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* [[Mein Kampf/Source Part 2]]
* [[Mein Kampf/Source Part 3]]
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way of combating Marxism was no more effective than the application of
some quack's ointment.
CHAPTER V
THE WORLD WAR
During the boisterous years of my youth nothing used to damp my wild
spirits so much as to think that I was born at a time when the world had
manifestly decided not to erect any more temples of fame except in
honour of business people and State officials. The tempest of historical
achievements seemed to have permanently subsided, so much so that the
future appeared to be irrevocably delivered over to what was called
peaceful competition between the nations. This simply meant a system of
mutual exploitation by fraudulent means, the principle of resorting to
the use of force in self-defence being formally excluded. Individual
countries increasingly assumed the appearance of commercial
undertakings, grabbing territory and clients and concessions from each
other under any and every kind of pretext. And it was all staged to an
accompaniment of loud but innocuous shouting. This trend of affairs
seemed destined to develop steadily and permanently. Having the support
of public approbation, it seemed bound eventually to transform the world
into a mammoth department store. In the vestibule of this emporium there
would be rows of monumental busts which would confer immortality on
those profiteers who had proved themselves the shrewdest at their trade
and those administrative officials who had shown themselves the most
innocuous. The salesmen could be represented by the English and the
administrative functionaries by the Germans; whereas the Jews would be
sacrificed to the unprofitable calling of proprietorship, for they are
constantly avowing that they make no profits and are always being called
upon to 'pay out'. Moreover they have the advantage of being versed in
the foreign languages.
Why could I not have been born a hundred years ago? I used to ask
myself. Somewhere about the time of the Wars of Liberation, when a man
was still of some value even though he had no 'business'.
Thus I used to think it an ill-deserved stroke of bad luck that I had
arrived too late on this terrestrial globe, and I felt chagrined at the
idea that my life would have to run its course along peaceful and
orderly lines. As a boy I was anything but a pacifist and all attempts
to make me so turned out futile.
Then the Boer War came, like a glow of lightning on the far horizon. Day
after day I used to gaze intently at the newspapers and I almost
'devoured' the telegrams and COMMUNIQUES, overjoyed to think that I
could witness that heroic struggle, even though from so great a
distance.
When the Russo-Japanese War came I was older and better able to judge
for myself. For national reasons I then took the side of the Japanese in
our discussions. I looked upon the defeat of the Russians as a blow to
Austrian Slavism.
Many years had passed between that time and my arrival in Munich. I now
realized that what I formerly believed to be a morbid decadence was only
the lull before the storm. During my Vienna days the Balkans were
already in the grip of that sultry pause which presages the violent
storm. Here and there a flash of lightning could be occasionally seen;
but it rapidly disappeared in sinister gloom. Then the Balkan War broke
out; and therewith the first gusts of the forthcoming tornado swept
across a highly-strung Europe. In the supervening calm men felt the
atmosphere oppressive and foreboding, so much so that the sense of an
impending catastrophe became transformed into a feeling of impatient
expectance. They wished that Heaven would give free rein to the fate
which could now no longer be curbed. Then the first great bolt of
lightning struck the earth. The storm broke and the thunder of the
heavens intermingled with the roar of the cannons in the World War.
When the news came to Munich that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been
murdered, I had been at home all day and did not get the particulars of
how it happened. At first I feared that the shots may have been fired by
some German-Austrian students who had been aroused to a state of furious
indignation by the persistent pro-Slav activities of the Heir to the
Habsburg Throne and therefore wished to liberate the German population
from this internal enemy. It was quite easy to imagine what the result
of such a mistake would have been. It would have brought on a new wave
of persecution, the motives of which would have been 'justified' before
the whole world. But soon afterwards I heard the names of the presumed
assassins and also that they were known to be Serbs. I felt somewhat
dumbfounded in face of the inexorable vengeance which Destiny had
wrought. The greatest friend of the Slavs had fallen a victim to the
bullets of Slav patriots.
It is unjust to the Vienna government of that time to blame it now for
the form and tenor of the ultimatum which was then presented. In a
similar position and under similar circumstances, no other Power in the
world would have acted otherwise. On her southern frontiers Austria had
a relentless mortal foe who indulged in acts of provocation against the
Dual Monarchy at intervals which were becoming more and more frequent.
This persistent line of conduct would not have been relaxed until the
arrival of the opportune moment for the destruction of the Empire. In
Austria there was good reason to fear that, at the latest, this moment
would come with the death of the old Emperor. Once that had taken place,
it was quite possible that the Monarchy would not be able to offer any
serious resistance. For some years past the State had been so completely
identified with the personality of Francis Joseph that, in the eyes of
the great mass of the people, the death of this venerable
personification of the Empire would be tantamount to the death of the
Empire itself. Indeed it was one of the clever artifices of Slav policy
to foster the impression that the Austrian State owed its very existence
exclusively to the prodigies and rare talents of that monarch. This kind
of flattery was particularly welcomed at the Hofburg, all the more
because it had no relation whatsoever to the services actually rendered
by the Emperor. No effort whatsoever was made to locate the carefully
prepared sting which lay hidden in this glorifying praise. One fact
which was entirely overlooked, perhaps intentionally, was that the more
the Empire remained dependent on the so-called administrative talents of
'the wisest Monarch of all times', the more catastrophic would be the
situation when Fate came to knock at the door and demand its tribute.
Was it possible even to imagine the Austrian Empire without its
venerable ruler? Would not the tragedy which befell Maria Theresa be
repeated at once?
It is really unjust to the Vienna governmental circles to reproach them
with having instigated a war which might have been prevented. The war
was bound to come. Perhaps it might have been postponed for a year or
two at the most. But it had always been the misfortune of German, as
well as Austrian, diplomats that they endeavoured to put off the
inevitable day of reckoning, with the result that they were finally
compelled to deliver their blow at a most inopportune moment.
No. Those who did not wish this war ought to have had the courage to
take the consequences of the refusal upon themselves. Those consequences
must necessarily have meant the sacrifice of Austria. And even then war
would have come, not as a war in which all the nations would have been
banded against us but in the form of a dismemberment of the Habsburg
Monarchy. In that case we should have had to decide whether we should
come to the assistance of the Habsburg or stand aside as spectators,
with our arms folded, and thus allow Fate to run its course.
Just those who are loudest in their imprecations to-day and make a great
parade of wisdom in judging the causes of the war are the very same
people whose collaboration was the most fatal factor in steering towards
the war.
For several decades previously the German Social-Democrats had been
agitating in an underhand and knavish way for war against Russia;
whereas the German Centre Party, with religious ends in view, had worked
to make the Austrian State the chief centre and turning-point of German
policy. The consequences of this folly had now to be borne. What came
was bound to come and under no circumstances could it have been avoided.
The fault of the German Government lay in the fact that, merely for the
sake of preserving peace at all costs, it continued to miss the
occasions that were favourable for action, got entangled in an alliance
for the purpose of preserving the peace of the world, and thus finally
became the victim of a world coalition which opposed the German effort
for the maintenance of peace and was determined to bring about the world
war.
Had the Vienna Government of that time formulated its ultimatum in less
drastic terms, that would not have altered the situation at all: but
such a course might have aroused public indignation. For, in the eyes of
the great masses, the ultimatum was too moderate and certainly not
excessive or brutal. Those who would deny this to-day are either
simpletons with feeble memories or else deliberate falsehood-mongers.
The War of 1914 was certainly not forced on the masses; it was even
desired by the whole people.
There was a desire to bring the general feeling of uncertainty to an end
once and for all. And it is only in the light of this fact that we can
understand how more than two million German men and youths voluntarily
joined the colours, ready to shed the last drop of their blood for the
cause.
For me these hours came as a deliverance from the distress that had
weighed upon me during the days of my youth. I am not ashamed to
acknowledge to-day that I was carried away by the enthusiasm of the
moment and that I sank down upon my knees and thanked Heaven out of the
fullness of my heart for the favour of having been permitted to live in
such a time.
The fight for freedom had broken out on an unparalleled scale in the
history of the world. From the moment that Fate took the helm in hand
the conviction grew among the mass of the people that now it was not a
question of deciding the destinies of Austria or Serbia but that the
very existence of the German nation itself was at stake.
At last, after many years of blindness, the people saw clearly into the
future. Therefore, almost immediately after the gigantic struggle had
begun, an excessive enthusiasm was replaced by a more earnest and more
fitting undertone, because the exaltation of the popular spirit was not
a mere passing frenzy. It was only too necessary that the gravity of the
situation should be recognized. At that time there was, generally
speaking, not the slightest presentiment or conception of how long the
war might last. People dreamed of the soldiers being home by Christmas
and that then they would resume their daily work in peace.
Whatever mankind desires, that it will hope for and believe in. The
overwhelming majority of the people had long since grown weary of the
perpetual insecurity in the general condition of public affairs. Hence
it was only natural that no one believed that the Austro-Serbian
conflict could be shelved. Therefore they looked forward to a radical
settlement of accounts. I also belonged to the millions that desired
this.
The moment the news of the Sarajevo outrage reached Munich two ideas
came into my mind: First, that war was absolutely inevitable and,
second, that the Habsburg State would now be forced to honour its
signature to the alliance. For what I had feared most was that one day
Germany herself, perhaps as a result of the Alliance, would become
involved in a conflict the first direct cause of which did not affect
Austria. In such a contingency, I feared that the Austrian State, for
domestic political reasons, would find itself unable to decide in favour
of its ally. But now this danger was removed. The old State was
compelled to fight, whether it wished to do so or not.
My own attitude towards the conflict was equally simple and clear. I
believed that it was not a case of Austria fighting to get satisfaction
from Serbia but rather a case of Germany fighting for her own
existence--the German nation for its own to-be-or-not-to-be, for its
freedom and for its future. The work of Bismarck must now be carried on.
Young Germany must show itself worthy of the blood shed by our fathers
on so many heroic fields of battle, from Weissenburg to Sedan and Paris.
And if this struggle should bring us victory our people will again rank
foremost among the great nations. Only then could the German Empire
assert itself as the mighty champion of peace, without the necessity of
restricting the daily bread of its children for the sake of maintaining
the peace.
As a boy and as a young man, I often longed for the occasion to prove
that my national enthusiasm was not mere vapouring. Hurrahing sometimes
seemed to me to be a kind of sinful indulgence, though I could not give
any justification for that feeling; for, after all, who has the right to
shout that triumphant word if he has not won the right to it there where
there is no play-acting and where the hand of the Goddess of Destiny
puts the truth and sincerity of nations and men through her inexorable
test? Just as millions of others, I felt a proud joy in being permitted
to go through this test. I had so often sung DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES and
so often roared 'HEIL' that I now thought it was as a kind of
retro-active grace that I was granted the right of appearing before the
Court of Eternal Justice to testify to the truth of those sentiments.
One thing was clear to me from the very beginning, namely, that in the
event of war, which now seemed inevitable, my books would have to be
thrown aside forthwith. I also realized that my place would have to be
there where the inner voice of conscience called me.
I had left Austria principally for political reasons. What therefore
could be more rational than that I should put into practice the logical
consequences of my political opinions, now that the war had begun. I had
no desire to fight for the Habsburg cause, but I was prepared to die at
any time for my own kinsfolk and the Empire to which they really
belonged.
On August 3rd, 1914, I presented an urgent petition to His Majesty, King
Ludwig III, requesting to be allowed to serve in a Bavarian regiment. In
those days the Chancellery had its hands quite full and therefore I was
all the more pleased when I received the answer a day later, that my
request had been granted. I opened the document with trembling hands;
and no words of mine could now describe the satisfaction I felt on
reading that I was instructed to report to a Bavarian regiment. Within a
few days I was wearing that uniform which I was not to put oft again for
nearly six years.
For me, as for every German, the most memorable period of my life now
began. Face to face with that mighty struggle, all the past fell away
into oblivion. With a wistful pride I look back on those days,
especially because we are now approaching the tenth anniversary of that
memorable happening. I recall those early weeks of war when kind fortune
permitted me to take my place in that heroic struggle among the nations.
As the scene unfolds itself before my mind, it seems only like
yesterday. I see myself among my young comrades on our first parade
drill, and so on until at last the day came on which we were to leave
for the front.
In common with the others, I had one worry during those days. This was a
fear that we might arrive too late for the fighting at the front. Time
and again that thought disturbed me and every announcement of a
victorious engagement left a bitter taste, which increased as the news
of further victories arrived.
At long last the day came when we left Munich on war service. For the
first time in my life I saw the Rhine, as we journeyed westwards to
stand guard before that historic German river against its traditional
and grasping enemy. As the first soft rays of the morning sun broke
through the light mist and disclosed to us the Niederwald Statue, with
one accord the whole troop train broke into the strains of DIE WACHT AM
RHEIN. I then felt as if my heart could not contain its spirit.
And then followed a damp, cold night in Flanders. We marched in silence
throughout the night and as the morning sun came through the mist an
iron greeting suddenly burst above our heads. Shrapnel exploded in our
midst and spluttered in the damp ground. But before the smoke of the
explosion disappeared a wild 'Hurrah' was shouted from two hundred
throats, in response to this first greeting of Death. Then began the
whistling of bullets and the booming of cannons, the shouting and
singing of the combatants. With eyes straining feverishly, we pressed
forward, quicker and quicker, until we finally came to close-quarter
fighting, there beyond the beet-fields and the meadows. Soon the strains
of a song reached us from afar. Nearer and nearer, from company to
company, it came. And while Death began to make havoc in our ranks we
passed the song on to those beside us: DEUTSCHLAND, DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER
ALLES, ÜBER ALLES IN DER WELT.
After four days in the trenches we came back. Even our step was no
longer what it had been. Boys of seventeen looked now like grown men.
The rank and file of the List Regiment (Note 11) had not been properly
trained in the art of warfare, but they knew how to die like old soldiers.
[Note 11. The Second Infantry Bavarian Regiment, in which Hitler served
as a volunteer.]
That was the beginning. And thus we carried on from year to year. A
feeling of horror replaced the romantic fighting spirit. Enthusiasm
cooled down gradually and exuberant spirits were quelled by the fear of
the ever-present Death. A time came when there arose within each one of
us a conflict between the urge to self-preservation and the call of
duty. And I had to go through that conflict too. As Death sought its
prey everywhere and unrelentingly a nameless Something rebelled within
the weak body and tried to introduce itself under the name of Common
Sense; but in reality it was Fear, which had taken on this cloak in
order to impose itself on the individual. But the more the voice which
advised prudence increased its efforts and the more clear and persuasive
became its appeal, resistance became all the stronger; until finally the
internal strife was over and the call of duty was triumphant. Already in
the winter of 1915-16 I had come through that inner struggle. The will
had asserted its incontestable mastery. Whereas in the early days I went
into the fight with a cheer and a laugh, I was now habitually calm and
resolute. And that frame of mind endured. Fate might now put me through
the final test without my nerves or reason giving way. The young
volunteer had become an old soldier.
This same transformation took place throughout the whole army. Constant
fighting had aged and toughened it and hardened it, so that it stood
firm and dauntless against every assault.
Only now was it possible to judge that army. After two and three years
of continuous fighting, having been thrown into one battle after
another, standing up stoutly against superior numbers and superior
armament, suffering hunger and privation, the time had come when one
could assess the value of that singular fighting force.
For a thousand years to come nobody will dare to speak of heroism
without recalling the German Army of the World War. And then from the
dim past will emerge the immortal vision of those solid ranks of steel
helmets that never flinched and never faltered. And as long as Germans
live they will be proud to remember that these men were the sons of
their forefathers.
I was then a soldier and did not wish to meddle in politics, all the
more so because the time was inopportune. I still believe that the most
modest stable-boy of those days served his country better than the best
of, let us say, the 'parliamentary deputies'. My hatred for those
footlers was never greater than in those days when all decent men who
had anything to say said it point-blank in the enemy's face; or, failing
this, kept their mouths shut and did their duty elsewhere. I despised
those political fellows and if I had had my way I would have formed them
into a Labour Battalion and given them the opportunity of babbling
amongst themselves to their hearts' content, without offence or harm to
decent people.
In those days I cared nothing for politics; but I could not help forming
an opinion on certain manifestations which affected not only the whole
nation but also us soldiers in particular. There were two things which
caused me the greatest anxiety at that time and which I had come to
regard as detrimental to our interests.
Shortly after our first series of victories a certain section of the
Press already began to throw cold water, drip by drip, on the enthusiasm
of the public. At first this was not obvious to many people. It was done
under the mask of good intentions and a spirit of anxious care. The
public was told that big celebrations of victories were somewhat out of
place and were not worthy expressions of the spirit of a great nation.
The fortitude and valour of German soldiers were accepted facts which
did not necessarily call for outbursts of celebration. Furthermore, it
was asked, what would foreign opinion have to say about these
manifestations? Would not foreign opinion react more favourably to a
quiet and sober form of celebration rather than to all this wild
jubilation? Surely the time had come--so the Press declared--for us
Germans to remember that this war was not our work and that hence there
need be no feeling of shame in declaring our willingness to do our share
towards effecting an understanding among the nations. For this reason it
would not be wise to sully the radiant deeds of our army with unbecoming
jubilation; for the rest of the world would never understand this.
Furthermore, nothing is more appreciated than the modesty with which a
true hero quietly and unassumingly carries on and forgets. Such was the
gist of their warning.
Instead of catching these fellows by their long ears and dragging them
to some ditch and looping a cord around their necks, so that the
victorious enthusiasm of the nation should no longer offend the
aesthetic sensibilities of these knights of the pen, a general Press
campaign was now allowed to go on against what was called 'unbecoming'
and 'undignified' forms of victorious celebration.
No one seemed to have the faintest idea that when public enthusiasm is
once damped, nothing can enkindle it again, when the necessity arises.
This enthusiasm is an intoxication and must be kept up in that form.
Without the support of this enthusiastic spirit how would it be possible
to endure in a struggle which, according to human standards, made such
immense demands on the spiritual stamina of the nation?
I was only too well acquainted with the psychology of the broad masses
not to know that in such cases a magnaminous 'aestheticism' cannot fan
the fire which is needed to keep the iron hot. In my eyes it was even a
mistake not to have tried to raise the pitch of public enthusiasm still
higher. Therefore I could not at all understand why the contrary policy
was adopted, that is to say, the policy of damping the public spirit.
Another thing which irritated me was the manner in which Marxism was
regarded and accepted. I thought that all this proved how little they
knew about the Marxist plague. It was believed in all seriousness that
the abolition of party distinctions during the War had made Marxism a
mild and moderate thing.
But here there was no question of party. There was question of a
doctrine which was being expounded for the express purpose of leading
humanity to its destruction. The purport of this doctrine was not
understood because nothing was said about that side of the question in
our Jew-ridden universities and because our supercilious bureaucratic
officials did not think it worth while to read up a subject which had
not been prescribed in their university course. This mighty
revolutionary trend was going on beside them; but those 'intellectuals'
would not deign to give it their attention. That is why State enterprise
nearly always lags behind private enterprise. Of these gentry once can
truly say that their maxim is: What we don't know won't bother us. In
the August of 1914 the German worker was looked upon as an adherent of
Marxist socialism. That was a gross error. When those fateful hours
dawned the German worker shook off the poisonous clutches of that
plague; otherwise he would not have been so willing and ready to fight.
And people were stupid enough to imagine that Marxism had now become
'national', another apt illustration of the fact that those in authority
had never taken the trouble to study the real tenor of the Marxist
teaching. If they had done so, such foolish errors would not have been
committed.
Marxism, whose final objective was and is and will continue to be the
destruction of all non-Jewish national States, had to witness in those
days of July 1914 how the German working classes, which it had been
inveigling, were aroused by the national spirit and rapidly ranged
themselves on the side of the Fatherland. Within a few days the
deceptive smoke-screen of that infamous national betrayal had vanished
into thin air and the Jewish bosses suddenly found themselves alone and
deserted. It was as if not a vestige had been left of that folly and
madness with which the masses of the German people had been inoculated
for sixty years. That was indeed an evil day for the betrayers of German
Labour. The moment, however, that the leaders realized the danger which
threatened them they pulled the magic cap of deceit over their ears and,
without being identified, played the part of mimes in the national
reawakening.
The time seemed to have arrived for proceeding against the whole Jewish
gang of public pests. Then it was that action should have been taken
regardless of any consequent whining or protestation. At one stroke, in
the August of 1914, all the empty nonsense about international
solidarity was knocked out of the heads of the German working classes. A
few weeks later, instead of this stupid talk sounding in their ears,
they heard the noise of American-manufactured shrapnel bursting above
the heads of the marching columns, as a symbol of international
comradeship. Now that the German worker had rediscovered the road to
nationhood, it ought to have been the duty of any Government which had
the care of the people in its keeping, to take this opportunity of
mercilessly rooting out everything that was opposed to the national
spirit.
While the flower of the nation's manhood was dying at the front, there
was time enough at home at least to exterminate this vermin. But,
instead of doing so, His Majesty the Kaiser held out his hand to these
hoary criminals, thus assuring them his protection and allowing them to
regain their mental composure.
And so the viper could begin his work again. This time, however, more
carefully than before, but still more destructively. While honest people
dreamt of reconciliation these perjured criminals were making
preparations for a revolution.
Naturally I was distressed at the half-measures which were adopted at
that time; but I never thought it possible that the final consequences
could have been so disastrous?
But what should have been done then? Throw the ringleaders into gaol,
prosecute them and rid the nation of them? Uncompromising military
measures should have been adopted to root out the evil. Parties should
have been abolished and the Reichstag brought to its senses at the point
of the bayonet, if necessary. It would have been still better if the
Reichstag had been dissolved immediately. Just as the Republic to-day
dissolves the parties when it wants to, so in those days there was even
more justification for applying that measure, seeing that the very
existence of the nation was at stake. Of course this suggestion would
give rise to the question: Is it possible to eradicate ideas by force of
arms? Could a WELTANSCHAUUNG be attacked by means of physical force?
At that time I turned these questions over and over again in my mind. By
studying analogous cases, exemplified in history, particularly those
which had arisen from religious circumstances, I came to the following
fundamental conclusion:
Ideas and philosophical systems as well as movements grounded on a
definite spiritual foundation, whether true or not, can never be broken
by the use of force after a certain stage, except on one condition:
namely, that this use of force is in the service of a new idea or
WELTANSCHAUUNG which burns with a new flame.
The application of force alone, without moral support based on a
spiritual concept, can never bring about the destruction of an idea or
arrest the propagation of it, unless one is ready and able ruthlessly to
exterminate the last upholders of that idea even to a man, and also wipe
out any tradition which it may tend to leave behind. Now in the majority
of cases the result of such a course has been to exclude such a State,
either temporarily or for ever, from the comity of States that are of
political significance; but experience has also shown that such a
sanguinary method of extirpation arouses the better section of the
population under the persecuting power. As a matter of fact, every
persecution which has no spiritual motives to support it is morally
unjust and raises opposition among the best elements of the population;
so much so that these are driven more and more to champion the ideas
that are unjustly persecuted. With many individuals this arises from the
sheer spirit of opposition to every attempt at suppressing spiritual
things by brute force.
In this way the number of convinced adherents of the persecuted doctrine
increases as the persecution progresses. Hence the total destruction of
a new doctrine can be accomplished only by a vast plan of extermination;
but this, in the final analysis, means the loss of some of the best
blood in a nation or State. And that blood is then avenged, because such
an internal and total clean-up brings about the collapse of the nation's
strength. And such a procedure is always condemned to futility from the
very start if the attacked doctrine should happen to have spread beyond
a small circle.
That is why in this case, as with all other growths, the doctrine can be
exterminated in its earliest stages. As time goes on its powers of
resistance increase, until at the approach of age it gives way to
younger elements, but under another form and from other motives.
The fact remains that nearly all attempts to exterminate a doctrine,
without having some spiritual basis of attack against it, and also to
wipe out all the organizations it has created, have led in many cases to
the very opposite being achieved; and that for the following reasons:
When sheer force is used to combat the spread of a doctrine, then that
force must be employed systematically and persistently. This means that
the chances of success in the suppression of a doctrine lie only in the
persistent and uniform application of the methods chosen. The moment
hesitation is shown, and periods of tolerance alternate with the
application of force, the doctrine against which these measures are
directed will not only recover strength but every successive persecution
will bring to its support new adherents who have been shocked by the
oppressive methods employed. The old adherents will become more
embittered and their allegiance will thereby be strengthened. Therefore
when force is employed success is dependent on the consistent manner in
which it is used. This persistence, however, is nothing less than the
product of definite spiritual convictions. Every form of force that is
not supported by a spiritual backing will be always indecisive and
uncertain. Such a force lacks the stability that can be found only in a
WELTANSCHAUUNG which has devoted champions. Such a force is the
expression of the individual energies; therefore it is from time to time
dependent on the change of persons in whose hands it is employed and
also on their characters and capacities.
But there is something else to be said: Every WELTANSCHAUUNG, whether
religious or political--and it is sometimes difficult to say where the
one ends and the other begins--fights not so much for the negative
destruction of the opposing world of ideas as for the positive
realization of its own ideas. Thus its struggle lies in attack rather
than in defence. It has the advantage of knowing where its objective
lies, as this objective represents the realization of its own ideas.
Inversely, it is difficult to say when the negative aim for the
destruction of a hostile doctrine is reached and secured. For this
reason alone a WELTANSCHAUUNG which is of an aggressive character is
more definite in plan and more powerful and decisive in action than a
WELTANSCHAUUNG which takes up a merely defensive attitude. If force be
used to combat a spiritual power, that force remains a defensive measure
only so long as the wielders of it are not the standard-bearers and
apostles of a new spiritual doctrine.
To sum up, the following must be borne in mind: That every attempt to
combat a WELTANSCHAUUNG by means of force will turn out futile in the
end if the struggle fails to take the form of an offensive for the
establishment of an entirely new spiritual order of' things. It is only
in the struggle between two Weltan-schauungen that physical force,
consistently and ruthlessly applied, will eventually turn the scales in
its own favour. It was here that the fight against Marxism had hitherto
failed.
This was also the reason why Bismarck's anti-socialist legislation
failed and was bound to fail in the long run, despite everything. It
lacked the basis of a new WELTANSCHAUUNG for whose development and
extension the struggle might have been taken up. To say that the serving
up of drivel about a so-called 'State-Authority' or 'Law-and-Order' was
an adequate foundation for the spiritual driving force in a
life-or-death struggle is only what one would expect to hear from the
wiseacres in high official positions.
It was because there were no adequate spiritual motives back of this
offensive that Bismarck was compelled to hand over the administration of
his socialist legislative measures to the judgment and approval of those
circles which were themselves the product of the Marxist teaching. Thus
a very ludicrous state of affairs prevailed when the Iron Chancellor
surrendered the fate of his struggle against Marxism to the goodwill of
the bourgeois democracy. He left the goat to take care of the garden.
But this was only the necessary result of the failure to find a
fundamentally new WELTANSCHAUUNG which would attract devoted champions
to its cause and could be established on the ground from which Marxism
had been driven out. And thus the result of the Bismarckian campaign was
deplorable.
During the World War, or at the beginning of it, were the conditions any
different? Unfortunately, they were not.
The more I then pondered over the necessity for a change in the attitude
of the executive government towards Social-Democracy, as the
incorporation of contemporary Marxism, the more I realized the want of a
practical substitute for this doctrine. Supposing Social-Democracy were
overthrown, what had one to offer the masses in its stead? Not a single
movement existed which promised any success in attracting vast numbers
of workers who would be now more or less without leaders, and holding
these workers in its train. It is nonsensical to imagine that the
international fanatic who has just severed his connection with a class
party would forthwith join a bourgeois party, or, in other words,
another class organization. For however unsatisfactory these various
organizations may appear to be, it cannot be denied that bourgeois
politicians look on the distinction between classes as a very important
factor in social life, provided it does not turn out politically
disadvantageous to them. If they deny this fact they show themselves not
only impudent but also mendacious.
Generally speaking, one should guard against considering the broad
masses more stupid than they really are. In political matters it
frequently happens that feeling judges more correctly than intellect.
But the opinion that this feeling on the part of the masses is
sufficient proof of their stupid international attitude can be
immediately and definitely refuted by the simple fact that pacifist
democracy is no less fatuous, though it draws its supporters almost
exclusively from bourgeois circles. As long as millions of citizens
daily gulp down what the social-democratic Press tells them, it ill
becomes the 'Masters' to joke at the expense of the 'Comrades'; for in
the long run they all swallow the same hash, even though it be dished up
with different spices. In both cases the cook is one and the same--the
Jew.
One should be careful about contradicting established facts. It is an
undeniable fact that the class question has nothing to do with questions
concerning ideals, though that dope is administered at election time.
Class arrogance among a large section of our people, as well as a
prevailing tendency to look down on the manual labourer, are obvious
facts and not the fancies of some day-dreamer. Nevertheless it only
illustrates the mentality of our so-called intellectual circles, that
they have not yet grasped the fact that circumstances which are
incapable of preventing the growth of such a plague as Marxism are
certainly not capable of restoring what has been lost.
The bourgeois' parties--a name coined by themselves--will never again be
able to win over and hold the proletarian masses in their train. That is
because two worlds stand opposed to one another here, in part naturally
and in part artificially divided. These two camps have one leading
thought, and that is that they must fight one another. But in such a
fight the younger will come off victorious; and that is Marxism.
In 1914 a fight against Social-Democracy was indeed quite conceivable.
But the lack of any practical substitute made it doubtful how long the
fight could be kept up. In this respect there was a gaping void.
Long before the War I was of the same opinion and that was the reason
why I could not decide to join any of the parties then existing. During
the course of the World War my conviction was still further confirmed by
the manifest impossibility of fighting Social-Democracy in anything like
a thorough way: because for that purpose there should have been a
movement that was something more than a mere 'parliamentary' party, and
there was none such.
I frequently discussed that want with my intimate comrades. And it was
then that I first conceived the idea of taking up political work later
on. As I have often assured my friends, it was just this that induced me
to become active on the public hustings after the War, in addition to my
professional work. And I am sure that this decision was arrived at after
much earnest thought.
CHAPTER VI
WAR PROPAGANDA
In watching the course of political events I was always struck by the
active part which propaganda played in them. I saw that it was an
instrument, which the Marxist Socialists knew how to handle in a
masterly way and how to put it to practical uses. Thus I soon came to
realize that the right use of propaganda was an art in itself and that
this art was practically unknown to our bourgeois parties. The
Christian-Socialist Party alone, especially in Lueger's time, showed a
certain efficiency in the employment of this instrument and owed much of
their success to it.
It was during the War, however, that we had the best chance of
estimating the tremendous results which could be obtained by a
propagandist system properly carried out. Here again, unfortunately,
everything was left to the other side, the work done on our side being
worse than insignificant. It was the total failure of the whole German
system of information--a failure which was perfectly obvious to every
soldier--that urged me to consider the problem of propaganda in a
comprehensive way. I had ample opportunity to learn a practical lesson
in this matter; for unfortunately it was only too well taught us by the
enemy. The lack on our side was exploited by the enemy in such an
efficient manner that one could say it showed itself as a real work of
genius. In that propaganda carried on by the enemy I found admirable
sources of instruction. The lesson to be learned from this had
unfortunately no attraction for the geniuses on our own side. They were
simply above all such things, too clever to accept any teaching. Anyhow
they did not honestly wish to learn anything.
Had we any propaganda at all? Alas, I can reply only in the negative.
All that was undertaken in this direction was so utterly inadequate and
misconceived from the very beginning that not only did it prove useless
but at times harmful. In substance it was insufficient. Psychologically
it was all wrong. Anybody who had carefully investigated the German
propaganda must have formed that judgment of it. Our people did not seem
to be clear even about the primary question itself: Whether propaganda
is a means or an end?
Propaganda is a means and must, therefore, be judged in relation to the
end it is intended to serve. It must be organized in such a way as to be
capable of attaining its objective. And, as it is quite clear that the
importance of the objective may vary from the standpoint of general
necessity, the essential internal character of the propaganda must vary
accordingly. The cause for which we fought during the War was the
noblest and highest that man could strive for. We were fighting for the
freedom and independence of our country, for the security of our future
welfare and the honour of the nation. Despite all views to the contrary,
this honour does actually exist, or rather it will have to exist; for a
nation without honour will sooner or later lose its freedom and
independence. This is in accordance with the ruling of a higher justice,
for a generation of poltroons is not entitled to freedom. He who would
be a slave cannot have honour; for such honour would soon become an
object of general scorn.
Germany was waging war for its very existence. The purpose of its war
propaganda should have been to strengthen the fighting spirit in that
struggle and help it to victory.
But when nations are fighting for their existence on this earth, when
the question of 'to be or not to be' has to be answered, then all humane
and aesthetic considerations must be set aside; for these ideals do not
exist of themselves somewhere in the air but are the product of man's
creative imagination and disappear when he disappears. Nature knows
nothing of them. Moreover, they are characteristic of only a small
number of nations, or rather of races, and their value depends on the
measure in which they spring from the racial feeling of the latter.
Humane and aesthetic ideals will disappear from the inhabited earth when
those races disappear which are the creators and standard-bearers of
them.
All such ideals are only of secondary importance when a nation is
struggling for its existence. They must be prevented from entering into
the struggle the moment they threaten to weaken the stamina of the
nation that is waging war. That is always the only visible effect
whereby their place in the struggle is to be judged.
In regard to the part played by humane feeling, Moltke stated that in
time of war the essential thing is to get a decision as quickly as
possible and that the most ruthless methods of fighting are at the same
time the most humane. When people attempt to answer this reasoning by
highfalutin talk about aesthetics, etc., only one answer can be given. It
is that the vital questions involved in the struggle of a nation for its
existence must not be subordinated to any aesthetic considerations. The
yoke of slavery is and always will remain the most unpleasant experience
that mankind can endure. Do the Schwabing (Note 12) decadents look upon
Germany's lot to-day as 'aesthetic'? Of course, one doesn't discuss such
a question with the Jews, because they are the modern inventors of this
cultural perfume. Their very existence is an incarnate denial of the
beauty of God's image in His creation.
[Note 12. Schwabing is the artistic quarter in Munich where artists have
their studios and litterateurs, especially of the Bohemian class,
foregather.]
Since these ideas of what is beautiful and humane have no place in
warfare, they are not to be used as standards of war propaganda.
During the War, propaganda was a means to an end. And this end was the
struggle for existence of the German nation. Propaganda, therefore,
should have been regarded from the standpoint of its utility for that
purpose. The most cruel weapons were then the most humane, provided they
helped towards a speedier decision; and only those methods were good and
beautiful which helped towards securing the dignity and freedom of the
nation. Such was the only possible attitude to adopt towards war
propaganda in the life-or-death struggle.
If those in what are called positions of authority had realized this
there would have been no uncertainty about the form and employment of
war propaganda as a weapon; for it is nothing but a weapon, and indeed a
most terrifying weapon in the hands of those who know how to use it.
The second question of decisive importance is this: To whom should
propaganda be made to appeal? To the educated intellectual classes? Or
to the less intellectual?
Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people.
For the intellectual classes, or what are called the intellectual
classes to-day, propaganda is not suited, but only scientific
exposition. Propaganda has as little to do with science as an
advertisement poster has to do with art, as far as concerns the form in
which it presents its message. The art of the advertisement poster
consists in the ability of the designer to attract the attention of the
crowd through the form and colours he chooses. The advertisement poster
announcing an exhibition of art has no other aim than to convince the
public of the importance of the exhibition. The better it does that, the
better is the art of the poster as such. Being meant accordingly to
impress upon the public the meaning of the exposition, the poster can
never take the place of the artistic objects displayed in the exposition
hall. They are something entirely different. Therefore. those who wish
to study the artistic display must study something that is quite
different from the poster; indeed for that purpose a mere wandering
through the exhibition galleries is of no use. The student of art must
carefully and thoroughly study each exhibit in order slowly to form a
judicious opinion about it.
The situation is the same in regard to what we understand by the word,
propaganda. The purpose of propaganda is not the personal instruction of
the individual, but rather to attract public attention to certain
things, the importance of which can be brought home to the masses only
by this means.
Here the art of propaganda consists in putting a matter so clearly and
forcibly before the minds of the people as to create a general
conviction regarding the reality of a certain fact, the necessity of
certain things and the just character of something that is essential.
But as this art is not an end in itself and because its purpose must be
exactly that of the advertisement poster, to attract the attention of
the masses and not by any means to dispense individual instructions to
those who already have an educated opinion on things or who wish to form
such an opinion on grounds of objective study--because that is not the
purpose of propaganda, it must appeal to the feelings of the public
rather than to their reasoning powers.
All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its
intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least
intellectual of those to whom it is directed. Thus its purely
intellectual level will have to be that of the lowest mental common
denominator among the public it is desired to reach. When there is
question of bringing a whole nation within the circle of its influence,
as happens in the case of war propaganda, then too much attention cannot
be paid to the necessity of avoiding a high level, which presupposes a
relatively high degree of intelligence among the public.
The more modest the scientific tenor of this propaganda and the more it
is addressed exclusively to public sentiment, the more decisive will be
its success. This is the best test of the value of a propaganda, and not
the approbation of a small group of intellectuals or artistic people.
The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the
imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in
finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the
attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. That this is
not understood by those among us whose wits are supposed to have been
sharpened to the highest pitch is only another proof of their vanity or
mental inertia.
Once we have understood how necessary it is to concentrate the
persuasive forces of propaganda on the broad masses of the people, the
following lessons result therefrom:
That it is a mistake to organize the direct propaganda as if it were a
manifold system of scientific instruction.
The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their
understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such
being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare
essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped
formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very
last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. If
this principle be forgotten and if an attempt be made to be abstract and
general, the propaganda will turn out ineffective; for the public will
not be able to digest or retain what is offered to them in this way.
Therefore, the greater the scope of the message that has to be
presented, the more necessary it is for the propaganda to discover that
plan of action which is psychologically the most efficient.
It was, for example, a fundamental mistake to ridicule the worth of the
enemy as the Austrian and German comic papers made a chief point of
doing in their propaganda. The very principle here is a mistaken one;
for, when they came face to face with the enemy, our soldiers had quite
a different impression. Therefore, the mistake had disastrous results.
Once the German soldier realised what a tough enemy he had to fight he
felt that he had been deceived by the manufacturers of the information
which had been given him. Therefore, instead of strengthening and
stimulating his fighting spirit, this information had quite the contrary
effect. Finally he lost heart.
On the other hand, British and American war propaganda was
psychologically efficient. By picturing the Germans to their own people
as Barbarians and Huns, they were preparing their soldiers for the
horrors of war and safeguarding them against illusions. The most
terrific weapons which those soldiers encountered in the field merely
confirmed the information that they had already received and their
belief in the truth of the assertions made by their respective
governments was accordingly reinforced. Thus their rage and hatred
against the infamous foe was increased. The terrible havoc caused by the
German weapons of war was only another illustration of the Hunnish
brutality of those barbarians; whereas on the side of the Entente no
time was left the soldiers to meditate on the similar havoc which their
own weapons were capable of. Thus the British soldier was never allowed
to feel that the information which he received at home was untrue.
Unfortunately the opposite was the case with the Germans, who finally
wound up by rejecting everything from home as pure swindle and humbug.
This result was made possible because at home they thought that the work
of propaganda could be entrusted to the first ass that came along,
braying of his own special talents, and they had no conception of the
fact that propaganda demands the most skilled brains that can be found.
Thus the German war propaganda afforded us an incomparable example of
how the work of 'enlightenment' should not be done and how such an
example was the result of an entire failure to take any psychological
considerations whatsoever into account.
From the enemy, however, a fund of valuable knowledge could be gained by
those who kept their eyes open, whose powers of perception had not yet
become sclerotic, and who during four-and-a-half years had to experience
the perpetual flood of enemy propaganda.
The worst of all was that our people did not understand the very first
condition which has to be fulfilled in every kind of propaganda; namely,
a systematically one-sided attitude towards every problem that has to be
dealt with. In this regard so many errors were committed, even from the
very beginning of the war, that it was justifiable to doubt whether so
much folly could be attributed solely to the stupidity of people in
higher quarters.
What, for example, should we say of a poster which purported to
advertise some new brand of soap by insisting on the excellent qualities
of the competitive brands? We should naturally shake our heads. And it
ought to be just the same in a similar kind of political advertisement.
The aim of propaganda is not to try to pass judgment on conflicting
rights, giving each its due, but exclusively to emphasize the right
which we are asserting. Propaganda must not investigate the truth
objectively and, in so far as it is favourable to the other side,
present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must
present only that aspect of the truth which is favourable to its own
side.
It was a fundamental mistake to discuss the question of who was
responsible for the outbreak of the war and declare that the sole
responsibility could not be attributed to Germany. The sole
responsibility should have been laid on the shoulders of the enemy,
without any discussion whatsoever.
And what was the consequence of these half-measures? The broad masses of
the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public
jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned
judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who
are constantly wavering between one idea and another. As soon as our own
propaganda made the slightest suggestion that the enemy had a certain
amount of justice on his side, then we laid down the basis on which the
justice of our own cause could be questioned. The masses are not in a
position to discern where the enemy's fault ends and where our own
begins. In such a case they become hesitant and distrustful, especially
when the enemy does not make the same mistake but heaps all the blame on
his adversary. Could there be any clearer proof of this than the fact
that finally our own people believed what was said by the enemy's
propaganda, which was uniform and consistent in its assertions, rather
than what our own propaganda said? And that, of course, was increased by
the mania for objectivity which addicts our people. Everybody began to
be careful about doing an injustice to the enemy, even at the cost of
seriously injuring, and even ruining his own people and State.
Naturally the masses were not conscious of the fact that those in
authority had failed to study the subject from this angle.
The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and
outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than
by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple
and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the
negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth
and falsehood. Its notions are never partly this and partly that.
English propaganda especially understood this in a marvellous way and
put what they understood into practice. They allowed no half-measures
which might have given rise to some doubt.
Proof of how brilliantly they understood that the feeling of the masses
is something primitive was shown in their policy of publishing tales of
horror and outrages which fitted in with the real horrors of the time,
thereby cleverly and ruthlessly preparing the ground for moral
solidarity at the front, even in times of great defeats. Further, the
way in which they pilloried the German enemy as solely responsible for
the war--which was a brutal and absolute falsehood--and the way in which
they proclaimed his guilt was excellently calculated to reach the
masses, realizing that these are always extremist in their feelings. And
thus it was that this atrocious lie was positively believed.
The effectiveness of this kind of propaganda is well illustrated by the
fact that after four-and-a-half years, not only was the enemy still
carrying on his propagandist work, but it was already undermining the
stamina of our people at home.
That our propaganda did not achieve similar results is not to be
wondered at, because it had the germs of inefficiency lodged in its very
being by reason of its ambiguity. And because of the very nature of its
content one could not expect it to make the necessary impression on the
masses. Only our feckless 'statesmen' could have imagined that on
pacifists slops of such a kind the enthusiasm could be nourished which
is necessary to enkindle that spirit which leads men to die for their
country.
And so this product of ours was not only worthless but detrimental.
No matter what an amount of talent employed in the organization of
propaganda, it will have no result if due account is not taken of these
fundamental principles. Propaganda must be limited to a few simple
themes and these must be represented again and again. Here, as in
innumerable other cases, perseverance is the first and most important
condition of success.
Particularly in the field of propaganda, placid aesthetes and blase
intellectuals should never be allowed to take the lead. The former would
readily transform the impressive character of real propaganda into
something suitable only for literary tea parties. As to the second class
of people, one must always beware of this pest; for, in consequence of
their insensibility to normal impressions, they are constantly seeking
new excitements.
Such people grow sick and tired of everything. They always long for
change and will always be incapable of putting themselves in the
position of picturing the wants of their less callous fellow-creatures
in their immediate neighbourhood, let alone trying to understand them.
The blase intellectuals are always the first to criticize propaganda, or
rather its message, because this appears to them to be outmoded and
trivial. They are always looking for something new, always yearning for
change; and thus they become the mortal enemies of every effort that may
be made to influence the masses in an effective way. The moment the
organization and message of a propagandist movement begins to be
orientated according to their tastes it becomes incoherent and
scattered.
