intentional provocateurs sent to infiltrate the party.
However, I am not responsible for them, but rather those high officials who sent them. It is certainly true, Mr. Reich Chancellor, that there have occasionally been individual leaders in my party whose views were not consistent with my viewpoint that we should follow a legal approach. These leaders had closer relations to government offices than I, the official party leader.
Mr. Reich Chancellor, if you think it important to deal with these peculiar matters publicly, I will be happy to provide the public with material that will help them understand how difficult it is to accept the leadership of a large party when individual “members” receive such seductive offers.
Mr. Reich Chancellor, I have always ruthlessly thrown such people out of the party — much to the regret of certain outside interests.
Defense — Not Civil War!
It is further untrue that my subordinates preach “senseless civil war.” Instead, we deeply regret this battle. However, it is also true that we are not willing stand defenseless and without protection while we are slaughtered by the murderous Red beast. It is furthermore true that we are not going to let Germany suffer Russia’s fate.It is true that we are not going to be kept from making political propaganda because of the terror of treacherous communist political murderers. Finally, it is true that our purely defensive activities have cost us huge sacrifices of blood.
It is true, Mr. Reich Chancellor, that for many months my unarmed and practically defenseless party comrades have been attacked by treacherous murderers, stabbed, injured, and killed. The government — your government, Mr. Reich Chancellor Brüning — has done nothing to stop these outrages.
When treacherous communist murderers kill two police officers, their bloody deeds cannot easily be concealed from the public. But when these murderers kill more than
fifty National Socialists and injure four thousand more,
the world is silent. Certain newspapers have nothing to write about that, nor do the leaders of the governing parties have anything to say!
Consistent with my assurances of using legal methods, I have had to order my followers, with a heavy heart, to give up weapons absolutely. However, Mr. Reich Chancellor, you cannot demand of me that I order them to let themselves be slaughtered without defending themselves, nor would I give that order.
It would perhaps be better to make the world aware of those facts rather than raise doubts about the commitment to legality of a movement that has proven a thousand times its intention to obey the laws.
The Stupidity of the System’s Foreign Policy
It is furthermore untrue, Mr. Reich Chancellor, that any of our responsible party leaders has called for “a stupid foreign policy” that is even one thousandth as bad as the stupid foreign policy of the last twelve years, which today is a historically demonstrable fact. Signing the Young Plan alone, which allows France to set reparations payments at whatever level it wishes, was an act of political stupidity that cannot be outweighed by a thousand rhetorical gaffes, even if they actually were that. Thirteen years after the World War the German Reich is in a hopelessly desperate condition. Surely that is not because of of the wisdom of our political leadership, but rather because all imaginable political stupidities were put into practice by our foreign policy leaders.
Perhaps a kindly fate will some time in the future send the German people a statesman of real stature whose commission comes not from the 8-Uhr-Blatt or the Morgenpost, but from history itself, a man who will have the time and energy to weigh the foreign policy achievements of 1918-1932 from the standpoint of posterity. I fear that he will have difficulty finding even the smallest scrap of “wisdom” from our time to place on the scale. It will be impossible for him, however, to to find weights heavy enough to counterbalance the stupidities.
Let us consider current events:
Do you really believe, Mr. Reich Chancellor, that from the perspective of foreign policy it correct and intelligent to call a movement that from the national-political viewpoint is Germany’s only active proponent of a truly nationalist foreign policy an “illegal” and “destructive” band of criminals? Even though doing so does not slow the victory of this movement in the slightest?
It it really “statesmanlike wisdom” to attack a party whose victorious march has been unstoppable despite twelve years of oppression, telling the world through an evil-minded press that it is a danger for human society, for tranquility, peace, and order, thereby darkening the name of the inevitable New Germany in the eyes of the world?
There are more leaders and members of the National Socialist movement who fought in the great World War than in any other party. We came to know each other under terrible conditions. None of us wishes for a war. Nonetheless, we have remained men who think less of our lives than of freedom when that is necessary. If one screams that that is a “bloodthirsty spirit” that should be exterminated, one signs a death warrant for our nation!
