# Adolf Hitler's Own Book Mein Kampf (My Battle)/Chapter 8

Chapter VIII
I Begin Political Activity
At the end of November, 1918 I was back in Munich with my regiment—which was in the hands of “Soldiers’ Councils”, I was so disgusted I went away to Traunstein, where I remained until the camp was broken up.
In March, 1919, we returned to Munich.
Eisner’s death only hastened things leading to the Soviet Dictatorship—a reign of the Jews.
Plan after plan chased through my head. I wondered what I could do, but realized that unknown, I could do nothing. During the revolution of the “Councils” I acted in a way displeasing to the “Authorities”, and early in the morning of April 27th, 1919, three fellows came to arrest me—but when I faced them with a rifle, they turned and marched off just as they had come.
Shortly after the liberation of Munich I was called before a commission investigating the events of the revolution. This was my first taste of more or less purely political activity.
I was given orders, a few weeks later, to attend a “course” intended to train soldiers to be good citizens. The value of this was that I was able to meet others who felt as I did. There were many of us who agreed that Germany could not be saved from impending collapse by the parties of the November crime—that is, the Center Party and the Social Democrats—and we felt that not even those with “Bourgeois-national” inclinations could be of any use.
In our small circle we discussed formation of a new party. Its very name was to appeal to the broad masses, and so-we fell upon the name “Social Revolutionary Party.”
Until this time I had had little understanding of capitalism, but now I learned something from one of the lecturers in the course I was attending: Gottfried Feder. For the first time in my life I heard a basic discussion of international finance and loan capital, and the difference between capital as the result of creative labor and capital dependent upon speculation dawned upon me.
Immediately after Feder’s first lecture, the idea flashed into my head that now I had found my way to one of the most vital things needed for the formation of a new party.
A program-maker must consider primarily his goal, much more than the method needed to achieve it, or he will not find many followers. It is for the politician to worry himself over ways and means. The program-maker must not be evaluated by fulfillment, or failure to fulfill, his aims—otherwise who would respect the founders of the great religions?
Only rarely—but sometimes—are the talents of a program-maker and a politician found embodied in a single person.
The Enemy: Communist-Capitalists!
As I listened to Feder’s first lecture about “breaking the tyranny of interest” I saw at once that here was a theoretical truth of immense importance to the future of the German people. The great battle was to be fought against international capital—and in Feder’s lecture I sensed an overpowering slogan for the coming struggle.
It must be remembered always that even the best idea is dangerous if it comes to consider itself an end, for really it is only a means to an end—for myself and all true Nazis there is a single doctrine:
People and Fatherland!
We must fight for the life and the increase of our race and our people; to feed our children and preserve our blood purity—freedom and independence of the Fatherland must be achieved so our people may flower and fulfill that mission assigned them by the Creator of the Universe.
All thought, teaching, and knowledge must serve this purpose alone. Only from this standpoint must any and all things be judged—all which cannot pass this test, this sole test, must be rejected.
Now I saw for the first time the true meaning of the life work of the Jew Karl Marx and comprehended his Kapital—this and the fight of Social Democracy against the national economy was intended for nothing other than the preparation of the reign of international capital and the stock exchange.
    (The view is generally accepted that Karl Marx was a Communist, and not a Stock Exchange Broker.)
These courses I attended had great consequences in yet another way.
One day I asked for the floor in order to argue with a Jew. Nearly all the pupils soon took my view, with the result that in a few days I received orders to join a regiment as an “instruction officer.”
“The racial state must have as the aim of its education the breeding of superior bodies—the development of intellectual powers must stand in second place. The schools must devote much more time than present “educational institutions” do to sport, and here boxing, which so many “nationalists” consider brutal and undignified, must not be overlooked. No sport is equal to boxing in building up the aggressive spirit!”
Mein Kampf—Chapter XIV
Filled with delight at the opportunity to speak before large audiences, I had the added thrill of learning what I had always previously presumed but never proven: I could speak. My voice was so good that people could always understand me, at least in the small barracks.
This task pleased me as no other could, for now I could really serve that institution which had drawn so near to my heart—the army.
I was successful, for through my lectures I lead hundreds, probably thousands, back to their people and their Fatherland. I nationalized the troops and strengthened discipline.
The process acquainted me with a number of comrades who later began to form the center of the New Movement.