The National Socialist German Workers' Party at a great rally on February 25th, 1920, in the Hofbräuhaus-Festsaal in Munich announced their program to the world.
In section 2 of the Constitution of our Party this program is declared to be inalterable.
The program of the German Workers' Party is limited as to period. The leaders have no intention, once the aims announced in it have been achieved, of setting up fresh ones, merely in order to increase the discontent of the masses artificially, and so ensure the continued existence of the Party.
1. We demand the union of all Germans to form a Great Germany on the basis of the right of the self-determination enjoyed by nations.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations, and abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the nourishment of our people and for settling our superfluous population.
4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the State. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation: No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation.
5. Anyone who is not a citizen of the State may live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to foreign laws.
6. The right of voting on the State's government and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizen of the State alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, whether in the Reich, in the country, or in the smaller localities, shall be granted to citizens of the State alone.
We oppose the corrupting custom of Parliament of filling posts merely with a view to Party considerations, and without reference to character or capability.
7. We demand that the State shall make it its first duty to promote the industry and livelihood of citizens of the State. If it not possible to nourish the entire population of the State, foreign nationals (non-citizens of the State) must be excluded from the Reich.
8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who entered Germany subsequent to August 2nd, 1914, shall be required forthwith to depart from the Reich.
9. All citizens of the State shall be equal as regards rights and duties.
10. It must be the first duty of each citizen of the State to work with his mind or with his body. The activities of the individual may not clash with the interests of the whole, but must proceed within the frame of the community and be for the general good.
We demand therefore:
11. Abolition of incomes unearned by work.
Abolition of the Thralldom of interest
12. In view of the enormous sacrifice of life and property demanded of a nation by every war, personal enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We demand therefore ruthless confiscation of all war gains.
13. We demand nationalization of all businesses which have been up to the present formed into companies (trusts).
14. We demand that the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.
15. We demand extensive development of provision for old age.
16. We demand creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, immediate communalization of wholesale business premises, and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders, and that extreme consideration shall be shown to all small purveyors to the State, district authorities and smaller localities.
17. We demand land reform suitable to our national requirements, passing of a law for confiscation without compensation of land for communal purposes; abolition of interest on land loans, and prevention of all speculation in land.
We demand ruthless prosecution of those whose activities are injurious to the common interest. Sordid criminals against the nation, usurers, profiteers, etc. must be punished with death, whatever their creed or race.
19. We demand that the Roman law, which serves the materialistic world order, shall be replaced by a legal system for all Germany.
20. With the aim of opening to every capable and industrious German the possibility of higher education and of thus obtaining advancement, the State must consider a thorough reconstruction of our national system of education. The curriculum of all educational establishments must be brought into line with the requirements of practical life. Comprehension of the State idea (State sociology) must be the school objective, beginning with the first dawn of intelligence in the pupil. We demand development of the gifted children of poor parents, whatever their class or occupation, at the expense of the State.
21. The State must see to raising the standard of health in the nation by protecting mothers and infants, prohibiting child labor, increasing bodily efficiency by obligatory gymnastics and sports laid down by law, and by extensive support of clubs engaged in the bodily development of the young.
22. We demand abolition of a paid army and formation of a national army.
23. We demand legal warfare against conscious political lying and its dissemination in the Press. In order to facilitate creation of a German national Press we demand:
(a) That all editors of newspapers and their assistants, employing the German language, must be members of the nation;
(b) That special permission from the State shall be necessary before nonGerman newspapers may appear. These are not necessarily printed in the German language;
(c) That non-Germans shall be prohibited by law from participation financially in or influencing German newspapers, and that the penalty for contravention of the law shall be suppression of any such newspaper, and immediate deportation of the non-German concerned in it.
It must be forbidden to publish papers which do not conduce to the national welfare. We demand legal prosecution of all tendencies in art and literature of a kind likely to disintegrate our life as a nation, and the suppression of institutions which militate against the requirements abovementioned.
24. We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the State, so far as they are not a danger to it and do not militate against the moral feelings of the German race.
The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within us and without us, and is convinced that our nation can only achieve permanent health from within on the principle:
The Common Interest before Self.
25. That all the foregoing may be realized, we demand the creation of a strong central power of the State. Unquestioned authority of the politically centralized Parliament over the entire Reich and its organization; and formation of Chambers for classes and occupations for the purpose of carrying out the general laws promulgated by the Reich in the various States of the confederation.
The leaders of the Party swear to go straight forward—if necessary to sacrifice their lives—in securing fulfillment of the foregoing Points.
Munich, February 24th, 1920.
After full discussion at the General Meeting of members on May 22nd, 1920, it was resolved that "this program is unalterable." This does not imply that every word must stand unchanged, nor that anything done to deepen or develop the program is to be prohibited, but it implies with absolute decision and unswerving clarity that the principles and leading ideas contained in it may not be tampered with.
There can be no bending or twisting from considerations of expediency, no hidden interference with very important—and for the present-day arrangements in politics, society and economics, very unwelcome points in the program, no deviation of sentiment.
Adolf Hitler prints its two main points in leaded type:
The common interest before self— the spirit of the program.
Abolition of the Thralldom of Interest— the core of National Socialism.
Once these two points are achieved, it means a victory of the approaching universalist ordering of society in the "true State" over the present-day separation of State, nation and economics under the corrupting influence of the individualist theory of society as now constructed. The sham State of today, oppressing the working classes and protecting the pirated gains of bankers and Stock Exchange speculators, is the arena for reckless private enrichment and for the lowest political profiteering; it gives no thought to its people, and provides no high moral bond of union. The power of money, most ruthless of all powers, holds absolute control, and exercises corrupting, destroying influence on State, nation, society, morals, drama, literature, and on all matters of morality, less easy to estimate.
There must of course be no wavering, no drawing back in this giant struggle; it is either victory or defeat.
The somewhat varied view of the same basic principle, which I gave in my book, Der deutsche Staat auf nationaler und sozialer Grundlage, (F. Eher Nachf.) is not an alteration, but a series of points which belong together, collected and arranged according to various political economic, financial, cultural, aspects of life.
If those views of mine could be looked on as varying from or opposed to the 25 Points, Hitler would never have described my book in his brief preface as the "catechism of our movement." Anyone is free to choose either of the views according to his taste, but if he compares them together he will not find them mutually contradictory.
In order to insure for the future absolute agreement in our demands as expressed in our program, and to guard the movement against the shocks likely to injure any movement—the "suggestions for improvement" offered by professional and amateur critics, grumblers and know-it-alls, Adolf Hitler, at a conference of all district organizers held at Bamberg on February 14th, 1926, formally appointed Gottfried Feder to be the final judge of all questions connected with the program.