A Chilling Tale of Propaganda 


As Packaged by Dr. Joseph Goebbels 





























Afcolf oiilet 

PICTURES FROM THE LIFE 

OF THE FUHRER 




301 -400 Thousand 

Heinrich Hoffmann, NSDAP Press Photographer of the Reich, Munich, was responsible for the 

selection and artistic arrangement of the photographs in this work. 

The full-page front piece is a reproduction of a painting by B. Jacobs. 

Binding and title page designed by O.H.W. Hadank, Berlin 
Graphic Design: Carl Ernst Poeschel, Leipzig 




e arc unable to express our gratitude in 
rnords, mg Jffiibrer. Nor are me able to 
find the mords to demonstrate our loyalty and 
affection for you. All the gratitude, lone, and 
passionate faith in you, my iFiiljrer, shines 
upon you today from a hundred thousand 
eyes. An entire Hoik, an entire nation, is 
strong and happy today because these people 
haue found in you more than a iFiibrer; they 
hane also found a sanior. 



®fye fcdyatag Jireaibent at tip? (Herman iReidjatag ttt Nuremberg 

nn September 15,1335 



(Table of (Tontento 

i 

Page 

Foreword by Dr. Joseph Goebbels.7 

The Fiihrer’s Travels by SS Generalmajor Julius Schreck +.9 

The Fiihrer and the German People by Dr. Otto Dietrich.19 

The Fiihrer as an Orator by Dr. Joseph Goebbles..27 

The Private Life of the Fiihrer by General Wilhelm Bruckner .35 

The Fiihrer as Statesman by Dr. Joseph Goebbels.44 

The Fiihrer and the German Worker by Dr. Robert Ley.56 

The Fiihrer and the Arts by Dr. Joseph Goebbels .64 

The Buildings of the Fiihrer by Albert Speer, Architect.72 

Adolf Hitler and His Roads by Inspector General Fritz Todt, Doctor of Engineering.78 

Our Hitler (radio speech to the German nation on the Fuhrer’s birthday) 

by Dr. Joseph Goebbels .85 

The Fiihrer and the Wehrmacht by First Lieutenant Foertsch.91 

The Fiihrer and German Youth by Baldur von Schirach.105 

Special contribution by SS General Major Julius Schaub, The Fiihrer in Landsberg Prison.126 

















jFnmuor& 


M any misunderstandings still prevail - throughout the world and even in Germany - on the con¬ 
cept of propaganda. Since these misconceptions are so ingrained and for the most part based on 
prejudices, they are difficult to clear up. Since the end of the war, the German nation in particular has 
been taught an object lesson on this subject. It is impossible to imagine a better or more powerful les¬ 
son. In a relatively short time span historically, propaganda has become extremely important in 
Germany; today there is more than enough proof of the fact that imperial Germany was overthrown by 
the onset of Marxist propaganda. It is also clear that the Marxist-democratic regime was overcome sole¬ 
ly because the idea of National Socialism and National Socialist propaganda countered Marxism with a 
superior new order and efficiency. 

Even propaganda must be mastered. It is absolutely useless to assign this job to just any bright person 
who happens to be available as the need arises. As with all great art, it requires uniquely qualified peo¬ 
ple who usually found a school through which they render their art form acceptable. The common mis¬ 
conception that propaganda is dishonorable or inferior must also be dispelled. As with everything else 
in life, it depends entirely on how it is used and what it contributes in practical terms to the world. In 
this sense, propaganda has nothing at all to do with promotion. At its best, propaganda allows situa¬ 
tions and people to speak for themselves. Propaganda ensures that if something is worthwhile, its full 
value is brought to light and explained. 

Good things and great people speak for themselves. One must value them and not place restrictions on 
them. The most important characteristic of particularly successful propaganda is that nothing is omitted 
and nothing is added that is not essential to the subject in question. The characteristics of situations or 
personalities are to be clearly, powerfully, simply, and naturally lifted out of the confusion of current top¬ 
ics, so that these points are understandable and obvious to the masses of people who shall be moved 
and won over. 

National Socialism and its principal representatives lend themselves naturally to this art. And they have 
worked hard to learn and apply their art. They have accomplished this through untiring and extremely 
close contact with the people and by progressively refining their skills to the highest level. Moreover, 
the Fiihrer himself was the greatest teacher of propaganda. It is a little-known fact that for quite a while 
early in the history of the party the Fuhrer held no office other than that of Director of Propaganda. 

His ingenious mastery and management of this office left upon the party a unique intellectual, organi¬ 
zational, and political mark. 

From the very beginning his supporters (and later the entire German nation) focused the entirety of their 
love on him and placed an enormous store of trust in him, for his very nature and character recognized 
the necessity of speaking to his people (whose child he always was and always will be) and of acting 




from the heart. Initially the masses saw him from a distance only as a politician and statesman. The pure¬ 
ly human side of him remained in many ways in the background. 

Today the world recognizes Hitler as the creator of National Socialist doctrine and the organizer of the 
National Socialist state; as the pioneer of a new European order; as the guide to peace and to the wel¬ 
fare of nations. But untold millions all over the world know that behind all of this there is the exciting 
and fascinating figure of the man Adolf Hitler - even if they have only a rough idea of what this means. 
The great simplicity and the simple greatness radiating from his person completely and compellingly 
affect not only every German, but also touch eveiy foreigner who possesses good instincts. Today he 
can no doubt be described the world over as the man who is most deeply and clearly rooted in the 
thought and mood of these modern times, and who because of this, has within himself the ability to re¬ 
form these times as no other can. 

In order to completely appreciate this side of him, one must see him as a person in addition to politician 
and statesman. And this book shall be a guide. This book provides insight into his personality, brought 
with love and veneration from his closest colleagues and oldest comrades. In this book, the authors offer 
the public a picture of this great man that has not previously been seen. All of the contributors to this 
publication have known the Fuhrer for many years, right down to the last detail, and thus have come to 
admire him more and more each day. It is this perspective that makes this book valuable. 

The Fuhrer appears in this book as a person with an immediate connection to all the issues of our times. 
The German nation will gladly grasp this chance to see the Fuhrer up close, thereby getting closer to him 
personally. 

In addition, it is particularly gratifying that this book will be easily available and affordable. This will give 
masses of German readers access to it. May this book hereby begin its felicitous and successful path to 
the German people! 


ir. SoMjjfj (Snebhela 




The Fuhrer promotes aviation by example. 

Sim Ifiihm 'a (Unroela 

By SS Brigade Captain Julius Schreck f 


'TVTever before has a prominent statesman 
become so thorough y acquainted with his 
country and people as Adolf Hitler. Whether by 
automobile, airplane, or train, his travels always 
promote a thorough acquaintance with his nation. 
Even at the beginning of his movement, he nad 
the foresight to recognize the importance of rapid 
transportation, particularly the automobile; he uti¬ 
lized rapid transportation despite his quite modest 
means at that time. Today the Fuhrer still prefers 
the automobile because it is important to him to 
remain in constant contact with his comrades and 
old campaigners. 


The great political battles for power proved that 
the Fuhrer was far ahead of all his adversaries due 
to the motorization of his retinue. At that time, 
there were not always throngs of cheering people 
surrounding the Fuhrer. During the campaign 
years we experienced some trips that were very 
difficult, and we were only able to secure a path 
by using presence of mind and force. No reports 
of trouble ahead could prevent the Fuhrer from 
driving into the strongholds of red and black 
adversaries (often right through the middle of wild 
crowds of Bolsheviks) and past the demonstra¬ 
tions of the other side. Sometimes our car was 


9 






completely surrounded by thou¬ 
sands of incited comrades. But 
time after time we experienced 
how their raised fists sank under 
the gaze of the Fuhrer, how they 
looked up and realized that this 
Hitler looked quite different than 
he had always been described to 
them. How many misguided 
German workers looked then for 
the first time into the eyes of the 
man who was supposed to be 
their adversary, only to become 
fanatical supporters of his 
Movement right then and there 
No newspaper propaganda, no 
books alone could have accom¬ 
plished this marvel. And thus 
three years after he seized 
power he was able to say, 
“Where else is there a statesman 
like myself who, after three 
years of governing, does not 
have to fear going out among 
the people - just as I did back 
then?” 

To this very day when his work 
and government business allow 
him, rather than staying in his 
office, the Fuhrer drives out into 
the country to be among the 
people. Once again he sits in his 
Mercedes and makes appear¬ 
ances here and there. One day 

The Fuhrer in Franconia. At the war memo¬ 
rial in Hiltpoltstein (known as Franconian 



Switzerland). 



Trip through a small Franconian town. 


he will be in the Ruhr District, the next 
in Baden, Wurttemberg, Saxony, East 
Prussia, or or the coast. In short, there 
is no region to which he has not jour 
neyecl at one time or another. Sitting 
at the steering wheel behind the 
windshield I suddenly hear amazed 
and enthusiastic cries such as “it's 
Hitler!” or “the Fuhrer is here!” Often 
people do not even notice who has 
just driven through the city. Not until 
the convoy has passed do the three 
black cars attract attention. 

And then, all of the sudden, they real¬ 
ize who has just driven by. The chil¬ 
dren are usually the first to see the 
Fuhrer. Then a race begins with the 
car, and more often than not people 


10 




be able to share these days 
with him. 

The Fuhrer takes major trips 
only in open cars, which he 
leaves open during official 
business even when it rains. 
He always has the same 
response to the advice of his 
entourage, “As long as the SA 
men and other ormations 
have to stand in the rain, then 
we can also get wet. 

housands of people wit- 
nessed how he, hatless and in 
a brown shirt with no coat, 
reviewed the SA march at the 
reintegration of the Saar; how 
he spoke to the waiting crowd 
in the pouring rain during the 
election campaigns in 
Stralsund following a night 
flight at three o'clock in the 
morning; and how he drove in 
the rain through Holstein to 
the Adolf Hitler Polder, soaked, 
without thinking of himself, 
because the SA men also stood 
in the rain. 

Even in his first car he sat 
beside his driver. Today, fifteen 
years later, as Chancellor of the 
Reich, he still sits next to his 
driver. 


are quick to gather because 
the news has spread through 
the streets. We often end up 
stopping so that the Fuhrer 
can shake hands with enthusi¬ 
astic supporters, accept flow¬ 
ers, or sign a few cards. 
Anyone who has had the luck 
to be near the Fuhrer constant¬ 
ly for ten straight years, as I 
have been, and to experience 
his many trips with him will 
never forget the thousands of 
sights seen over the years. 
One comes away from these 
trips with an irrepressible faith 
in the German nation, and it is 
often quite heartwarming to 


In his (ravels through Germany, the Fuhrer prefers cm open car 



On a trip through Germany. 



Julius Schreck, died May 16, 1936 







t National Socialist German Worker’a ^arty 

bxbB faroueU to Sultua ^ctark 

T^fhe National Socialist Movement bids farewell today to Julius Schreck. It bids farewell to 
Virone of its oldest and most loyal members. It bids farewell to one of its best and most irre¬ 
placeable members. It bids farewell to one of its most unassuming members, one who want¬ 
ed nothing for himself and gave everything for Germany and the Fuhrer. 

When called upon to fight for Germany he stood at the front, abroad during the World War, as 
well as at home. 

His veneration and love for the Fuhrer were boundless. His concern for the Fuhrer indefatiga¬ 
ble, his consideration for the protection of the Fuhrer judicious. 

His essence radiated faithfulness to the end. His presence spread a feeling of security among 
his party comrades in difficult times of conflict. 

His judgment of people was faultless; his affection was unconcealed, as were his aversions. A 
tough old soldier with a warm heart. Feared by his adversaries, loved by all who counted him 
as one of them, admired as a fatherly friend by his subordinates. 

He had the good fortune of enjoying his FUhrer's deepest trust. The movement lowers its flags 
to pay its last respects to Julius Schreck. It thereby vows to him that his manner and spirit will 
be a model to the youth and to future generations, through which he shall serve the move¬ 
ment far into the future for the benefit of our great National Socialist Germany. 

lukolf If £00 


13 





Trip through the Harz Mountains. 7he Fiihrer can also he light-hearted. 



A break in the forest. 


14 




















In the German countryside. Hiltpoltstein 
(known as Franconian Switzerland) 


The Fiihrer sets the travel route 


ft ✓ JA 

4 

WSk 

H V 

?x ■ 

1 7 d. ^ 



tw A ; am 


\IJ& 1 

I / ^ 














The Fuhrer in an airplane 

He also sets the travel route himself, for the Fuhrer 
loves to use side streets and to experience 
Germany’s countryside away from the main traffic 
routes. 

It used to be simpler, when the Fuhrer was not yet as 
well known as he s today. Back then it was some¬ 
times possible to spend the night in an inn or to have 
a meal without being recognized. Today it's differ¬ 
ent. News of the Fiihrer's approach spreads through 
the villages and cities along our way like a brush fire. 
Many people joyfully pass on the news to the next 
village by telephone. Then the residents of the town, 
who have never seen their Fuhrer, start waiting to 
greet Hitler when his car arrives. These are uplifting 
moments, and sometimes you wish you were a poet 
so as to find the words that adequately describe the 
thousand little occurrences as we experience them. 
Here we come through a town. Everyone is there, 


the Fuhrer s hand. Women holding 
children are not able to approach. 
They hold their little ones, 
Germany’s future, high above the 
enthusiastic crowd, as if to say "you 
belong to him!" 

In order to describe great men, you 
must also see the small things. 
Here is one of hundreds of 
episodes. It is around 10 o clock at 
n ght as the Fuhrer’s car is driving 
toward Wurzburg after a parade in 
Meiningen. here, in the head¬ 
lights, are two marching SA men. 
The Fuhrer orders the car to be 
stopped. Where do they want to 
go, they are asked. “To the next 
train station. My comrade can no 
longer walk and we still have three hours to go.” 
“Well, get in the car!” They have no idea whose guests 
they are. We ask them about this and that. Whether 
they have seen the Fuhrer yet? “Yes, today at the 
parade.” The car stops; we have reached the destina¬ 
tion. The Fuhrer, who is sitting in front, calls them and 
hands each a gift of money. There, in the dark of the 
night, a small beam of light falls on the Fuhrer’s face. 
Both of the SA men stare. Is that not the Fuhrer who is 
speaking to them? Yes, it is! They are too joyful and 
shocked to speak. I hit the gas, and the Mercedes 
takes off into the dark night. As we go around a bend 
we see the two still standing on the country road 
motionless under the effect of what they have just 
experienced. 

The great and difficult election campaigns of that time 
required that the Fuhrer make the most of his time, 
and so he also traveled by air. That was a time when 


young and old, clubs and 
schools, mothers with children in 
their arms. The street through 
town quickly becomes a sea of 
flags. Members of the League of 
German Girls try to bring the car 
to a stop, but time is of the 
essence and the Fuhrer must 
reach his destination at a specific 
time, for hundreds of thousands 
wait for him at the scheduled 
assembly. Then a big muscular 
man jumps onto the car’s radia¬ 
tor in one bound - it is the 
town’s blacksmith. Now the 
driver must slow down, and 
before you know it the car is sur¬ 
rounded by all of the town’s res- 
dents. Everyone wants to shake 



At Wart burg 


16 



people still distrusted airplanes. 
For weeks on end he would fly 
from city to city without regard 
for wind or weather. 

Looking back, it's a bit frighten¬ 
ing to remember the many 
flights in storms, at night, or in 
fog. tt really says something that 
the Fuhrer's departure was never 
once postponed when he used 
the plane during the election 
campaign. Every scheduled rally 
started on time - and sometimes 
there were four or five in differ¬ 
ent German cities in one day. 
Often the Fuhrer was urged not 
to take one night or another. But 
his answer was always, “I will fly 
whenever necessary, even in a 
storm, How the opposition 
newspapers would have loved it 
if the set flight plan had been 
delayed or if a scheduled rally 
had been canceled. But Hitler 
did not do them this favor. 

One flight from F irth to Frankfurt 
particularly stands out in my 
memory. The old Rohrbach, the 
Rrst plane the Fuhrer used back 
then, was anchored with gaso¬ 
line drums. An unusually intense 
storm raged across all of 
Germany. Takeoff restrictions 
applied for general air traffic. 
Only with effort could you stay 
on your feet. Everyone shook his 
head as the Fuhrer boarded the 



Above Nuremberg in a D-2600. Arrival at the 1934 National Socialist Party Congress. 



Campaign trip through Germany 


plane. Yet a few minutes later, 
it was fighting its way up. The 
machine's forward progress 
was laborious, through thun¬ 
derstorms and squalls, wind 
and snow. The plane often 
pitched downward, so that 
the heads of some of the pas¬ 
sengers hit the ceiling, but it 
went well throughout. Once 
the plane had to make an 
emergency landing far away 
from its final destination. The 
assembly was set to begin in 
Kiel at eight o'clock. At five 
o'clock, I received news that 
the Fuhrer had had to land in 
Travemunde due to low 


17 











clouds, fog, and the worst of the storm. 

The convoy immediately roared off i the direction 
of L ibeck. Somewhere near Eutin we were able to 
meet the Fuhrer traveling toward us in a rented 
car, and we were still able to get him to Kiel on 
time. 

Even though the Fuhrer uses the train now and 
then for overnight travel in order to save time, his 
great love is still the automobile, which he once 
said had revealed Germany to him. And he equal¬ 


ly loves his Ju 52 under the command of Flight 
Captain SS Colonel Baur, who no doubt ranks as 
one of the foremost masters among flight captains. 
The most enjoyable activity for the Fuhrer is driv¬ 
ing through the German countryside in his car after 
weeks of strenuous work. The greatest days for me 
are when I am allowed to sit behind the wheel to 
drive the Fuhrer through the fortunate, peaceful 
country as I once did through battle and hardship. 



