Source: The New Germany desires Work and Peace, pp. 15-30.
Men and Women of the German Reichstag,
The National Socialist Party and the German National People's Party, with the concurrence of the Government of the Reich, have proposed a motion for the adoption of a law for the removal of the distress of the people and the Reich. The reasons for this extraordinary procedure are as follows:—
In November 1918 Marxist organizations seized the executive power by means of a revolution. The monarchs were dethroned, the authorities of the Reich and of the States removed from office, and thereby a breach of the constitution was committed. The success of the revolution in a material sense protected the guilty parties from the hands of the law. They sought to justify it morally by asserting that Germany or its Government bore the Guilt for the Outbreak of the War.
This assertion was deliberately and actually untrue. In consequence, however, these untrue accusations in the interest of our former enemies led to the severest oppression of the entire German nation and to the breach of the assurances given to us in Wilson's fourteen points, and so for Germany, that is to say the working classes of the German people, to a time of infinite misfortune.
All the promises made by the men of November 1918 proved to be, if not intentionally misleading from the start, no less damnable illusions. The "achievements of the revolution", taken as a whole, were only pleasing to the smallest fraction of our people. But for the overwhelming majority, at least in so far as they had to earn their daily bread by honest work, they were absolutely tragic. It is, of course, comprehensible, that the instinct of self-preservation of the parties and men responsible for this state of affairs provided them with a thousand palliatives and excuses. The sober comparison of the average results of the last fourteen years with the promises proclaimed aloud at the time is disastrous for the responsible instigators of this crime unparalleled in German history.
In the course of the last fourteen years our nation has suffered from a decline in all spheres of life on such a scale that anything worse can hardly be imagined. The question of what could have been worse in this period is unanswerable in view of the basic values of our German nation and the formerly existing political and economic heritage.
The German nation itself, in spite of the difficulty it finds in changing its political feelings and opinions, has more and more turned its back on the views, parties and associations responsible in its eyes for these circumstances.
The number of Germans who were wholehearted supporters of the Weimar Constitution was, in spite of the power of suggestion and the ruthless exploitation of govermental authority, actually no more than a fraction of the whole nation.
It was, further, a characteristic feature of these fourteen years that—apart from natural fluctuations—the line of development led constantly downwards. The recognition of this depressing fact was one of the causes of the general despair. It furthered the realization of the necessity of a fundamental abandonment of the ideas, organizations and men that the nation gradually began rightly to recognize as the underlying causes of our decline.
The National Socialist movement was consequently able, in spite of the worst forms of oppression, to attract a constantly increasing number of Germans who were ready to devote themselves heart and soul to the struggle. In combination with the other national associations, it has now, in the course of a few weeks, removed the powers that had dominated the country since November 1918 and, by a revolution, placed public authority in the hands of the National Government. On the 5th of March the German people gave its approval to this act.
The Programme of Reconstruction
of the nation and the Reich arises from the intensity of the needs of our political, moral and economic life. Fully convinced, as they are, that this collapse is due to internal infirmities in our national body corporate, it is the aim of the Government of the National Revolution to remove from our national life those defects which would prevent any real recovery in future too. The splitting up of the nation into groups with irreconcilable views, systematically brought about by the false doctrines of Marxism, means the destruction of the basis of a possible communal life.
The disintegration attacks all the foundations of social order. The completely irreconcilable views of different individuals with regard to the terms state, society, religion, morals, family and economy give rise to differences that lead to internecine war.
Starting from the liberalism of the last century, this development is bound by natural laws to end in communistic chaos.
The mobilization of the most primitive instincts leads to a connection between the views with regard to a political idea and the doings of real criminals. Starting with plunderings, incendiarism, train-wrecking, political outrages and so on, everything receives its moral sanction from the principles of Communism. The method of individual terrorization of the masses alone has cost the National Socialist movement over 350 dead and tens of thousands of wounded in the course of a few years.
The setting on fire of the Reichstag, as an unsuccessful attempt forming part of a well organized plan, is only a sample of what Europe had to expect from the victory of this infernal doctrine. When a certain section of the press, especially abroad, now attempts, in accordance with political untruth adopted as a principle by Communism, to identify the national renaissance in Germany with this outrage, this can only strengthen my determination to leave nothing undone in order to exact expiation for this crime by the public execution of the guilty incendiary and his accomplices.