It is not the purpose of propaganda to create a series of alterations in
sentiment with a view to pleasing these blase gentry. Its chief function
is to convince the masses, whose slowness of understanding needs to be
given time in order that they may absorb information; and only constant
repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of
the crowd.
Every change that is made in the subject of a propagandist message must
always emphasize the same conclusion. The leading slogan must of course
be illustrated in many ways and from several angles, but in the end one
must always return to the assertion of the same formula. In this way
alone can propaganda be consistent and dynamic in its effects.
Only by following these general lines and sticking to them steadfastly,
with uniform and concise emphasis, can final success be reached. Then
one will be rewarded by the surprising and almost incredible results
that such a persistent policy secures.
The success of any advertisement, whether of a business or political
nature, depends on the consistency and perseverance with which it is
employed.
In this respect also the propaganda organized by our enemies set us an
excellent example. It confined itself to a few themes, which were meant
exclusively for mass consumption, and it repeated these themes with
untiring perseverance. Once these fundamental themes and the manner of
placing them before the world were recognized as effective, they adhered
to them without the slightest alteration for the whole duration of the
War. At first all of it appeared to be idiotic in its impudent
assertiveness. Later on it was looked upon as disturbing, but finally it
was believed.
But in England they came to understand something further: namely, that
the possibility of success in the use of this spiritual weapon consists
in the mass employment of it, and that when employed in this way it
brings full returns for the large expenses incurred.
In England propaganda was regarded as a weapon of the first order,
whereas with us it represented the last hope of a livelihood for our
unemployed politicians and a snug job for shirkers of the modest hero
type.
Taken all in all, its results were negative.
CHAPTER VII
THE REVOLUTION
In 1915 the enemy started his propaganda among our soldiers. From 1916
onwards it steadily became more intensive, and at the beginning of 1918
it had swollen into a storm flood. One could now judge the effects of
this proselytizing movement step by step. Gradually our soldiers began
to think just in the way the enemy wished them to think. On the German
side there was no counter-propaganda.
At that time the army authorities, under our able and resolute
Commander, were willing and ready to take up the fight in the propaganda
domain also, but unfortunately they did not have the necessary means to
carry that intention into effect. Moreover, the army authorities would
have made a psychological mistake had they undertaken this task of
mental training. To be efficacious it had come from the home front. For
only thus could it be successful among men who for nearly four years now
had been performing immortal deeds of heroism and undergoing all sorts
of privations for the sake of that home. But what were the people at
home doing? Was their failure to act merely due to unintelligence or bad
faith?
In the midsummer of 1918, after the evacuation of the southern bank of
the hearne, the German Press adopted a policy which was so woefully
inopportune, and even criminally stupid, that I used to ask myself a
question which made me more and more furious day after day: Is it really
true that we have nobody who will dare to put an end to this process of
spiritual sabotage which is being carried on among our heroic troops?
What happened in France during those days of 1914, when our armies
invaded that country and were marching in triumph from one victory to
another? What happened in Italy when their armies collapsed on the
Isonzo front? What happened in France again during the spring of 1918,
when German divisions took the main French positions by storm and heavy
long-distance artillery bombarded Paris?
How they whipped up the flagging courage of those troops who were
retreating and fanned the fires of national enthusiasm among them! How
their propaganda and their marvellous aptitude in the exercise of
mass-influence reawakened the fighting spirit in that broken front and
hammered into the heads of the soldiers a, firm belief in final victory!
Meanwhile, what were our people doing in this sphere? Nothing, or even
worse than nothing. Again and again I used to become enraged and
indignant as I read the latest papers and realized the nature of the
mass-murder they were committing: through their influence on the minds
of the people and the soldiers. More than once I was tormented by the
thought that if Providence had put the conduct of German propaganda into
my hands, instead of into the hands of those incompetent and even
criminal ignoramuses and weaklings, the outcome of the struggle might
have been different.
During those months I felt for the first time that Fate was dealing
adversely with me in keeping me on the fighting front and in a position
where any chance bullet from some nigger or other might finish me,
whereas I could have done the Fatherland a real service in another
sphere. For I was then presumptuous enough to believe that I would have
been successful in managing the propaganda business.
But I was a being without a name, one among eight millions. Hence it was
better for me to keep my mouth shut and do my duty as well as I could in
the position to which I had been assigned.
In the summer of 1915 the first enemy leaflets were dropped on our
trenches. They all told more or less the same story, with some
variations in the form of it. The story was that distress was steadily
on the increase in Germany; that the War would last indefinitely; that
the prospect of victory for us was becoming fainter day after day; that
the people at home were yearning for peace, but that 'Militarism' and
the 'Kaiser' would not permit it; that the world--which knew this very
well--was not waging war against the German people but only against the
man who was exclusively responsible, the Kaiser; that until this enemy
of world-peace was removed there could be no end to the conflict; but
that when the War was over the liberal and democratic nations would
receive the Germans as colleagues in the League for World Peace. This
would be done the moment 'Prussian Militarism' had been finally
destroyed.
To illustrate and substantiate all these statements, the leaflets very
often contained 'Letters from Home', the contents of which appeared to
confirm the enemy's propagandist message.
Generally speaking, we only laughed at all these efforts. The leaflets
were read, sent to base headquarters, then forgotten until a favourable
wind once again blew a fresh contingent into the trenches. These were
mostly dropped from aeroplanes which were used specially for that
purpose.
One feature of this propaganda was very striking. It was that in
sections where Bavarian troops were stationed every effort was made by
the enemy propagandists to stir up feeling against the Prussians,
assuring the soldiers that Prussia and Prussia alone was the guilty
party who was responsible for bringing on and continuing the War, and
that there was no hostility whatsoever towards the Bavarians; but that
there could be no possibility of coming to their assistance so long as
they continued to serve Prussian interests and helped to pull the
Prussian chestnuts out of the fire.
This persistent propaganda began to have a real influence on our
soldiers in 1915. The feeling against Prussia grew quite noticeable
among the Bavarian troops, but those in authority did nothing to
counteract it. This was something more than a mere crime of omission;
for sooner or later not only the Prussians were bound to have to atone
severely for it but the whole German nation and consequently the
Bavarians themselves also.
In this direction the enemy propaganda began to achieve undoubted
success from 1916 onwards.
In a similar way letters coming directly from home had long since been
exercising their effect. There was now no further necessity for the
enemy to broadcast such letters in leaflet form. And also against this
influence from home nothing was done except a few supremely stupid
'warnings' uttered by the executive government. The whole front was
drenched in this poison which thoughtless women at home sent out,
without suspecting for a moment that the enemy's chances of final
victory were thus strengthened or that the sufferings of their own men
at the front were thus being prolonged and rendered more severe. These
stupid letters written by German women eventually cost the lives of
hundreds of thousands of our men.
Thus in 1916 several distressing phenomena were already manifest. The
whole front was complaining and grousing, discontented over many things
and often justifiably so. While they were hungry and yet patient, and
their relatives at home were in distress, in other quarters there was
feasting and revelry. Yes; even on the front itself everything was not
as it ought to have been in this regard.
Even in the early stages of the war the soldiers were sometimes prone to
complain; but such criticism was confined to 'internal affairs'. The man
who at one moment groused and grumbled ceased his murmur after a few
moments and went about his duty silently, as if everything were in
order. The company which had given signs of discontent a moment earlier
hung on now to its bit of trench, defending it tooth and nail, as if
Germany's fate depended on these few hundred yards of mud and
shell-holes. The glorious old army was still at its post. A sudden
change in my own fortunes soon placed me in a position where I had
first-hand experience of the contrast between this old army and the home
front. At the end of September 1916 my division was sent into the Battle
of the Somme. For us this was the first of a series of heavy
engagements, and the impression created was that of a veritable inferno,
rather than war. Through weeks of incessant artillery bombardment we
stood firm, at times ceding a little ground but then taking it back
again, and never giving way. On October 7th, 1916, I was wounded but had
the luck of being able to get back to our lines and was then ordered to
be sent by ambulance train to Germany.
Two years had passed since I had left home, an almost endless period in
such circumstances. I could hardly imagine what Germans looked like
without uniforms. In the clearing hospital at Hermies I was startled
when I suddenly heard the voice of a German woman who was acting as
nursing sister and talking with one of the wounded men lying near me.
Two years! And then this voice for the first time!
The nearer our ambulance train approached the German frontier the more
restless each one of us became. En route we recognised all these places
through which we passed two years before as young volunteers--Brussels,
Louvain, Liège--and finally we thought we recognized the first German
homestead, with its familiar high gables and picturesque
window-shutters. Home!
What a change! From the mud of the Somme battlefields to the spotless
white beds in this wonderful building. One hesitated at first before
entering them. It was only by slow stages that one could grow accustomed
to this new world again. But unfortunately there were certain other
aspects also in which this new world was different.
The spirit of the army at the front appeared to be out of place here.
For the first time I encountered something which up to then was unknown
at the front: namely, boasting of one's own cowardice. For, though we
certainly heard complaining and grousing at the front, this was never in
the spirit of any agitation to insubordination and certainly not an
attempt to glorify one's fear. No; there at the front a coward was a
coward and nothing else, And the contempt which his weakness aroused in
the others was quite general, just as the real hero was admired all
round. But here in hospital the spirit was quite different in some
respects. Loudmouthed agitators were busy here in heaping ridicule on
the good soldier and painting the weak-kneed poltroon in glorious
colours. A couple of miserable human specimens were the ringleaders in
this process of defamation. One of them boasted of having intentionally
injured his hand in barbed-wire entanglements in order to get sent to
hospital. Although his wound was only a slight one, it appeared that he
had been here for a very long time and would be here interminably. Some
arrangement for him seemed to be worked by some sort of swindle, just as
he got sent here in the ambulance train through a swindle. This
pestilential specimen actually had the audacity to parade his knavery as
the manifestation of a courage which was superior to that of the brave
soldier who dies a hero's death. There were many who heard this talk in
silence; but there were others who expressed their assent to what the
fellow said.
Personally I was disgusted at the thought that a seditious agitator of
this kind should be allowed to remain in such an institution. What could
be done? The hospital authorities here must have known who and what he
was; and actually they did know. But still they did nothing about it.
As soon as I was able to walk once again I obtained leave to visit
Berlin.
Bitter want was in evidence everywhere. The metropolis, with its teeming
millions, was suffering from hunger. The talk that was current in the
various places of refreshment and hospices visited by the soldiers was
much the same as that in our hospital. The impression given was that
these agitators purposely singled out such places in order to spread
their views.
But in Munich conditions were far worse. After my discharge from
hospital, I was sent to a reserve battalion there. I felt as in some
strange town. Anger, discontent, complaints met one's ears wherever one
went. To a certain extent this was due to the infinitely maladroit
manner in which the soldiers who had returned from the front were
treated by the non-commissioned officers who had never seen a day's
active service and who on that account were partly incapable of adopting
the proper attitude towards the old soldiers. Naturally those old
soldiers displayed certain characteristics which had been developed from
the experiences in the trenches. The officers of the reserve units could
not understand these peculiarities, whereas the officer home from active
service was at least in a position to understand them for himself. As a
result he received more respect from the men than officers at the home
headquarters. But, apart from all this, the general spirit was
deplorable. The art of shirking was looked upon as almost a proof of
higher intelligence, and devotion to duty was considered a sign of
weakness or bigotry. Government offices were staffed by Jews. Almost
every clerk was a Jew and every Jew was a clerk. I was amazed at this
multitude of combatants who belonged to the chosen people and could not
help comparing it with their slender numbers in the fighting lines.
In the business world the situation was even worse. Here the Jews had
actually become 'indispensable'. Like leeches, they were slowly sucking
the blood from the pores of the national body. By means of newly floated
War Companies an instrument had been discovered whereby all national
trade was throttled so that no business could be carried on freely
Special emphasis was laid on the necessity for unhampered
centralization. Hence as early as 1916-17 practically all production was
under the control of Jewish finance.
But against whom was the anger of the people directed? It was then that
I already saw the fateful day approaching which must finally bring the
DEBACLE, unless timely preventive measures were taken.
While Jewry was busy despoiling the nation and tightening the screws of
its despotism, the work of inciting the people against the Prussians
increased. And just as nothing was done at the front to put a stop to
the venomous propaganda, so here at home no official steps were taken
against it. Nobody seemed capable of understanding that the collapse of
Prussia could never bring about the rise of Bavaria. On the contrary,
the collapse of the one must necessarily drag the other down with it.
This kind of behaviour affected me very deeply. In it I could see only a
clever Jewish trick for diverting public attention from themselves to
others. While Prussians and Bavarians were squabbling, the Jews were
taking away the sustenance of both from under their very noses. While
Prussians were being abused in Bavaria the Jews organized the revolution
and with one stroke smashed both Prussia and Bavaria.
I could not tolerate this execrable squabbling among people of the same
German stock and preferred to be at the front once again. Therefore,
just after my arrival in Munich I reported myself for service again. At
the beginning of March 1917 I rejoined my old regiment at the front.
Towards the end of 1917 it seemed as if we had got over the worst phases
of moral depression at the front. After the Russian collapse the whole
army recovered its courage and hope, and all were gradually becoming
more and more convinced that the struggle would end in our favour. We
could sing once again. The ravens were ceasing to croak. Faith in the
future of the Fatherland was once more in the ascendant.
The Italian collapse in the autumn of 1917 had a wonderful effect; for
this victory proved that it was possible to break through another front
besides the Russian. This inspiring thought now became dominant in the
minds of millions at the front and encouraged them to look forward with
confidence to the spring of 1918. It was quite obvious that the enemy
was in a state of depression. During this winter the front was somewhat
quieter than usual. But that was the calm before the storm.
Just when preparations were being made to launch a final offensive which
would bring this seemingly eternal struggle to an end, while endless
columns of transports were bringing men and munitions to the front, and
while the men were being trained for that final onslaught, then it was
that the greatest act of treachery during the whole War was accomplished
in Germany.
Germany must not win the War. At that moment when victory seemed ready
to alight on the German standards, a conspiracy was arranged for the
purpose of striking at the heart of the German spring offensive with one
blow from the rear and thus making victory impossible. A general strike
in the munition factories was organized.
If this conspiracy could achieve its purpose the German front would have
collapsed and the wishes of the VORWÄRTS (the organ of the
Social-Democratic Party) that this time victory should not take the side
of the German banners, would have been fulfilled. For want of munitions
the front would be broken through within a few weeks, the offensive
would be effectively stopped and the Entente saved. Then International
Finance would assume control over Germany and the internal objective of
the Marxist national betrayal would be achieved. That objective was the
destruction of the national economic system and the establishment of
international capitalistic domination in its stead. And this goal has
really been reached, thanks to the stupid credulity of the one side and
the unspeakable treachery of the other.
The munition strike, however, did not bring the final success that had
been hoped for: namely, to starve the front of ammunition. It lasted too
short a time for the lack of ammunitions as such to bring disaster to
the army, as was originally planned. But the moral damage was much more
terrible.
In the first place. what was the army fighting for if the people at home
did not wish it to be victorious? For whom then were these enormous
sacrifices and privations being made and endured? Must the soldiers
fight for victory while the home front goes on strike against it?
In the second place, what effect did this move have on the enemy?
In the winter of 1917-18 dark clouds hovered in the firmament of the
Entente. For nearly four years onslaught after onslaught has been made
against the German giant, but they failed to bring him to the ground. He
had to keep them at bay with one arm that held the defensive shield
because his other arm had to be free to wield the sword against his
enemies, now in the East and now in the South. But at last these enemies
were overcome and his rear was now free for the conflict in the West.
Rivers of blood had been shed for the accomplishment of that task; but
now the sword was free to combine in battle with the shield on the
Western Front. And since the enemy had hitherto failed to break the
German defence here, the Germans themselves had now to launch the
attack. The enemy feared and trembled before the prospect of this German
victory.
At Paris and London conferences followed one another in unending series.
Even the enemy propaganda encountered difficulties. It was no longer so
easy to demonstrate that the prospect of a German victory was hopeless.
A prudent silence reigned at the front, even among the troops of the
Entente. The insolence of their masters had suddenly subsided. A
disturbing truth began to dawn on them. Their opinion of the German
soldier had changed. Hitherto they were able to picture him as a kind of
fool whose end would be destruction; but now they found themselves face
to face with the soldier who had overcome their Russian ally. The policy
of restricting the offensive to the East, which had been imposed on the
German military authorities by the necessities of the situation, now
seemed to the Entente as a tactical stroke of genius. For three years
these Germans had been battering away at the Russian front without any
apparent success at first. Those fruitless efforts were almost sneered
at; for it was thought that in the long run the Russian giant would
triumph through sheer force of numbers. Germany would be worn out
through shedding so much blood. And facts appeared to confirm this hope.
Since the September days of 1914, when for the first time interminable
columns of Russian war prisoners poured into Germany after the Battle of
Tannenberg, it seemed as if the stream would never end but that as soon
as one army was defeated and routed another would take its place. The
supply of soldiers which the gigantic Empire placed at the disposal of
the Czar seemed inexhaustible; new victims were always at hand for the
holocaust of war. How long could Germany hold out in this competition?
Would not the day finally have to come when, after the last victory
which the Germans would achieve, there would still remain reserve armies
in Russia to be mustered for the final battle? And what then? According
to human standards a Russian victory over Germany might be delayed but
it would have to come in the long run.
All the hopes that had been based on Russia were now lost. The Ally who
had sacrificed the most blood on the altar of their mutual interests had
come to the end of his resources and lay prostrate before his
unrelenting foe. A feeling of terror and dismay came over the Entente
soldiers who had hitherto been buoyed up by blind faith. They feared the
coming spring. For, seeing that hitherto they had failed to break the
Germans when the latter could concentrate only part of the fighting
strength on the Western Front, how could they count on victory now that
the undivided forces of that amazing land of heroes appeared to be
gathered for a massed attack in the West?
The shadow of the events which had taken place in South Tyrol, the
spectre of General Cadorna's defeated armies, were reflected in the
gloomy faces of the Entente troops in Flanders. Faith in victory gave
way to fear of defeat to come.
Then, on those cold nights, when one almost heard the tread of the
German armies advancing to the great assault, and the decision was being
awaited in fear and trembling, suddenly a lurid light was set aglow in
Germany and sent its rays into the last shell-hole on the enemy's front.
At the very moment when the German divisions were receiving their final
orders for the great offensive a general strike broke out in Germany.
At first the world was dumbfounded. Then the enemy propaganda began
activities once again and pounced on this theme at the eleventh hour.
All of a sudden a means had come which could be utilized to revive the
sinking confidence of the Entente soldiers. The probabilities of victory
could now be presented as certain, and the anxious foreboding in regard
to coming events could now be transformed into a feeling of resolute
assurance. The regiments that had to bear the brunt of the Greatest
German onslaught in history could now be inspired with the conviction
that the final decision in this war would not be won by the audacity of
the German assault but rather by the powers of endurance on the side of
the defence. Let the Germans now have whatever victories they liked, the
revolution and not the victorious army was welcomed in the Fatherland.
British, French and American newspapers began to spread this belief
among their readers while a very ably managed propaganda encouraged the
morale of their troops at the front.
'Germany Facing Revolution! An Allied Victory Inevitable!' That was the
best medicine to set the staggering Poilu and Tommy on their feet once
again. Our rifles and machine-guns could now open fire once again; but
instead of effecting a panic-stricken retreat they were now met with a
determined resistance that was full of confidence.
That was the result of the strike in the munitions factories. Throughout
the enemy countries faith in victory was thus revived and strengthened,
and that paralysing feeling of despair which had hitherto made itself
felt on the Entente front was banished. Consequently the strike cost the
lives of thousands of German soldiers. But the despicable instigators of
that dastardly strike were candidates for the highest public positions
in the Germany of the Revolution.
At first it was apparently possible to overcome the repercussion of
these events on the German soldiers, but on the enemy's side they had a
lasting effect. Here the resistance had lost all the character of an
army fighting for a lost cause. In its place there was now a grim
determination to struggle through to victory. For, according to all
human rules of judgment, victory would now be assured if the Western
front could hold out against the German offensive even for only a few
months. The Allied parliaments recognized the possibilities of a better
future and voted huge sums of money for the continuation of the
propaganda which was employed for the purpose of breaking up the
internal cohesion of Germany.
It was my luck that I was able to take part in the first two offensives
and in the final offensive. These have left on me the most stupendous
impressions of my life--stupendous, because now for the last time the
struggle lost its defensive character and assumed the character of an
offensive, just as it was in 1914. A sigh of relief went up from the
German trenches and dug-outs when finally, after three years of
endurance in that inferno, the day for the settling of accounts had
come. Once again the lusty cheering of victorious battalions was heard,
as they hung the last crowns of the immortal laurel on the standards
which they consecrated to Victory. Once again the strains of patriotic
songs soared upwards to the heavens above the endless columns of
marching troops, and for the last time the Lord smiled on his ungrateful
children.
In the midsummer of 1918 a feeling of sultry oppression hung over the
front. At home they were quarrelling. About what? We heard a great deal
among various units at the front. The War was now a hopeless affair, and
only the foolhardy could think of victory. It was not the people but the
capitalists and the Monarchy who were interested in carrying on. Such
were the ideas that came from home and were discussed at the front.
At first this gave rise to only very slight reaction. What did universal
suffrage matter to us? Is this what we had been fighting for during four
years? It was a dastardly piece of robbery thus to filch from the graves
of our heroes the ideals for which they had fallen. It was not to the
slogan, 'Long Live Universal Suffrage,' that our troops in Flanders once
faced certain death but with the cry, 'DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES IN DER
WELT'. A small but by no means an unimportant difference. And the
majority of those who were shouting for this suffrage were absent when
it came to fighting for it. All this political rabble were strangers to
us at the front. During those days only a fraction of these
parliamentarian gentry were to be seen where honest Germans
foregathered.
The old soldiers who had fought at the front had little liking for those
new war aims of Messrs. Ebert, Scheidemann, Barth, Liebknecht and
others. We could not understand why, all of a sudden, the shirkers
should abrogate all executive powers to themselves, without having any
regard to the army.
From the very beginning I had my own definite personal views. I
intensely loathed the whole gang of miserable party politicians who had
betrayed the people. I had long ago realized that the interests of the
nation played only a very small part with this disreputable crew and
that what counted with them was the possibility of filling their own
empty pockets. My opinion was that those people thoroughly deserved to
be hanged, because they were ready to sacrifice the peace and if
necessary allow Germany to be defeated just to serve their own ends. To
consider their wishes would mean to sacrifice the interests of the
working classes for the benefit of a gang of thieves. To meet their
wishes meant that one should agree to sacrifice Germany.
Such, too, was the opinion still held by the majority of the army. But
the reinforcements which came from home were fast becoming worse and
worse; so much so that their arrival was a source of weakness rather
than of strength to our fighting forces. The young recruits in
particular were for the most part useless. Sometimes it was hard to
believe that they were sons of the same nation that sent its youth into
the battles that were fought round Ypres.
In August and September the symptoms of moral disintegration increased
more and more rapidly, although the enemy's offensive was not at all
comparable to the frightfulness of our own former defensive battles. In
comparison with this offensive the battles fought on the Somme and in
Flanders remained in our memories as the most terrible of all horrors.
At the end of September my division occupied, for the third time, those
positions which we had once taken by storm as young volunteers. What a
memory!
Here we had received our baptism of fire, in October and November 1914.
With a burning love of the homeland in their hearts and a song on their
lips, our young regiment went into action as if going to a dance. The
dearest blood was given freely here in the belief that it was shed to
protect the freedom and independence of the Fatherland.
In July 1917 we set foot for the second time on what we regarded as
sacred soil. Were not our best comrades at rest here, some of them
little more than boys--the soldiers who had rushed into death for their
country's sake, their eyes glowing with enthusiastic love.
The older ones among us, who had been with the regiment from the
beginning, were deeply moved as we stood on this sacred spot where we
had sworn 'Loyalty and Duty unto Death'. Three years ago the regiment
had taken this position by storm; now it was called upon to defend it in
a gruelling struggle.
With an artillery bombardment that lasted three weeks the English
prepared for their great offensive in Flanders. There the spirits of the
dead seemed to live again. The regiment dug itself into the mud, clung
to its shell-holes and craters, neither flinching nor wavering, but
growing smaller in numbers day after day. Finally the British launched
their attack on July 31st, 1917.
We were relieved in the beginning of August. The regiment had dwindled
down to a few companies, who staggered back, mud-crusted, more like
phantoms than human beings. Besides a few hundred yards of shell-holes,
death was the only reward which the English gained.
Now in the autumn of 1918 we stood for the third time on the ground we
had stormed in 1914. The village of Comines, which formerly had served
us as a base, was now within the fighting zone. Although little had
changed in the surrounding district itself, yet the men had become
different, somehow or other. They now talked politics. Like everywhere
else, the poison from home was having its effect here also. The young
drafts succumbed to it completely. They had come directly from home.
During the night of October 13th-14th, the British opened an attack with
gas on the front south of Ypres. They used the yellow gas whose effect
was unknown to us, at least from personal experience. I was destined to
experience it that very night. On a hill south of Werwick, in the
evening of October 13th, we were subjected for several hours to a heavy
bombardment with gas bombs, which continued throughout the night with
more or less intensity. About midnight a number of us were put out of
action, some for ever. Towards morning I also began to feel pain. It
increased with every quarter of an hour; and about seven o'clock my eyes
were scorching as I staggered back and delivered the last dispatch I was
destined to carry in this war. A few hours later my eyes were like
glowing coals and all was darkness around me.
I was sent into hospital at Pasewalk in Pomerania, and there it was that
I had to hear of the Revolution.
For a long time there had been something in the air which was
indefinable and repulsive. People were saying that something was bound
to happen within the next few weeks, although I could not imagine what
this meant. In the first instance I thought of a strike similar to the
one which had taken place in spring. Unfavourable rumours were
constantly coming from the Navy, which was said to be in a state of
ferment. But this seemed to be a fanciful creation of a few isolated
young people. It is true that at the hospital they were all talking abut
the end of the war and hoping that this was not far off, but nobody
thought that the decision would come immediately. I was not able to read
the newspapers.
In November the general tension increased. Then one day disaster broke
in upon us suddenly and without warning. Sailors came in motor-lorries
and called on us to rise in revolt. A few Jew-boys were the leaders in
that combat for the 'Liberty, Beauty, and Dignity' of our National
Being. Not one of them had seen active service at the front. Through the
medium of a hospital for venereal diseases these three Orientals had
been sent back home. Now their red rags were being hoisted here.
During the last few days I had begun to feel somewhat better. The
burning pain in the eye-sockets had become less severe. Gradually I was
able to distinguish the general outlines of my immediate surroundings.
And it was permissible to hope that at least I would recover my sight
sufficiently to be able to take up some profession later on. That I
would ever be able to draw or design once again was naturally out of the
question. Thus I was on the way to recovery when the frightful hour
came.
My first thought was that this outbreak of high treason was only a local
affair. I tried to enforce this belief among my comrades. My Bavarian
hospital mates, in particular, were readily responsive. Their
inclinations were anything but revolutionary. I could not imagine this
madness breaking out in Munich; for it seemed to me that loyalty to the
House of Wittelsbach was, after all, stronger than the will of a few
Jews. And so I could not help believing that this was merely a revolt in
the Navy and that it would be suppressed within the next few days.
With the next few days came the most astounding information of my life.
The rumours grew more and more persistent. I was told that what I had
considered to be a local affair was in reality a general revolution. In
addition to this, from the front came the shameful news that they wished
to capitulate! What! Was such a thing possible?
On November 10th the local pastor visited the hospital for the purpose
of delivering a short address. And that was how we came to know the
whole story.
I was in a fever of excitement as I listened to the address. The
reverend old gentleman seemed to be trembling when he informed us that
the House of Hohen-zollern should no longer wear the Imperial Crown,
that the Fatherland had become a 'Republic', that we should pray to the
Almighty not to withhold His blessing from the new order of things and
not to abandon our people in the days to come. In delivering this
message he could not do more than briefly express appreciation of the
Royal House, its services to Pomerania, to Prussia, indeed, to the whole
of the German Fatherland, and--here he began to weep. A feeling of
profound dismay fell on the people in that assembly, and I do not think
there was a single eye that withheld its tears. As for myself, I broke
down completely when the old gentleman tried to resume his story by
informing us that we must now end this long war, because the war was
lost, he said, and we were at the mercy of the victor. The Fatherland
would have to bear heavy burdens in the future. We were to accept the
terms of the Armistice and trust to the magnanimity of our former
enemies. It was impossible for me to stay and listen any longer.
Darkness surrounded me as I staggered and stumbled back to my ward and
buried my aching head between the blankets and pillow.
I had not cried since the day that I stood beside my mother's grave.
Whenever Fate dealt cruelly with me in my young days the spirit of
determination within me grew stronger and stronger. During all those
long years of war, when Death claimed many a true friend and comrade
from our ranks, to me it would have appeared sinful to have uttered a
word of complaint. Did they not die for Germany? And, finally, almost in
the last few days of that titanic struggle, when the waves of poison gas
enveloped me and began to penetrate my eyes, the thought of becoming
permanently blind unnerved me; but the voice of conscience cried out
immediately: Poor miserable fellow, will you start howling when there
are thousands of others whose lot is a hundred times worse than yours?
And so I accepted my misfortune in silence, realizing that this was the
only thing to be done and that personal suffering was nothing when
compared with the misfortune of one's country.
So all had been in vain. In vain all the sacrifices and privations, in
vain the hunger and thirst for endless months, in vain those hours that
we stuck to our posts though the fear of death gripped our souls, and in
vain the deaths of two millions who fell in discharging this duty. Think
of those hundreds of thousands who set out with hearts full of faith in
their fatherland, and never returned; ought not their graves to open, so
that the spirits of those heroes bespattered with mud and blood should
come home and take vengeance on those who had so despicably betrayed the
greatest sacrifice which a human being can make for his country? Was it
for this that the soldiers died in August and September 1914, for this
that the volunteer regiments followed the old comrades in the autumn of
the same year? Was it for this that those boys of seventeen years of age
were mingled with the earth of Flanders? Was this meant to be the fruits
of the sacrifice which German mothers made for their Fatherland when,
with heavy hearts, they said good-bye to their sons who never returned?
Has all this been done in order to enable a gang of despicable criminals
to lay hands on the Fatherland?
Was this then what the German soldier struggled for through sweltering
heat and blinding snowstorm, enduring hunger and thirst and cold,
fatigued from sleepless nights and endless marches? Was it for this that
he lived through an inferno of artillery bombardments, lay gasping and
choking during gas attacks, neither flinching nor faltering, but
remaining staunch to the thought of defending the Fatherland against the
enemy? Certainly these heroes also deserved the epitaph:
Traveller, when you come to Germany, tell the Homeland that we lie
here, true to the Fatherland and faithful to our duty. (Note 13)
[Note 13. Here again we have the defenders of Thermopylae recalled as the
prototype of German valour in the Great War. Hitler's quotation is a
German variant of the couplet inscribed on the monument erected at
Thermopylae to the memory of Leonidas and his Spartan soldiers who fell
defending the Pass. As given by Herodotus, who claims that he saw the
inscription himself, the original text may be literally translated thus:
Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.]
And at Home? But--was this the only sacrifice that we had to consider?
Was the Germany of the past a country of little worth? Did she not owe a
certain duty to her own history? Were we still worthy to partake in the
glory of the past? How could we justify this act to future generations?
What a gang of despicable and depraved criminals!
The more I tried then to glean some definite information of the terrible
events that had happened the more my head became afire with rage and
shame. What was all the pain I suffered in my eyes compared with this
tragedy?
The following days were terrible to bear, and the nights still worse. To
depend on the mercy of the enemy was a precept which only fools or
criminal liars could recommend. During those nights my hatred
increased--hatred for the orignators of this dastardly crime.
During the following days my own fate became clear to me. I was forced
now to scoff at the thought of my personal future, which hitherto had
been the cause of so much worry to me. Was it not ludicrous to think of
building up anything on such a foundation? Finally, it also became clear
to me that it was the inevitable that had happened, something which I
had feared for a long time, though I really did not have the heart to
believe it.
Emperor William II was the first German Emperor to offer the hand of
friendship to the Marxist leaders, not suspecting that they were
scoundrels without any sense of honour. While they held the imperial
hand in theirs, the other hand was already feeling for the dagger.
There is no such thing as coming to an understanding with the Jews. It
must be the hard-and-fast 'Either-Or.'
For my part I then decided that I would take up political work.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BEGINNING OF MY POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
Towards the end of November I returned to Munich. I went to the depot of
my regiment, which was now in the hands of the 'Soldiers' Councils'. As
the whole administration was quite repulsive to me, I decided to leave
it as soon as I possibly could. With my faithful war-comrade,
Ernst-Schmidt, I came to Traunstein and remained there until the camp
was broken up. In March 1919 we were back again in Munich.
The situation there could not last as it was. It tended irresistibly to
a further extension of the Revolution. Eisner's death served only to
hasten this development and finally led to the dictatorship of the
Councils--or, to put it more correctly, to a Jewish hegemony, which
turned out to be transitory but which was the original aim of those who
had contrived the Revolution.
At that juncture innumerable plans took shape in my mind. I spent whole
days pondering on the problem of what could be done, but unfortunately
every project had to give way before the hard fact that I was quite
unknown and therefore did not have even the first pre-requisite
necessary for effective action. Later on I shall explain the reasons why
I could not decide to join any of the parties then in existence.
As the new Soviet Revolution began to run its course in Munich my first
activities drew upon me the ill-will of the Central Council. In the
early morning of April 27th, 1919, I was to have been arrested; but the
three fellows who came to arrest me did not have the courage to face my
rifle and withdrew just as they had arrived.
A few days after the liberation of Munich I was ordered to appear before
the Inquiry Commission which had been set up in the 2nd Infantry
Regiment for the purpose of watching revolutionary activities. That was
my first incursion into the more or less political field.
After another few weeks I received orders to attend a course of lectures
which were being given to members of the army. This course was meant to
inculcate certain fundamental principles on which the soldier could base
his political ideas. For me the advantage of this organization was that
it gave me a chance of meeting fellow soldiers who were of the same way
of thinking and with whom I could discuss the actual situation. We were
all more or less firmly convinced that Germany could not be saved from
imminent disaster by those who had participated in the November
treachery--that is to say, the Centre and the Social-Democrats; and also
that the so-called Bourgeois-National group could not make good the
damage that had been done, even if they had the best intentions. They
lacked a number of requisites without which such a task could never be
successfully undertaken. The years that followed have justified the
opinions which we held at that time.
In our small circle we discussed the project of forming a new party. The
leading ideas which we then proposed were the same as those which were
carried into effect afterwards, when the German Labour Party was
founded. The name of the new movement which was to be founded should be
such that of itself, it would appeal to the mass of the people; for all
our efforts would turn out vain and useless if this condition were
lacking. And that was the reason why we chose the name
'Social-Revolutionary Party', particularly because the social principles
of our new organization were indeed revolutionary.
But there was also a more fundamental reason. The attention which I had
given to economic problems during my earlier years was more or less
confined to considerations arising directly out of the social problem.
Subsequently this outlook broadened as I came to study the German policy
of the Triple Alliance. This policy was very largely the result of an
erroneous valuation of the economic situation, together with a confused
notion as to the basis on which the future subsistence of the German
people could be guaranteed. All these ideas were based on the principle
that capital is exclusively the product of labour and that, just like
labour, it was subject to all the factors which can hinder or promote
human activity. Hence, from the national standpoint, the significance of
capital depended on the greatness and freedom and power of the State,
that is to say, of the nation, and that it is this dependence alone
which leads capital to promote the interests of the State and the
nation, from the instinct of self-preservation and for the sake of its
own development.
On such principles the attitude of the State towards capital would be
comparatively simple and clear. Its only object would be to make sure
that capital remained subservient to the State and did not allocate to
itself the right to dominate national interests. Thus it could confine
its activities within the two following limits: on the one side, to
assure a vital and independent system of national economy and, on the
other, to safeguard the social rights of the workers.
Previously I did not recognize with adequate clearness the difference
between capital which is purely the product of creative labour and the
existence and nature of capital which is exclusively the result of
financial speculation. Here I needed an impulse to set my mind thinking
in this direction; but that impulse had hitherto been lacking.
The requisite impulse now came from one of the men who delivered
lectures in the course I have already mentioned. This was Gottfried
Feder.
For the first time in my life I heard a discussion which dealt with the
principles of stock-exchange capital and capital which was used for loan
activities. After hearing the first lecture delivered by Feder, the idea
immediately came into my head that I had now found a way to one of the
most essential pre-requisites for the founding of a new party.
To my mind, Feder's merit consisted in the ruthless and trenchant way in
which he described the double character of the capital engaged in
stock-exchange and loan transaction, laying bare the fact that this
capital is ever and always dependent on the payment of interest. In
fundamental questions his statements were so full of common sense that
those who criticized him did not deny that AU FOND his ideas were sound
but they doubted whether it be possible to put these ideas into
practice. To me this seemed the strongest point in Feder's teaching,
though others considered it a weak point.
It is not the business of him who lays down a theoretical programme to
explain the various ways in which something can be put into practice.
His task is to deal with the problem as such; and, therefore, he has to
look to the end rather than the means. The important question is whether
an idea is fundamentally right or not. The question of whether or not it
may be difficult to carry it out in practice is quite another matter.
When a man whose task it is to lay down the principles of a programme or
policy begins to busy himself with the question as to whether it is
expedient and practical, instead of confining himself to the statement
of the absolute truth, his work will cease to be a guiding star to those
who are looking about for light and leading and will become merely a
recipe for every-day iife. The man who lays down the programme of a
movement must consider only the goal. It is for the political leader to
point out the way in which that goal may be reached. The thought of the
former will, therefore, be determined by those truths that are
everlasting, whereas the activity of the latter must always be guided by
taking practical account of the circumstances under which those truths
have to be carried into effect.
The greatness of the one will depend on the absolute truth of his idea,
considered in the abstract; whereas that of the other will depend on
whether or not he correctly judges the given realities and how they may
be utilized under the guidance of the truths established by the former.
The test of greatness as applied to a political leader is the success of
his plans and his enterprises, which means his ability to reach the goal
for which he sets out; whereas the final goal set up by the political
philosopher can never be reached; for human thought may grasp truths and
picture ends which it sees like clear crystal, though such ends can
never be completely fulfilled because human nature is weak and
imperfect. The more an idea is correct in the abstract, and, therefore,
all the more powerful, the smaller is the possibility of putting it into
practice, at least as far as this latter depends on human beings. The
significance of a political philosopher does not depend on the practical
success of the plans he lays down but rather on their absolute truth and
the influence they exert on the progress of mankind. If it were
otherwise, the founders of religions could not be considered as the
greatest men who have ever lived, because their moral aims will never be
completely or even approximately carried out in practice. Even that
religion which is called the Religion of Love is really no more than a
faint reflex of the will of its sublime Founder. But its significance
lies in the orientation which it endeavoured to give to human
civilization, and human virtue and morals.
This very wide difference between the functions of a political
philosopher and a practical political leader is the reason why the
qualifications necessary for both functions are scarcely ever found
associated in the same person. This applies especially to the so-called
successful politician of the smaller kind, whose activity is indeed
hardly more than practising the art of doing the possible, as Bismarck
modestly defined the art of politics in general. If such a politician
resolutely avoids great ideas his success will be all the easier to
attain; it will be attained more expeditely and frequently will be more
tangible. By reason of this very fact, however, such success is doomed
to futility and sometimes does not even survive the death of its author.
Generally speaking, the work of politicians is without significance for
the following generation, because their temporary success was based on
the expediency of avoiding all really great decisive problems and ideas
which would be valid also for future generations.
To pursue ideals which will still be of value and significance for the
future is generally not a very profitable undertaking and he who follows
such a course is only very rarely understood by the mass of the people,
who find beer and milk a more persuasive index of political values than
far-sighted plans for the future, the realization of which can only take
place later on and the advantages of which can be reaped only by
posterity.
Because of a certain vanity, which is always one of the blood-relations
of unintelligence, the general run of politicians will always eschew
those schemes for the future which are really difficult to put into
practice; and they will practise this avoidance so that they may not
lose the immediate favour of the mob. The importance and the success of
such politicians belong exclusively to the present and will be of no
consequence for the future. But that does not worry small-minded people;
they are quite content with momentary results.
The position of the constructive political philosopher is quite
different. The importance of his work must always be judged from the
standpoint of the future; and he is frequently described by the word
WELTFREMD, or dreamer. While the ability of the politician consists in
mastering the art of the possible, the founder of a political system
belongs to those who are said to please the gods only because they wish
for and demand the impossible. They will always have to renounce
contemporary fame; but if their ideas be immortal, posterity will grant
them its acknowledgment.
Within long spans of human progress it may occasionally happen that the
practical politician and political philosopher are one. The more
intimate this union is, the greater will be the obstacles which the
activity of the politician will have to encounter. Such a man does not
labour for the purpose of satisfying demands that are obvious to every
philistine, but he reaches out towards ends which can be understood only
by the few. His life is torn asunder by hatred and love. The protest of
his contemporaries, who do not understand the man, is in conflict with
the recognition of posterity, for whom he also works.
For the greater the work which a man does for the future, the less will
he be appreciated by his contemporaries. His struggle will accordingly
be all the more severe, and his success all the rarer. When, in the
course of centuries, such a man appears who is blessed with success
then, towards the end of his days, he may have a faint prevision of his
future fame. But such great men are only the Marathon runners of
history. The laurels of contemporary fame are only for the brow of the
dying hero.
The great protagonists are those who fight for their ideas and ideals
despite the fact that they receive no recognition at the hands of their
contemporaries. They are the men whose memories will be enshrined in the
hearts of the future generations. It seems then as if each individual
felt it his duty to make retroactive atonement for the wrong which great
men have suffered at the hands of their contemporaries. Their lives and
their work are then studied with touching and grateful admiration.
Especially in dark days of distress, such men have the power of healing
broken hearts and elevating the despairing spirit of a people.
To this group belong not only the genuinely great statesmen but all the
great reformers as well. Beside Frederick the Great we have such men as
Martin Luther and Richard Wagner.
When I heard Gottfried Feder's first lecture on 'The Abolition of the
Interest-Servitude', I understood immediately that here was a truth of
transcendental importance for the future of the German people. The
absolute separation of stock-exchange capital from the economic life of
the nation would make it possible to oppose the process of
internationalization in German business without at the same time
attacking capital as such, for to do this would jeopardize the
foundations of our national independence. I clearly saw what was
developing in Germany and I realized then that the stiffest fight we
would have to wage would not be against the enemy nations but against
international capital. In Feder's speech I found an effective
rallying-cry for our coming struggle.
Here, again, later events proved how correct was the impression we then
had. The fools among our bourgeois politicians do not mock at us on this
point any more; for even those politicians now see--if they would speak
the truth--that international stock-exchange capital was not only the
chief instigating factor in bringing on the War but that now when the
War is over it turns the peace into a hell.
The struggle against international finance capital and loan-capital has
become one of the most important points in the programme on which the
German nation has based its fight for economic freedom and independence.
Regarding the objections raised by so-called practical people, the
following answer must suffice: All apprehensions concerning the fearful
economic consequences that would follow the abolition of the servitude
that results from interest-capital are ill-timed; for, in the first
place, the economic principles hitherto followed have proved quite fatal
to the interests of the German people. The attitude adopted when the
question of maintaining our national existence arose vividly recalls
similar advice once given by experts--the Bavarian Medical College, for
example--on the question of introducing railroads. The fears expressed
by that august body of experts were not realized. Those who travelled in
the coaches of the new 'Steam-horse' did not suffer from vertigo. Those
who looked on did not become ill and the hoardings which had been
erected to conceal the new invention were eventually taken down. Only
those blinds which obscure the vision of the would-be 'experts', have
remained. And that will be always so.
In the second place, the following must be borne in mind: Any idea may
be a source of danger if it be looked upon as an end in itself, when
really it is only the means to an end. For me and for all genuine
National-Socialists there is only one doctrine. PEOPLE AND FATHERLAND.
What we have to fight for is the necessary security for the existence
and increase of our race and people, the subsistence of its children and
the maintenance of our racial stock unmixed, the freedom and
independence of the Fatherland; so that our people may be enabled to
fulfil the mission assigned to it by the Creator.
