finest architects and sculptors chiseled at heroic reliefs with mo-
tifs like “Flag Company,” designed by Professor Arnold Wald-
schmidt of the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts. The Berliners
made smug comments about this extravagance “Pure and
simple, and hang the expense!” was one; “Just humble gold” was
another.
Göring also became the leader in high society. His annual
ball became the event of the winter season. But when the first
was held, on January , , in his State Opera House on Unter
den Linden, Nazi purists wrinkled their noses. “Göring’s Opera
Ball,” sneered Darré in his diary. “Wrong. The old Court Ball
do we have to put on airs like this?”
Those were the days when the Nazis were riding high. In
Berlin Leni Riefenstahl’s spine-chilling film of the party rally,
Triumph of the Will, was packing movie theaters. A thrill of
military awakening was surging through the Reich. “We have a
vital task before us,” Blomberg told fellow generals one day after
Göring’s Winter Ball. “For the moment we are just erecting the
scaffolding.” Everybody understood that. Milch’s papers show
In all was harmony with Hitler’s commanders as he rebuilt the
German armed forces. Flanked by (left to right) Raeder, Göring, Fritsch
and Blomberg, Hitler reviewed the Armed Forces Day parade. In
Blomberg and Fritsch, victims of two sordid scandals, quit, leaving
Hitler and Göring with absolute power.