Lies being
taught;
Mein Kampf is
unintelligible ravings of a maniac.
Now the
Truth; Read and
judge. Xf – What army gave?
“the monarchical form
of government guarantees stability in the direction of public affairs and
safeguards public offices from the speculative turmoil of ambitious
politicians. Furthermore, the venerable tradition which this institution
possesses arouses a feeling which gives weight to the monarchical authority.
Beyond this there is the fact that the whole corps of officials, and the army
in particular, are raised above the level of political party obligations. And
still another positive feature was that the supreme rulership of the State was
embodied in the monarch, as an individual person, who could serve as the symbol
of responsibility, which a monarch has to bear more seriously than any
anonymous parliamentary majority. Indeed, the proverbial honesty and integrity
of the German administration must be attributed chiefly to this fact. Finally,
the monarchy fulfilled a high cultural function among the German people, which
made amends for many of its defects. The German residential cities have
remained, even to our time, centers of that artistic spirit which now threatens
to disappear and is becoming more and more materialistic. The German princes
gave a great deal of excellent and practical encouragement to art and science,
especially during the nineteenth century. Our present age certainly has nothing
of equal worth.
During that process of
disintegration which was slowly extending throughout the social order the most
positive force of resistance was that offered by the army. This was the
strongest source of education which the German people possessed. For that
reason all the hatred of our enemies was directed against the paladin of our
national self-preservation and our liberty. The strongest testimony in favour
of this unique institution is the fact that it was derided, hated and fought
against, but also feared, by worthless elements all round. The fact that the
international profiteers who gathered at Versailles, further to exploit and
plunder the nations directed their enmity specially against the old German army
proved once again that it deserved to be regarded as the institution which
protected the liberties of our people against the forces of the international
stock-exchange. If the army had not been there to sound the alarm and stand on
guard, the purposes of the Versailles representatives would have been carried
out much sooner. There is only one word to express what the German people owe
to this army--Everything!
It was the army that
still inculcated a sense of responsibility among the people when this quality
had become very rare and when the habit of shirking every kind of
responsibility was steadily spreading. This habit had grown up under the evil
influences of Parliament, which was itself the very model of irresponsibility.
The army trained the people to personal courage at a time when the virtue of
timidity threatened to become an epidemic and when the spirit of sacrificing
one's personal interests for the good of the community was considered as
something that amounted almost to weak-mindedness. At a time when only those
were estimated as intelligent who knew how to safeguard and promote their own
egotistic interests, the army was the school through which individual Germans
were taught not to seek the salvation of their nation in the false ideology of
international fraternization between negroes, Germans, Chinese, French and
English, etc., but in the strength and unity of their own national being.
The army developed the
individual's powers of resolute decision, and this at a time when a spirit of
indecision and skepticism governed human conduct. At a time when the wiseacres
were everywhere setting the fashion it needed courage to uphold the principle
that any command is better than none. This one principle represents a robust
and sound style of thought, of which not a trace would have been left in the
other branches of life if the army had not furnished a constant rejuvenation of
this fundamental force. A sufficient proof of this may be found in the
appalling lack of decision which our present government authorities display.
They cannot shake off their mental and moral lethargy and decide on some
definite line of action except when they are forced to sign some new dictate
for the exploitation of the German people. In that case they decline all
responsibility while at the same time they sign everything which the other side
places before them; and they sign with the readiness of an official
stenographer. Their conduct is here explicable on the ground that in this case
they are not under the necessity of coming to a decision; for the decision is
dictated to them.
The army imbued its
members with a spirit of idealism and developed their readiness to sacrifice
themselves for their country and its honour, while greed and materialism
dominated in all the other branches of life. The army united a people who were
split up into classes: and in this respect had only one defect, which was the
One Year Military Service, a privilege granted to those who had passed through
the high schools. It was a defect, because the principle of absolute equality
was thereby violated; and those who had a better education were thus placed
outside the cadres to which the rest of their comrades belonged. The reverse
would have been better. Since our upper classes were really ignorant of what
was going on in the body corporate of the nation and were becoming more and
more estranged from the life of the people, the army would have accomplished a
very beneficial mission if it had refused to discriminate in favour of the
so-called intellectuals, especially within its own ranks. It was a mistake that
this was not done; but in this world of ours can we find any institution that
has not at least one defect? And in the army the good features were so
absolutely predominant that the few defects it had were far below the average
that generally rises from human weakness.
But the greatest
credit which the army of the old Empire deserves is that, at a time when the
person of the individual counted for nothing and the majority was everything,
it placed individual personal values above majority values. By insisting on its
faith in personality, the army opposed that typically Jewish and democratic
apotheosis of the power of numbers. The army trained what at that time was most
surely needed: namely, real men. In a period when men were falling a prey to
effeminacy and laxity, 350,000 vigorously trained young men went from the ranks
of the army each year to mingle with their fellow-men. In the course of their
two years' training they had lost the softness of their young days and had
developed bodies as tough as steel. The young man who had been taught obedience
for two years was now fitted to command. The trained soldier could be
recognized already by his walk.
This was the great
school of the German nation; and it was not without reason that it drew upon
its head all the bitter hatred of those who wanted the Empire to be weak and
defenceless, because they were jealous of its greatness and were themselves
possessed by a spirit of rapacity and greed. The rest of the world recognized a
fact which many Germans did not wish to see, either because they were blind to
facts or because out of malice they did not wish to see it. This fact was that
the German Army was the most powerful weapon for the defence and freedom of the
German nation and the best guarantee for the livelihood of its citizens.
There was a third
institution of positive worth, which has to be placed beside that of the
monarchy and the army. This was the civil service. The most outstanding trait
in the civil service and the whole body of the civil administration was its
independence of the vicissitudes of government, the political mentality of
which could exercise no influence on the attitude of the German State
officials. Since the Revolution this situation has been completely changed.
Efficiency and capability have been replaced by the test of party-adherence;
and independence of character and initiative are no longer appreciated as
positive qualities in a public official. They rather tell against him.
The wonderful might
and power of the old Empire was based on the monarchical form of government,
the army and the civil service. On these three foundations rested that great
strength which is now entirely lacking; namely, the authority of the State. For
the authority of the State cannot be based on the babbling that goes on in
Parliament or in the provincial diets and not upon laws made to protect the
State, or upon sentences passed by the law courts to frighten those who have
had the hardihood to deny the authority of the State, but only on the general
confidence which the management and administration of the community establishes
among the people. This confidence is in its turn, nothing else than the result
of an unshakable inner conviction that the government and administration of a
country is inspired by disinterested and honest goodwill and on the feeling
that the spirit of the law is in complete harmony with the moral convictions of
the people. In the long run, systems of government are not maintained by
terrorism but on the belief of the people in the merits and sincerity of those
who administer and promote the public interests.
Though it be true that
in the period preceding the War certain grave evils tended to infect and
corrode the inner strength of the nation, it must be remembered that the other
States suffered even more than Germany from these drawbacks and yet those other
States did not fail and break down when the time of crisis came. If we remember
further that those defects in pre-War Germany were outweighed by great positive
qualities we shall have to look elsewhere for the effective cause of the
collapse. And elsewhere it lay.”
Adolf Hitler
Kaps
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