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Blitz. Getting rid of Bruening merely involved an alliance with Kurt von Schleicher, who "brought the amateur politician what he needed the most—the unmistakable authority of machine guns and bayonets." Getting rid of Kurt von Schleicher was harder. It involved: 1) a conspiracy and alliance with Adolf Hitler to whom Papen brought the unmistakable authority of "fresh millions from the Rhenish-Westphalian industrialists"; 2) overcoming the prejudices of the Old Gentleman who had told Gregor Strasser: "I give you my word of honor that the Bohemian corporal will never be Chancellor." But the hint of a Schleicher Putsch proved stronger than the Old Gentleman's word of honor. When Hitler became Chancellor, his vice chancellor was Papen.
"That night the greatest procession the Capital had seen marched down the streets of Berlin. Waving torches and singing patriotic songs, an endless stream of 55, SA and Stahlhelm troops tramped up to the Chancellery. . . . Franz von Papen . . . his long face tense . . . observed the mob as if appraising the strength of his last rival. . . . Hitler could hardly control himself. Drunk with glory, he strode back and forth. . . . Paul von Hindenburg, leaning on his cane, stood rigid, immobile. Hour after hour passed, and his hazy eyes saw new and new columns, tens of thousands of uniformed men. . . . The Old Gentleman grew more and more tired. . . . Suddenly his lips moved and Oscar leaned nearer. 'Son,' he heard the Field Marshal's dreamy voice, 'I didn't know we'd caught so many Russian prisoners.' "
A month later, the Nazi terror began. Franz von Papen never could get rid of Adolf Hitler, never could understand why. He tried to rally the Catholic masses. At Marburg he attacked the Nazis in a violent speech. Freedom, he suddenly discovered, was an "arch-Germanic notion." The Old Gentleman wired congratulations, but Papen's speech was the signal for the Blood Purge. Dr. Edgar Jung, who had ghosted it, had just time to scrawl "Gestapo" on his bathroom wall—"the last sign of life he was ever to give."
Soon the Gestapo arrived at his "ugly greyish house in the Tiergartenstrasse," dragged Papen himself to the basement, knocked out two of his teeth. Hindenburg's intervention saved him. "Learning about the executions, the Old Gentleman, himself on the border line of the Great Beyond, sent Hitler and Goring prompt telegrams on behalf of ... the Charming Baron, the last ray of sunshine in a world going insane."