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May we not speak of a revolution when the chaotic conditions brought about by parliamentary-democracy disappear in less than three months and a regime of order and discipline takes their place, and a new energy springs forth from a firmly welded unity and a comprehensive authoritative power such as Germany never before had?
So great was the Revolution that its intellectual foundations are not even yet understood but are superficially criticized by our contemporaries |
They talk of democracies and dictatorships; but they fail to grasp the fact that in this country a radical transformation has taken place and has produced results which are democratic in the highest sense of the word, if democracy has any meaning at all |
With infallible certainty we are steering toward an order of things in which a process of selection will become active in the political leadership of the nation, as it exists throughout the whole of life in general |
By this process of selection, which will follow the laws of Nature and the dictates of human reason, those among our people who show the greatest natural ability will be appointed to positions in the political leadership of the nation |
In making this selection no consideration will be given to birth or ancestry, name or wealth, but only to the question of whether or not the candidate has a natural vocation for those higher positions of leadership |
That was a fine principle which the great Corsican enunciated when he said that each one of his soldiers carried a marshal's baton in the haversack |
In this country that principle will have its political counterpart |
Is there a nobler or more excellent kind of Socialism and is there a truer form of Democracy than this National Socialism which is so organized that through it each one among the millions of German boys is given the possibility of finding his way to the highest office in the nation, should it please Providence to come to his aid |
And that is no theory |
In the present National Socialist Germany it is a reality that is considered by us all as a matter of course |
I myself, to whom the people have given their trust and who have been called to be their leader, come from the people |
All the millions of German workers know that it is not a foreign dilettante or an international revolutionary apostle who is at the head of the Reich, but a German who has come from their own ranks |
And numerous people whose families belong to the peasantry and working classes are now filling prominent positions in this National Socialist State |
Some of them actually hold the highest offices in the leadership of the nation, as Cabinet Ministers, Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter |
But National Socialism always bears in mind the interests of the people as a whole and not the interests of one class or another |
The National Socialist Revolution has not aimed at turning a privileged class into a class which will have no rights in the future |
Its aim has been to grant equal rights to those social strata that hitherto were denied such rights |
We have not ruined millions of citizens by degrading them to the level of enslaved workers |
Our aim has been to educate slaves to be German citizens |
One thing will certainly be quite clear to every German; and this is that revolutions as acts of terror can only be of short duration |
If revolutions are not able to produce something new they will end up by devouring the whole of the national patrimony which existed before them |
From the assumption of power as an act of force the beneficial work of peace must be promptly developed |
But those who abolish classes for the purpose of putting new classes in their place sow the seeds of new revolutions |
The bourgeois citizen who has the ruling power in his hands today will become a proletarian if he is banished to Siberia tomorrow and condemned to enforced labor there |
He will then yearn for his day of deliverance, just as did the proletarian of former times, who now thinks that his turn has come to play the despot |
Therefore the National Socialist Revolution never aimed at bringing in one class of the German people and turning out another |
One the contrary, our objective has been to make it possible for the whole German people to work, not only in the economic but also in the political field, and to guarantee this possibility by organizing the various classes into one national unit |
The National Socialist Movement, however, limits its sphere of internal activity to those individuals who belong to one people and it refuses to allow the members of a foreign race to wield an influence over our political, intellectual, or cultural life |
And we refuse to accord to the members of a foreign race any predominant position in our national economic system |
In this folk-community, which is based on the bond of blood, and in the results which National Socialism has obtained by making the idea of this community understood among the public, lies the most profound reason for the marvelous success of our Revolution |
Confronted with this new and vigorous ideal, all idols and relics of the past which had been upheld by dynastic interests, tribal affiliations and even party interests, now began to lose their glamour |
That is why the whole party system of former times completely collapsed in a few weeks, without giving rise to the feeling that something had been lost |
They were superseded by a better ideal |
A new movement took their place |
A re-organization of our people into a national unit that includes all those whose labour is productive simply pushed aside the old organizations of employers and employees |