At Biickeberg for the 1934 harvest festival. 



Women of Biickeberg in their festive costumes at the J934 harvest festival. 


18 






While traveling through East Prussia, the Fiihrer visits a farmer and his family. 


JFitliri'r anil tin 5 (icnnan Penple 

$g in (§tto Uietmfj 


TTt he relationship of the German people to the 
w'Fuhrer has always been a source of joyous 
pride for the Germans and a source of amazement 
for foreigners. Nowhere in the world is there such 
fanatic love of millions of people for one man - a 
love which despite everything is not exaggerated 
or frenzied, but which arises from a deep and 
great devotion, an infinite trust, like the trust chil¬ 
dren sometimes place in a very good father. 
Infatuation I cists a few years, but once love from 
the heart of hearts has bloomed, it is indestructi¬ 
ble and lasts for centuries. It is like a great, pow¬ 
erful light that never dims. This love did not flare 
up suddenly. It was not sparked by unexpected or 
stirring events, but it has grown slowly and insis¬ 
tently. It does not break free with a raging impetu¬ 
ousness at some single occasion, but it is always 
there at every moment and within every German, 
whether at occasions that fill his heart with pride, 
whether he is standing with hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of other comrades in front of the Fiihrer, or 
whether there is no special occasion at all and he 
is simply quiet and alone at his work. Always, 
whenever anyone thinks of the Fiihrer, this deep 
love swells up from within. This love alone justi¬ 


fies the words: "Hitler is Germany - Germany is 
Hitler." Never has a man been closer to the hearts 
of the people than this man, who himself has come 
from the people. He is not an outsider, but was 
born one of the people. He has felt the deprivation 
of the people, and he has lived the life of the peo¬ 
ple. If today someone were to ask the name of the 
unknown German soldier, the whole German 
nation would answer: Adolf Hitler! 

He was the conscience of the nation. The suffering 
and the defiance of a downtrodden nation cried 
out from his lips and in him the will of all of 
Germany to live became word and deed in the 
hour of the country's deepest humiliation. Adolf 
Hitler has never said a word that the nation was 
not thinking in its heart of hearts. He has never 
done anything that the entire nation did not want 
to do. He was not, is not, and never will be a dic¬ 
tator forcing his personal opinion or his desire for 
power upon the nation. He really is just the Fiihrer, 
and that is the highest praise one can give any 
man. 

It is because of this that the people love him so, 
why they trust him, why they are so indescribably 
happy to have found themselves in this man for 

19 






the first time in history. 

Herein lies the secret of the inde¬ 
structibility of Adolf Hitler and his 
work - the guarantee that the 
road he has taken can not be 
altered. For it is no longer the 
man Adolf Hitler, it is no longer 
his works and no longer the road 
he has taken that expresses itself 
in him. It is the German nation 
itself that expresses itself in him. 
In him the nation loves itself, in 
him it follows Its most secret 
desires, in him its most daring 
thoughts become real ty. Every 
single person feels this and 
because of it Adolf Hitler is a 
stranger to no one, and no one is 
a stranger to the Ftihrer. Workers 
and farmers speak with him; 
Nobel prize winners and artists, 
warriors and dreamers, happy 
men and despairing men speak 
with him, and each and every one 
hears his own language, he 
understands and is understood in 
return. Everything is natural and 
self-evident, and no one is shy 
before this great man. No one is 
ordered to follow. No one is 
courted, but everyone is called, 
just as one would be called by his 
own conscience. He has no 
choice but to follow, should he 
not want to be guilty and unhap¬ 
py in his own heart. Thus, what 
must happen happens voluntarily, 
and no nation on the face of this 
earth has more freedom than the 
Germans. 

And so the nation does not tire of 
listening to the words of the 
Fuhrer, and even if the party 
assembly in Nuremberg were 
twice as long, the people would 
stand there on the last day and 
listen to him as raptly as they lis¬ 
tened on the first. He could travel 
constantly throughout Germany 
and the people would wait along¬ 
side the roads day in and day out 
cheering him as they had on the 
very first day. They would bring 
him their children so that he 
could see the future of Germany. 



On the day of the reunion with the Saar 



Enthusiasm for the Fiihrer's presence at the Hamburg docks 



Delegation from the Saar region in front of the chancellery 


20 










She wan Is the Fiih rev's hand. 



Everyone warns to shake the Fuhrer's hand. 



The farmers, too , believe in the Fiih re r. 


And if they had to, they would 
give their lives, just as hundreds 
of his party comrades did in the 
years of the struggle. 

There have been emperors and 
kings, sovereigns and popular 
heroes; usurpers and terrorists, 
wise and great rulers leading 
nations; but there has never been 
simply: the Ftihrer. This is unique 
in the whole world, and it is an 
amaz ng stroke of luck for the 
German nation. Without under¬ 
standing this, one can understand 
nothing about the German peo¬ 
ple. One will not understand why 
eyes sparkle, why voices cry out, 
why arms wave in the air, why 
hearts beat faster when Adolf 
Hitler stands in front of the 
German people. And from these 
external signs, which merely 
make visible the constant and 
mysterious affinity between the 
nation and the Fuhrer, Hitler draws 
strength for new works, just as the 
people draw strength from the 
sight of him. 

This becomes especially clear 
when German youth and the 
Fuhrer are face to face. Anyone 
who has been with the Fuhrer for 
any period of time, who has 
accompanied him for days and 
weeks and months, has a store of 
unforgettable images. 

One time between Stettin and 
Pasewalk, a good ten kilometers 
from any town, a group of young 
Germans stood in storm and rain 
in the middle of a country road 
because they had heard from 
somewhere that the Fuhrer would 
be coming along this road today. 
Day turned to evening, and when 
the Fuhrer s car with its two escort 
cars raced along the road you 
could see a throng far ahead 
among the trees lining the road. 
Drawing closer, you could see that 
the throng was a crowd of chil¬ 
dren waving flags, hey were 
burning red, blue, and green 
sparklers, and they had set up 
guards ahead of the main group 


21 









to stop the convoy wi h hand signals. Although 
time was short, the Fuhrer gave the order to stop, 
and immediately the car was surrounded by about 
a hundred children who jumped on the running 
boards and crawled up on the radiators and hoods 
in order to peer through the windshields to try 
and find the Fuhrer. 


After they had well and truly examined all three 
cars, a particularly clever boy finally discovered 
the F ihrer He shouted as loud as he could, "Here 
he is. Everyone come here!" And then the fuss 
began. The escorting commando had to inter¬ 
vene because some of the boys even tried to 
climb onto the shaky canvas roof. The leader of 
the group, the same boy who had first seen the 
Fuhrer, gave a brief speech - youthful, bright and 
innocent. And then everyone stepped back to 


make room for a girl dressed all in wh te. She curt¬ 
sied low and recited some verses she had written 
about how happy the young people were to see 
the Fuhrer. Finally, she presented Adolf Hitler with 
a small basket of wonderful, red apples. Deeply 
touched, the Fuhrer stroked her blond hair, and the 
girl - overwrought with joy and happiness - sud¬ 
denly began to cry. Slowly the 
line of cars eased away from 
the crowd of children, and for a 
long time you could see 
through the rear windshield the 
small figures waving their flags 
in farewe l. 

Always anc at all the assem¬ 
blies it is the youth that stands 
in the front rows. The well 
behaved, modest ones stay just 
as the teachers or the standard 
bearer places them, straight as 
an arrow, all in a row, without 
moving an inch. Others, more 
daring, hang from the limbs of 
trees, sit on monuments and 
building cornices, or stand like 
a line of living statues on high 
factory walls. They populate 
flagpoles and lantern posts, 
and when the Fuhrer passes by 
they fill the air with their cries of 
joy. A favorite place for the 
young people to wait for the 
Fuhrer is n front of the curves, 
where they set themselves up 
so cleverly that the cars are 
forced to drive as slowly as 
possible. An even better place 
is a construction site on a sec¬ 
ondary road, for they are sure 
that here the Fuhrer will have to 
drive by at a walking pace, and 
that they will certainly be able 
to catch him. It almost always 
takes quite a bit of effort to get 
away because whenever the 
road in front of the car seems clear, the cheering 
children run from the back of the car to the front and 
block the way again. 

Once in a city in southern Germany on the evening 
of one of the Fuhrer's assemblies, tens of thousands 
of Hitler Youth members lined the streets. The wider 
the road became the closer the rows of boys 
moved, so that eventually there was just enough 
room for the car to pass. At first everything went 
well. But then suddenly people began to run, to jos- 



The older generation trusts the Fuhrer. 


22 




tie, to push. At first the youthful torch-bearers in 
the front row tried to hold back the onslaught, but 
then they were pushed along, running, swinging 
their torches, and lighting up the interior of the 
cars. Because of this sheer enthusiasm and love 
the Fuhrer and his escort ended up swallowing 
large amounts of smoke. It was fortunate that the 
cars were not set on fire. 

It took a good quarter of an 
hour to free the Fuhrer from this 
enthusiastic crowd of young¬ 
sters. 

It s interesting to see the seri¬ 
ousness and eagerness with 
which young people try to pho¬ 
tograph the Fuhrer. They stand 
with their tiny cameras, their 
fingers on the shutter release, 
trembling with nervousness 
and excitement. Obviously they 
need a lot of luck to be able to 
get a picture at all with these 
cameras. And yet we find a 
good likeness in an amazing 
number of these photographs. 

Even here, luck seems to be on 
the side of youth because more 
experienced amateur photogra¬ 
phers often complain that they 
simply cannot get a good 
opportunity for a picture 
because of the general enthusi¬ 
asm and crush of people 
around the Fuhrer. 

While traveling through Upper 
Selesia, the Fuhrer is welcomed 
by a small town, and a little girl 
has the honor of presenting him 
with a bouquet of flowers. She 
is supposed to recite a brief 
poem, and she manages to get 
the first line out without falter¬ 
ing. But then in her excitement 
she loses the thread and after 
looking around several times 
helplessly, she takes the flowers, stretches up on 
her tiptoes toward the Fuhrer, presses the flowers 
into his hands and says, l 'H-h-hitler, here you are, 
f-f-f-forgot everything!" and runs off. 

There is a street. It is closed off and people are 
crowded close together. They are waiting, some 
for hours. They are waiting for the Fuhrer. They 
want to see him. Everyone wants to see him, men 
and women, boys and gi Is. "It is like a holiday 
today," says an old woman. And she is right, for 
today the Fuhrer is coming to this little town for 


the first time. 

Flags flutter from rooftops, and gables and gar¬ 
lands are strung across the streets. The whole 
town is decorated. And then the Fuhrer arrives - a 
whirlwind seems to pass through the crowd. Here 
and there ripples appear in the long line of the 
security troops, people begin to jostle and push, 


arms are raised toward the Fuhrer, there is laugh¬ 
ter and tears, both expressing joy and enthusiasm. 
The women hold up their children whose little 
arms rise above the crowd. With sparkling eyes 
and smiles, they add their voices to the enthusias¬ 
tic cries of "Heil Hitler." The women look at the 
Fuhrer and are filled with optimism and trust. They 
know that they have only him to thank that their 
unemployed husbands have found work and can 
provide fooc for the family. Finally, life has mean¬ 
ing once again. They can look to the future with- 

23 







out fear and dread 

There is a letter that a girl doing her compulsory 
year on a farm wrote to her parents: "... 1 must 
start another page. What 1 am going to write now 
is bound to make you happy. Imagine, my dears, 
I have seen the Fuhrer, imagine that, the Fuhrer!" 
What sentiments are expressed in these four 
words: "Imagine that, the Fuhrer!" How her pride 
for what she has experienced shines through, how 
great is the love of this child of the German nation 
for her Fuhrer! Here is the fulfillment of a wish that 
this girl probably never even had the courage to 


the other one. 'They're waving!" cry out both in 
unison. And the line of cars actually stops and 
waits until the men, who are running by now, have 
reached it. "Where are you coming from? Where 
are you going? Get in!" Both men are wide-eyed 
with amazement when they see that it is the Fuhrer 
who has stopped on a country road and invited 
two camp workers to get in. He asks them all 
about their lives, and he wants to know every 
detail of what it is like in the work camp. Then they 
reach the small town. The cars stop. As they leave, 
the Fuhrer says to one of them, "It s about to rain. 



Visiting the Reinsdorf victims 


express. 

This is a real gift of fete. Fate gave her the ultimate 
gift in the midst of her agricultural service year, a 
meeting with the Fuhrer. "Imagine what that 
means . . .!" 

And this is the way it is everywhere - in Bavaria 
and East Prussia, in Silesia and in the Rheinland. 
On a Palatine country road two workers are walk¬ 
ing to the next town. The work camp is way out in 
the country a long way from the railroad station. 
But both men are cheerful and whistling because 
they are going home on leave after months of 
healthy, hard work. They are whistling, "in the 
homeland, in the homeland. . ." Just then a line of 
cars races past the two men. "They have it good," 
one of them says. 'They’re faster than we are," says 


Don't you have a coat?" "I don't have a civilian coat, 
my Fuhrer. I was unemployed for a long time." 
Then the Fuhrer takes off his gray traveling coat 
anc puts it around the shoulders of his comrade. 
And before the man can say a word of thanks, the 
procession of cars races off into the distance. 
Somewhere a group of young factory workers lines 
up for roll call. The Fuhrer inspects the row and 
looks deep into the eyes of each young man. He 
addresses one. "Are you a member of the party?" - 
"No!" - "Are you an SA man " - 1 No, I belong to the 
Labor Front." "Where were you before?" the 
Fuhrer asks after a brief pause. The young blond 
man lowers his gaze, then he straightens up and 
says hesitantly, "I belonged to the Communist 
Youth, my Fuhrer!" It is obviously difficult for him to 


24 



speak. Everyone's gaze is upon him. An embar¬ 
rassing moment. But the Fuhrer takes the young 
man's hand, holds it, and says, "But today you are 
all with me, my boys." And blushing, the young 
worker answers, "By God, you can depend on that, 
my Fuhrer!" 

So many images - all bearing witness to the close¬ 


The crowd of many thousands listens quietly and 
reverently. The plaintive melodies search out the 
Fuhrer. And the Fuhrer hears the music. The Fuhrer 
has the man brought to him, speaks to him, and 
listens to the story of h s life. "I have been unem¬ 
ployed for four years now," the disabled man final¬ 
ly says. "My Fuhrer, can you find a way for me earn 

a wage and provide food for my 
family again?' The Fuhrer waves 
to one of his aides. Two quick 
telephone calls later the Fuhrer 
says, "Report tomorrow to such 
and such and you can begin 
work immediately." The news 
spreads as if on wings through¬ 
out the waiting crowd. Loud 
ovations that seem endless 
swell up in the direction of the 
Fuhrer. 

Another unforgettable day was 
when the Fuhrer went to the 
funeral of the victims of a cata¬ 
strophic explosion in Reinsdorf. 
The coffins of the fallen heroes 
of the work camp were lined up 
in a long row. Flags fluttered at 
half-mast, mourners with black 
ribbons stood silently. The vic¬ 
tims' next of kin were gathered 
in a section apart. The weeping 
mothers, sisters, brothers, and 
fathers were a picture of deep 
sadness. Then the Fuhrer 
appeared, and the funeral 
began. The pain of the survivors 
was heartbreaking. Various 
speakers and clergymen spoke, 
the song about the good com¬ 
rade was played, and the sound 
of the salute rolled across the 
field. Leaving his escort behind, 
the Fuhrer crossed the square to 
where the relatives stood. A 
hundred arms stretched out to 
him, seel ing comfort. Everyone 
who was there will remember the sorrowful face of 
the Fuhrer as he stood in the midst of this infinite 
grief. He spoke with some of the men and women 
or simply shook their hands silently. The circle 
around him tightened, tears stopped flowing, and 
despairing mourners straightened up. The Fuhrer 
grasped between his comforting hands the head of 
an inconsolable old woman who had lost her son. 
He heartened a deathly pale boy in a Hitler Youth 



A picture taken during the 1932 election in Hesse 


ness each German feels to Adolf Hitler. 

In Hamburg at one of the Fuhrer s assemblies, on 
the evening before a decisive plebiscite, a serious¬ 
ly disabled war veteran with his son pushes past 
the chains closing off the entrance to the Fuhrer s 
quarters. "I want to serenade the Fuhrer." The SS 
men let the veteran through. He stands under the 
Fuhrer's window. Hands trembling, he removes 
his instrument from its ray case and plays a song. 


25 


uniform who had lost his father. The comfort that 
the uhrer gave these mourners was so powerful 
because they fe t that they were not alone in their 
grief. When finally the mourning relatives raised 
their arms to silently thank Adolf Hitler one more 
time, Fuhrer and people were close, even in this 
time of deep sadness. 

The Fuhrer and the German people - at a rally 
once in the Frankfurter Festhalle, while the Fuhrer 
spoke to thousands, a woman crept to his car and 
put a tiny bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley (it was the 
middle of winter) on the seat where she believed 
the Fuhrer would sit. As the line of cars began to 
drive away after the rally, from the middle of the 


swell of shouts of "Heil," came a high, piercing 
voice, "The lifies-of-the-valley are from me!" 

