Hermann Goering
But when the need was greatest God gave the German people a champion, an unknown soldier of the World War, a man from the people, without rank or possessions or connections, a plain, simple man, but one who had overwhelming genius and greatness of character. A man of the people, Adolf Hitler arose and took German destiny into his clean strong hands and as the herald of German freedom and justice passed through all Germany, appealing, stirring up the people and inflaming their hearts like the incarnation of the German conscience itself. And then for all ardent, expectant Germans it seemed as if the beacon of the hidden Germany had lit up the starless night of hopeless despair. The German heart was found again, and with magic power it drew into itself the noblest blood and poured it out again into the people in countless streams of will and strength. The taskmasters of enslaved Germany might throw the 'rebels' into prison, might banish them, persecute, humiliate and insult them-but at no time could they force them to their knees. In hundreds thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands of hearts was the sacred seed of the German will to freedom sown. From farm to farm, from village to village, from the mountains to the sea, from the Rhine to beyond the Vistula, the flames of rebellion spread, rebellion against any and every kind of slavery. The flames at last became a vast sea of fire from which a purged and purified Germany arose to its divinely-appointed rank. 'For God does not wish that there should be slaves.'
Adolf Hitler knew that only as the standard-bearer of a new, a greater, a creative idea could his movement conquer, and so he gave it the philosophy of National Socialism, whose sacred symbol now floats victorious over a wonderfully united Germany. The struggle for the new Germany could not be carried on in the name of Nationalism only; it was just as imperative that German Socialism should be represented. It was no mere coincidence that the cradle of National Socialism was in the heart of Bavaria, in Munich. It was symbolic that the German movement should arise in that same Bavaria that formerly, paying homage to separatist tendencies, had striven most to leave the union of the Reich. There it was that the young National Socialism had its first mission to fulfil, to bid defiance to those anti- German endeavours, and to make Bavaria itself the stronghold of the German idea.
Much has been written about the National Socialist programme, and still more has it been talked about. Distortions, misrepresentations, misunderstanding and the desire not to understand, have made the programme seem on the one hand thoroughly reactionary and on the other completely Bolshevist. But our programme has remained unchanged through all the storms and in the future, too, it will remain unchanged as the foundation stone of the new Reich. One cannot in any way compare our programme with the programmes of the Middle Class parties. If one reads the countless party programmes which, in Germany more than anywhere else, have been drawn up in the last fifteen years, one sees over and over again that there is no trace of any moral or spiritual principle, even if in this or that sentence such things are mentioned to mislead the reader. In reality such party programmes simply represent the requirements of quite definite material interests. It may be that the Social Democratic programme represents the interests of a class of the proletariat, or that the Centre Party programme represents the interests of the universal Catholic Church, or again the many Middle Class parties emphasize, in some cases the interest of big industry, in others the interests of the small retailers or of agriculture or the processions. But in all cases these programmes represent pure materialism. In some cases one could see how certain parties drew up a new programme for each election and brazenly repudiated the old one. Sometimes the first half of the programme flatly contradicted the last half. The Centre at one election even went so far as to draw up two programmes, the one for the Middle Classes, the other for the workers. If any new political group was formed the essential thing was the programme. They talked boasting of their basic principles, whereas these were simply trivial embellishments, put on for tactical reasons in. the conflict of interests. While we National Socialists always remained true to our basic ideas and never allowed anything to alter our principles, in tactics we were always willing to give way and to adapt ourselves to the particular situation. The reverse was the case with the other parties. They frequently stood firm as regards tactics, but were always ready to give up or alter their principles. It may be that, on very careful scrutiny, our programme seems, on this or that point, to be lacking in clarity. But one must on no account forget, that this is no political programme, cleverly thought out, discussed for months and prepared, and finally given a philosophical basis and baptized with scholars and politicians as its godparents. In the National Socialist programme a few men of the people without subtlety or cleverness have interpreted the deep longing of a nation which was already fighting for its rebirth in the midst of destruction, dissolution and collapse. The planks of our programme are fundamental principles and those maxims which are to guide our actions in the work of building up the new Germany. To take only one example: - It was laid down that War profits were to be taxed away. Immediately the clever ones rushed to the attack with the objection that today there are no more War profits. To be true this is no demand in the literal sense, but what it means is that the feeling of the people always rebels against the idea that individuals should be allowed to make a material profit out of the general distress. In the same way such a demand is directed especially against those who by exploiting the difficult position of the people sought to gain huge profits by the sale of war material, while the ordinary German was sacrificing his property, his family, even his life, without any thought of material gain, simply to serve his country. The same protest would be made against those who, for instance, would seek to make a profit out of some natural catastrophe, while those who had been hit by the catastrophe were having to endure great hardship and misery. Broadly speaking it means nothing else than this - that the blood of the least of one's fellow-countrymen is worth more than all material profit. And so, as has been shown from this example, one could explain each maxim in a higher sense. If one looks at the programme in this way, as we instinctively feel it, one sees what great strength emanates from these maxims. One understands also why it is that it is just the people which has felt the truth of our programme, that is to say of our principles, more deeply and clearly than it could understand the other programmes. Nevertheless with us the decisive thing was never the programme, that is to say, the paragraph, the dead letter. It was always the living meaning which gave us strength and enthusiasm for the mighty struggle. The Leader once said 'Germany has not collapsed from lack of programmes, but because there were too many programmes and too few men of action.' If programmes were the decisive thing, then the Democrats with the parliamentary parties would today be more firmly established on the throne than ever. How often have I been asked 'Yes, but what is actually your programme? And I could only point, full of pride, to our simple and gallant Storm Troopers and say: 'There stand the bearers of our programme. They bear it on their clear open faces and that programme is - Germany!' All principles which tend to further the recovery and the position of Germany we alone recognize as points in our programme; all other things which may be damaging to our country we condemn and they are to be destroyed.
The first few years seemed hardly promising for the new movement. It could only develop slowly and gradually. The party remained confined almost exclusively to Munich and the Bavarian highlands, and had gained a footing only in Nuremberg and Coburg. Hitler and his followers were laughed at, they were not taken seriously, until suddenly, at the end of 1922, a rapid advance took place. Already, when Hitler made a speech, the biggest halls were filled to the last seat. Audiences listened breathlessly to the new teaching and surrendered completely to the magic of Hitler's personality. But the party was still confined to Bavaria. Hitler ruthlessly condemned the pernicious Marxist doctrines. With unshakable determination he and his men, and above all the small but confident detachments of Storm Troops, opposed the Reds everywhere. They went out into the poorest quarters of the towns, into the Red strongholds, right into Marxist meetings, and fearlessly disputed with Social Democrat politicians. It was first and foremost the war veterans and the rising generation who rallied to Hitler's standard.
The year 1923 brought the inflation and there with panic. In Bavaria at that time the Bavarian People's Party was in power, a Middle Class Centre Party, concerned solely in loosening the ties between Bavaria and the Reich. In Berlin, Social Democracy still reigned supreme. The Bavarian Government thought they could use the young National Socialist movement for their own ends and exploit its opposition to Red Berlin. They did not therefore resist the Hitlerite agitation. As the general ruin became daily more and more apparent, the Party became stronger and Hitler became more and more determined. The other patriotic societies had come progressively under his influence and leadership.