The whole extent of the intended action of this organization has not been sufficiently realized either by the German nation or by the rest of the world. It was only by taking immediate action that the Government prevented a development whose catastrophic results would have shaken the whole of Europe. Many of those both in and outside Germany who now associate themselves with the interests of communism out of hatred for the national renaissance would themselves have been the victims of such a development.
It will be the supreme task of the National Government to utterly eliminate and remove this symptom in our country, not only in Germany^ interest but also in that of the rest of Europe.
They will constantly keep in view the fact that it is not a question of the negative problem which these organizations constitute, but of carrying out the positive task of gaining the German workman for the national state. It is only the creation of a real national community, rising above the interests and differences of rank and class, that can permanently remove the source of nourishment of these aberrations of the human mind. The establishment of such a solidarity of views in the German body corporate is all the more important, for it is only thereby that the possibility is provided of maintaining friendly relations with foreign powers, without regard to the tendencies or general principles by which they are dominated, for the elimination of communism in Germany is a purely domestic German affair. The rest of the world may well have just as great an interest in it, for the outbreak of communistic chaos in the densely populated German Reich would lead to political and economic consequences of inconceivable extent, especially in the rest of Western Europe. The internal decay of our national life led inevitably to a more and more serious weakening of the authority of the supreme government. The decrease in the respect felt for the Government of the Reich which was the inevitable consequence of such insecure internal conditions led, in the case of various parties in the different federal States, to conceptions that are incompatible with the unity of the Reich. All regard for the traditions of the federal States cannot brush aside the recognition of the bitter fact that the excessive disintegration of state life in the past was not only not helpful but really injurious to the position held by our nation in the world.
It is not the task of a supreme government subsequently to surrender to the theoretical principle of an unrestrained system of standardization what has grown up organically. But it is its duty to establish beyond any doubt this spiritual and generally desired unity of the leadership of the nation, and thus of the idea of the Reich as such.
The welfare of our communes and federal States has need of state protection just as much as the existence of every individual German. Therefore the Government of the Reich do not intend to abolish the local governments of the federal States by an enabling act. But, on the other hand, they will adopt those measures that will guarantee from now on and for ever a uniformity of political intentions in the Reich and the States. The greater the spiritual and generally desired unanimity, the less can it be in the interest of the Reich in the future to do violence to the cultural and economic life in the individual States. The recently prevailing state of a mutual disparagement of the governments of the federal States and the Reich, with the aid of the modern means offered by popular propaganda, is absolutely impossible. Under no circumstances will I permit, and the Government of the Reich will take all measures to prevent, that in future ministers of German governments ever again accuse or disparage each other in the eyes of the world at public mass meetings and even on the wireless.
It also leads to a complete discrediting of the legislative body in the eyes of the people, when, even if it be assumed that times are normal, the people is forced to go to the polls, either in the Reich or in the various States, almost twenty times in the course of four years. The Government of the Reich will find a way of reaching the goal that the expression of the people's will when once given shall lead, for the Reich and the States, to uniform consequences.
A still more comprehensive
Reform of the Reich
can only result from active development. Its aim must be the construction of a constitution combining the peopled will with the authority of real leadership. The legal sanction to such a constitutional reform will be granted by the nation itself.
The Government of the National Revolution regard it in principle as their duty, in accordance with the vote of confidence given them by the nation, to prevent the exercise of influence on the structure of the life of the nation by those elements who knowingly and intentionally deny this life. Theoretical equality in the eyes of the law cannot be extended to the toleration on an equal basis of those who scorn the laws on principle, or indeed to surrendering the nation's freedom to them on the basis of democratic doctrines. But the Government will accord equality in the eyes of the law to all those who take their stand, in face of this danger, on the line adopted by our nation and behind the national interests, and who do not deny their support to the Government.
Our immediate task is now to call to account the spiritual leaders of these destructive tendencies, and to rescue their misguided victims.
We consider in particular the millions of German workmen who profess these ideas of madness and self-destruction merely as the result of the unpardonable weakness of earlier governments who did not prevent the dissemination of theories, the putting into practice of which they themselves were bound to punish. The Government will allow no-one to deter them from their resolve to solve this question. It is now the business of the Reichstag, for its part, to adopt a definite attitude to this question. This will not affect the fate of Communism and of the organizations affiliated with it. The National Government adopt their measures in this respect from no other point of view but that of protecting the German people, and especially the millions of the working classes, from untold misery.
