August 21,
1927
Our fellow party member Rosenberg began his speech by
saying that it is critical for a nation that its territory correspond to its
population. As he put it so well: "The nation needs space." How well
we know that the fulfillment of this sentence has guided and determined the
fate of our nation for many centuries. We know further that, save for a
relatively short period of German history, we have not succeeded in the task.
The question confronts us today as insistently as ever: No government, of
whatever kind, can long escape dealing with it. Feeding a nation of 62 million
means not only maintaining our agricultural productivity, but enlarging it to
meet the needs of a growing population. This is true in many areas. We National
Socialists maintain that industrial production is not the most important in
terms of the future of the European peoples. In coming decades it will be
increasingly difficult to increase production. It will reach a dead end as the
governments that presently do not pay great heed to industrial production over
time give themselves to industrialization.
These
governments will not be able to meet their own needs with their population.
Difficulties in industrial production will inevitably develop, made more
serious because they will affect not only one state, but a large number of
states in Europe. Increasing competition will naturally force these states to
use ever sharper weapons until one day the sharpest economic weapons will give
way to the sharpness of the sword; that is, when a healthy nation faces the
last either-or, and despite the greatest diligence cannot withstand the
competition, it will reach for the sword because the question of life is always
the problem about which life turns. It is a question of power.
The
first way to satisfy this need, the adjustment of territory to population, is
the most natural, healthy and long-lasting. We must however conclude when
considering this first or second way that the foundation is power, always
power. Power is also a part of economic struggles. Power is the prerequisite to
earth and soil. We can see that today. Even the sorrowful effort to adjust the
population to the available territory by encouraging the emigration of new
generations requires power, even more today as states hermetically seal
themselves from the immigration of uncomfortable elements. The more economic
difficulties increase, the more immigration will be seen as a burden. The
so-called workers' states seal themselves off more than others as a way of
building a protective wall against cheap labor. The newcomer after all must be
either cheaper or better. Here too one comes to the conclusion that maintaining
this way of supporting the population requires power.
When
we examine the concept of power more closely, we see that power has three
factors: First, in the numerical size of the population itself. This form of
power is no longer present in Germany.
62
million people who seem to hold together are no longer a power factor in a
world in which groups with 400 million are increasingly active, nations for
whom their population is their major tool of economic policy.
If
numbers themselves are no longer a power factor, the second factor is
territory. This too is no longer a power factor for us, even seeming laughable
when one can fly across our German territory in a mere four hours. That is no
longer an amount of territory that provides its own defense, as is the case
with Russia. Its size alone is a means of security. If the first two sources of
power, population and territory, are inadequate, there remains always the
third, that which rests in the inner strength of a people. A nation can do
astounding things when it carries this power in its own internal values. When,
however, we examine the German people, we must to our horror see that this last
power factor is no longer present.
What
is the nature of a nation's internal power? Three things are involved: First, a
people has intrinsic value in its race. That is the primal value. A people that
has the best blood but does not understand it, squandering it, receives no
protection from its intrinsic value. And the purity of blood means nothing if
the nation can be persuaded of the absurdity that its blood is worthless. Such
a deepest value can be present, but not recognized. Individual people today are
placed in large groups that no longer enable them to see this value. To the
contrary, their program almost claims that there is no value in blood. They see
race as completely insignificant.
Second,
internal power depends, aside from the value of blood, on the abilities that
such a nation still has. A nation cannot be called impotent as long as it is
able to produce the minds that are necessary to solve the problems crying out
for solution. We can measure the greatness of a people by the minds it
produces. That too is a value, but only when it is recognized as a value. If a
nation has the ability to produce great minds a thousand times over, but has no
appreciation for the value of these minds and excludes them from its political
life, these great men are of no use. It can therefore collapse, in the best
case perhaps passing on its inventions and ideas to the minds of other nations,
teaching these nations, but no longer is it a nation called to lead itself.
The
third value hidden within a nation is the drive to self assertion. A people
that has lost this has almost given up its place in the world, in which each
living creature owes its existence only to the eternal striving to rise higher.
If a nation today proclaims the theory that it will find happiness in lasting
peace, and attempts to live according to that theory, it will one day
inevitably succumb to this most basic form of cowardice. Pacifism is the
clearest form of cowardice, possessing no willingness to fight for anything at
all.
The
same person today who preaches limiting the number of children to the nation
murders others so that he himself may live.