All ideas and ideals, all teaching and all knowledge, must serve these
ends. It is from this standpoint that everything must be examined and
turned to practical uses or else discarded. Thus a theory can never
become a mere dead dogma since everything will have to serve the
practical ends of everyday life.
Thus the judgment arrived at by Gottfried Feder determined me to make a
fundamental study of a question with which I had hitherto not been very
familiar.
I began to study again and thus it was that I first came to understand
perfectly what was the substance and purpose of the life-work of the
Jew, Karl Marx. His CAPITAL became intelligible to me now for the first
time. And in the light of it I now exactly understood the fight of the
Social-Democrats against national economics, a fight which was to
prepare the ground for the hegemony of a real international and
stock-exchange capital.
In another direction also this course of lectures had important
consequences for me.
One day I put my name down as wishing to take part in the discussion.
Another of the participants thought that he would break a lance for the
Jews and entered into a lengthy defence of them. This aroused my
opposition. An overwhelming number of those who attended the lecture
course supported my views. The consequence of it all was that, a few
days later, I was assigned to a regiment then stationed at Munich and
given a position there as 'instruction officer'.
At that time the spirit of discipline was rather weak among those
troops. It was still suffering from the after-effects of the period when
the Soldiers' Councils were in control. Only gradually and carefully
could a new spirit of military discipline and obedience be introduced in
place of 'voluntary obedience', a term which had been used to express
the ideal of military discipline under Kurt Eisner's higgledy-piggledy
regime. The soldiers had to be taught to think and feel in a national
and patriotic way. In these two directions lay my future line of action.
I took up my work with the greatest delight and devotion. Here I was
presented with an opportunity of speaking before quite a large audience.
I was now able to confirm what I had hitherto merely felt, namely, that
I had a talent for public speaking. My voice had become so much better
that I could be well understood, at least in all parts of the small hall
where the soldiers assembled.
No task could have been more pleasing to me than this one; for now,
before being demobilized, I was in a position to render useful service
to an institution which had been infinitely dear to my heart: namely,
the army.
I am able to state that my talks were successful. During the course of
my lectures I have led back hundreds and even thousands of my fellow
countrymen to their people and their fatherland. I 'nationalized' these
troops and by so doing I helped to restore general discipline.
Here again I made the acquaintance of several comrades whose thought ran
along the same lines as my own and who later became members of the first
group out of which the new movement developed.
CHAPTER IX
THE GERMAN LABOUR PARTY
One day I received an order from my superiors to investigate the nature
of an association which was apparently political. It called itself 'The
German Labour Party' and was soon to hold a meeting at which Gottfried
Feder would speak. I was ordered to attend this meeting and report on
the situation.
The spirit of curiosity in which the army authorities then regarded
political parties can be very well understood. The Revolution had
granted the soldiers the right to take an active part in politics and it
was particularly those with the smallest experience who had availed
themselves of this right. But not until the Centre and the
Social-Democratic parties were reluctantly forced to recognize that the
sympathies of the soldiers had turned away from the revolutionary
parties towards the national movement and the national reawakening, did
they feel obliged to withdraw from the army the right to vote and to
forbid it all political activity.
The fact that the Centre and Marxism had adopted this policy was
instructive, because if they had not thus curtailed the 'rights of the
citizen'--as they described the political rights of the soldiers after
the Revolution--the government which had been established in November
1918 would have been overthrown within a few years and the dishonour and
disgrace of the nation would not have been further prolonged. At that
time the soldiers were on the point of taking the best way to rid the
nation of the vampires and valets who served the cause of the Entente in
the interior of the country. But the fact that the so-called 'national'
parties voted enthusiastically for the doctrinaire policy of the
criminals who organized the Revolution in November (1918) helped also to
render the army ineffective as an instrument of national restoration and
thus showed once again where men might be led by the purely abstract
notions accepted by these most gullible people.
The minds of the bourgeois middle classes had become so fossilized that
they sincerely believed the army could once again become what it had
previously been, namely, a rampart of German valour; while the Centre
Party and the Marxists intended only to extract the poisonous tooth of
nationalism, without which an army must always remain just a police
force but can never be in the position of a military organization
capable of fighting against the outside enemy. This truth was
sufficiently proved by subsequent events.
Or did our 'national' politicians believe, after all, that the
development of our army could be other than national? This belief might
be possible and could be explained by the fact that during the War they
were not soldiers but merely talkers. In other words, they were
parliamentarians, and, as such, they did not have the slightest idea of
what was passing in the hearts of those men who remembered the greatness
of their own past and also remembered that they had once been the first
soldiers in the world.
I decided to attend the meeting of this Party, which had hitherto been
entirely unknown to me. When I arrived that evening in the guest room of
the former Sternecker Brewery--which has now become a place of
historical significance for us--I found approximately 20-25 persons
present, most of them belonging to the lower classes.
The theme of Feder's lecture was already familiar to me; for I had heard
it in the lecture course I have spoken of. Therefore, I could
concentrate my attention on studying the society itself.
The impression it made upon me was neither good nor bad. I felt that
here was just another one of these many new societies which were being
formed at that time. In those days everybody felt called upon to found a
new Party whenever he felt displeased with the course of events and had
lost confidence in all the parties already existing. Thus it was that
new associations sprouted up all round, to disappear just as quickly,
without exercising any effect or making any noise whatsoever. Generally
speaking, the founders of such associations did not have the slightest
idea of what it means to bring together a number of people for the
foundations of a party or a movement. Therefore these associations
disappeared because of their woeful lack of anything like an adequate
grasp of the necessities of the situation.
My opinion of the 'German Labour Party' was not very different after I
had listened to their proceedings for about two hours. I was glad when
Feder finally came to a close. I had observed enough and was just about
to leave when it was announced that anybody who wished was free to open
a discussion. Thereupon, I decided to remain. But the discussion seemed
to proceed without anything of vital importance being mentioned, when
suddenly a 'professor' commenced to speak. He opened by throwing doubt
on the accuracy of what Feder had said, and then. after Feder had
replied very effectively, the professor suddenly took up his position on
what he called 'the basis of facts,' but before this he recommended the
young party most urgently to introduce the secession of Bavaria from
Prussia as one of the leading proposals in its programme. In the most
self-assured way, this man kept on insisting that German-Austria would
join Bavaria and that the peace would then function much better. He made
other similarly extravagant statements. At this juncture I felt bound to
ask for permission to speak and to tell the learned gentleman what I
thought. The result was that the honourable gentleman who had last
spoken slipped out of his place, like a whipped cur, without uttering a
sound. While I was speaking the audience listened with an expression of
surprise on their faces. When I was just about to say good-night to the
assembly and to leave, a man came after me quickly and introduced
himself. I did not grasp the name correctly; but he placed a little book
in my hand, which was obviously a political pamphlet, and asked me very
earnestly to read it.
I was quite pleased; because in this way, I could come to know about
this association without having to attend its tiresome meetings.
Moreover, this man, who had the appearance of a workman, made a good
impression on me. Thereupon, I left the hall.
At that time I was living in one of the barracks of the 2nd Infantry
Regiment. I had a little room which still bore the unmistakable traces
of the Revolution. During the day I was mostly out, at the quarters of
Light Infantry No. 41 or else attending meetings or lectures, held at
some other branch of the army. I spent only the night at the quarters
where I lodged. Since I usually woke up about five o'clock every morning
I got into the habit of amusing myself with watching little mice which
played around in my small room. I used to place a few pieces of hard
bread or crust on the floor and watch the funny little beasts playing
around and enjoying themselves with these delicacies. I had suffered so
many privations in my own life that I well knew what hunger was and
could only too well picture to myself the pleasure these little
creatures were experiencing.
So on the morning after the meeting I have mentioned, it happened that
about five o'clock I lay fully awake in bed, watching the mice playing
and vying with each other. As I was not able to go to sleep again, I
suddenly remembered the pamphlet that one of the workers had given me at
the meeting. It was a small pamphlet of which this worker was the
author. In his little book he described how his mind had thrown off the
shackles of the Marxist and trades-union phraseology, and that he had
come back to the nationalist ideals. That was the reason why he had
entitled his little book: "My Political Awakening". The pamphlet secured
my attention the moment I began to read, and I read it with interest to
the end. The process here described was similar to that which I had
experienced in my own case ten years previously. Unconsciously my own
experiences began to stir again in my mind. During that day my thoughts
returned several times to what I had read; but I finally decided to give
the matter no further attention. A week or so later, however, I received
a postcard which informed me, to my astonishment, that I had been
admitted into the German Labour Party. I was asked to answer this
communication and to attend a meeting of the Party Committee on
Wednesday next.
This manner of getting members rather amazed me, and I did not know
whether to be angry or laugh at it. Hitherto I had not any idea of
entering a party already in existence but wanted to found one of my own.
Such an invitation as I now had received I looked upon as entirely out
of the question for me.
I was about to send a written reply when my curiosity got the better of
me, and I decided to attend the gathering at the date assigned, so that
I might expound my principles to these gentlemen in person.
Wednesday came. The tavern in which the meeting was to take place was
the 'Alte Rosenbad' in the Herrnstrasse, into which apparently only an
occasional guest wandered. This was not very surprising in the year
1919, when the bills of fare even at the larger restaurants were only
very modest and scanty in their pretensions and thus not very attractive
to clients. But I had never before heard of this restaurant.
I went through the badly-lighted guest-room, where not a single guest
was to be seen, and searched for the door which led to the side room;
and there I was face-to-face with the 'Congress'. Under the dim light
shed by a grimy gas-lamp I could see four young people sitting around a
table, one of them the author of the pamphlet. He greeted me cordially
and welcomed me as a new member of the German Labour Party.
I was taken somewhat aback on being informed that actually the National
President of the Party had not yet come; so I decided that I would keep
back my own exposition for the time being. Finally the President
appeared. He was the man who had been chairman of the meeting held in
the Sternecker Brewery, when Feder spoke.
My curiosity was stimulated anew and I sat waiting for what was going to
happen. Now I got at least as far as learning the names of the gentlemen
who had been parties to the whole affair. The REICH National President
of the Association was a certain Herr Harrer and the President for the
Munich district was Anton Drexler.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read out and a vote of
confidence in the secretary was passed. Then came the treasurer's
report. The Society possessed a total fund of seven marks and fifty
pfennigs (a sum corresponding to 7s. 6d. in English money at par),
whereupon the treasurer was assured that he had the confidence of the
members. This was now inserted in the minutes. Then letters of reply
which had been written by the Chairman were read; first, to a letter
received from Kiel, then to one from Düsseldorf and finally to one from
Berlin. All three replies received the approval of all present. Then the
incoming letters were read--one from Berlin, one from Düsseldorf and one
from Kiel. The reception of these letters seemed to cause great
satisfaction. This increasing bulk of correspondence was taken as the
best and most obvious sign of the growing importance of the German
Labour Party. And then? Well, there followed a long discussion of the
replies which would be given to these newly-received letters.
It was all very awful. This was the worst kind of parish-pump clubbism.
And was I supposed to become a member of such a club?
The question of new members was next discussed--that is to say, the
question of catching myself in the trap.
I now began to ask questions. But I found that, apart from a few general
principles, there was nothing--no programme, no pamphlet, nothing at all
in print, no card of membership, not even a party stamp, nothing but
obvious good faith and good intentions.
I no longer felt inclined to laugh; for what else was all this but a
typical sign of the most complete perplexity and deepest despair in
regard to all political parties, their programmes and views and
activities? The feeling which had induced those few young people to join
in what seemed such a ridiculous enterprise was nothing but the call of
the inner voice which told them--though more intuitively than
consciously--that the whole party system as it had hitherto existed was
not the kind of force that could restore the German nation or repair the
damages that had been done to the German people by those who hitherto
controlled the internal affairs of the nation. I quickly read through
the list of principles that formed the platform of the party. These
principles were stated on typewritten sheets. Here again I found
evidence of the spirit of longing and searching, but no sign whatever of
a knowledge of the conflict that had to be fought. I myself had
experienced the feelings which inspired those people. It was the longing
for a movement which should be more than a party, in the hitherto
accepted meaning of that word.
When I returned to my room in the barracks that evening I had formed a
definite opinion on this association and I was facing the most difficult
problem of my life. Should I join this party or refuse?
From the side of the intellect alone, every consideration urged me to
refuse; but my feelings troubled me. The more I tried to prove to myself
how senseless this club was, on the whole, the more did my feelings
incline me to favour it. During the following days I was restless.
I began to consider all the pros and cons. I had long ago decided to
take an active part in politics. The fact that I could do so only
through a new movement was quite clear to me; but I had hitherto lacked
the impulse to take concrete action. I am not one of those people who
will begin something to-day and just give it up the next day for the
sake of something new. That was the main reason which made it so
difficult for me to decide in joining something newly founded; for this
must become the real fulfilment of everything I dreamt, or else it had
better not be started at all. I knew that such a decision should bind me
for ever and that there could be no turning back. For me there could be
no idle dallying but only a cause to be championed ardently. I had
already an instinctive feeling against people who took up everything,
but never carried anything through to the end. I loathed these
Jacks-of-all-Trades, and considered the activities of such people to be
worse than if they were to remain entirely quiescent.
Fate herself now seemed to supply the finger-post that pointed out the
way. I should never have entered one of the big parties already in
existence and shall explain my reasons for this later on. This ludicrous
little formation, with its handful of members, seemed to have the unique
advantage of not yet being fossilized into an 'organization' and still
offered a chance for real personal activity on the part of the
individual. Here it might still be possible to do some effective work;
and, as the movement was still small, one could all the easier give it
the required shape. Here it was still possible to determine the
character of the movement, the aims to be achieved and the road to be
taken, which would have been impossible in the case of the big parties
already existing.
The longer I reflected on the problem, the more my opinion developed
that just such a small movement would best serve as an instrument to
prepare the way for the national resurgence, but that this could never
be done by the political parliamentary parties which were too firmly
attached to obsolete ideas or had an interest in supporting the new
regime. What had to be proclaimed here was a new WELTANSCHAUUNG and not
a new election cry.
It was, however, infinitely difficult to decide on putting the intention
into practice. What were the qualifications which I could bring to the
accomplishment of such a task?
The fact that I was poor and without resources could, in my opinion, be
the easiest to bear. But the fact that I was utterly unknown raised a
more difficult problem. I was only one of the millions which Chance
allows to exist or cease to exist, whom even their next-door neighbours
will not consent to know. Another difficulty arose from the fact that I
had not gone through the regular school curriculum.
The so-called 'intellectuals' still look down with infinite
superciliousness on anyone who has not been through the prescribed
schools and allowed them to pump the necessary knowledge into him. The
question of what a man can do is never asked but rather, what has he
learned? 'Educated' people look upon any imbecile who is plastered with
a number of academic certificates as superior to the ablest young fellow
who lacks these precious documents. I could therefore easily imagine how
this 'educated' world would receive me and I was wrong only in so far as
I then believed men to be for the most part better than they proved to
be in the cold light of reality. Because of their being as they are, the
few exceptions stand out all the more conspicuously. I learned more and
more to distinguish between those who will always be at school and those
who will one day come to know something in reality.
After two days of careful brooding and reflection I became convinced
that I must take the contemplated step.
It was the most fateful decision of my life. No retreat was possible.
Thus I declared myself ready to accept the membership tendered me by the
German Labour Party and received a provisional certificate of
membership. I was numbered SEVEN.
CHAPTER X
WHY THE SECOND REICH COLLAPSED
The depth of a fall is always measured by the difference between the
level of the original position from which a body has fallen and that in
which it is now found. The same holds good for Nations and States. The
matter of greatest importance here is the height of the original level,
or rather the greatest height that had been attained before the descent
began.
For only the profound decline or collapse of that which was capable of
reaching extraordinary heights can make a striking impression on the eye
of the beholder. The collapse of the Second REICH was all the more
bewildering for those who could ponder over it and feel the effect of it
in their hearts, because the REICH had fallen from a height which can
hardly be imagined in these days of misery and humiliation.
The Second REICH was founded in circumstances of such dazzling splendour
that the whole nation had become entranced and exalted by it. Following
an unparalleled series of victories, that Empire was handed over as the
guerdon of immortal heroism to the children and grandchildren of the
heroes. Whether they were fully conscious of it or not does not matter;
anyhow, the Germans felt that this Empire had not been brought into
existence by a series of able political negotiations through
parliamentary channels, but that it was different from political
institutions founded elsewhere by reason of the nobler circumstances
that had accompanied its establishment. When its foundations were laid
the accompanying music was not the chatter of parliamentary debates but
the thunder and boom of war along the battle front that encircled Paris.
It was thus that an act of statesmanship was accomplished whereby the
Germans, princes as well as people, established the future REICH and
restored the symbol of the Imperial Crown. Bismarck's State was not
founded on treason and assassination by deserters and shirkers but by
the regiments that had fought at the front. This unique birth and
baptism of fire sufficed of themselves to surround the Second Empire
with an aureole of historical splendour such as few of the older States
could lay claim to.
And what an ascension then began! A position of independence in regard
to the outside world guaranteed the means of livelihood at home. The
nation increased in numbers and in worldly wealth. The honour of the
State and therewith the honour of the people as a whole were secured and
protected by an army which was the most striking witness of the
difference between this new REICH and the old German Confederation.
But the downfall of the Second Empire and the German people has been so
profound that they all seem to have been struck dumbfounded and rendered
incapable of feeling the significance of this downfall or reflecting on
it. It seems as if people were utterly unable to picture in their minds
the heights to which the Empire formerly attained, so visionary and
unreal appears the greatness and splendour of those days in contrast to
the misery of the present. Bearing this in mind we can understand why
and how people become so dazed when they try to look back to the sublime
past that they forget to look for the symptoms of the great collapse
which must certainly have been present in some form or other. Naturally
this applies only to those for whom Germany was more than merely a place
of abode and a source of livelihood. These are the only people who have
been able to feel the present conditions as really catastrophic, whereas
others have considered these conditions as the fulfilment of what they
had looked forward to and hitherto silently wished.
The symptoms of future collapse were definitely to be perceived in those
earlier days, although very few made any attempt to draw a practical
lesson from their significance. But this is now a greater necessity than
it ever was before. For just as bodily ailments can be cured only when
their origin has been diagnosed, so also political disease can be
treated only when it has been diagnosed. It is obvious of course that
the external symptoms of any disease can be more readily detected than
its internal causes, for these symptoms strike the eye more easily. This
is also the reason why so many people recognize only external effects
and mistake them for causes. Indeed they will sometimes try to deny the
existence of such causes. And that is why the majority of people among
us recognize the German collapse only in the prevailing economic
distress and the results that have followed therefrom. Almost everyone
has to carry his share of this burden, and that is why each one looks on
the economic catastrophe as the cause of the present deplorable state of
affairs. The broad masses of the people see little of the cultural,
political, and moral background of this collapse. Many of them
completely lack both the necessary feeling and powers of understanding
for it.
That the masses of the people should thus estimate the causes of
Germany's downfall is quite understandable. But the fact that
intelligent sections of the community regard the German collapse
primarily as an economic catastrophe, and consequently think that a cure
for it may be found in an economic solution, seems to me to be the
reason why hitherto no improvement has been brought about. No
improvement can be brought about until it be understood that economics
play only a second or third role, while the main part is played by
political, moral and racial factors. Only when this is understood will
it be possible to understand the causes of the present evil and
consequently to find the ways and means of remedying them.
Therefore the question of why Germany really collapsed is one of the
most urgent significance, especially for a political movement which aims
at overcoming this disaster.
In scrutinizing the past with a view to discovering the causes of the
German break-up, it is necessary to be careful lest we may be unduly
impressed by external results that readily strike the eye and thus
ignore the less manifest causes of these results.
The most facile, and therefore the most generally accepted, way of
accounting for the present misfortune is to say that it is the result of
a lost war, and that this is the real cause of the present misfortune.
Probably there are many who honestly believe in this absurd explanation
but there are many more in whose mouths it is a deliberate and conscious
falsehood. This applies to all those who are now feeding at the
Government troughs. For the prophets of the Revolution again and again
declared to the people that it would be immaterial to the great masses
what the result of the War might be. On the contrary, they solemnly
assured the public that it was High Finance which was principally
interested in a victorious outcome of this gigantic struggle among the
nations but that the German people and the German workers had no
interest whatsoever in such an outcome. Indeed the apostles of world
conciliation habitually asserted that, far from any German downfall, the
opposite was bound to take place--namely, the resurgence of the German
people--once 'militarism' had been crushed. Did not these self-same
circles sing the praises of the Entente and did they not also lay the
whole blame for the sanguinary struggle on the shoulders of Germany?
Without this explanation, would they have been able to put forward the
theory that a military defeat would have no political consequences for
the German people? Was not the whole Revolution dressed up in gala
colours as blocking the victorious advance of the German banners and
that thus the German people would be assured its liberty both at home
and abroad?
Is not that so, you miserable, lying rascals?
That kind of impudence which is typical of the Jews was necessary in
order to proclaim the defeat of the army as the cause of the German
collapse. Indeed the Berlin VORWÄRTS, that organ and mouthpiece of
sedition then wrote on this occasion that the German nation should not
be permitted to bring home its banners triumphantly.
And yet they attribute our collapse to the military defeat.
Of course it would be out of the question to enter into an argument with
these liars who deny at one moment what they said the moment before. I
should waste no further words on them were it not for the fact that
there are many thoughtless people who repeat all this in parrot fashion,
without being necessarily inspired by any evil motives. But the
observations I am making here are also meant for our fighting followers,
seeing that nowadays one's spoken words are often forgotten and twisted
in their meaning.
The assertion that the loss of the War was the cause of the German
collapse can best be answered as follows:
It is admittedly a fact that the loss of the War was of tragic
importance for the future of our country. But that loss was not in
itself a cause. It was rather the consequence of other causes. That a
disastrous ending to this life-or-death conflict must have involved
catastrophes in its train was clearly seen by everyone of insight who
could think in a straightforward manner. But unfortunately there were
also people whose powers of understanding seemed to fail them at that
critical moment. And there were other people who had first questioned
that truth and then altogether denied it. And there were people who,
after their secret desire had been fulfilled, were suddenly faced with
the subsequent facts that resulted from their own collaboration. Such
people are responsible for the collapse, and not the lost war, though
they now want to attribute everything to this. As a matter of fact the
loss of the War was a result of their activities and not the result of
bad leadership as they now would like to maintain. Our enemies were not
cowards. They also know how to die. From the very first day of the War
they outnumbered the German Army, and the arsenals and armament
factories of the whole world were at their disposal for the
replenishment of military equipment. Indeed it is universally admitted
that the German victories, which had been steadily won during four years
of warfare against the whole world, were due to superior leadership,
apart of course from the heroism of the troops. And the organization was
solely due to the German military leadership. That organization and
leadership of the German Army was the most mighty thing that the world
has ever seen. Any shortcomings which became evident were humanly
unavoidable. The collapse of that army was not the cause of our present
distress. It was itself the consequence of other faults. But this
consequence in its turn ushered in a further collapse, which was more
visible. That such was actually the case can be shown as follows:
Must a military defeat necessarily lead to such a complete overthrow of
the State and Nation? Whenever has this been the result of an unlucky
war? As a matter of fact, are nations ever ruined by a lost war and by
that alone? The answer to this question can be briefly stated by
referring to the fact that military defeats are the result of internal
decay, cowardice, want of character, and are a retribution for such
things. If such were not the causes then a military defeat would lead to
a national resurgence and bring the nation to a higher pitch of effort.
A military defeat is not the tombstone of national life. History affords
innumerable examples to confirm the truth of that statement.
Unfortunately Germany's military overthrow was not an undeserved
catastrophe, but a well-merited punishment which was in the nature of an
eternal retribution. This defeat was more than deserved by us; for it
represented the greatest external phenomenon of decomposition among a
series of internal phenomena, which, although they were visible, were
not recognized by the majority of the people, who follow the tactics of
the ostrich and see only what they want to see.
Let us examine the symptoms that were evident in Germany at the time
that the German people accepted this defeat. Is it not true that in
several circles the misfortunes of the Fatherland were even joyfully
welcomed in the most shameful manner? Who could act in such a way
without thereby meriting vengeance for his attitude? Were there not
people who even went further and boasted that they had gone to the
extent of weakening the front and causing a collapse? Therefore it was
not the enemy who brought this disgrace upon our shoulders but rather
our own countrymen. If they suffered misfortune for it afterwards, was
that misfortune undeserved? Was there ever a case in history where a
people declared itself guilty of a war, and that even against its better
conscience and its better knowledge?
No, and again no. In the manner in which the German nation reacted to
its defeat we can see that the real cause of our collapse must be looked
for elsewhere and not in the purely military loss of a few positions or
the failure of an offensive. For if the front as such had given way and
thus brought about a national disaster, then the German nation would
have accepted the defeat in quite another spirit. They would have borne
the subsequent misfortune with clenched teeth, or they would have been
overwhelmed by sorrow. Regret and fury would have filled their hearts
against an enemy into whose hands victory had been given by a chance
event or the decree of Fate; and in that case the nation, following the
example of the Roman Senate (Note 14), would have faced the defeated
legions on their return and expressed their thanks for the sacrifices that
had been made and would have requested them not to lose faith in the
Empire. Even the capitulation would have been signed under the sway of
calm reason, while the heart would have beaten in the hope of the coming
REVANCHE.
[Note 14. Probably the author has two separate incidents in mind. The
first happened in 390 B.C., when, as the victorious Gauls descended on
Rome, the Senators ordered their ivory chairs to be placed in the Forum
before the Temples ofthe Gods. There, clad in their robes of state, they
awaited the invader, hoping to save the city by sacrificing themselves.
This noble gesture failed for the time being; but it had an inspiring
influence on subsequent generations. The second incident, which has more
historical authenticity, occurred after the Roman defeat at Cannae in 216
B.C. On that occasion Varro, the Roman commander, who, though in great
part responsible for the disaster, made an effort to carry on the
struggle, was, on his return to Rome, met by the citizens of all ranks
and publicly thanked because he had not despaired of the Republic. The
consequence was that the Republic refused to make peace with the
victorious Carthagenians.]
That is the reception that would have been given to a military defeat
which had to be attributed only to the adverse decree of Fortune. There
would have been neither joy-making nor dancing. Cowardice would not have
been boasted of, and the defeat would not have been honoured. On
returning from the Front, the troops would not have been mocked at, and
the colours would not have been dragged in the dust. But above all, that
disgraceful state of affairs could never have arisen which induced a
British officer, Colonel Repington, to declare with scorn: Every third
German is a traitor! No, in such a case this plague would never have
assumed the proportions of a veritable flood which, for the past five
years, has smothered every vestige of respect for the German nation in
the outside world.
This shows only too clearly how false it is to say that the loss of the
War was the cause of the German break-up. No. The military defeat was
itself but the consequence of a whole series of morbid symptoms and
their causes which had become active in the German nation before the War
broke out. The War was the first catastrophal consequence, visible to
all, of how traditions and national morale had been poisoned and how the
instinct of self-preservation had degenerated. These were the
preliminary causes which for many years had been undermining the
foundations of the nation and the Empire.
But it remained for the Jews, with their unqualified capacity for
falsehood, and their fighting comrades, the Marxists, to impute
responsibility for the downfall precisely to the man who alone had shown
a superhuman will and energy in his effort to prevent the catastrophe
which he had foreseen and to save the nation from that hour of complete
overthrow and shame. By placing responsibility for the loss of the world
war on the shoulders of Ludendorff they took away the weapon of moral
right from the only adversary dangerous enough to be likely to succeed
in bringing the betrayers of the Fatherland to Justice. All this was
inspired by the principle--which is quite true in itself--that in the
big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the
broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper
strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and
thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall
victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often
tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to
large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to
fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others
could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though
the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their
minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that
there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always
leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact
which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire
together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use
falsehood for the basest purposes.
From time immemorial. however, the Jews have known better than any
others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited. Is not their very
existence founded on one great lie, namely, that they are a religious
community, whereas in reality they are a race? And what a race! One of
the greatest thinkers that mankind has produced has branded the Jews for
all time with a statement which is profoundly and exactly true. He
(Schopenhauer) called the Jew "The Great Master of Lies". Those who do
not realize the truth of that statement, or do not wish to believe it,
will never be able to lend a hand in helping Truth to prevail.
We may regard it as a great stroke of fortune for the German nation that
its period of lingering suffering was so suddenly curtailed and
transformed into such a terrible catastrophe. For if things had gone on
as they were the nation would have more slowly, but more surely, gone to
ruin. The disease would have become chronic; whereas, in the acute form
of the disaster, it at least showed itself clearly to the eyes of a
considerable number of observers. It was not by accident that man
conquered the black plague more easily than he conquered tuberculosis.
The first appeared in terrifying waves of death that shook the whole of
mankind, the other advances insidiously; the first induces terror, the
other gradual indifference. The result is, however, that men opposed the
first with all the energy they were capable of, whilst they try to
arrest tuberculosis by feeble means. Thus man has mastered the black
plague, while tuberculosis still gets the better of him.
The same applies to diseases in nations. So long as these diseases are
not of a catastrophic character, the population will slowly accustom
itself to them and later succumb. It is then a stroke of luck--although
a bitter one--when Fate decides to interfere in this slow process of
decay and suddenly brings the victim face to face with the final stage
of the disease. More often than not the result of a catastrophe is that
a cure is at once undertaken and carried through with rigid
determination.
But even in such a case the essential preliminary condition is always
the recognition of the internal causes which have given rise to the
disease in question.
The important question here is the differentiation of the root causes
from the circumstances developing out of them. This becomes all the more
difficult the longer the germs of disease remain in the national body
and the longer they are allowed to become an integral part of that body.
It may easily happen that, as time goes on, it will become so difficult
to recognize certain definite virulent poisons as such that they are
accepted as belonging to the national being; or they are merely
tolerated as a necessary evil, so that drastic attempts to locate those
alien germs are not held to be necessary.
During the long period of peace prior to the last war certain evils were
apparent here and there although, with one or two exceptions, very
little effort was made to discover their origin. Here again these
exceptions were first and foremost those phenomena in the economic life
of the nation which were more apparent to the individual than the evil
conditions existing in a good many other spheres.
There were many signs of decay which ought to have been given serious
thought. As far as economics were concerned, the following may be
said:--
The amazing increase of population in Germany before the war brought the
question of providing daily bread into a more and more prominent
position in all spheres of political and economic thought and action.
But unfortunately those responsible could not make up their minds to
arrive at the only correct solution and preferred to reach their
objective by cheaper methods. Repudiation of the idea of acquiring fresh
territory and the substitution for it of the mad desire for the
commercial conquest of the world was bound to lead eventually to
unlimited and injurious industrialization.
The first and most fatal result brought about in this way was the
weakening of the agricultural classes, whose decline was proportionate
to the increase in the proletariat of the urban areas, until finally the
equilibrium was completely upset.
The big barrier dividing rich and poor now became apparent. Luxury and
poverty lived so close to each other that the consequences were bound to
be deplorable. Want and frequent unemployment began to play havoc with
the people and left discontent and embitterment behind them. The result
of this was to divide the population into political classes. Discontent
increased in spite of commercial prosperity. Matters finally reached
that stage which brought about the general conviction that 'things
cannot go on as they are', although no one seemed able to visualize what
was really going to happen.
These were typical and visible signs of the depths which the prevailing
discontent had reached. Far worse than these, however, were other
consequences which became apparent as a result of the industrialization
of the nation.
In proportion to the extent that commerce assumed definite control of
the State, money became more and more of a God whom all had to serve and
bow down to. Heavenly Gods became more and more old-fashioned and were
laid away in the corners to make room for the worship of mammon. And
thus began a period of utter degeneration which became specially
pernicious because it set in at a time when the nation was more than
ever in need of an exalted idea, for a critical hour was threatening.
Germany should have been prepared to protect with the sword her efforts
to win her own daily bread in a peaceful way.
Unfortunately, the predominance of money received support and sanction
in the very quarter which ought to have been opposed to it. His Majesty,
the Kaiser, made a mistake when he raised representatives of the new
finance capital to the ranks of the nobility. Admittedly, it may be
offered as an excuse that even Bismarck failed to realize the
threatening danger in this respect. In practice, however, all ideal
virtues became secondary considerations to those of money, for it was
clear that having once taken this road, the nobility of the sword would
very soon rank second to that of finance.
Financial operations succeed easier than war operations. Hence it was no
longer any great attraction for a true hero or even a statesman to be
brought into touch with the nearest Jew banker. Real merit was not
interested in receiving cheap decorations and therefore declined them
with thanks. But from the standpoint of good breeding such a development
was deeply regrettable. The nobility began to lose more and more of the
racial qualities that were a condition of its very existence, with the
result that in many cases the term 'plebeian' would have been more
appropriate.
A serious state of economic disruption was being brought about by the
slow elimination of the personal control of vested interests and the
gradual transference of the whole economic structure into the hands of
joint stock companies.
In this way labour became degraded into an object of speculation in the
hands of unscrupulous exploiters.
The de-personalization of property ownership increased on a vast scale.
Financial exchange circles began to triumph and made slow but sure
progress in assuming control of the whole of national life.
Before the War the internationalization of the German economic structure
had already begun by the roundabout way of share issues. It is true that
a section of the German industrialists made a determined attempt to
avert the danger, but in the end they gave way before the united attacks
of money-grabbing capitalism, which was assisted in this fight by its
faithful henchmen in the Marxist movement.
The persistent war against German 'heavy industries' was the visible
start of the internationalization of German economic life as envisaged
by the Marxists. This, however, could only be brought to a successful
conclusion by the victory which Marxism was able to gain in the
Revolution. As I write these words, success is attending the general
attack on the German State Railways which are now to be turned over to
international capitalists. Thus 'International Social-Democracy' has
once again attained one of its main objectives.
The best evidence of how far this 'commercialization' of the German
nation was able to go can be plainly seen in the fact that when the War
was over one of the leading captains of German industry and commerce
gave it as his opinion that commerce as such was the only force which
could put Germany on its feet again.
This sort of nonsense was uttered just at the time when France was
restoring public education on a humanitarian basis, thus doing away with
the idea that national life is dependent on commerce rather than ideal
values. The statement which Stinnes broadcasted to the world at that
time caused incredible confusion. It was immediately taken up and has
become the leading motto of all those humbugs and babblers--the
'statesmen' whom Fate let loose on Germany after the Revolution.
One of the worst evidences of decadence in Germany before the War was
the ever increasing habit of doing things by halves. This was one of the
consequences of the insecurity that was felt all round. And it is to be
attributed also to a certain timidity which resulted from one cause or
another. And the latter malady was aggravated by the educational system.
German education in pre-War times had an extraordinary number of weak
features. It was simply and exclusively limited to the production of
pure knowledge and paid little attention to the development of practical
ability. Still less attention was given to the development of individual
character, in so far as this is ever possible. And hardly any attention
at all was paid to the development of a sense of responsibility, to
strengthening the will and the powers of decision. The result of this
method was to produce erudite people who had a passion for knowing
everything. Before the War we Germans were accepted and estimated
accordingly. The German was liked because good use could be made of him;
but there was little esteem for him personally, on account of this
weakness of character. For those who can read its significance aright,
there is much instruction in the fact that among all nationalities
Germans were the first to part with their national citizenship when they
found themselves in a foreign country. And there is a world of meaning
in the saying that was then prevalent: 'With the hat in the hand one can
go through the whole country'.
This kind of social etiquette turned out disastrous when it prescribed
the exclusive forms that had to be observed in the presence of His
Majesty. These forms insisted that there should be no contradiction
whatsoever, but that everything should be praised which His Majesty
condescended to like.
It was just here that the frank expression of manly dignity, and not
subservience, was most needed. Servility in the presence of monarchs may
be good enough for the professional lackey and place-hunter, in fact for
all those decadent beings who are more pleased to be found moving in the
high circles of royalty than among honest citizens. These exceedingly
'humble' creatures however, though they grovel before their lord and
bread-giver, invariably put on airs of boundless superciliousness
towards other mortals, which was particularly impudent when they posed
as the only people who had the right to be called 'monarchists'. This
was a gross piece of impertinence such as only despicable specimens
among the newly-ennobled or yet-to-be-ennobled could be capable of.
And these have always been just the people who have prepared the way for
the downfall of monarchy and the monarchical principle. It could not be
otherwise. For when a man is prepared to stand up for a cause, come what
may, he never grovels before its representative. A man who is serious
about the maintenance and welfare of an institution will not allow
himself to be discouraged when the representatives of that institution
show certain faults and failings. And he certainly will not run around
to tell the world about it, as certain false democratic 'friends' of the
monarchy have done; but he will approach His Majesty, the bearer of the
Crown himself, to warn him of the seriousness of a situation and
persuade the monarch to act. Furthermore, he will not take up the
standpoint that it must be left to His Majesty to act as the latter
thinks fit, even though the course which he would take must plainly lead
to disaster. But the man I am thinking of will deem it his duty to
protect the monarchy against the monarch himself, no matter what
personal risk he may run in doing so. If the worth of the monarchical
institution be dependent on the person of the monarch himself, then it
would be the worst institution imaginable; for only in rare cases are
kings found to be models of wisdom and understanding, and integrity of
character, though we might like to think otherwise. But this fact is
unpalatable to the professional knaves and lackeys. Yet all upright men,
and they are the backbone of the nation, repudiate the nonsensical
fiction that all monarchs are wise, etc. For such men history is history
and truth is truth, even where monarchs are concerned. But if a nation
should have the good luck to possess a great king or a great man it
ought to consider itself as specially favoured above all the other
nations, and these may be thankful if an adverse fortune has not
allotted the worst to them.
It is clear that the worth and significance of the monarchical principle
cannot rest in the person of the monarch alone, unless Heaven decrees
that the crown should be set on the head of a brilliant hero like
Frederick the Great, or a sagacious person like William I. This may
happen once in several centuries, but hardly oftener than that. The
ideal of the monarchy takes precedence of the person of the monarch,
inasmuch as the meaning of the institution must lie in the institution
it self. Thus the monarchy may be reckoned in the category of those
whose duty it is to serve. He, too, is but a wheel in this machine and
as such he is obliged to do his duty towards it. He has to adapt himself
for the fulfilment of high aims. If, therefore, there were no
significance attached to the idea itself and everything merely centred
around the 'sacred' person, then it would never be possible to depose a
ruler who has shown himself to be an imbecile.
It is essential to insist upon this truth at the present time, because
recently those phenomena have appeared again and were in no small
measure responsible for the collapse of the monarchy. With a certain
amount of native impudence these persons once again talk about 'their
King'--that is to say, the man whom they shamefully deserted a few years
ago at a most critical hour. Those who refrain from participating in
this chorus of lies are summarily classified as 'bad Germans'. They who
make the charge are the same class of quitters who ran away in 1918 and
took to wearing red badges. They thought that discretion was the better
part of valour. They were indifferent about what happened to the Kaiser.
They camouflaged themselves as 'peaceful citizens' but more often than
not they vanished altogether. All of a sudden these champions of royalty
were nowhere to be found at that time. Circumspectly, one by one, these
'servants and counsellors' of the Crown reappeared, to resume their
lip-service to royalty but only after others had borne the brunt of the
anti-royalist attack and suppressed the Revolution for them. Once again
they were all there. remembering wistfully the flesh-pots of Egypt and
almost bursting with devotion for the royal cause. This went on until
the day came when red badges were again in the ascendant. Then this
whole ramshackle assembly of royal worshippers scuttled anew like mice
from the cats.
If monarchs were not themselves responsible for such things one could
not help sympathizing with them. But they must realize that with such
champions thrones can be lost but certainly never gained.
All this devotion was a mistake and was the result of our whole system
of education, which in this case brought about a particularly severe
retribution. Such lamentable trumpery was kept up at the various courts
that the monarchy was slowly becoming under mined. When finally it did
begin to totter, everything was swept away. Naturally, grovellers and
lick-spittles are never willing to die for their masters. That monarchs
never realize this, and almost on principle never really take the
trouble to learn it, has always been their undoing.
One visible result of wrong educational system was the fear of
shouldering responsibility and the resultant weakness in dealing with
obvious vital problems of existence.
The starting point of this epidemic, however, was in our parliamentary
institution where the shirking of responsibility is particularly
fostered. Unfortunately the disease slowly spread to all branches of
everyday life but particularly affected the sphere of public affairs.
Responsibility was being shirked everywhere and this led to insufficient
or half-hearted measures being taken, personal responsibility for each
act being reduced to a minimum.
If we consider the attitude of various Governments towards a whole
series of really pernicious phenomena in public life, we shall at once
recognize the fearful significance of this policy of half-measures and
the lack of courage to undertake responsibilities. I shall single out
only a few from the large numbers of instances known to me.
In journalistic circles it is a pleasing custom to speak of the Press as
a 'Great Power' within the State. As a matter of fact its importance is
immense. One cannot easily overestimate it, for the Press continues the
work of education even in adult life. Generally, readers of the Press
can be classified into three groups:
First, those who believe everything they read;
Second, those who no longer believe anything;
Third, those who critically examine what they read and form their
judgments accordingly.
Numerically, the first group is by far the strongest, being composed of
the broad masses of the people. Intellectually, it forms the simplest
portion of the nation. It cannot be classified according to occupation
but only into grades of intelligence. Under this category come all those
who have not been born to think for themselves or who have not learnt to
do so and who, partly through incompetence and partly through ignorance,
believe everything that is set before them in print. To these we must
add that type of lazy individual who, although capable of thinking for
himself out of sheer laziness gratefully absorbs everything that others
had thought over, modestly believing this to have been thoroughly done.
The influence which the Press has on all these people is therefore
enormous; for after all they constitute the broad masses of a nation.
But, somehow they are not in a position or are not willing personally to
sift what is being served up to them; so that their whole attitude
towards daily problems is almost solely the result of extraneous
influence. All this can be advantageous where public enlightenment is of
a serious and truthful character, but great harm is done when scoundrels
and liars take a hand at this work.
The second group is numerically smaller, being partly composed of those
who were formerly in the first group and after a series of bitter
disappointments are now prepared to believe nothing of what they see in
print. They hate all newspapers. Either they do not read them at all or
they become exceptionally annoyed at their contents, which they hold to
be nothing but a congeries of lies and misstatements. These people are
difficult to handle; for they will always be sceptical of the truth.
Consequently, they are useless for any form of positive work.
The third group is easily the smallest, being composed of real
intellectuals whom natural aptitude and education have taught to think
for themselves and who in all things try to form their own judgments,
while at the same time carefully sifting what they read. They will not
read any newspaper without using their own intelligence to collaborate
with that of the writer and naturally this does not set writers an easy
task. Journalists appreciate this type of reader only with a certain
amount of reservation.
Hence the trash that newspapers are capable of serving up is of little
danger--much less of importance--to the members of the third group of
readers. In the majority of cases these readers have learnt to regard
every journalist as fundamentally a rogue who sometimes speaks the
truth. Most unfortunately, the value of these readers lies in their
intelligence and not in their numerical strength, an unhappy state of
affairs in a period where wisdom counts for nothing and majorities for
everything. Nowadays when the voting papers of the masses are the
deciding factor; the decision lies in the hands of the numerically
strongest group; that is to say the first group, the crowd of simpletons
and the credulous.
It is an all-important interest of the State and a national duty to
prevent these people from falling into the hands of false, ignorant or
even evil-minded teachers. Therefore it is the duty of the State to
supervise their education and prevent every form of offence in this
respect. Particular attention should be paid to the Press; for its
influence on these people is by far the strongest and most penetrating
of all; since its effect is not transitory but continual. Its immense
significance lies in the uniform and persistent repetition of its
teaching. Here, if anywhere, the State should never forget that all
means should converge towards the same end. It must not be led astray by
the will-o'-the-wisp of so-called 'freedom of the Press', or be talked
into neglecting its duty, and withholding from the nation that which is
good and which does good. With ruthless determination the State must
keep control of this instrument of popular education and place it at the
service of the State and the Nation.