There are hundreds and thousands of these stories 
to be told, touching and amusing. They all express 
one single sentiment: that a miracle has taken 
place here, such as a nation can experience but 
once in ts whole history; that here Fuhrer and 
people are one and the same; and that the love 
that binds the people and their Fuhrer is so great, 
so natural, so self-evident that it constantly flares 
up anew, as sparkling and as strong as before. 
What infinite strength, what eternal blessings 
blossom from this love for both the people and the 
Fuhrer - for the Fuhrer and the German nation! 



26 





November 9, 1934 in Munich. The Fiihrer speaks at the Feldherrnhalle to newly recruited members of the 
Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls. 


iTlu' iFithttr aa an ©rator 

by Ir. Jnsqalj (&mbbhs 


There are two types of orators. They are funda¬ 
mentally different in nature: one speaks from his 
intellect and the other from his heart. And respec¬ 
tively, they appeal to two different types of peo¬ 
ple: those who listen with their minds and those 
who listen with their hearts. Usually those who 
speak from the intellect come out of the parlia¬ 
ment; those who speak from the heart are born of 
the people. 

If he wants to speak effectively, an orator who 
speaks from the intellect must be able to quote 
statistics and a large number of facts. He must 
master dialectics as a pianist masters the key¬ 
board. He builds his train of thought with cold, cal¬ 


culated logic and draws from it his inevitable con¬ 
clusions. In general he reaches people who oper¬ 
ate primarily from - or only from - the intellect. 
This type of orator is not a great, sweeping suc¬ 
cess. He does not know how to stir up the mass¬ 
es or how to encourage them toward great, 
far-reaching goals. He is limited to the purely 
instructional. 

He is ice cold, and he leaves his listeners just as 
cold. At best he can convince people, but he can 
never mobilize the masses or to get them to 
march into action while setting their own needs 
aside - even less so when they are facing danger 
and death. 


27 





The orator who speaks from the heart is different. 
This is not to say that he has not mastered the skills 
of the intellectual speaker. As a true virtuoso of 
oration, in many ways these skills are just tools for 
him to use as he desires. Far beyond this though, 
he uses abilities that the intellectual speaker will 
never have available: clarity in diction goes hand- 
in-hand with the effective simplicity with which he 
puts thoughts together, making them easy to 
understand; he senses instinctively what should be 


said and how it should be said. When this type of 
orator speaks, a great poetic performance comes 
together with monumental ideas. This orator 
knows the most mysterious wrinkles and ramifica¬ 
tions of the soul of the masses. He knows how to 
expose and stir these ramifications with the hand 
of a master. His speeches are works of art in rhet¬ 
oric. In epic style he describes people and situa¬ 
tions; with a sharp stone tool he writes his thesis 
on the slates of time; with great and noble pathos 
he carefully builds the towering columns of his 
world view. His voice comes from deep within his 


blood, penetrating deep into the veins of his lis¬ 
teners. His voice sounds the most mysterious 
chords in the human soul. It rouses the sluggish 
and lazy; it makes the indifferent and doubtful 
stand straight; it transforms cowards into men and 
weaklings into heroes. 

Only seldom in history have such voices been 
heard. But if they are mighty enough to penetrate 
this sluggish century, they will surely change the 
conditions and the course of nations. 

These rhetorical geniuses beat 
the drums of destiny. Historically 
they begin alone in times of 
despair and collapse. And sud¬ 
denly and unexpectedly they are 
in the center of the bright spot¬ 
light of something new. These 
are the orators who shape a 
nation's history. 

Like every great speaker, the 
orator who speaks from the 
heart has his own individual 
style. He can only be himself. He 
is what he says. His language 
matches his essence and his 
style, whether this language is 
being used in a proclamation, on 
a placard, in a letter or article, or 
in an address or a speech. 

There are many examples per¬ 
fectly demonstrating throughout 
history that the only similarity 
among great orators is the great¬ 
ness of their achievements. Their 
appeal to nations and their 
appeal to the heart will always 
differ according to the times, the 
nation, and the character of the 
epoch. Caesar spoke differently 
to his legions than Friedrich the 
Great to his grenadiers. 
Napoleon spoke differently to 
his guard than Bismarck to the 
members of the Prussian parliament. Each used 
language that the men in front of him would 
understand. Each used words and thoughts that 
set off sparks in men's minds and resonated in their 
hearts. These orators gave vivid expression to the 
deepest and most puzzling daemon of their times, 
thereby serving as eternal beacons of enduring 
ideas across the centuries. They made history and 
shaped nations. 

It also seems that different races have different 
predispositions to oratory, as if there are some 
who are too reserved for this electrifying craft, 



The Fiihrer with Hi erf, the Head of the Labor Front, speaking to 47,000 workers at the 

National Socialist Party assembly in 1935. 


28 




Speaking to the workers at Bioiwi Voji 


Taking over the Leadership School in Bernau in 193 



















whereas others seem to be plainly predestined for 
it. The Romans were known for their oratory skills 
for good reason The great wealth of general and 
notable rhetorical talents of the Romance peoples 
to some extent justifies this reputation. And this is 
also why the gift of oratory has an effect on a pub¬ 
lic that understands this gift, holds onto it, and 
gives it the most opportunity to have an impact. 
Throughout history, our German nation has not 
done well in this respect. We nave produced an 
abundance of statesmen and soldiers, philoso¬ 
phers and scientists, musicians and poets, archi¬ 
tects and engineers, planning and organizational 
geniuses. But we have always lacked great rhetor¬ 
ical talents. After Fichte’s classical speeches to the 
German nation there was no one else able to 
warm the hean:s of the people until Bismarck. 
After Bismarck left the speaker's podium, there 
was no one else who could speak effectively until 
a new beacon arose in response to public need 
after the collapse following the World War. 

30 


Everything in between was at best 
mediocre, adequate for domestic 
policies in parliament or for the 
corporate board room; but such 
was met with icy reserve by the 
people, who were in need of 
someone to reach them at their 
deepest level. 

"his had also to do with the time in 
history — a time of no great ideas 
or grand projects. Rhetoric 
decl ned into a dull feeling of sati¬ 
ety. The only apparent exception, 
Marxism, was secretly epresent- 
Ing materialism, which will never 
set off the spark of true genius. 

But revolutions breed true orators, 
and true orators create revolu¬ 
tions! One should not overesti¬ 
mate the role of the written or 
printed word. The spoken word, 
on the other hand, kindles the 
minds and hearts of people with 
the secret magic of its immediate 
impact. The eyes and ears register 
the spoken word; those who are 
still wavering and cohfused are 
drawn irresistibly into the spell cast 
by the force of the masses of peo¬ 
ple who have already been 
reached by the sound of a human 
voice. 

What would become of a genius 
statesman if fate made him inferior; 

denying him from the beginning 
the power of speech and the explosive power of 

the word This power allows him to create ideas 
from ideals and to create reality from ideas. With 
its help, people who are prepared to fight for 
these ideas gather around his flag; compelled, 
men risk health and life to lead a new world nto 
victory. From the propaganda of the word, an 
organization forms; from the organizat on, a 
movement develops; and that movement con¬ 
quers the state. It’s not a matter of whether ideas 
are right. The key s to br ng them to the masses 
so that the masses support them. 

Theories will always be theories if people do not 
act on them. But in difficult times people will only 
answer a call that ignites their hearts if the call also 
comes from the heart. 

It is hard to categorize the Fuhrer as a orator. His 
art of molding the masses is so amazing and 
unique that it fits no pattern or dogma. It would be 
absurd to think that he had attended an oratorical 
or language school; he is a genius at speaking, 



entirely self-taught with no help from anyone. It is 
hard to imagine that the Fuhrer ever spoke any dif¬ 
ferently than he now does, or that he ever will. He 
says what comes to him from his heart, and what 
he says goes directly to the heart of the listener. He 
has the wonderful gift of instinctively sensing what 
is in the air. He has the ability to express this so 
clearly, logically, and openly that the listener feels 
that he has always agreed with what the Fuhrer 
says. This is the real mystery of the magical effect 
of a Hitler speech. The Fuhrer is neither a strictly 
intellectual nor a strictly emotional speaker. He 
speaks from both mind and heart, depending upon 
the situation. The essential characteristics of his 
speeches to the nation are: clarity of structure, 
relentlessly logical development of a series of 
thoughts, simplicity and comprehensibility, razor- 
sharp dialectic, a clear and infallible instinct for the 
masses and their feelings, a fascinating pathos that 
is used very sparingly, and the grace to call to the 
nation's souls in a way that the people will always 
answer. 

Once, many years ago, when he was still far 
removed from power, the Fuhrer spoke to a group 
consisting mainly of political 
opponents. He was met at first 
with icy rejection. In a two-hour 
long verbal boxing match with 
an obstinate audience he finally 
vanquished all reluctance and 
protest. Ultimately he was 
speaking into a bubbling sea of 
agreement, jubilation, and 
enthusiasm. As he closed, a 
voice from the highest row 
called out: “Hitler is a 
Columbus! 

This statement captures the 
essence of the man. He had suc¬ 
ceeded in balancing an egg on 
its end. The times and the 
nations’ longings were so con¬ 
fusing and mysterious; he had 
untangled them and had 
exposed the mysteries. He 
showed his audience in simple 
and clear ways just what the 
man on the street had long felt 
but had not had the courage to 
express. Hitler said what every¬ 
one else only thought and felt! 

And not only that: he had the 
civil courage to bring this to bear 
against the opposition of almost 
everyone, and to state with 


brazen logic the demands that arose from that time 
period and from the needs of the nation. 

The Fuhrer is the first in German history for whom 
language serves as a tool to make history. When 
he started, he had no other tools. He started out 
only with the force of his strong heart and the 
power of his pure word. With these he grasped the 
depth of the nation's soul. He did not speak like 
others. He could not be compared with them at all. 
It’s not as though he didn’t know the needs and 
concerns of the man on the street or did not speak 
of these things; but for him, these concerns were 
just brush-strokes on the terrible picture he paint¬ 
ed of the collapse of Germany. He was not simply 
giving a performance, nor was he simply reporting 
like the rest. He raised the daily plight of individu¬ 
als to a national level, giving lasting meaning to it. 
He appealed to the good instincts of the masses, 
not to the bad. His speech was like a magnet that 
drew anyone with iron in his veins to him. 

For a while stupid and arrogant numskulls dis¬ 
missed him as a 'political drummer.' They were 
making fools of themselves, and they didn’t even 
know it. They so completely lacked the power of 



The t'iihrer opens the National Soeialist Freedom Assembly in 1935 
in the historical Nuremberg City Hall. 


31 






The Orator 


speech that they underesti¬ 
mated the power of speech in 
politics. They s mply eyed 
power without realizing that 
Marxism had already wrested 
the power from them and that 
Marxism would give it up only 
if force were used. They 
formed conventicles when 
what they needed was a peo¬ 
ples’ movement. They 
attempted coups when revo- 
ution was in the air. They had 
contempt for the masses 
because they did not want to 
become masters of the mass¬ 
es. The masses only yielc to 
those who take them under 
their unrelenting command. 
They only obey someone who 
knows how to give orders. 
They instinctually know the dif¬ 
ference between sincerity and 
empty words. 

This is probably the most clas¬ 
sic proof of the inner strength 
of the German nation, that it 
lends its ear to a man who 
stood up against state and 
economy, against press and 
public opinion, against what 
appeared to be reasonable and 
useful when all he offered was 
himself and his word. And this 
is also classic proof that the 
oratory genius of the Fuhrer 
extends across all time, that 



Ado/f Hitler 


his word alone shook the foundations of an entire 
period, rocked a seemingly solid state, and called 
forth a new time. 

A historical oratory figure who effects such reac¬ 
tions must be able to use the spoken word in 
every situation. And so is it with the Fuhrer. He 
speaks to workers just as clearly and confidently as 
to scientists. His word goes just as deeply nto the 
hearts of the farmers as to the city folk. When he 
speaks to children he reaches their core, too. 
When he speaks to men, the Sure of his voice 
brings forth their most secret emotions. His 
approach is historical philosophy, translated into 
the language of the people. He has a gift of being 
able to evoke long forgotten history, to bring it to 
the people who have never known anything about 
history, and to make his listeners feel they have 
known it all alonm 


His speeches are completely devoid of the arro¬ 
gance that distinguishes the "educated." 

Again and again his words revolve around the 
central ideas of the people and the national pro¬ 
motion of our race. He has a thousand ways to say 
these things. The listener never has the sense that 
something has already been said. Again and 
again, the same great, uplifting ideas for the 
rebirth of our nation are hammered into the mass¬ 
es with different words. He does not preach doc¬ 
trine. He takes a fact, presents it as a thesis, and 
proceeds to back it up with an inexhaustible 
wealth of examples. These examples are not taken 
from a particular economic situation or from the 
life of a specific part of the population. If they 
were, the rest of the people would not be con¬ 
vinced. Rather, his examples come from the life of 
the entire population, and the whole population 


32 








Speaking to the youth 


sees itself in them. They are 
so drawn by the strength of 
emotion that in the end even 
the most blindly enraged 
opponent will have to admit 
that, unlike the parliamentary 
ugglers, this orator believes 
what he says. 

Everyday life comes alive 
here, holding everyone cap¬ 
tive. The ravages of time are 
brought home using 
Weltanschauung as a tool, as 
well as humor and bitter 
irony. His humor is tri¬ 
umphant, the people cry with 
one eye and laugh with the 
other. He strikes a chord that 
sounds through the trials and 
plight of daily life. 

An unmistakable indication as 
to whether a speech meets all 
these requirements is the fact 
that it reads well in addition 
to sounding good. The 
Ftihrer’s speeches are stylistic 
masterpieces whether impro¬ 
vised impromptu, whether 
using a few notes, or whether 
carefully recited at important 
international occasions. If you 
are not sitting very close to 
him, it is hard t© tell if the 
Fuhrer has written out his 
speech in full and is not using 
his notes or if he is speaking 
from a brief outline and just 



National Socialist Assembly in 1935 


sounds like he has written out the complete 
speech. This is because both types of his speeches 
would be ready for publication. This picture of the 
Fuhrer as orator would not be complete without 
mentioning the Fuhrer as a towering shaper of 
deas and a master of rhetorical discussion. The 
last time the public had an opportunity to get to 
know this side of him was during his falling out 
with the Social Democrats in the Reichstag in 
1933. It was here that he responded to a crass and 
insolent lamentation by Weis, a member of the 
Reichstag at that time. The scene resembled a cat 
and mouse game. Marxism was pushed around 
from one end to the other. And when it wanted 
mercy, it got only destruction. With breathtaking 
precision the rhetorical whip hit its mark. With no 
manuscript, with no notes, the Fuhrer had a great, 
long-desired reckoning with the social democratic 


parliamentary hard-liners, who suffered a death 
blow administered by the Fuhrer. 

How often had he driven them into the corner so 
long ago in his assemblies when they dared to 
confront him? Back then they were able to tri¬ 
umphantly spread insulting lies of his defeat in 
their newspapers the following day. Now, they 
stand face to face with his power with the entire 
nation watch ng, and disaster is upon them. 

All of those judges and states attorneys, using 
seemingly harmless, naive questions or crass and 
dull remarks, and wanting to lead Hitler, either as 
defendant or witness, onto thin ice had to sing the 
same song with this type of relentless oratorical 
offensive. A triumphant victory for the accused 
came out of the civil court process in 1924, w itch 
was to have legally purged the rebellion of the 8th 
and 9th of November, 1923. The Fuhrer confronted 


33 












the mountain or records, animosity, and lack of 
understanding with his open truthfulness and the 
penetrating effect of his gripping eloquence. And 
the Republic certainly regretfully wishes that the 
Leipzig Reichswehr trial in 1930 would not have 
taken place. This was supposed to defeat the 
Fuhrer and his movement, but it actually became a 
springboard to his oratorical effectiveness that 
spread throughout the world. Today one shudders 
to remember the fact that a Jewish-Communist 
attorney had him stand as a witness in a Berlin 
court for nine uninterrupted hours against a 
firestorm of questions. And then we remember 
with proud satisfaction that this man faced Jewish 
Bolshevism and stubbornly upset its plans with 
words and ideas, unrelenting, until it lay overpow¬ 
ered on the ground. 

We saw and experienced the Fuhrer as a speaker at 
the National Socialist Party Assembly for Freedom 
in 1935. He spoke to the masses fifteen times over 
a period of seven days. Not once did he use the 
same expressions or present the same concepts. 
Again and again eveiything came across fresh, 
young, vital, and compelling. He spoke differently 
to the governors than to the SA and SS men, dif¬ 
ferently to the youth than to the women. Having 
revealed the most mysterious secrets of the arts in 
his great speech on culture, he turned to address 
the Wehrmacht and was understood by every sin¬ 
gle soldier right down to the last battalion. He is a 
bridge under which the life of the entire German 
nation moves and plays itself out. He has become 
a beacon of the word, making its thousand-fold 
presence known through his use of the godly 
blessing of language. 

But the Fuhrer is at his greatest as an orator when 


speaking to small groups of people. In these situa¬ 
tions he turns continuously to each individual lis¬ 
tener. This makes his discussions flow, and his 
conclusions follow immediately. He awakens the 
untiring interest of his listeners because they 
always feel he is telling them something new. He 
speaks with expert knowledge on any subject, 
astonishing eveiyone and impressing the experts. 
He is also able to quickly solve with universal solu¬ 
tions eveiyday problems that come up in the 
course of conversation. 

Here, more intimately and in more detail than pos¬ 
sible when speaking in public, the Fuhrer gets to 
the core of issues and exposes the facts with 
relentless logic. Listening to him one on one just 
once is enough to grasp the greatness of his ora¬ 
torical genius. 

