However, despite his attempts to present himself as a "Führer" who commanded blind loyalty from his followers, Henlein's status was actually that of a "primus inter pares" who had to deal with a quarreling committee badly divided between Catholic traditionalists and "völkisch" nationalists, and Henlein frequently had to threaten to resign as a way of asserting his authority. Gestures like when Henlein summoned all of the SdP deputies to Eger (modern Cheb, Czech Republic) to publicly swear personal oaths of loyalty to "Führer" Henlein represented his weakness as a party leader, not his strength. Not all of the committee members were aware of the fact that the SdP was being secretly funded by the German government, and one of the committee's members who did know about the subsidies from Germany was Henlein's rival, Karl Herman Frank, who sometimes used that information to blackmail him. Despite Henlein's frequent claims to have no contact with Germany, Weinbeg wrote "...in fact the internal affairs of the Sudeten German party were being supervised by Berlin with the German government picking the leaders, settling the policy lines, and giving or withholding financial support as the situation appeared to dictate".