Lies being taught;
Mein Kampf is unintelligible ravings of a
maniac.
Now the Truth; Read and know. VOL II CHAPTER VIIb-THE
CONFLICT WITH THE RED FORCES
Part (b) Bourgeoisie, Marxist and National
socialist Flag;
The organization of defence guards for
keeping order at our meetings threw up a very difficult question. Up till then
the movement had possessed no party badge and no party flag. The lack of these
tokens was not only a disadvantage at that time but would prove intolerable in
the future. The disadvantages were chiefly that members of the party possessed
no outward broken of membership which linked them together, and it was
absolutely unthinkable that for the future they should remain without some
token which would be a symbol of the movement and could be set against that of
the International.
More than once in my youth the psychological
importance of such a symbol had become clearly evident to me and from a
sentimental point of view also it was advisable. In Berlin, after the War, I
was present at a mass-demonstration of Marxists in front of the Royal Palace
and in the Lustgarten. A sea of red flags, red armlets and red flowers was in itself
sufficient to give that huge assembly of about 120,000 persons an outward
appearance of strength. I was now able to feel and understand how easily the
man in the street succumbs to the hypnotic magic of such a grandiose piece of
theatrical presentation.
The bourgeoisie, which as a party neither
possesses or stands for any WELTANSCHAUUNG, had therefore not a single banner.
Their party was composed of 'patriots' who went about in the colours of the
REICH. If these colours were the symbol of a definite WELTANSCHAUUNG then one could
understand the rulers of the State regarding this flag as expressive of their
own WELTANSCHAUUNG, seeing that through their efforts the official REICH flag
was expressive of their own WELTANSCHAUUNG.
But in reality the position was otherwise.
The REICH was morticed together without the
aid of the German bourgeoisie and the flag itself was born of the War and
therefore merely a State flag possessing no importance in the sense of any
particular ideological mission.
Only in one part of the German-speaking
territory—in German-Austria--was there anything like a bourgeois party flag in evidence.
Here a section of the national bourgeoisie selected the 1848 colours (black,
red and gold) as their party flag and therewith created a symbol which, though
of no importance from a weltanschauliche viewpoint, had, nevertheless, a
revolutionary character from a national point of view. The most bitter
opponents of this flag at that time, and this should not be forgotten to-day,
were the Social Democrats and the Christian Socialists or clericals. They, in
particular, were the ones who degraded and besmirched these colours in the same
way as in 1918 they dragged black, white and red into the gutter. Of course,
the black, red and gold of the German parties in the old Austria were the
colours of the year 1848: that is to say, of a period likely to be regarded as somewhat
visionary, but it was a period that had honest German souls as its
representatives, although the Jews were lurking unseen as wire-pullers in the
background. It was high treason and the shameful enslavement of the German
territory that first of all made these colours so attractive to the Marxists of
the Centre Party; so much so that to-day they revere them as their most
cherished possession and use them as their own banners for the protection of
the flag they once foully besmirched.
It is a fact, therefore, that, up till 1920,
in opposition to the Marxists there was no flag that would have stood for a
consolidated resistance to them. For even if the better political elements of
the German bourgeoisie were loath to accept the suddenly discovered black, red
and gold colours as their symbol after the year 1918, they nevertheless were
incapable of counteracting this with a future programme of their own that would
correspond to the new trend of affairs. At the most, they had a reconstruction
of the old REICH in mind.
And it is to this way of thinking that the
black, white and red colours of the old REICH are indebted for their
resurrection as the flag of our so-called national bourgeois parties.
It was obvious that the symbol of a régime
which had been overthrown by the Marxists under inglorious circumstances was
not now worthy to serve as a banner under which the same Marxism was to be
crushed in its turn. However much any decent German may love and revere those
old colours, glorious when placed side by side in their youthful freshness,
when he had fought under them and seen the sacrifice of so many lives, that
flag had little value for the struggle of the future.
In our Movement I have always adopted the
standpoint that it was a really lucky thing for the German nation that it had
lost its old flag (Note 18). This standpoint of mine was in strong contrast to
that of the bourgeois politicians. It may be immaterial to us what the Republic
does under its flag. But let us be deeply grateful to fate for having so graciously
spared the most glorious war flag for all time from becoming an ignominious
rag. The REICH of to-day, which sells itself and its people, must never be
allowed to adopt the honourable and heroic black, white and red colours.
[Note 18. The flag of the German Empire,
founded in 1871, was Black-White-Red. This was discarded in 1918 and
Black-Red-Gold was chosen as the flag of the German Republic founded at Weimar
in 1919. The flag designed by Hitler--red with a white disc in the centre,
bearing the black swastika--is now the national flag.]
As long as the November outrage endures, that
outrage may continue to bear its own external sign and not steal that of an
honourable past. Our bourgeois politicians should awaken their consciences to
the fact that whoever desires this State to have the black, white and red
colours is pilfering from the past. The old flag was suitable only for the old REICH
and, thank Heaven, the Republic chose the colours best suited to itself.