One can actually say of his addresses to the nation 
and to the world that his words find a circle of lis¬ 
teners as has never been seen in histoiy. And they 
are words that ignite the heart and influence the 
shape of a new international epoch. Today there is 
hardly a person left in the entire developed world 
who has not heard the sound of his voice. Whether 
or not his words have been understood, the sound 
of them has reached the innermost part of peoples’ 
hearts. Our nation can consider itself fortunate to 
know that the world is listening to a voice from 
here, a voice blessed to form words into thoughts 
and with these thoughts, to set things in motion. 
This man is one of those people with the courage 
to say "yes 11 and no" without qualifying it in the 
next sentence with an "if or a "but." Millions and 
mil ions of people in all countries of the world are 
subject to the most bitter pain, most devastating 
gloom and most horrible need. Hardly a star shines 

through the dark clouds shad¬ 
owing Europe's sky. Nations 
are filled with hollow hope and 
are driven to verbalize these 
hopes, but lack the gift or grace 
to do so. But in Germany God 
has given one among untold 
millions the ability to put our 
suffer ng into words. 



34 











Taking u walk in the Obersalzberg mountains. 


®lu' fhiuatc Eifie nf the ifitbrer 

hij (General Mtlfjdm irtidwer 

A man as caught up in political work as the Fuhrer need to secure nourishment for t ie German 
naturally must sacrifice his private life to it. And nation, by problems in educating the young, by 

even when he tries to free himself from the pres- questions of German culture, by decisions to be 

sures of official business, po itical problems follow made n the course of re-establishing German mil- 

him to the furthest reaches of the German home- itary security. So it goes in motley succession; 

land, whether it be a quiet little village in the there is hardly a conversation that doesn't lead 

dunes of the Baltic Sea or Haus Wachenfeld in immediately to the most central political ques- 

Obersalzberg. It isn't only that he is besieged by tions, not a single experience that doesn t remind 

telephone calls, telegrams, letters and files; he can him of important decisions to be made. Everything 

never simply banish from his heart the constant in Germany begins and ends with this man. And if 

political work or his concern about Germany. The he appears to rest completely secluded for a cou- 

Fuhrer takes these cares to bed with him at night pie of days, he is actually preparing for great new 

and awakes with them early in the morning. He is decisions, for intensive new work and accomplish- 

hounded by difficulties in foreign policy, by the ments. Even when he is flying, radio telegrams 

requirements of a new labor battle, by difficulties from his leaders of the Reich and his ministers still 

arising in the arena of financial policies, by the reach him. 


35 





And thus the private life of the Fuhrer 
is completely consumed by his pub¬ 
lic office, by his work for Germany. If 
one wants to speak of a private life, 
one can only really say that it consists 
of moving political work from the 
rooms of the chancellery to less offi¬ 
cial rooms. 

Despite all of this, he manages to find 
time to deal with all matters of art 
and science. He finds the greatest 
and most delightful relaxation from 
his grueling daily routine in music, 
listening to opera or the symphony. 
Only then is he set completely free 
from the pressing questions of the 
day, and many a creative idea was 
born while he was engrossed in the 
powerful nchness of sound. 

Even in the rooms of his official resi¬ 
dence in the chancellery, the Fuhrer 
has leading German artists as his 
guests from time to time. They 
expose him to the best creative work 
of our time. After their artistic pre¬ 
sentations the discussions of music, 
drama, poetry, fiction, architecture, 
and philosophy frequently stretch 
long into the night. No one could 
leave the house after such an 
evening without fee ing intellectually 
stimulated. 

In addition to music, theater and 
architecture, the Fuhrer is particularly 
attracted to film, since it is the 
newest branch of artistic creation. A 
movie projector in the great hall of 
the chancellery of the Reich makes it 
possible to view the on-going pro 
duction of Germany and the world in 
between dealing with pressing ques¬ 
tions of the day. The Fuhrer's knowl¬ 
edge has provided much new 
stimulus even to those in the film 
industry. 

He frequently invites visitors who 
have appeared before him for official 
meetings to share the noon meal 
with him, so that he can discuss in 
more detail any questions that 
occurred to him during the official 
presentation. Thus people from vari¬ 
ous fields of work and interests - offi¬ 
cers and scientists, men of business 
and the arts, high party leaders and 



A neighbor in Obersalzberg greets the Fuhrer. 



He is allowed to peer through the telescope. 



Prime Minister Goring with the Fuhrer in Obersalzberg. 


36 




A field comrade visits with the Fulmer. 



Hans Wachenfeid in Obersalzherg near Berchtesgaden. 



An encounter in Oherscdzberg. 


old comrades-in-arms from the 
war and the early days of the 
movement - frequently come 
together at the Fuhrer's table and 
receive new knowledge and intel¬ 
lectual stimulation, not just from 
him but also in discussions among 
themselves. 

The Fuhrer likes to use the week¬ 
end to personally gauge the mood 
of the nation, and to form a picture 
of the progress of reconstruction 
work, without officially scheduled 
visits. FHe drives through the 
German Gaue (districts) in his cher¬ 
ished wartime automobile, and 
almost every location stirs some 
memory from the time of the 
struggle for power. Over and over 
on these trips his entourage relives 
the profound experience of seeing 
the nation's enormous love for the 
Fuhrer come surging forth. 

There are some places in Germany 
which the Fuhrer especially favors 
for short rests. Above all there is the 
house in Obersalzberg, well known 
to all Germans, which is so closely 
connected with the history of the 
movement. There are a couple of 
places hidden in the dunes of the 
Baltic Sea and the North Sea which 
the Fuhrer likes to seek out for a 
short holiday or to hold especially 
important meetings. Walks through 
a beech forest at sunset on the 
seashore often provide rest and 
relaxation while helping reach 
important political decisions at the 
same time. Children approach him 
without fear on these walks, offer 
him their hands, chat with him, 
sharing with him all the little experi¬ 
ences that are so important to 
them. Sometimes the Fuhrer inter¬ 
rupts the most important conversa¬ 
tions so he can abandon himself for 
a few minutes completely to the 
joys and the sorrows of such a child. 
In the larger maritime cities the 
navy gathers around the Fuhrer to 
enliven a brief, casual evening with 
stories of the war, reports from 11- 
boat cruises and of the battles at 
Skagerrak. It is the same in small 


37 
















a walk in the mountains 


A simple stew, even for the Chancellor of the German Reich 


38 
















garrisons and in the countryside, where 
the Fuhrer himself often tells exciting and 
impressive stories of his war experiences 
on the western front. 

During his travels, he frequently breaks for 
a quick picnic at particularly charming sce¬ 
nic points, whether on a radiant summer 
Sunday or on a warm and beautiful moon¬ 
lit night. And often berry pickers or peo¬ 
ple out gathering wood suddenly draw 
near and pause, surprised to see that it s 
the Fuhrer here on a forest glade, peeling 
an apple or eating a couple of pieces of 
bread. Then he beckons the hesitant 
onlookers to draw near, inviting them to 
partake of his meal. 

Many people wonder why the Fuhrer 
selected Obersalzberg as his home. But 
anyone who has stood there high up on 
the mounta nside understands that there 
is hardly a town in all of Germany from 
which one has such a wide and unob¬ 
structed view of the world's beauty, 
despite the proximity of the surrounding 
mountains. To the north, nestled at the 
foot of the Gaisberg, lies the old cathedral 
city of Salzburg. 

When a foehn wind blows, clearing the air, 
you can see the castle and the little town 
with the naked eye. Even without the 
foehn , with binoculars you can see all the 
details of the buildings. To the left of 
Obersalzberg looms the massive peak of 
the Untersberg, providing an ever-chang¬ 
ing experience with different, enchanting 
colors. Still further to the left, your eyes 
wander over to Watzmann Mountain and 
to the other large mountains surrounding 
it archlike, ending up behind 
Obersalzberg in the high Golf 
No day here is like any other. Sometimes 
fog brews in the morning, leading to a 
desperate battle against the sun located 
higher in the sky, until the fog is overcome 
and rises from the valleys to hover, near 
midday, as soft white clouds against an 
azure blue sky. At other times, the day 
begins with radiant sun light, and the 
observer sees everything clearly and dis¬ 
tinctly, down to the last detail. The foehn 
comes down warm from the heights and 
fills the valleys with a soft, nostalgic 
atmosphere. Then rain and snowstorms 
whip the mountains, and the wind blusters 
around the simple little country house. 



In a G'schwanc/ner alpine pasture near Garmisch. 



The Fiihrer during summer vacation in front of the Bruckerlehen near 
Berchtesgaden where Dietrich Eckart lived for some time in 1923. 



Evening in Obersalzberg. 


40 



Four strapping brothers. 



A mother's pride and joy. 



"Here, my Fiihrer, is my grandchild. 


Here, surrounded by this magnif¬ 
icent nature, which is an allegory 
of human events, the Fiihrer pre¬ 
pares his great speeches, often 
giving not just Germany but inter¬ 
national politics new impetus or 
direction. This is where the crucial 
meetings take place, before great 
laws - calculated to influence 
centuries to come - take on their 
final form. 

A German-American from the 
Steuben Society understood the 
significance of this little country 
house when he became acquaint¬ 
ed with it on a visit to his old 
homeland. He later said: "We 
Germans from America do not 
know the new Germany. We 
know only the old Germany, and 
we have seen it again with new 
eyes as we v sited the palaces and 
castles of earlier times. Now we 
have become acquainted with this 
house and have experienced it as 
an obvious example of the con¬ 
trast between the Germany creat¬ 
ed by Adolf Hitler and the old 
one. We now also know the inex¬ 
haustible fount from which he 
draws the substance for his 
speeches." 

And it is true that here, far from 
the confusing hustle and bustle of 
everyday life, the searching mind, 
guided by the endless spectacle 
of the landscape, finds the right 
paths for the nation and the 
fatherland. But the Fiihrer is not 
able to enjoy the wondrous beau¬ 
ty of nature like someone on 
vacation who has left all his busi¬ 
ness behind. Lven as he arrives in 
Obersalzberg, he encounters an 
imposing number of letters and 
files, telegrams and telephone 
messages, and new piles of work 
arrive with every postal delivery. 
Ministers and leaders of the Reich 
call him almost every day to get 
his view on important and urgent 
matters. Often they themselves 
make the journey to 
Berchtesgaden to talk to the 
Fiihrer during his short period of 


41 












The Fuhrer in front of his country house in Obersafzberg, 


rest. Party questions that have been deferred 
because of important political decisions in Berlin 
are settled here, and many books - belles lettres 
as well as political literature, both foreign and 
domestic - which languished uselessly in the 
chancellery of the Reich, are read thoroughly here 
by the Fuhrer in peace and quiet. This is when the 
light in his room burns until late at night. Often, 
long after his entourage has retired, magnificently 
deep peace reigns, and the FOhrer reads - these 
are his happiest hours. The next morning, the 
long-distance exchange begins again with dozens 
of person-to-person telephone calls, the files lie 
waiting, the mail piles up. Yes, the sad truth is this: 
When the Fuhrer is in Obersalzberg "for rest and 
relaxation," the post office and telephone compa¬ 
ny in Berchtesgaden are working at their peak. 
And everyone surrounding the FOhrer puts in a 
good measure of work, because it is here that 
ideas come easily and decisions ripen quickly. 
Before eating a common breakfast, the Fuhrer has 
already read the newspapers, which he goes 
through himself instead of having someone pre¬ 
pare excerpts for him. Then his adjutants, his press 
chief, and the other men in his entourage report 
briefly on what is on the day's agenda. Then they 
eat breakfast, and immediately afterwards the 
scheduled visitors, leaders of the Reich, ministers, 
close staff members and party members arrive. In 
the meantime, the mail is prepared and reported 
on to the Fuhrer, who outlines brief responses or 
dictates immediate responses himself. And so the 


morning passes quickly. 

The old guard is always cheerfully received as 
guests in Obersalzberg: party comrades Goring 
and Dr. Goebbels, Reich's Treasury Minister 
Schwarz, Minister Adolf Wagner, the Reich s 
Minister of War and many others. 

Usually the busy morning is followed by a short or 
long midday walk, or by a trip into the surround¬ 
ing countryside. In both summer and winter, the 
Fuhrer especially likes to hike to "Goll Hausl where 
Dietrich Eckart lived until death tore him from the 
Fuhrer's side. 

The Fuhrer is just as happy to travel over to 
Konigsee, an unparalleled jewel of the German 
mountain landscape, where the sheer drop of the 
Watzmann and the idyllic Bartholomew offer 
unforgettable splendor. 

If there is not enough time for longer walks, and if 
work must continue immediately after the midday 
meal, then at coffee time there is usually some 
time to go to the little mountain inn on Hochlenzer 
or to pay a visit to Prime Minister Goring's house if 
the master of the house is at home, in which case 
Goring may invite the Fuhrer to an archery match, 
a sport at which he is a master. 

Often, however, the Fuhrer has just a few minutes 
to spare during the day, which he spends in the 
garden of the house with his German shepherds, 
who cling to him with idolatrous love. In winter, 
Adolf Hitler pensively watches the birds in their 
various feeding areas as they help themselves to 
what he has scattered for them in the morning. 


42 








At Obersee , a lake near Berchtesgaden 



Thus the daily schedule changes from day to day. 
Only one event is absolutely fixed. Eveiy day at 
midday, hundreds and thousands of comrades 
gather below on the roadway to see the Fuhrer. 
The Fuhrer, who well knows that they have all 
come to Berchtesgaden not just to see him, but to 
express the love of the entire nation, allows noth¬ 
ing to stop him from fulfilling their fondest wish. It 
is always a heart stirring image to experience the 
jubilation which breaks outs when the Fuhrer 
enters their midst. Blue collar and white collar 
workers alike gather here from all over Germany, 
and it is always like a pilgrimage. All of them, large 
and small, march past the Fuhrer. Their eyes 
sparkle, their hands are raised in salute, and many 
of them have tears of profound emotion in their 
eyes. Cheers ring out from the ranks of the 
marchers as they announce their affiliation with 
individual Teutonic tribes, ‘'from Upper Silesia," 
"from East Prussia," "from Schleswig," "from 
Oldenburg," "from Saxony," "from Hamburg" and 
so on. Young members of the Hitler Youth and the 
League of German Girls are not held back by barri¬ 
cades. As swift as hares, they rush to the Fuhrer, 
presenting him with carefully prepared little bou¬ 
quets of flowers. They are happy if the Fuhrer talks 
to them and even more thrilled if he invites some 
of them to have lunch or coffee with him. 

All of his guests and his staff sit happily together 
at mealtimes, and hearty laughter often rings out 
through the room. These brief minutes pass in 
peaceful relaxation. Architects and artists visit fre¬ 
quently, presenting their new p ans to the Fuhrer. 


He is pleased by eveiything dealing with cultural 
reconstruction and engages in long discussions of 
the plans. The Fuhrer also pays strict attention to 
the plans and photographs of Dr. Todt, the General 
Inspector for the Reich's autobahns. And the 
Ftihrer's old comrades-in-arms from the great war 
are always welcome guests in Obersalzberg. 

But even though there is no end to the work in 
Obersalzberg, short, vigorous walks provide the 
Fuhrer with new buoyancy. It is all the same to him 
whether the hot summer sun is blazing from the 
sky or crunchy snow covers the mountains, 
whether rain beats down or fog conceals all. The 
Fuhrer walks veiy briskly so these walks are not 
always pure pleasure for the Ftihrer's entourage, 
men who have gone to the big city and forgotten 
real mountain climbing. It is often difficult even for 
people who are in good shape to keep pace with 
him, and his adjutants sometimes have trouble 
matching his speed. The Fuhrer strides along 
quickly and effortlessly, while they have already 
begun to huff and puff. 

These are only brief days of relaxation, and more 
often than not, unexpected events cut them even 
shorter. But one thing is sure: nowhere will the 
c uhrer find a life that is so tailored to his nature as 
the life he lives in the few days that he is able to 
spend here on the mountain, 
just as the mountains remain eternal amidst the 
changes of thousands of years, so too will the 
work the Fuhrer has begun here live on for millen¬ 
nia, through his nation. 



During summer vacation in Obersalzberg. 


43 



New Year's Day reception for the Diplomatic Corps 1934. 


a he Jffiiljrer aa §>tateamatt 

bij Sr. OtebbElB 


A ll human greatness has its source in the blood. 

Greatness is guided by instinct, and intuition is 
its great blessing. The participation of the intellect 
in works of true genius is always limited; the intel¬ 
lect has more to do with ferreting out the direction 
and meaning of these works and revealing them to 
later observers. These laws apply particularly to the 
arts, the highest and most noble activity of man, 
which bring him closer to his divine source. In the 
same way the arts have value and meaning in the 
field of politics. It is no coincidence that we refer to 
"the art of statesmanship." Statesmanship is truly 
an art because it has all the characteristics of artis¬ 
tic creativity. The sculptor uses chisel and hammer 
on untreated stone to blow divine breath into it, 
and raw marble becomes artistic form. The painter 
uses the medium of color to recreate what nature 
has so nobly provided, and to re-create it again, as 
it were. The writer strings sentence together using 
language (in itself formless) to make a poem, a 
drama, or an epic work, in which he recasts human 
passions and the good and evil within these pas¬ 
sions. The statesman has the raw material of the 
masses at his disposal. With the power of his 


words and works, he molds them to a living, 
breathing, national entity. His great, inspired proj¬ 
ects give the public a national goal. Everyone 
draws equally from the brilliant ideology which 
originates as inspiration. And the true artist always 
considers himself to be only its instrument. Each of 
these areas has its necessary craftsmen who exist 
within the limitations of their tasks and duties. 
They learn their craft industriously and conscien¬ 
tiously. Those who are among the better craftsmen 
acquire valuable and extensive knowledge of their 
specialty, and they understand what is required of 
them. But they have a profession, not a calling. 
These are talented craftsmen. The true artist, how¬ 
ever, is a genius. 

