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Meanwhile the Nazi brownshirt Sturm Abteilung ("Storm Troops") who were sent on vacation at the time of the Roehm Mutiny and "blood purge" (TIME, July 9) were called back to active duty in uniform last week by S. A. Chief Viktor Lutze. The S. A., it apeared, were not required to repeat their oath to Leader Hitler last week but amid excessive secrecy the black-jacketed Schntz Staffel ("Guard Relay"), whose special duty is to guard the Leader, were assembled and made to swear an oath apparently so high-powered that it could not be given out.
To his own satisfaction Pulitzer Prize Correspondent Hubert R. Knickerbocker established in Berlin for the first time last week that the late Mutineer Roehm had intended to start his coup by a general massacre of Reichswehr generals by Nazi assassins who were to storm the Defense Ministry in Berlin. "It becomes clear that the General Staff was frightened," cabled Correspondent Knickerbocker. "Now it is easy to see why the Army accepted Hitler yesterday. The Army depends entirely on what its General Staff decides. And the General Staff yesterday was full of gratitude to Hitler."
King George; All Highest. In old-fashioned Neudeck it was considered good for Paul von Hindenburg's ten grandchildren to see him die. They trooped solemnly out of the Death chamber as the President's flag went to half mast. Whether or not the younger ones were romping merrily next day in the back yard became matter of dispute.
Until the President was actually dead, Chancellor Hitler had kept the Neudeck estate isolated by plug-ugly guards with pistols on hips who roughly drove back the bolder correspondents. It was said that Franz von Papen, protege of Hindenburg who called him his "best comrade," had tried vainly for weeks to get permission to pass the deadline of guards.
Death made all the difference. The plug-uglies were replaced by apple-cheeked young soldiers from a nearby garrison. With a worn and haggard air von Papen went to the plain brass bed on which von Hindenburg, still in his nightshirt, lay with hands folded on his breast. "He died peacefully asleep just as you see him," said Col. Oscar von Hindenburg as von Papen piled a great armful of roses on the bed. Since the Austrian Government had not yet accepted Chancellor Hitler's appointment of von Papen as Minister at Vienna he was like a fish out of water last week. Nervously he told reporters: "Nobody has appreciated Hindenburg more than Hitler. The Leader of the New Germany will continue the work to which the dead Feld-marschall dedicated himself."
Meanwhile King George had snubbed Leader Hitler by sending his condolences direct to Col. von Hindenburg. A telegram from Wilhelm II at Doorn sent the onetime Crown Prince speeding to Neudeck, dressed in his Wartime uniform as an officer of the Imperial Death's Head Hussars.
Flaneur and man-about-town though he is, Friedrich Wilhelm went down on his knees and sobbed for ten minutes after depositing the ex-Kaiser's wreath, adorned with a large "W." Correspondents were told that a telegram from Wilhelm II, read to Old Paul in his last conscious hours, caused him to exclaim:
"I am happy that my Supreme Commander thinks of me. Now I can die in peace."