He
therefore eliminates the second form of intrinsic strength, namely the
possibility of producing more minds at all. A people that limits the number of
its children cannot demand of fate that it give it great minds from the few
children who are born. More likely, such a people will hatch the most unworthy
offspring and will attempt to preserve them at any price. Such a nation has
first born, but no longer any great men.
Truly
these three points that form the intrinsic strength of a people are no longer
regarded in Germany. The opposite. As I have said, today one places no value on
our blood, on the intrinsic value of our race, rather apostles proclaim that it
is completely irrelevant whether one is Chinese, Kaffir or Indian. If a nation
internalizes such thinking, its own values are of no use. It has renounced the
protection of its values, for they too must be protected and encouraged. A
people that sees its blood as worthless cannot possess the intrinsic will to
withstand the competitive struggles of this world. It needs no great minds,
does not even want them any more. It will inevitably believe that all people
are equal in terms of blood, and will no longer have a need to rise above the
others. That is why one needs great minds. It will no longer desire to rise,
and that is why one needs great spirits. Since such peoples no longer value
their race and see themselves as the same as everyone else, and no longer feel
the inner need for happiness or great men, they can no longer struggle, nor do
they desire to.
That
leads to what the large parties proclaim, namely to a nation that thinks
internationally, follows the path of democracy, rejects struggle and preaches
pacifism. A people that has accepted these three human burdens, that has given
up its racial values, preaches internationalism, that limits its great minds, and
has replaced them with the majority, that is inability in all areas, rejecting
the individual mind and praising human brotherhood, such a people has lost its
intrinsic values. Such a people is incapable of policies that could bring a
rising population in line with its territory, or better said: adjust the
territory to the population.
Our
party comrade says one must give the people territory. In Germany,
unfortunately, we must first give the territory a people. We see before us
today Marxist masses, no longer a German people.
All
this would be in vain if the fundamental values were not there. The only thing
we may be proud of is this: We have this value, we have our blood-building
value, the best proof of which is the great men of world history over the millennia.
We have this value of race and personality. We have a third value: a sense of
battle. It is there, it is only buried under a pile of foreign doctrines. A
large and strong party is attempting to prove the opposite, until suddenly an
ordinary military band begins to play. Then the sleeper awakes from his dreams
and begins to feel himself a member of a people that is on the march, and he
marches along. That is how it is today. We only need to show our people the
better way. They see: we are marching already! The German people will come to a
knowledge of their intrinsic values when the systematic organized poisoning of
their values is replaced by their systematic organized defense.
That
large international world power infects a part of the people with the ideas of
pacifism to weaken their resistance, and uses another part to attack.
When
the German pacifist feels threatened in his practical political activity, he
can suddenly become an anti-pacifist, but only against an opponent of his
political thinking. He can even reach for bloody weapons. But he calls the
battle for the life of the entire nation murder!
This
large international power organizes its terror groups by appealing to their
lower instincts, but also reduces their potential resistance through
intellectual influence. The German people have split in two as a result. In a
masterful way, Hitler showed how the split between thinking and action in the
politically-minded German citizen or politician leads him to become a democrat,
although he knows that the fate of the world is never determined by majorities.
This dear German citizen knows that for 1900 years after Christ and for many
thousand years before Christ's birth, the world was changed by men, but he now
suddenly believes that history is made by the German National Party's Reichstag
delegation, which finds the greatest wisdom in the majority principle. In so
far as the political citizen has accepted this principle, he has practically
given up all hope of victory. The majority, that is cowardice, is for him
decisive. Inability, limited wisdom. In theory the majority decides, but in
reality it is the international Jew that stands behind it.
We
deceive ourselves if we believe that the people want to be governed by
majorities. No, you do not know the people. This people does not wish to lose
itself in "majorities." It does not wish to be involved in great
plans. It wants a leadership in which it can believe, nothing more.
The
bourgeois world can no longer master these problems. It does not wish for the
elimination of the burdens that weaken our people, The burdens that weaken us
are in reality the cause of the success of those powers that Rosenberg calls
the world power without a territory. Consider the following facts:
62
million people have an impossible amount of land. There are 20 million
"too many." This nation cannot survive in the long term. It must find
a way out, which lies neither in the size of its population nor the amount of
its territory. Divided in its energies, it must become the victim of those we
all know to be our masters. Can that change in the coming years? No!
That
is the task of our movement. We are not burdened with the vast and wise
experiences of other politicians. We entered political life as soldiers who
served at the Front while we were overcome by miserable little scum at home.
