A key element in the
persona Hitler tried desperately to project was that of someone above classes
and class warfare. He was supposedly the governmental agent partial
to neither capitalists nor workers. He was the fountain of justice
to which workers and owners alike could appeal for impartiality.
In Essen on 27 March 1936 he stated:
I
serve no entrepreneur and no worker and no class; I belong exclusively
to the German people.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 112
In a speech in Siemensstadt
on 10 November 1933:
You
can look upon me as the man who does not belong to any class, who belongs
to no rank, who stands above all that. I have nothing but the ties
which bind me to the German people. Here for me every German is on
a complete equality. What interests have I in the intellectuals,
in the bourgeoisie, in the proletariat? I am interested only in the
German people. To the people alone I belong and for the people I
spend my energies.
MY NEW ORDER
by Adolph Hitler, Edited by de Sales, 1941, page 226
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 106
At the Congress of
the German Labor Front in Berlin on 10 May 1933 Hitler stated:
The
state must be led by a real authority and one who is not dependent on any
one class.
THE HITLER DECREES,
by James Pollock and Harlow Heneman, 1934, Page 74
At the Congress of
the German Labor Front in Berlin on 10 May 1933:
All
will have to realize that the new leaders do not hold their authority at
the pleasure of any one class, but that it is theirs by virtue of a law
and that law is: the necessity of preserving the nation as such.
THE HITLER DECREES,
by James Pollock and Harlow Heneman, 1934, Page 75
The Fuhrer claimed
this august, objective status arose from his upbringing. In Berlin
on 10 May 1933 he stated:
Because
I myself worked for years in the building trade and was forced to earn
my own living. And because I once again stood in this broad mass
for years as an ordinary soldier, and because life then raised me into
the other classes of our Volk so that I also know these better than countless
others who are born into these classes. Thus perhaps Fate chose me
above all others to be--I may apply this turn to myself--the honest broker,
a broker honest to all sides. I have no personal interest; I am neither
dependent upon the State nor upon a public office; neither am I dependent
upon the economy or industry or any kind of union. I am an independent
man, and I have set myself no other goal than to serve the German Volk
to the best of my power and ability--and above all to serve the millions
of people who have perhaps been hit hardest thanks to their simple trust,
their ignorance, and the baseness of their former leaders. I have
always held to the opinion that there is nothing finer than to be an advocate
of those who are not capable of defending themselves.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 320
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 103
And he sought to strengthen
this illusion by repeatedly equating all classes and decrying all attempts
to allege one class was superior to another:
In their earliest childhood, in kindergarten, in elementary school, in
the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls, all classes must meet.
No distinction should be allowed to be made between the rich and the poor,
between high and low, between city and country, between employer and employee;
rather, there is only the distinction between respectable and disreputable,
between companionable and uncompanionable, between aboveboard and furtive,
between truth and lies, between courage and cowardice, and between health
and sickness.
HITLER--MEMOIRS OF
A CONFIDANT, by Otto Wegener, 1985, page 214
In his speech to the
Labor Front in Berlin on 10 May 1933:
People
talk so much about the absolutism of past times... and the democratic times
of our parliamentary era. From the point of view of the nation those
past times were more objective. Then people were able to perceive
the interests of the nation in a more objective manner, whereas in later
times the interests of individual classes came exclusively to the fore.
There can be no better proof of this than the class warfare whose slogan
is: 'The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie must make way for the dictatorship
of the proletariat.' It is simply a question of a change from the
dictatorship of one class to that of another, while we wish for the dictatorship
of the nation, that is, the dictatorship of the entire community.
We do not regard any one class as being of paramount importance; such distinctions
disappear during the course of centuries, they come and go. What
remains is the substance, a substance of flesh and blood, our nation.
That is what is permanent, and to that alone should we feel ourselves responsible.
Only then can we prepare the way for the overcoming of our dire economic
distress, only then shall we be able to restore to the millions of our
people the conviction that the State does not represent the interests of
a single group or class, and that the Government is there to manage the
concerns of the entire community. If, on one side or the other, there
are people who believe that they cannot reconcile themselves to this state
of affairs, then the new authority will have to be brought to bear against
the one side or the other. All will have to realize that the new
leaders cannot hold their authority at the pleasure of any one class, but
that it is theirs by virtue of a law, and that law is: the necessity of
preserving the nation as such.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes,1942, VOLUME 1, Page 433
THE HITLER DECREES,
by James Pollock and Harlow Heneman, 1934, Page 75
In Karlsruhe on 12
March 1936:
I
know no regime of the bourgeoisie, no regime of the workers, no regime
of the city dwellers, no regime of trade or commerce. Nor do I know
a regime of industry; I know only a regime of the German Volk!
