Berlin, March 23, 1933
President Göring: Deputy Wels has the floor.
Wels (SPD), Deputy: Ladies and Gentlemen! We Social Democrats approve of the Reich Chancellor’s foreign policy demand of German equality of rights even that much more emphatically because we have advocated it from the very beginning.
I may take the liberty, in this context, of making the personal remark that I was the first German to oppose the untruth of Germany’s blame for the outbreak of the World War before an international forum, to be precise, at the Bern Conference on February 3, 1919.
No basic principle of our party has ever been able or will ever be able to hinder us from representing the just claims of the German nation to the other peoples of the world.
The day before yesterday, the Reich Chancellor made a remark in Potsdam to which we also subscribe. He said, “The utter folly of the theory of eternal victors and vanquished gave birth to the utter absurdity of reparations and, as a consequence, the disastrous state of the world’s economy.” This statement applies to foreign policy; it applies no less to domestic policy.
Here too the theory of eternal victors and vanquished is, as the Reich Chancellor has noted, utter folly.
But the Reich Chancellor’s remark also recalls another remark which was made on July 23, 1919 in the National Assembly. It was said at that time, “We may be stripped of power, but not of honour.” It is clear that the opponents are after our honour, there is no doubt of that. But it will remain our belief to the last that this attempt at divesting us of our honour will one day rebound on those who instigated this attempt, for it is not our honour which is being destroyed in the worldwide tragedy.
That is part of a statement which a government led by Social Democrats submitted before the whole world on behalf of the German people, four hours before the Armistice ran out, in order to block any further enemy advances. This statement constitutes a valuable complement to the remark made by the Reich Chancellor.
No good can come of a dictated peace; and this applies all the more to domestic affairs.
A real Volksgemeinschaft cannot be established on such a basis. That requires first of all equality of rights. May the Government guard itself against crude excesses of polemics; may it prohibit incitements to violence with rigorousness for its own part. This might be achieved if it is accomplished fairly and objectively on all sides and if one refrains from treating defeated enemies as though they were outlaws.
Freedom and life they can take from us, but not honour.
Considering the persecution the Social Democratic Party has suffered recently, no one can fairly demand or expect of it that it cast its vote in favour of the Enabling Act introduced here. The elections of March 5 have resulted in a majority for the parties in government and thus given them the opportunity to govern, strictly as laid down in the letter and the intention of the Constitution.
But where this opportunity is given, it is coupled with an obligation.
Criticism is beneficial and necessary. Never in the history of the German Reichstag, however, has control over public affairs vested in the elected representatives of the people been eliminated to the extent to which this is now the case and will be even more so by means of the new Enabling Act. This type of governmental omnipotence is destined to have even more grave consequences due to the total lack of flexibility in the press.
Ladies and Gentlemen! A devastating picture has often been painted of the state of affairs prevailing in Germany today. As always in such cases, there is no lack of exaggeration. As far as my party is concerned, I wish to state that we did not ask for any intervention in Paris; we did not send off millions to Prague; we did not disseminate exaggerated news abroad.
It would be easier to counter such exaggerations if the type of reporting which differentiates between right and wrong were admissible at home.
It would be even better if we were able, with a clear conscience, to attest to the fact that the stability of the law has been restored for all.
And that, Gentlemen, is up to you.
The gentlemen of the National Socialist Party call the Movement they have unleashed a National and not a National Socialist Revolution. The only connection between their Revolution and Socialism has been confined until now to the attempt to destroy the Social Democratic Movement which has constituted the pillar of the Socialist body of thought for more than two generations, (Laughter from the National Socialists) and will continue to do so in future. If the gentlemen of the National Socialist Party intended to perform Socialist deeds, they would not need an Enabling Act to do so.
You would be certain of an overwhelming majority in this forum. Every motion you made in the interests of the workers, the peasants, the whitecollar employees, the civil servants, or the Mittelstand would meet with overpowering if not unanimous approval.
But you nevertheless first want to eliminate the Reichstag to proceed with your Revolution. Destroying what exists does not suffice to make up a revolution.
The people expect positive achievements. They are awaiting drastic measures to combat the economic distress prevalent not only in Germany, but everywhere in the world.
We Social Democrats have borne joint responsibility in the most difficult of times and have been stoned as our reward.
Our achievements in reconstructing the State and the economy and in liberating the occupied territories will prevail in history.
We have created equal rights for all and socially oriented labour legislation. We have aided in creating a Germany in which the path to leadership is open not only to counts and barons, but also to men of the working class.
You cannot retreat from that without exposing your own Führer.
Any attempt to turn back the wheels of time will be in vain. We Social Democrats are aware that one cannot eliminate the realities of power politics by the simple act of legal protests. We see the reality of your present rule. But the people’s sense of justice also wields political power, and we will never stop appealing to this sense of justice.