They therefore regard the question of a
Monarchical Restoration
as one which cannot be discussed at present, if for no other reason than the existence of this state of affairs. They would have to regard an attempt by the individual States to solve this problem on their own responsibility as an attack on the unity of the Reich, and act accordingly.
Simultaneously with this political purification of our public life, the Government of the Reich will undertake a thorough
Moral Purging of the Body Corporate of the Nation.
The entire educational system, the theatre, the cinema, literature, the press and the wireless—all these will be used as means to this end and valued accordingly. They must all serve for the maintenance of the eternal values present in the essence of our nationality. Art will always remain the expression and the reflection of the longings and the realities of an era. The neutral international attitude of aloofness is rapidly disappearing. Heroism is coming forward ardently and will in future shape and lead political destiny. It is the task of art to be the expression of this determining spirit of the age. Blood and race will once more become the source of artistic intuition. It is the task of the Government to take measures to secure that, especially at a time of limited political power, the inner life's value and will to live of the nation find all the greater cultural expression. This resolve obliges us to regard our great past with thankful admiration. A bridge must be constructed between this past and the future in all spheres of our historical and cultural life. Respect for the great men of the past must once more be impressed on the youth of Germany as a sacred heritage. The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, are creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound
Revival of Religious Life.
The advantages of a personal and political nature that might arise from compromising with atheistic organizations would not outweigh the consequences which would become apparent in the destruction of general moral basic values.
The National Government regard the two Christian confessions as the weightiest factors for the maintenance of our nationality. They will respect the agreements concluded between them and the federal States.
Their rights are not to be infringed. But the Government hope and expect that the work on the national and moral regeneration of our nation which they have made their task will, on the other hand, be treated with the same respect. They will adopt an attitude of objective justice towards all other confessions. But they cannot permit that the fact of belonging to a certain confession or a certain race should constitute a release from general legal obligations or even a license for the commission with impunity or the toleration of crimes. It will be the Government's care to maintain honest cooperation between Church and State; the struggle against materialistic views and for a real national community is just as much in the interest of the German nation as in that of the welfare of our Christian faith.
Our Legal Institutions
must serve above all for the maintenance of this national community. The irremovableness of the judges must ensure a sense of responsibility and the exercise of discretion in their judgements in the interests of society. Not the individual but the nation as a whole alone can be the centre of legislative solicitude. High treason and treachery to the nation will be ruthlessly eradicated in future. The foundations of the existence of justice cannot be other than the foundations of the existence of the nation. Let the judges therefore always pay regard to the gravity of the decisions taken by those who are responsible for forming the life of the nation under the hard pressure of reality.
Great are the tasks of the National Government in the
Sphere of Economic Life.
Here all action must be governed by one law: the people does not live for business and business does not exist for capital, but capital serves business and business serves the people. In principle the Government will not protect the economic interests of the German people by the circuitous method of an economic bureaucracy to be organized by the state, but by the utmost furtherance of private initiative and by the recognition of the rights of property.
A just balance must be established between productive intention on the one hand and productive work on the other. Administration must respect, by means of economy, the results of ability, diligence and work. The problem of our public finances is also to no small degree a problem of economical administration. The proposed
Reform of our Fiscal System
must lead to a simplification of assessment and thus to a reduction of the costs and burdens. In principle, the mill of taxation must be built beside the stream and not at the source. These measures must be accompanied by a reduction of burdens through simplification of the administration. This reform of the fiscal system to be carried out in the Reich and the federal States is, however, not a question which can be settled in a moment, but only during a period commensurate with the necessities of the situation.
The Government will systematically
avoid Currency Experiments.
We are faced above all by two economic tasks of the first magnitude. The salvation of the German farmer must be achieved at all costs.
The ruin of this class in our nation would lead to the gravest conceivable consequences. The restoration of the
Remunerative Capacity of Agriculture
may be hard on the consumer. But the fate that would await the entire German nation, if the German farmer were ruined, is not to be compared with these hardships. It is only in connection with the remunerative capacity of our agriculture which must be attained at all costs that the question of protection against distraint or relief from indebtedness can be solved. Should that not be achieved, then the ruin of our agriculturists would lead not only to the collapse of German business as a whole, but above all to the collapse of the German body corporate. To maintain our agriculture in a healthy state is the first condition for the prosperity and expansion of our industry, of German home trade and of German exports. But for the counterpoise of the German agricultural class, the communistic madness would already have overrun Germany, and thus finally ruined German business. What the whole of business, including the export trade, owes to the sound commonsense of the German agriculturists cannot be repaid by any sacrifice of a business nature. We must, therefore, devote our greatest solicitude in future to pursuing the back-to-the-land policy in Germany.
