With her plump, black-eyed brood, Jewess after rich Jewess scuttled out of Germany last week, filling trains de luxe with wails and confusion. Mother-instinct knew the meaning of Jew-Baiter Adolf Hitler's election victory fortnight ago, when his Fascist "Brown Shirts" leaped fearsomely from ninth to second place among German parties (TIME, Sept. 22).
To Jew after rich Jew, staying behind to protect their German properties as best they might, occurred a paradoxical but sound idea. Why not contribute to the "Brown Shirt" party fund? Then, in case fiery Herr Hitler should try another coup d'état (like that which he and General von Ludendorü failed to carry through in 1923) surely Jewish contributors would not find Fascist "thunder squads" crashing in their doors. Last week swaggering Hitlerites boasted scornfully of having been offered such "Jew-cash," would not admit to taking it.
"No Putsch!" In his Munich bailiwick Herr Hitler roused a jubilant Bavarian crowd to lusty cheers by announcing a "new slogan" for Brown Shirts:
"AFTER VICTORY, STRAP YOUR HELMET TIGHTER!
"We propose to strike 'Victory' from our banners and replace it with 'Battle!' " he continued. "We know not only how to move the masses and rule them, but we can also engage in foil fencing on this ground!"
As the mob became frantically moved, however, caution returned to Bavaria's Mussolini. Perhaps he recalled spending a year in jail after his attempted 1923 Putsch. Changing tune, he concluded: "Ours is a revolutionary party but what we propose to capture is the German soul! We do not need to make a Putsch to gain control of the government. That is not necessary! Control will come to us in a legal manner. That, my friends, is what our enemies fear!"
With these last words Herr Hitler left Munich next day, so he said, for a "needed rest" in the Bavarian alps.
If the German government feared a Putsch, its leaders hid their emotions well. Both President von Hindenburg and his protege, Prime Minister Brüning (whose Catholic Centre party gained seven seats in the election) ended the week by going off for a rustic, post-election rest.
Most significant of all, Berlin's fiery Communist Ammorgen, an enterprising sheet which has sleuthed out several Hitler moves well in advance, purported last week to "expose his black-hearted scheme to seize the German state!"
Actually the expose was tame, consisted of stolen Fascist papers which, if genuine, prove: 1) that the 107 new Fascist deputies will enter the Reichstag and "insidiously refrain" from blatant, obstructionist tactics, biding their time; 2) that Hitler agents will begin a secret campaign to proselytize the army and state police for Fascism; 3) finally, after much boring from within the German government by legal means, a surething Fascist Putsch will be attempted.
Scoffing at the idea of a precipitant Putsch, the well-informed Berliner-Tageblatt said: "The resources of the civil power completely suffice to frustrate such intentions if they should be undertaken."