The Weimar Constitution is not a Socialist Constitution. But we adhere to the basic principles of a constitutional state, to the equality of rights, and the concept of social legislation anchored therein. We German Social Democrats solemnly pledge ourselves in this historic hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and Socialism.
No Enabling Act can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible. You yourself have professed your belief in Socialism. Bismarck’s Law against Socialists has not destroyed the Social Democratic Party. Even further persecution can be a source of new strength to the German Social Democratic Party.
We hail those who are persecuted and in despair. We hail our friends in the Reich. Their steadfastness and loyalty are worthy of acclaim. The courage of their convictions, their unbroken faith - are the guarantees of a brighter future.
President Göring: The Reich Chancellor has the floor.
Adolf Hitler: The pretty theories, which you, Mr. Deputy, have just expounded here, have been addressed to world history a little too late.
Perhaps these realizations, put to practice years ago, would have made the complaints you have today superfluous.
You declare that the Social Democratic Party subscribes to our foreign policy program; that it rejects the lie of war guilt; that it is against reparations. Now I may ask just one question: where was this fight during the time you had power in Germany? You once had the opportunity to dictate the law of domestic behaviour to the German Volk. You were able to do it in other areas. It would have been equally possible to infuse in the German Revolution, which you played a part in initiating, the same momentum and the same direction which France once infused in its uprising in the year 1870.
It would have been at your discretion to shape the German uprising into one of true national character, and you still would have had the right, had the flag of the new Republic not returned triumphant, to say: we did everything in our power to avoid this catastrophe by a final appeal to the strength of the German Volk.
At that time you avoided the fight; now you suddenly feel an urge to talk about it to everyone around you.
You state that being stripped of power does not mean being stripped of honour.
You are right; that does not necessarily have to be the case. Even if we were divested of our power, I know we would not be divested of our honour. Thanks to having been oppressed by your party, our Movement had been stripped of power for years; it has never been stripped of honour.
It is my conviction that we shall inoculate the German Volk with a spirit that, in view of the Volk’s defencelessness today, Mr. Deputy, will certainly never allow it to be stripped of its honour.
Here, too, it was your responsibility, you who were in power for fourteen years, to ensure that this German Volk had set an example of honour to the world. It was your responsibility to ensure that, if the rest of the world insisted upon suppressing us, at least the type of suppression the German Volk was subjected to would be one of dignity. You had the opportunity to speak out against all of the manifestations of disgrace in our Volk. You could have eliminated this treason just as easily as we will eliminate it.
You have no right to even associate yourself with this claim; for you should never, at that hour when every revolution would have constituted the concurrence of the offenses of treason and high treason, have given your support, even indirectly, to such acts. And you should have prevented the German Volk from being subjected to a new constitution drawn up at the beck and call of foreign countries. That has nothing to do with honour, allowing the enemy to dictate one’s own internal structure.
And, moreover, at that time you should have professed your faith in the German tricolour and not in the colours on the handbills the enemy threw into our trenches, because more than ever in an age of distress and suppression by the enemy must one show one’s pride and even more pledge one’s support to one’s Volk and the symbols of one’s Volk. You would still have had the opportunity, even if the environment had forced us to denounce everything which had formerly been sacred to us, to allow the national honour to be evidenced to the world in domestic policy.
You say: equal rights! Just as we desire it abroad, we also desire it at home. It was for these ‘equal rights,’ Herr Wels, that we fought for fourteen years! You ignored these equal rights as far as national Germany was concerned! So do not talk to us today about equal rights! You say that the vanquished should not be labelled outlaws. Well, Mr. Deputy, we were outlaws as long as you were in power.
You talk about persecution. I think there are few of us here present who were not forced to pay in prison for the persecution you practiced. Few of us here present who were not made to feel the effects of that persecution in acts of harassment a thousand times over and incidents of suppression a thousand times over! And in addition to those of us here present, I know a company of hundreds of thousands who were at the mercy of a system of persecution which vent itself on them in a disgraceful, even in a positively despicable manner! You seem to have totally forgotten that, for years, our shirts were ripped off our backs because you did not approve of the colour.
Let us stay within the realm of reality! Your persecution has made us strong! You also said that criticism is beneficial. We will take criticism from anyone who loves Germany. But we will take no criticism from anyone who worships the Internationale! Here too, you have come to your realization a good deal too late, Mr. Deputy.
You should have recognized the beneficial power of criticism when we were in the opposition. Back then, you had not yet been confronted with these words; back then our press was verboten and verboten and again verboten; our assemblies were banned; we were not allowed to speak, and I was not allowed to speak- and that went on for years! And now you say criticism is beneficial! (SPD hysterical cries)
President Göring: Stop talking and listen to this for once!