This is the difference between talent and genius: 
talent draws on experience, on knowledge, per¬ 
haps from an imaginative intellect. Genius, how¬ 
ever, draws on grace. Genius is challenged to a 
higher task, thus fulfilling the law according to 
which it is called. 

Geniuses overthrow worlds and build new worlds. 
Geniuses are the great signpost for all nations. 
Whole eras orient themselves according to the 


44 




















geniuses of the time. Geniuses set the course of 
history. 

There is a saying that inside every/ man is a child. 
This is especially valid for the genius because the 
actions and works of a genius are characterized by 
childlike spontaneity. A genius approaches things 
with the same confident instinct of a child. 

A brilliant statesman dares the impossible to make 
possible what is possible. His real 
strength is in simplifying prob¬ 
lems that seem insoluble. Before 
those of average intelligence 
have even identified or recog¬ 
nized a problem, the great Fuhrer 
is already solving it. 

The most urgent problem that 
the Germans needed to solve 
after the war was to take the 
conglomerate of states, parties, 
organizations, and individuals 
and form a nation that would be 
united in its thinking, its feelings, 
and its action. This problem did 
not originate with the war; but 
ultimately the fact that it 
remained unsolved is the reason 
we lost the war. For many cen¬ 
turies Germany was excluded 
from being an actor in world pol¬ 
itics because of its inner disunity. 

We Germans were at odds with 
each other about rel gious, eco¬ 
nomic, and social issues. These 
internal battles were terrible and 
claimed large numbers of vic¬ 
tims, while other nations, recog¬ 
nizing their political destiny 
earlier, took possession of the 
globe. 

The war made it clear that this situation was unten¬ 
able. But the Germans did not learn from this ter¬ 
rible lesson. Instead we did exactly the opposite of 
what history/ demanded of us. Unprecedented 
djvisiveness was observed at a time when we 
were most dependent on our internal unity. 

In the years after the war Germany sometimes 
gave the impression that it was in the process of 
leaving behind the sphere of large-scale interac¬ 
tion with world powers to withdraw into provincial 
isolation. There were none of the prerequisites for 
standardization of national thought. One can even 
say that the so-called Weimar Constitution repre¬ 
sented perpetuation of internal conflict and that it 
was the parliamentary/ parties who were the 
greedy beneficiaries. The state shirked this respon¬ 


sibility because its vigilance was directed nward 
rather than outward. Its goal was to keep and con¬ 
serve what little remained of our internal freedom 
and outer sovereignty. 

The first and most difficult test for the brilliant 
statesman appearing on the scene at this time was 
to recognize that a struggle within the state itself 
to reestablish Germany as a world power was 


pointless from the very/ beginning. Thus it was use¬ 
less even to try/ because, by signing the Treaty of 
Versailles, the state had given up once and for all 
its status as a world power. 

Furthermore, it zealously enforced the treaty. 
Every stirring of national srn was considered an 
attack on the state itself and was punished. 

And so at that time, a true statesman could be 
found only outside the state, not from within the 
parties and not from within the state. The state had 
to fall first to then make possible moral, social, and 
economic restoration of the C erman nation; and 
with restoration, the consolidation of a true state 
as befitting the real nature of the nation. It was 
necessary/ in this struggle against the state to form 
a state within a state, to be a testing ground for 



45 









A historical meeting. Eden and Simon with the Fiihrer. 



The Reich's Cabinet at the announcement of national dejense legislation. 


46 


















After the reception for the diplomats on New Year's Day 1936. 



Hie Fiihrer and Foreign Minister von Neurath. 



Adolf Hitler's meeting with Mussolini in Venice 1934. 



In the chancellery of the Reich: 
the Fiihrer and his Chief of Staff Lutze. 


47 








the practical and organizational 
laws that would later be the fun¬ 
damental laws of the new state. 
It was not enough to counter 
Weimar theory with a new theo¬ 
ry, even if well conceived and 
well meant. A group of men 
would have to rally around the 
new theory - men who would 
give this theory life, color, and a 
real existence. The basic idea 
was that there would have to be 
a new, opposing state within the 
Weimar Republic. People would 
have to support this new state, 
and they would become the new 
nation which would emerge 
from the old Weimar Republic. 
The process of developing a new 
German nation could be success¬ 
fully begun on.y in accordance 
with these principles. 

And it is here that the Fuhrer's 
work as a statesman began. 

But before he could begin, there 
were some basic decisions to 
make.' hese were to become the 
actual source of his political 
actions. Even when he was still 
an unknown private first-class in 
the World War, speaking as an 
education officer to Bavarian gar¬ 
risons, the Fuhrer made numer¬ 
ous decisions, " hese decisions 
suggest that he was acting with 
absolute confidence and with the 
superior instinct of a statesman- 
genius. Most particularly, it is the 
fact that almost no one under¬ 
stood his actions - a fact that was 
later the actual reason for his fab¬ 
ulous, fantastic rise - which con¬ 
firms the absolute correctness of 
the philosophy taking shape in 
his mind. It would have been 
easy for him to loin one of the 
existing parties where he would 
have had a quiet, secure life and 
prospects of advancement. He 
could have quieted his tortured 
conscience with the argument 
that c ne had to save what could 
be saved and that it was there¬ 
fore necessary to choose the 
lesser evil. He did not do this. He 



The Reich's Chancellor at the New Year's reception talking to 
the French ambassador Franqois-Poncet. 


New Year's reception 1935. The Fuhrer speaks with the cloven of the diplomatic corps. 



The Fuhrer and Polish Foreigner Minister Colonel Beck. 


48 










In the Chancellery of the Reich. 



Soldiers from the English front with the Fiihrer. 


did not do it because none of the 
existing parties could guarantee 
a solution to the disunity within 
Germany. None of the existing 
parties even had a chance. But 
he knew that without unifying 
the Germans, a statesmanlike 
approach to the national 
German problem - although 
there was a solution - would be 
impossible from the very begin¬ 
ning. Here one can already see 
the instincts of a gifted man who 
would prefer to choose what 
seemed to be a hopeless, des¬ 
perate struggle against state, 
money, press, and parties rather 
than burdening the very begin¬ 
ning of his work with a compro¬ 
mise. 

It was fashionable at the time to 
support the state, here were 
two separate camps. One identi¬ 
fied itself with the state, and the 
other believed it could and 
should reform the state from the 
inside. The Fiihrer belonged to 
neither camp because he knew 
that the state was flawed at its 
very foundation. And so he 
knew the state could not be 
reorganized, but rather that it 
would have to be eliminated to 
make it possible to form a true 
state. Later there were people 
and parties who went against 
the Weimar system when they 
recognized, or pretended to rec¬ 
ognize, the impossibility of inter¬ 
nal reform. But they were 
already burdened with the onus 
of having made peace with the 
Weimar democracy, even if tem¬ 
porarily. 

The Fiihrer was the only one who 
could point to the fact that at no 
time had he entered into an 
agreement with the parliamen¬ 
tary regime. Thus it appeared 
that he alone was predestined to 
give it the final blow in its last 
hour. 

At that time, parties and individ¬ 
uals did not speak to the people 
as a nation. They only addressed 


49 



separate groups within the nation. The worker par¬ 
ties spoke to the workers, the conservative parties 
spoke to the middle class, the religious parties to 
their adherents, and the farmers' parties to the 
farmers. At the early meetings of the National 
Socialist German Workers 1 Party in Munich, where 
the F ihrer spoke to an audience of barely one hun¬ 
dred, it may have seemed grotesque to the casu¬ 


al observer that it was always the nation as a whole 
whom he addressed. This party did not speak to 
the educated population alone or to the proletari¬ 
at alone. Hitler had the courage to say unpopular 
things, and he spurned cheap flattery that would 
have bought him the applause of the masses. 
Today one has to look back on these origins of the 
National Socialist movement and to the true lead¬ 
ership of Adolf Hitler to understand the miracle of 
the statesmanlike approach founded in these ori¬ 


gins. For it was not the times that had changed the 
Fuhrer, but the Fuhrer who changed the times. 
What seemed a paradox then has long s nee 
become self-evident. But it did not become self- 
evident on its own; no, it needed a clear and 
uncompromising decision by a man and a dogged 
anc relentless struggle until it had achieved its 
goal. 

It would have been easy then to 
suggest social reforms which 
cou d have been exaggerated 
more and more the further the 
Fuhrer and his movement were 
from actual fulfillment of prom¬ 
ises made. It s true that for the 
first few years it would probably 
have been more convenient to 
win supporters this way. The 
Fuhrer did not do this. He gave 
his movement an deological 
platform that became, as it 
were, the fundamental founda¬ 
tion of his party and state. The 
most essential characteristic of 
this ideology was the connec¬ 
tion between the nation and 
socialist principles. These two 
driving forces, engaged in a bit¬ 
ter struggle at the time, were 
thus brought together on a 
higher plane and yet in a simple 
manner that the man on the 
street could understand. The 
fact that nothing needed to be 
changed when the National 
Socialist movement came to 
power - not the program nor 
the ideology, not the flag nor 
the name, is proof of how far¬ 
sighted and statesmanlike the 
foundation for the National 
Socialist framework was in the 
very early days of the party. The 
Fuhrer trained the party not to 
compromise. The party com¬ 
bined absolute implacabi ity regarding its princi¬ 
ples with the highest flexibility regarding its meth¬ 
ods and actions. From the very first day until the 
party destroyed it, the party was engaged in a life 
and death struggle with parliamentarianism. The 
party did not retreat before the terror of the 
Marxist parties with their feeble and cowardly 
cliches, but used brute bree against brute force. 
Even though the party's daring first surprise putsch 
on November 8 and 9, 1923 was unsuccessful, 



50 











later historians will need to examine not only what 
was achieved, but also what was prevented. There 
is no question that their judgment will fully justify 
the Fuhrer's actions. And how did conservative 
politicians act during the days of the Republic, 
after lost coups? Either they fled abroad or they 
were not there. But the Fuhrer was different! He 


Although barely visible externally, it developed 
internally into a fertile, organic process of gradual 
reconstruction of the movement and its separate 
organizations. If a statesman is judged by how he 
gathers minds, character, and personalities around 
himself and his work, the Fuhrer need not fear being 
compared to others. Few eras in history could boast 


stood at the front of his troops. 
He was the first amongst the 
accused; he did not take the 
easy way out although the 
courts and government offered 
him opportunities; he did not 
allow himself to be persuaded, 
but openly admitted that he had 
wanted to overthrow the state 
and that he would do it again 
and again, whenever he saw an 
opportunity. He took the most 
dangerous and most destructive 
path, and his actions saved the 
movement and his work. At the 
trial at People's Court in Munich 
he conducted himself in an 
utmost statesmanlike way, illus¬ 
trating all the elements of the 
highest order of political action. 
He paired boldness with logic, 
and honesty with courage. He 
showed contempt for danger 
when the stakes were the high¬ 
est. This was the last game of 
chance. There was everything to 
win because everything had 
been wagered. Self-defense 
against the non-state of 
Versailles and Weimar was 
heightened to a higher moral 
principle and it carried away 
hundreds of thousands of peo¬ 
ple in a flood of enthusiastic 
admiration - people who until 
then had only dreamed of it, 



The Fuhrer in front of the Kaiserplatz in Goslar at the harvest thanksgiving celebration. 1934. 


yearned for it. The Fi hrer cannot be held responsi¬ 
ble for the road the party took while he was incar¬ 
cerated. He so clearly recognized the tasks of the 
statesman that awaited him after his release that 
his party did not merge with others, which might 
have made things easier for him. Rather he found¬ 
ed the old movement anew according to the prin¬ 
ciples established in beginning, Thus began the 
hard struggle, replete with victims and sacrifice, to 
rebuild the prestige of the party. For years it seemed 
hopeless. At the time the NSDAP was not even 
considered worthy of the hatred of its opponents. 


the wealth of expertise we have experienced In our 
time. Today they are visible. But it was harder to find 
them among the masses of supporters, to instinc¬ 
tively recognize their talents, and to place them in 
the movement s struggle - and later within the state 
- according to their capabilities. 

Whereas in 1928 there were only twelve delegates 
of the National Social st movement in parliament, 
this number increased nearly tenfold within two 
years, the party stepped into the limelight and 
found itself facing its most difficult test. It could let 
itself be cast aside with a few minor minister posts 


51 


like the other parties and participate in the regime, 
or it could continue the struggle to the end, no 
matter what the outcome, under the motto "all or 
nothing." 

Again the Fuhrer's instinct as a statesman enabled 
him to make the right decision. The struggle con¬ 
tinued, and the party found its voice during the 
Reich’s defense trial before the Federal Court in 
Leipzig when the Fuhrer himself proclaimed his 
understanding of the principle of legality. It is 
doubtful whether anyone in the regime foresaw at 
the beginning of this trial that, by the time it was 


to do so if the movement were to strike its deci¬ 
sive blow. 

The next goal was to gradually crack open and sys¬ 
tematically weaken the conservative parties. Two 
years later, unflagging efforts in this respect 
caused the downfall of the Bruning cabinet. The 
feigned tolerance for the Papen government led to 
the thirteenth of August 1932. Here again, a great 
hour dawned for a true statesman. Here again it 
was a matter of either being satisfied with half or 
wanting it all. Any politician would have gone for 
the former, and German history has dozens of 



Foreign military attaches at (he party congress in Nuremberg. 


over, a democratic Berlin newspaper would write 
with resignation that the real winner was Adolf 
Hitler. In addition they wrote that the highest 
German court had given him an opportunity to 
corroborate under oath - in front of the whole 
world - his understanding of the principle of legal¬ 
ity. Up to this point they had not allowed this 
because of their past experiences with him, and 
now he could forever point to his understanding of 
this principle in his struggle against the republic. 
This was a turning point, and this is what distin¬ 
guished the Fiihrer from his opponents. With his 
statesman's vision he had seen the possibilities of 
this trial from the beginning, whereas his oppo¬ 
nents had not seen its significance until the end. It 
was absolutely clear to him that he had to assert 
the principle of legality against the extremists in 
his own party. He also knew that it was necessary 


examples to prove it. But the Fuhrer, a true states¬ 
man, opted for the latter. He lost two million votes 
in the November 1932 election for this great, bold 
decision. With an unprecedented concentration of 
force, he undertook a final assault against the 
regime in the Lippe elections early in January of 
1933. Two weeks later he was in power. 

The first symbol of building the foundation was the 
alliance between Hindenburg and Hitler. Here tra¬ 
dition and revolution joined hands. The statesman- 
genius of the Fuhrer produced the miracle of a 
virtually bloodless revolution while simultaneously 
reconciling with true traditional values. 

Here we see the value of confidently adhering to 
his instinct regarding his Weltanschauung - the 
instinct of a man who acts responsibly and who 
effortlessly follows his conscience. They scorned 
radical rhetoric and a magnificent transformation 


52 










A meeting of Reich's governors in the chancellery of the Reich under the Fuhrer's chairmanship. 



The fuhrer receiving a delegation from the Japanese Navy ; 1934. 


53 








took place: one world was felled and a new world 
was built. 

This is the miracle of German unity, he Fuhrer 
made traditional values part of the state on March 
21, 1933. He made the German workers part of 
the state on May 1, 1933. An almost inevitable 
result of this re-fusion of the nation was the occu- 
pat on of the union's buildings at the one time 
when it was possible, and indeed, at the tactically 
correct moment. Likewise, the implementation of 
a four-year plan to solve Germany's most urgent 
problems was a farsighted and thorough blueprint 


decision was necessary even if risky. Ever the 
statesman, Hitler arranged for the people them¬ 
selves to vote on this monumental issue that first 
year. Ever the statesman, he chose the most criti¬ 
cal moment to proclaim Germany's freedom to 
arm itself again and to present this to the world as 
an irreversible fact. He knew that the time was 
right, and so he acted. This is proof of true voca¬ 
tion. In this case when a man acts, he acts under a 
higher law. In this case he is acting not on intellect 
but on the instinct that is in his blood. 

A German nation finally able to protect itself 



Labor Day, May J, J934, Youth rally in the Berliner Lust gar ten. 
The Fiihrer departs after his great speech to the young people. 


requiring time to work peacefully and calmly. 
Next, the Fuhrer considered the huge number of 
urgent problems facing his public policies. He ear¬ 
marked a just a few very important problems anc 
solved them using the greatest and best 
resources. Here again he was always too perfect a 
statesman. Never was there a great revolutionary 
less hysterical or less rash than he. Never had a 
politician making history worked so clearly and 
purposefully, or so calmly and quietly. And never 
in history had such a miracle taken place while 
under such pressure from abroad! 

The Fiihrer's decision for Germany to leave the 
League of Nations was daring and significant. 
Where others were more timid and filled with 
hopelessness. Hitler was clear and decisive. This 


again, a German nation with a straightforward 
agreement with England to have a German navy 
adequate for the population, a German nation that 
has re-entered the circle of other nations as a 
world power, a German nation more and more 
admired, or at least envied by the whole world, 
and a German nation becoming ever more visible 
as an important element of world peace - all this 
from a seven-member party in Munich brought to 
great power by a statesman. This development 
was guided by a number of decisions, all of which 
illustrate a fabulous and fantastic rise that future 
historians are sure to praise as the greatest politi¬ 
cal miracle of the twentieth century. 

