Chapter 144 Prime Minister, Not Head of State

Hersman's house in Charlottenburg is large and beautiful, with a garden with fountains, swimming pools, lawns and many tall trees. It originally belonged to a duke of a German state, and it was a large house that could be called "Palace of So-and-So".

When Hitler and others arrived here by car, he found that several luxury cars had been parked in a corner of the garden. One of them, Hitler recognized, belonged to the current Minister of Defense, Admiral Schleicher.

Hersman and his wife Chloe, who had been upgraded to a ****, but was well maintained and very graceful, came out of the house to greet them, and invited Hitler, Goering, Rohm, Strasser, Hess and others into the library on the first floor together - it was very spacious, with brown wooden bookshelves against the wall, and the bookshelves were full of books, most of which were military works, and there were also novels and history books that Chloe liked to read.

In the center of the library, there was a rectangular dark wooden table, and several people were already sitting next to the wooden table. They are General Schleicher, the Minister of Defense, Colonel Canaris, who succeeded Hersmann as the Director of the Military Intelligence Agency, and several "generals and parliamentarians" from the Fatherland People's Party.

Obviously, this is a cabinet negotiation between the military and the Nazi Party!

Unlike in history, the German military now has a lot of bargaining chips. Not only is the number of troops seven or eight times larger, but the German industry is also controlled by controlling the Soviet-German cooperation, the Japanese-German cooperation, the German-Italian cooperation, and some smaller-scale "barter cooperation" projects.

In addition, the Stasi agency created by Hersmann is also a trump card of the army. If anyone really wants to make trouble with the army, assassination and kidnapping are also options, but the most commonly used method is to smear and expose information - using this method, the Military Intelligence Agency has already gotten rid of many Bolshevik and Social Democratic politicians. Although the CIA has not yet taken action against the Nazis, it must have caught a lot of evidence...

"We have conducted a poll, and the Nazis can probably get more than 25% of the votes, and it is estimated that they can have 164 seats."

As soon as Hessman sat down, he told Hitler the results of the CIA poll - Germans are actually quite honest, so polls are easy to do, just send more people to the streets to ask questions.

In addition, the number of parliamentary seats in the Weimar Republic was expanded to 656 in the 1924 general election, and 25% of the votes is about 164 seats. This is almost double the less than 80 seats won by the Nazi Party in the last general election (held in 1930).

"The Fatherland People's Party, the People's Party and the National Party are estimated to win more than 20% of the votes and have about 131 seats."

Hersmann then analyzed: "The Catholic Center Party, the Democratic Party, the Bavarian People's Party (a branch of the Center Party), the Christian People's Party (a branch of the Center Party) and some other small parties can win a total of 20% of the votes, and the remaining 37% will be divided between the Social Democratic Party and the Bolshevik Party."

"Is this the latest poll?" Hitler asked. His party also has people doing polls, but the accuracy and timeliness cannot be compared with the Military Intelligence Agency.

"This is the latest, and the reason for restoring the compulsory military service system has been taken into consideration." Hersmann replied, "Less than 300 seats, although it is still a little short of more than half, but as long as there is the president's authorization, the cabinet can be formed."

Presidential authorization is to use the provisions of Article 48 of the Constitution to grant the power to form a cabinet to a certain party or individual. In the Weimar Republic, this method of forming a cabinet was also called "backdoor cabinet formation", and this is how Hitler came to power in history.

In this time and space, the Marx Cabinet, Mueller Cabinet, Brüning Cabinet and Seeckt Cabinet that appeared after Stresemann's death were all "backdoor cabinets". Because there was no possibility of forming a majority in the parliament.

"Let's discuss the composition of the cabinet now," Schleicher took over Hitler's topic, he glanced at Hitler, and then said, "The chancellor will be the candidate nominated by the Nazi Party."

This person is of course Adolf Hitler. Hitler looked at the excited expression of the "head of state" and thought that this person should not be the head of state, but this is good for everyone including himself.

"The position of Minister of Defense will be appointed by the President himself," Schleicher said, smiling faintly, "I will continue to serve in this position."

"Continue to let active military officers serve as Minister of Defense?" Ernst Rohm asked as if he was not happy.

"Of course, we have to prepare for war!" Schleicher said.

"We have been preparing for this for many years." Hessmann said with some pride, "We started preparing before the November Revolution in 1918, and we will have to prepare for a few more years."

He glanced at Ernst Rohm, "Captain Rohm, we know you have also been preparing for war. Your Nazi Party's Volkssturm has millions of people, more than our Wehrmacht. This is a rare force. It should be part of Germany's war preparation plan!"

