Chancellor Adolf Hitler

to the Reich Commissioners in the Reich Chancery, Berlin, on 6 July 1933

The political parties have now been finally abolished; this is a historical event of which the importance and far-reaching effect have in many cases not yet been realized at all. We must now get rid of the last remains of democracy, especially of the methods of voting and of the decisions by the majority, such as still often occur in the communes, in economic organisations and in working committees, and lay stress upon the responsibility in all cases of the individual.

The achievement of external power must be followed by the internal education of the individual. We must therefore guard against making purely formal decisions from day to day and expecting them to lead to a final solution. Mankind are only too ready to make the external form fit their own mental conceptions.

Direction must not be changed until the right men have been found for the change. More revolutions have been successful at the outset than have, when once successful, been arrested and brought to a standstill at the right moment.

The revolution is not a permanent state of affairs, and it must not be allowed to develop into such a state. The stream of revolution released must be guided into the safe channel of evolution. The most important point in this connection is the education of the individual. The present state of affairs must be improved, and the men who incorporate it must be educated up to the National Socialist view of the state. We must therefore not dismiss a business-man if he is a good business-man even if he is not yet a National Socialist; and especially not if the National Socialist who is to take his place knows nothing about the business.

In business, ability must be the only authoritative standard.

The task of National Socialism is to secure the development of our nation. We must not look round to see if there is still something a revolutionize, but it is our task to secure position after position, in order to hold them and gradually find the very best men for them. In doing so we must spread our action over many years and reckon with long periods. We cannot provide bread for a single workman by mere theoretical coordination. History will not judge us according as to whether we have removed and imprisoned the largest number of economists but according as to whether we have succeeded in providing work.

We have now absolutely the power to enforce our will everywhere.

But we must be able to replace the men we remove by better men. The business man must be judged in the first place according to his business abilities, and we must obviously keep the business apparatus in order. We will not get rid of unemployment by means of business commissions, organizations, constructions and theories. It is not a question at the present of programmes and ideas, but of the daily bread for five million men. Business is a living organism which cannot be transformed at a single blow. Business develops in accordance with primitive laws that are anchored in human nature. The spiritual bacillus carriers that are now attempting to find a way into business are a danger to the state and the nation. We must not reject practical experience because it is contrary to a certain idea. When we present ourselves to our nation with reforms, we must also prove that we understand things and are able to master them.

Our task is work, work and nothing but work!

We will derive the most powerful authority from success in the provision of work. Our programme has not been drawn up for the sake of fine gestures, but in order to maintain the life of the German nation. The ideas of the programme oblige us not to act like fools and upset everything but to realize our trains of thought wisely and carefully. In the long run, our political power will be all the more secure, the more we succeed in underpinning it economically. The Reich Commissioners must therefore see to it and are responsible that no organizations or party offices assume the functions of government, dismiss individuals and make appointments to offices, to do which the government of the Reich alone and thus, with regard to business, the Reich Minister of Economics, is competent. The Party has now become the State. All power is invested in the Reich Government. We must prevent the centre of gravity of German life being once more shifted to different quarters or even organizations. There is no longer any authority emanating from any one part of the Reich but only that based on the idea of the German nation as a whole.