Furthermore, it is perfectly clear to the National Government that the final removal of the distress both in agricultural business and in that of the towns depends on the
absorption of the army of the unemployed in the process of production.
This constitutes the second of the great economic tasks. It can only be solved by a general appeasement, in applying sound natural economic principles and all measures necessary, even if, at the time, they cannot reckon with any degree of popularity. The providing of work and the compulsory labour service are, in this connection, only individual measures within the scope of the entire action proposed.
The Attitude of the National Government to the Middle Classes
is similar to that adopted by them to the German agriculturists. Their salvation can only be achieved within the scope of the general economic policy. The National Government are determined to solve this question thoroughly. They recognize it as their historical task to support and further the millions of German workers in the struggle for their right of existence. As Chancellor and National Socialist, I feel myself allied with them as the former companions of my youth. The increase of the consuming power of these masses will be an important means of furthering economic recovery. While maintaining our
Social Legislation,
the first step must be taken for its reform. Above all, however, all working power will be utilized in the service of the nation as a whole. The waste of millions of hours of human labour is an act of madness and a crime that must lead to the impoverishment of everyone. Whatever values may be produced by the utilization of our superfluous man-power, they will represent indispensable vital necessities for millions of people who are now prostrated by misery and distress. It must and will be possible for our national talent for organization to succeed in solving this problem.
We are aware that the geographical position of Germany with her lack of raw materials does not fully permit of
Economic Self-Sufficiency
for the Reich. It cannot be too often emphasized that nothing is further from the thoughts of the Government of the Reich than hostility to exporting. We are fully aware that we have need of the connection with the outside world, and that the marketing of German commodities in the world provides a livelihood for many millions of our fellow-countrymen.
We also know what are the conditions necessary for a sound exchange of services between the nations of the world. For Germany has been compelled for years to perform services without receiving an equivalent, with the result that the task of maintaining Germany as an active partner in the exchange of commodities is not so much one of commercial as of financial policy. So long as we are not accorded a reasonable settlement of our foreign debts corresponding to our economic capacity, we are unfortunately compelled, to maintain our foreign exchange control. The Government of the Reich is, for that reason, also compelled to maintain the restrictions on the efflux of capital across the frontiers of Germany. If the Government of the Reich are guided by these principles, we may certainly expect that increasing understanding abroad will facilitate the inclusion of the German Reich in the peaceful competition of the nations.
The Furtherance of Transport
until a sensible balance is reached between all transport interests will be initiated at the beginning of the coming month by a reform of the tax on motor vehicles. The maintenance of the German Railways Company and its return to the hands of the Reich as soon as possible is a task imposed upon us not only as an economic but also as a moral duty. The National Government will devote their energies to the development of aviation as a means of peaceful communication between the nations.
In all these spheres of activity the Government require the support not only of the general forces in our nation, which they are resolved to make use of to the greatest extent, but also of the devoted trust and work of the professional official classes. It is only in cases where the public finances are in dire need that intervention will take place, but even then absolute justice will be the supreme law governing our action.
The protection of the frontiers of the Reich and thereby of the lives of our people and the existence of our business is now in the hands of the Reichswehr, which, in accordance with the terms imposed upon us by the Treaty of Versailles, is to be regarded as the
only really disarmed army
in the world. In spite of its enforced smallness and entirely insufficient armament, the German people may regard their Reichswehr with proud satisfaction. This little instrument for our national self-defence has come into being under the most difficult conditions. The spirit imbuing it is that of our best military traditions. The German nation has thus fulfilled with painful conscientiousness the obligations imposed upon it by the Peace Treaty, indeed, even the replacement of ships for our fleet then sanctioned has, I may perhaps be allowed to say, unfortunately, only been carried out to a small extent.
For years Germany has been waiting in vain for the fulfilment of the promise of disarmament made to her by the others. It is the sincere desire of the National Government to he able to refrain from increasing our army and our weapons, in so far as the rest of the world is now also ready to fulfil its obligations in the matter of radical disarmament. For Germany desires nothing except
an equal right to live and equal freedom.
In any case the National Government will educate the German people in this spirit of a desire for freedom. The national honour, the honour of our army and the ideal of freedom must once more become sacred to the German people!