Hearing this, Hitler and Rohm's faces changed at the same time!

Hersman's meaning was very clear, he wanted to make the SA part of the Wehrmacht. If this matter was placed in another time and space, Ernst Rohm would have been very happy. Because at that time, the SA was said to have 4.5 million people, and the number of the Wehrmacht was only one-twentieth of that of the SA. Now the SA is said to have 1 million people, and the Wehrmacht has more than 800,000. It seems similar, but in fact the 1 million of the SA is fictitious. According to the standards of the Wehrmacht, 100,000 people can be sorted out. "Mr. Hitler, Captain Rohm," Hersman continued to talk about his plan, "Since the SA is the armed force of the Nazi Party, we can reorganize it into the Waffen SS as a special force under the Wehrmacht... Its members can still retain their membership in the Nazi Party. 1 million people should not be reorganized, but 6 to 7 divisions and 100,000 armed forces are still available. Captain Rohm can be awarded the rank of General of the Waffen SS and serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the Waffen SS." Hitler and Rohm exchanged glances. A 100,000-man Waffen SS... This was the condition for the Nazi Party to hand over the SA! But this army was called the "SS" and was still commanded by Ernst Roehm, a member of the Nazi Party. But neither Hitler nor Roehm thought that this army belonged to the Nazi Party. It was at most "pro-Nazi".

Because the right to reorganize the Waffen SS must be in the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, it is impossible for the Nazi Party to reorganize it itself. And the right to appoint and dismiss personnel after the reorganization will also be controlled by the Ministry of Defense.

"But the SA is our election tool!" Roehm raised an objection.

The biggest role of the SA is not to go to the battlefield to compete with the enemy, but to fight with the Bolshevik Party at home-at this time, the German election order was very bad, and fighting between hostile parties was commonplace. And the most capable of all German political parties is undoubtedly the Nazi Party with the SA.

"There will be no more chaotic elections!" Schleicher frowned. "Before the Reich wins the World War, it is better not to hold elections... because it is a waste of energy!"

"If there are no elections, how will the government be formed?" Hermann Goering interrupted.

"Maybe there will be a few more elections," Hersmann replied, "Elections under our control, the purpose is to establish a joint ruling system between the Nazi Party and the Fatherland People's Party. As for other political parties, they will suspend their activities for at least 10 years after the two parties have complete control of the parliament, and elections will also be suspended for at least 10 years. In addition, the same ruling method will be adopted in local states and cities. Local parliaments and governments will be jointly controlled by the Nazi Party and the Fatherland People's Party."

The Fatherland People's Party is now firmly controlled by a group of retired Junker officers. Hersmann's father, Old Hersmann, has also joined the party and will most likely become a member of parliament after this election.

Moreover, Hersmann also plans to promote the merger of Germany and the Baltic Republic. Later, the Baltic German National Party will also merge with the Fatherland People's Party - the Baltic now has a population of nearly 3.8 million (the Baltic population birth rate is very high, and it has absorbed many White Russian and Lithuanian refugees for naturalization), accounting for about 5.4% of the population of Germany after unification. Dozens of seats will be added to the parliament for the Fatherland People's Party.

In addition, there are some foreign party members in the parliament who have similar views to the Fatherland People's Party, and they can also join in the future. In this way, it will be possible to form a two-party parliamentary structure with the Nazi Party occupying the majority (estimated to be more than 60%) and the Fatherland People's Party occupying the minority (less than 40%). Then these two parties will form a coalition government.

In fact, it is the middle and upper classes with the Honorary Officers Corps as the core, and the extreme right middle and lower classes with the Nazi Party as the core to reach cooperation and jointly govern the country.

If such a political structure is formed, it may be impossible for Mr. Adolf Hitler to become the head of state as in history and completely control the power.

But now Adolf Hitler and his several confidants know that they don't have much choice. The Honorary Officers Corps has just won a big gamble, and its strength and influence have greatly increased. And they have a trump card in their hands - promoting the unification of Germany and the Baltic Republic. Germany will gain 4 million people and 110,000 square kilometers of land!

This move will definitely enhance the status of the army in the eyes of nationalists. If the Nazi Party gives up this opportunity, the Honorary Officers Corps and the Fatherland People's Party may also be able to rely on the merits of merging the Baltic Republic to gain control of the parliament. At that time, the Fatherland Party, with the support of the powerful Wehrmacht, will completely tear up the Treaty of Versailles, take back the right to issue currency, and then use printing money to boost the economy. I don't know when the Nazi Party will come to power...