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Most important gentleman friend was probably German-American Dr. Walter T. Scheele, president of New Jersey Agricultural Chemical Co. He showed young Attaché von Papen how to destroy ships at sea by means of incendiaries made out of a short piece of two-inch lead pipe. These were manufactured aboard the S.S. Friedrich der Grosse (then lying off Hoboken), smuggled aboard freighters by German agents and longshoremen, and went off at sea. They sank some 40 ships in a few months. When he was finally driven out of the U.S., the British stopped Papen at Falmouth. He had a safe conduct for himself, but among the papers which the British confiscated was his checkbook. Thorough Prussian, Papen had written out in full on the stubs the names of his secret agents, the sums he paid them, and the nature of their services.
The Old Gentleman. After the war, Germany was not merely a house divided, but a house politically atomized. All that stood between the German people and collapse was an old gentleman of 80, himself close to death—President Paul von Beneckendorff & von Hindenburg. "He called the Cabinet his General Staff, and the Chancellor his Chief of Staff," but "cooperated with Parliament in the manner of an old gentleman who likes order in his household." By virtue of Paragraph 48 of the Weimar Constitution, his chancellor could issue decrees "on the sole sanction of the President's signature." If the Reichstag objected, the President could send it home.
When Chancellor Heinrich Bruening first used these almost dictatorial powers, Soldier-Diplomat von Papen "looked on fascinated." The former bombster dreamed of becoming chancellor and restoring the Junkers to power.
There were four steps in Papen's plan: 1) to win over Hindenburg; 2) to eliminate Bruening; 3) to eliminate the Reichswehr's "political general," Schleicher; 4) to eliminate Adolf Hitler.
Step No. 1 was easiest. "Papen had the advantage of speaking the same language as the President. They also shared the same Junker ideal of life. They discussed their estates, they went shooting together, and spoke of the Kaiser as His Imperial Majesty. It was a well-known fact that nobody could make the Field Marshal laugh as heartily and as often as Fraenzchen." To Hindenburg, he was soon "a mixture of aide-de-camp, foster son and confidential adviser."
Papen found other allies. There was Hindenburg's "notoriously lazy" son, Oscar, who "enjoyed parties in a slow way." And there was Dr. Otto Meissner who "was to have the unique distinction of having served Socialist Ebert, Field Marshal Hindenburg and Adolf Hitler in the same confidential capacity, giving the same satisfaction to all three."
As Presidential secretary, Meissner "served as a kind of second memory to the Chief of State," whose own memory tended more & more to wander. Once a Reichstag member strolled into the President's office, munching a sandwich. He put the sandwich wrapper on the table. "My God," shouted Meissner, "get that paper off the table before the Old Gentleman comes in here and signs it."