The German nation wishes to live in peace with the rest of the world.
But it is for this very reason that the Government of the Reich will employ every means to obtain the final removal of the division of the nations of the world into two categories. The keeping open of this wound leads to distrust on the one side and hatred on the other, and thus to a general feeling of insecurity. The National Government are ready to extend a hand in sincere understanding to every nation that is ready finally to make an end of the tragic past. The international economic distress can only disappear when the basis has been provided by stable political relations and when the nations have regained confidence in each other.
For the Overcoming of the Economic Catastrophe
three things are necessary:—
1. absolutely authoritative leadership in internal affairs, in order to create confidence in the stability of conditions;
2. the securing of peace by the great nations for a long time to come, with a view to restoring the confidence of the nations in each other;
3. the final victory of the principles of commonsense in the organization and conduct of business, and also a general release from reparations and impossible liabilities for debts and interest.
We are unfortunately faced by the fact that
the Geneva Conference,
in spite of lengthy negotiations, has so far reached no practical result. The decision regarding the securing of a real measure of disarmament has been constantly delayed by the raising of questions of technical detail and by the introduction of problems that have nothing to do with disarmament. This procedure is useless.
The illegal state of one-sided disarmament and the resulting national insecurity of Germany cannot continue any longer.
We recognize it as a sign of the feeling of responsibility and of the good will of the British Government that they have endeavoured, by means of their disarmament proposal, to cause the Conference finally to arrive at speedy decisions. The Government of the Reich will support every endeavour aimed at really carrying out generally disarmament and securing the fulfilment of Germany's long overdue claim for disarmament. For fourteen years we have been disarmed, and for fourteen months we have been waiting for the results of the Disarmament Conference. Even more far-reaching is the plan of the head of the Italian Government, which makes a broadminded and far-seeing attempt to secure a peaceful and consistent development of the whole of European policy. We attach the greatest weight to this plan, and we are ready to cooperate with absolute sincerity on the basis it provides, in order to unite the four Great Powers, England, France, Italy and Germany, in friendly cooperation in attacking with courage and determination the problems upon the solution of which the fate of Europe depends.
It is for this reason that we are particularly grateful for the appreciative heartiness with which the national renaissance of Germany has been greeted in Italy. We hope and trust that the similarity of our spiritual ideals will be the foundation of a constant strengthening of the friendly relations between the two countries.
In the same way, the Government of the Reich, who regard Christianity as the unshakeable foundation of the morals and moral code of the nation, attach the greatest value to friendly relations with the Holy See, and are endeavouring to develop them. We feel sympathy for our brother nation in Austria in its trouble and distress. In all their doings the Government of the Reich are conscious of the connection between the destiny of all German races. Their attitude towards the other foreign powers may be gathered from what has already been said. But even in cases where our mutual relations are encumbered with difficulties, we shall endeavour to arrive at a settlement But in any case the basis for an understanding can never be the distinction between victor and vanquished.
We are convinced that such a settlement is possible in our relations with France, if the governments will attack the problems affecting them on both sides in a really broadminded way. The Government of the Reich are ready to cultivate with the Soviet Union friendly relations profitable to both parties. It is above all the Government of the National Revolution who feel themselves in a position to adopt such a positive policy with regard to Soviet Russia. The fight against Communism in Germany is our internal affair in which we will never permit interference from outside. Our political relations with other Powers to whom we are bound by common interests will not be affected thereby. Our relations with the remaining countries also deserve to receive our most serious attention in future, especially our relations with the great oversea states with whom Germany has long been connected by ties of friendship and economic interests.
We have particularly at heart the fate of the Germans living beyond the frontiers of Germany who are allied with us in speech, culture and customs and have to make a hard fight to retain these values. The National Government are resolved to use all the means at their disposal to support the rights internationally guaranteed to the German minorities.
We welcome the plan for a
World Economic Conference
and approve of its meeting at an early date. The Government of the Reich are ready to take part in this Conference, in order to arrive at positive results at last.
The most important question is the
Problem of our private short-term and long-term External Indebtedness.
The complete change in the conditions in the commodity markets of the world renders an adjustment necessary. It is only by trustful cooperation that a real removal of the general anxiety can be brought agriculturist for the renewal, the resurgence and thus also for the change which will lead to the general restoration of healthy conditions in Germany.