But what sort of pabulum was it that the German Press served up for the
consumption of its readers in pre-War days? Was it not the worst
virulent poison imaginable? Was not pacifism in its worst form
inoculated into our people at a time when others were preparing slowly
but surely to pounce upon Germany? Did not this self-same Press of ours
in peace time already instil into the public mind a doubt as to the
sovereign rights of the State itself, thereby already handicapping the
State in choosing its means of defence? Was it not the German Press that
under stood how to make all the nonsensical talk about 'Western
democracy' palatable to our people, until an exuberant public was
eventually prepared to entrust its future to the League of Nations? Was
not this Press instrumental in bringing in a state of moral degradation
among our people? Were not morals and public decency made to look
ridiculous and classed as out-of-date and banal, until finally our
people also became modernized? By means of persistent attacks, did not
the Press keep on undermining the authority of the State, until one blow
sufficed to bring this institution tottering to the ground? Did not the
Press oppose with all its might every movement to give the State that
which belongs to the State, and by means of constant criticism, injure
the reputation of the army, sabotage general conscription and demand
refusal of military credits, etc.--until the success of this campaign
was assured?
The function of the so-called liberal Press was to dig the grave for the
German people and REICH. No mention need be made of the lying Marxist
Press. To them the spreading of falsehood is as much a vital necessity
as the mouse is to a cat. Their sole task is to break the national
backbone of the people, thus preparing the nation to become the slaves
of international finance and its masters, the Jews.
And what measures did the State take to counteract this wholesale
poisoning of the public mind? None, absolutely nothing at all. By this
policy it was hoped to win the favour of this pest--by means of
flattery, by a recognition of the 'value' of the Press, its
'importance', its 'educative mission' and similar nonsense. The Jews
acknowledged all this with a knowing smile and returned thanks.
The reason for this ignominious failure on the part of the State lay not
so much in its refusal to realize the danger as in the out-and-out
cowardly way of meeting the situation by the adoption of faulty and
ineffective measures. No one had the courage to employ any energetic and
radical methods. Everyone temporised in some way or other; and instead
of striking at its heart, the viper was only further irritated. The
result was that not only did everything remain as it was, but the power
of this institution which should have been combated grew greater from
year to year.
The defence put up by the Government in those days against a mainly
Jew-controlled Press that was slowly corrupting the nation, followed no
definite line of action, it had no determination behind it and above
all, no fixed objective whatsoever in view. This is where official
understanding of the situation completely failed both in estimating the
importance of the struggle, choosing the means and deciding on a
definite plan. They merely tinkered with the problem. Occasionally, when
bitten, they imprisoned one or another journalistic viper for a few
weeks or months, but the whole poisonous brood was allowed to carry on
in peace.
It must be admitted that all this was partly the result of extraordinary
crafty tactics on the part of Jewry on the one hand, and obvious
official stupidity or naïveté on the other hand. The Jews were too
clever to allow a simultaneous attack to be made on the whole of their
Press. No one section functioned as cover for the other. While the
Marxist newspaper, in the most despicable manner possible, reviled
everything that was sacred, furiously attacked the State and Government
and incited certain classes of the community against each other, the
bourgeois-democratic papers, also in Jewish hands, knew how to
camouflage themselves as model examples of objectivity. They studiously
avoided harsh language, knowing well that block-heads are capable of
judging only by external appearances and never able to penetrate to the
real depth and meaning of anything. They measure the worth of an object
by its exterior and not by its content. This form of human frailty was
carefully studied and understood by the Press.
For this class of blockheads the FRANKFURTER ZEITUNG would be
acknowledged as the essence of respectability. It always carefully
avoided calling a spade a spade. It deprecated the use of every form of
physical force and persistently appealed to the nobility of fighting
with 'intellectual' weapons. But this fight, curiously enough, was most
popular with the least intellectual classes. That is one of the results
of our defective education, which turns the youth away from the
instinctive dictates of Nature, pumps into them a certain amount of
knowledge without however being able to bring them to what is the
supreme act of knowing. To this end diligence and goodwill are of no
avail, if innate understanding fail. This final knowledge at which man
must aim is the understanding of causes which are instinctively
perceived.
Let me explain: Man must not fall into the error of thinking that he was
ever meant to become lord and master of Nature. A lopsided education has
helped to encourage that illusion. Man must realize that a fundamental
law of necessity reigns throughout the whole realm of Nature and that
his existence is subject to the law of eternal struggle and strife. He
will then feel that there cannot be a separate law for mankind in a
world in which planets and suns follow their orbits, where moons and
planets trace their destined paths, where the strong are always the
masters of the weak and where those subject to such laws must obey them
or be destroyed. Man must also submit to the eternal principles of this
supreme wisdom. He may try to understand them but he can never free
himself from their sway.
It is just for intellectual DEMI-MONDE that the Jew writes those papers
which he calls his 'intellectual' Press. For them the FRANKFURTER
ZEITUNG and BERLINER TAGEBLATT are written, the tone being adapted to
them, and it is over these people that such papers have an influence.
While studiously avoiding all forms of expression that might strike the
reader as crude, the poison is injected from other vials into the hearts
of the clientele. The effervescent tone and the fine phraseology lug the
readers into believing that a love for knowledge and moral principle is
the sole driving force that determines the policy of such papers,
whereas in reality these features represent a cunning way of disarming
any opposition that might be directed against the Jews and their Press.
They make such a parade of respectability that the imbecile readers are
all the more ready to believe that the excesses which other papers
indulge in are only of a mild nature and not such as to warrant legal
action being taken against them. Indeed such action might trespass on
the freedom of the Press, that expression being a euphemism under which
such papers escape legal punishment for deceiving the public and
poisoning the public mind. Hence the authorities are very slow indeed to
take any steps against these journalistic bandits for fear of
immediately alienating the sympathy of the so-called respectable Press.
A fear that is only too well founded, for the moment any attempt is made
to proceed against any member of the gutter press all the others rush to
its assistance at once, not indeed to support its policy but simply and
solely to defend the principle of freedom of the Press and liberty of
public opinion. This outcry will succeed in cowering the most stalwart;
for it comes from the mouth of what is called decent journalism.
And so this poison was allowed to enter the national bloodstream and
infect public life without the Government taking any effectual measures
to master the course of the disease. The ridiculous half-measures that
were taken were in themselves an indication of the process of
disintegration that was already threatening to break up the Empire. For
an institution practically surrenders its existence when it is no longer
determined to defend itself with all the weapons at its command. Every
half-measure is the outward expression of an internal process of decay
which must lead to an external collapse sooner or later.
I believe that our present generation would easily master this danger if
they were rightly led. For this generation has gone through certain
experiences which must have strengthened the nerves of all those who did
not become nervously broken by them. Certainly in days to come the Jews
will raise a tremendous cry throughout their newspapers once a hand is
laid on their favourite nest, once a move is made to put an end to this
scandalous Press and once this instrument which shapes public opinion is
brought under State control and no longer left in the hands of aliens
and enemies of the people. I am certain that this will be easier for us
than it was for our fathers. The scream of the twelve-inch shrapnel is
more penetrating than the hiss from a thousand Jewish newspaper vipers.
Therefore let them go on with their hissing.
A further example of the weak and hesitating way in which vital national
problems were dealt with in pre-War Germany is the following: Hand in
hand with the political and moral process of infecting the nation, for
many years an equally virulent process of infection had been attacking
the public health of the people. In large cities, particularly, syphilis
steadily increased and tuberculosis kept pace with it in reaping its
harvest of death almost in every part of the country.
Although in both cases the effect on the nation was alarming, it seemed
as if nobody was in a position to undertake any decisive measures
against these scourges.
In the case of syphilis especially the attitude of the State and public
bodies was one of absolute capitulation. To combat this state of affairs
something of far wider sweep should have been undertaken than was really
done. The discovery of a remedy which is of a questionable nature and
the excellent way in which it was placed on the market were only of
little assistance in fighting such a scourge. Here again the only course
to adopt is to attack the disease in its causes rather than in its
symptoms. But in this case the primary cause is to be found in the
manner in which love has been prostituted. Even though this did not
directly bring about the fearful disease itself, the nation must still
suffer serious damage thereby, for the moral havoc resulting from this
prostitution would be sufficient to bring about the destruction of the
nation, slowly but surely. This Judaizing of our spiritual life and
mammonizing of our natural instinct for procreation will sooner or later
work havoc with our whole posterity. For instead of strong, healthy
children, blessed with natural feelings, we shall see miserable
specimens of humanity resulting from economic calculation. For economic
considerations are becoming more and more the foundations of marriage
and the sole preliminary condition of it. And love looks for an outlet
elsewhere.
Here, as elsewhere, one may defy Nature for a certain period of time;
but sooner or later she will take her inexorable revenge. And when man
realizes this truth it is often too late.
Our own nobility furnishes an example of the devastating consequences
that follow from a persistent refusal to recognize the primary
conditions necessary for normal wedlock. Here we are openly brought face
to face with the results of those reproductive habits which on the one
hand are determined by social pressure and, on the other, by financial
considerations. The one leads to inherited debility and the other to
adulteration of the blood-strain; for all the Jewish daughters of the
department store proprietors are looked upon as eligible mates to
co-operate in propagating His Lordship's stock. And the stock certainly
looks it. All this leads to absolute degeneration. Nowadays our
bourgeoise are making efforts to follow in the same path, They will come
to the same journey's end.
These unpleasant truths are hastily and nonchalantly brushed aside, as
if by so doing the real state of affairs could also be abolished. But
no. It cannot be denied that the population of our great towns and
cities is tending more and more to avail of prostitution in the exercise
of its amorous instincts and is thus becoming more and more contaminated
by the scourge of venereal disease. On the one hand, the visible effects
of this mass-infection can be observed in our insane asylums and, on the
other hand, alas! among the children at home. These are the doleful and
tragic witnesses to the steadily increasing scourge that is poisoning
our sexual life. Their sufferings are the visible results of parental
vice.
There are many ways of becoming resigned to this unpleasant and terrible
fact. Many people go about seeing nothing or, to be more correct, not
wanting to see anything. This is by far the simplest and cheapest
attitude to adopt. Others cover themselves in the sacred mantle of
prudery, as ridiculous as it is false. They describe the whole condition
of affairs as sinful and are profoundly indignant when brought face to
face with a victim. They close their eyes in reverend abhorrence to this
godless scourge and pray to the Almighty that He--if possible after
their own death--may rain down fire and brimstone as on Sodom and
Gomorrah and so once again make an out standing example of this
shameless section of humanity. Finally, there are those who are well
aware of the terrible results which this scourge will and must bring
about, but they merely shrug their shoulders, fully convinced of their
inability to undertake anything against this peril. Hence matters are
allowed to take their own course.
Undoubtedly all this is very convenient and simple, only it must not be
overlooked that this convenient way of approaching things can have fatal
consequences for our national life. The excuse that other nations are
also not faring any better does not alter the fact of our own
deterioration, except that the feeling of sympathy for other stricken
nations makes our own suffering easier to bear. But the important
question that arises here is: Which nation will be the first to take the
initiative in mastering this scourge, and which nations will succumb to
it? This will be the final upshot of the whole situation. The present is
a period of probation for racial values. The race that fails to come
through the test will simply die out and its place will be taken by the
healthier and stronger races, which will be able to endure greater
hardships. As this problem primarily concerns posterity, it belongs to
that category of which it is said with terrible justification that the
sins of the fathers are visited on their offspring unto the tenth
generation. This is a consequence which follows on an infringement of
the laws of blood and race.
The sin against blood and race is the hereditary sin in this world and
it brings disaster on every nation that commits it.
The attitude towards this one vital problem in pre-War Germany was most
regrettable. What measures were undertaken to arrest the infection of
our youth in the large cities? What was done to put an end to the
contamination and mammonization of sexual life among us? What was done
to fight the resultant spreading of syphilis throughout the whole of our
national life? The reply to this question can best be illustrated by
showing what should have been done.
Instead of tackling this problem in a haphazard way, the authorities
should have realized that the fortunes or misfortunes of future
generations depended on its solution. But to admit this would have
demanded that active measures be carried out in a ruthless manner. The
primary condition would have been that the enlightened attention of the
whole country should be concentrated on this terrible danger, so that
every individual would realize the importance of fighting against it. It
would be futile to impose obligations of a definite character--which are
often difficult to bear--and expect them to become generally effective,
unless the public be thoroughly instructed on the necessity of imposing
and accepting such obligations. This demands a widespread and systematic
method of enlightenment and all other daily problems that might distract
public attention from this great central problem should be relegated to
the background.
In every case where there are exigencies or tasks that seem impossible
to deal with successfully public opinion must be concentrated on the one
problem, under the conviction that the solution of this problem alone is
a matter of life or death. Only in this way can public interest be
aroused to such a pitch as will urge people to combine in a great
voluntary effort and achieve important results.
This fundamental truth applies also to the individual, provided he is
desirous of attaining some great end. He must always concentrate his
efforts to one definitely limited stage of his progress which has to be
completed before the next step be attempted. Those who do not endeavour
to realize their aims step by step and who do not concentrate their
energy in reaching the individual stages, will never attain the final
objective. At some stage or other they will falter and fail. This
systematic way of approaching an objective is an art in itself, and
always calls for the expenditure of every ounce of energy in order to
conquer step after step of the road.
Therefore the most essential preliminary condition necessary for an
attack on such a difficult stage of the human road is that the
authorities should succeed in convincing the masses that the immediate
objective which is now being fought for is the only one that deserves to
be considered and the only one on which everything depends. The broad
masses are never able clearly to see the whole stretch of the road lying
in front of them without becoming tired and thus losing faith in their
ability to complete the task. To a certain extent they will keep the
objective in mind, but they are only able to survey the whole road in
small stages, as in the case of the traveller who knows where his
journey is going to end but who masters the endless stretch far better
by attacking it in degrees. Only in this way can he keep up his
determination to reach the final objective.
It is in this way, with the assistance of every form of propaganda, that
the problem of fighting venereal disease should be placed before the
public--not as a task for the nation but as THE main task. Every
possible means should be employed to bring the truth about this scourge
home to the minds of the people, until the whole nation has been
convinced that everything depends on the solution of this problem; that
is to say, a healthy future or national decay.
Only after such preparatory measures--if necessary spread over a period
of many years--will public attention and public resolution be fully
aroused, and only then can serious and definite measures be undertaken
without running the risk of not being fully understood or of being
suddenly faced with a slackening of the public will. It must be made
clear to all that a serious fight against this scourge calls for vast
sacrifices and an enormous amount of work.
To wage war against syphilis means fighting against prostitution,
against prejudice, against old-established customs, against current
fashion, public opinion, and, last but not least, against false prudery
in certain circles.
The first preliminary condition to be fulfilled before the State can
claim a moral right to fight against all these things is that the young
generation should be afforded facilities for contracting early
marriages. Late marriages have the sanction of a custom which, from
whatever angle we view it, is and will remain a disgrace to humanity.
Prostitution is a disgrace to humanity and cannot be removed simply by
charitable or academic methods. Its restriction and final extermination
presupposes the removal of a whole series of contributory circumstances.
The first remedy must always be to establish such conditions as will
make early marriages possible, especially for young men--for women are,
after all, only passive subjects in this matter.
An illustration of the extent to which people have so often been led
astray nowadays is afforded by the fact that not infrequently one hears
mothers in so-called 'better' circles openly expressing their
satisfaction at having found as a husband for their daughter a man who
has already sown his wild oats, etc. As there is usually so little
shortage in men of this type, the poor girl finds no difficulty in
getting a mate of this description, and the children of this marriage
are a visible result of such supposedly sensible unions.
When one realizes, apart from this, that every possible effort is being
made to hinder the process of procreation and that Nature is being
wilfully cheated of her rights, there remains really only one question:
Why is such an institution as marriage still in existence, and what are
its functions? Is it really nothing better than prostitution? Does our
duty to posterity no longer play any part? Or do people not realize the
nature of the curse they are inflicting on themselves and their
offspring by such criminally foolish neglect of one of the primary laws
of Nature? This is how civilized nations degenerate and gradually
perish.
Marriage is not an end in itself but must serve the greater end, which
is that of increasing and maintaining the human species and the race.
This is its only meaning and purpose.
This being admitted, then it is clear that the institution of marriage
must be judged by the manner in which its allotted function is
fulfilled. Therefore early marriages should be the rule, because thus
the young couple will still have that pristine force which is the
fountain head of a healthy posterity with unimpaired powers of
resistance. Of course early marriages cannot be made the rule unless a
whole series of social measures are first undertaken without which early
marriages cannot be even thought of. In other words, a solution of this
question, which seems a small problem in itself, cannot be brought about
without adopting radical measures to alter the social background. The
importance of such measures ought to be studied and properly estimated,
especially at a time when the so-called 'social' Republic has shown
itself unable to solve the housing problem and thus has made it
impossible for innumerable couples to get married. That sort of policy
prepares the way for the further advance of prostitution.
Another reason why early marriages are impossible is our nonsensical
method of regulating the scale of salaries, which pays far too little
attention to the problem of family support. Prostitution, therefore, can
only be really seriously tackled if, by means of a radical social
reform, early marriage is made easier than hitherto. This is the first
preliminary necessity for the solution of this problem.
Secondly, a whole series of false notions must be eradicated from our
system of bringing up and educating children--things which hitherto no
one seems to have worried about. In our present educational system a
balance will have to be established, first and foremost, between mental
instruction and physical training.
What is known as GYMNASIUM (Grammar School) to-day is a positive insult
to the Greek institution. Our system of education entirely loses sight
of the fact that in the long run a healthy mind can exist only in a
healthy body. This statement, with few exceptions, applies particularly
to the broad masses of the nation.
In the pre-War Germany there was a time when no one took the trouble to
think over this truth. Training of the body was criminally neglected,
the one-sided training of the mind being regarded as a sufficient
guarantee for the nation's greatness. This mistake was destined to show
its effects sooner than had been anticipated. It is not pure chance that
the Bolshevic teaching flourishes in those regions whose degenerate
population has been brought to the verge of starvation, as, for example,
in the case of Central Germany, Saxony, and the Ruhr Valley. In all
these districts there is a marked absence of any serious resistance,
even by the so-called intellectual classes, against this Jewish
contagion. And the simple reason is that the intellectual classes are
themselves physically degenerate, not through privation but through
education. The exclusive intellectualism of the education in vogue among
our upper classes makes them unfit for life's struggle at an epoch in
which physical force and not mind is the dominating factor. Thus they
are neither capable of maintaining themselves nor of making their way in
life. In nearly every case physical disability is the forerunner of
personal cowardice.
The extravagant emphasis laid on purely intellectual education and the
consequent neglect of physical training must necessarily lead to sexual
thoughts in early youth. Those boys whose constitutions have been
trained and hardened by sports and gymnastics are less prone to sexual
indulgence than those stay-at-homes who have been fed exclusively with
mental pabulum. Sound methods of education cannot, however, afford to
disregard this, and we must not forget that the expectations of a
healthy young man from a woman will differ from those of a weakling who
has been prematurely corrupted.
Thus in every branch of our education the day's curriculum must be
arranged so as to occupy a boy's free time in profitable development of
his physical powers. He has no right in those years to loaf about,
becoming a nuisance in public streets and in cinemas; but when his day's
work is done he ought to harden his young body so that his strength may
not be found wanting when the occasion arises. To prepare for this and
to carry it out should be the function of our educational system and not
exclusively to pump in knowledge or wisdom. Our school system must also
rid itself of the notion that the training of the body is a task that
should be left to the individual himself. There is no such thing as
allowing freedom of choice to sin against posterity and thus against the
race.
The fight against pollution of the mind must be waged simultaneously
with the training of the body. To-day the whole of our public life may
be compared to a hot-house for the forced growth of sexual notions and
incitements. A glance at the bill-of-fare provided by our cinemas,
playhouses, and theatres suffices to prove that this is not the right
food, especially for our young people. Hoardings and advertisements
kiosks combine to attract the public in the most vulgar manner. Anyone
who has not altogether lost contact with adolescent yearnings will
realize that all this must have very grave consequences. This seductive
and sensuous atmosphere puts notions into the heads of our youth which,
at their age, ought still to be unknown to them. Unfortunately, the
results of this kind of education can best be seen in our contemporary
youth who are prematurely grown up and therefore old before their time.
The law courts from time to time throw a distressing light on the
spiritual life of our 14- and 15-year old children. Who, therefore, will
be surprised to learn that venereal disease claims its victims at this
age? And is it not a frightful shame to see the number of physically
weak and intellectually spoiled young men who have been introduced to
the mysteries of marriage by the whores of the big cities?
No; those who want seriously to combat prostitution must first of all
assist in removing the spiritual conditions on which it thrives. They
will have to clean up the moral pollution of our city 'culture'
fearlessly and without regard for the outcry that will follow. If we do
not drag our youth out of the morass of their present environment they
will be engulfed by it. Those people who do not want to see these things
are deliberately encouraging them and are guilty of spreading the
effects of prostitution to the future--for the future belongs to our
young generation. This process of cleansing our 'Kultur' will have to be
applied in practically all spheres. The stage, art, literature, the
cinema, the Press and advertisement posters, all must have the stains of
pollution removed and be placed in the service of a national and
cultural idea. The life of the people must be freed from the
asphyxiating perfume of our modern eroticism and also from every unmanly
and prudish form of insincerity. In all these things the aim and the
method must be determined by thoughtful consideration for the
preservation of our national well-being in body and soul. The right to
personal freedom comes second in importance to the duty of maintaining
the race.
Only after such measures have been put into practice can a medical
campaign against this scourge begin with some hope of success. But, here
again, half-measures will be valueless. Far-reaching and important
decisions will have to be made. It would be doing things by halves if
incurables were given the opportunity of infecting one healthy person
after another. This would be that kind of humanitarianism which would
allow hundreds to perish in order to save the suffering of one
individual. The demand that it should be made impossible for defective
people to continue to propagate defective offspring is a demand that is
based on most reasonable grounds, and its proper fulfilment is the most
humane task that mankind has to face. Unhappy and undeserved suffering
in millions of cases will be spared, with the result that there will be
a gradual improvement in national health. A determined decision to act
in this manner will at the same time provide an obstacle against the
further spread of venereal disease. It would then be a case, where
necessary, of mercilessly isolating all incurables--perhaps a barbaric
measure for those unfortunates--but a blessing for the present
generation and for posterity. The temporary pain thus experienced in
this century can and will spare future thousands of generations from
suffering.
The fight against syphilis and its pace-maker, prostitution, is one of
the gigantic tasks of mankind; gigantic, because it is not merely a case
of solving a single problem but the removal of a whole series of evils
which are the contributory causes of this scourge. Disease of the body
in this case is merely the result of a diseased condition of the moral,
social, and racial instincts.
But if for reasons of indolence or cowardice this fight is not fought to
a finish we may imagine what conditions will be like 500 years hence.
Little of God's image will be left in human nature, except to mock the
Creator.
But what has been done in Germany to counteract this scourge? If we
think calmly over the answer we shall find it distressing. It is true
that in governmental circles the terrible and injurious effects of this
disease were well known, but the counter-measures which were officially
adopted were ineffective and a hopeless failure. They tinkered with
cures for the symptoms, wholly regardless of the cause of the disease.
Prostitutes were medically examined and controlled as far as possible,
and when signs of infection were apparent they were sent to hospital.
When outwardly cured, they were once more let loose on humanity.
It is true that 'protective legislation' was introduced which made
sexual intercourse a punishable offence for all those not completely
cured, or those suffering from venereal disease. This legislation was
correct in theory, but in practice it failed completely. In the first
place, in the majority of cases women will decline to appear in court as
witnesses against men who have robbed them of their health. Women would
be exposed far more than men to uncharitable remarks in such cases, and
one can imagine what their position would be if they had been infected
by their own husbands. Should women in that case lay a charge? Or what
should they do?
In the case of the man there is the additional fact that he frequently
is unfortunate enough to run up against this danger when he is under the
influence of alcohol. His condition makes it impossible for him to
assess the qualities of his 'amorous beauty,' a fact which is well known
to every diseased prostitute and makes them single out men in this ideal
condition for preference. The result is that the unfortunate man is not
able to recollect later on who his compassionate benefactress was, which
is not surprising in cities like Berlin and Munich. Many of such cases
are visitors from the provinces who, held speechless and enthralled by
the magic charm of city life, become an easy prey for prostitutes.
In the final analysis who is able to say whether he has been infected or
not?
Are there not innumerable cases on record where an apparently cured
person has a relapse and does untold harm without knowing it?
Therefore in practice the results of these legislative measures are
negative. The same applies to the control of prostitution, and, finally,
even medical treatment and cure are nowadays unsafe and doubtful. One
thing only is certain. The scourge has spread further and further in
spite of all measures, and this alone suffices definitely to stamp and
substantiate their inefficiency.
Everything else that was undertaken was just as inefficient as it was
absurd. The spiritual prostitution of the people was neither arrested
nor was anything whatsoever undertaken in this direction.
Those, however, who do not regard this subject as a serious one would do
well to examine the statistical data of the spread of this disease,
study its growth in the last century and contemplate the possibilities
of its further development. The ordinary observer, unless he were
particularly stupid, would experience a cold shudder if the position
were made clear to him.
The half-hearted and wavering attitude adopted in pre-War Germany
towards this iniquitous condition can assuredly be taken as a visible
sign of national decay. When the courage to fight for one's own health
is no longer in evidence, then the right to live in this world of
struggle also ceases.
One of the visible signs of decay in the old REICH was the slow setback
which the general cultural level experienced. But by 'Kultur' I do not
mean that which we nowadays style as civilization, which on the contrary
may rather be regarded as inimical to the spiritual elevation of life.
At the turn of the last century a new element began to make its
appearance in our world. It was an element which had been hitherto
absolutely unknown and foreign to us. In former times there had
certainly been offences against good taste; but these were mostly
departures from the orthodox canons of art, and posterity could
recognize a certain historical value in them. But the new products
showed signs, not only of artistic aberration but of spiritual
degeneration. Here, in the cultural sphere, the signs of the coming
collapse first became manifest.
The Bolshevization of art is the only cultural form of life and the only
spiritual manifestation of which Bolshevism is capable.
Anyone to whom this statement may appear strange need only take a glance
at those lucky States which have become Bolshevized and, to his horror,
he will there recognize those morbid monstrosities which have been
produced by insane and degenerate people. All those artistic aberrations
which are classified under the names of cubism and dadism, since the
opening of the present century, are manifestations of art which have
come to be officially recognized by the State itself. This phenomenon
made its appearance even during the short-lived period of the Soviet
Republic in Bavaria. At that time one might easily have recognized how
all the official posters, propagandist pictures and newspapers, etc.,
showed signs not only of political but also of cultural decadence.
About sixty years ago a political collapse such as we are experiencing
to-day would have been just as inconceivable as the cultural decline
which has been manifested in cubist and futurist pictures ever since
1900. Sixty years ago an exhibition of so-called dadistic 'experiences'
would have been an absolutely preposterous idea. The organizers of such
an exhibition would then have been certified for the lunatic asylum,
whereas, to-day they are appointed presidents of art societies. At that
time such an epidemic would never have been allowed to spread. Public
opinion would not have tolerated it, and the Government would not have
remained silent; for it is the duty of a Government to save its people
from being stampeded into such intellectual madness. But intellectual
madness would have resulted from a development that followed the
acceptance of this kind of art. It would have marked one of the worst
changes in human history; for it would have meant that a retrogressive
process had begun to take place in the human brain, the final stages of
which would be unthinkable.
If we study the course of our cultural life during the last twenty-five
years we shall be astonished to note how far we have already gone in
this process of retrogression. Everywhere we find the presence of those
germs which give rise to protuberant growths that must sooner or later
bring about the ruin of our culture. Here we find undoubted symptoms of
slow corruption; and woe to the nations that are no longer able to bring
that morbid process to a halt.
In almost all the various fields of German art and culture those morbid
phenomena may be observed. Here everything seems to have passed the
culminating point of its excellence and to have entered the curve of a
hasty decline. At the beginning of the century the theatres seemed
already degenerating and ceasing to be cultural factors, except the
Court theatres, which opposed this prostitution of the national art.
With these exceptions, and also a few other decent institutions, the
plays produced on the stage were of such a nature that the people would
have benefited by not visiting them at all. A sad symptom of decline was
manifested by the fact that in the case of many 'art centres' the sign
was posted on the entrance doors: FOR ADULTS ONLY.
Let it be borne in mind that these precautions had to be taken in regard
to institutions whose main purpose should have been to promote the
education of the youth and not merely to provide amusement for
sophisticated adults. What would the great dramatists of other times
have said of such measures and, above all, of the conditions which made
these measures necessary? How exasperated Schiller would have been, and
how Goethe would have turned away in disgust!
But what are Schiller, Goethe and Shakespeare when confronted with the
heroes of our modern German literature? Old and frowsy and outmoded and
finished. For it was typical of this epoch that not only were its own
products bad but that the authors of such products and their backers
reviled everything that had really been great in the past. This is a
phenomenon that is very characteristic of such epochs. The more vile and
miserable are the men and products of an epoch, the more they will hate
and denigrate the ideal achievements of former generations. What these
people would like best would be completely to destroy every vestige of
the past, in order to do away with that sole standard of comparison
which prevents their own daubs from being looked upon as art. Therefore
the more lamentable and wretched are the products of each new era, the
more it will try to obliterate all the memorials of the past. But any
real innovation that is for the benefit of mankind can always face
comparison with the best of what has gone before; and frequently it
happens that those monuments of the past guarantee the acceptance of
those modern productions. There is no fear that modern productions of
real worth will look pale and worthless beside the monuments of the
past. What is contributed to the general treasury of human culture often
fulfils a part that is necessary in order to keep the memory of old
achievements alive, because this memory alone is the standard whereby
our own works are properly appreciated. Only those who have nothing of
value to give to the world will oppose everything that already exists
and would have it destroyed at all costs.
And this holds good not only for new phenomena in the cultural domain
but also in politics. The more inferior new revolutionary movements are,
the more will they try to denigrate the old forms. Here again the desire
to pawn off their shoddy products as great and original achievements
leads them into a blind hatred against everything which belongs to the
past and which is superior to their own work. As long as the historical
memory of Frederick the Great, for instance, still lives, Frederick
Ebert can arouse only a problematic admiration. The relation of the hero
of Sans Souci to the former republican of Bremen may be compared to that
of the sun to the moon; for the moon can shine only after the direct
rays of the sun have left the earth. Thus we can readily understand why
it is that all the new moons in human history have hated the fixed
stars. In the field of politics, if Fate should happen temporarily to
place the ruling power in the hands of those nonentities they are not
only eager to defile and revile the past but at the same time they will
use all means to evade criticism of their own acts. The Law for the
Protection of the Republic, which the new German State enacted, may be
taken as one example of this truth.
One has good grounds to be suspicious in regard to any new idea, or any
doctrine or philosophy, any political or economical movement, which
tries to deny everything that the past has produced or to present it as
inferior and worthless. Any renovation which is really beneficial to
human progress will always have to begin its constructive work at the
level where the last stones of the structure have been laid. It need not
blush to utilize those truths which have already been established; for
all human culture, as well as man himself, is only the result of one
long line of development, where each generation has contributed but one
stone to the building of the whole structure. The meaning and purpose of
revolutions cannot be to tear down the whole building but to take away
what has not been well fitted into it or is unsuitable, and to rebuild
the free space thus caused, after which the main construction of the
building will be carried on.
Thus alone will it be possible to talk of human progress; for otherwise
the world would never be free of chaos, since each generation would feel
entitled to reject the past and to destroy all the work of the past, as
the necessary preliminary to any new work of its own.
The saddest feature of the condition in which our whole civilization
found itself before the War was the fact that it was not only barren of
any creative force to produce its own works of art and civilization but
that it hated, defiled and tried to efface the memory of the superior
works produced in the past. About the end of the last century people
were less interested in producing new significant works of their
own--particularly in the fields of dramatic art and literature--than in
defaming the best works of the past and in presenting them as inferior
and antiquated. As if this period of disgraceful decadence had the
slightest capacity to produce anything of superior quality! The efforts
made to conceal the past from the eyes of the present afforded clear
evidence of the fact that these apostles of the future acted from an
evil intent. These symptoms should have made it clear to all that it was
not a question of new, though wrong, cultural ideas but of a process
which was undermining the very foundations of civilization. It threw the
artistic feeling which had hitherto been quite sane into utter
confusion, thus spiritually preparing the way for political Bolshevism.
If the creative spirit of the Periclean age be manifested in the
Parthenon, then the Bolshevist era is manifested through its cubist
grimace.
In this connection attention must be drawn once again to the want of
courage displayed by one section of our people, namely, by those who, in
virtue of their education and position, ought to have felt themselves
obliged to take up a firm stand against this outrage on our culture. But
they refrained from offering serious resistance and surrendered to what
they considered the inevitable. This abdication of theirs was due,
however, to sheer funk lest the apostles of Bolshevist art might raise a
rumpus; for those apostles always violently attacked everyone who was
not ready to recognize them as the choice spirits of artistic creation,
and they tried to strangle all opposition by saying that it was the
product of philistine and backwater minds. People trembled in fear lest
they might be accused by these yahoos and swindlers of lacking artistic
appreciation, as if it would have been a disgrace not to be able to
understand and appreciate the effusions of those mental degenerates or
arrant rogues. Those cultural disciples, however, had a very simple way
of presenting their own effusions as works of the highest quality. They
offered incomprehensible and manifestly crazy productions to their
amazed contemporaries as what they called 'an inner experience'. Thus
they forestalled all adverse criticism at very little cost indeed. Of
course nobody ever doubted that there could have been inner experiences
like that, but some doubt ought to have arisen as to whether or not
there was any justification for exposing these hallucinations of
psychopaths or criminals to the sane portion of human society. The works
produced by a Moritz von Schwind or a Böcklin were also externalizations
of an inner experience, but these were the experiences of divinely
gifted artists and not of buffoons.
This situation afforded a good opportunity of studying the miserable
cowardliness of our so-called intellectuals who shirked the duty of
offering serious resistance to the poisoning of the sound instincts of
our people. They left it to the people themselves to formulate their own
attitude towards his impudent nonsense. Lest they might be considered as
understanding nothing of art, they accepted every caricature of art,
until they finally lost the power of judging what is really good or bad.
Taken all in all, there were superabundant symptoms to show that a
diseased epoch had begun.
Still another critical symptom has to be considered. In the course of
the nineteenth century our towns and cities began more and more to lose
their character as centres of civilization and became more and more
centres of habitation. In our great modern cities the proletariat does
not show much attachment to the place where it lives. This feeling
results from the fact that their dwelling-place is nothing but an
accidental abode, and that feeling is also partly due to the frequent
change of residence which is forced upon them by social conditions.
There is no time for the growth of any attachment to the town in which
they live. But another reason lies in the cultural barrenness and
superficiality of our modern cities. At the time of the German Wars of
Liberation our German towns and cities were not only small in number but
also very modest in size. The few that could really be called great
cities were mostly the residential cities of princes; as such they had
almost always a definite cultural value and also a definite cultural
aspect. Those few towns which had more than fifty thousand inhabitants
were, in comparison with modern cities of the same size, rich in
scientific and artistic treasures. At the time when Munich had not more
than sixty thousand souls it was already well on the way to become one
of the first German centres of art. Nowadays almost every industrial
town has a population at least as large as that, without having anything
of real value to call its own. They are agglomerations of tenement
houses and congested dwelling barracks, and nothing else. It would be a
miracle if anybody should grow sentimentally attached to such a
meaningless place. Nobody can grow attached to a place which offers only
just as much or as little as any other place would offer, which has no
character of its own and where obviously pains have been taken to avoid
everything that might have any resemblance to an artistic appearance.
But this is not all. Even the great cities become more barren of real
works of art the more they increase in population. They assume more and
more a neutral atmosphere and present the same aspect, though on a
larger scale, as the wretched little factory towns. Everything that our
modern age has contributed to the civilization of our great cities is
absolutely deficient. All our towns are living on the glory and the
treasures of the past. If we take away from the Munich of to-day
everything that was created under Ludwig II we should be horror-stricken
to see how meagre has been the output of important artistic creations
since that time. One might say much the same of Berlin and most of our
other great towns.
But the following is the essential thing to be noticed: Our great modern
cities have no outstanding monuments that dominate the general aspect of
the city and could be pointed to as the symbols of a whole epoch. Yet
almost every ancient town had a monument erected to its glory. It was
not in private dwellings that the characteristic art of ancient cities
was displayed but in the public monuments, which were not meant to have
a transitory interest but an enduring one. And this was because they did
not represent the wealth of some individual citizen but the greatness
and importance of the community. It was under this inspiration that
those monuments arose which bound the individual inhabitants to their
own town in a manner that is often almost incomprehensible to us to-day.
What struck the eye of the individual citizen was not a number of
mediocre private buildings, but imposing structures that belonged to the
whole community. In contradistinction to these, private dwellings were
of only very secondary importance indeed.
When we compare the size of those ancient public buildings with that of
the private dwellings belonging to the same epoch then we can understand
the great importance which was given to the principle that those works
which reflected and affected the life of the community should take
precedence of all others.
Among the broken arches and vast spaces that are covered with ruins from
the ancient world the colossal riches that still arouse our wonder have
not been left to us from the commercial palaces of these days but from
the temples of the Gods and the public edifices that belonged to the
State. The community itself was the owner of those great edifices. Even
in the pomp of Rome during the decadence it was not the villas and
palaces of some citizens that filled the most prominent place but rather
the temples and the baths, the stadia, the circuses, the aqueducts, the
basilicas, etc., which belonged to the State and therefore to the people
as a whole.
In medieval Germany also the same principle held sway, although the
artistic outlook was quite different. In ancient times the theme that
found its expression in the Acropolis or the Pantheon was now clothed in
the forms of the Gothic Cathedral. In the medieval cities these
monumental structures towered gigantically above the swarm of smaller
buildings with their framework walls of wood and brick. And they remain
the dominant feature of these cities even to our own day, although they
are becoming more and more obscured by the apartment barracks. They
determine the character and appearance of the locality. Cathedrals,
city-halls, corn exchanges, defence towers, are the outward expression
of an idea which has its counterpart only in the ancient world.
The dimensions and quality of our public buildings to-day are in
deplorable contrast to the edifices that represent private interests. If
a similar fate should befall Berlin as befell Rome future generations
might gaze upon the ruins of some Jewish department stores or
joint-stock hotels and think that these were the characteristic
expressions of the culture of our time. In Berlin itself, compare the
shameful disproportion between the buildings which belong to the REICH
and those which have been erected for the accommodation of trade and
finance.
The credits that are voted for public buildings are in most cases
inadequate and really ridiculous. They are not built as structures that
were meant to last but mostly for the purpose of answering the need of
the moment. No higher idea influenced those who commissioned such
buildings. At the time the Berlin Schloss was built it had a quite
different significance from what the new library has for our time,
seeing that one battleship alone represents an expenditure of about
sixty million marks, whereas less than half that sum was allotted for
the building of the Reichstag, which is the most imposing structure
erected for the REICH and which should have been built to last for ages.
Yet, in deciding the question of internal decoration, the Upper House
voted against the use of stone and ordered that the walls should be
covered with stucco. For once, however, the parliamentarians made an
appropriate decision on that occasion; for plaster heads would be out of
place between stone walls.
The community as such is not the dominant characteristic of our
contemporary cities, and therefore it is not to be wondered at if the
community does not find itself architecturally represented. Thus we must
eventually arrive at a veritable civic desert which will at last be
reflected in the total indifference of the individual citizen towards
his own country.
This is also a sign of our cultural decay and general break-up. Our era
is entirely preoccupied with little things which are to no purpose, or
rather it is entirely preoccupied in the service of money. Therefore it
is not to be wondered at if, with the worship of such an idol, the sense
of heroism should entirely disappear. But the present is only reaping
what the past has sown.
All these symptoms which preceded the final collapse of the Second
Empire must be attributed to the lack of a definite and uniformly
accepted WELTANSCHAUUNG and the general uncertainty of outlook
consequent on that lack. This uncertainty showed itself when the great
questions of the time had to be considered one after another and a
decisive policy adopted towards them. This lack is also accountable for
the habit of doing everything by halves, beginning with the educational
system, the shilly-shally, the reluctance to undertake responsibilites
and, finally, the cowardly tolerance of evils that were even admitted to
be destructive. Visionary humanitarianisms became the fashion. In weakly
submitting to these aberrations and sparing the feelings of the
individual, the future of millions of human beings was sacrificed.
An examination of the religious situation before the War shows that the
general process of disruption had extended to this sphere also. A great
part of the nation itself had for a long time already ceased to have any
convictions of a uniform and practical character in their ideological
outlook on life. In this matter the point of primary importance was by
no means the number of people who renounced their church membership but
rather the widespread indifference. While the two Christian
denominations maintained missions in Asia and Africa, for the purpose of
securing new adherents to the Faith, these same denominations were
losing millions and millions of their adherents at home in Europe. These
former adherents either gave up religion wholly as a directive force in
their lives or they adopted their own interpretation of it. The
consequences of this were specially felt in the moral life of the
country. In parenthesis it may be remarked that the progress made by the
missions in spreading the Christian Faith abroad was only quite modest
in comparison with the spread of Mohammedanism.
It must be noted too that the attack on the dogmatic principles
underlying ecclesiastical teaching increased steadily in violence. And
yet this human world of ours would be inconceivable without the
practical existence of a religious belief. The great masses of a nation
are not composed of philosophers. For the masses of the people,
especially faith is absolutely the only basis of a moral outlook on
life. The various substitutes that have been offered have not shown any
results that might warrant us in thinking that they might usefully
replace the existing denominations. But if religious teaching and
religious faith were once accepted by the broad masses as active forces
in their lives, then the absolute authority of the doctrines of faith
would be the foundation of all practical effort. There may be a few
hundreds of thousands of superior men who can live wisely and
intelligently without depending on the general standards that prevail in
everyday life, but the millions of others cannot do so. Now the place
which general custom fills in everyday life corresponds to that of
general laws in the State and dogma in religion. The purely spiritual
idea is of itself a changeable thing that may be subjected to endless
interpretations. It is only through dogma that it is given a precise and
concrete form without which it could not become a living faith.
Otherwise the spiritual idea would never become anything more than a
mere metaphysical concept, or rather a philosophical opinion.
Accordingly the attack against dogma is comparable to an attack against
the general laws on which the State is founded. And so this attack would
finally lead to complete political anarchy if it were successful, just
as the attack on religion would lead to a worthless religious nihilism.
The political leader should not estimate the worth of a religion by
taking some of its shortcomings into account, but he should ask himself
whether there be any practical substitute in a view which is
demonstrably better. Until such a substitute be available only fools and
criminals would think of abolishing the existing religion.
Undoubtedly no small amount of blame for the present unsatisfactory
religious situation must be attributed to those who have encumbered the
ideal of religion with purely material accessories and have thus given
rise to an utterly futile conflict between religion and science. In this
conflict victory will nearly always be on the side of science, even
though after a bitter struggle, while religion will suffer heavily in
the eyes of those who cannot penetrate beneath the mere superficial
aspects of science.
But the greatest damage of all has come from the practice of debasing
religion as a means that can be exploited to serve political interests,
or rather commercial interests. The impudent and loud-mouthed liars who
do this make their profession of faith before the whole world in
stentorian tones so that all poor mortals may hear--not that they are
ready to die for it if necessary but rather that they may live all the
better. They are ready to sell their faith for any political QUID PRO
QUO. For ten parliamentary mandates they would ally themselves with the
Marxists, who are the mortal foes of all religion. And for a seat in the
Cabinet they would go the length of wedlock with the devil, if the
latter had not still retained some traces of decency.
If religious life in pre-war Germany had a disagreeable savour for the
mouths of many people this was because Christianity had been lowered to
base uses by political parties that called themselves Christian and
because of the shameful way in which they tried to identify the Catholic
Faith with a political party.
This substitution was fatal. It procured some worthless parliamentary
mandates for the party in question, but the Church suffered damage
thereby.
The consequences of that situation had to be borne by the whole nation;
for the laxity that resulted in religious life set in at a juncture when
everything was beginning to lose hold and vacillate and the traditional
foundations of custom and of morality were threatening to fall asunder.
Yet all those cracks and clefts in the social organism might not have
been dangerous if no grave burdens had been laid upon it; but they
became disastrous when the internal solidarity of the nation was the
most important factor in withstanding the storm of big events.