It is here that clear thinking came together with 
purposeful action. It is here that political instinct, 


54 



unspoiled through and through, accomplished its 
task. It is here that an unerring instinct was at play, 
that of knowing when something is possible and 
when something is not possible. It is here that 
instinct brought about miracles because there was 
belief in miracles. 

The German people today are not the same as the 


German people of ten years ago. The nation owes 
its strength and its belief to the confident, 
unswerving leadership of a true statesman - a 
statesman who knows what he wants, and wants 
what he knows. He belongs to the few chosen 
people in history. He is great enough to be simple 
and simple enough to be great! 



A! Tempelhoj Field on May I. 


55 




The Fiihrer lays the foundation for a community center in the Adolf Hitler Koog. 


Stye Saihrcr ani the (german Worker 

lij ir. Robert Cnj 


S he change that has taken place in the German 
nation since it was taken over by National 
Socialism is most clearly seen in the attitude of the 
worker toward the new German state and in the 
value placed on the worker and his work. 

The working class arose at a time when liberalism 
began to rule Europe’s world of thought. 
Liberalism has always depicted work as something 
disagreeable, even dishonorable. The highest ideal 
of 1 beralism was to live from the work of others. 
No longer was the most desirable goal that of 
helping to build the nation’s future and to experi¬ 
ence the joy inherent n this activity. Instead, the 
goal was to put this disagreeable condition known 
as work behind oneself, to live on annuities and 
dividends, and at most to derive an income from 
real estate or commerce. Obviously, when this is 


the prevailing attitude toward life, work is deval¬ 
ued and the scale becomes something like this: at 
the top end are the do-nothing blase, next come 
those who work in finance or trade, then come the 
professionals and, at the very bottom of the scale, 
manual laborers. 

By God, physical work was the dirtiest and most 
debasing thing that could happer to a human 
being. Anyone unfortunate enough to have to 
earn a living with his hands was completely 
unsuitable for and excluded from good compa¬ 
ny.” The fact that the worker, toiling day after day 
by the sweat of his brow, feels inferior is proof that 
this liberal Weltanschauung has poisoned the pos¬ 
itive national attitude. Why else would a father 
scrape his pennies together to enable his son to 
become “something better -a craftsman perhaps. 


56 




With workers in Siemensstadt 


And then spend every penny of his meager wage 
to send his son to high school or at least to mid¬ 
dle school if the boy has trouble learning Latin 
anc mathematics. And the father does not say 
that he does this so his son will have an easier life; 
so he can face life better prepared; so he will have 
a better life than his father. No, he says explicitly 
that he is doing this so that his son can climb the 
social ladder. 

Is it possible to understand 
the insanity of this kind of 
thinking-this insanity that 
was indeed systematically 
encouraged by Marxism? 

Marxism did its best to 
deepen the feeling of inferi¬ 
ority that this liberal arro¬ 
gance had instilled in the 
German worker, and to for¬ 
ever infuse the German 
worker with a feeling of 
being “disinherited” or 
nothing but a “proletarian,” 
and to believe that he 
should hate those who are 
“better.” 

The forces of Liberalism and 
Marxism, growing from the 


same seed and separated into castes by class 
hatred, committed this cursed crime! 

Seduced by Marxism, the worker believed that he 
could improve his situation by refusing to work. 
The I berals dulled people’s minds so that many of 
the educated” went hungry rather then engaging 
in manual labor. The good German saying, “Work 
does not dishonor” was turned around: “Work dis¬ 
honors!” The proper! ed classes saw in the worker 
a dirty slave. The worker took revenge by consid¬ 
ering everyone who offered employment a blood¬ 
sucker and a drone, and he began to treat them 
accordingly. Neither side noticed that their views 
and actions would quickly destroy the nation that, 
for better or worse, they were both part of. As far 
as the International Labor Association was con¬ 
cerned, neither the gold, the green nor the red 
had room for a fatherland named Germany. 

And it is here that Adolf Hitler’s extraordinary 
work began. He realized that it was not a question 
of the haves and have-nots, not a question of 
employers and employees. He realized that 
Marxism could not be stamped out without 
stamping out this arrogant and reactionary liberal¬ 
ism. He introduced the people to a system of val¬ 
ues that was as new as it was ancient. 

People stopped to listen to Hitler’s brief, clear 
words. At first only a few were moved by what he 
had to say, then more and more were moved, and 
finally everyone saw that for the last century they 
had been stumbling around in the deepest, most 
terrible darkness. Their eyes were opened to a 
new, brilliant rea ization. In the light of this realiza¬ 
tion, everything that had been so hostile, every¬ 
thing that had seemed to be an unresolvable 
conflict, all this deathly animosity dissolved into 



Young workers visiting the Fiihrer in the chancellery on May 1, 1934 


57 







At a Blolwi & Voss shipyard, (934. 



National Socialist Party rally in 1935. The Fiihrer and Dr. Ley with large groups of workers. 


58 














Laying the cornerstone of a new Reichxbank, May 5, 1934. 


59 














nothing. The Fuhrer teaches us: 
you are nothing, your nation is 
everything. When you work, you 
work for your nation. It is an 
honor to work. All work is the 
same. The work of a managing 
director is no more valuable than 
the work of a street sweeper. It 
does not matter what kind of 
work is done, only that it is 
done. Those who do not work 
lose honor in the national com¬ 
munity. Work does not dishonor; 
it ennobles the worker. It makes 
no difference if it is intellectual 
work or manual work. The only 
dishonor is to be a drone with 
contempt for those who work. 
And these words were more 
than theory. German workers in 
1933-seduced by Marxism and 
reactionary, dull-minded liber- 
als-may have been skeptical and 
may have believed that the 
Weltanschauung of National 
Socialism was not quite serious. 
But this changed within a very 
short time, and today the 
German worker is a staunch fol¬ 
lower of the Fuhrer-the Fuhrer 
who freed him from his proletar¬ 
ian existence, who returned to 
him the honor and work which 
liberalism and Marxism had 
taken from him, who finally gave 
him that which, in his heart of 
hearts, he had always struggled 
for: to be respected by others; to 
have the same value placed on 
all work; and to have workers dif¬ 
ferentiated from each other only 
by their effort and efficiency. 
Once this became clear, the 
German workers enthusiastically 
followed the Fuhrer and stood 
shoulder to shoulder next to the 
first worker of the Reich. Even 
the liberals among the proper¬ 
tied classes changed their ideas 
and learned the National 
Socialist way of thinking. By the 
third year of the National 
Socialist Reich, this new work 
ethic was outwardly evident in 
the final stabilization of the 



Visiting the Bavarian Motor Works. 



A Mercedez-Benz race car built upon the Fiihrer's suggestion. 



This is how a statesman moves among workers. 


60 









Visiting industry in Rhein-Westphalia. 



Visit to a factory. A representative of the work force greets the Fiihrec 



Labor Corps working to reclaim land from the sea. 


German Labor Front as an 
organization which included all 
working Germans, from man¬ 
aging d rectors to apprentices. 
From this day forward only 
Germans work in Germany and 
only German businesses exist 
there. The past is definitively 
dead. The nobility of work rules 
in Germany. 

This could only happen because 
each and every German learned 
a new way of thinking and 
began to look at the world in a 
new way, namely from the 
viewpoint of National 
Socialism. The Fuhrer once said, 
“He who wants to be a true 
socialist must himself have 
experienced deprivation/' The 
German working masses know 
that the Fuhrer himself was a 
manual laborer for many years. 
They know that he has experi¬ 
enced first-hand how hard it is 
to work from morning until 
night in the sun, rain and wind, 
in cold and heat. The ideas that 
propel National Socialism could 
only come from this kind of a 
man. He spoke from experi¬ 
ence when he talked about the 
fact that it was an honor to 
work, and the masses knew 
exactly what he meant. This is 
the mysterious bond between 
the German worker and the 
Fuhrer. The Fuhrer freed the 
worker from a slave- ike exis¬ 
tence, giving back to him the 
honor of a free man. So today 
National Socialism rests firmly 
and securely within the working 
class. And so it is only natural 
that on the First of May, a 
national holiday for the German 
nation, delegations of German 
workers come to see the Fuhrer. 
And it is natural that these del¬ 
egations are made up of the 
entire spectrum of the German 
work force: those who work 
with their heads as well as 
those who work with their 
hands. 


61 



They come from all regions of the Reich, invited by 
the nation. They come by airplane and by express 
train, and they stay in the big hotels in this cosmo¬ 
politan city. They bring the Fuhrer hand-crafted 
gifts, greetings from their comrades, and the 
assurance of their loyalty, love, and trust. They 
stand face to face with him before accompanying 
him to the colossal rail es on German Labor Day. 


understood only if seen from this point of view. In 
earlier days, no one cared what the workstations 
looked like or where the German worker labored 
for the nation. Today, the Office of “Work 
Beautification’ makes certain that the German 
worker has a work place worthy of him and that 
he is not stuck in a broom closet somewhere. The 
Strength through Joy” movement offers today's 



International Automobile Expo, Berlin 1935; the protector of the automobile industry. 


Perhaps there is still room for improvement. It 
may be that here and there people make mistakes, 
and difficulties arise due to scarcity and lack of 
judgment. Self-interest and meanness are still 
around in some places. It may be that some peo¬ 
ple are still not willing to accept the new gospel: 
working for honor. But these are nothing but 
insignificant and marginal phenomena. The work¬ 
ers do not care about these exceptions because 
the word is out, and the word must be allowed to 
spread, the word that tells of the nobil ty of work. 
The activities of the German Labor Front can be 


German workers vacations and opportunities for 
relaxation. Today's workers can travel to the 
mountains or to the seaside. Today's workers can 
hike, often for t le very first time, through this 
beautiful fatherland, oday s workers can take 
German ships to the magical southern seas and 
countries or to the sublime beauty of the north. 
Just like any other comrade, the workers enjoy the 
great achievements of German theater and 
German music, the best German orchestras, the 
best German opera, theater and film performanc¬ 
es. They listen to the radio for entertainment, and 


62 





they can pursue any number of sports. But it is not 
hedonism, diversion, or satisfying physical desires 
that fulfills them. They derive true and noble pleas¬ 
ure from their physical being, from nature and 
from culture. The harder one works, the more joy¬ 
ful he should be, and this joy makes him even 
more valuable to his nation. The nation is no 
longer paralyzed by the scourge of unemploy¬ 
ment. Millions have found work again and those 
who are still on the sideline are protected by the 
whole nation. Labor representatives make certain 
that workers’ right to life and honor remains 
untouched. Managers are responsible for the well¬ 
being of their teams just as workers and managers 
together are responsible for the success of the 
company in which both work. This is a basic differ¬ 
ence between National Socialism and the past: in 
the past you had many chairmen and many peo¬ 
ple under each chairman - chairmen of superviso¬ 
ry boards, administrative boards, parties, unions 
and management associations, social aid organiza¬ 
tions, and strike committees. Today we have one 
Fuhrer for the whole nation. Leaders stand behind 
him, each with a special field or group of people. 
Before, “one man sat higher than the other,” but 
they all just sat. They had no goal and no path to 
follow. In contrast, today they have direction, 
path, and goal; they have set out marching behind 


one leader. 

Even the language, the words themselves, 
express the great difference between two eras. 
Each and every German knows that there is only 
one man to thank for all this, Adolf Hitler-who cre¬ 
ated National Socialism, who put the common 
good above selfishness, who did away with class 
struggle between upper and lower, between right 
and left - when he proclaimed that there is honor 
in work and in service to the nation. The existence 
of the National Socialist Labor Corps, where every 
German must work at manual labor for the benefit 
of the nation before he can work for his own ben¬ 
efit, guarantees that the lessons that enable the 
German worker to carry the weight of the state will 
never be lost. 

The Fuhrer exorcised from Germany arrogance 
contempt, envy, and hatred of work and property. 
He gave the people a sense of honor and pride 
that they were workers. They would therefore feel 
that it is their duty to serve the whole nation. 
Today’s German worker is happy to be a free man 
in a free country. Today’s German worker is the 
best worker in the world. Future centuries will 
envy him. Today’s German worker, from the 
depths of his heart, thanks the Fuhrer, the man 
who has given him all of this. 



This is how German farmers greet their Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, Buckeherg 1935. 


63 








At the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. The Fiihrer at a concert of the 
Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of conductor Wilhelm Furtwdngler. 


01j2 Jfitljrt'r attfi the Arts 

bg 0r. 3)00i?plr (tohhels 


Art is the most noble activity of the human soul 
and imagination. Art is a way of giving form to 
feeling. An artist expresses what he holds in his 
heart. Intense feelings demand intense forms of 
expression. An artist can give voice to his inner 
daemon. Artists express in words, sounds, stone, 
and marble that which the masses sometimes feel 
only as a dark, dull yearning. Throughout history 
art has uplifted men and touched them to the 
quick. Art transports them from the darkness and 
sluggishness of everyday life to a better world. 
And yes, art has transfigured and immortalized 
whole eras of new cultural and historical develop¬ 
ment. 

And this is why artists, endowed by God to be the 
ones who give meaning to the most important 
events in human life, have always walked hand in 
hand with other great people. Whenever culture 
and history have blossomed, the rule has always 
been that “the musician walks with the king.” 

This is not to say that all rising epochs of history 
had great artistic renaissances. On the contrary, 
usually these epochs follow one another. Either a 

64 


flowering of arts and sciences precedes a great, 
historical change or great, historical changes pre¬ 
cipitate a flowering of arts and sciences. It may be 
that, depending on the times, either historical 
change or arts and sciences draw all the outstand¬ 
ing and exciting personalities of the period to it, 
monopolizing and exhausting them. And maybe 
they do not recognize or are not able to express 
the other possibilities within themselves. 

But one shouldn’t generalize about this. There 
have been statesmen who were worlds apart from 
anything artistic, who were so one-sided and 
caught up in the technical side of life that they 
hardly had time, abilities, desire, or even enough 
energy for purely intuitive endeavors. They lacked 
deep empathy for the true nature of art; and this 
empathy is necessary to be able to serve art with 
warmth and passion or to fall under the spell that 
art casts. 

There have been many great soldiers who were 
just soldiers and had no wish to be more. 

Take, for instance, the extraordinary organizers, 
instructors, educators, and army officers, who 






have been influential enough to shake the world. 
These statesmen and soldiers changed history in 
ways that had nothing to do with anything related 
to art and thus affected the arts only indirectly. 

It is different, however, with other statesmen and 
soldiers, whose personality and works are ground¬ 
ed more in feel ngs than in the intellect, who draw 
their strength from imagination rather than from 
rational thought. These people are truly great when 
it comes to shaping history; they stand close to the 
artistic side of things because they are made of the 
same elements. Future generations will see these 
people wonderfully and inexplicably manifested as 
personalities who followed their callings and used 
their gifts. They will be remembered for providing 
meaning and structure to destiny, although the 
true impact of this will not be obvious for many 
centuries. 

In our own history, men like Friedrich the Great or 
the great Generalfeldmarscha I von Moltke belong 
in this category of great historical figures. From the 
very beginning they were sensitive artistic souls by 
nature, who, as God’s ourneymen, stood at the 
loom as the times were being woven. They left 
their marks on history because they followed the 
inevitable dictates of their inner daemons. There is 
nothing wrong with the type of activity within the 
state and military that s more of a craft, as long as 
it is carried out conscientiously, industriously, ener¬ 
getically and doggedly. What would Friedrich the 
Great have been without Friedrich Wilhelm I, the 
father of soldiers and civil servants? Friedrich 
Wilhelm I had to be there so that the other could 
influence history as he wanted. One had to build 
the state that the other had started. One had to 



On the occasion of handing over a valuable manuscript 
that he had purchased , the treasures of the Bavarian 
Stale Library are shown to the Fiihrer 



Visiting an artist’s studio in Munich. At Professor Wa eke He's studio. 
Professor Troosl's wife is in the middle. 


establish and dr II an army for the other to move 
and lead through difficult, daring campaigns to 
victories that made history. 

Keep in mind in this context, that if both are not 
united in one, the first, more creative one, is more 
highly valued historically than the purely organiza¬ 
tional. Creation itself, when you come right down 

to it, is a product of artistic 
drive and usually stems from 
the deepest and most mysteri¬ 
ous intuition. Friedrich, who 
wrote poetry and studied the 
most profound philosophical 
ideas, also stood in his tat¬ 
tered, filthy uniform at the 
bivouac fires of Leuthen in the 
midst of his grenadiers. And he 
knew how to elegantly hold a 
flute as well as how to wield a 
sword firmly and bravely in his 
hand. 

There has never been a dearth 
of soldiers like these in the 
Prussian-German army. The 
unjust caricature of Prussian 
militarism depicted in the 
world has nothing to do with 


65 



Visiting the Schiller Hems in Weimar 1934. 


the truth. Often, the solders trained at the War 
Academy or in the General Staff were not only mil¬ 
tary men but also philosophers. 

Nowhere was the style of speech and writing more 
clear or more artistic than in the army training insti¬ 
tutions. 

German politics, however, always lacked these 
exciting and fascinating personalities. There were 
often good craftsmen who understood their craft, 
but there was nothing to them 
other than their craft. In our 
history Friedrich the Great, in 
his role as a soldier, had many 
counterparts who thought the 
way he did or moved in the 
same direction. In his role as a 
statesman, he is completely 
alone. 