Any government that overlooks the importance of such an essential foundation can only be a government of the moment. It may govern and administer for some years, but it will never achieve permanent or eternal successes, for these demand that the necessity of the maintenance of a people's room to live and thus of its own agricultural class must ever be borne in mind. The recognition of such a fundamental fact governs our actions in numerous spheres and the essential features of numerous minor decisions; it will serve us a guiding idea and always take precedence in the whole of our actions and decisions. If we adopt these principles, we shall never lose touch with the ground beneath our feet, but will practically always from the start do the right thing, even if from time to time men—and we are after all merely human beings—may on one occasion or another not have chosen or found exactly what is right. I therefore believe that this government which regards the maintenance of the German nationality as its mission,—which again is dependent, as regards its interests, upon the maintenance of the German agricultural class—,will never be mistaken in its decisions. It may make mistakes from time to time as to the means employed, but never in principle.
It is a question of courage not only to see things as they are. We shall have to break with many old traditions, and be compelled in many cases to adopt an attitude contrary to public opinion. We shall be able to do so all the more and all the sooner, the more a block of the nation stands solidly behind the Government. But one thing is impossible, namely, that a government should be able to fight in all directions at the same time. If a government fights for the maintenance of the German nationality, and thus also for the maintenance of the German agricultural class, then it is especially these sections of the German nation that must give their full support to the wishes and the actions of the government. This then provides it with that inner stability which it requires in order to make decisions that are difficult to defend at the moment, but which must be made and whose success is not visible at first to its unseeing fellow citizens, but which we are aware will contribute in the end to the salvation of the entire nation.
As the German agriculturists have now united to form a great whole, it will thus in future facilitate the work of the Government to an unprecedented extent by supporting it with its enormous weight of numbers. I believe that there is no member of this Government who is not imbued with the honest desire for this intimate cooperation. We regard the solution of this problem as implying at the same time the salvation of the German nation in the future, not only in 1933 and 1934 but for long ages to come. We are determined to adopt now and to carry out in the next few years those measures which we know will be recognized by later generations as fundamentally right.
It was high time to find the energy to adopt the decisions to which, in the most profound and final sense, we owe the salvation of the German nation.
We are ready to accept the burden imposed by this hard fight. Owing to the Enabling Law, the work of the deliverance of the German people has been freed and released for the first time from the party views and considerations of our former representative assembly. With its assistance we shall now be able to do what, after clear-sighted examination and dispassionate consideration, appears necessary for the future of the nation. The purely legislative previous conditions necessary for this have been provided. But it is also necessary that the people itself should take an active part in this action. The nation must not imagine that, because the Reichstag can no more restrict our decisions, the nation itself no longer needs to take part in the shaping of our destiny. On the contrary, we wish that the German people at this very time should concentrate once more and cooperate actively in support of the Government. The result must be that, when we appeal to the nation once more in four years' time, we shall not appeal to men who have been asleep, but will find ourselves faced by a nation that has finally awakened in the course of these years from its parliamentary trance and has realized the knowledge necessary to understand the eternal conditions of human existence.
I am aware that the work which lies before us entails tasks of terrible difficulty, not only because we must begin, after fifteen years of neglect of the most natural previous conditions of human existence, with perfectly simple principles of common sense, but because during this period an unprecedented interlacing of interests has occurred, and hardly any step appears possible without coming in contact with cases of corruption which must be dealt with, whether they are of a moral or material nature. But the main thing is that this problem must be solved, and this will be done. The varying fortunes which the German people has lived to see during the thousands of years of its history prove that it cannot be the intention of Providence that before our times previous generations fought and made sacrifices in order that their descendants might ruin their own lives and no longer be able to look forward to future ages. The great struggles in the past would be purposeless, were we to abandon the struggle for the future.
The sacrifices that we ourselves made for the maintenance of the German Reich were heavy. The generation which fought through the World War suffered to an unprecedented extent. But we must not only take that into account, for we must also think of what generations before us have performed, suffered and fought for. We must calculate the sum total of the sacrifices which have been made before our time, not in order that one generation should capitulate in the face of destiny, and thus wipe out coming generations, but in the hope that each generation in turn will do its duty in this eternal succession of generations.
At the present day the warning finger of fate demands that we should fulfil this duty. For fifteen years we have all, without exception, transgressed grieviously, some of us actively and consciously, and others passively and tolerantly. It is for us, united and together, to overcome that time. Let the task be ever so great, if it must be solved then it will be solved. In this case also the eternal principle applies that where there's a will there's a way.