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 787
He claimed to be above
the class struggle and neutral with respect capital and labor but completely
rejected two words--bourgeois and proletariat--which only the bourgeoisie
scorned as well.
In a speech on Race and
Economics delivered on 24 April 1923 Hitler stated:
I reject the word "Proletariat." The Jew who coined the word meant
by "Proletariat,"...
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 60
And in his very revealing
speech to the Industry Club in Dusseldorf on 27 January 1932 he said:
If one thinks that one can preserve for all time the conceptions of "bourgeois"
and "proletarian," then one will either preserve the weakness of Germany--which
means our downfall--or one ushers in the victory of Bolshevism. If
one refuses to surrender those conceptions, then in my judgment a resurrection
of the German nation is no longer possible.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 825
Hitler repeatedly placed
tremendous importance upon eliminating class struggle and class warfare.
In his speech on May
Day 1938 he said:
The
watchword must not be merely "Never again war," but rather "Never again
civil war! Never again class conflict! Never again internal
strife and discord."
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 973
In a conversation with
Hans Johst on 27 January 1934:
In
upholding this principle, I'm turning every class conflict around and at
the same time declaring war on every concept of caste and consciousness
of class.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 415
In a 17 June 1934 speech
at the Party Congress of Thuringia in Gera:
Regard
our National Socialist Movement as a great safeguard...against the spirit
of class conflict, class hatred, and class division.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 464
Addressing the workers
of the Labor Service at the Nuremberg Parteitag on 8 September 1937:
The
class-struggle must be rooted out from the German people; the way must
be cleared so that men may realize that it is but reasonable that mind
and fist, brow and hand, intelligence and strength should once for all
belong together, since eternally they complete and must complete each other.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 945
In Nuremberg on 8 September
1934:
...
We want to be a people, and you, our youth, are to become this people.
We want someday to see no more of class distinctions, and you already have
to keep class prejudice from growing up among you....
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 124
In a 10 September 1934
speech in Nuremberg:
In
their (the youth) hearts there will no longer be room for the prejudices,
class conceit, and arrogance of individual classes of past generations.
For they live together, march together, sing the same songs of the movement
and of the fatherland, and believe in a Germany which belongs to all of
them.
ADOLPH HITLER QUOTATIONS,
by Karl Hammer,1990, Page 40
In his New Year's Proclamation
on 1 January 1933:
Everything
which this Movement calls its own...all of this can have only the single
purpose of fighting for this new Germany, in which there will ultimately
be no bourgeoisie and no more proletarians, but only German Volksgenossen.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 210
In Berlin on 1 May
1933:
You
are strong when you are united, when you banish from your heart the spirit
of class conflict and your discord. You can place an enormous power
behind your work if you unite that work with your entire Volkstum's will
to live!
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 313
In his speech at the
First Congress of German Workers on 10 May 1933:
Nothing
can prove that more clearly than the mere conception of a class-war--the
slogan that the rule of the bourgeoisie must be replaced by the rule of
the proletariat. That means that the whole question becomes one of
a change in a class-dictatorship, while our aim is the dictatorship of
the people, i.e. the dictatorship of the whole people, the community....
Only so will it be possible for millions of men to recover a living conviction
that the State does not represent the interests of a group or a class,
that the Government is not the advocate of a group or a class, but that
it is the advocate of the people as such.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 855
In Berlin on 30 January
1939:
The
Jewish watchword "Workers of the world unite!" will be conquered by a higher
realization, namely, "Workers of all classes and of all nations, recognize
your common enemy!"
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 82
And finally, in the
Berlin Sportpalast on 10 February 1933:
The
fourth item on our program dictates that we rebuild our Volk not according
to theories hatched by some alien brain, but according to the eternal laws
valid for all time. Not according to theories of class, not according
to concepts of class.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 247
But although he placed
tremendous importance upon eliminating class struggle, Hitler was careful
to conceal the price that would be paid by those at the bottom of the economic
ladder for accepting, either willingly or unwillingly, whatever was doled
out by his adherents.
