ment HABICHT must be removed within 24 hours, personally, by you, in this very house, before my eyes!"

The struggle lasted for some hours. When HITLER saw that a compromise with me was impossible he came around. Besides my presence at the removal of HABICHT, I demanded a written statement of my terms and his signature. So I made a document which would guarantee me a free hand.

It contained the following basic demands:

1. The 'Anschluss' can be made only on the basis of a slow, peaceful evolution. In this question, which has cost so much common blood in the course of history and just recently, not a drop more of costly German blood will be shed.

2. All action of the German NSDAP in Austrian politics, directly or indirectly, is strictly forbidden by the Fuehrer to the Party organization.

3 The present leader of the NSDAP in Austria, HABICHT, will be recalled immediately.

4. As Ambassador in Vienna, I am responsible to the Fuehrer alone and to no other person. I have the right to report to the Fuehrer directly, at any time, in Austrian matters.

HITLER signed the document in the evening. At the same time, HABICHT arrived by plane and was removed of all his duties in my presence. (On the grounds of his services to the Reich, Herr von RIBBENTROP called this condottiere to the Foreign Office as State Secretary at the beginning of the war, in 1939!)

HITLER requested HINDENBURG to ratify my nomination and told the press-without my previous knowledge, that I had been nominated head of the Mission in Vienna. He had no knowledge of diplomatic etiquette and did not know that before the nomination of an ambassador is made public the government of the country to which he is accredited must have given its consent. He believed, most likely, that the nomination of a man who had filled the posts of Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor in the Reich would pacify somewhat the mounting waves of indignation in Vienna. But through the premature announcement of my nomination the Viennese government was offended again. This added to the general excitement. They had the feeling that they were intentionally not being treated as a sovereign state by the Reich. As a protest against such treatment Vienna considered refusing its belatedly requested consent. In any case a long time elapsed before an answer arrived. In every respect, therefore, my start was most discouraging.

I decided to postpone entering on my duties for a few weeks yet, in the hope that I should then find a more tranquil atmosphere in Vienna. My predecessor, Gosandter Dr. RIETH, was recalled and was handed over to a military court on account of his intervention at the 'Ballhaus Platz'. HITLER renounced his intention when I pressed him. The Counsellor of the Embassy, Prince EHRBACH, took charge of affairs meanwhile, and they were in good hands.

The Field Marshal made the last signature of his life when he signed the document of my nomination. A few days later he closed his eyes forever. His son, Oskar, told me that he was particularly happy to place me in the important post in Vienna and that in his last days he often asked for me.

The great, honest man with the kindest of hearts, revered alike as a soldier and as the head of the state, a participant at Koeniggraetz and a witness of the coronation of the Kaiser at Versailles, had declared himself in his old age ready to lead the defeated, humiliated Reich on to a new and peaceful development.

Providence had taken him from us at a moment of critical inner disturbance and fermentation, when only his authority supported by the wisdom of years could have saved the people torn by Party strife from further disturbances. It was fateful for German history that the Good Lord did not spare him for another half year, in the possession of his mental and bodily powers. As things stood, only one who had control of the Wehrmacht as a means of order as opposed to the militant sections of the Party and the police (GOERING), which now stood completely at the service of the former,-only such a one could prevent the further revolutionary development. When the Field Marshal nominated HITLER Chancellor he named a man who had his personal confidence, General von BLOMBERG, as Minister of War. This selection was to have the most critical effect for the future. For after the first two months Herr von BLOMBERG fell so completely under the suggestive influence of HITLER that he must be regarded as the "promoter" of the Party and of all its extreme desires. Apparently without the political insight and without a sufficiently high feeling of responsibility which a minister must possess over and above his duty toward the general well-being of the state, he fell completely under the influence of the Party machine which was only too willing to rearm the Wehrmacht under the guise of creating employment in order to use it unscrupulously in the end as a political tool. The picture of this man is completed by his lack of personal dignity which one would

never have expected in a person of his origin and education and on which he eventually foundered. HINDENBURG would have turned over in his grave at such a complete lack of feeling of honesty and consciousness of duty, virtues which the Field Marshal so well embodied. The failure of the Army to intervene in the crisis of the 30 June 1934 most seriously incriminates von BLOMBERG, who was War Minister at that time. The excuse that a Prussian general never mixes in politics and has only to obeythis old military tradition of Prussia explains perhaps many things, also during the Second World War. But it is only a confession that the narrow military horizon has suppressed the development of personalities like YORK. And it is an astonishing coincidence that HITLER had the majority of such leaders shot-men who had the courage to act against an order in the military field and to act according to their convictions. And thus he later completely broke the army's back.

At least I was not prevented from seeing and paying my last respects to the dead Field Marshal once more. I entered the simple, plain chamber of death with a heart full of sadness. I found the high forehead and the eyes now closed, the distinct outlines of the fine head transfigured in peace, which alone is the eternal reward of so long and dutiful a life.