And this is what sets him 
apart as great and unique. This 
makes him someone with 
more than a mere aesthetic 
enjoyment of art. For him art 
was not an escape from life, 
but a way to face life when it 
became too hard and unbear¬ 
able, or when he needed to 
draw energy and strength 


from somewhere else in order to get on with it. Art 
is not weak, and therefore it does not teach weak¬ 
ness. The strong principles of art provide strength 
and preserve this strength. Men who deep in their 
souls find art fulfilling are able to offer the nations 
of the world great lessons in politics and military 
strategy. They are also true artists. For them, poli¬ 
tics and military leadership are nothing more than 
art-one art form among many to which these men 
are attached and to which they feel a deep con¬ 
nection. 

The Fuhrer as Statesman is one of those rare per¬ 
sonalities so seldom seen in Prussian-German his¬ 
tory. His deepest nature is rooted in the artistic. He 
is a builder by nature. He smiles when he says that 
even as a child he intended to build things. Little 
did he know that he would be called to build a 
state rather than houses. The most basic character¬ 
istics of his newly-built Reich follow the immortal 
principles of authentic architecture. His organiza¬ 
tion of the state shows natural logic at work. 
Everything comes together slowly and calmly fol¬ 
lowing a far-sighted, carefully conceived plan. He 
works like a good builder who knows that Rome 
was not bu It in a day; that he has been called to 
create and to work for decades and centuries to 
come, not for the immediate future, "his distin¬ 
guishes the Fuhrer’s newly-built Reich from all pre¬ 
vious attempts-it is based on permanence, and it is 
imbued with a principle of clarity that is almost 
architectural. In the new Reich, usefulness and 
beauty are united in rare harmony. 

Long before he came to power, the Fuhrer once 
said in a speech, “If German artists knew what I 
would one day do for them, all of them would 
stand by me!” These words went unheeded at the 



The Fuhrer in Bavreuth. 


66 






time. And without having to be reminded (as if by 
impatient creditors) of his words, the Fuhrer fulfilled 
his promise much sooner than one would have 
dared to hope. 

Hitler's inner need for art would have been obv ous 
to others if they had observed him before the 
takeover, when he was in the midst of difficult polit¬ 
ical negotiations and tactical struggles. Together 
with a few comrades he would sit somewhere 
unnoticed in a theater box. Here, in the sublime 
notes of a Wagner opera, he heard the musical 
counterpart of his politics. There are few people 
today who have heard “Die Meistersinger” or 
“Tristan” as often as Hitler has. He is a fanatic about 
the arts. He does not subscribe, however, to the 
smugness of the middle-class, which hears some¬ 
thing once and thinks it has understood and 
grasped the genius behind it. Hitler is filled instead 
with a deep and almost aumble reverence when 
presented with the great gifts of man's artistic 
genius. 

This reverence allows him to see and understand 
the man and his works as a whole. To see the Fuhrer 
in the company of artists is to understand how 
deeply and personally he feels connected to them. 
To see the tireless care he takes of art and artists on 
a daily basis is to understand what art means to him. 
His reverence toward true artistic value is, as it 
were, a form of gratitude. Only those who are lucky 
enough to be allowed to help him know how impor¬ 
tant the F ihrer is for Richard Wagner’s work in gen¬ 
eral and for Bayreuth in particular, as a patron, a 
friend, and advisor. 

No one in the small group of people who are usual 
ly with him will ever forget, when he was still the 
leader of the opposition, the time he dashed off 



The Fuhrer leaves an artixt studio at 
the Art Academy in Munich . 


magnificent plans for the new architectural layout 
of Berlin and Munich with just a few cursory lines 
on a few loose pieces of paper. Everything was 
where it belonged, combining modern, technical 
thinking and the true strength of a builder. This 
was the first version of a new face for these cities, 
cleaned and purified of all the inappropriate, style¬ 
less, and tasteless features that the times had 

forced upon them. 

The monumental party build¬ 
ings, the new layout for 
Konigsplatz, the German Art 
Museum in Munich, the 
ambitious, new layout of the 
Reid s capitol, all of which 
are already visible as projects 
in progress-these are the first 
manifestations of Hitler’s 
early plan, which at the time 
had seemed almost far¬ 
fetched. Outsiders would find 
it almost incomprehensible 
that the Fuhrer not only pro¬ 
vides the ideas and the initia¬ 
tive for these projects, which 
will take centuries to com¬ 
plete, but he also precisely 



Members of the audience at the Bayreuth Festival greet the Fuhrer. 


67 




Drawings by Hitler while a soldier at the front: Ardoye in Flanders (summer 1917). 


follows the implementation of his ideas down to 
the smallest detail. The Fuhrer always has time for 
a blueprint. We often saw him in the studio of 
Professor Troost, the brilliant architect who unfor¬ 
tunately died so young. Here Hitler would sit 
enthusiastically looking at the blueprints and mod¬ 
els that are now becoming reality built of stone. 
We are often permitted to accompany him to new 
buildings in different stages of completion. It is 
then that we see how joyful and moved he is when 
he inspects even the smallest things and the tini¬ 
est details because they fit into a universal order of 
meaning and purpose. 

The pictures he painted in his youth are also filled 
with this spirit. They are complete down to the last 
line. They have the precision and meticulous exac¬ 
titude of a trained architect. It is rumored that 
there are business-minded forgers who have truly 
mastered the skill of counterfeiting and copying 
these small works of art. But they cannot deceive 
a real expert. You can tell at a glance the difference 
between an original painting by the Fuhrer and a 
copy, because the Fuhrer speaks to us from the 
original. And you see in the original a germinal 
variation of all the artistic principles that appear 
later, monumental and magnificent, in the state he 
is building. 

The same person who, as a young man in Vienna, 
went without many a meal to buy standing-room 
tickets to the Vienna Opera to hear Wagner or 


Mozart today beholds a painting or a sculpture 
with the same artistic passion. A lucky happen¬ 
stance made it possible for him to purchase 
Bocklin's “Battle of the Centaurs." And later we 
watched him, reverent and humble in the pres¬ 
ence of great art, sitting motionless for a long time 
in front of this work of genius. 

Who could doubt that these noble passions are 
anything but the inevitable expression of the same 
artistic sensibility that shows itself in his work? Do 
his speeches not, for instance, document his vivid 
and intuitive Weltanschauung? Are they not like a 
classical building or a Bach fugue-beautifully struc¬ 
tured with clarity of style? Are they not also mon¬ 
umental expressions of ideas, precise and 
multi-faceted? It is pathetic to try to understand 
someone by isolating one trait from his whole per¬ 
sonality. And it is here that the individual traits 
come together to form a whole. And within this 
whole is the outline of an artistic and intuitive 
man. This is a man who is himself, who acts like 
himself, and could not be any different or act any 
differently even if he wanted to. 

The Fuhrer imbued his movement from the very 
beginning with the fiery impulse of modern 
thought that would later give him the strength to 
lead the movement to great victories. He did not 
make the movement a slave to technology. 
Instead, he consciously made technology serve 
the movement. The Fuhrer is a proponent of tech- 


68 



nology. He uses it to support his goals and work. 
Technology, too, has its artistic side. A magnifi¬ 
cently built bridge or a modern car built precisely 
according to virtually classical principles will 
always satisfy a desire for beauty. The highways, 
designed by the Fuhrer and built by modern engi¬ 
neers according to the Fuhrer’s blueprints, are 
twentieth-century works of art. We can still picture 
the Fuhrer on a sunny Sunday afternoon standing 
in front of the bold, monumental arch of the 
Mangfall Brucke. How his features mirrored his 
pride and satisfaction! This is a man who envisions 
immortal art coming from the most modern tech¬ 
nical achievements of these important times. 

The Fuhrer is a sworn enemy of dilettantism; he is 
proud to be of the opinion that it is better to read, 
to see, or to hear one thing that is truly good and 
great ten times than it is to have ten times more 
variety of average or below average works. If he 
sees a great, artistic film, he will watch it again 
some other time. If a film is only average, he stops 
it within the first five or ten minutes. 

No wonder all true artists deeply love and revere 
him. He is their friend and, when necessary, a gen¬ 
erous protector. He cannot imagine life without 
art. Never was there a royal patron who was so 
open-minded about the arts. Where art is great 
and promising, he reaches out to it with his 


patronage. He never has a know-it-all attitude or 
tries to make up other people’s minds for them. 
And he, who earned his way to art through hard 
material sacrifice as an impoverished construction 
worker, opens his heart and his wallet-especially 
when it is a matter of bringing art to the people 
and the people to art. Concepts like a “Theater of 
the People” have become reality under his patron¬ 
age. He is a warm-hearted friend, an advisor, and 
guardian of the great German cultural organization 
“Strength through Joy.” His sense of what is beau¬ 
tiful has none of that unpleasant, pseudo-aesthetic 
quality of hedonistic selfishness. His is a sense of 
what is simultaneously useful and what is univer¬ 
sal. 

Statesmen from other countries visited him recent¬ 
ly in Berlin to discuss the reconstruction of Europe 
in long and difficult negotiations. Little did they 
know that the man who morning, noon, and after¬ 
noon defended German rights and who, as though 
he were an economist or military specialist, had 
every statistic and date at his fingertips, would be 
sitting that same evening with a small group of 
them in his apartment, and, moved to the depths 
of his soul, would be listening to the quintet from 
the third act of “Meisterslnger” or a piece by 
Schubert, Schumann, or Wolf. Perhaps they 
thought that th s man had suddenly become a dif- 



Dra wings by Hitler while a soldier at the front: a shelter in bournes. 


69 




ferent person, that he had suddenly put on a face 
they had never seen before; and yet in reality he 
was the same-a statesman with unlimited spirit, a 
man with all the traits and all the potential of the 
German soul within him, an artist who sits among 
artists and feels kinship with them because he car¬ 
ries a piece of their innermost selves within him. 
Perhaps this short hour with him gave those who 
had the honor of participating a better idea of the 
Fiihrer's innermost nature than the long hours 
spent in technical discussions and conferences. 
Here again was the fascinating strength of his true 
personality-that same personality which gave the 
great Prussian king strength in battle and to fight 
decisive wars, not in spite of the fact that he was a 
poet, but rather because he was a poet. It is the 
same personality as the great Prussian king who 
had embraced philosophy, built Sanssouci, played 
the flute and, when the rough business of the state 
and the military allowed him the time, gathered 
the most illustrious and best minds of Europe 
around his dinner table. 

Here we see, coming together from apparent con¬ 
tradictions and differences, the final synthesis of a 
great human being and his works that will endure 


for centuries. Here art crosses over into military 
and state matters. The same power is at play here, 
it is simply influencing other areas. It uses the 
same kind of energy that drives and inspires art: 
imagination, instinct, grace, and inspiration. 
Perhaps the full extent of what this means for 
Germany, for our nation, and our national destiny 
will not be clear until sometime in the future. But 
it is we who have the great fortune of experienc¬ 
ing and feeling what it is like to have a true genius 
work and reign within us, over us, and around us. 
This great man's artistic feelings did not come 
from a desire for luxury or for play. His is a neces¬ 
sity in the true sense of the word, indispensable for 
life and work, for his very existence. 

Perhaps the Fiihrer is best and most deeply under¬ 
stood when observed in the midst of these situa¬ 
tions. Art is for him a mysterious power that sparks 
the human heart to new love “in all the gray hours 
that life’s wild circle weaves for us.” And his con¬ 
nection with art and with artists, his care and his 
tireless guardianship for them, is nothing more 
than the payment and fulfillment of a debt and 
duty. This is what the poet means when he says, 
“Thou sublime art, I thank you for it!” 



A watercolor by the Fiihrer painted in 1914: The courtyard of the old residence in Munich. 


71 



The Fuhrer leaves (he building site of the German Art Museum. 


0 ht lutl&iitga of tlu’ ifii brer 

by Albert £>pm\ Architect 


requently in history heads of state have shown 
strong support for the arts and especially for 
architecture. For example, to please the eye 
Rococo princes living in the eighteenth century 
commissioned castles and gardens and made it 
possible for the architects living at that time to cre¬ 
ate freely. 

The Fuhrer, as head of state, is building; but he will 
never be able to build in this traditional sense-for 
his great buildings, which are now emerging in 
many places, shall be an essential expression of 
the movement for centuries to come, and thus 
shall be a part of the movement in and of them¬ 
selves. The Fuhrer created this movement and 
came to power through its strength; and to this 
day he determines its ultimate structure, right 
down to the finest details. Therefore, unlike lead¬ 
ers of earlier centuries, he cannot build as a benev¬ 
olent sponsor, and to an even lesser degree as a 
patron of the arts; he must build as a National 
Socialist. As a National Socialist he determines the 
cleanliness and purity of the building concept; the 
severity of the architectural expression; the clarity 
of the building design; and the quality of the mate¬ 
rial, just as he determines the intentions and the 
expression of the movement. Most importantly he 
determines the new inner spirit and therefore the 
true substance of his buildings. 

Building is not a frivolous pastime for the Fuhrer. It 
is a serious matter in which even stone material is 
intended to give distinct expression to the will of 
the National Socialist Movement. 

It is unprecedented in the history of the German 
nation that a leader initiates at a critical turning 


point not only the greatest ideological and politi¬ 
cal reform of all time, but that he also-simultane- 
ously and with the considered expertise of a 
master builder-works on creating stone monu¬ 
ments as well. These buildings shall document for 
centuries to come the political will and the cultur¬ 
al abilities of this great era. 

Thus after many centuries of confusion, through 
this one resolution in building, a clarity and 
strength will be achieved which, with continued 
development, can result in a completely new stile 
of architecture. 

In 1924 the Fuhrer wrote in “Mein Kampf' that he 
had felt ever since his youth that social questions 
were closely connected to architecture. 

“As soon as my interest in social issues was awak¬ 
ened, I began to study it in depth. It was a new, 
previously undiscovered world that opened up to 
me. For me it was only natural that by studying it, 
I was enthusiastically contributing to my love for 
architecture. Architecture, next to music, seemed 
to me the queen of arts. My activities related to 
architecture were under these circumstances in no 
way ‘work’, but instead the highest form of pleas¬ 
ure. I could read or draw late into the night with¬ 
out tiring. My belief strengthened that my 
beautiful dream for the future would become real¬ 
ity, if only after many years. I was convinced that I 
was going to make a name for myself as a master 
builder. 

And he documents in the first chapter of “Mein 
Kampf' the importance of the deep impressions 
that his years in Vienna made on him. 

“During this time I created for myself a perception 



72 


of the world and an ideology that 
became the granite foundation of my 
action at that time. I have had to learn 
little in addition to that which I had 
establ shed for myself. I have not had 
to alter anything. 

On the contrary. 

I firmly believe today, that, in general, 
all creative thought develops princi¬ 
pally during youth, if It is to develop at 
all.” 

The Fuhrer never let go of this youth¬ 
ful love of architecture. But the foun¬ 
dation of the state and the life of the 
German nation were so disturbed 
because of war and revolution that 
Hitler, who even as a soldier was 
already becoming more and more 
involved in political issues, decided to 
become a politician. 

He said, “Wouldn’t it be ridiculous to 
build houses on that kind of a founda¬ 
tion?” 

To him, becoming a politician was a 
sacred, serious and difficult decision, 
br it meant taking leave of architec¬ 
ture, the art form to which he person¬ 
ally remained faithful, and one with 
which he always remained involved. 
To this day it is his great love. 

In the first turbulent years of his politi¬ 
cal struggle, at the same time during 
which he first gave structure to the 
movement, he gave final clear cre¬ 
ative format to all symbolic modes of 
expression. He designed the swastika 
flag for the movement and for the 
German nation. He decided on the 
majestic eagle for the party, now the 
symbol of the German Reich’s 
majesty. He developed the insignia of 
the SA and the SS. He developed a 
new structure for his many rallies, and 
thereby essentially determined the 
concept after which all buildings on 
the site of the Nuremberg NSDAP rally 
are modeled. 

For the party rallies in Nuremberg he 
developed and determined in many 
meetings the ground rules and agen¬ 
da. in addition, he spent hours think¬ 
ing about careful guidelines for 
establishing each division of the party, 
about the treatment of the flags and 
about decorating the individual halls. 






In Nuremberg, his faithful followers have saved 
and preserved his sketches and d awings from this 
period. 

At a time when all his strength is focused on one 
important goal, involvement in art remains for him 
the “highest form of pleasure/' and not “work.” 
Fate allowed him a timely encounter with master 
builder Paul Ludwig Troost. A friendship based on 
similarity of character soon developed. What 
Dietrich Eckart was to the Fuhrer when it came to 
the exchange of Ideological ideas, Professor Troost 
soon became in regard to architecture. 

The first building to be created through the unique 
relationship between these two men, (although 
small, the first building of the movement) was the 


“Braunes Haus” on Brienner Street in Munich. Even 
though it was only a renovation, for the time it was 
an enormous project, as the Fuhrer often said later. 
Here one can already see the characteristics that 
the buildings following the seize of power would 
express even more clearly: sharp and stern, but 
never monotonous. Simple and dear, and without 
fake ornamentation. Limited decorations, but 
every decorative element placed so properly that 
it would never be considered superfluous. All 
material, forms, and lines elegant. 


The plans for this renovation pro set came about in 
Troost’s studio, located in a building on Theresien 
Street in Munich. Later, the plans for the 
Konigsplatz in Munich and for the German Art 
Museum and many of the Fuhrer’s other buildings 
would be developed in th s same studio, laying 
the foundation for a new attitude toward architec¬ 
ture. The Fuhrer never worked on the plans for 
these important buildings in his administrative 
offices. 