Adolf Hitler: You complain that in the end the world is told untrue facts about the state of affairs in Germany. You complain that the world is told that every day dismembered corpses are turned over to the Israelite cemeteries in Berlin. How that torments you; you would be so glad to do justice to the truth! Well, Mr. Deputy, it must be child’s play for your party, with its international connections, to find out the truth. And not only that. These past few days I have been reading the newspapers of your own Social Democratic sister parties in German-Austria. No one is hindering you from disseminating your realization of the truth there.
I would be curious as to how effective the power of your international connections really will be in this case as well.
Would you please let me finish, I didn’t interrupt you either! I have read your paper in the Saar, Mr. Deputy, and it does nothing other than commit constant acts of treason, Deputy Wels, it is constantly attempting to discredit Germany abroad, to shed a bad light upon our Volk with lies to the rest of the world.
You talk about the lack of stability of the law. Gentlemen of the Social Democratic Party! I too witnessed the Revolution in 1918. I really do have to say that if we did not have a feeling for the law, we would not be here today, and you would not be here either! In 1918 you turned against those who had done nothing to harm you.
We are restraining ourselves from turning against those who tortured us and humiliated us for fourteen years.
You say the National Socialist Revolution has nothing to do with Socialism, but rather that its “Socialism” exists only in the sense that it persecutes the “only pillar of Socialism in Germany,” the SPD.
You are sissies, Gentlemen, and not worthy of this age, if you start talking about persecution at this stage of the game. What has been done to you? You are sitting here and your speaker is being listened to with patience.
You talk about persecution. Who has been persecuting you? You say you are the only pillar of Socialism. You were the pillar of that mysterious Socialism of which, in reality, the German Volk never had a glimpse.
You are talking today about your achievements and your deeds; you are speaking of all the things you intended to do. By your fruits shall ye, too, be known! The fruits testify against you! If the Germany you created in fourteen years is any reflection of your socialist aims, then all I can say is give us four years’ time, Gentlemen, in order to show you the reflection of our aims.
You say: “You want to eliminate the Reichstag to proceed with your Revolution.” Gentlemen, if so, we would not have found it necessary to first go to this vote, to convene this Reichstag, or to have the draft of this bill presented.
God knows we would have had the courage to deal with you some other way as well! You also said that we cannot ignore the Social Democratic Party because it was the first one to clear these seats for the Volk, for the working people, and not only for barons or counts. In every instance, Mr. Deputy, you are too late! Why did you not advise your friend Grzesinski of your views in good time, why did you not tell your other friends Braun and Severing, who accused me for years of being nothing more than a house painter’s apprentice! - For years you claimed that on your posters.
(Renewed protest from the Social Democrats; cries of “Quiet!” from the National Socialists; the President’s bell calling for order)
President Göring: Now the Chancellor is getting even!
Adolf Hitler: And in the end I was actually threatened that I would be driven out of Germany with a dog whip! We National Socialists will now clear the path for the German worker leading to what is his to claim and demand. We National Socialists will be his advocates; you, Gentlemen (addressing the Social Democrats), are no longer necessary! You also state that not power, but a sense of justice is crucial. We have attempted to awaken this sense of justice in our Volk for fourteen years, and we have succeeded in awakening it. However, I now believe on the basis of my own political experiences with you - that unfortunately, justice alone is not enough-one has to be in power, too! And do not mistake us for a bourgeois world! You think that your star might rise again! Gentlemen, Germany’s star will rise and yours will fall.
You say you were not broken during the period of Socialist legislation. That was a period in which the German workers saw in you something other than what you are today. But why have you forgotten to mention this realization to us?! Everything that becomes rotten, old, and weak in the life of a people disappears, never to return.
Your death knell has sounded as well, and it is only because we are thinking of Germany and its distress and the requirements of national life that we appeal in this hour to the German Reichstag to give its consent to what we could have taken at any rate.
We are doing it for the sake of justice-not because we overestimate power, but because we may thus one day perhaps more easily join with those who, today, may be separated from us but who nevertheless believe in Germany, too.
For I would not want to make the mistake of provoking opponents instead of either destroying or becoming reconciled with them.
I would like to extend my hand to those who, perhaps on other paths, will also come to feel with their Volk in the end, (Cries of “Bravo!” from the Center Party) and would not want to declare an everlasting war, (Renewed cries of “Bravo!”) not because of weakness, but out of love to my Volk, and in order to spare this German Volk all what will perish with the rest in this age of struggles.
That you may never misunderstand me on this point: I extend my hand to everyone who commits himself to Germany.
I do not recognize the precepts of the Internationale.
I believe that you (addressing the Social Democrats) are not voting for this bill for the reason that you, in your innermost mentality, are incapable of comprehending the purpose which thereby imbues us.
I believe, however, that you would not do this were we really what your press abroad today makes us out to be, and I can only say to you: I do not even want you to vote for it! Germany will be liberated, but not by you!
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