The symbolic emblems of the recent past, which was a period of disintegration and disability, were banished, not--as in 1918 or 1919--through a resolution voted by a committee appointed to invent a new symbol for the Reich, as if the choice were to depend on the results of a prize competition |
But all these old emblems were now displaced by that flag which symbolized the militant period of the National Socialist Movement and which was borne by us on the day of Germany's resurgence |
Since that day it has become the consecrated symbol of his national resurgence on land and sea and in the air |
There could be no more eloquent proof of how profoundly the German people have understood the significance of this change and new development than the manner in which the nation sanctioned our regime at the polls on so many occasions during the years that followed |
So, of all those who like to point again and again to the democratic form of government as the institution which is based on the universal will of the people, in contrast to dictatorships, nobody has a better right to speak in the name of the people than I have |
Among the results of this phase of the German Revolution I may enumerate the following: --
(1) Since that time there is only one trustee of supreme power among the German people and that trustee is the whole people itself |
(2) The will of the people finds its expression in the Party, which is the political organization of the people |
(3) Therefore there is only one legislative body |
(4) There is only one executive authority |
Anybody who compares this state of affairs with the condition of Germany before January 1933 will realize what a tremendous transformation is indicated by these few short statements |
But this transformation is only a result that has followed from carrying a fundamental axiom of the National Socialist doctrine into practical effect |
This axiom is that the only reasonable meaning and purpose of all human thought and conduct cannot be to create or to maintain structures, organizations or functions made by men, but only to preserve and develop the innate character of the people itself; for Providence has given us this character as the groundwork of all our constructive efforts |
Through the successful issue of the National Socialist Movement the people as such was placed above any organization, construction or function, as the sole element that is always there and will permanently abide |
The meaning and purpose which Providence had in mind when it created the different races cannot be investigated by us, human beings, and no theory about it can be laid down |
But the meaning and purpose of human organizations and of all human activities can be measured by asking what value they are for the maintenance of the race or people, which is the one existing element that must abide |
The people--the race--is the primary thing |
Party, State, Army, the national economic structure, Justice etc, all these are only secondary and accidental |
They are only the means to the end and the end is the preservation of this nation |
These public institutions are right and useful according to the measure in which their energies are directed towards this task |
If they are incapable of fulfilling it, then their existence is harmful and they must either be reformed or removed and replaced by something better |
It is absolutely necessary that this principle should be practically recognized; for that is the only way in which men can be saved from becoming the victims of a devitalized set of dogmas in a matter where dogmas are entirely out of place, and from drawing dogmatic conclusions from the consideration of ways and means, when the final purpose itself is the only valid dogma |
LAW: THE IMPORTANCE OF RACE
All of you, gentlemen and members of the German Reichstag, understand the meaning of what I have just said |
But on this occasion I am speaking to the whole German people and therefore I should like to bring forward a few examples which show how important these principles were proved to be when they were put into practice |
There are many people for whom this is the only way of explaining why we talk of a Nationalist Socialist Revolution, though no blood was shed and no property wrecked |
For a long time our ideas of law and justice had been developing in a way that led to a state of general confusion |
This was partly due to the fact that we adopted ideas which were foreign to our national character and also partly because the German mind itself did not have any clear notion of what public justice meant |
This confusion was evidenced more strikingly by the lack of inner clarity as to the function of law and justice |
There are two extreme poles which are characteristic of this mental lack:
(1) The opinion that the law as such is its own justification and hence cannot be made the subject of any critical analysis as to its utility, either in regard to its general principles or its relation to particular problems |
According to this notion, the law would remain even though the world should disappear |
(2) The opinion that it is the main function of law to protect and safeguard the life and property of the individual |
Between these two extreme poles the idea of defending the larger interests of the community was introduced very timidly and under the cloak of an appeal to reasons of state |
In contradistinction to all this, the National Socialist Revolution has laid down a definite and unambiguous principle on which the whole system of legislation, jurisprudence and administration of justice must be founded |
