Chapter 158: The Demise of the Nazis

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There is an old saying that time is like water and life is like a shuttle. If you want to be a bit more literary, you can use the phrase “time flies” to describe the swift passage of time.

On January 31, 1935, Akado finally received a progress report on the liquidation of the Junker aristocrats and the monopoly conglomerates. However, the contents of the report were not at all optimistic. Although results had been achieved in the process of eradicating the great aristocrats, they had been forced to compromise with the small and medium-sized nobility among the Junker class.

The Junker aristocracy in Germany was like blood deeply embedded in the bone marrow; it seemed impossible to eradicate them all at once. To purge the Junkers could be said to be a process of suicide. There were shadows of the Junker aristocracy in every department of Germany. If the plan to purge the Junkers were to be strictly implemented, then Germany would become a second Soviet Union, currently in the midst of its own Great Purge. It wasn’t that the knife in Akado’s hand was not sharp enough, but that if he were to strike, it would inevitably cause a deep and painful wound, and Germany might not be able to recover quickly.

Therefore, Akado’s think tank unanimously advised him to compromise with the Junker aristocrats, or at least to make a partial compromise: win over those who could be used and strike down the die-hards. They would split up the tightly-knit Junkers and unite the majority of their forces. Merkel, who came from a minor noble family, was a supporter of this view, and Jelinek-Cassia also shared this idea.

In the end, the Führer compromised. The SS was ordered to suppress the great landlords and large conglomerates but was forbidden from touching the small and medium-sized noble groups. Seeing that an opportunity to reshuffle the deck had arrived, the protected small and medium-sized noble groups immediately became supporters of the Führer’s liquidation of aristocratic crimes. Generals from the Junker class, such as Manstein, von Rundstedt, and von Brauchitsch, also finally found a way to save face and became loyal commanders of the Führer’s group.

Of course, the aristocracy had its own solutions. After some maneuvering, at the behest of the Italian leader Mussolini, the Vatican in Italy found some pretext. With the Dutch royal family taking the lead, and with the cooperation of the German aristocracy itself, Jelinek-Cassia was promoted to Viscount.

Moreover, this viscountcy was hereditary, making Miss Mercedes the heir to the title, and she was concurrently promoted to Baroness. The main reason for the rush to bestow noble titles on the Cassia family was to logically and legally bring Akado into the circle of nobility. This way, as long as Akado and Mercedes were married, the Führer would also become a member of the aristocracy… The main purpose of this roundabout journey was actually to pull the Führer into the aristocratic circle, to forever ensure the vested interests of the nobles—or at least to ensure the vested interests of the majority of the nobles.

Thus, the Führer’s wedding ceremony became a highly anticipated celebration. Mercedes would also have to go to the Vatican to receive her baptism from His Holiness the Pope. This marriage, which was already full of political transactions, was directly transformed into a farce of exchanging interests from all sides.

The wedding was set for March 1, 1936. Even the minor Junker nobles who had decided to side with the Führer spontaneously took care of all the wedding arrangements. Akado also got to enjoy the celebrity thrill of having others pay for his wedding. However, because the planned scale of the wedding was so grand, Fanny and Anna were depressed for a whole month. It wasn’t until Mercedes personally took them out to dinner, implicitly acknowledging their status by Akado’s side, that their “great outburst of jealousy” was finally eased.

But compromise also had its advantages. The army became more stable, the local situation gradually returned to normal, the turmoil was quelled, and production was restored. After a full four months of turmoil, Germany emerged from the shadow of the purge and began its military expansion and war preparations with an even more united posture.

Of course, there were still voices of opposition in the Reichstag. The Nazi Party, under the leadership of Hitler, launched a frantic attack to protect the Junker aristocrats who supported them, which also brought trouble to the administration of the Greater German Party.

“Whore! Bastard! Akado is a damn mad dog!” Hitler swept all the documents onto the carpet and began to curse Akado. “He has no legal basis for what he’s doing! Nor does he have the approval of the Reichstag! But he still did it! And he has the support of those fools!”

The old man, leaning on a cane, sat on the sofa, took a sip of coffee, and then said slowly, “In our previous plans, we always designed for this Akado to be the ruler. And a normal ruler does not destroy; they only investigate the truth of matters according to the law.”

He sighed and said, “But this Akado is even more ruthless than we are. He didn’t even investigate the truth and directly threw the dirty water on the Junker aristocrats and some monopoly businessmen. He is playing an orthodox strategy. No matter how the enemy changes, he only takes the life of his direct enemy as his counter-attack.”

