victory parade.
Göring had given Emmy a revolver to protect herself that
night against any last-minute revenge attempts. He was worn
out, but asked her before falling asleep next to her to do a favor
for him the next morning. “Buy the Führer some flowers,” he
said. “He will like that.”
The new elections were to be held on March , . That
did not leave much time. Working, living, eating, and sleeping
in the Ministry of the Interior building, Göring began a bare-
knuckles purge, determined to cleanse the entire ramshackle
structure of dissidents and replace them with men who were
percent dedicated to the new cause. On the very next day
Schwerin von Krosigk remarked in his diary, “With his ruthless
hiring and firing, Göring seems without question to be the Dan-
ger Man.”
But Hitler was a man in a hurry, and he relied on Göring’s
nerve. Ten years later he would still describe him admiringly as
“ice cold in times of crisis,” and add: “I’ve always said that when
it comes to the crunch he’s a man of steel unscrupulous.”
Neither of them had any intention of losing office. “No
living force,” Hitler told his cronies, “will get me out alive.”
Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, formally vested by Hin-
denburg with the powers of chancellor of Prussia, still hoped to