Hitler not only opposed
any displays of class struggle but claimed to have abolished class warfare
in Germany, and, judging by the repression of millions that occurred under
his tyrannical regime, the lack of physical manifestations thereof is readily
understandable. After all, class conflict could hardly occur when
so many constituents on one side of the equation were filling prisons,
ships, and graves. The emergence of class peace was due to suppression
and brutality not reconciliation of opposing classes. In fact, Hitler
concedes as much.
In Berlin on 8 October 1935
he stated:
First
of all: in terms of power, class struggle in Germany today has been abolished;
in other words, no one is left who would be in a position to engage in
it. There may be an isolated individual here or there who still entertains
this idea in his thoughts and hopes for better times--which is to say worse
times--in which he might once again be in a position to mobilize these
instincts.
Let no one be deceived! We have the power to prevent that, and we
are resolved to prevent it under all circumstances, and to do so on both
sides. Secondly: we are presently engaged in arriving at a material
solution to the differences underlying this class struggle. We are
fortunate to be able to enforce this material solution because we ourselves
are above such differences. I might well say that I view myself as
the most independent of men in this context; obligated to no one, subordinate
to no one, indebted no one--instead answerable only to my own conscience.
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 716
In his speech at the
Harvest Festival on the Buckeberg on 3 October 1937:
The
rise of Germany is no miracle. The fundamental principles of this
development can be summed up in four points:
1. We have put an end to the struggle of individuals and classes
one against the other: over and above parties, Confessions [Protestantism
and Catholicism], classes we have set the German People,...
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 434
In Munich on 8 November
1942:
The
conspiracy of Jews and capitalists and Bolsheviks of that time, that conspiracy
we were out to eliminate --and in the end we have eliminated it.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 340
In an appeal issued
to all party organizations on 28 March 1933:
After
14 years of inner conflict, the German Volk--politically overcoming its
ranks, classes, professions, and confessional divisions--has effected an
Erhebung [overthrow] which put a lightning end to the Marxist-Jewish nightmare.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 298
According to reasoning
only Nazis can fathom, Hitler declared in a Munich speech on 12 April 1922
that there can be no class warfare in a one-race society:
And
then we said to ourselves: there are no such things as classes: they cannot
be. Class means caste and caste means race. If there are castes
in India, well and good; there it is possible, for there there were formerly
Aryans and dark aborigines. So it was in Egypt and in Rome.
But with us in Germany where everyone who is a German at all has the same
blood, has the same eyes, and speaks the same language, here there can
be no class, here there can be only a single people and beyond that nothing
else. Certainly we recognize, just as anyone must recognize, that
there are different "occupations" and "professions" [Stande]--there is
the Stand of the watch makers, the Stand of the common labors, the Stand
of the painters or technicians, the Stand of the engineers, officials,
etc. Stande there can be. But in the struggles which these
Stande have amongst themselves for the equalization of their economic conditions,
the conflict and the division must never be so great as to sunder the ties
of race.
MY NEW ORDER
by Adolph Hitler, Edited by de Sales, 1941, page 22
Beliefs of this nature
are about as valid as the recent contention by many blacks that placing
one of their race on the United States Supreme Court would be to their
advantage. To assert they learned the error of their ways is an understatement.
Just because someone is of your race is no indication he or she is of your
ideological persuasion. And, bizarre as it may seem, Hitler actually
claimed others envied his success in this regard.
On 15 July 1932 he stated:
Thirteen
years ago we National Socialists were mocked and derided--today our opponents'
laughter has turned to tears [of that there is no doubt]!
A faithful community of people has arisen which will gradually overcome
the prejudices of class madness and the arrogance of rank. A faithful
community of people which is resolved to take up the fight for the preservation
of our race, not because it is made up of Bavarians or Prussians or men
from Wurttemberg or Saxony; not because they are Catholics or Protestants,
workers or civil servants, bourgeois or salaried workers, etc., but because
all of them are Germans.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 145
Of course he neglects
to mention that it’s rather easy to eliminate a struggle between opposing
groups when the activists on one side are decimated. With the degree
of overlap in ideologies of the Hitlerites and the Bushites, it is certainly
prudent to be on the lookout for any early warning signals in the United
States.
And lastly, how the
Fuhrer reconciles all of his professions of fidelity to class neutrality
with the following comments is anyone’s guess:
...This
sharing of the workers in possession and control is simply Marxism: I would
give the right to exercise such an influence only to the State controlled
by a higher class.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 112
But
the Marxist gentry are mistaken if they think it is the workers who will
take the place of the Junkers as the new, leading social power.
THE VOICE OF DESTRUCTION,
by Hermann Rauschnigg, 1940, page 41