In the political field also observant eyes might have noticed certain
anomalies of the REICH which foretold disaster unless some alteration
and correction took place in time. The lack of orientation in German
policy, both domestic and foreign, was obvious to everyone who was not
purposely blind. The best thing that could be said about the practice of
making compromises is that it seemed outwardly to be in harmony with
Bismarck's axiom that 'politics is the art of the possible'. But
Bismarck was a slightly different man from the Chancellors who followed
him. This difference allowed the former to apply that formula to the
very essence of his policy, while in the mouths of the others it took on
an utterly different significance. When he uttered that phrase Bismarck
meant to say that in order to attain a definite political end all
possible means should be employed or at least that all possibilities
should be tried. But his successors see in that phrase only a solemn
declaration that one is not necessarily bound to have political
principles or any definite political aims at all. And the political
leaders of the REICH at that time had no far-seeing policy. Here, again,
the necessary foundation was lacking, namely, a definite
WELTANSCHAUUNG, and these leaders also lacked that clear insight into
the laws of political evolution which is a necessary quality in
political leadership.
Many people who took a gloomy view of things at that time condemned the
lack of ideas and lack of orientation which were evident in directing
the policy of the REICH. They recognized the inner weakness and futility
of this policy. But such people played only a secondary role in
politics. Those who had the Government of the country in their hands
were quite as indifferent to principles of civil wisdom laid down by
thinkers like Houston Stewart Chamberlain as our political leaders now
are. These people are too stupid to think for themselves, and they have
too much self-conceit to take from others the instruction which they
need. Oxenstierna (Note 14a) gave expression to a truth which has lasted
since time immemorial, when he said that the world is governed by only a
particle of wisdom. Almost every civil servant of councillor rank might
naturally be supposed to possess only an atom or so belonging to this
particle. But since Germany became a Republic even this modicum is
wanting. And that is why they had to promulgate the Law for the Defence
of the Republic, which prohibits the holding of such views or expressing
them. It was fortunate for Oxenstierna that he lived at that time and
not in this wise Republic of our time.
[Note 14a. Swedish Chancellor who took over the reins of Government after
the death of Gustavus Adolphus]
Already before the War that institution which should have represented
the strength of the Reich--the Parliament, the Reichstag--was widely
recognized as its weakest feature. Cowardliness and fear of shouldering
responsibilities were associated together there in a perfect fashion.
One of the silliest notions that one hears expressed to-day is that in
Germany the parliamentary institution has ceased to function since the
Revolution. This might easily be taken to imply that the case was
different before the Revolution. But in reality the parliamentary
institution never functioned except to the detriment of the country. And
it functioned thus in those days when people saw nothing or did not wish
to see anything. The German downfall is to be attributed in no small
degree to this institution. But that the catastrophe did not take place
sooner is not to be credited to the Parliament but rather to those who
opposed the influence of this institution which, during peace times, was
digging the grave of the German Nation and the German REICH.
From the immense mass of devastating evils that were due either directly
or indirectly to the Parliament I shall select one the most intimately
typical of this institution which was the most irresponsible of all
time. The evil I speak of was seen in the appalling shilly-shally and
weakness in conducting the internal and external affairs of the REICH.
It was attributable in the first place to the action of the Reichstag
and was one of the principal causes of the political collapse.
Everything subject to the influence of Parliament was done by halves, no
matter from what aspect you may regard it.
The foreign policy of the REICH in the matter of alliances was an
example of shilly-shally. They wished to maintain peace, but in doing so
they steered straight. into war.
Their Polish policy was also carried out by half-measures. It resulted
neither in a German triumph nor Polish conciliation, and it made enemies
of the Russians.
They tried to solve the Alsace-Lorraine question through half-measures.
Instead of crushing the head of the French hydra once and for all with
the mailed fist and granting Alsace-Lorraine equal rights with the other
German States, they did neither the one nor the other. Anyhow, it was
impossible for them to do otherwise, for they had among their ranks the
greatest traitors to the country, such as Herr Wetterlé of the Centre
Party.
But still the country might have been able to bear with all this
provided the half-measure policy had not victimized that force in which,
as the last resort, the existence of the Empire depended: namely, the
Army.
The crime committed by the so-called German Reichstag in this regard was
sufficient of itself to draw down upon it the curses of the German
Nation for all time. On the most miserable of pretexts these
parliamentary party henchmen filched from the hands of the nation and
threw away the weapons which were needed to maintain its existence and
therewith defend the liberty and independence of our people. If the
graves on the plains of Flanders were to open to-day the bloodstained
accusers would arise, hundreds of thousands of our best German youth who
were driven into the arms of death by those conscienceless parliamentary
ruffians who were either wrongly educated for their task or only
half-educated. Those youths, and other millions of the killed and
mutilated, were lost to the Fatherland simply and solely in order that a
few hundred deceivers of the people might carry out their political
manoeuvres and their exactions or even treasonably pursue their
doctrinaire theories.
By means of the Marxist and democratic Press, the Jews spread the
colossal falsehood about 'German Militarism' throughout the world and
tried to inculpate Germany by every possible means, while at the same
time the Marxist and democratic parties refused to assent to the
measures that were necessary for the adequate training of our national
defence forces. The appalling crime thus committed by these people ought
to have been obvious to everybody who foresaw that in case of war the
whole nation would have to be called to arms and that, because of the
mean huckstering of these noble 'representatives of the people', as they
called themselves, millions of Germans would have to face the enemy
ill-equipped and insufficiently trained. But even apart from the
consequences of the crude and brutal lack of conscience which these
parliamentarian rascals displayed, it was quite clear that the lack of
properly trained soldiers at the beginning of a war would most probably
lead to the loss of such a war; and this probability was confirmed in a
most terrible way during the course of the world war.
Therefore the German people lost the struggle for the freedom and
independence of their country because of the half-hearted and defective
policy employed during times of peace in the organization and training
of the defensive strength of the nation.
The number of recruits trained for the land forces was too small; but
the same half-heartedness was shown in regard to the navy and made this
weapon of national self-preservation more or less ineffective.
Unfortunately, even the naval authorities themselves were contaminated
with this spirit of half-heartedness. The tendency to build the ship on
the stocks somewhat smaller than that just launched by the British did
not show much foresight and less genius. A fleet which cannot be brought
to the same numerical strength as that of the probable enemy ought to
compensate for this inferiority by the superior fighting power of the
individual ship. It is the weight of the fighting power that counts and
not any sort of traditional quality. As a matter of fact, modern
technical development is so advanced and so well proportioned among the
various civilized States that it must be looked on as practically
impossible for one Power to build vessels which would have a superior
fighting quality to that of the vessels of equal size built by the other
Powers. But it is even less feasible to build vessels of smaller
displacement which will be superior in action to those of larger
displacement.
As a matter of fact, the smaller proportions of the German vessels could
be maintained only at the expense of speed and armament. The phrase used
to justify this policy was in itself an evidence of the lack of logical
thinking on the part of the naval authorities who were in charge of
these matters in times of peace. They declared that the German guns were
definitely superior to the British 30.5 cm. as regards striking
efficiency.
But that was just why they should have adopted the policy of building
30.5 cm. guns also; for it ought to have been their object not to
achieve equality but superiority in fighting strength. If that were not
so then it would have been superfluous to equip the land forces with 42
cm. mortars; for the German 21 cm. mortar could be far superior to any
high-angle guns which the French possessed at that time and since the
fortresses could probably have been taken by means of 30.5 cm. mortars.
The army authorities unfortunately failed to do so. If they refrained
from assuring superior efficiency in the artillery as in the velocity,
this was because of the fundamentally false 'principle of risk' which
they adopted. The naval authorities, already in times of peace,
renounced the principle of attack and thus had to follow a defensive
policy from the very beginning of the War. But by this attitude they
renounced also the chances of final success, which can be achieved only
by an offensive policy.
A vessel with slower speed and weaker armament will be crippled and
battered by an adversary that is faster and stronger and can frequently
shoot from a favourable distance. A large number of cruisers have been
through bitter experiences in this matter. How wrong were the ideas
prevalent among the naval authorities in times of peace was proved
during the War. They were compelled to modify the armament of the old
vessels and to equip the new ones with better armament whenever there
was a chance to do so. If the German vessels in the Battle of the
Skagerrak had been of equal size, the same armament and the same speed
as the English, the British Fleet would have gone down under the tempest
of the German 38 centimeter shells, which hit their aims more accurately
and were more effective.
Japan had followed a different kind of naval policy. There, care was
principally taken to create with every single new vessel a fighting
force that would be superior to those of the eventual adversaries. But,
because of this policy, it was afterwards possible to use the fleet for
the offensive.
While the army authorities refused to adopt such fundamentally erroneous
principles, the navy--which unfortunately had more representatives in
Parliament--succumbed to the spirit that ruled there. The navy was not
organized on a strong basis, and it was later used in an unsystematic
and irresolute way. The immortal glory which the navy won, in spite of
these drawbacks, must be entirely credited to the good work and the
efficiency and incomparable heroism of officers and crews. If the former
commanders-in-chief had been inspired with the same kind of genius all
the sacrifices would not have been in vain.
It was probably the very parliamentarian skill displayed by the chief of
the navy during the years of peace which later became the cause of the
fatal collapse, since parliamentarian considerations had begun to play a
more important role in the construction of the navy than fighting
considerations. The irresolution, the weakness and the failure to adopt
a logically consistent policy, which is typical of the parliamentary
system, contaminated the naval authorities.
As I have already emphasized, the military authorities did not allow
themselves to be led astray by such fundamentally erroneous ideas.
Ludendorff, who was then a Colonel in the General Staff, led a desperate
struggle against the criminal vacillations with which the Reichstag
treated the most vital problems of the nation and in most cases voted
against them. If the fight which this officer then waged remained
unsuccessful this must be debited to the Parliament and partly also to
the wretched and weak attitude of the Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg.
Yet those who are responsible for Germany's collapse do not hesitate now
to lay all the blame on the shoulders of the one man who took a firm
stand against the neglectful manner in which the interests of the nation
were managed. But one falsehood more or less makes no difference to
these congenital tricksters.
Anybody who thinks of all the sacrifices which this nation has had to
bear, as a result of the criminal neglect of those irresponsible
individuals; anybody who thinks of the number of those who died or were
maimed unnecessarily; anybody who thinks of the deplorable shame and
dishonour which has been heaped upon us and of the illimitable distress
into which our people are now plunged--anybody who realizes that in
order to prepare the way to a few seats in Parliament for some
unscrupulous place-hunters and arrivists will understand that such
hirelings can be called by no other name than that of rascal and
criminal; for otherwise those words could have no meaning. In comparison
with traitors who betrayed the nation's trust every other kind of
twister may be looked upon as an honourable man.
It was a peculiar feature of the situation that all the real faults of
the old Germany were exposed to the public gaze only when the inner
solidarity of the nation could be injured by doing so. Then, indeed,
unpleasant truths were openly proclaimed in the ears of the broad
masses, while many other things were at other times shamefully hushed up
or their existence simply denied, especially at times when an open
discussion of such problems might have led to an improvement in their
regard. The higher government authorities knew little or nothing of the
nature and use of propaganda in such matters. Only the Jew knew that by
an able and persistent use of propaganda heaven itself can be presented
to the people as if it were hell and, vice versa, the most miserable
kind of life can be presented as if it were paradise. The Jew knew this
and acted accordingly. But the German, or rather his Government, did not
have the slightest suspicion of it. During the War the heaviest of
penalties had to be paid for that ignorance.
Over against the innumerable drawbacks which I have mentioned here and
which affected German life before the War there were many outstanding
features on the positive side. If we take an impartial survey we must
admit that most of our drawbacks were in great measure prevalent also in
other countries and among the other nations, and very often in a worse
form than with us; whereas among us there were many real advantages
which the other did not have.
The leading phase of Germany's superiority arose from the fact that,
almost alone among all the other European nations, the German nation had
made the strongest effort to preserve the national character of its
economic structure and for this reason was less subject than other
countries to the power of international finance, though indeed there
were many untoward symptoms in this regard also.
And yet this superiority was a perilous one and turned out later to be
one of the chief causes of the world war.
But even if we disregard this advantage of national independence in
economic matters there were certain other positive features of our
social and political life which were of outstanding excellence. These
features were represented by three institutions which were constant
sources of regeneration. In their respective spheres they were models of
perfection and were partly unrivalled.
The first of these was the statal form as such and the manner in which
it had been developed for Germany in modern times. Of course we must
except those monarchs who, as human beings, were subject to the failings
which afflict this life and its children. If we were not so tolerant in
these matters, then the case of the present generation would be
hopeless; for if we take into consideration the personal capabilities
and character of the representative figures in our present regime it
would be difficult to imagine a more modest level of intelligence and
moral character. If we measure the 'value' of the German Revolution by
the personal worth and calibre of the individuals whom this revolution
has presented to the German people since November 1918 then we may feel
ashamed indeed in thinking of the judgment which posterity will pass on
these people, when the Law for the Protection of the Republic can no
longer silence public opinion. Coming generations will surely decide
that the intelligence and integrity of our new German leaders were in
adverse ratio to their boasting and their vices.
It must be admitted that the monarchy had become alien in spirit to many
citizens and especially the broad masses. This resulted from the fact
that the monarchs were not always surrounded by the highest
intelligence--so to say--and certainly not always by persons of the most
upright character. Unfortunately many of them preferred flatterers to
honest-spoken men and hence received their 'information' from the
former. This was a source of grave danger at a time when the world was
passing through a period in which many of the old conditions were
changing and when this change was affecting even the traditions of the
Court.
The average man or woman could not have felt a wave of enthusiasm
surging within the breast when, for example, at the turn of the century,
a princess in uniform and on horseback had the soldiers file past her on
parade. Those high circles had apparently no idea of the impression
which such a parade made on the minds of ordinary people; else such
unfortunate occurrences would not have taken place. The sentimental
humanitarianism--not always very sincere--which was professed in those
high circles was often more repulsive than attractive. When, for
instance, the Princess X condescended to taste the products of a soup
kitchen and found them excellent, as usual, such a gesture might have
made an excellent impression in times long past, but on this occasion it
had the opposite effect to what was intended. For even if we take it for
granted that Her Highness did not have the slightest idea, that on the
day she sampled it, the food was not quite the same as on other days, it
sufficed that the people knew it. Even the best of intentions thus
became an object of ridicule or a cause of exasperation.
Descriptions of the proverbial frugality practised by the monarch, his
much too early rise in the morning and the drudgery he had to go through
all day long until late at night, and especially the constantly
expressed fears lest he might become undernourished--all this gave rise
to ominous expression on the part of the people. Nobody was keen to know
what and how much the monarch ate or drank. Nobody grudged him a full
meal, or the necessary amount of sleep. Everybody was pleased when the
monarch, as a man and a personality, brought honour on his family and
his country and fulfilled his duties as a sovereign. All the legends
which were circulated about him helped little and did much damage.
These and such things, however, are only mere bagatelle. What was much
worse was the feeling, which spread throughout large sections of the
nation, that the affairs of the individual were being taken care of from
above and that he did not need to bother himself with them. As long as
the Government was really good, or at least moved by goodwill, no
serious objections could be raised.
But the country was destined to disaster when the old Government, which
had at least striven for the best, became replaced by a new regime which
was not of the same quality. Then the docile obedience and infantile
credulity which formerly offered no resistance was bound to be one of
the most fatal evils that can be imagined.
But against these and other defects there were certain qualities which
undoubtedly had a positive effect.
First of all the monarchical form of government guarantees stability in
the direction of public affairs and safeguards public offices from the
speculative turmoil of ambitious politicians. Furthermore, the venerable
tradition which this institution possesses arouses a feeling which gives
weight to the monarchical authority. Beyond this there is the fact that
the whole corps of officials, and the army in particular, are raised
above the level of political party obligations. And still another
positive feature was that the supreme rulership of the State was
embodied in the monarch, as an individual person, who could serve as the
symbol of responsibility, which a monarch has to bear more seriously
than any anonymous parliamentary majority. Indeed, the proverbial
honesty and integrity of the German administration must be attributed
chiefly to this fact. Finally, the monarchy fulfilled a high cultural
function among the German people, which made amends for many of its
defects. The German residential cities have remained, even to our time,
centres of that artistic spirit which now threatens to disappear and is
becoming more and more materialistic. The German princes gave a great
deal of excellent and practical encouragement to art and science,
especially during the nineteenth century. Our present age certainly has
nothing of equal worth.
During that process of disintegration which was slowly extending
throughout the social order the most positive force of resistance was
that offered by the army. This was the strongest source of education
which the German people possessed. For that reason all the hatred of our
enemies was directed against the paladin of our national
self-preservation and our liberty. The strongest testimony in favour of
this unique institution is the fact that it was derided, hated and
fought against, but also feared, by worthless elements all round. The
fact that the international profiteers who gathered at Versailles,
further to exploit and plunder the nations directed their enmity
specially against the old German army proved once again that it deserved
to be regarded as the institution which protected the liberties of our
people against the forces of the international stock-exchange. If the
army had not been there to sound the alarm and stand on guard, the
purposes of the Versailles representatives would have been carried out
much sooner. There is only one word to express what the German people
owe to this army--Everything!
It was the army that still inculcated a sense of responsibility among
the people when this quality had become very rare and when the habit of
shirking every kind of responsibility was steadily spreading. This habit
had grown up under the evil influences of Parliament, which was itself
the very model of irresponsibility. The army trained the people to
personal courage at a time when the virtue of timidity threatened to
become an epidemic and when the spirit of sacrificing one's personal
interests for the good of the community was considered as something that
amounted almost to weak-mindedness. At a time when only those were
estimated as intelligent who knew how to safeguard and promote their own
egotistic interests, the army was the school through which individual
Germans were taught not to seek the salvation of their nation in the
false ideology of international fraternization between negroes, Germans,
Chinese, French and English, etc., but in the strength and unity of
their own national being.
The army developed the individual's powers of resolute decision, and
this at a time when a spirit of indecision and scepticism governed human
conduct. At a time when the wiseacres were everywhere setting the
fashion it needed courage to uphold the principle that any command is
better than none. This one principle represents a robust and sound style
of thought, of which not a trace would have been left in the other
branches of life if the army had not furnished a constant rejuvenation
of this fundamental force. A sufficient proof of this may be found in
the appalling lack of decision which our present government authorities
display. They cannot shake off their mental and moral lethargy and
decide on some definite line of action except when they are forced to
sign some new dictate for the exploitation of the German people. In that
case they decline all responsibility while at the same time they sign
everything which the other side places before them; and they sign with
the readiness of an official stenographer. Their conduct is here
explicable on the ground that in this case they are not under the
necessity of coming to a decision; for the decision is dictated to them.
The army imbued its members with a spirit of idealism and developed
their readiness to sacrifice themselves for their country and its
honour, while greed and materialism dominated in all the other branches
of life. The army united a people who were split up into classes: and in
this respect had only one defect, which was the One Year Military
Service, a privilege granted to those who had passed through the high
schools. It was a defect, because the principle of absolute equality was
thereby violated; and those who had a better education were thus placed
outside the cadres to which the rest of their comrades belonged. The
reverse would have been better. Since our upper classes were really
ignorant of what was going on in the body corporate of the nation and
were becoming more and more estranged from the life of the people, the
army would have accomplished a very beneficial mission if it had refused
to discriminate in favour of the so-called intellectuals, especially
within its own ranks. It was a mistake that this was not done; but in
this world of ours can we find any institution that has not at least one
defect? And in the army the good features were so absolutely predominant
that the few defects it had were far below the average that generally
rises from human weakness.
But the greatest credit which the army of the old Empire deserves is
that, at a time when the person of the individual counted for nothing
and the majority was everything, it placed individual personal values
above majority values. By insisting on its faith in personality, the
army opposed that typically Jewish and democratic apotheosis of the
power of numbers. The army trained what at that time was most surely
needed: namely, real men. In a period when men were falling a prey to
effeminacy and laxity, 350,000 vigorously trained young men went from
the ranks of the army each year to mingle with their fellow-men. In the
course of their two years' training they had lost the softness of their
young days and had developed bodies as tough as steel. The young man who
had been taught obedience for two years was now fitted to command. The
trained soldier could be recognized already by his walk.
This was the great school of the German nation; and it was not without
reason that it drew upon its head all the bitter hatred of those who
wanted the Empire to be weak and defenceless, because they were jealous
of its greatness and were themselves possessed by a spirit of rapacity
and greed. The rest of the world recognized a fact which many Germans
did not wish to see, either because they were blind to facts or because
out of malice they did not wish to see it. This fact was that the German
Army was the most powerful weapon for the defence and freedom of the
German nation and the best guarantee for the livelihood of its citizens.
There was a third institution of positive worth, which has to be placed
beside that of the monarchy and the army. This was the civil service.
German administration was better organized and better carried out than
the administration of other countries. There may have been objections to
the bureaucratic routine of the officials, but from this point of view
the state of affairs was similar, if not worse, in the other countries.
But the other States did not have the wonderful solidarity which this
organization possessed in Germany, nor were their civil servants of that
same high level of scrupulous honesty. It is certainly better to be a
trifle over-bureaucratic and honest and loyal than to be
over-sophisticated and modern, the latter often implying an inferior
type of character and also ignorance and inefficiency. For if it be
insinuated to-day that the German administration of the pre-War period
may have been excellent so far as bureaucratic technique goes, but that
from the practical business point of view it was incompetent, I can only
give the following reply: What other country in the world possessed a
better-organized and administered business enterprise than the German
State Railways, for instance? It was left to the Revolution to destroy
this standard organization, until a time came when it was taken out of
the hands of the nation and socialized, in the sense which the founders
of the Republic had given to that word, namely, making it subservient to
the international stock-exchange capitalists, who were the wire-pullers
of the German Revolution.
The most outstanding trait in the civil service and the whole body of
the civil administration was its independence of the vicissitudes of
government, the political mentality of which could exercise no influence
on the attitude of the German State officials. Since the Revolution this
situation has been completely changed. Efficiency and capability have
been replaced by the test of party-adherence; and independence of
character and initiative are no longer appreciated as positive qualities
in a public official. They rather tell against him.
The wonderful might and power of the old Empire was based on the
monarchical form of government, the army and the civil service. On these
three foundations rested that great strength which is now entirely
lacking; namely, the authority of the State. For the authority of the
State cannot be based on the babbling that goes on in Parliament or in
the provincial diets and not upon laws made to protect the State, or
upon sentences passed by the law courts to frighten those who have had
the hardihood to deny the authority of the State, but only on the
general confidence which the management and administration of the
community establishes among the people. This confidence is in its turn,
nothing else than the result of an unshakable inner conviction that the
government and administration of a country is inspired by disinterested
and honest goodwill and on the feeling that the spirit of the law is in
complete harmony with the moral convictions of the people. In the long
run, systems of government are not maintained by terrorism but on the
belief of the people in the merits and sincerity of those who administer
and promote the public interests.
Though it be true that in the period preceding the War certain grave
evils tended to infect and corrode the inner strength of the nation, it
must be remembered that the other States suffered even more than Germany
from these drawbacks and yet those other States did not fail and break
down when the time of crisis came. If we remember further that those
defects in pre-War Germany were outweighed by great positive qualities
we shall have to look elsewhere for the effective cause of the collapse.
And elsewhere it lay.
The ultimate and most profound reason of the German downfall is to be
found in the fact that the racial problem was ignored and that its
importance in the historical development of nations was not grasped. For
the events that take place in the life of nations are not due to chance
but are the natural results of the effort to conserve and multiply the
species and the race, even though men may not be able consciously to
picture to their minds the profound motives of their conduct.
CHAPTER XI
RACE AND PEOPLE
There are certain truths which stand out so openly on the roadsides of
life, as it were, that every passer-by may see them. Yet, because of
their very obviousness, the general run of people disregard such truths
or at least they do not make them the object of any conscious knowledge.
People are so blind to some of the simplest facts in every-day life that
they are highly surprised when somebody calls attention to what
everybody ought to know. Examples of The Columbus Egg lie around us in
hundreds of thousands; but observers like Columbus are rare.
Walking about in the garden of Nature, most men have the self-conceit to
think that they know everything; yet almost all are blind to one of the
outstanding principles that Nature employs in her work. This principle
may be called the inner isolation which characterizes each and every
living species on this earth.
Even a superficial glance is sufficient to show that all the innumerable
forms in which the life-urge of Nature manifests itself are subject to a
fundamental law--one may call it an iron law of Nature--which compels
the various species to keep within the definite limits of their own
life-forms when propagating and multiplying their kind. Each animal
mates only with one of its own species. The titmouse cohabits only with
the titmouse, the finch with the finch, the stork with the stork, the
field-mouse with the field-mouse, the house-mouse with the house-mouse,
the wolf with the she-wolf, etc.
Deviations from this law take place only in exceptional circumstances.
This happens especially under the compulsion of captivity, or when some
other obstacle makes procreative intercourse impossible between
individuals of the same species. But then Nature abhors such intercourse
with all her might; and her protest is most clearly demonstrated by the
fact that the hybrid is either sterile or the fecundity of its
descendants is limited. In most cases hybrids and their progeny are
denied the ordinary powers of resistance to disease or the natural means
of defence against outer attack.
Such a dispensation of Nature is quite logical. Every crossing between
two breeds which are not quite equal results in a product which holds an
intermediate place between the levels of the two parents. This means
that the offspring will indeed be superior to the parent which stands in
the biologically lower order of being, but not so high as the higher
parent. For this reason it must eventually succumb in any struggle
against the higher species. Such mating contradicts the will of Nature
towards the selective improvements of life in general. The favourable
preliminary to this improvement is not to mate individuals of higher and
lower orders of being but rather to allow the complete triumph of the
higher order. The stronger must dominate and not mate with the weaker,
which would signify the sacrifice of its own higher nature. Only the
born weakling can look upon this principle as cruel, and if he does so
it is merely because he is of a feebler nature and narrower mind; for if
such a law did not direct the process of evolution then the higher
development of organic life would not be conceivable at all.
This urge for the maintenance of the unmixed breed, which is a
phenomenon that prevails throughout the whole of the natural world,
results not only in the sharply defined outward distinction between one
species and another but also in the internal similarity of
characteristic qualities which are peculiar to each breed or species.
The fox remains always a fox, the goose remains a goose, and the tiger
will retain the character of a tiger. The only difference that can exist
within the species must be in the various degrees of structural strength
and active power, in the intelligence, efficiency, endurance, etc., with
which the individual specimens are endowed. It would be impossible to
find a fox which has a kindly and protective disposition towards geese,
just as no cat exists which has a friendly disposition towards mice.
That is why the struggle between the various species does not arise from
a feeling of mutual antipathy but rather from hunger and love. In both
cases Nature looks on calmly and is even pleased with what happens. The
struggle for the daily livelihood leaves behind in the ruck everything
that is weak or diseased or wavering; while the fight of the male to
possess the female gives to the strongest the right, or at least, the
possibility to propagate its kind. And this struggle is a means of
furthering the health and powers of resistance in the species. Thus it
is one of the causes underlying the process of development towards a
higher quality of being.
If the case were different the progressive process would cease, and even
retrogression might set in. Since the inferior always outnumber the
superior, the former would always increase more rapidly if they
possessed the same capacities for survival and for the procreation of
their kind; and the final consequence would be that the best in quality
would be forced to recede into the background. Therefore a corrective
measure in favour of the better quality must intervene. Nature supplies
this by establishing rigorous conditions of life to which the weaker
will have to submit and will thereby be numerically restricted; but even
that portion which survives cannot indiscriminately multiply, for here a
new and rigorous selection takes place, according to strength and
health.
If Nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the
stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle
with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout
hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher
stage of being, may thus be rendered futile.
History furnishes us with innumerable instances that prove this law. It
shows, with a startling clarity, that whenever Aryans have mingled their
blood with that of an inferior race the result has been the downfall of
the people who were the standard-bearers of a higher culture. In North
America, where the population is prevalently Teutonic, and where those
elements intermingled with the inferior race only to a very small
degree, we have a quality of mankind and a civilization which are
different from those of Central and South America. In these latter
countries the immigrants--who mainly belonged to the Latin races--mated
with the aborigines, sometimes to a very large extent indeed. In this
case we have a clear and decisive example of the effect produced by the
mixture of races. But in North America the Teutonic element, which has
kept its racial stock pure and did not mix it with any other racial
stock, has come to dominate the American Continent and will remain
master of it as long as that element does not fall a victim to the habit
of adulterating its blood.
In short, the results of miscegenation are always the following:
(a) The level of the superior race becomes lowered;
(b) physical and mental degeneration sets in, thus leading slowly but
steadily towards a progressive drying up of the vital sap.
The act which brings about such a development is a sin against the will
of the Eternal Creator. And as a sin this act will be avenged.
Man's effort to build up something that contradicts the iron logic of
Nature brings him into conflict with those principles to which he
himself exclusively owes his own existence. By acting against the laws
of Nature he prepares the way that leads to his ruin.
Here we meet the insolent objection, which is Jewish in its inspiration
and is typical of the modern pacifist. It says: "Man can control even
Nature."
There are millions who repeat by rote that piece of Jewish babble and
end up by imagining that somehow they themselves are the conquerors of
Nature. And yet their only weapon is just a mere idea, and a very
preposterous idea into the bargain; because if one accepted it, then it
would be impossible even to imagine the existence of the world.
The real truth is that, not only has man failed to overcome Nature in
any sphere whatsoever but that at best he has merely succeeded in
getting hold of and lifting a tiny corner of the enormous veil which she
has spread over her eternal mysteries and secret. He never creates
anything. All he can do is to discover something. He does not master
Nature but has only come to be the master of those living beings who
have not gained the knowledge he has arrived at by penetrating into some
of Nature's laws and mysteries. Apart from all this, an idea can never
subject to its own sway those conditions which are necessary for the
existence and development of mankind; for the idea itself has come only
from man. Without man there would be no human idea in this world. The
idea as such is therefore always dependent on the existence of man and
consequently is dependent on those laws which furnish the conditions of
his existence.
And not only that. Certain ideas are even confined to certain people.
This holds true with regard to those ideas in particular which have not
their roots in objective scientific truth but in the world of feeling.
In other words, to use a phrase which is current to-day and which well
and clearly expresses this truth: THEY REFLECT AN INNER EXPERIENCE. All
such ideas, which have nothing to do with cold logic as such but
represent mere manifestations of feeling, such as ethical and moral
conceptions, etc., are inextricably bound up with man's existence. It is
to the creative powers of man's imagination that such ideas owe their
existence.
Now, then, a necessary condition for the maintenance of such ideas is
the existence of certain races and certain types of men. For example,
anyone who sincerely wishes that the pacifist idea should prevail in
this world ought to do all he is capable of doing to help the Germans
conquer the world; for in case the reverse should happen it may easily
be that the last pacifist would disappear with the last German. I say
this because, unfortunately, only our people, and no other people in the
world, fell a prey to this idea. Whether you like it or not, you would
have to make up your mind to forget wars if you would achieve the
pacifist ideal. Nothing less than this was the plan of the American
world-redeemer, Woodrow Wilson. Anyhow that was what our visionaries
believed, and they thought that through his plans their ideals would be
attained.
The pacifist-humanitarian idea may indeed become an excellent one when
the most superior type of manhood will have succeeded in subjugating the
world to such an extent that this type is then sole master of the earth.
This idea could have an injurious effect only in the measure according
to which its application would become difficult and finally impossible.
So, first of all, the fight and then pacifism. If the case were
different it would mean that mankind has already passed the zenith of
its development, and accordingly the end would not be the supremacy of
some moral ideal but degeneration into barbarism and consequent chaos.
People may laugh at this statement; but our planet has been moving
through the spaces of ether for millions and millions of years,
uninhabited by men, and at some future date may easily begin to do so
again--if men should forget that wherever they have reached a superior
level of existence, it was not the result of following the ideas of
crazy visionaries but by acknowledging and rigorously observing the iron
laws of Nature.
All that we admire in the world to-day, its science, its art, its
technical developments and discoveries, are the products of the creative
activities of a few peoples, and it may be true that their first
beginnings must be attributed to one race. The maintenance of
civilization is wholly dependent on such peoples. Should they perish,
all that makes this earth beautiful will descend with them into the
grave.
However great, for example, be the influence which the soil exerts on
men, this influence will always vary according to the race in which it
produces its effect. Dearth of soil may stimulate one race to the most
strenuous efforts and highest achievement; while, for another race, the
poverty of the soil may be the cause of misery and finally of
undernourishment, with all its consequences. The internal
characteristics of a people are always the causes which determine the
nature of the effect that outer circumstances have on them. What reduces
one race to starvation trains another race to harder work.
All the great civilizations of the past became decadent because the
originally creative race died out, as a result of contamination of the
blood.
The most profound cause of such a decline is to be found in the fact
that the people ignored the principle that all culture depends on men,
and not the reverse. In other words, in order to preserve a certain
culture, the type of manhood that creates such a culture must be
preserved. But such a preservation goes hand-in-hand with the inexorable
law that it is the strongest and the best who must triumph and that they
have the right to endure.
He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this
world, where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to
exist.
Such a saying may sound hard; but, after all, that is how the matter
really stands. Yet far harder is the lot of him who believes that he can
overcome Nature and thus in reality insults her. Distress, misery, and
disease are her rejoinders.
Whoever ignores or despises the laws of race really deprives himself of
the happiness to which he believes he can attain. For he places an
obstacle in the victorious path of the superior race and, by so doing,
he interferes with a prerequisite condition of all human progress.
Loaded with the burden of humanitarian sentiment, he falls back to the
level of those who are unable to raise themselves in the scale of being.
It would be futile to attempt to discuss the question as to what race or
races were the original standard-bearers of human culture and were
thereby the real founders of all that we understand by the word
humanity. It is much simpler to deal with this question in so far as it
relates to the present time. Here the answer is simple and clear. Every
manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and
technical skill, which we see before our eyes to-day, is almost
exclusively the product of the Aryan creative power. This very fact
fully justifies the conclusion that it was the Aryan alone who founded a
superior type of humanity; therefore he represents the architype of what
we understand by the term: MAN. He is the Prometheus of mankind, from
whose shining brow the divine spark of genius has at all times flashed
forth, always kindling anew that fire which, in the form of knowledge,
illuminated the dark night by drawing aside the veil of mystery and thus
showing man how to rise and become master over all the other beings on
the earth. Should he be forced to disappear, a profound darkness will
descend on the earth; within a few thousand years human culture will
vanish and the world will become a desert.
If we divide mankind into three categories--founders of culture, bearers
of culture, and destroyers of culture--the Aryan alone can be considered
as representing the first category. It was he who laid the groundwork
and erected the walls of every great structure in human culture. Only
the shape and colour of such structures are to be attributed to the
individual characteristics of the various nations. It is the Aryan who
has furnished the great building-stones and plans for the edifices of
all human progress; only the way in which these plans have been executed
is to be attributed to the qualities of each individual race. Within a
few decades the whole of Eastern Asia, for instance, appropriated a
culture and called such a culture its own, whereas the basis of that
culture was the Greek mind and Teutonic skill as we know it. Only the
external form--at least to a certain degree--shows the traits of an
Asiatic inspiration. It is not true, as some believe, that Japan adds
European technique to a culture of her own. The truth rather is that
European science and technics are just decked out with the peculiar
characteristics of Japanese civilization. The foundations of actual life
in Japan to-day are not those of the native Japanese culture, although
this characterizes the external features of the country, which features
strike the eye of European observers on account of their fundamental
difference from us; but the real foundations of contemporary Japanese
life are the enormous scientific and technical achievements of Europe
and America, that is to say, of Aryan peoples. Only by adopting these
achievements as the foundations of their own progress can the various
nations of the Orient take a place in contemporary world progress. The
scientific and technical achievements of Europe and America provide the
basis on which the struggle for daily livelihood is carried on in the
Orient. They provide the necessary arms and instruments for this
struggle, and only the outer forms of these instruments have become
gradually adapted to Japanese ways of life.
If, from to-day onwards, the Aryan influence on Japan would cease--and
if we suppose that Europe and America would collapse--then the present
progress of Japan in science and technique might still last for a short
duration; but within a few decades the inspiration would dry up, and
native Japanese character would triumph, while the present civilization
would become fossilized and fall back into the sleep from which it was
aroused about seventy years ago by the impact of Aryan culture. We may
therefore draw the conclusion that, just as the present Japanese
development has been due to Aryan influence, so in the immemorial past
an outside influence and an outside culture brought into existence the
Japanese culture of that day. This opinion is very strongly supported by
the fact that the ancient civilization of Japan actually became
fossilizied and petrified. Such a process of senility can happen only if
a people loses the racial cell which originally had been creative or if
the outside influence should be withdrawn after having awakened and
maintained the first cultural developments in that region. If it be
shown that a people owes the fundamental elements of its culture to
foreign races, assimilating and elaborating such elements, and if
subsequently that culture becomes fossilized whenever the external
influence ceases, then such a race may be called the depository but
never the creator of a culture.
If we subject the different peoples to a strict test from this
standpoint we shall find that scarcely any one of them has originally
created a culture, but almost all have been merely the recipients of a
culture created elsewhere.
This development may be depicted as always happening somewhat in the
following way:
Aryan tribes, often almost ridiculously small in number, subjugated
foreign peoples and, stimulated by the conditions of life which their
new country offered them (fertility, the nature of the climate, etc.),
and profiting also by the abundance of manual labour furnished them by
the inferior race, they developed intellectual and organizing faculties
which had hitherto been dormant in these conquering tribes. Within the
course of a few thousand years, or even centuries, they gave life to
cultures whose primitive traits completely corresponded to the character
of the founders, though modified by adaptation to the peculiarities of
the soil and the characteristics of the subjugated people. But finally
the conquering race offended against the principles which they first had
observed, namely, the maintenance of their racial stock unmixed, and
they began to intermingle with the subjugated people. Thus they put an
end to their own separate existence; for the original sin committed in
Paradise has always been followed by the expulsion of the guilty
parties.
After a thousand years or more the last visible traces of those former
masters may then be found in a lighter tint of the skin which the Aryan
blood had bequeathed to the subjugated race, and in a fossilized culture
of which those Aryans had been the original creators. For just as the
blood. of the conqueror, who was a conqueror not only in body but also
in spirit, got submerged in the blood of the subject race, so the
substance disappeared out of which the torch of human culture and
progress was kindled. In so far as the blood of the former ruling race
has left a light nuance of colour in the blood of its descendants, as a
token and a memory, the night of cultural life is rendered less dim and
dark by a mild light radiated from the products of those who were the
bearers of the original fire. Their radiance shines across the barbarism
to which the subjected race has reverted and might often lead the
superficial observer to believe that he sees before him an image of the
present race when he is really looking into a mirror wherein only the
past is reflected.
It may happen that in the course of its history such a people will come
into contact a second time, and even oftener, with the original founders
of their culture and may not even remember that distant association.
Instinctively the remnants of blood left from that old ruling race will
be drawn towards this new phenomenon and what had formerly been possible
only under compulsion can now be successfully achieved in a voluntary
way. A new cultural wave flows in and lasts until the blood of its
standard-bearers becomes once again adulterated by intermixture with the
originally conquered race.
It will be the task of those who set themselves to the study of a
universal history of civilization to investigate history from this point
of view instead of allowing themselves to be smothered under the mass of
external data, as is only too often the case with our present historical
science.
This short sketch of the changes that take place among those races that
are only the depositories of a culture also furnishes a picture of the
development and the activity and the disappearance of those who are the
true founders of culture on this earth, namely the Aryans themselves.
Just as in our daily life the so-called man of genius needs a particular
occasion, and sometimes indeed a special stimulus, to bring his genius
to light, so too in the life of the peoples the race that has genius in
it needs the occasion and stimulus to bring that genius to expression.
In the monotony and routine of everyday life even persons of
significance seem just like the others and do not rise beyond the
average level of their fellow-men. But as soon as such men find
themselves in a special situation which disconcerts and unbalances the
others, the humble person of apparently common qualities reveals traits
of genius, often to the amazement of those who have hitherto known him
in the small things of everyday life. That is the reason why a prophet
only seldom counts for something in his own country. War offers an
excellent occasion for observing this phenomenon. In times of distress,
when the others despair, apparently harmless boys suddenly spring up and
become heroes, full of determination, undaunted in the presence of Death
and manifesting wonderful powers of calm reflection under such
circumstances. If such an hour of trial did not come nobody would have
thought that the soul of a hero lurked in the body of that beardless
youth. A special impulse is almost always necessary to bring a man of
genius into the foreground. The sledge-hammer of Fate which strikes down
the one so easily suddenly finds the counter-impact of steel when it
strikes at the other. And, after the common shell of everyday life is
broken, the core that lay hidden in it is displayed to the eyes of an
astonished world. This surrounding world then grows obstinate and will
not believe that what had seemed so like itself is really of that
different quality so suddenly displayed. This is a process which is
repeated probably every time a man of outstanding significance appears.
Though an inventor, for example, does not establish his fame until the
very day that he carries through his invention, it would be a mistake to
believe that the creative genius did not become alive in him until that
moment. From the very hour of his birth the spark of genius is living
within the man who has been endowed with the real creative faculty. True
genius is an innate quality. It can never be the result of education or
training.
As I have stated already, this holds good not merely of the individual
but also of the race. Those peoples who manifest creative abilities in
certain periods of their history have always been fundamentally
creative. It belongs to their very nature, even though this fact may
escape the eyes of the superficial observer. Here also recognition from
outside is only the consequence of practical achievement. Since the rest
of the world is incapable of recognizing genius as such, it can only see
the visible manifestations of genius in the form of inventions,
discoveries, buildings, painting, etc.; but even here a long time passes
before recognition is given. Just as the individual person who has been
endowed with the gift of genius, or at least talent of a very high
order, cannot bring that endowment to realization until he comes under
the urge of special circumstances, so in the life of the nations the
creative capacities and powers frequently have to wait until certain
conditions stimulate them to action.
The most obvious example of this truth is furnished by that race which
has been, and still is, the standard-bearer of human progress: I mean
the Aryan race. As soon as Fate brings them face to face with special
circumstances their powers begin to develop progressively and to be
manifested in tangible form. The characteristic cultures which they
create under such circumstances are almost always conditioned by the
soil, the climate and the people they subjugate. The last factor--that
of the character of the people--is the most decisive one. The more
primitive the technical conditions under which the civilizing activity
takes place, the more necessary is the existence of manual labour which
can be organized and employed so as to take the place of mechanical
power. Had it not been possible for them to employ members of the
inferior race which they conquered, the Aryans would never have been in
a position to take the first steps on the road which led them to a later
type of culture; just as, without the help of certain suitable animals
which they were able to tame, they would never have come to the
invention of mechanical power which has subsequently enabled them to do
without these beasts. The phrase, 'The Moor has accomplished his
function, so let him now depart', has, unfortunately, a profound
application. For thousands of years the horse has been the faithful
servant of man and has helped him to lay the foundations of human
progress, but now motor power has dispensed with the use of the horse.
In a few years to come the use of the horse will cease entirely; and yet
without its collaboration man could scarcely have come to the stage of
development which he has now created.
For the establishment of superior types of civilization the members of
inferior races formed one of the most essential pre-requisites. They
alone could supply the lack of mechanical means without which no
progress is possible. It is certain that the first stages of human
civilization were not based so much on the use of tame animals as on the
employment of human beings who were members of an inferior race.
Only after subjugated races were employed as slaves was a similar fate
allotted to animals, and not vice versa, as some people would have us
believe. At first it was the conquered enemy who had to draw the plough
and only afterwards did the ox and horse take his place. Nobody else but
puling pacifists can consider this fact as a sign of human degradation.
Such people fail to recognize that this evolution had to take place in
order that man might reach that degree of civilization which these
apostles now exploit in an attempt to make the world pay attention to
their rigmarole.
The progress of mankind may be compared to the process of ascending an
infinite ladder. One does not reach the higher level without first
having climbed the lower rungs. The Aryan therefore had to take that
road which his sense of reality pointed out to him and not that which
the modern pacifist dreams of. The path of reality is, however,
difficult and hard to tread; yet it is the only one which finally leads
to the goal where the others envisage mankind in their dreams. But the
real truth is that those dreamers help only to lead man away from his
goal rather than towards it.
