Berlin, May 1,
1936
We ourselves have been able to deal with our internal
difficulties without detriment to any other people. Solve your own problems,
and do not attempt to involve others in what are your own quarrels. In Germany
we do not need- and I can say this today to you above all, my Volksgenossen:
I
do not need to perform some glorious deed which will bring death to millions in
order to obtain esteem and respect from my Volk. I have that anyway! I am not
standing on shaky ground; I do not need to lead millions of our people to the
sacrificial altar so that millions of others might perhaps believe in me! In
these three years we have done nothing that could possibly have caused
suffering to another people; we have taken not a single step that might harm
anyone. We have not reached out our hands to grasp anything that did not belong
to us. We have remained within our borders, we have offered our hand to the
others in friendship dozens of times. -What more could one expect? During these
three-and-a-quarter years, the German Volk has become strong and determined
internally. Yet it has never abused its determination to perhaps threaten
anyone else. Quite the opposite: in these three-and-a-quarter years, we have
attempted to introduce this determination to European life as a factor toward
its stability. How can we help it if others do not agree? We have witnessed it
during these past few weeks. Only recently we made the world a generous offer, not
schemed up by a handful of legal experts and lawyers but issuing from healthy
common sense, simple and clear-cut. If there is a will, that is the way Europe
can be given inner peace and a feeling of security. But what happens to us? At
the same time we declare that we are prepared, regardless of past or present,
to offer our hand in friendship to all peoples, to conclude treaties with them,
we see yet another smear campaign breaking out. Once again lies are being
spread about that Germany will invade Austria tomorrow or the day after. I ask
myself: who are these elements who have no desire for tranquility, for peace,
for understanding; who have a need to constantly agitate and sow the seeds of
mistrust, who are these people? (Cries of “The Jews!”) I know (Applause lasting
several minutes), I know it is not the millions who would have to take up arms
were these agitators to succeed in their plans. They are not the ones! Not in
any nation! It is a small faction of interests (Interessenklungel), an
international clique that lives off stirring up other peoples by agitation. We
know these fellows from our own country, and we see their tracks between the
peoples. Thus it is all the more necessary for us to cling more than ever-and
for this reason most of all- to our own unity and consolidation.
How
splendid it is in Germany to have a Volk that leads itself, orders itself and
guides itself instead of being governed by the rubber truncheon! How splendid
it is today to have people here who are not attempting to mutually make their
lives difficult and bitter, but who are beginning to show more and more
consideration for one another! We are so fortunate to be able to live amongst
these people, and I am proud to be your Fuhrer. So proud that I cannot imagine
anything in this world capable of convincing me to trade it for something else.
I would sooner, a thousand times sooner, be the last Volksgenosse among you
than a king anywhere else. And this pride fills me today above all. When I was
driving through these long streets earlier and saw to the left and right these
hundreds of thousands and millions of Volksgenossen who had come from their
plants and workshops, from our factories and counting houses, my heart was
about to burst, I truly felt it: that is our Germany! That is our Volk, our
marvelous German Volk and our dear German Reich! In this hour I believe we can
have but one desire: let the other peoples cast a single glance in here, let
them only see this Volk of peace and labor and I believe they would take those
rabble-rousers and throw them out! Then they would understand and comprehend
why this most sacred national community is and will always be both the most
sacred guarantor of a genuinely European order and thus of a truly human
culture and civilization. Therefore, I ask you in this hour to take heart and
allow your spirit to gaze back upon the past and share in feeling the good
fortune we have come to enjoy by virtue of having found our way back to one
community, to one Volk. And let us pledge our dedication to this Volk on this
first of May of work and of the Volksgemeinschaft with our old vow: to our
German Volk and our German Reich:
Sieg Heil!
No comments:
Post a Comment