This was also the reason why we National
Socialists recognized that hoisting the old colours would be no symbol of our
special aims; for we had no wish to resurrect from the dead the old REICH which
had been ruined through its own blunders, but to build up a new State.
The Movement which is fighting Marxism to-day
along these lines must display on its banner the symbol of the new State.
The question of the new flag, that is to say
the form and appearance it must take, kept us very busy in those days.
Suggestions poured in from all quarters, which although well meant were more or
less impossible in practice. The new flag had not only to become a symbol
expressing our own struggle but on the other hand it was necessary that it
should prove effective as a large poster. All those who busy themselves with
the tastes of the public will recognize and appreciate the great importance of
these apparently petty matters. In hundreds of thousands of cases a really
striking emblem may be the first cause of awakening interest in a movement.
For this reason we declined all suggestions
from various quarters for identifying our movement by means of a white flag
with the old State or rather with those decrepit parties whose sole political
objective is the restoration of past conditions. And, apart from this, white is
not a colour capable of attracting and focusing public attention. It is a colour
suitable only for young women's associations and not for a movement that stands
for reform in a revolutionary period.
Black was also suggested--certainly
well-suited to the times, but embodying no significance to empress the will
behind our movement. And, finally, black is incapable of attracting attention.
White and blue was discarded, despite its
admirable aesthetic appeal—as being the colours of an individual German Federal
State--a State that, unfortunately, through its political attitude of
particular narrow-mindedness did not enjoy a good reputation. And, generally speaking,
with these colours it would have been difficult to attract attention to our
movement. The same applies to black and white.
Black, red and gold did not enter the
question at all.
And this also applies to black, white and red
for reasons already stated. At least, not in the form hitherto in use. But the
effectiveness of these three colours is far superior to all the others and they
are certainly the most strikingly harmonious combination to be found.
I myself was always for keeping the old
colours, not only because I, as a soldier, regarded them as my most sacred
possession, but because in their aesthetic effect, they conformed more than
anything else to my personal taste. Accordingly I had to discard all the
innumerable suggestions and designs which had been proposed for the new
movement, among which were many that had incorporated the swastika into the old
colours. I, as leader, was unwilling to make public my own design, as it was
possible that someone else could come forward with a design just as good, if
not better, than my own. As a matter of fact, a dental surgeon from Starnberg
submitted a good design very similar to mine, with only one mistake, in that
his swastika with curved corners was set upon a white background.
After innumerable trials I decided upon a
final form--a flag of red material with a white disc bearing in its centre a
black swastika. After many trials I obtained the correct proportions between
the dimensions of the flag and of the white central disc, as well as that of
the swastika. And this is how it has remained ever since.
At the same time we immediately ordered the
corresponding armlets for our squad of men who kept order at meetings, armlets
of red material, a central white disc with the black swastika upon it. Herr
Füss, a Munich goldsmith, supplied the first practical and permanent design.
The new flag appeared in public in the
midsummer of 1920. It suited our movement admirably, both being new and young.
Not a soul had seen this flag before; its effect at that time was something
akin to that of a blazing torch. We ourselves experienced almost a boyish
delight when one of the ladies of the party who had been entrusted with the
making of the flag finally handed it over to us. And a few months later those
of us in Munich were in possession of six of these flags. The steadily increasing
strength of our hall guards was a main factor in popularizing the symbol.
And indeed a symbol it proved to be.
Not only because it incorporated those
revered colours expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once
brought so much honour to the German nation, but this symbol was also an
eloquent expression of the will behind the movement. We National Socialists
regarded our flag as being the embodiment of our party programme. The red
expressed the social thought underlying the movement. White the national
thought. And the swastika signified the mission allotted to us--the struggle
for the victory of Aryan mankind and at the same time the triumph of the ideal of
creative work which is in itself and always will be anti-Semitic.
Two years later, when our squad of hall
guards had long since grown into storm detachments, it seemed necessary to give
this defensive organization of a young WELTANSCHAUUNG a particular symbol of
victory, namely a Standard. I also designed this and entrusted the execution of
it to an old party comrade, Herr Gahr, who was a goldsmith. Ever since that
time this Standard has been the distinctive token of the National Socialist
struggle.
The increasing interest taken in our
meetings, particularly during 1920, compelled us at times to hold two meetings
a week. Crowds gathered round our posters; the large meeting halls in the town
were always filled and tens of thousands of people, who had been led astray by
the teachings of Marxism, found their way to us and assisted in the work of
fighting for the liberation of the REICH. The public in Munich had got to know
us. We were being spoken about. The words 'National Socialist' had become common
property to many and signified for them a definite party programme. Our circle
of supporters and even of members was constantly increasing, so that in the
winter of 1920-21 we were able to appear as a strong party in Munich.
At that time there was no party in Munich
with the exception of the Marxist parties--certainly no nationalist party--which
was able to hold such mass demonstrations as ours. The Munich Kindl Hall, which
held 5,000 people, was more than once overcrowded and up till then there was only
one other hall, the Krone Circus Hall, into which we had not ventured.
Adolf Hitler
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