It was not by mere chance that the first forms of civilization arose
there where the Aryan came into contact with inferior races, subjugated
them and forced them to obey his command. The members of the inferior
race became the first mechanical tools in the service of a growing
civilization.
Thereby the way was clearly indicated which the Aryan had to follow. As
a conqueror, he subjugated inferior races and turned their physical
powers into organized channels under his own leadership, forcing them to
follow his will and purpose. By imposing on them a useful, though hard,
manner of employing their powers he not only spared the lives of those
whom he had conquered but probably made their lives easier than these
had been in the former state of so-called 'freedom'. While he ruthlessly
maintained his position as their master, he not only remained master but
he also maintained and advanced civilization. For this depended
exclusively on his inborn abilities and, therefore, on the preservation
of the Aryan race as such. As soon, however, as his subject began to
rise and approach the level of their conqueror, a phase of which
ascension was probably the use of his language, the barriers that had
distinguished master from servant broke down. The Aryan neglected to
maintain his own racial stock unmixed and therewith lost the right to
live in the paradise which he himself had created. He became submerged
in the racial mixture and gradually lost his cultural creativeness,
until he finally grew, not only mentally but also physically, more like
the aborigines whom he had subjected rather than his own ancestors. For
some time he could continue to live on the capital of that culture which
still remained; but a condition of fossilization soon set in and he sank
into oblivion.
That is how cultures and empires decline and yield their places to new
formations.
The adulteration of the blood and racial deterioration conditioned
thereby are the only causes that account for the decline of ancient
civilizations; for it is never by war that nations are ruined, but by
the loss of their powers of resistance, which are exclusively a
characteristic of pure racial blood. In this world everything that is
not of sound racial stock is like chaff. Every historical event in the
world is nothing more nor less than a manifestation of the instinct of
racial self-preservation, whether for weal or woe.
The question as to the ground reasons for the predominant importance of
Aryanism can be answered by pointing out that it is not so much that the
Aryans are endowed with a stronger instinct for self-preservation, but
rather that this manifests itself in a way which is peculiar to
themselves. Considered from the subjective standpoint, the will-to-live
is of course equally strong all round and only the forms in which it is
expressed are different. Among the most primitive organisms the instinct
for self-preservation does not extend beyond the care of the individual
ego. Egotism, as we call this passion, is so predominant that it
includes even the time element; which means that the present moment is
deemed the most important and that nothing is left to the future. The
animal lives only for itself, searching for food only when it feels
hunger and fighting only for the preservation of its own life. As long
as the instinct for self-preservation manifests itself exclusively in
such a way, there is no basis for the establishment of a community; not
even the most primitive form of all, that is to say the family. The
society formed by the male with the female, where it goes beyond the
mere conditions of mating, calls for the extension of the instinct of
self-preservation, since the readiness to fight for one's own ego has to
be extended also to the mate. The male sometimes provides food for the
female, but in most cases both parents provide food for the offspring.
Almost always they are ready to protect and defend each other; so that
here we find the first, though infinitely simple, manifestation of the
spirit of sacrifice. As soon as this spirit extends beyond the narrow
limits of the family, we have the conditions under which larger
associations and finally even States can be formed.
The lowest species of human beings give evidence of this quality only to
a very small degree, so that often they do not go beyond the formation
of the family society. With an increasing readiness to place their
immediate personal interests in the background, the capacity for
organizing more extensive communities develops.
The readiness to sacrifice one's personal work and, if necessary, even
one's life for others shows its most highly developed form in the Aryan
race. The greatness of the Aryan is not based on his intellectual
powers, but rather on his willingness to devote all his faculties to the
service of the community. Here the instinct for self-preservation has
reached its noblest form; for the Aryan willingly subordinates his own
ego to the common weal and when necessity calls he will even sacrifice
his own life for the community.
The constructive powers of the Aryan and that peculiar ability he has
for the building up of a culture are not grounded in his intellectual
gifts alone. If that were so they might only be destructive and could
never have the ability to organize; for the latter essentially depends
on the readiness of the individual to renounce his own personal opinions
and interests and to lay both at the service of the human group. By
serving the common weal he receives his reward in return. For example,
he does not work directly for himself but makes his productive work a
part of the activity of the group to which he belongs, not only for his
own benefit but for the general. The spirit underlying this attitude is
expressed by the word: WORK, which to him does not at all signify a
means of earning one's daily livelihood but rather a productive activity
which cannot clash with the interests of the community. Whenever human
activity is directed exclusively to the service of the instinct for
self-preservation it is called theft or usury, robbery or burglary, etc.
This mental attitude, which forces self-interest to recede into the
background in favour of the common weal, is the first prerequisite for
any kind of really human civilization. It is out of this spirit alone
that great human achievements have sprung for which the original doers
have scarcely ever received any recompense but which turns out to be the
source of abundant benefit for their descendants. It is this spirit
alone which can explain why it so often happens that people can endure a
harsh but honest existence which offers them no returns for their toil
except a poor and modest livelihood. But such a livelihood helps to
consolidate the foundations on which the community exists. Every worker
and every peasant, every inventor, state official, etc., who works
without ever achieving fortune or prosperity for himself, is a
representative of this sublime idea, even though he may never become
conscious of the profound meaning of his own activity.
Everything that may be said of that kind of work which is the
fundamental condition of providing food and the basic means of human
progress is true even in a higher sense of work that is done for the
protection of man and his civilization. The renunciation of one's own
life for the sake of the community is the crowning significance of the
idea of all sacrifice. In this way only is it possible to protect what
has been built up by man and to assure that this will not be destroyed
by the hand of man or of nature.
In the German language we have a word which admirably expresses this
underlying spirit of all work: It is Pflichterfüllung, which means the
service of the common weal before the consideration of one's own
interests. The fundamental spirit out of which this kind of activity
springs is the contradistinction of 'Egotism' and we call it 'Idealism'.
By this we mean to signify the willingness of the individual to make
sacrifices for the community and his fellow-men.
It is of the utmost importance to insist again and again that idealism
is not merely a superfluous manifestation of sentiment but rather
something which has been, is and always will be, a necessary
precondition of human civilization; it is even out of this that the very
idea of the word 'Human' arises. To this kind of mentality the Aryan
owes his position in the world. And the world is indebted to the Aryan
mind for having developed the concept of 'mankind'; for it is out of
this spirit alone that the creative force has come which in a unique way
combined robust muscular power with a first-class intellect and thus
created the monuments of human civilization.
Were it not for idealism all the faculties of the intellect, even the
most brilliant, would be nothing but intellect itself, a mere external
phenomenon without inner value and never a creative force.
Since true idealism, however, is essentially the subordination of the
interests and life of the individual to the interests and life of the
community, and since the community on its part represents the
pre-requisite condition of every form of organization, this idealism
accords in its innermost essence with the final purpose of Nature. This
feeling alone makes men voluntarily acknowledge that strength and power
are entitled to take the lead and thus makes them a constituent particle
in that order out of which the whole universe is shaped and formed.
Without being conscious of it, the purest idealism is always associated
with the most profound knowledge. How true this is and how little
genuine idealism has to do with fantastic self-dramatization will become
clear the moment we ask an unspoilt child, a healthy boy for example, to
give his opinion. The very same boy who listens to the rantings of an
'idealistic' pacifist without understanding them, and even rejects them,
would readily sacrifice his young life for the ideal of his people.
Unconsciously his instinct will submit to the knowledge that the
preservation of the species, even at the cost of the individual life, is
a primal necessity and he will protest against the fantasies of pacifist
ranters, who in reality are nothing better than cowardly egoists, even
though camouflaged, who contradict the laws of human development. For it
is a necessity of human evolution that the individual should be imbued
with the spirit of sacrifice in favour of the common weal, and that he
should not be influenced by the morbid notions of those knaves who
pretend to know better than Nature and who have the impudencc to
criticize her decrees.
It is just at those junctures when the idealistic attitude threatens to
disappear that we notice a weakening of this force which is a necessary
constituent in the founding and maintenance of the community and is
thereby a necessary condition of civilization. As soon as the spirit of
egotism begins to prevail among a people then the bonds of the social
order break and man, by seeking his own personal happiness, veritably
tumbles out of heaven and falls into hell.
Posterity will not remember those who pursued only their own individual
interests, but it will praise those heroes who renounced their own
happiness.
The Jew offers the most striking contrast to the Aryan. There is
probably no other people in the world who have so developed the instinct
of self-preservation as the so-called 'chosen' people. The best proof of
this statement is found in the simple fact that this race still exists.
Where can another people be found that in the course of the last two
thousand years has undergone so few changes in mental outlook and
character as the Jewish people? And yet what other people has taken such
a constant part in the great revolutions? But even after having passed
through the most gigantic catastrophes that have overwhelmed mankind,
the Jews remain the same as ever. What an infinitely tenacious
will-to-live, to preserve one's kind, is demonstrated by that fact!
The intellectual faculties of the Jew have been trained through
thousands of years. To-day the Jew is looked upon as specially
'cunning'; and in a certain sense he has been so throughout the ages.
His intellectual powers, however, are not the result of an inner
evolution but rather have been shaped by the object-lessons which the
Jew has received from others. The human spirit cannot climb upwards
without taking successive steps. For every step upwards it needs the
foundation of what has been constructed before--the past--which in, the
comprehensive sense here employed, can have been laid only in a general
civilization. All thinking originates only to a very small degree in
personal experience. The largest part is based on the accumulated
experiences of the past. The general level of civilization provides the
individual, who in most cases is not consciously aware of the fact, with
such an abundance of preliminary knowledge that with this equipment he
can more easily take further steps on the road of progress. The boy of
to-day, for example, grows up among such an overwhelming mass of
technical achievement which has accumulated during the last century that
he takes as granted many things which a hundred years ago were still
mysteries even to the greatest minds of those times. Yet these things
that are not so much a matter of course are of enormous importance to
those who would understand the progress we have made in these matters
and would carry on that progress a step farther. If a man of genius
belonging to the 'twenties of the last century were to arise from his
grave to-day he would find it more difficult to understand our present
age than the contemporary boy of fifteen years of age who may even have
only an average intelligence. The man of genius, thus come back from the
past, would need to provide himself with an extraordinary amount of
preliminary information which our contemporary youth receive
automatically, so to speak, during the time they are growing up among
the products of our modern civilization.
Since the Jew--for reasons that I shall deal with immediately--never had
a civilization of his own, he has always been furnished by others with a
basis for his: intellectual work. His intellect has always developed by
the use of those cultural achievements which he has found ready-to-hand
around him.
The process has never been the reverse.
For, though among the Jews the instinct of self-preservation has not
been weaker but has been much stronger than among other peoples, and
though the impression may easily be created that the intellectual powers
of the Jew are at least equal to those of other races, the Jews
completely lack the most essential pre-requisite of a cultural people,
namely the idealistic spirit. With the Jewish people the readiness for
sacrifice does not extend beyond the simple instinct of individual
preservation. In their case the feeling of racial solidarity which they
apparently manifest is nothing but a very primitive gregarious instinct,
similar to that which may be found among other organisms in this world.
It is a remarkable fact that this herd instinct brings individuals
together for mutual protection only as long as there is a common danger
which makes mutual assistance expedient or inevitable. The same pack of
wolves which a moment ago joined together in a common attack on their
victim will dissolve into individual wolves as soon as their hunger has
been satisfied. This is also sure of horses, which unite to defend
themselves against any aggressor but separate the moment the danger is
over.
It is much the same with the Jew. His spirit of sacrifice is only
apparent. It manifests itself only so long as the existence of the
individual makes this a matter of absolute necessity. But as soon as the
common foe is conquered and the danger which threatened the individual
Jews is overcome and the prey secured, then the apparent harmony
disappears and the original conditions set in again. Jews act in concord
only when a common danger threatens them or a common prey attracts them.
Where these two motives no longer exist then the most brutal egotism
appears and these people who before had lived together in unity will
turn into a swarm of rats that bitterly fight against each other.
If the Jews were the only people in the world they would be wallowing in
filth and mire and would exploit one another and try to exterminate one
another in a bitter struggle, except in so far as their utter lack of
the ideal of sacrifice, which shows itself in their cowardly spirit,
would prevent this struggle from developing.
Therefore it would be a complete mistake to interpret the mutual help
which the Jews render one another when they have to fight--or, to put it
more accurately, to exploit--their fellow being, as the expression of a
certain idealistic spirit of sacrifice.
Here again the Jew merely follows the call of his individual egotism.
That is why the Jewish State, which ought to be a vital organization to
serve the purpose of preserving or increasing the race, has absolutely
no territorial boundaries. For the territorial delimitation of a State
always demands a certain idealism of spirit on the part of the race
which forms that State and especially a proper acceptance of the idea of
work. A State which is territorially delimited cannot be established or
maintained unless the general attitude towards work be a positive one.
If this attitude be lacking, then the necessary basis of a civilization
is also lacking.
That is why the Jewish people, despite the intellectual powers with
which they are apparently endowed, have not a culture--certainly not a
culture of their own. The culture which the Jew enjoys to-day is the
product of the work of others and this product is debased in the hands
of the Jew.
In order to form a correct judgment of the place which the Jew holds in
relation to the whole problem of human civilization, we must bear in
mind the essential fact that there never has been any Jewish art and
consequently that nothing of this kind exists to-day. We must realize
that especially in those two royal domains of art, namely architecture
and music, the Jew has done no original creative work. When the Jew
comes to producing something in the field of art he merely bowdler-izes
something already in existence or simply steals the intellectual word,
of others. The Jew essentially lacks those qualities which are
characteristic of those creative races that are the founders of
civilization.
To what extent the Jew appropriates the civilization built up by
others--or rather corrupts it, to speak more accurately--is indicated by
the fact that he cultivates chiefly the art which calls for the smallest
amount of original invention, namely the dramatic art. And even here he
is nothing better than a kind of juggler or, perhaps more correctly
speaking, a kind of monkey imitator; for in this domain also he lacks
the creative elan which is necessary for the production of all really
great work. Even here, therefore, he is not a creative genius but rather
a superficial imitator who, in spite of all his retouching and tricks,
cannot disguise the fact that there is no inner vitality in the shape he
gives his products. At this juncture the Jewish Press comes in and
renders friendly assistance by shouting hosannas over the head of even
the most ordinary bungler of a Jew, until the rest of the world is
stampeded into thinking that the object of so much praise must really be
an artist, whereas in reality he may be nothing more than a low-class
mimic.
No; the Jews have not the creative abilities which are necessary to the
founding of a civilization; for in them there is not, and never has
been, that spirit of idealism which is an absolutely necessary element
in the higher development of mankind. Therefore the Jewish intellect
will never be constructive but always destructive. At best it may serve
as a stimulus in rare cases but only within the meaning of the poet's
lines: 'THE POWER WHICH ALWAYS WILLS THE BAD, AND ALWAYS WORKS THE GOOD'
(KRAFT, DIE STETS DAS BÖSE WILL UND STETS DAS GUTE SCHAFFT). (Note 15) It
is not through his help but in spite of his help that mankind makes any
progress.
[Note 15. When Mephistopheles first appears to Faust, in the latter's
study, Faust inquires: "What is thy name?" To which Mephistopheles
replies: "A part ofthe Power which always wills the Bad and always works
the Good." And when Faust asks him what is meant by this riddle and why he
should call himself'a part,' the gist of Mephistopheles' reply is that he
is the Spirit of Negation and exists through opposition to the positive
Truth and Order and Beauty which proceed from the never-ending creative
energy of the Deity. In the Prologue to Faust the Lord declares that
man's active nature would grow sluggishin working the good and that
therefore he has to be aroused by the Spirit of Opposition. This Spirit
wills the Bad, but of itself it can do nothing positive, and by its
opposition always works the opposite of what it wills.]
Since the Jew has never had a State which was based on territorial
delimitations, and therefore never a civilization of his own, the idea
arose that here we were dealing with a people who had to be considered
as Nomads. That is a great and mischievous mistake. The true nomad does
actually possess a definite delimited territory where he lives. It is
merely that he does not cultivate it, as the settled farmer does, but
that he lives on the products of his herds, with which he wanders over
his domain. The natural reason for this mode of existence is to be found
in the fact that the soil is not fertile and that it does not give the
steady produce which makes a fixed abode possible. Outside of this
natural cause, however, there is a more profound cause: namely, that no
mechanical civilization is at hand to make up for the natural poverty of
the region in question. There are territories where the Aryan can
establish fixed settlements by means of the technical skill which he has
developed in the course of more than a thousand years, even though these
territories would otherwise have to be abandoned, unless the Aryan were
willing to wander about them in nomadic fashion; but his technical
tradition and his age-long experience of the use of technical means
would probably make the nomadic life unbearable for him. We ought to
remember that during the first period of American colonization numerous
Aryans earned their daily livelihood as trappers and hunters, etc.,
frequently wandering about in large groups with their women and
children, their mode of existence very much resembling that of ordinary
nomads. The moment, however, that they grew more numerous and were able
to accumulate larger resources, they cleared the land and drove out the
aborigines, at the same time establishing settlements which rapidly
increased all over the country.
The Aryan himself was probably at first a nomad and became a settler in
the course of ages. But yet he was never of the Jewish kind. The Jew is
not a nomad; for the nomad has already a definite attitude towards the
concept of 'work', and this attitude served as the basis of a later
cultural development, when the necessary intellectual conditions were at
hand. There is a certain amount of idealism in the general attitude of
the nomad, even though it be rather primitive. His whole character may,
therefore, be foreign to Aryan feeling but it will never be repulsive.
But not even the slightest trace of idealism exists in the Jewish
character. The Jew has never been a nomad, but always a parasite,
battening on the substance of others. If he occasionally abandoned
regions where he had hitherto lived he did not do it voluntarily. He did
it because from time to time he was driven out by people who were tired
of having their hospitality abused by such guests. Jewish self-expansion
is a parasitic phenomenon--since the Jew is always looking for new
pastures for his race.
But this has nothing to do with nomadic life as such; because the Jew
does not ever think of leaving a territory which he has once occupied.
He sticks where he is with such tenacity that he can hardly be driven
out even by superior physical force. He expands into new territories
only when certain conditions for his existence are provided therein; but
even then--unlike the nomad--he will not change his former abode. He is
and remains a parasite, a sponger who, like a pernicious bacillus,
spreads over wider and wider areas according as some favourable area
attracts him. The effect produced by his presence is also like that of
the vampire; for wherever he establishes himself the people who grant
him hospitality are bound to be bled to death sooner or later. Thus the
Jew has at all times lived in States that have belonged to other races
and within the organization of those States he had formed a State of his
own, which is, however, hidden behind the mask of a 'religious
community', as long as external circumstances do not make it advisable
for this community to declare its true nature. As soon as the Jew feels
himself sufficiently established in his position to be able to hold it
without a disguise, he lifts the mask and suddenly appears in the
character which so many did not formerly believe or wish to see: namely
that of the Jew.
The life which the Jew lives as a parasite thriving on the substance of
other nations and States has resulted in developing that specific
character which Schopenhauer once described when he spoke of the Jew as
'The Great Master of Lies'. The kind of existence which he leads forces
the Jew to the systematic use of falsehood, just as naturally as the
inhabitants of northern climates are forced to wear warm clothes.
He can live among other nations and States only as long as he succeeds
in persuading them that the Jews are not a distinct people but the
representatives of a religious faith who thus constitute a 'religious
community', though this be of a peculiar character.
As a matter of fact, however, this is the first of his great falsehoods.
He is obliged to conceal his own particular character and mode of life
that he may be allowed to continue his existence as a parasite among the
nations. The greater the intelligence of the individual Jew, the better
will he succeed in deceiving others. His success in this line may even
go so far that the people who grant him hospitality may be led to
believe that the Jew among them is a genuine Frenchman, for instance, or
Englishman or German or Italian, who just happens to belong to a
religious denomination which is different from that prevailing in these
countries. Especially in circles concerned with the executive
administration of the State, where the officials generally have only a
minimum of historical sense, the Jew is able to impose his infamous
deception with comparative ease. In these circles independent thinking
is considered a sin against the sacred rules according to which official
promotion takes place. It is therefore not surprising that even to-day
in the Bavarian government offices, for example, there is not the
slightest suspicion that the Jews form a distinct nation themselves and
are not merely the adherents of a 'Confession', though one glance at the
Press which belongs to the Jews ought to furnish sufficient evidence to
the contrary even for those who possess only the smallest degree of
intelligence. The JEWISH ECHO, however, is not an official gazette and
therefore not authoritative in the eyes of those government potentates.
Jewry has always been a nation of a definite racial character and never
differentiated merely by the fact of belonging to a certain religion. At
a very early date, urged on by the desire to make their way in the
world, the Jews began to cast about for a means whereby they might
distract such attention as might prove inconvenient for them. What could
be more effective and at the same time more above suspicion than to
borrow and utilize the idea of the religious community? Here also
everything is copied, or rather stolen; for the Jew could not possess
any religious institution which had developed out of his own
consciousness, seeing that he lacks every kind of idealism; which means
that belief in a life beyond this terrestrial existence is foreign to
him. In the Aryan mind no religion can ever be imagined unless it
embodies the conviction that life in some form or other will continue
after death. As a matter of fact, the Talmud is not a book that lays
down principles according to which the individual should prepare for the
life to come. It only furnishes rules for a practical and convenient
life in this world.
The religious teaching of the Jews is principally a collection of
instructions for maintaining the Jewish blood pure and for regulating
intercourse between Jews and the rest of the world: that is to say,
their relation with non-Jews. But the Jewish religious teaching is not
concerned with moral problems. It is rather concerned with economic
problems, and very petty ones at that. In regard to the moral value of
the religious teaching of the Jews there exist and always have existed
quite exhaustive studies (not from the Jewish side; for whatever the
Jews have written on this question has naturally always been of a
tendentious character) which show up the kind of religion that the Jews
have in a light that makes it look very uncanny to the Aryan mind. The
Jew himself is the best example of the kind of product which this
religious training evolves. His life is of this world only and his
mentality is as foreign to the true spirit of Christianity as his
character was foreign to the great Founder of this new creed two
thousand years ago. And the Founder of Christianity made no secret
indeed of His estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it
necessary He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of
God; because then, as always, they used religion as a means of advancing
their commercial interests. But at that time Christ was nailed to the
Cross for his attitude towards the Jews; whereas our modern Christians
enter into party politics and when elections are being held they debase
themselves to beg for Jewish votes. They even enter into political
intrigues with the atheistic Jewish parties against the interests of
their own Christian nation.
On this first and fundamental lie, the purpose of which is to make
people believe that Jewry is not a nation but a religion, other lies are
subsequently based. One of those further lies, for example, is in
connection with the language spoken by the Jew. For him language is not
an instrument for the expression of his inner thoughts but rather a
means of cloaking them. When talking French his thoughts are Jewish and
when writing German rhymes he only gives expression to the character of
his own race.
As long as the Jew has not succeeded in mastering other peoples he is
forced to speak their language whether he likes it or not. But the
moment that the world would become the slave of the Jew it would have to
learn some other language (Esperanto, for example) so that by this means
the Jew could dominate all the more easily.
How much the whole existence of this people is based on a permanent
falsehood is proved in a unique way by 'The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion', which are so violently repudiated by the Jews. With groans and
moans, the FRANKFURTER ZEITUNG repeats again and again that these are
forgeries. This alone is evidence in favour of their authenticity. What
many Jews unconsciously wish to do is here clearly set forth. It is not
necessary to ask out of what Jewish brain these revelations sprang; but
what is of vital interest is that they disclose, with an almost
terrifying precision, the mentality and methods of action characteristic
of the Jewish people and these writings expound in all their various
directions the final aims towards which the Jews are striving. The study
of real happenings, however, is the best way of judging the authenticity
of those documents. If the historical developments which have taken
place within the last few centuries be studied in the light of this book
we shall understand why the Jewish Press incessantly repudiates and
denounces it. For the Jewish peril will be stamped out the moment the
general public come into possession of that book and understand it.
In order to get to know the Jew properly it is necessary to study the
road which he has been following among the other peoples during the last
few centuries. One example will suffice to give a clear insight here.
Since his career has been the same at all epochs--just as the people at
whose expense he has lived have remained the same--for the purposes of
making the requisite analysis it will be best to mark his progress by
stages. For the sake of simplicity we shall indicate these stages by
letters of the alphabet.
The first Jews came into what was then called Germania during the period
of the Roman invasion; and, as usual, they came as merchants. During the
turmoil caused by the great migrations of the German tribes the Jews
seem to have disappeared. We may therefore consider the period when the
Germans formed the first political communities as the beginning of that
process whereby Central and Northern Europe was again, and this time
permanently, Judaized. A development began which has always been the
same or similar wherever and whenever Jews came into contact with Aryan
peoples.
(a) As soon as the first permanent settlements had been established the
Jew was suddenly 'there'. He arrived as a merchant and in the beginning
did not trouble to disguise his nationality. He still remained openly a
Jew, partly it may be because he knew too little of the language. It may
also be that people of other races refused to mix with him, so that he
could not very well adopt any other appearance than that of a foreign
merchant. Because of his subtlety and cunning and the lack of experience
on the part of the people whose guest he became, it was not to his
disadvantage openly to retain his Jewish character. This may even have
been advantageous to him; for the foreigner was received kindly.
(b) Slowly but steadily he began to take part in the economic life
around him; not as a producer, however, but only as a middleman. His
commercial cunning, acquired through thousands of years of negotiation
as an intermediary, made him superior in this field to the Aryans, who
were still quite ingenuous and indeed clumsy and whose honesty was
unlimited; so that after a short while commerce seemed destined to
become a Jewish monopoly. The Jew began by lending out money at usurious
interest, which is a permanent trade of his. It was he who first
introduced the payment of interest on borrowed money. The danger which
this innovation involved was not at first recognized; indeed the
innovation was welcomed, because it offered momentary advantages.
(c) At this stage the Jew had become firmly settled down; that is to
say, he inhabited special sections of the cities and towns and had his
own quarter in the market-places. Thus he gradually came to form a State
within a State. He came to look upon the commercial domain and all money
transactions as a privilege belonging exclusively to himself and he
exploited it ruthlessly.
(d) At this stage finance and trade had become his complete monopoly.
Finally, his usurious rate of interest aroused opposition and the
increasing impudence which the Jew began to manifest all round stirred
up popular indignation, while his display of wealth gave rise to popular
envy. The cup of his iniquity became full to the brim when he included
landed property among his commercial wares and degraded the soil to the
level of a market commodity. Since he himself never cultivated the soil
but considered it as an object to be exploited, on which the peasant may
still remain but only on condition that he submits to the most heartless
exactions of his new master, public antipathy against the Jew steadily
increased and finally turned into open animosity. His extortionate
tyranny became so unbearable that people rebelled against his control
and used physical violence against him. They began to scrutinize this
foreigner somewhat more closely, and then began to discover the
repulsive traits and characteristics inherent in him, until finally an
abyss opened between the Jews and their hosts, across which abyss there
could be no further contact.
In times of distress a wave of public anger has usually arisen against
the Jew; the masses have taken the law into their own hands; they have
seized Jewish property and ruined the Jew in their urge to protect
themselves against what they consider to be a scourge of God. Having
come to know the Jew intimately through the course of centuries, in
times of distress they looked upon his presence among them as a public
danger comparable only to the plague.
(e) But then the Jew began to reveal his true character. He paid court
to governments, with servile flattery, used his money to ingratiate
himself further and thus regularly secured for himself once again the
privilege of exploiting his victim. Although public wrath flared up
against this eternal profiteer and drove him out, after a few years he
reappeared in those same places and carried on as before. No persecution
could force him to give up his trade of exploiting other people and no
amount of harrying succeeded in driving him out permanently. He always
returned after a short time and it was always the old story with him.
In an effort to save at least the worst from happening, legislation was
passed which debarred the Jew from obtaining possession of the land.
(f) In proportion as the powers of kings and princes increased, the Jew
sidled up to them. He begged for 'charters' and 'privileges' which those
gentlemen, who were generally in financial straits, gladly granted if
they received adequate payment in return. However high the price he has
to pay, the Jew will succeed in getting it back within a few years from
operating the privilege he has acquired, even with interest and compound
interest. He is a real leech who clings to the body of his unfortunate
victims and cannot be removed; so that when the princes found themselves
in need once again they took the blood from his swollen veins with their
own hands.
This game was repeated unendingly. In the case of those who were called
'German Princes', the part they played was quite as contemptible as that
played by the Jew. They were a real scourge for their people. Their
compeers may be found in some of the government ministers of our time.
It was due to the German princes that the German nation could not
succeed in definitely freeing itself from the Jewish peril.
Unfortunately the situation did not change at a later period. The
princes finally received the reward which they had a thousand-fold
deserved for all the crimes committed by them against their own people.
They had allied themselves with Satan and later on they discovered that
they were in Satan's embrace.
(g) By permitting themselves to be entangled in the toils of the Jew,
the princes prepared their own downfall. The position which they held
among their people was slowly but steadily undermined not only by their
continued failure to guard the interests of their subjects but by the
positive exploitation of them. The Jew calculated exactly the time when
the downfall of the princes was approaching and did his best to hasten
it. He intensified their financial difficulties by hindering them in the
exercise of their duty towards their people, by inveigling them through
the most servile flatteries into further personal display, whereby he
made himself more and more indispensable to them. His astuteness, or
rather his utter unscrupulousness, in money affairs enabled him to exact
new income from the princes, to squeeze the money out of them and then
have it spent as quickly as possible. Every Court had its 'Court Jews',
as this plague was called, who tortured the innocent victims until they
were driven to despair; while at the same time this Jew provided the
means which the princes squandered on their own pleasures. It is not to
be wondered at that these ornaments of the human race became the
recipients of official honours and even were admitted into the ranks of
the hereditary nobility, thus contributing not only to expose that
social institution to ridicule but also to contaminate it from the
inside.
Naturally the Jew could now exploit the position to which he had
attained and push himself forward even more rapidly than before. Finally
he became baptized and thus entitled to all the rights and privileges
which belonged to the children of the nation on which he preyed. This
was a high-class stroke of business for him, and he often availed
himself of it, to the great joy of the Church, which was proud of having
gained a new child in the Faith, and also to the joy of Israel, which
was happy at seeing the trick pulled off successfully.
(h) At this stage a transformation began to take place in the world of
Jewry. Up to now they had been Jews--that is to say, they did not
hitherto set any great value on pretending to be something else; and
anyhow the distinctive characteristics which separated them from other
races could not be easily overcome. Even as late as the time of
Frederick the Great nobody looked upon the Jews as other than a
'foreign' people, and Goethe rose up in revolt against the failure
legally to prohibit marriage between Christians and Jews. Goethe was
certainly no reactionary and no time-server. What he said came from the
voice of the blood and the voice of reason. Notwithstanding the
disgraceful happenings taking place in Court circles, the people
recognized instinctively that the Jew was the foreign body in their own
flesh and their attitude towards him was directed by recognition of that
fact.
But a change was now destined to take place. In the course of more than
a thousand years the Jew had learned to master the language of his hosts
so thoroughly that he considered he might now lay stress on his Jewish
character and emphasize the 'Germanism' a bit more. Though it must have
appeared ridiculous and absurd at first sight, he was impudent enough to
call himself a 'Teuton', which in this case meant a German. In that way
began one of the most infamous impositions that can be imagined. The Jew
did not possess the slightest traces of the German character. He had
only acquired the art of twisting the German language to his own uses,
and that in a disgusting way, without having assimilated any other
feature of the German character. Therefore his command of the language
was the sole ground on which he could pretend to be a German. It is not
however by the tie of language, but exclusively by the tie of blood that
the members of a race are bound together. And the Jew himself knows this
better than any other, seeing that he attaches so little importance to
the preservation of his own language while at the same time he strives
his utmost to maintain his blood free from intermixture with that of
other races. A man may acquire and use a new language without much
trouble; but it is only his old ideas that he expresses through the new
language. His inner nature is not modified thereby. The best proof of
this is furnished by the Jew himself. He may speak a thousand tongues
and yet his Jewish nature will remain always one and the same. His
distinguishing characteristics were the same when he spoke the Latin
language at Ostia two thousand years ago as a merchant in grain, as they
are to-day when he tries to sell adulterated flour with the aid of his
German gibberish. He is always the same Jew. That so obvious a fact is
not recognized by the average head-clerk in a German government
department, or by an officer in the police administration, is also a
self-evident and natural fact; since it would be difficult to find
another class of people who are so lacking in instinct and intelligence
as the civil servants employed by our modern German State authorities.
The reason why, at the stage I am dealing with, the Jew so suddenly
decided to transform himself into a German is not difficult to discover.
He felt the power of the princes slowly crumbling and therefore looked
about to find a new social plank on which he might stand. Furthermore,
his financial domination over all the spheres of economic life had
become so powerful that he felt he could no longer sustain that enormous
structure or add to it unless he were admitted to the full enjoyment of
the 'rights of citizenship.' He aimed at both, preservation and
expansion; for the higher he could climb the more alluring became the
prospect of reaching the old goal, which was promised to him in ancient
times, namely world-rulership, and which he now looked forward to with
feverish eyes, as he thought he saw it visibly approaching. Therefore
all his efforts were now directed to becoming a fully-fledged citizen,
endowed with all civil and political rights.
That was the reason for his emancipation from the Ghetto.
(i) And thus the Court Jew slowly developed into the national Jew. But
naturally he still remained associated with persons in higher quarters
and he even attempted to push his way further into the inner circles of
the ruling set. But at the same time some other representatives of his
race were currying favour with the people. If we remember the crimes the
Jew had committed against the masses of the people in the course of so
many centuries, how repeatedly and ruthlessly he exploited them and how
he sucked out even the very marrow of their substance, and when we
further remember how they gradually came to hate him and finally
considered him as a public scourge--then we may well understand how
difficult the Jew must have found this final transformation. Yes,
indeed, it must tax all their powers to be able to present themselves as
'friends of humanity' to the poor victims whom they have skinned raw.
Therefore the Jew began by making public amends for the crimes which he
had committed against the people in the past. He started his
metamorphosis by first appearing as the 'benefactor' of humanity. Since
his new philanthropic policy had a very concrete aim in view, he could
not very well apply to himself the biblical counsel, not to allow the
left hand to know what the right hand is giving. He felt obliged to let
as many people as possible know how deeply the sufferings of the masses
grieved him and to what excesses of personal sacrifice he was ready to
go in order to help them. With this manifestation of innate modesty, so
typical of the Jew, he trumpeted his virtues before the world until
finally the world actually began to believe him. Those who refused to
share this belief were considered to be doing him an injustice. Thus
after a little while he began to twist things around, so as to make it
appear that it was he who had always been wronged, and vice versa. There
were really some particularly foolish people who could not help pitying
this poor unfortunate creature of a Jew.
Attention may be called to the fact that, in spite of his proclaimed
readiness to make personal sacrifices, the Jew never becomes poor
thereby. He has a happy knack of always making both ends meet.
Occasionally his benevolence might be compared to the manure which is
not spread over the field merely for the purpose of getting rid of it,
but rather with a view to future produce. Anyhow, after a comparatively
short period of time, the world was given to know that the Jew had
become a general benefactor and philanthropist. What a transformation!
What is looked upon as more or less natural when done by other people
here became an object of astonishment, and even sometimes of admiration,
because it was considered so unusual in a Jew. That is why he has
received more credit for his acts of benevolence than ordinary mortals.
And something more: The Jew became liberal all of a sudden and began to
talk enthusiastically of how human progress must be encouraged.
Gradually he assumed the air of being the herald of a new age.
Yet at the same time he continued to undermine the ground-work of that
part of the economic system in which the people have the most practical
interest. He bought up stock in the various national undertakings and
thus pushed his influence into the circuit of national production,
making this latter an object of buying and selling on the stock
exchange, or rather what might be called the pawn in a financial game of
chess, and thus ruining the basis on which personal proprietorship alone
is possible. Only with the entrance of the Jew did that feeling of
estrangement, between employers and employees begin which led at a later
date to the political class-struggle.
Finally the Jew gained an increasing influence in all economic
undertakings by means of his predominance in the stock-exchange. If not
the ownership, at least he secured control of the working power of the
nation.
In order to strengthen his political position, he directed his efforts
towards removing the barrier of racial and civic discrimination which
had hitherto hindered his advance at every turn. With characteristic
tenacity he championed the cause of religious tolerance for this
purpose; and in the freemason organization, which had fallen completely
into his hands, he found a magnificent weapon which helped him to
achieve his ends. Government circles, as well as the higher sections of
the political and commercial bourgeoisie, fell a prey to his plans
through his manipulation of the masonic net, though they themselves did
not even suspect what was happening.
Only the people as such, or rather the masses which were just becoming
conscious of their own power and were beginning to use it in the fight
for their rights and liberties, had hitherto escaped the grip of the
Jew. At least his influence had not yet penetrated to the deeper and
wider sections of the people. This was unsatisfactory to him. The most
important phase of his policy was therefore to secure control over the
people. The Jew realized that in his efforts to reach the position of
public despot he would need a 'peace-maker.' And he thought he could
find a peace-maker if he could whip-in sufficient extensive sections of
the bourgeois. But the freemasons failed to catch the
glove-manufacturers and the linen-weavers in the frail meshes of their
net. And so it became necessary to find a grosser and withal a more
effective means. Thus another weapon beside that of freemasonry would
have to be secured. This was the Press. The Jew exercised all his skill
and tenacity in getting hold of it. By means of the Press he began
gradually to control public life in its entirety. He began to drive it
along the road which he had chosen to reach his own ends; for he was now
in a position to create and direct that force which, under the name of
'public opinion' is better known to-day than it was some decades ago.
Simultaneously the Jew gave himself the air of thirsting after
knowledge. He lauded every phase of progress, particularly those phases
which led to the ruin of others; for he judges all progress and
development from the standpoint of the advantages which these bring to
his own people. When it brings him no such advantages he is the deadly
enemy of enlightenment and hates all culture which is real culture as
such. All the knowledge which he acquires in the schools of others is
exploited by him exclusively in the service of his own race.
Even more watchfully than ever before, he now stood guard over his
Jewish nationality. Though bubbling over with 'enlightenment',
'progress', 'liberty', 'humanity', etc., his first care was to preserve
the racial integrity of his own people. He occasionally bestowed one of
his female members on an influential Christian; but the racial stock of
his male descendants was always preserved unmixed fundamentally. He
poisons the blood of others but preserves his own blood unadulterated.
The Jew scarcely ever marries a Christian girl, but the Christian takes
a Jewess to wife. The mongrels that are a result of this latter union
always declare themselves on the Jewish side. Thus a part of the higher
nobility in particular became completely degenerate. The Jew was well
aware of this fact and systematically used this means of disarming the
intellectual leaders of the opposite race. To mask his tactics and fool
his victims, he talks of the equality of all men, no matter what their
race or colour may be. And the simpletons begin to believe him.
Since his whole nature still retains too foreign an odour for the broad
masses of the people to allow themselves to be caught in his snare, he
uses the Press to put before the public a picture of himself which is
entirely untrue to life but well designed to serve his purpose. In the
comic papers special efforts are made to represent the Jews as an
inoffensive little race which, like all others, has its peculiarities.
In spite of their manners, which may seem a bit strange, the comic
papers present the Jews as fundamentally good-hearted and honourable.
Attempts are generally made to make them appear insignificant rather
than dangerous.
During this phase of his progress the chief goal of the Jew was the
victory of democracy, or rather the supreme hegemony of the
parliamentary system, which embodies his concept of democracy. This
institution harmonises best with his purposes; for thus the personal
element is eliminated and in its place we have the dunder-headed
majority, inefficiency and, last but by no means least, knavery.
The final result must necessarily have been the overthrow of the
monarchy, which had to happen sooner or later.
(j) A tremendous economic development transformed the social structure
of the nation. The small artisan class slowly disappeared and the
factory worker, who took its place, had scarcely any chance of
establishing an independent existence of his own but sank more and more
to the level of a proletariat. An essential characteristic of the
factory worker is that he is scarcely ever able to provide for an
independent source of livelihood which will support him in later life.
In the true sense of the word, he is 'disinherited'. His old age is a
misery to him and can hardly be called life at all.
In earlier times a similar situation had been created, which had
imperatively demanded a solution and for which a solution was found.
Side by side with the peasant and the artisan, a new class was gradually
developed, namely that of officials and employees, especially those
employed in the various services of the State. They also were a
'disinherited' class, in the true sense of the word. But the State found
a remedy for this unhealthy situation by taking upon itself the duty of
providing for the State official who could establish nothing that would
be an independent means of livelihood for himself in his old age. Thus
the system of pensions and retiring allowances was introduced. Private
enterprises slowly followed this example in increasing numbers; so that
to-day every permanent non-manual worker receives a pension in his later
years, if the firm which he has served is one that has reached or gone
beyond a certain size. It was only by virtue of the assurance given of
State officials, that they would be cared for in their old age. that
such a high degree of unselfish devotion to duty was developed, which in
pre-war times was one of the distinguising characteristics of German
officials.
Thus a whole class which had no personal property was saved from
destitution by an intelligent system of provision, and found a place in
the social structure of the national community.
The problem is now put before the State and nation, but this time in a
much larger form. When the new industries sprang up and developed,
millions of people left the countryside and the villages to take up
employment in the big factories. The conditions under which this new
class found itself forced to live were worse than miserable. The more or
less mechanical transformation of the methods of work hitherto in vogue
among the artisans and peasants did not fit in well with the habits or
mentality of this new working-class. The way in which the peasants and
artisans had formerly worked had nothing comparable to the intensive
labour of the new factory worker. In the old trades time did not play a
highly important role, but it became an essential element in the new
industrial system. The formal taking over of the old working hours into
the mammoth industrial enterprises had fatal results. The actual amount
of work hitherto accomplished within a certain time was comparatively
small, because the modern methods of intensive production were then
unknown. Therefore, though in the older system a working day of fourteen
or even fifteen hours was not unendurable, now it was beyond the
possibilities of human endurance because in the new system every minute
was utilized to the extreme. This absurd transference of the old working
hours to the new industrial system proved fatal in two directions.
First, it ruined the health of the workers; secondly, it destroyed their
faith in a superior law of justice. Finally, on the one hand a miserable
wage was received and, on the other, the employer held a much more
lucrative position than before. Hence a striking difference between the
ways of life on the one side and on the other.
In the open country there could be no social problem, because the master
and the farm-hand were doing the same kind of work and doing it
together. They ate their food in common, and sometimes even out of the
same dish. But in this sphere also the new system introduced an entirely
different set of conditions between masters and men.
The division created between employer and employees seems not to have
extended to all branches of life. How far this Judaizing process has
been allowed to take effect among our people is illustrated by the fact
that manual labour not only receives practically no recognition but is
even considered degrading. That is not a natural German attitude. It is
due to the introduction of a foreign element into our lives, and that
foreign element is the Jewish spirit, one of the effects of which has
been to transform the high esteem in which our handicrafts once were
held into a definite feeling that all physical labour is something base
and unworthy.
Thus a new social class has grown up which stands in low esteem; and the
day must come when we shall have to face the question of whether the
nation will be able to make this class an integral part of the social
community or whether the difference of status now existing will become a
permanent gulf separating this class from the others.
One thing, however, is certain: This class does not include the worst
elements of the community in its ranks. Rather the contrary is the
truth: it includes the most energetic parts of the nation. The
sophistication which is the result of a so-called civilization has not
yet exercised its disintegrating and degenerating influence on this
class. The broad masses of this new lower class, constituted by the
manual labourers, have not yet fallen a prey to the morbid weakness of
pacifism. These are still robust and, if necessary, they can be brutal.
While our bourgeoisie middle class paid no attention at all to this
momentous problem and indifferently allowed events to take their course,
the Jew seized upon the manifold possibilities which the situation
offered him for the future. While on the one hand he organized
capitalistic methods of exploitation to their ultimate degree of
efficiency, he curried favour with the victims of his policy and his
power and in a short while became the leader of their struggle against
himself. 'Against himself' is here only a figurative way of speaking;
for this 'Great Master of Lies' knows how to appear in the guise of the
innocent and throw the guilt on others. Since he had the impudence to
take a personal lead among the masses, they never for a moment suspected
that they were falling a prey to one of the most infamous deceits ever
practised. And yet that is what it actually was.
