Berlin, May
1, 1935
German Volksgenossen!
The first of May-in days of yore the German Spring
holiday. And another first of May-a day of strife and discontent, a day of our
Volk being torn asunder in classes. And yet another first of May-the day
marking the springtime of the nation! The day of the solidarity of a Volk in
its work! A great age has thus dawned once again for Germany. We say this
knowing that the greatness of an age lies in the greatness of the tasks
assigned to it and thereby to us. Great tasks, such as those vested in only few
generations in history.
Yesterday
we were still a powerless Volk, for we were strife-torn, falling out and apart
in internal discord, fragmented into hundreds of parties and groups, leagues
and associations, Weltanschauungen and confessions-a Reich built upon this
fragmented Volk, equally weak and powerless, a mere plaything at the mercy of
alien despotism! Small states deride it, small states deprive it of its rights and
gag the people of this Volk. The economy was in the throes of death.
Disintegration
and ruin at every turn. Every principle had been abandoned.
What
had once seemed good became bad; what had been detestable was suddenly
venerable. What was once meant to and able to give life more meaning was now
passed off and perceived to be merely a burden to mankind. One author summed up
the impressions of this age in a book which he entitled, The Decline of the
West.
Is
this then really the end of our history and hence of our peoples? No! We cannot
believe or accept it! It must be called not the ‘Decline of the West,’ but the
‘Resurrection of the Peoples of the Western World’! Only what has become old,
rotten and bad dies. And it should die! But new life will generate. The will
shall find the faith. This will lies in leadership, and faith lies in the
people! But all must believe in one thing. He who would tackle this great work
of reorganization must begin with the Volk itself. First a new Volk, and with
it the new age! Great tasks have always been accomplished only by strong
leaders; but even the strongest leadership must fail if it does not have a
faithful, inwardly steadfast and truly strong Volk standing behind it.
It
is mankind’s misfortune that its leaders forget all too often that ultimate
strength does not lie anchored in divisions and regiments or in cannons and
tanks; rather, the greatest strength of any leadership lies in the people
themselves, in their unanimity, in their inner unity and in their idealistic
faith.
That
is the power which, in the end, can move the mountains of resistance! But this
requires a philosophy which the Volk understands, a philosophy which it
comprehends and which it loves.
When
we first set forth in 1919 as preachers of the National Socialist philosophy,
we were a tiny little group of idealists or, as they said, dreamers, the object
of ridicule. The critics have been proven wrong today. Some of them might also
have striven for what has happened since, but they were incapable of bringing
it about; in a historical sense, visible success is ultimately decisive for the
correctness of a principle. And this here is documentary proof of this success
which no one can forge: one Volk in one Reich! Everything we have
achieved would have been impossible; nothing we did could have been
accomplished; there never would have been a January 30th; never a 21st nor a
16th of March; the external success would never have come about if the German
Volk had not gone through an inner transition. The fact that we were able to
give the German Volk a new philosophy and to lead it to a new type of life by
means of this philosophy is the greatest feat of this century for our Volk. The
greatest achievement which will outlive by far everything which can be accomplished
in day-to-day work, thanks to this unique achievement.
And
this united nation-we need it, for when was a leadership confronted with a more
difficult task than our German leadership? Bear in mind, my Volksgenossen, what
our Germany is, and compare it to other countries. How little we have! 137
people per square kilometer, no colonies, no natural resources, no foreign
currency, no capital, no foreign assets left, only heavy burdens, sacrifices,
taxes, and low wages. What do we have compared to the wealth of other states,
the wealth of other countries, the wealth of other peoples, the wealth of
possibilities they have? What do we have? Only one thing: we have our Volk! It
is either all, or it is nothing. Our Volk is the only thing on which we can
depend. The only thing upon which we can build. Everything we have accomplished
to date we owe only to its quality, its capabilities, its loyalty, its decency,
its diligence, its sense of order. And when I weigh all of that, then it
appears to me to be more than everything the rest of the world has to offer us.
And
that, I believe, is something we can well impart to other peoples on this first
of May: you need not fear that we will place demands on you. We are proud
enough to confess that the utmost-something you cannot give us-is something we
have ourselves: our Volk.
As
Fuhrer, I cannot conceive of any task on this earth more marvelous and glorious
than to serve this Volk. Were I given the gift of continents, I would still
prefer being even the poorest citizen of this Volk. And with this Volk it must
and will be possible to accomplish the tasks of the future as well.
And
thus I ask of you: renew on this day of the greatest and most glorious
demonstration in the world your vow to your Volk, to our community and to our
National Socialist State. My will-and this must be the vow of each and every
one of us-is your faith! To me-as to you-my faith is everything I have in this
world! But the greatest thing God has given me in this world is my Volk! In it
rests my faith. It I serve with my will, and to it I give my life! May this be
our mutual sacred vow on the day of German labor, which so rightfully is the
day of the German nation! To our working German Volk:
Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil!
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