The Incompetence of Democracy
I must admit, Mr. Reich Chancellor, that I find the second part of your remarks completely incomprehensible. “As a statesman,” you refuse to allow us to take power by legal means, since we would then violate legality? Mr. Reich Chancellor, the fundamental principle of democracy is that all power derives from the people. The constitution states how a viewpoint, an idea, and therefore an organization may secure legitimation from the people if it is to realize its intentions. In the end, the people decides what its constitution will be.
Mr. Reich Chancellor: If the German nation authorizes the National Socialist movement to introduce a constitution different than today’s, you can do nothing to stop it.
Statesmen are primarily responsible for what results from their ideas and deeds, not for what someone else later does. Looking into the future can influence one’s actions only if it serves that future.
The German nation does not exist for the sake of a constitution, but rather it requires a constitution that is appropriate for its existence, and when a constitution proves unsuitable, the nation does not die, but rather it changes the constitution!
The System in Conflict with its Own Constitution
I believe that we National Socialists have a better understanding of the spirit of the present constitution than the exponents of the present System. For a constitution is not merely letters on a page; there is also a constitution of the spirit. Do you believe, Mr. Reich Chancellor, that it corresponds to the principles of democracy and thereby the deepest meaning of the Weimar Constitution when a government remains a government although it knows that the source of its power, the people, has long since ceased to support it? Do you believe, Mr. Reich Chancellor, that the writers of the Weimar Constitution confused the democratic opinions and beliefs of the nation as the ultimate basis of authority with the fears of parliamentary parties who together form a cabinet?
Democracy is unsuitable for Germany because it denies its own essence. England provides us with an excellent example. When the former MacDonald government concluded that there had been a major shift in the opinions of the British people, it dissolved parliament and appealed to the British people. That gave clear expression to the whole world of the drive for national preservation. That was not only fair, it was logical within the framework of democracy.
But what happened with us? For months, each new election has demonstrated the huge shift within our people. A look at the growth of our party, Mr. Reich Chancellor, which is available to you at any time, proves this tendency. But what has happened with us? The pettiest war against the National Socialist movement began, hoping that through laws and chicaneries in the spirit of Metternich, half outrageous and half ludicrous, the System could be defended against democracy. Yes, against democracy and against the constitution, Mr. Reich Chancellor! How else, for example, could one understand a situation in which a state court rules the election law of a provincial parliament as unconstitutional, yet the provincial parliament itself does not dare to subject itself to the judgment of the people because of nervous parties intent on self preservation. Those parties include the Bavarian People’s Party and the Social Democrats — both of which support you. You will not find a single expert in constitutional law with any real democratic convictions who will not find this action by the Bavarian Parliament to be unconstitutional. From my point of view, there is more than enough reason to be concerned in Germany today about unconstitutional acts. If you turn your valued attention to this closest danger rather than being diverted by political astigmatism, you should be worried about your illegal takeover of power, not by supposed illegal activities by my movement. Mr. Reich Chancellor! We National Socialists respect the constitution as we fight for political power, and hope that it will be possible for us to give the German people a new and healthier constitution. I promise you even now, however, that we will be more loyal to the present constitution than the current Weimar System is!
I cannot accept your doubts about the present and future legality of my party, Mr. Reich Chancellor, simply because you are a “statesman.” Mr. Reich Chancellor, you today are a statesman because of your office, but certainly not because you have the majority required by your constitution. I am a man of the people, and will leave it to the future and to the German people as to whether they wish to give me the often misused title of statesman.
Mr. Reich Chancellor, your doubts about the legality of my party are no justification for the necessity of the current government, nor are your fears about the supposed unreality of our program reasonable.
You said in your speech:
“No one knows more than I the hard fate our people are suffering today. Broad circles of our people have sought refuge from the difficulties in wishful thinking.
Wishful thinking, however, is not a political program. Rescuing Germany will only be possible when the government’s policies are not based on illusions, but rather when love of the people and fatherland is guided by the available means.
If the German people gives into the temptation of dealing with the troubles of the present by holding to unclear desires and by setting unreachable goals, Germany will collapse. Anyone who in desperation succumbs to such goals will have a terrible awakening. A government conscious of its responsibility for the people and fatherland may not give in to such currents. It may not and will not hold back from facing the threatening collapse of the people’s strength with firm energy. It tolerates no other power than authorized by the constitution. The Reich President and the Reich government along control state power. They will use them with pitiless strength if necessary, including