The moment this new class had arisen out of the general economic
situation and taken shape as a definite body in the social order, the
Jew saw clearly where he would find the necessary pacemaker for his own
progressive march. At first he had used the bourgeois class as a
battering-ram against the feudal order; and now he used the worker
against the bourgeois world. Just as he succeeded in obtaining civic
rights by intrigues carried on under the protection of the bourgeois
class, he now hoped that by joining in the struggle which the workers
were waging for their own existence he would be able to obtain full
control over them.
When that moment arrives, then the only objective the workers will have
to fight for will be the future of the Jewish people. Without knowing
it, the worker is placing himself at the service of the very power
against which he believes he is fighting. Apparently he is made to fight
against capital and thus he is all the more easily brought to fight for
capitalist interests. Outcries are systematically raised against
international capital but in reality it is against the structure of
national economics that these slogans are directed. The idea is to
demolish this structure and on its ruins triumphantly erect the
structure of the International Stock Exchange.
In this line of action the procedure of the Jew was as follows:
He kowtowed to the worker, hypocritically pretended to feel pity for him
and his lot, and even to be indignant at the misery and poverty which
the worker had to endure. That is the way in which the Jew endeavoured
to gain the confidence of the working class. He showed himself eager to
study their various hardships, whether real or imaginary, and strove to
awaken a yearning on the part of the workers to change the conditions
under which they lived. The Jew artfully enkindled that innate yearning
for social justice which is a typical Aryan characteristic. Once that
yearning became alive it was transformed into hatred against those in
more fortunate circumstances of life. The next stage was to give a
precise philosophical aspect to the struggle for the elimination of
social wrongs. And thus the Marxist doctrine was invented.
By presenting his doctrine as part and parcel of a just revindication of
social rights, the Jew propagated the doctrine all the more effectively.
But at the same time he provoked the opposition of decent people who
refused to admit these demands which, because of the form and
pseudo-philosophical trimmings in which they are presented, seemed
fundamentally unjust and impossible for realization. For, under the
cloak of purely social concepts there are hidden aims which are of a
Satanic character. These aims are even expounded in the open with the
clarity of unlimited impudence. This Marxist doctrine is an individual
mixture of human reason and human absurdity; but the combination is
arranged in such a way that only the absurd part of it could ever be put
into practice, but never the reasonable part of it. By categorically
repudiating the personal worth of the individual and also the nation and
its racial constituent, this doctrine destroys the fundamental basis of
all civilization; for civilization essentially depends on these very
factors. Such is the true essence of the Marxist WELTANSCHAUUNG, so far
as the word WELTANSCHAUUNG can be applied at all to this phantom
arising from a criminal brain. The destruction of the concept of
personality and of race removes the chief obstacle which barred the way
to domination of the social body by its inferior elements, which are the
Jews.
The very absurdity of the economic and political theories of Marxism
gives the doctrine its peculiar significance. Because of its
pseudo-logic, intelligent people refuse to support it, while all those
who are less accustomed to use their intellectual faculties, or who have
only a rudimentary notion of economic principles, join the Marxist cause
with flying banners. The intelligence behind the movement--for even this
movement needs intelligence if it is to subsist--is supplied by the Jews
themselves, naturally of course as a gratuitous service which is at the
same time a sacrifice on their part.
Thus arose a movement which was composed exclusively of manual workers
under the leadership of Jews. To all external appearances, this movement
strives to ameliorate the conditions under which the workers live; but
in reality its aim is to enslave and thereby annihilate the non-Jewish
races.
The propaganda which the freemasons had carried on among the so-called
intelligentsia, whereby their pacifist teaching paralysed the instinct
for national self-preservation, was now extended to the broad masses of
the workers and bourgeoisie by means of the Press, which was almost
everywhere in Jewish hands. To those two instruments of disintegration a
third and still more ruthless one was added, namely, the organization of
brute physical force among the masses. As massed columns of attacks, the
Marxist troops stormed those parts of the social order which had been
left standing after the two former undermining operations had done their
work.
The combined activity of all these forces has been marvellously managed.
And it will not be surprising if it turns out that those institutions
which have always appeared as the organs of the more or less traditional
authority of the State should now fall before the Marxist attack. Among
our higher and highest State officials, with very few exceptions, the
Jew has found the cost complacent backers in his work of destruction. An
attitude of sneaking servility towards 'superiors' and supercilious
arrogance towards 'inferiors' are the characteristics of this class of
people, as well as a grade of stupidity which is really frightening and
at the same time a towering self-conceit, which has been so consistently
developed to make it amusing.
But these qualities are of the greatest utility to the Jew in his
dealings with our authorities. Therefore they are qualities which he
appreciates most in the officials.
If I were to sketch roughly the actual struggle which is now beginning I
should describe it somewhat thus:
Not satisfied with the economic conquest of the world, but also
demanding that it must come under his political control, the Jew
subdivides the organized Marxist power into two parts, which correspond
to the ultimate objectives that are to be fought for in this struggle
which is carried on under the direction of the Jew. To outward
appearance, these seem to be two independent movements, but in reality
they constitute an indivisible unity. The two divisions are: The
political movement and the trades union movement.
The trades union movement has to gather in the recruits. It offers
assistance and protection to the workers in the hard struggle which they
have to wage for the bare means of existence, a struggle which has been
occasioned by the greediness and narrow-mindedness of many of the
industrialists. Unless the workers be ready to surrender all claims to
an existence which the dignity of human nature itself demands, and
unless they are ready to submit their fate to the will of employers who
in many cases have no sense of human responsibilities and are utterly
callous to human wants, then the worker must necessarily take matters
into his own hands, seeing that the organized social community--that is
to say, the State--pays no attention to his needs.
The so-called national-minded bourgeoisie, blinded by its own material
interests, opposes this life-or-death struggle of the workers and places
the most difficult obstacles in their way. Not only does this
bourgeoisie hinder all efforts to enact legislation which would shorten
the inhumanly long hours of work, prohibit child-labour, grant security
and protection to women and improve the hygienic conditions of the
workshops and the dwellings of the working-class, but while the
bourgeoisie hinders all this the shrewd Jew takes the cause of the
oppressed into his own hands. He gradually becomes the leader of the
trades union movements, which is an easy task for him, because he does
not genuinely intend to find remedies for the social wrong: he pursues
only one objective, namely, to gather and consolidate a body of
followers who will act under his commands as an armed weapon in the
economic war for the destruction of national economic independence. For,
while a sound social policy has to move between the two poles of
securing a decent level of public health and welfare on the one hand
and, on the other, that of safeguarding the independence of the economic
life of the nation, the Jew does not take these poles into account at
all. The destruction of both is one of his main objects. He would ruin,
rather than safeguard, the independence of the national economic system.
Therefore, as the leader of the trades union movement, he has no
scruples about putting forward demands which not only go beyond the
declared purpose of the movement but could not be carried into effect
without ruining the national economic structure. On the other hand, he
has no interest in seeing a healthy and sturdy population develop; he
would be more content to see the people degenerate into an unthinking
herd which could be reduced to total subjection. Because these are his
final objectives, he can afford to put forward the most absurd claims.
He knows very well that these claims can never be realized and that
therefore nothing in the actual state of affairs could be altered by
them, but that the most they can do is to arouse the spirit of unrest
among the masses. That is exactly the purpose which he wishes such
propaganda to serve and not a real and honest improvement of the social
conditions.
The Jews will therefore remain the unquestioned leaders of the trades
union movement so long as a campaign is not undertaken, which must be
carried out on gigantic lines, for the enlightenment of the masses; so
that they will be enabled better to understand the causes of their
misery. Or the same end might be achieved if the government authorities
would get rid of the Jew and his work. For as long as the masses remain
so ill-informed as they actually are to-day, and as long as the State
remains as indifferent to their lot as it now is, the masses will follow
whatever leader makes them the most extravagant promises in regard to
economic matters. The Jew is a past master at this art and his
activities are not hampered by moral considerations of any kind.
Naturally it takes him only a short time to defeat all his competitors
in this field and drive them from the scene of action. In accordance
with the general brutality and rapacity of his nature, he turns the
trades union movement into an organization for the exercise of physical
violence. The resistance of those whose common sense has hitherto saved
them from surrendering to the Jewish dictatorship is now broken down by
terrorization. The success of that kind of activity is enormous.
Parallel with this, the political organization advances. It operates
hand-in-hand with the trades union movement, inasmuch as the latter
prepares the masses for the political organization and even forces them
into it. This is also the source that provides the money which the
political organization needs to keep its enormous apparatus in action.
The trades union organization is the organ of control for the political
activity of its members and whips in the masses for all great political
demonstrations. In the end it ceases to struggle for economic interests
but places its chief weapon, the refusal to continue work--which takes
the form of a general strike--at the disposal of the political movement.
By means of a Press whose contents are adapted to the level of the most
ignorant readers, the political and trades union organizations are
provided with an instrument which prepares the lowest stratum of the
nation for a campaign of ruthless destruction. It is not considered part
of the purpose of this Press to inspire its readers with ideals which
might help them to lift their minds above the sordid conditions of their
daily lives; but, on the contrary, it panders to their lowest instincts.
Among the lazy-minded and self-seeking sections of the masses this kind
of speculation turns out lucrative.
It is this Press above all which carries on a fanatical campaign of
calumny, strives to tear down everything that might be considered as a
mainstay of national independence and to sabotage all cultural values as
well as to destroy the autonomy of the national economic system.
It aims its attack especially against all men of character who refuse to
fall into line with the Jewish efforts to obtain control over the State
or who appear dangerous to the Jews merely because of their superior
intelligence. For in order to incur the enmity of the Jew it is not
necessary to show any open hostility towards him. It is quite sufficient
if one be considered capable of opposing the Jew some time in the future
or using his abilities and character to enhance the power and position
of a nation which the Jew finds hostile to himself.
The Jewish instinct, which never fails where these problems have to be
dealt with, readily discerns the true mentality of those whom the Jew
meets in everyday life; and those who are not of a kindred spirit with
him may be sure of being listed among his enemies. Since the Jew is not
the object of aggression but the aggressor himself, he considers as his
enemies not only those who attack him but also those who may be capable
of resisting him. The means which he employs to break people of this
kind, who may show themselves decent and upright, are not the open means
generally used in honourable conflict, but falsehood and calumny.
He will stop at nothing. His utterly low-down conduct is so appalling
that one really cannot be surprised if in the imagination of our people
the Jew is pictured as the incarnation of Satan and the symbol of evil.
The ignorance of the broad masses as regards the inner character of the
Jew, and the lack of instinct and insight that our upper classes
display, are some of the reasons which explain how it is that so many
people fall an easy prey to the systematic campaign of falsehood which
the Jew carries on.
While the upper classes, with their innate cowardliness, turn away from
anyone whom the Jew thus attacks with lies and calumny, the common
people are credulous of everything, whether because of their ignorance
or their simple-mindedness. Government authorities wrap themselves up in
a robe of silence, but more frequently they persecute the victims of
Jewish attacks in order to stop the campaign in the Jewish Press. To the
fatuous mind of the government official such a line of conduct appears
to belong to the policy of upholding the authority of the State and
preserving public order. Gradually the Marxist weapon in the hands of
the Jew becomes a constant bogy to decent people. Sometimes the fear of
it sticks in the brain or weighs upon them as a kind of nightmare.
People begin to quail before this fearful foe and therewith become his
victims.
(k) The Jewish domination in the State seems now so fully assured that
not only can he now afford to call himself a Jew once again, but he even
acknowledges freely and openly what his ideas are on racial and
political questions. A section of the Jews avows itself quite openly as
an alien people, but even here there is another falsehood. When the
Zionists try to make the rest of the world believe that the new national
consciousness of the Jews will be satisfied by the establishment of a
Jewish State in Palestine, the Jews thereby adopt another means to dupe
the simple-minded Gentile. They have not the slightest intention of
building up a Jewish State in Palestine so as to live in it. What they
really are aiming at is to establish a central organization for their
international swindling and cheating. As a sovereign State, this cannot
be controlled by any of the other States. Therefore it can serve as a
refuge for swindlers who have been found out and at the same time a
high-school for the training of other swindlers.
As a sign of their growing presumption and sense of security, a certain
section of them openly and impudently proclaim their Jewish nationality
while another section hypocritically pretend that they are German,
French or English as the case may be. Their blatant behaviour in their
relations with other people shows how clearly they envisage their day of
triumph in the near future.
The black-haired Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end, satanically
glaring at and spying on the unsuspicious girl whom he plans to seduce,
adulterating her blood and removing her from the bosom of her own
people. The Jew uses every possible means to undermine the racial
foundations of a subjugated people. In his systematic efforts to ruin
girls and women he strives to break down the last barriers of
discrimination between him and other peoples. The Jews were responsible
for bringing negroes into the Rhineland, with the ultimate idea of
bastardizing the white race which they hate and thus lowering its
cultural and political level so that the Jew might dominate. For as long
as a people remain racially pure and are conscious of the treasure of
their blood, they can never be overcome by the Jew. Never in this world
can the Jew become master of any people except a bastardized people.
That is why the Jew systematically endeavours to lower the racial
quality of a people by permanently adulterating the blood of the
individuals who make up that people.
In the field of politics he now begins to replace the idea of democracy
by introducing the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the masses
organized under the Marxist banners he has found a weapon which makes it
possible for him to discard democracy, so as to subjugate and rule in a
dictatorial fashion by the aid of brute force. He is systematically
working in two ways to bring about this revolution. These ways are the
economic and the political respectively.
Aided by international influences, he forms a ring of enemies around
those nations which have proved themselves too sturdy for him in
withstanding attacks from within. He would like to force them into war
and then, if it should be necessary to his plans, he will unfurl the
banners of revolt even while the troops are actually fighting at the
front.
Economically he brings about the destruction of the State by a
systematic method of sabotaging social enterprises until these become so
costly that they are taken out of the hands of the State and then
submitted to the control of Jewish finance. Politically he works to
withdraw from the State its means of susbsistence, inasmuch as he
undermines the foundations of national resistance and defence, destroys
the confidence which the people have in their Government, reviles the
past and its history and drags everything national down into the gutter.
Culturally his activity consists in bowdlerizing art, literature and the
theatre, holding the expressions of national sentiment up to scorn,
overturning all concepts of the sublime and beautiful, the worthy and
the good, finally dragging the people to the level of his own low
mentality.
Of religion he makes a mockery. Morality and decency are described as
antiquated prejudices and thus a systematic attack is made to undermine
those last foundations on which the national being must rest if the
nation is to struggle for its existence in this world.
(l) Now begins the great and final revolution. As soon as the Jew is in
possession of political power he drops the last few veils which have
hitherto helped to conceal his features. Out of the democratic Jew, the
Jew of the People, arises the 'Jew of the Blood', the tyrant of the
peoples. In the course of a few years he endeavours to exterminate all
those who represent the national intelligence. And by thus depriving the
peoples of their natural intellectual leaders he fits them for their
fate as slaves under a lasting despotism.
Russia furnishes the most terrible example of such a slavery. In that
country the Jew killed or starved thirty millions of the people, in a
bout of savage fanaticism and partly by the employment of inhuman
torture. And he did this so that a gang of Jewish literati and financial
bandits should dominate over a great people.
But the final consequence is not merely that the people lose all their
freedom under the domination of the Jews, but that in the end these
parasites themselves disappear. The death of the victim is followed
sooner or later by that of the vampire.
If we review all the causes which contributed to bring about the
downfall of the German people we shall find that the most profound and
decisive cause must be attributed to the lack of insight into the racial
problem and especially in the failure to recognize the Jewish danger.
It would have been easy enough to endure the defeats suffered on the
battlefields in August 1918. They were nothing when compared with the
military victories which our nation had achieved. Our downfall was not
the result of those defeats; but we were overthrown by that force which
had prepared those defeats by systematically operating for several
decades to destroy those political instincts and that moral stamina
which alone enable a people to struggle for its existence and therewith
secure the right to exist.
By neglecting the problem of preserving the racial foundations of our
national life, the old Empire abrogated the sole right which entitles a
people to live on this planet. Nations that make mongrels of their
people, or allow their people to be turned into mongrels, sin against
the Will of Eternal Providence. And thus their overthrow at the hands of
a stronger opponent cannot be looked upon as a wrong but, on the
contrary, as a restoration of justice. If a people refuses to guard and
uphold the qualities with which it has been endowed by Nature and which
have their roots in the racial blood, then such a people has no right to
complain over the loss of its earthly existence.
Everything on this earth can be made into something better. Every defeat
may be made the foundation of a future victory. Every lost war may be
the cause of a later resurgence. Every visitation of distress can give a
new impetus to human energy. And out of every oppression those forces
can develop which bring about a new re-birth of the national
soul--provided always that the racial blood is kept pure.
But the loss of racial purity will wreck inner happiness for ever. It
degrades men for all time to come. And the physical and moral
consequences can never be wiped out.
If this unique problem be studied and compared with the other problems
of life we shall easily recognize how small is their importance in
comparison with this. They are all limited to time; but the problem of
the maintenance or loss of the purity of the racial blood will last as
long as man himself lasts.
All the symptoms of decline which manifested themselves already in
pre-war times can be traced back to the racial problem.
Whether one is dealing with questions of general law, or monstrous
excrescences in economic life, of phenomena which point to a cultural
decline or political degeneration, whether it be a question of defects
in the school-system or of the evil influence which the Press exerts
over the adult population--always and everywhere these phenomena are at
bottom caused by a lack of consideration for the interests of the race
to which one's own nation belongs, or by the failure to recognize the
danger that comes from allowing a foreign race to exist within the
national body.
That is why all attempts at reform, all institutions for social relief,
all political striving, all economic progress and all apparent increase
in the general stock of knowledge, were doomed to be unproductive of any
significant results. The nation, as well as the organization which
enables it to exist--namely, the State--were not developing in inner
strength and stability, but, on the contrary, were visibly losing their
vitality. The false brilliance of the Second Empire could not disguise
the inner weakness. And every attempt to invigorate it anew failed
because the main and most important problem was left out of
consideration.
It would be a mistake to think that the followers of the various
political parties which tried to doctor the condition of the German
people, or even all their leaders, were bad in themselves or meant
wrong. Their activity even at best was doomed to fail, merely because of
the fact that they saw nothing but the symptoms of our general malady
and they tried to doctor the symptoms while they overlooked the real
cause of the disease. If one makes a methodical study of the lines along
which the old Empire developed one cannot help seeing, after a careful
political analysis, that a process of inner degeneration had already set
in even at the time when the united Empire was formed and the German
nation began to make rapid external progress. The general situation was
declining, in spite of the apparent political success and in spite of
the increasing economic wealth. At the elections to the Reichstag the
growing number of Marxist votes indicated that the internal breakdown
and the political collapse were then rapidly approaching. All the
victories of the so-called bourgeois parties were fruitless, not only
because they could not prevent the numerical increase in the growing
mass of Marxist votes, even when the bourgeois parties triumphed at the
polls, but mainly because they themselves were already infected with the
germs of decay. Though quite unaware of it, the bourgeois world was
infected from within with the deadly virus of Marxist ideas. The fact
that they sometimes openly resisted was to be explained by the
competitive strife among ambitious political leaders, rather than by
attributing it to any opposition in principle between adversaries who
were determined to fight one another to the bitter end. During all those
years only one protagonist was fighting with steadfast perseverance.
This was the Jew. The Star of David steadily ascended as the will to
national self-preservation declined.
Therefore it was not a solid national phalanx that, of itself and out of
its own feeling of solidarity, rushed to the battlefields in August
1914. But it was rather the manifestation of the last flicker from the
instinct of national self-preservation against the progress of the
paralysis with which the pacifist and Marxist doctrine threatened our
people. Even in those days when the destinies of the nation were in the
balance the internal enemy was not recognized; therefore all efforts to
resist the external enemy were bound to be in vain. Providence did not
grant the reward to the victorious sword, but followed the eternal law
of retributive justice. A profound recognition of all this was the
source of those principles and tendencies which inspire our new
movement. We were convinced that only by recognizing such truths could
we stop the national decline in Germany and lay a granite foundation on
which the State could again be built up, a State which would not be a
piece of mechanism alien to our people, constituted for economic
purposes and interests, but an organism created from the soul of the
people themselves.
A GERMAN STATE IN A GERMAN NATION
CHAPTER XII
THE FIRST STAGE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERMAN
NATIONAL SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY
Here at the close of the volume I shall describe the first stage in the
progress of our movement and shall give a brief account of the problems
we had to deal with during that period. In doing this I have no
intention of expounding the ideals which we have set up as the goal of
our movement; for these ideals are so momentous in their significance
that an exposition of them will need a whole volume. Therefore I shall
devote the second volume of this book to a detailed survey of the
principles which form the programme of our movement and I shall attempt
to draw a picture of what we mean by the word 'State'. When I say 'we'
in this connection I mean to include all those hundreds of thousands who
have fundamentally the same longing, though in the individual cases they
cannot find adequate words to describe the vision that hovers before
their eyes. It is a characteristic feature of all great reforms that in
the beginning there is only one single protagonist to come forward on
behalf of several millions of people. The final goal of a great
reformation has often been the object of profound longing on the parts
of hundreds of thousands for many centuries before, until finally one
among them comes forward as a herald to announce the will of that
multitude and become the standard-bearer of the old yearning, which he
now leads to a realization in a new idea.
The fact that millions of our people yearn at heart for a radical change
in our present conditions is proved by the profound discontent which
exists among them. This feeling is manifested in a thousand ways. Some
express it in a form of discouragement and despair. Others show it in
resentment and anger and indignation. Among some the profound discontent
calls forth an attitude of indifference, while it urges others to
violent manifestations of wrath. Another indication of this feeling may
be seen on the one hand in the attitude of those who abstain from voting
at elections and, on the other, in the large numbers of those who side
with the fanatical extremists of the left wing.
To these latter people our young movement had to appeal first of all. It
was not meant to be an organization for contented and satisfied people,
but was meant to gather in all those who were suffering from profound
anxiety and could find no peace, those who were unhappy and
discontented. It was not meant to float on the surface of the nation but
rather to push its roots deep among the masses.
Looked at from the purely political point of view, the situation in 1918
was as follows: A nation had been torn into two parts. One part, which
was by far the smaller of the two, contained the intellectual classes of
the nation from which all those employed in physical labour were
excluded. On the surface these intellectual classes appeared to be
national-minded, but that word meant nothing else to them except a very
vague and feeble concept of the duty to defend what they called the
interests of the State, which in turn seemed identical with those of the
dynastic regime. This class tried to defend its ideas and reach its aims
by carrying on the fight with the aid of intellectual weapons, which
could be used only here and there and which had only a superficial
effect against the brutal measures employed by the adversaries, in the
face of which the intellectual weapons were of their very nature bound
to fail. With one violent blow the class which had hitherto governed was
now struck down. It trembled with fear and accepted every humiliation
imposed on it by the merciless victor.
Over against this class stood the broad masses of manual labourers who
were organized in movements with a more or less radically Marxist
tendency. These organized masses were firmly determined to break any
kind of intellectual resistance by the use of brute force. They had no
nationalist tendencies whatsoever and deliberately repudiated the idea
of advancing the interests of the nation as such. On the contrary, they
promoted the interests of the foreign oppressor. Numerically this class
embraced the majority of the population and, what is more important,
included all those elements of the nation without whose collaboration a
national resurgence was not only a practical impossibility but was even
inconceivable.
For already in 1918 one thing had to be clearly recognized; namely, that
no resurgence of the German nation could take place until we had first
restored our national strength to face the outside world. For this
purpose arms are not the preliminary necessity, though our bourgeois
'statesmen' always blathered about it being so; what was wanted was
will-power. At one time the German people had more than sufficient
military armament. And yet they were not able to defend their liberty
because they lacked those energies which spring from the instinct of
national self-preservation and the will to hold on to one's own. The
best armament is only dead and worthless material as long as the spirit
is wanting which makes men willing and determined to avail themselves of
such weapons. Germany was rendered defenceless not because she lacked
arms, but because she lacked the will to keep her arms for the
maintenance of her people.
To-day our Left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting
that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily
results from the disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this
is the policy of traitors. To all that kind of talk the answer ought to
be: No, the contrary is the truth. Your action in delivering up the arms
was dictated by your anti-national and criminal policy of abandoning the
interests of the nation. And now you try to make people believe that
your miserable whining is fundamentally due to the fact that you have no
arms. Just like everything else in your conduct, this is a lie and a
falsification of the true reason.
But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It
was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who
came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms. The
conservative politicians have neither right nor reason on their side
when they appeal to disarmament as the cause which compelled them to
adopt a policy of prudence (that is to say, cowardice). Here, again, the
contrary is the truth. Disarmament is the result of their lack of
spirit.
Therefore the problem of restoring Germany's power is not a question of
how can we manufacture arms but rather a question of how we can produce
that spirit which enables a people to bear arms. Once this spirit
prevails among a people then it will find a thousand ways, each of which
leads to the necessary armament. But a coward will not fire even a
single shot when attacked though he may be armed with ten pistols. For
him they are of less value than a blackthorn in the hands of a man of
courage.
The problem of re-establishing the political power of our nation is
first of all a problem of restoring the instinct of national
self-preservation for if no other reason than that every preparatory
step in foreign policy and every foreign judgment on the worth of a
State has been proved by experience to be grounded not on the material
size of the armament such a State may possess but rather on the moral
capacity for resistance which such a State has or is believed to have.
The question whether or not a nation be desirable as an ally is not so
much determined by the inert mass of arms which it has at hand but by
the obvious presence of a sturdy will to national self-preservation and
a heroic courage which will fight through to the last breath. For an
alliance is not made between arms but between men.
The British nation will therefore be considered as the most valuable
ally in the world as long as it can be counted upon to show that
brutality and tenacity in its government, as well as in the spirit of
the broad masses, which enables it to carry through to victory any
struggle that it once enters upon, no matter how long such a struggle
may last, or however great the sacrifice that may be necessary or
whatever the means that have to be employed; and all this even though
the actual military equipment at hand may be utterly inadequate when
compared with that of other nations.
Once it is understood that the restoration of Germany is a question of
reawakening the will to political self-preservation we shall see quite
clearly that it will not be enough to win over those elements that are
already national-minded but that the deliberately anti-national masses
must be converted to believe in the national ideals.
A young movement that aims at re-establishing a German State with full
sovereign powers will therefore have to make the task of winning over
the broad masses a special objective of its plan of campaign. Our
so-called 'national bourgeoisie' are so lamentably supine, generally
speaking, and their national spirit appears so feckless, that we may
feel sure they will offer no serious resistance against a vigorous
national foreign--or domestic policy. Even though the narrow-minded
German bourgeoisie should keep up a passive resistance when the hour of
deliverance is at hand, as they did in Bismarck's time, we shall never
have to fear any active resistance on their part, because of their
recognized proverbial cowardice.
It is quite different with the masses of our population, who are imbued
with ideas of internationalism. Through the primitive roughness of their
natures they are disposed to accept the preaching of violence, while at
the same time their Jewish leaders are more brutal and ruthless. They
will crush any attempt at a German revival, just as they smashed the
German Army by striking at it from the rear. Above all, these organized
masses will use their numerical majority in this Parliamentarian State
not only to hinder any national foreign policy, but also to prevent
Germany from restoring her political power and therewith her prestige
abroad. Thus she becomes excluded from the ranks of desirable allies.
For it is not we ourselves alone who are aware of the handicap that
results from the existence of fifteen million Marxists, democrats,
pacifists and followers of the Centre, in our midst, but foreign nations
also recognize this internal burden which we have to bear and take it
into their calculations when estimating the value of a possible alliance
with us. Nobody would wish to form an alliance with a State where the
active portion of the population is at least passively opposed to any
resolute foreign policy.
The situation is made still worse by reason of the fact that the leaders
of those parties which were responsible for the national betrayal are
ready to oppose any and every attempt at a revival, simply because they
want to retain the positions they now hold. According to the laws that
govern human history it is inconceivable that the German people could
resume the place they formerly held without retaliating on those who
were both cause and occasion of the collapse that involved the ruin of
our State. Before the judgment seat of posterity November 1918 will not
be regarded as a simple rebellion but as high treason against the
country.
Therefore it is not possible to think of re-establishing German
sovereignty and political independence without at the same time
reconstructing a united front within the nation, by a peaceful
conversion of the popular will.
Looked at from the standpoint of practical ways and means, it seems
absurd to think of liberating Germany from foreign bondage as long as
the masses of the people are not willing to support such an ideal of
freedom. After carefully considering this problem from the purely
military point of view, everybody, and in particular every officer, will
agree that a war cannot be waged against an outside enemy by battalions
of students; but that, together with the brains of the nation, the
physical strength of the nation is also necessary. Furthermore it must
be remembered that the nation would be robbed of its irreplaceable
assets by a national defence in which only the intellectual circles, as
they are called, were engaged. The young German intellectuals who joined
the volunteer regiments and fell on the battlefields of Flanders in the
autumn of 1914 were bitterly missed later on. They were the dearest
treasure which the nation possessed and their loss could not be made
good in the course of the war. And it is not only the struggle itself
which could not be waged if the working masses of the nation did not
join the storm battalions, but the necessary technical preparations
could not be made without a unified will and a common front within the
nation itself. Our nation which has to exist disarmed, under the
thousand eyes appointed by the Versailles Peace Treaty, cannot make any
technical preparations for the recovery of its freedom and human
independence until the whole army of spies employed within the country
is cut down to those few whose inborn baseness would lead them to betray
anything and everything for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver. But
we can deal with such people. The millions, however, who are opposed to
every kind of national revival simply because of their political
opinions, constitute an insurmountable obstacle. At least the obstacle
will remain insurmountable as long as the cause of their opposition,
which is international Marxism, is not overcome and its teachings
banished from both their hearts and heads.
From whatever point of view we may examine the possibility of recovering
our independence as a State and a people, whether we consider the
problem from the standpoint of technical rearmament or from that of the
actual struggle itself, the necessary pre-requisite always remains the
same. This pre-requisite is that the broad masses of the people must
first be won over to accept the principle of our national independence.
If we do not regain our external freedom every step forward in domestic
reform will at best be an augmentation of our productive powers for the
benefit of those nations that look upon us as a colony to be exploited.
The surplus produced by any so-called improvement would only go into the
hands of our international controllers and any social betterment would
at best increase the product of our labour in favour of those people. No
cultural progress can be made by the German nation, because such
progress is too much bound up with the political independence and
dignity of a people.
Therefore, as we can find a satisfactory solution for the problem of
Germany's future only by winning over the broad masses of our people for
the support of the national idea, this work of education must be
considered the highest and most important task to be accomplished by a
movement which does not strive merely to satisfy the needs of the moment
but considers itself bound to examine in the light of future results
everything it decides to do or refrain from doing.
As early as 1919 we were convinced that the nationalization of the
masses would have to constitute the first and paramount aim of the new
movement. From the tactical standpoint, this decision laid a certain
number of obligations on our shoulders.
(1) No social sacrifice could be considered too great in this effort to
win over the masses for the national revival.
In the field of national economics, whatever concessions are granted
to-day to the employees are negligible when compared with the benefit to
be reaped by the whole nation if such concessions contribute to bring
back the masses of the people once more to the bosom of their own
nation. Nothing but meanness and shortsightedness, which are
characteristics that unfortunately are only too prevalent among our
employers, could prevent people from recognizing that in the long run no
economic improvement and therefore no rise in profits are possible
unless internal solidarity be restored among the bulk of the people who
make up our nation.
If the German trades unions had defended the interests of the
working-classes uncompromisingly during the War; if even during the War
they had used the weapon of the strike to force the industrialists--who
were greedy for higher dividends--to grant the demands of the workers
for whom the unions acted; if at the same time they had stood up as good
Germans for the defence of the nation as stoutly as for their own
claims, and if they had given to their country what was their country's
due--then the War would never have been lost. How ludicrously
insignificant would all, and even the greatest, economic concession have
been in face of the tremendous importance of such a victory.
For a movement which would restore the German worker to the German
people it is therefore absolutely necessary to understand clearly that
economic sacrifices must be considered light in such cases, provided of
course that they do not go the length of endangering the independence
and stability of the national economic system.
(2) The education of the masses along national lines can be carried out
only indirectly, by improving their social conditions; for only by such
a process can the economic conditions be created which enable everybody
to share in the cultural life of the nation.
(3) The nationalization of the broad masses can never be achieved by
half-measures--that is to say, by feebly insisting on what is called the
objective side of the question--but only by a ruthless and devoted
insistence on the one aim which must be achieved. This means that a
people cannot be made 'national' according to the signification attached
to that word by our bourgeois class to-day--that is to say, nationalism
with many reservations--but national in the vehement and extreme sense.
Poison can be overcome only by a counter-poison, and only the supine
bourgeois mind could think that the Kingdom of Heaven can be attained by
a compromise.
The broad masses of a nation are not made up of professors and
diplomats. Since these masses have only a poor acquaintance with
abstract ideas, their reactions lie more in the domain of the feelings,
where the roots of their positive as well as their negative attitudes
are implanted. They are susceptible only to a manifestation of strength
which comes definitely either from the positive or negative side, but
they are never susceptible to any half-hearted attitude that wavers
between one pole and the other. The emotional grounds of their attitude
furnish the reason for their extraordinary stability. It is always more
difficult to fight successfully against Faith than against knowledge.
Love is less subject to change than respect. Hatred is more lasting than
mere aversion. And the driving force which has brought about the most
tremendous revolutions on this earth has never been a body of scientific
teaching which has gained power over the masses, but always a devotion
which has inspired them, and often a kind of hysteria which has urged
them to action.
Whoever wishes to win over the masses must know the key that will open
the door to their hearts. It is not objectivity, which is a feckless
attitude, but a determined will, backed up by force, when necessary.
(4) The soul of the masses can be won only if those who lead the
movement for that purpose are determined not merely to carry through the
positive struggle for their own aims but are also determined to destroy
the enemy that opposes them.
When they see an uncompromising onslaught against an adversary the
people have at all times taken this as a proof that right is on the side
of the active aggressor; but if the aggressor should go only half-way
and fail to push home his success by driving his opponent entirely from
the scene of action, the people will look upon this as a sign that the
aggressor is uncertain of the justice of his own cause and his half-way
policy may even be an acknowledgment that his cause is unjust.
The masses are but a part of Nature herself. Their feeling is such that
they cannot understand mutual hand-shakings between men who are declared
enemies. Their wish is to see the stronger side win and the weaker wiped
out or subjected unconditionally to the will of the stronger.
The nationalization of the masses can be successfully achieved only if,
in the positive struggle to win the soul of the people, those who spread
the international poison among them are exterminated.
(5) All the great problems of our time are problems of the moment and
are only the results of certain definite causes. And among all those
there is only one that has a profoundly causal significance. This is the
problem of preserving the pure racial stock among the people. Human
vigour or decline depends on the blood. Nations that are not aware of
the importance of their racial stock, or which neglect to preserve it,
are like men who would try to educate the pug-dog to do the work of the
greyhound, not understanding that neither the speed of the greyhound nor
the imitative faculties of the poodle are inborn qualities which cannot
be drilled into the one or the other by any form of training. A people
that fails to preserve the purity of its racial blood thereby destroys
the unity of the soul of the nation in all its manifestations. A
disintegrated national character is the inevitable consequence of a
process of disintegration in the blood. And the change which takes place
in the spiritual and creative faculties of a people is only an effect of
the change that has modified its racial substance.
If we are to free the German people from all those failings and ways of
acting which do not spring from their original character, we must first
get rid of those foreign germs in the national body which are the cause
of its failings and false ways.
The German nation will never revive unless the racial problem is taken
into account and dealt with. The racial problem furnishes the key not
only to the understanding of human history but also to the understanding
of every kind of human culture.
(6) By incorporating in the national community the masses of our people
who are now in the international camp we do not thereby mean to renounce
the principle that the interests of the various trades and professions
must be safeguarded. Divergent interests in the various branches of
labour and in the trades and professions are not the same as a division
between the various classes, but rather a feature inherent in the
economic situation. Vocational grouping does not clash in the least with
the idea of a national community, for this means national unity in
regard to all those problems that affect the life of the nation as such.
To incorporate in the national community, or simply the State, a stratum
of the people which has now formed a social class the standing of the
higher classes must not be lowered but that of the lower classes must be
raised. The class which carries through this process is never the higher
class but rather the lower one which is fighting for equality of rights.
The bourgeoisie of to-day was not incorporated in the State through
measures enacted by the feudal nobility but only through its own energy
and a leadership that had sprung from its own ranks.
The German worker cannot be raised from his present standing and
incorporated in the German folk-community by means of goody-goody
meetings where people talk about the brotherhood of the people, but
rather by a systematic improvement in the social and cultural life of
the worker until the yawning abyss between him and the other classes can
be filled in. A movement which has this for its aim must try to recruit
its followers mainly from the ranks of the working class. It must
include members of the intellectual classes only in so far as such
members have rightly understood and accepted without reserve the ideal
towards which the movement is striving. This process of transformation
and reunion cannot be completed within ten or twenty years. It will take
several generations, as the history of such movements has shown.
The most difficult obstacle to the reunion of our contemporary worker in
the national folk-community does not consist so much in the fact that he
fights for the interests of his fellow-workers, but rather in the
international ideas with which he is imbued and which are of their
nature at variance with the ideas of nationhood and fatherland. This
hostile attitude to nation and fatherland has been inculcated by the
leaders of the working class. If they were inspired by the principle of
devotion to the nation in all that concerns its political and social
welfare, the trades unions would make those millions of workers most
valuable members of the national community, without thereby affecting
their own constant struggle for their economic demands.
A movement which sincerely endeavours to bring the German worker back
into his folk-community, and rescue him from the folly of
internationalism, must wage a vigorous campaign against certain notions
that are prevalent among the industrialists. One of these notions is
that according to the concept of the folk-community, the employee is
obliged to surrender all his economic rights to the employer and,
further, that the workers would come into conflict with the
folk-community if they should attempt to defend their own just and vital
interests. Those who try to propagate such a notion are deliberate
liars. The idea of a folk-community does not impose any obligations on
the one side that are not imposed on the other.
A worker certainly does something which is contrary to the spirit of
folk-community if he acts entirely on his own initiative and puts
forward exaggerated demands without taking the common good into
consideration or the maintenance of the national economic structure. But
an industrialist also acts against the spirit of the folk-community if
he adopts inhuman methods of exploitation and misuses the working forces
of the nation to make millions unjustly for himself from the sweat of
the workers. He has no right to call himself 'national' and no right to
talk of a folk-community, for he is only an unscrupulous egoist who sows
the seeds of social discontent and provokes a spirit of conflict which
sooner or later must be injurious to the interests of the country.
The reservoir from which the young movement has to draw its members will
first of all be the working masses. Those masses must be delivered from
the clutches of the international mania. Their social distress must be
eliminated. They must be raised above their present cultural level,
which is deplorable, and transformed into a resolute and valuable factor
in the folk-community, inspired by national ideas and national
sentiment.
If among those intellectual circles that are nationalist in their
outlook men can be found who genuinely love the people and look forward
eagerly to the future of Germany, and at the same time have a sound
grasp of the importance of a struggle whose aim is to win over the soul
of the masses, such men are cordially welcomed in the ranks of our
movement, because they can serve as a valuable intellectual force in the
work that has to be done. But this movement can never aim at recruiting
its membership from the unthinking herd of bourgeois voters. If it did
so the movement would be burdened with a mass of people whose whole
mentality would only help to paralyse the effort of our campaign to win
the mass of the people. In theory it may be very fine to say that the
broad masses ought to be influenced by a combined leadership of the
upper and lower social strata within the framework of the one movement;
but, notwithstanding all this, the fact remains that though it may be
possible to exercise a psychological influence on the bourgeois classes
and to arouse some enthusiasm or even awaken some understanding among
them by our public demonstrations, their traditional characteristics
cannot be changed. In other words, we could not eliminate from the
bourgeois classes the inefficiency and supineness which are part of a
tradition that has developed through centuries. The difference between
the cultural levels of the two groups and between their respective
attitudes towards social-economic questions is still so great that it
would turn out a hindrance to the movement the moment the first
enthusiasm aroused by our demonstrations calmed down.
Finally, it is not part of our programme to transform the nationalist
camp itself, but rather to win over those who are anti-national in their
outlook. It is from this viewpoint that the strategy of the whole
movement must finally be decided.
(7) This one-sided but accordingly clear and definite attitude must be
manifested in the propaganda of the movement; and, on the other hand,
this is absolutely necessary to make the propaganda itself effective.
If propaganda is to be of service to the movement it must be addressed
to one side alone; for if it should vary the direction of its appeal it
will not be understood in the one camp or may be rejected by the other,
as merely insisting on obvious and uninteresting truisms; for the
intellectual training of the two camps that come into question here has
been very different.
Even the manner in which something is presented and the tone in which
particular details are emphasized cannot have the same effect in those
two strata that belong respectively to the opposite extremes of the
social structure. If the propaganda should refrain from using primitive
forms of expression it will not appeal to the sentiments of the masses.
If, on the other hand, it conforms to the crude sentiments of the masses
in its words and gestures the intellectual circles will be averse to it
because of its roughness and vulgarity. Among a hundred men who call
themselves orators there are scarcely ten who are capable of speaking
with effect before an audience of street-sweepers, locksmiths and
navvies, etc., to-day and expound the same subject with equal effect
to-morrow before an audience of university professors and students.
Among a thousand public speakers there may be only one who can speak
before a composite audience of locksmiths and professors in the same
hall in such a way that his statements can be fully comprehended by each
group while at the same time he effectively influences both and awakens
enthusiasm, on the one side as well as on the other, to hearty applause.
But it must be remembered that in most cases even the most beautiful
idea embodied in a sublime theory can be brought home to the public only
through the medium of smaller minds. The thing that matters here is not
the vision of the man of genius who created the great idea but rather
the success which his apostles achieve in shaping the expression of this
idea so as to bring it home to the minds of the masses.
Social-Democracy and the whole Marxist movement were particularly
qualified to attract the great masses of the nation, because of the
uniformity of the public to which they addressed their appeal. The more
limited and narrow their ideas and arguments, the easier it was for the
masses to grasp and assimilate them; for those ideas and arguments were
well adapted to a low level of intelligence.
These considerations led the new movement to adopt a clear and simple
line of policy, which was as follows:
In its message as well as in its forms of expression the propaganda must
be kept on a level with the intelligence of the masses, and its value
must be measured only by the actual success it achieves.
At a public meeting where the great masses are gathered together the
best speaker is not he whose way of approaching a subject is most akin
to the spirit of those intellectuals who may happen to be present, but
the speaker who knows how to win the hearts of the masses.
An educated man who is present and who finds fault with an address
because he considers it to be on an intellectual plane that is too low,
though he himself has witnessed its effect on the lower intellectual
groups whose adherence has to be won, only shows himself completely
incapable of rightly judging the situation and therewith proves that he
can be of no use in the new movement. Only intellectuals can be of use
to a movement who understand its mission and its aims so well that they
have learned to judge our methods of propaganda exclusively by the
success obtained and never by the impression which those methods made on
the intellectuals themselves. For our propaganda is not meant to serve
as an entertainment for those people who already have a nationalist
outlook, but its purpose is to win the adhesion of those who have
hitherto been hostile to national ideas and who are nevertheless of our
own blood and race.
In general, those considerations of which I have given a brief summary
in the chapter on 'War Propaganda' became the guiding rules and
principles which determined the kind of propaganda we were to adopt in
our campaign and the manner in which we were to put it into practice.
The success that has been obtained proves that our decision was right.
(8) The ends which any political reform movement sets out to attain can
never be reached by trying to educate the public or influence those in
power but only by getting political power into its hands. Every idea
that is meant to move the world has not only the right but also the
obligation of securing control of those means which will enable the idea
to be carried into effect. In this world success is the only rule of
judgment whereby we can decide whether such an undertaking was right or
wrong. And by the word 'success' in this connection I do not mean such a
success as the mere conquest of power in 1918 but the successful issue
whereby the common interests of the nation have been served. A COUP
D'ETAT cannot be considered successful if, as many empty-headed
government lawyers in Germany now believe, the revolutionaries succeeded
in getting control of the State into their hands but only if, in
comparison with the state of affairs under the old regime, the lot of
the nation has been improved when the aims and intentions on which the
revolution was based have been put into practice. This certainly does
not apply to the German Revolution, as that movement was called, which
brought a gang of bandits into power in the autumn of 1918.