Bitterly I thought of the obstacles which opposed the peaceful completion of the reorganization of German political life that some of us had planned. The man who had overthrown HINDENBURG's decision of 2 December 1932 had now become a victim to the revolutionary movement himself, a movement which he had hoped at that time to master by parliamentary means. How different the course of German destiny would have run if General von SCHLEICHER had only continued with me the work under HINDENBURG! Not even a Jules Verne could have foreseen the disastrous end of this dream. The only thing now was to take courage and a sense of responsibility in both hands.

Early in 1934, when the Field Marshal's illness began, I discussed the question of his succession. Naturally, it was a question of the greatest importance and timeliness. HITLER had often assured me previously that he intended to put a Hohenzollern prince in the position of "Reichspraesident" after the death of the Field Marshal. If the experiment were a success a restoration might be considered later. First he wanted to strengthen the Reich inwardly and outwardly to make it a factor in European politics. The Crown Prince did not enjoy his favor. He asserted that the Crown Princess once said after a visit of HITLER to the "Caecil

ienhof", "The windows must be opened immediately in order to ventilate the place".

This story was certainly invented by Party people and antimonarchists. For the proverbial tact of that high lady would never have permitted such a remark. So I recommended again to HITLER to enroll in his personal entourage one of the sons of the Crown Prince whom he found agreeable so that he would come to know him and give later developments a start. Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, an enthusiastic Party member, could give him the best information about the character and attributes of his nephews. That HITLER was thinking seriously at the time of such a settlement of the succession I knew from an order which I learned about later. At this time he had had a detailed discussion with a Reich minister who was a party member about the later restitution of the crown and he said that he himself first wanted to play the part of Friedrich Wilhelm I, the father of Friedrich der Grosse, the father of modern Prussia. The accomplishment of this King should be popularized. JANNINGS the well-known great actor was commissioned immediately to produce a film which would serve the purpose. But before this decision could develop it was nipped in the bud.

HITLER made a trip to Rome to see MUSSOLINI. Naturally, he had to pay a visit to the King too. It appears that King Victor Emanuel, whose inner aversion to the Duce was well known, received the new dictator with cold politeness. MUSSOLINI probably did not withhold from HITLER how greatly the resistance of the crown and the so-called court circle had hampered his work. In any case, HITLER returned with the impression which he explained to me in words: "I would certainly be an anti-monarchist now if I had never been one before”.

Meanwhile one could hope that such fleeting impressions would not remain nor the most important decisions be decisively influenced. It certainly could not escape a realistic statesman how clever MUSSOLINI had acted when he took stock of Italy's monarchistic convictions and attempted to unite the executive power and the leadership of the state in his person.

HINDENBURG naturally was a monarchist and would have gone to any lengths corresponding to the situation. I therefore suggested to him that he draw up a political testament in which he recommended to HITLER the restoration of the crown as a form of government which, after 1,100 years of experience, would best guarantee the German people the advantages of a wise constitutional leadership. This testament, as a legacy of the old

Field Marshal, could be used as a spring-board by HITLER to solve the question immediately, even against the certain resistance in his own Party.

Oskar von HINDENBURG gave me the testament after his father's death for delivery to HITLER. This is the text:

(Text of Testament) [Editor's Note: von Papen desired that the text of this pact be inserted here as it was not available to him at the time of writing.]

The testament never saw the light of day. Its existence has been kept a secret from the German people until today.

It is known that directly after the death of the President, HITLER usurped this position. Since that time he bitterly opposed monarchistic impulses in the population. Following the interment at Potsdam of the eldest son of the Crown Prince, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, who fell on the field of battle-at which burial a large crowd was present-HITLER seized the opportunity to remove all princes of reigning houses from positions in the front line. Without exception these young princes had done their duty loyally to the fatherland; they fought on all fronts like any German grenadier. This order, excluding them from the military service, was a defamation which surely none of the reigning houses had deserved and which contrasted strangely with HITLER'S constant display of reverence for Frederick the Great and Prussian tradition.

And when Prince Eitel Friedrich died later-a prince who was widely known for his personal bravery at the head of a Guards unit in the First World War and who was completely nonpolitical-he had to be buried under cover of darkness like a dog. No soldier in uniform was allowed to follow his coffin!

The possibility of a restoration followed HITLER like a bad dream. Probably he realized that a large part of the people took a critical attitude toward his and the party's administration. He realized how deeply rooted in the people was the desire for a well run government which put the law ahead of force, in a manner similar to the one practiced by the Prussian Kings and other sovereigns.

The great funeral rites for the dead President at the site of his former renown, Tannenberg, assumed the form of a moving national demonstration, into which the obituary delivered by his unworthy successor struck a false note. The final words of his oration: "Great Lord of Battle, enter now into Walhalla!" themselves strangely contrasted with HINDENBURG's Christian belief. It was the manifestation of modern National Socialist