Glancing at Hitler, who was still panting, the old man helplessly continued his summary. “And as it happens, he has struck at our very foundation. Those Junker aristocrats were more than half our strength, and now they have been broken up and completely eaten. A portion of the royal family’s power has also been assimilated. Let’s admit defeat. There is nothing more we can do.”

“What about those businessmen?” Hitler asked fiercely.

“What else can they do? When we still had power, they of course supported our activities as opportunists. Now that the war in the Reichstag has been settled and we have lost on the outside as well, it’s impossible for them to still care about whether we live or die.”

“What about the Crown Prince? Has His Highness the Crown Prince just given up like this?” Hitler asked, enraged. He couldn’t stand it, this feeling of being used and then abandoned.

“I will return to the Netherlands this afternoon. The House of Wilhelm has nothing to do with this matter,” the old man said with a gentlemanly smile. He then stood up, leaning on his cane, and walked step by step toward the door. “You should think about how to deal with the French’s accusations and the problems within your own party. If you don’t get rid of that assassin and Röhm, this matter will be exposed sooner or later.”

However, the old man’s warning was a step too late. At the very moment Hitler resolved to eliminate Röhm to save himself, Röhm had already fallen into the hands of the SS. With the help of the German military intelligence department, the SS’s process of finding the SA’s partisans could be described as getting twice the result with half the effort.

“Mr. Röhm! You are under arrest on charges of secretly collaborating with the communists, disturbing the national security of Germany, and selling state secrets!” Reinhard Heydrich stood before Röhm, triumphantly spreading the arrest warrant in his hand and pressing it against Röhm’s face. “Take a good look, then pull up your pants.”

When the SS captured Röhm, he was having a sweet dream in his boyfriend’s bed. When two SS soldiers with submachine guns dragged him before Reinhard, the leader of the SA hadn’t even had time to properly put on his pants.

“If you confess, we will hang you, and then your lover and those loyal subordinates of yours can continue to serve the Führer. Of course, if you refuse, we will also hang you, then hang your lover, and then find a crime for you. Tell me, do you think ‘SA Leader Killed in Revenge Attack Over Homosexual Affair’ would make the newspapers?” Reinhard took a deep drag from his cigarette, then took it from his lips with his fingers, blew a cloud of smoke at Röhm, and asked with a smile.

“I want to see my lawyer! We have not done anything illegal!” Röhm yelled. “You are not the police! You have no right to deal with us!”

Heydrich clapped. “You see! Educated people are different! Even the way they speak is so well-founded. Beat them! Beat them until they are willing to cooperate,” a group of SS men swarmed forward upon hearing the order. Röhm’s homosexual lover was beaten to the ground before he could even let out a scream. A dozen pairs of leather boots kicked him like a torrential storm, and the man’s breath was gone in an instant.

Röhm was apparently not as tough as he looked. After being kicked in the stomach a dozen times by several burly SS soldiers, and after someone accidentally kicked him in the bridge of the nose, this chubby homosexual confessed everything he knew: from Hitler’s hiding place to how many vegetable leaves he had eaten for dinner that night…

He admitted that he was a communist, who had used the passion of the German people to bring down the Germanic nation. He admitted to sending an assassin to kill Jews to cause a dispute between the Jews and the Greater German Party. He admitted that Hitler was also a fraud from the Comintern, and that the Nazi Party was just a tool being used.

Reinhard had come prepared. He had brought several Jewish witnesses and a camera as evidence. Everyone scrambled to stop the bleeding from Röhm’s gushing nose, then sat him in a chair. He confessed all his crimes to the camera and the still camera. Röhm was very straightforward. He repeated what Reinhard had prepared for him, word for word, without a single mistake.

On the basis of this testimony, the Führer ordered the banning of the German Nazi Party and announced the arrest of its leader, Adolf Hitler. At the same time, a radio broadcast of SA leader Röhm’s confession was aired, and the newspapers published photos of Röhm’s confession and arrest, as well as a picture of his written confession. The public, which had been skeptical, immediately boiled over. Everyone demanded severe punishment for these Comintern saboteurs.

The SS began to accept the surrender and rehabilitation of Nazi Party members. Any Nazi Party member who denounced others and obtained official qualification could become an ordinary citizen. Those who concealed their affiliation would be fined or sentenced. For a time, the police were everywhere arresting Nazis, in stark contrast to the people lining up at the police station to register their withdrawal from the Nazi Party.

Now, Akado finally had time to care about the high-tech branches of the German navy and air force. Compared to the path of strengthening the nation’s defenses and preparing for war, whether or not Hitler was caught had become an optional side-show.