It is the task of justice to collaborate in supporting and protecting the people as a whole against those individuals who, because they lack a social conscience, try to shirk the obligations to which all the members of the community are subject, or directly act against the interests of the community itself |
In the new German legal system which will be in force from now onwards the nation is placed above persons and property |
The principle expressed in that brief statement and everything it implies has led to the greatest reform ever introduced in our German legal structure |
The first decisive action taken in accordance with the fundamental principle I have spoken of was the setting up not only of one legislator but also of one executive |
The second measure is not yet ready but will be announced to the nation within a few weeks |
In the German penal code, which has been drawn up with this wide general perspective in view, German justice will be placed for the first time on a basis which ensures that for all time to come its duty will be to serve in maintaining the German race |
ECONOMICS
Although the chaos which we found before us in the various branches of public life was very great indeed, the state of dissolution into which German economic life had fallen was still greater |
And this was the feature of the German collapse that impressed itself most strikingly on the minds of the broad masses of the people |
The conditions that then actually existed have still remained in their memories and in the memory of the German people as a whole |
As outstanding examples of this catastrophe we found these two phenomena:
(1) More than six million unemployed |
(2) An agricultural population that was manifestly doomed to dissolution |
The area covered by the German agricultural farms that were on the point of being sold up by forced auction was as large as the whole of Thuringia (more than 8,000 square miles) |
In the natural course of events the falling off in production on the one side and the decrease in purchasing power, on the other, must necessarily bring about the disruption and annihilation of the great mass of the middle class also |
How seriously this side of the German distress was then felt might subsequently be measured by the fact that I had to ask for full owners for the period of four years especially for the purpose of reducing unemployment and putting a stop to the dissolution of the German agricultural population |
I may further state that in 1933 the National Socialists did not interfere with any activities which were being carried out by others and which at the same time promised success |
The Party was called to take over the government of the country at a moment when the possibilities of redeeming the situation in any other way had been exhausted and particularly when repeated attempts to overcome the economic crisis had failed |
After four years from that date I now face the German people and you, gentlemen and members of the Reichstag, to give an account of what has been accomplished |
On this occasion I do not think you will withhold your sanction from what the National Socialist Government has done and you will agree that I have fulfilled the promises I made four years ago |
It was not an easy undertaking |
I am not giving away any secrets when I tell you that at that time the so-called economic experts were convinced that the economic crisis could not be overcome |
In the face of this staggering situation which, as I have said, appeared hopeless to the minds of the experts, I still believed in the possibility of a German revival and particularly in the possibility of an economic recovery |
My belief was grounded on two considerations:
(1) I have always had sympathy for those excited people who invariably talk of the collapse of the nation whenever they find themselves confronted with a difficult situation |
What do they mean by a collapse? The German people were already in existence before they made any definite appearance in history as it is known to us |
Now, leaving out entirely what their pre-historic experiences may have been, it is certain that during the past two thousand years of history, through which that portion of mankind which we call the German People has passed, unspeakable miseries and catastrophes must have befallen them more than once |
Famines, wars and pestilences have overwhelmed our people and wreaked terrible havoc among them |
It must give rise to unlimited faith in the vital resources of a nation when we recall the fact that only a few centuries ago our German people, with a population of more than eighteen millions, were reduced by the Thirty Years War to less than four millions |
Let us also remember that this once flourishing land was pillaged, dismembered and devastated, that its cities were burned down, its hamlets and villages laid waste, that its fields were left uncultivated and barren |
Some ten years afterwards our people began again to increase in number |
The cities were rebuilt and began to be filled with a new life |
The fields were ploughed once more |
Songs were heard along the countryside, in concord with the rhythm of that work which brought new life and livelihood to the people |
Let us look back over the development, or at least that part of it known to us, through which our people have passed since those dim historic ages down to the present time |
We shall then recognize how puny is all the fuss that these weakling footlers make who immediately begin to talk about the collapse of the economic structure--and hence of human existence--the first moment a piece of printed paper loses its face value somewhere in the world |