Hermann Goering
But now the hardest and most difficult struggle began. The Party had to give up its revolutionary tactics and continue its advance by legal methods. Hitler did not want to expose his troops a second time to the hazards of a street battle; he did not want once more to provoke a collision between his followers and the armed forces. He knew that the armed forces, in so far as they were represented by the Reichswehr, were at heart on his side, necessarily on his side. He was himself too much a soldier; he loved this little German army too much to force upon it such a terrible conflict of loyalties. He knew, and had already said prophetically in his speech in his own defence in the Hitler trial at Munich, that the day would come when Reichswehr and National Socialists would stand together in the same ranks for the freedom of their country. Hitler was able to bring about this change of tactics: it was the 9th November, 1923, which made this possible, for no one could now accuse him of being too cowardly for revolutionary action. People could no longer say that he could only talk, but not act. He had proved that he could act. He had himself been at the head of his columns, and he and his subordinate offieers had not on that occasion behaved like the Marxist and Communist demagogues, who stirred up their followers and sent them to the barricades, but themselves remained prudently in their editorial chairs and in their trade union offices and contented themselves with spilling ink while their followers spilled their own blood.
But this tactical change to the legal struggle did not at all mean renouncing the idea of revolution. In the Marxist vocabulary revolution means riots, street fighting, plundering of shops and houses, murder, arson, turmoil and disorder. But for National Socialists revolution is something great and mighty; it means the tearing away of what is old and rotten, and the breaking through of new forces which are strong and young. We carry out revolution continuously; each one of our meetings, each one of our newspapers, each one of our proclamations has been this higher kind of revolution. For we revolutionized the thoughts and feelings of the German; we fought, not for votes at an election, but for the soul of each individual. We wanted to make workers, peasants, shopkeepers and members of the learned professions, members of all classes, professions and churches, first and foremost Germans again. In hundreds of thousands of meetings we spoke in glowing words, we stirred up the minds of our hearers, we hammered into their brains and carved upon their hearts that there was only one thing which they must be 'Germans,' and that they had only one duty, 'Germany!'
These mass meetings were the sources of something quite unique. To begin with, we had meetings in smoky little inns or restaurants in the poorer quarters, in the midst of workers who had been roused to the highest pitch of hatred, and opposed to us were Marxist and Communist agitators. Very often such a meeting ended in a free fight, and there often were many wounded, and we were often driven and thrown out of the room by overwhelming odds. But that did not prevent us from returning again and again with fresh courage; ever and again we stormed the Red strongholds and the number of our supporters grew. The workers had the opportunity to convince themselves where the truth lay, where loyalty to one's convictions gave strength, where leaders were brave and where cowardly. And then came men from all social strata and classes and from all professions and parties. The largest halls were no longer big enough; people stood in the street for hours before the beginning of a meeting when a prominent leader of the movement was going to speak. Their enthusiasm grew to ecstasy when the Leader himself made a speech. We were faced by indescribable rejoicing as well as whistling and disorder, unheard-of love as well as the deepest hatred, unique devotion and self-sacrifice as well as the crudest egoism and materialism. And so we went our way through the people, with complete confidence and with a clear aim before our eyes. We were outlawed and slandered, we had scorn and mockery poured upon us. We were the objects of an intense and indescribable campaign of hatred led by the newspapers which were in the hands of Jews.
Altogether the Jew had for long taken the lead in the fight against us. It was he who pulled the strings behind all our various opponents. At times he would appear as a reactionary, as a supporter of the German Nationalists, at times he was to be found as the soft and hypocritical and, on that account, craftier member of the Centre Party; and then again he would be the peaceful bourgeois of the People's Party. At other times he would look at us with the satiated middle-class face of a Marxist politician; and then again he would stare at us with the hate-distorted features of a Communist from the underworld. However different the masks might be, the face behind was always the same - Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew, always burrowing and agitating and considering every means legitimate.
The struggle was carried on with great anger and bitterness. On all sides the strength of our attack was noticed. The Roman Catholic clergy allied themselves with free-thinkers and atheists in the fight against us. There were continual underhand attacks on the part of the officials. We were outlaws; we were degraded to the rank of the second-class men; we had no rights and our Storm Troopers and Hitler Youth were free game for every Communist ruffian. A bloody terror lodged in the streets of the big towns, a bitter struggle was carried on in the backyards and on the landings of the tenements in the poorest quarters of the great cities.
Our enemies always had the advantage of us in numbers and treacherously attacked and murdered our gallant men. It was mostly German workers who, as loyal Storm Troopers went to their death for their convictions and their country. The rage of the Social Democrats and Communists grew all the more intense when they were forced to see that the National Socialist movement did not consist of fine gentlemen retired officers, hysterical women and bourgeois profiteers, but that 70 per cent particularly of the Storm Troops, consisted of workers, manual workers who were then joined by brain workers. Without distinctions of birth or wealth or social class, officers stood in our ranks beside workers, peasants beside professors, all filled with the sacred idea, all loyal followers of the Leader. But now, too, it was first and foremost youth which flocked to our standard and the old who had remained young in their hearts. It was once said that the future must belong to us, because we had youth on our side, but we could answer; 'No, youth comes to to us, because the future is with us.' It would take up too much space for me to describe further that wonderful time We had to suffer oppression from above (from the authorities), bloody terrorism from below (from the Communists), and social ostracism from the cowardly bourgeoisie. But all that only strengthened the movement. When it was at last realized that our victorious progress could no longer be checked from without, the attempt was made to break up the movement from within, to undermine its strength. But though occasionally someone might take a false step, yet altogether these attempts broke completely on the firm wall of loyalty, love and trust.