But if the conquest of political power be a requisite preliminary for
the practical realization of the ideals that inspire a reform movement,
then any movement which aims at reform must, from the very first day of
its activity, be considered by its leaders as a movement of the masses
and not as a literary tea club or an association of philistines who meet
to play ninepins.
(9) The nature and internal organization of the new movement make it
anti-parliamentarian. That is to say, it rejects in general and in its
own structure all those principles according to which decisions are to
be taken on the vote of the majority and according to which the leader
is only the executor of the will and opinion of others. The movement
lays down the principle that, in the smallest as well as in the greatest
problems, one person must have absolute authority and bear all
responsibility.
In our movement the practical consequences of this principle are the
following:
The president of a large group is appointed by the head of the group
immediately above his in authority. He is then the responsible leader of
his group. All the committees are subject to his authority and not he to
theirs. There is no such thing as committees that vote but only
committees that work. This work is allotted by the responsible leader,
who is the president of the group. The same principle applies to the
higher organizations--the Bezirk (district), the KREIS (urban circuit)
and the GAU (the region). In each case the president is appointed from
above and is invested with full authority and executive power. Only the
leader of the whole party is elected at the general meeting of the
members. But he is the sole leader of the movement. All the committees
are responsible to him, but he is not responsible to the committees. His
decision is final, but he bears the whole responsibility of it. The
members of the movement are entitled to call him to account by means of
a new election, or to remove him from office if he has violated the
principles of the movement or has not served its interests adequately.
He is then replaced by a more capable man. who is invested with the same
authority and obliged to bear the same responsibility.
One of the highest duties of the movement is to make this principle
imperative not only within its own ranks but also for the whole State.
The man who becomes leader is invested with the highest and unlimited
authority, but he also has to bear the last and gravest responsibility.
The man who has not the courage to shoulder responsibility for his
actions is not fitted to be a leader. Only a man of heroic mould can
have the vocation for such a task.
Human progress and human cultures are not founded by the multitude. They
are exclusively the work of personal genius and personal efficiency.
Because of this principle, our movement must necessarily be
anti-parliamentarian, and if it takes part in the parliamentary
institution it is only for the purpose of destroying this institution
from within; in other words, we wish to do away with an institution
which we must look upon as one of the gravest symptoms of human decline.
(10) The movement steadfastly refuses to take up any stand in regard to
those problems which are either outside of its sphere of political work
or seem to have no fundamental importance for us. It does not aim at
bringing about a religious reformation, but rather a political
reorganization of our people. It looks upon the two religious
denominations as equally valuable mainstays for the existence of our
people, and therefore it makes war on all those parties which would
degrade this foundation, on which the religious and moral stability of
our people is based, to an instrument in the service of party interests.
Finally, the movement does not aim at establishing any one form of State
or trying to destroy another, but rather to make those fundamental
principles prevail without which no republic and no monarchy can exist
for any length of time. The movement does not consider its mission to be
the establishment of a monarchy or the preservation of the Republic but
rather to create a German State.
The problem concerning the outer form of this State, that is to say, its
final shape, is not of fundamental importance. It is a problem which
must be solved in the light of what seems practical and opportune at the
moment.
Once a nation has understood and appreciated the great problems that
affect its inner existence, the question of outer formalities will never
lead to any internal conflict.
(11) The problem of the inner organization of the movement is not one of
principle but of expediency.
The best kind of organization is not that which places a large
intermediary apparatus between the leadership of the movement and the
individual followers but rather that which works successfully with the
smallest possible intermediary apparatus. For it is the task of such an
organization to transmit a certain idea which originated in the brain of
one individual to a multitude of people and to supervise the manner in
which this idea is being put into practice.
Therefore, from any and every viewpoint, the organization is only a
necessary evil. At best it is only a means of reaching certain ends. The
worst happens when it becomes an end in itself.
Since the world produces more mechanical than intelligent beings, it
will always be easier to develop the form of an organization than its
substance; that is to say, the ideas which it is meant to serve.
The march of any idea which strives towards practical fulfilment, and in
particular those ideas which are of a reformatory character, may be
roughly sketched as follows:
A creative idea takes shape in the mind of somebody who thereupon feels
himself called upon to transmit this idea to the world. He propounds his
faith before others and thereby gradually wins a certain number of
followers. This direct and personal way of promulgating one's ideas
among one's contemporaries is the most natural and the most ideal. But
as the movement develops and secures a large number of followers it
gradually becomes impossible for the original founder of the doctrine on
which the movement is based to carry on his propaganda personally among
his innumerable followers and at the same time guide the course of the
movement.
According as the community of followers increases, direct communication
between the head and the individual followers becomes impossible. This
intercourse must then take place through an intermediary apparatus
introduced into the framework of the movement. Thus ideal conditions of
inter-communication cease, and organization has to be introduced as a
necessary evil. Small subsidiary groups come into existence, as in the
political movement, for example, where the local groups represent the
germ-cells out of which the organization develops later on.
But such sub-divisions must not be introduced into the movement until
the authority of the spiritual founder and of the school he has created
are accepted without reservation. Otherwise the movement would run the
risk of becoming split up by divergent doctrines. In this connection too
much emphasis cannot be laid on the importance of having one geographic
centre as the chief seat of the movement. Only the existence of such a
seat or centre, around which a magic charm such as that of Mecca or Rome
is woven, can supply a movement with that permanent driving force which
has its sources in the internal unity of the movement and the
recognition of one head as representing this unity.
When the first germinal cells of the organization are being formed care
must always be taken to insist on the importance of the place where the
idea originated. The creative, moral and practical greatness of the
place whence the movement went forth and from which it is governed must
be exalted to a supreme symbol, and this must be honoured all the more
according as the original cells of the movement become so numerous that
they have to be regrouped into larger units in the structure of the
organization.
When the number of individual followers became so large that direct
personal contact with the head of the movement was out of the question,
then we had to form those first local groups. As those groups multiplied
to an extraordinary number it was necessary to establish higher cadres
into which the local groups were distributed. Examples of such cadres in
the political organization are those of the region (GAU) and the
district (BEZIRK).
Though it may be easy enough to maintain the original central authority
over the lowest groups, it is much more difficult to do so in relation
to the higher units of organization which have now developed. And yet we
must succeed in doing this, for this is an indispensable condition if
the unity of the movement is to be guaranteed and the idea of it carried
into effect.
Finally, when those larger intermediary organizations have to be
combined in new and still higher units it becomes increasingly difficult
to maintain over them the absolute supremacy of the original seat of the
movement and the school attached to it.
Consequently the mechanical forms of an organization must only be
introduced if and in so far as the spiritual authority and the ideals of
the central seat of the organization are shown to be firmly established.
In the political sphere it may often happen that this supremacy can be
maintained only when the movement has taken over supreme political
control of the nation.
Having taken all these considerations into account, the following
principles were laid down for the inner structure of the movement:
(a) That at the beginning all activity should be concentrated in one
town: namely, Munich. That a band of absolutely reliable followers
should be trained and a school founded which would subsequently help to
propagate the idea of the movement. That the prestige of the movement,
for the sake of its subsequent extension, should first be established
here through gaining as many successful and visible results as possible
in this one place. To secure name and fame for the movement and its
leader it was necessary, not only to give in this one town a striking
example to shatter the belief that the Marxist doctrine was invincible
but also to show that a counter-doctrine was possible.
(b) That local groups should not be established before the supremacy of
the central authority in Munich was definitely established and
acknowledged.
(c) That District, Regional, and Provincial groups should be formed only
after the need for them has become evident and only after the supremacy
of the central authority has been satisfactorily guaranteed.
Further, that the creation of subordinate organisms must depend on
whether or not those persons can be found who are qualified to undertake
the leadership of them.
Here there were only two solutions:
(a) That the movement should acquire the necessary funds to attract and
train intelligent people who would be capable of becoming leaders. The
personnel thus obtained could then be systematically employed according
as the tactical situation and the necessity for efficiency demanded.
This solution was the easier and the more expedite. But it demanded
large financial resources; for this group of leaders could work in the
movement only if they could be paid a salary.
(b) Because the movement is not in a position to employ paid officials
it must begin by depending on honorary helpers. Naturally this solution
is slower and more difficult.
It means that the leaders of the movement have to allow vast territories
to lie fallow unless in these respective districts one of the members
comes forward who is capable and willing to place himself at the service
of the central authority for the purpose of organizing and directing the
movement in the region concerned.
It may happen that in extensive regions no such leader can be found, but
that at the same time in other regions two or three or even more persons
appear whose capabilities are almost on a level. The difficulty which
this situation involves is very great and can be overcome only with the
passing of the years.
For the establishment of any branch of the organization the decisive
condition must always be that a person can be found who is capable of
fulfilling the functions of a leader.
Just as the army and all its various units of organization are useless
if there are no officers, so any political organization is worthless if
it has not the right kind of leaders.
If an inspiring personality who has the gift of leadership cannot be
found for the organization and direction of a local group it is better
for the movement to refrain from establishing such a group than to run
the risk of failure after the group has been founded.
The will to be a leader is not a sufficient qualification for
leadership. For the leader must have the other necessary qualities.
Among these qualities will-power and energy must be considered as more
serviceable than the intellect of a genius. The most valuable
association of qualities is to be found in a combination of talent,
determination and perseverance.
(12) The future of a movement is determined by the devotion, and even
intolerance, with which its members fight for their cause. They must
feel convinced that their cause alone is just, and they must carry it
through to success, as against other similar organizations in the same
field.
It is quite erroneous to believe that the strength of a movement must
increase if it be combined with other movements of a similar kind. Any
expansion resulting from such a combination will of course mean an
increase in external development, which superficial observers might
consider as also an increase of power; but in reality the movement thus
admits outside elements which will subsequently weaken its
constitutional vigour.
Though it may be said that one movement is identical in character with
another, in reality no such identity exists. If it did exist then
practically there would not be two movements but only one. And whatever
the difference may be, even if it consist only of the measure in which
the capabilities of the one set of leaders differ from those of the
other, there it is. It is against the natural law of all development to
couple dissimilar organisms, or the law is that the stronger must
overcome the weaker and, through the struggle necessary for such a
conquest, increase the constitutional vigour and effective strength of
the victor.
By amalgamating political organizations that are approximately alike,
certain immediate advantages may be gained, but advantages thus gained
are bound in the long run to become the cause of internal weaknesses
which will make their appearance later on.
A movement can become great only if the unhampered development of its
internal strength be safeguarded and steadfastly augmented, until
victory over all its competitors be secured.
One may safely say that the strength of a movement and its right to
existence can be developed only as long as it remains true to the
principle that struggle is a necessary condition of its progress and
that its maximum strength will be reached only as soon as complete
victory has been won.
Therefore a movement must not strive to obtain successes that will be
only immediate and transitory, but it must show a spirit of
uncompromising perseverance in carrying through a long struggle which
will secure for it a long period of inner growth.
All those movements which owe their expansion to a so-called combination
of similar organisms, which means that their external strength is due to
a policy of compromise, are like plants whose growth is forced in a
hothouse. They shoot up externally but they lack that inner strength
which enables the natural plant to grow into a tree that will withstand
the storms of centuries.
The greatness of every powerful organization which embodies a creative
idea lies in the spirit of religious devotion and intolerance with which
it stands out against all others, because it has an ardent faith in its
own right. If an idea is right in itself and, furnished with the
fighting weapons I have mentioned, wages war on this earth, then it is
invincible and persecution will only add to its internal strength.
The greatness of Christianity did not arise from attempts to make
compromises with those philosophical opinions of the ancient world which
had some resemblance to its own doctrine, but in the unrelenting and
fanatical proclamation and defence of its own teaching.
The apparent advance that a movement makes by associating itself with
other movements will be easily reached and surpassed by the steady
increase of strength which a doctrine and its organization acquires if
it remains independent and fights its own cause alone.
(13) The movement ought to educate its adherents to the principle that
struggle must not be considered a necessary evil but as something to be
desired in itself. Therefore they must not be afraid of the hostility
which their adversaries manifest towards them but they must take it as a
necessary condition on which their whole right to existence is based.
They must not try to avoid being hated by those who are the enemies of
our people and our philosophy of life, but must welcome such hatred.
Lies and calumnies are part of the method which the enemy employs to
express his chagrin.
The man who is not opposed and vilified and slandered in the Jewish
Press is not a staunch German and not a true National Socialist. The
best rule whereby the sincerity of his convictions, his character and
strength of will, can be measured is the hostility which his name
arouses among the mortal enemies of our people.
The followers of the movement, and indeed the whole nation, must be
reminded again and again of the fact that, through the medium of his
newspapers, the Jew is always spreading falsehood and that if he tells
the truth on some occasions it is only for the purpose of masking some
greater deceit, which turns the apparent truth into a deliberate
falsehood. The Jew is the Great Master of Lies. Falsehood and duplicity
are the weapons with which he fights.
Every calumny and falsehood published by the Jews are tokens of honour
which can be worn by our comrades. He whom they decry most is nearest to
our hearts and he whom they mortally hate is our best friend.
If a comrade of ours opens a Jewish newspaper in the morning and does
not find himself vilified there, then he has spent yesterday to no
account. For if he had achieved something he would be persecuted,
slandered, derided and abused. Those who effectively combat this mortal
enemy of our people, who is at the same time the enemy of all Aryan
peoples and all culture, can only expect to arouse opposition on the
part of this race and become the object of its slanderous attacks.
When these truths become part of the flesh and blood, as it were, of our
members, then the movement will be impregnable and invincible.
(14) The movement must use all possible means to cultivate respect for
the individual personality. It must never forget that all human values
are based on personal values, and that every idea and achievement is the
fruit of the creative power of one man. We must never forget that
admiration for everything that is great is not only a tribute to one
creative personality but that all those who feel such admiration become
thereby united under one covenant.
Nothing can take the place of the individual, especially if the
individual embodies in himself not the mechanical element but the
element of cultural creativeness. No pupil can take the place of the
master in completing a great picture which he has left unfinished; and
just in the same way no substitute can take the place of the great poet
or thinker, or the great statesman or military general. For the source
of their power is in the realm of artistic creativeness. It can never be
mechanically acquired, because it is an innate product of divine grace.
The greatest revolutions and the greatest achievements of this world,
its greatest cultural works and the immortal creations of great
statesmen, are inseparably bound up with one name which stands as a
symbol for them in each respective case. The failure to pay tribute to
one of those great spirits signifies a neglect of that enormous source
of power which lies in the remembrance of all great men and women.
The Jew himself knows this best. He, whose great men have always been
great only in their efforts to destroy mankind and its civilization,
takes good care that they are worshipped as idols. But the Jew tries to
degrade the honour in which nations hold their great men and women. He
stigmatizes this honour as 'the cult of personality'.
As soon as a nation has so far lost its courage as to submit to this
impudent defamation on the part of the Jews it renounces the most
important source of its own inner strength. This inner force cannot
arise from a policy of pandering to the masses but only from the worship
of men of genius, whose lives have uplifted and ennobled the nation
itself.
When men's hearts are breaking and their souls are plunged into the
depths of despair, their great forebears turn their eyes towards them
from the dim shadows of the past--those forebears who knew how to
triumph over anxiety and affliction, mental servitude and physical
bondage--and extend their eternal hands in a gesture of encouragement to
despairing souls. Woe to the nation that is ashamed to clasp those
hands.
During the initial phase of our movement our greatest handicap was the
fact that none of us were known and our names meant nothing, a fact
which then seemed to some of us to make the chances of final success
problematical. Our most difficult task then was to make our members
firmly believe that there was a tremendous future in store for the
movement and to maintain this belief as a living faith; for at that time
only six, seven or eight persons came to hear one of our speakers.
Consider that only six or seven poor devils who were entirely unknown
came together to found a movement which should succeed in doing what the
great mass-parties had failed to do: namely, to reconstruct the German
REICH, even in greater power and glory than before. We should have been
very pleased if we were attacked or even ridiculed. But the most
depressing fact was that nobody paid any attention to us whatever. This
utter lack of interest in us caused me great mental pain at that time.
When I entered the circle of those men there was not yet any question of
a party or a movement. I have already described the impression which was
made on me when I first came into contact with that small organization.
Subsequently I had time, and also the occasion, to study the form of
this so-called party which at first had made such a woeful impression.
The picture was indeed quite depressing and discouraging. There was
nothing, absolutely nothing at all. There was only the name of a party.
And the committee consisted of all the party members. Somehow or other
it seemed just the kind of thing we were about to fight against--a
miniature parliament. The voting system was employed. When the great
parliament cried until they were hoarse--at least they shouted over
problems of importance--here this small circle engaged in interminable
discussions as to the form in which they might answer the letters which
they were delighted to have received.
Needless to say, the public knew nothing of all this. In Munich nobody
knew of the existence of such a party, not even by name, except our few
members and their small circle of acquaintances.
Every Wednesday what was called a committee meeting was held in one of
the cafés, and a debate was arranged for one evening each week. In the
beginning all the members of the movement were also members of the
committee, therefore the same persons always turned up at both meetings.
The first step that had to be taken was to extend the narrow limits of
this small circle and get new members, but the principal necessity was
to utilize all the means at our command for the purpose of making the
movement known.
We chose the following methods: We decided to hold a monthly meeting to
which the public would be invited. Some of the invitations were
typewritten, and some were written by hand. For the first few meetings
we distributed them in the streets and delivered them personally at
certain houses. Each one canvassed among his own acquaintances and tried
to persuade some of them to attend our meetings. The result was
lamentable.
I still remember once how I personally delivered eighty of these
invitations and how we waited in the evening for the crowds to come.
After waiting in vain for a whole hour the chairman finally had to open
the meeting. Again there were only seven people present, the old
familiar seven.
We then changed our methods. We had the invitations written with a
typewriter in a Munich stationer's shop and then multigraphed them.
The result was that a few more people attended our next meeting. The
number increased gradually from eleven to thirteen to seventeen, to
twenty-three and finally to thirty-four. We collected some money within
our own circle, each poor devil giving a small contribution, and in that
way we raised sufficient funds to be able to advertise one of our
meetings in the MUNICH OBSERVER, which was still an independent paper.
This time we had an astonishing success. We had chosen the Munich
HOFBRÄU HAUS KELLER (which must not be confounded with the Munich
HOFBRÄU HAUS FESTSAAL) as our meeting-place. It was a small hall and
would accommodate scarcely more than 130 people. To me, however, the
hall seemed enormous, and we were all trembling lest this tremendous
edifice would remain partly empty on the night of the meeting.
At seven o'clock 111 persons were present, and the meeting was opened. A
Munich professor delivered the principal address, and I spoke after him.
That was my first appearance in the role of public orator. The whole
thing seemed a very daring adventure to Herr Harrer, who was then
chairman of the party. He was a very decent fellow; but he had an
A PRIORI conviction that, although I might have quite a number of good
qualities, I certainly did not have a talent for public speaking. Even
later he could not be persuaded to change his opinion. But he was
mistaken. Twenty minutes had been allotted to me for my speech on this
occasion, which might be looked upon as our first public meeting.
I talked for thirty minutes, and what I always had felt deep down in my
heart, without being able to put it to the test, was here proved to be
true: I could make a good speech. At the end of the thirty minutes it
was quite clear that all the people in the little hall had been
profoundly impressed. The enthusiasm aroused among them found its first
expression in the fact that my appeal to those present brought us
donations which amounted to three hundred marks. That was a great relief
for us. Our finances were at that time so meagre that we could not
afford to have our party prospectus printed, or even leaflets. Now we
possessed at least the nucleus of a fund from which we could pay the
most urgent and necessary expenses.
But the success of this first larger meeting was also important from
another point of view. I had already begun to introduce some young and
fresh members into the committee. During the long period of my military
service I had come to know a large number of good comrades whom I was
now able to persuade to join our party. All of them were energetic and
disciplined young men who, through their years of military service, had
been imbued with the principle that nothing is impossible and that where
there's a will there's a way.
The need for this fresh blood supply became evident to me after a few
weeks of collaboration with the new members. Herr Harrer, who was then
chairman of the party, was a journalist by profession, and as such he
was a man of general knowledge. But as leader of the party he had one
very serious handicap: he could not speak to the crowd. Though he did
his work conscientiously, it lacked the necessary driving force,
probably for the reason that he had no oratorical gifts whatsoever. Herr
Drexler, at that time chairman of the Munich local group, was a simple
working man. He, too, was not of any great importance as a speaker.
Moreover, he was not a soldier. He had never done military service, even
during the War. So that this man who was feeble and diffident by nature
had missed the only school which knows how to transform diffident and
weakly natures into real men. Therefore neither of those two men were of
the stuff that would have enabled them to stir up an ardent and
indomitable faith in the ultimate triumph of the movement and to brush
aside, with obstinate force and if necessary with brutal ruthlessness,
all obstacles that stood in the path of the new idea. Such a task could
be carried out only by men who had been trained, body and soul, in those
military virtues which make a man, so to speak, agile as a greyhound,
tough as leather, and hard as Krupp steel.
At that time I was still a soldier. Physically and mentally I had the
polish of six years of service, so that in the beginning this circle
must have looked on me as quite a stranger. In common with my army
comrades, I had forgotten such phrases as: "That will not go", or "That
is not possible", or "We ought not to take such a risk; it is too
dangerous".
The whole undertaking was of its very nature dangerous. At that time
there were many parts of Germany where it would have been absolutely
impossible openly to invite people to a national meeting that dared to
make a direct appeal to the masses. Those who attended such meetings
were usually dispersed and driven away with broken heads. It certainly
did not call for any great qualities to be able to do things in that
way. The largest so-called bourgeois mass meetings were accustomed to
dissolve, and those in attendance would run away like rabbits when
frightened by a dog as soon as a dozen communists appeared on the scene.
The Reds used to pay little attention to those bourgeois organizations
where only babblers talked. They recognized the inner triviality of such
associations much better than the members themselves and therefore felt
that they need not be afraid of them. On the contrary, however, they
were all the more determined to use every possible means of annihilating
once and for all any movement that appeared to them to be a danger to
their own interests. The most effective means which they always employed
in such cases were terror and brute force.
The Marxist leaders, whose business consisted in deceiving and
misleading the public, naturally hated most of all a movement whose
declared aim was to win over those masses which hitherto had been
exclusively at the service of international Marxism in the Jewish and
Stock Exchange parties. The title alone, 'German Labour party',
irritated them. It could easily be foreseen that at the first opportune
moment we should have to face the opposition of the Marxist despots, who
were still intoxicated with their triumph in 1918.
People in the small circles of our own movement at that time showed a
certain amount of anxiety at the prospect of such a conflict. They
wanted to refrain as much as possible from coming out into the open,
because they feared that they might be attacked and beaten. In their
minds they saw our first public meetings broken up and feared that the
movement might thus be ruined for ever. I found it difficult to defend
my own position, which was that the conflict should not be evaded but
that it should be faced openly and that we should be armed with those
weapons which are the only protection against brute force. Terror cannot
be overcome by the weapons of the mind but only by counter-terror. The
success of our first public meeting strengthened my own position. The
members felt encouraged to arrange for a second meeting, even on a
larger scale.
Some time in October 1919 the second larger meeting took place in the
EBERLBRÄU KELLER. The theme of our speeches was 'Brest-Litowsk and
Versailles'. There were four speakers. I talked for almost an hour, and
the success was even more striking than at our first meeting. The number
of people who attended had grown to more than 130. An attempt to disturb
the proceedings was immediately frustrated by my comrades. The would-be
disturbers were thrown down the stairs, bearing imprints of violence on
their heads.
A fortnight later another meeting took place in the same hall. The
number in attendance had now increased to more than 170, which meant
that the room was fairly well filled. I spoke again, and once more the
success obtained was greater than at the previous meeting.
Then I proposed that a larger hall should be found. After looking around
for some time we discovered one at the other end of the town, in the
'Deutschen REICH' in the Dachauer Strasse. The first meeting at this new
rendezvous had a smaller attendance than the previous meeting. There
were just less than 140 present. The members of the committee began to
be discouraged, and those who had always been sceptical were now
convinced that this falling-off in the attendance was due to the fact
that we were holding the meetings at too short intervals. There were
lively discussions, in which I upheld my own opinion that a city with
700,000 inhabitants ought to be able not only to stand one meeting every
fortnight but ten meetings every week. I held that we should not be
discouraged by one comparative setback, that the tactics we had chosen
were correct, and that sooner or later success would be ours if we only
continued with determined perseverance to push forward on our road. This
whole winter of 1919-20 was one continual struggle to strengthen
confidence in our ability to carry the movement through to success and
to intensify this confidence until it became a burning faith that could
move mountains.
Our next meeting in the small hall proved the truth of my contention.
Our audience had increased to more than 200. The publicity effect and
the financial success were splendid. I immediately urged that a further
meeting should be held. It took place in less than a fortnight, and
there were more than 270 people present. Two weeks later we invited our
followers and their friends, for the seventh time, to attend our
meeting. The same hall was scarcely large enough for the number that
came. They amounted to more than four hundred.
During this phase the young movement developed its inner form. Sometimes
we had more or less hefty discussions within our small circle. From
various sides--it was then just the same as it is to-day--objections
were made against the idea of calling the young movement a party. I have
always considered such criticism as a demonstration of practical
incapability and narrow-mindedness on the part of the critic. Those
objections have always been raised by men who could not differentiate
between external appearances and inner strength, but tried to judge the
movement by the high-sounding character of the name attached to it. To
this end they ransacked the vocabulary of our ancestors, with
unfortunate results.
At that time it was very difficult to make the people understand that
every movement is a party as long as it has not brought its ideals to
final triumph and thus achieved its purpose. It is a party even if it
give itself a thousand difterent names.
Any person who tries to carry into practice an original idea whose
realization would be for the benefit of his fellow men will first have
to look for disciples who are ready to fight for the ends he has in
view. And if these ends did not go beyond the destruction of the party
system and therewith put a stop to the process of disintegration, then
all those who come forward as protagonists and apostles of such an ideal
are a party in themselves as long as their final goal is reached. It is
only hair-splitting and playing with words when these antiquated
theorists, whose practical success is in reverse ratio to their wisdom,
presume to think they can change the character of a movement which is at
the same time a party, by merely changing its name.
On the contrary, it is entirely out of harmony with the spirit of the
nation to keep harping on that far-off and forgotten nomenclature which
belongs to the ancient Germanic times and does not awaken any distinct
association in our age. This habit of borrowing words from the dead past
tends to mislead the people into thinking that the external trappings of
its vocabulary are the important feature of a movement. It is really a
mischievous habit; but it is quite prevalent nowadays.
At that time, and subsequently, I had to warn followers repeatedly
against these wandering scholars who were peddling Germanic folk-lore
and who never accomplished anything positive or practical, except to
cultivate their own superabundant self-conceit. The new movement must
guard itself against an influx of people whose only recommendation is
their own statement that they have been fighting for these very same
ideals during the last thirty or forty years.
Now if somebody has fought for forty years to carry into effect what he
calls an idea, and if these alleged efforts not only show no positive
results but have not even been able to hinder the success of the
opposing party, then the story of those forty years of futile effort
furnishes sufficient proof for the incompetence of such a protagonist.
People of that kind are specially dangerous because they do not want to
participate in the movement as ordinary members. They talk rather of the
leading positions which would be the only fitting posts for them, in
view of their past work and also so that they might be enabled to carry
on that work further. But woe to a young movement if the conduct of it
should fall into the hands of such people. A business man who has been
in charge of a great firm for forty years and who has completely ruined
it through his mismanagement is not the kind of person one would
recommend for the founding of a new firm. And it is just the same with a
new national movement. Nobody of common sense would appoint to a leading
post in such a movement some Teutonic Methuselah who had been
ineffectively preaching some idea for a period of forty years, until
himself and his idea had entered the stage of senile decay.
Furthermore, only a very small percentage of such people join a new
movement with the intention of serving its end unselfishly and helping
in the spread of its principles. In most cases they come because they
think that, under the aegis of the new movement, it will be possible for
them to promulgate their old ideas to the misfortune of their new
listeners. Anyhow, nobody ever seems able to describe what exactly these
ideas are.
It is typical of such persons that they rant about ancient Teutonic
heroes of the dim and distant ages, stone axes, battle spears and
shields, whereas in reality they themselves are the woefullest poltroons
imaginable. For those very same people who brandish Teutonic tin swords
that have been fashioned carefully according to ancient models and wear
padded bear-skins, with the horns of oxen mounted over their bearded
faces, proclaim that all contemporary conflicts must be decided by the
weapons of the mind alone. And thus they skedaddle when the first
communist cudgel appears. Posterity will have little occasion to write a
new epic on these heroic gladiators.
I have seen too much of that kind of people not to feel a profound
contempt for their miserable play-acting. To the masses of the nation
they are just an object of ridicule; but the Jew finds it to his own
interest to treat these folk-lore comedians with respect and to prefer
them to real men who are fighting to establish a German State. And yet
these comedians are extremely proud of themselves. Notwithstanding their
complete fecklessness, which is an established fact, they pretend to
know everything better than other people; so much so that they make
themselves a veritable nuisance to all sincere and honest patriots, to
whom not only the heroism of the past is worthy of honour but who also
feel bound to leave examples of their own work for the inspiration of
the coming generation.
Among those people there were some whose conduct can be explained by
their innate stupidity and incompetence; but there are others who have a
definite ulterior purpose in view. Often it is difficult to distinguish
between the two classes. The impression which I often get, especially of
those so-called religious reformers whose creed is grounded on ancient
Germanic customs, is that they are the missionaries and protégés of
those forces which do not wish to see a national revival taking place in
Germany. All their activities tend to turn the attention of the people
away from the necessity of fighting together in a common cause against
the common enemy, namely the Jew. Moreover, that kind of preaching
induces the people to use up their energies, not in fighting for the
common cause, but in absurd and ruinous religious controversies within
their own ranks. There are definite grounds that make it absolutely
necessary for the movement to be dominated by a strong central force
which is embodied in the authoritative leadership. In this way alone is
it possible to counteract the activity of such fatal elements. And that
is just the reason why these folk-lore Ahasueruses are vigorously
hostile to any movement whose members are firmly united under one leader
and one discipline. Those people of whom I have spoken hate such a
movement because it is capable of putting a stop to their mischief.
It was not without good reason that when we laid down a clearly defined
programme for the new movement we excluded the word VÖLKISCH from it.
The concept underlying the term VÖLKISCH cannot serve as the basis of a
movement, because it is too indefinite and general in its application.
Therefore, if somebody called himself VÖLKISCH such a designation could
not be taken as the hall-mark of some definite, party affiliation.
Because this concept is so indefinite from the practical viewpoint, it
gives rise to various interpretations and thus people can appeal to it
all the more easily as a sort of personal recommendation. Whenever such
a vague concept, which is subject to so many interpretations, is
admitted into a political movement it tends to break up the disciplined
solidarity of the fighting forces. No such solidarity can be maintained
if each individual member be allowed to define for himself what he
believes and what he is willing to do.
One feels it a disgrace when one notices the kind of people who float
about nowadays with the VÖLKISCH symbol stuck in their buttonholes, and
at the same time to notice how many people have various ideas of their
own as to the significance of that symbol. A well-known professor in
Bavaria, a famous combatant who fights only with the weapons of the mind
and who boasts of having marched against Berlin--by shouldering the
weapons of the mind, of course--believes that the word VÖLKISCH is
synonymous with 'monarchical'. But this learned authority has hitherto
neglected to explain how our German monarchs of the past can be
identified with what we generally mean by the word VÖLKISCH to-day. I am
afraid he will find himself at a loss if he is asked to give a precise
answer. For it would be very difficult indeed to imagine anything less
VÖLKISCH than most of those German monarchical States were. Had they
been otherwise they would not have disappeared; or if they were
VÖLKISCH, then the fact of their downfall may be taken as evidence that
the VÖLKISCH outlook on the world (WELTANSCHAUUNG) is a false outlook.
Everybody interprets this concept in his own way. But such multifarious
opinions cannot be adopted as the basis of a militant political
movement. I need not call attention to the absolute lack of worldly
wisdom, and especially the failure to understand the soul of the nation,
which is displayed by these Messianic Precursors of the Twentieth
Century. Sufficient attention has been called to those people by the
ridicule which the left-wing parties have bestowed on them. They allow
them to babble on and sneer at them.
I do not set much value on the friendship of people who do not succeed
in getting disliked by their enemies. Therefore, we considered the
friendship of such people as not only worthless but even dangerous to
our young movement. That was the principal reason why we first called
ourselves a PARTY. We hoped that by giving ourselves such a name we
might scare away a whole host of VÖLKISCH dreamers. And that was the
reason also why we named our Party, THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN LABOUR
PARTY.
The first term, Party, kept away all those dreamers who live in the past
and all the lovers of bombastic nomenclature, as well as those who went
around beating the big drum for the VÖLKISCH idea. The full name of the
Party kept away all those heroes whose weapon is the sword of the spirit
and all those whining poltroons who take refuge behind their so-called
'intelligence' as if it were a kind of shield.
It was only to be expected that this latter class would launch a massed
attack against us after our movement had started; but, of course, it was
only a pen-and-ink attack, for the goose-quill is the only weapon which
these VÖLKISCH lancers wield. We had declared one of our principles
thus: "We shall meet violence with violence in our own defence".
Naturally that principle disturbed the equanimity of the knights of the
pen. They reproached us bitterly not only for what they called our crude
worship of the cudgel but also because, according to them, we had no
intellectual forces on our side. These charlatans did not think for a
moment that a Demosthenes could be reduced to silence at a mass-meeting
by fifty idiots who had come there to shout him down and use their fists
against his supporters. The innate cowardice of the pen-and-ink
charlatan prevents him from exposing himself to such a danger, for he
always works in safe retirement and never dares to make a noise or come
forward in public.
Even to-day I must warn the members of our young movement in the
strongest possible terms to guard against the danger of falling into the
snare of those who call themselves 'silent workers'. These 'silent
workers' are not only a whitelivered lot but are also, and always will
be, ignorant do-nothings. A man who is aware of certain happenings and
knows that a certain danger threatens, and at the same time sees a
certain remedy which can be employed against it, is in duty bound not to
work in silence but to come into the open and publicly fight for the
destruction of the evil and the acceptance of his own remedy. If he does
not do so, then he is neglecting his duty and shows that he is weak in
character and that he fails to act either because of his timidity, or
indolence or incompetence. Most of these 'silent workers' generally
pretend to know God knows what. Not one of them is capable of any real
achievement, but they keep on trying to fool the world with their
antics. Though quite indolent, they try to create the impression that
their 'silent work' keeps them very busy. To put it briefly, they are
sheer swindlers, political jobbers who feel chagrined by the honest work
which others are doing. When you find one of these VÖLKISCH moths
buzzing over the value of his 'silent work' you may be sure that you are
dealing with a fellow who does no productive work at all but steals from
others the fruits of their honest labour.
In addition to all this one ought to note the arrogance and conceited
impudence with which these obscurantist idlers try to tear to pieces the
work of other people, criticizing it with an air of superiority, and
thus playing into the hands of the mortal enemy of our people.
Even the simplest follower who has the courage to stand on the table in
some beer-hall where his enemies are gathered, and manfully and openly
defend his position against them, achieves a thousand times more than
these slinking hypocrites. He at least will convert one or two people to
believe in the movement. One can examine his work and test its
effectiveness by its actual results. But those knavish swindlers--who
praise their own 'silent work' and shelter themselves under the cloak of
anonymity, are just worthless drones, in the truest sense of the term,
and are utterly useless for the purpose of our national reconstruction.
In the beginning of 1920 I put forward the idea of holding our first
mass meeting. On this proposal there were differences of opinion amongst
us. Some leading members of our party thought that the time was not ripe
for such a meeting and that the result might be detrimental. The Press
of the Left had begun to take notice of us and we were lucky enough in
being able gradually to arouse their wrath. We had begun to appear at
other meetings and to ask questions or contradict the speakers, with the
natural result that we were shouted down forthwith. But still we thereby
gained some of our ends. People began to know of our existence and the
better they understood us, the stronger became their aversion and their
enmity. Therefore we might expect that a large contingent of our friends
from the Red Camp would attend our first mass meeting.
I fully realized that our meeting would probably be broken up. But we
had to face the fight; if not now, then some months later. Since the
first day of our foundation we were resolved to secure the future of the
movement by fighting our way forward in a spirit of blind faith and
ruthless determination. I was well acquainted with the mentality of all
those who belonged to the Red Camp, and I knew quite well that if we
opposed them tooth and nail not only would we make an impression on them
but that we even might win new followers for ourselves. Therefore I felt
that we must decide on a policy of active opposition.
Herr Harrer was then chairman of our party. He did not see eye to eye
with me as to the opportune time for our first mass meeting. Accordingly
he felt himself obliged to resign from the leadership of the movement,
as an upright and honest man. Herr Anton Drexler took his place. I kept
the work of organizing the propaganda in my own hands and I listened to
no compromise in carrying it out.
We decided on February 24th 1920 as the date for the first great popular
meeting to be held under the aegis of this movement which was hitherto
unknown.
I made all the preparatory arrangements personally. They did not take
very long. The whole apparatus of our organization was set in motion for
the purpose of being able to secure a rapid decision as to our policy.
Within twenty-four hours we had to decide on the attitude we should take
in regard to the questions of the day which would be put forward at the
mass meeting. The notices which advertised the meeting had to bring
these points before the public. In this direction we were forced to
depend on the use of posters and leaflets, the contents of which and the
manner in which they were displayed were decided upon in accordance with
the principles which I have already laid down in dealing with propaganda
in general. They were produced in a form which would appeal to the
crowd. They concentrated on a few points which were repeated again and
again. The text was concise and definite, an absolutely dogmatic form of
expression being used. We distributed these posters and leaflets with a
dogged energy and then we patiently waited for the effect they would
produce.
For our principal colour we chose red, as it has an exciting effect on
the eye and was therefore calculated to arouse the attention of our
opponents and irritate them. Thus they would have to take notice of
us--whether they liked it or not--and would not forget us.
One result of our tactics was to show up clearly the close political
fraternization that existed also here in Bavaria between the Marxists
and the Centre Party. The political party that held power in Bavaria,
which was the Bavarian People's Party (affiliated with the Centre Party)
did its best to counteract the effect which our placards were having on
the 'Red' masses. Thus they made a definite step to fetter our
activities. If the police could find no other grounds for prohibiting
our placards, then they might claim that we were disturbing the traffic
in the streets. And thus the so-called German National People's Party
calmed the anxieties of their 'Red' allies by completely prohibiting
those placards which proclaimed a message that was bringing back to the
bosom of their own people hundreds of thousands of workers who had been
misled by international agitators and incensed against their own nation.
These placards bear witness to the bitterness of the struggle in which
the young movement was then engaged. Future generations will find in
these placards a documentary proof of our determination and the justice
of our own cause. And these placards will also prove how the so-called
national officials took arbitrary action to strangle a movement that did
not please them, because it was nationalizing the broad masses of the
people and winning them back to their own racial stock.
These placards will also help to refute the theory that there was then a
national government in Bavaria and they will afford documentary
confirmation of the fact that if Bavaria remained nationally-minded
during the years 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922 and 1923, this was not due to a
national government but it was because the national spirit gradually
gained a deeper hold on the people and the Government was forced to
follow public feeling. The Government authorities themselves did
everything in their power to hamper this process of recovery and make it
impossible. But in this connection two officials must be mentioned as
outstanding exceptions.
Ernst Pöhner was Chief of Police at the time. He had a loyal counsellor
in Dr. Frick, who was his chief executive official. These were the only
men among the higher officials who had the courage to place the
interests of their country before their own interests in holding on to
their jobs. Of those in responsible positions Ernst Pöhner was the only
one who did not pay court to the mob but felt that his duty was towards
the nation as such and was ready to risk and sacrifice everything, even
his personal livelihood, to help in the restoration of the German
people, whom he dearly loved. For that reason he was a bitter thorn in
the side of the venal group of Government officials. It was not the
interests of the nation or the necessity of a national revival that
inspired or directed their conduct. They simply truckled to the wishes
of the Government, so as to secure their daily bread for themselves, but
they had no thought whatsoever for the national welfare that had been
entrusted to their care.
Above all, Pöhner was one of those people who, in contradistinction to
the majority of our so-called defenders of the authority of the State,
did not fear to incur the enmity of the traitors to the country and the
nation but rather courted it as a mark of honour and honesty. For such
men the hatred of the Jews and Marxists and the lies and calumnies they
spread, were their only source of happiness in the midst of the national
misery. Pöhner was a man of granite loyalty. He was like one of the
ascetic characters of the classical era and was at the same time that
kind of straightforward German for whom the saying 'Better dead than a
slave' is not an empty phrase but a veritable heart's cry.
In my opinion he and his collaborator, Dr. Frick, are the only men
holding positions then in Bavaria who have the right to be considered as
having taken active part in the creation of a national Bavaria.
Before holding our first great mass meeting it was necessary not only to
have our propaganda material ready but also to have the main items of
our programme printed.
In the second volume of this book I shall give a detailed account of the
guiding principles which we then followed in drawing up our programme.
Here I will only say that the programme was arranged not merely to set
forth the form and content of the young movement but also with an eye to
making it understood among the broad masses. The so-called intellectual
circles made jokes and sneered at it and then tried to criticize it. But
the effect of our programme proved that the ideas which we then held
were right.
During those years I saw dozens of new movements arise and disappear
without leaving a trace behind. Only one movement has survived. It is
the National Socialist German Labour Party. To-day I am more convinced
than ever before that, though they may combat us and try to paralyse our
movement, and though pettifogging party ministers may forbid us the
right of free speech, they cannot prevent the triumph of our ideas. When
the present system of statal administration and even the names of the
political parties that represent it will be forgotten, the programmatic
basis of the National Socialist movement will supply the groundwork on
which the future State will be built.
The meetings which we held before January 1920 had enabled us to collect
the financial means that were necessary to have our first pamphlets and
posters and programmes printed.
I shall bring the first part of this book to a close by referring to our
first great mass meeting, because that meeting marked the occasion on
which our framework as a small party had to be broken up and we started
to become the most powerful factor of this epoch in the influence we
exercised on public opinion. At that time my chief anxiety was that we
might not fill the hall and that we might have to face empty benches. I
myself was firmly convinced that if only the people would come this day
would turn out a great success for the young movement. That was my
feeling as I waited impatiently for the hour to come.
It had been announced that the meeting would begin at 7.30. A
quarter-of-an-hour before the opening time I walked through the chief
hall of the Hofbräuhaus on the PLATZ in Munich and my heart was nearly
bursting with joy. The great hall--for at that time it seemed very big
to me--was filled to overflowing. Nearly 2,000 people were present. And,
above all, those people had come whom we had always wished to reach.
More than half the audience consisted of persons who seemed to be
communists or independents. Our first great demonstration was destined,
in their view, to come to an abrupt end.
But things happened otherwise. When the first speaker had finished I got
up to speak. After a few minutes I was met with a hailstorm of
interruptions and violent encounters broke out in the body of the hall.
A handful of my loyal war comrades and some other followers grappled
with the disturbers and restored order in a little while. I was able to
continue my speech. After half an hour the applause began to drown the
interruptions and the hootings. Then interruptions gradually ceased and
applause took their place. When I finally came to explain the
twenty-five points and laid them, point after point, before the masses
gathered there and asked them to pass their own judgment on each point,
one point after another was accepted with increasing enthusiasm. When
the last point was reached I had before me a hall full of people united
by a new conviction, a new faith and a new will.
Nearly four hours had passed when the hall began to clear. As the masses
streamed towards the exits, crammed shoulder to shoulder, shoving and
pushing, I knew that a movement was now set afoot among the German
people which would never pass into oblivion.
A fire was enkindled from whose glowing heat the sword would be
fashioned which would restore freedom to the German Siegfried and bring
back life to the German nation.
Beside the revival which I then foresaw, I also felt that the Goddess of
Vengeance was now getting ready to redress the treason of the 9th of
November, 1918. The hall was emptied. The movement was on the march.
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