That was our first motivation to enter politics. Nor could we accept the idea
that things were as they were, and that we had to adjust to reality. Hitler
then brilliantly described the feelings of Front soldiers to conditions in the
homeland.
There
was one place in Germany where there were no class divisions. That was in the
companies at the Front. There were no middle class or proletarian units, only
the company. That was all.
There
had to be a way to build this unity at home, and this was clear to them. Why
was it possible at the Front? Because of the enemy! Because one knew the danger
that one faced. If I am to build unity among the people, I must first find a
new front, a common enemy so that everyone knows: We must be united, because
this enemy is the enemy of us all. If we are not united, the entire German
people will sink into the abyss.
It
was necessary to make clear the relationship of the individual to his people.
It first had to be made clear why he had to feel that relationship. It was the
feeling of honor that said to the individual: I am a member of a people of a
certain level, and it would be shameful for me to aid in this people's
downfall. It would be a break in the holiest solidarity with the members of my
own blood.
As
I watched the procession today, I thought: Is it not wonderful to have
thousands of men who grew through struggle, who matured in it. It is not the
outward patriotism of middle class citizens. We want to put an end to this
silly squandering of the values of blood. We want to plant responsibility in
the people and put an end to the nonsense that leads our people to spill their
blood for fantasies or romantic dreams. We want to teach our people one thing:
Take care that your children do not starve.
If
someone says to you that you are an imperialist, ask him: You do not want to be
one? If you say no, then you may never be a father, for he who has a child must
always worry about his daily bread. But if you provide his daily bread, then
you are an imperialist.
Our
goal must be to form a kernel that will steadily grow, winning energy and
strength for the great goal. To whom heaven has given the majority of
decisiveness, it has also given the right to rule.
Our
entire struggle is a battle for the soul of our people. It is further a
structure, a structure consisting of those minds who are the bearers of our
worldview and who will be the foundation of the new state. In November 1918 the
old colors were lowered. These colors have however for us a special
significance, not because they were the symbol of the former state, but because
they flew before us during four and a half years of battle. One does not soil
that for which one has fought for for four and one half years. In doing so, one
soils only his own honor. When democracy lowered the old colors it did not soil
the lasting fame of the German army, rather established an eternal monument to
its own indecency, a monument that will live longer than this state. One can
lower the colors, but one can not destroy the content of four and one half
years, it is an historical fact. The Republic chose its own colors. With bitter
pain we saw it reach impotently into an earlier period of German history for
its colors. Today it is clear that the Republic could not succeed even in
winning the general respect of its citizens for these colors. Today it only
suggests that these colors were once really quite respectable.
Believe
me, if it was possible to set aside the colors of the most glorious war in our
people's history by the stroke of a pen, I admire the faith of those in the
present government who believe that the colors of the current German republic
will last for eternity.
Hitler
discussed the fact that the German people today lack a national flag. One has
never considered the flag of the leading group of the time to be the symbol of
the nation. There is no symbol today that represents the whole people. The
order to see the flag as such a symbol cannot succeed. One thing however is
clear: A movement today in Germany that fights for the renewal of the people
must give its own symbol to this effort, and that is why we have chosen a new
flag that is the symbol of the coming new German Reich: a symbol of national
strength and power joined with the purity of the blood.
Our
goal is for this flag to increasingly lose its character as a party flag and
grow to be the German flag of the future. We see this flag is inextricably
bound to the renewal of the nation. May these colors be a witness of how the
German people broke its chains of slavery and won freedom. On that day this
flag will be the German national flag.
Today
you see thousands behind this flag. Seven years ago, there was no one. All
these people marched past us today under this flag with enthusiasm and glowing
eyes because they see in these colors the struggle for the freedom of our
people.
With
one accord, the whole enormous gathering rose to its feet and greeted Hitler's
final words with thousands of outstretched hands: sentences of brilliant force
and majesty, a holy oath of all National Socialists as this Reich Party Rally
were met with constant thundering shouts of "Heil," rendering some of
the words unintelligible. Hitler said:
We
National Socialists therefore make the holy promise never to rest in raising
the honor of this flag, making it our symbol of self-discipline, obedience, and
order. Let it be to us a symbol of eternal struggle. We see in this flag the
victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood. We want this flag to be
a symbol of salvation, a sign that faith in these great possessions is alive in
our people. May in the coming years a party rally occurs at which five times as
many people march, even if their sacrifice is still greater than ever before!
No comments:
Post a Comment