For years he has been driving to Troost’s studio in 
his free time to lose himself completely in the 
plans of upcoming construction projects while 
physically removed from his political activities. The 
Fuhrer involves himself not only in the general 

plans; every single detail and 
every new compilal on of mate¬ 
rial comes under his scrutiny, 
and many things are improved 
because of his stimulating inter¬ 
est. The hours of p anning 
together, as the Fuhrer has often 
said, are hours of pure joy. They 
give him a sense of profound 
happiness, and provide him the 
most noble sort of relaxation 
during which he always finds 
new energy for other plans. 
Here he has the opportunity to 
dedicate himself to architecture 
during the few hours of free 
time left to him. 

Many years before the takeover, 
Hitler and Troost discussed 
plans for the buildings that are 
just now being built. In the win¬ 
ter of 1931 to 1932 they were 
already discussing the future 
layout of the Konigsplatz in 
Mun ch. Many fine sample 
drawings resulted from this col¬ 
laboration. Even before the 
takeover of power the final 
plans for the Platz had been 

decided, and much of it was laid out in plans and 
models. 

When, in 1932, the Glass Palace in Munich burned 
down and the then government proposed and 
decided on a bland design to replace it, the Fiihrer, 
in addition to all of his other worries, had yet 
another one: that this imperfect plan would start 
before he was in power. 

Comparing the model of the earlier design to the 
model of the German Art Museum, designed by 
Paul Ludwig Troost, one can see more clearly than 



74 



The Fiihrer and Rudolf Hefi view the building of the Fiihrer haus in Munich. 


anywhere else how the Fiihrer s ideas take form. 
Paul Ludwig Troost was the Fuhrer’s irreplaceable 
master builder until Trost’s death. Troost knew 
how to capture Hitler’s intentions and give them 
the correct architectural expression. 

In his great speech at the National Socialist Party 
Assembly on Culture in 1935, the Fiihrer erected a 
monument in honor of Professor Troost in a man¬ 
ner that could not have been more splendid for an 
architect of our time. He said: 

“It should fill us with joyful pride that an act of des¬ 
tiny allowed the greatest master arch tect since 
Schinkel to build for the new Reich and for the 
movement his first, and unfortunately, only works 
in stone as monuments to a most noble, truly 
Germanic tectonic architecture.” 

It delights the Fiihrer to see building plans devel¬ 
op. It is however an equal joy for him to witness 
the construction of these buildings. 

Whenever he walks around one of his building 
sites, often accompanied only by a few col¬ 
leagues, he becomes the field specialist. He asks 
many clearly phrased, technical 
questions, some about the foundation, about the 
strength of the walls, about difficult construction 
details that usually touch on some already existing 
unsolved difficulty. He often has suggestions, 
especially in technical areas; when the experts 
struggle to find a solut on after discussing at 
length all the possibilities, Hitler’s suggestion, 
generally totally different, always proves to be a 
clear and easy answer to the problem. 

Every new development in architecture and every 
new detail receives his thorough assessment and 
approval. Despite his pleasure in details, he never 
forgets to pay attention to the generous alignment 
and lines which distinguish all of his buildings. 


The buildings of the Fiihrer are 
constructed in natural stone 
according to technically tested 
standards. Natural stone and 
northern brick are our sturdy 
building materials. Usually, the 
more expensive products are 
in the long run the most cost 
effective. Unlimited longevity 
is, according to all technical 
considerations, always the pri¬ 
mary and most decisive quali¬ 
ty. That is because the Fuhrer’s 
buildings are meant to repre¬ 
sent our great era far into the 
future. Once the movement’s 
and our state’s immortal build¬ 
ings are present in Germany’s 
towns, they will be buildings that the people can 
be proud of. Everyone will know that the buildings 
belong to everyone. It will not be the department 
stores and the administrative buildings of banks 
and companies that will give cities their character, 
but rather the Fuhrer’s buildings, created by him. 
The Fiihrer writes the following about cities past 
and future: 

“In the nineteenth century, our cities began more 
and more to lose the character of cultural centers, 



The "Fwige Waehe” at the Konigsplafz in Munich. 


75 




















































and began to sink to the level of mere human set¬ 
tlements. 

When Munich’s population reached 60,000, the 
city wanted to become one of Germany’s first cen¬ 
ters of culture. Today nearly eveiy factory town 
claims this, as do cities with larger populations, 
but without having even the smallest thing of 
value to set it apart; nothing more than just a col¬ 
lection of apartments and rented barracks. How is 
anyone supposed to love a place that offers so lit¬ 
tle meaning. No one will feel especially tied to a 
city that has nothing more to offer than every 
other city, with no trace of individuality, where 
everything resembling art or culture has been 
meticulously avoided. 

Not only that, but even the truly important large 
cities are becoming poorer in terms of important 
works of art as the populations constantly 
increase. 

Modern times have contributed nothing to our 
major cities in terms of culture. All of our cities live 
on the glory and the treasures of the past. 

Our major cities today do not have any monu¬ 
ments which dominate the city image, that some¬ 
how could be called a symbol of the whole era. 
Not so with the cities of antiquity, where almost 
every city had a monument to be proud of. The 
character of ancient cities lay not in private build¬ 
ings but in public monuments. It seems these 
monuments were intended not for the moment, 
but for eternity, since they were supposed to 
reflect the greatness and meaning of the commu¬ 
nity, and not the wealth of a single owner. 

Even in the Germanic Middle Ages the same prin¬ 
ciple was maintained, although the concept of art 
was completely different. What antiquity 
expressed in the Acropolis and the Pantheon was 
then cloaked in the form of the gothic cathedral. 
But how truly pathetic the relationship between 
the state and private buildings has become today. 
If the same fate that struck Rome were to befall 
Berlin, subsequent generations would see the 
department houses of Jews and the hotels of a few 
businessmen as the great works of our time and as 
the characteristic expression of culture today. 

Our cities at present lack an overarching symbol of 
national unity, so one can not wonder if those liv¬ 
ing in these cities lack a symbol within them¬ 
selves.” 

It is in this sense that one must understand the 
Fuhrer’s great buildings at the Konigsplatz, the 
German Art Museum in Munich, and the National 
Socialist assembly buildings in Nuremberg. They 
are the beginning, but none the less fundamental, 
and with the residential buildings of the Fuhrer we 


are now also at the beginning of a new evolution. 
It is indeed logical that one thinks first of these 
major buildings whenever the Fuhrer’s projects are 
spoken of, considering the importance the Fuhrer 
places on architecture. 

But one should not assume that these projects 
exhaust the Fuhrer’s architectural activities. 

On the contrary. 

We know from his speeches how important it is to 
Hitler to improve the social conditions of all 
Germans in such a way that each individual can be 
proud of the achievements of the community as a 
whole. The Fuhrer emphasizes the importance of 
housing in “Mein Kampf.” 

In his years living in Vienna, he learned first hand 
about the insufferable living conditions of working 
families. 

He writes: 

“In those days, 1 came to understand quickly and 
thoroughly what I had not suspected before. The 
nationalization of a people is first of all a question 
of creating healthy social conditions which act as a 
foundation for an environment in which it is possi¬ 
ble for the individual to be educated. 

Official statistics record the number of completed 
apartments either through new building projects 
or through renovations in the Reich. 

1932 159,121 

1933 202,113 

1934 319,439 

These numbers express better than words how 
sound housing has increased under the Fuhrer’s 
government. This increase will continue even 
more once “building plans necessary for our secu¬ 
rity have been completed. These projects cannot 
be postponed.” 

Then the monumental buildings of National 
Socialism will rise above the workers’ sound 
dwellings and above the clean factories of our 
great cities, just as the cathedrals of the Middle 
Ages rose over the gabled roofs of private citizens’ 
houses. 

The tasks posed here are great, but the Fuhrer 
filled us all with courage when he said in his 
speech at the National Socialist Assembly on 
Culture: 

“The people will rise to these lofty responsibilities. 
We do not have the right to doubt that if the 
Almighty gives us the courage to pursue immor¬ 
tality, he will also give our people the strength to 
create that which is immortal.” 


77 



Engagement on the new alpine road. 


A&nlf litler mtit iiria Rnaiia 

bij Jnspertor Okneral Jffritz Sorter of Engineering 


hose who have come to know the Fuhrer in 
the preceding articles as statesman, orator, the 
leader of the movement and of other activities may 
wonder: In these very troubled times, does this 
statesman, this politician, does the head of state of 
the German Reich really have the interest and time 
to concern himself personally with an abstract 
technical matter such as road construction? The 
following notes should give the reader an idea of 
the extent of the Fuhrer’s commitment to his 
roads. 

<Thi: (Ennrept 

Even while in Landsberg Prison the Fuhrer spoke 
about the necessity of building roads to meet the 
needs of the automobile. In this context he also 
planned someday to connect Germany’s Gaue by 
roads. 

During his fourteen-year political struggle, the 
78 


Fuhrer a most exclusively used the automobile in 
his travels, getting to know the German highways 
running north to south and east to west. It never 
ceases to amaze us how well the Fuhrer knows 
entire routes, their character, their development, 
suitable rest stops, and other details. The Fuhrer 
particularly values automobile trips overland 
because no other means of transportation allows 
the traveler as close a connection to the nation and 
countryside as the automobile. Someone once 
tried to add up how many kilometers the Fuhrer 
had covered on German highways during the four¬ 
teen years of his political struggle. It was certainly 
500,000 to 700,000 kilometers, probably more. In 
other words, the distance the Fuhrer has covered 
in an automobile on German highways is twelve to 
fifteen times greater than the circumference of the 
earth. These trips resulted in a thorough concept 









for the construction of a connected system of 
roads strictly for automobiles. This concept was 
fully deve oped by the time he seized power. 
Twelve days after being appointed Reich’s 
Chancellor-in his first public speech at the opening 
of the Automobile Show on Febr uary 11, 1933-the 
Fuhrer announced the beginning of an ambitious 
road construction plan and other measures to pro¬ 
mote motorization. He said: 

“Just as the horse-drawn vehicle once had its own 
routes and the railroad built railroad lines as nec¬ 
essary, motor traffic must also have the highways 
it requires. In earlier times a nation’s standard of 
living was often measured by the number of kilo¬ 
meters of railroad line. In the future then the num¬ 
ber of kilometers of roads for the automobile 
driver will be the standard.” 

Just under three months passed between that 

February 11 and the first National 
Labor Day in the new National 
Socialist Reich on May 1 - a time 
that was filled with the consolida¬ 
tion of the power gained on January 
30. On this spring day in the coun¬ 
tryside, the sun rose higher for the 
German nation once more. The 
Fuhrer spoke of turning away from 
previous disunity, of eliminating 
unemployment, of the honor of 
work, and of beginning to work 
together, all of which - when orient¬ 
ed toward one will - is the prereq¬ 
uisite and basis for strengthening a 
nation. Toward the end of this first 
speech on the early organization of 
the Reich, the Fuhrer said, “We are 
beginning a program that we do not 
want to leave for future generations 
to finish. This program is the con¬ 
struction of our roads, a gigantic 
task that will requ re billions. We 
will clear away the obstacles and 
begin on a grand scale.” And so 
May 1 also marked the dawning of 
the road construction program. The 
Fuhrer’s concept was the transfor¬ 
mation of will into action. 

In subsequent weeks, the Fuhrer 
met with German and foreign 
experts to gather information. He 
demanded that the cabinet do what 
it could to help realize his plans. The 
obstacles he had referred to in his 
May 1 speech were tackled in 
numerous meetings. On June 28, 


the cabinet passed a law establishing the Reich s 
autobahn project. 

A few days later, the Inspector General for German 
Autobahn Engineering was appointed at a short, 
three-minute reception held by the Reich’s 
Chancellor. 

Chi' ilnapnlor (Hm’ral’s Jntrnfmrtum 

July 5 was probably the hottest day in the summer 
of 1933 in Berlin. The summer heat lasted weeks, 
and the stone buildings of the capital absorbed so 
much heat dur ng the day that the short nights 
had no cooling effect. As happened every day, 
the receptions n the chancellery began at 10 
o’clock in the morning. Day after day, these 
receptions would drag on late into the evening 
with only a short break at midday. Hour after hour, 
ministers, gauleiters (party district leaders), work- 


At the Mang/ailbn'ickc in the summer of 1935. 


79 


er delegations, industrialists, Germans living 
abroad, and many others came in shifts to make 
presentations to the Fuhrer. There were probably 
some in the anteroom who promised that their 
presentations would not last longer than ten min¬ 
utes. But the Fuhrer takes up the topic himself, 
states his position on it, explains the issues com¬ 
pletely, and participates ust as actively in the last 
presentation late in the evening as he did in the 
first one. 

The newly appointed Inspector General was first 
summoned by the Fuhrer for an introduction at one 
o’clock in the afternoon. However, as so often hap¬ 
pens, the schedule had been shifted in the course 
of the morning because of meetings running late. 
The appointment was postponed until seven 
o’clock n the evening on the grounds that “the 
Chancellor wishes to speak to you last, so that he 
will have time for this." 

The Inspector General reported shortly before nine 
o’clock, right after the next-to-last visitor. The 
Chancellor said “Come with me to the garden. I 
must now finally get some fresh air." During a one- 
and-a-half hour walk in the garden of the chan¬ 
cellery, the Fuhrer introduced his deas to his 
Inspector General, spoke of impending develop¬ 
ments in transportation, of the shortcomings of any 
measures designed to merely meet the current 
transportation requirements, and of long-term con¬ 
struction and work. He warned of obstacles and dif¬ 
ficulties, gave technical details, determined 
precisely the minimum width a road could be; he 
insisted on the highest quality, and in general 
mapped out the lines for the main system. He final¬ 
ly dismissed the Inspector General repeating, “I 
believe th s is necessary. I bel eve it is right to begin 
this project. You must believe in it just as firmly as I 
do and act accordingly without wavering.” 



Landmark at the beginning of the Munich - National Border Autobahn. 

breaking Okmutit, Iffrankfurt am Main, 
§>ejitembcr 23, 1U33 

Planning and drafting took two and a half months 
of extremely intensive work. Frankfurt am Main 
was the only place ever considered as the starting 
place of the great work that stretched across all of 
Germany. Some years earlier, a research group 
there had theoretically looked into plans for a road 
meant to be strictly for automobiles from Hamburg 
through Frankfurt to Basel. This preliminary work 
made it possible to complete the draft work at an 
accelerated pace. 

The plans for the first sections 
from Frankfurt to Darmstadt 
were complete in early 
September. The groundbreak¬ 
ing and the beginning of con¬ 
struction for this great work 
were set for September 23. In 
the very first meetings with the 
Inspector General, the FOhrer 
had already determined that 
he himself would start the con¬ 
struction. For years, the num¬ 
ber of unemployed in Frankfurt 
had been increasing so that in 
1932 it was up to around 
80,000. And now the Fuhrer’s 



Opening the first section of the Munich - National Border Reich's Autobahn. 


80 








The Fiihrer’s commitment to building roads. Inspecting AIpenstrafie. 

great construction project was to begin in the 
immediate vicinity of this city, creating steady 
work for thousands of workers. This brought con¬ 
fidence and faith back into the lives of the workers 
and their families. Bright and early, at seven 
o'clock in the morning, the first 700 workers 
marched off from the employment office. At the 
Borsenplatz, gauleiters and the Inspector General 
passed out tools. From there the workers went out 
to the Main, to the new work site, with music and 


the embankment from which the Fuhrer spoke. 
The guests of honor got somewhat less than their 
fair share of seats. But the workers were also the 
guests of honor here. The Fuhrer said: 

Today, we stand at the beginning of a massive 
task. Its significance - not only for German trans¬ 
portation, but for the German economy in the 
broadest sense - will only be fully appreciated in 
later decades... In future decades people will see 
that transportation is dependent on the new, reat 
autobahns that we will build throughout all of 
Germany... 1 know that this day of celebration will 
pass, that the times will come when rain, frost, and 
snow will make the work miserable and difficult. 
But it is necessary. The work must go on. No one 
will help us f we do not help ourselves." 

The Fuhrer closed his speech as follows: 

"Go now to your job! Construction must begin 
today. The work commences! And before too 
much time goes by, an enormous achievement 
shall bear witness to our will our industriousness, 
our ability, and our initiative. German workers, 
begin the work!" 

After his speech to the jubilant workers the Fuhrer 
seized his spade and stepped up to the construc¬ 
tion site. A convoy of trucks rolled up with large, 
completely filled two-cubic-meter wagons. The 
wagons dumped the dirt with a loud thud at the 
foot of an embankment that would one day be six 
meters high. The Fuhrer drove his spade robustly 
into the hard clods of earth, striking the pile over 
and over. This was no symbolic groundbreaking, 
this was rea groundwork! 

Several workers realized that the Fuhrer would 
probably keep working until the two-cubic-meter 
pile was thoroughly leveled out. They rushed over 
with their shovels to help. And the Fuhrer shov- 


jubilatton. 

The Fuhrer arrived at ten 
o’clock by airplane. He had 
the greatest difficulties on his 
trip through Frankfurt. The SA, 
instead of providing a barri¬ 
cade, was cheering the Fuhrer 
on, so the people of Frankfurt, 
young and old, got around 
the barricade again and again. 
The trip from the airfield to 
the work site took more than 
an hour. 

The location of the ground¬ 
breaking was not a fair¬ 
ground, but a construction 



^ ^ workers and their Engagement on the new alpine road. 

families stood at the edge of 


81 






eled with them until the pile of earth was properly 
leveled, and the first drops of sweat had fallen 
from his brow to the ground. Laughing, the Fuhrer 
and two unnamed workers stopped when there 
was nothing left to shovel. He went through the 
work sites where in the meantime the remaining 
700 workers had started working. “Did you see 
how the Fuhrer even shoveled away the dirt from 
the track so that the wagons could be pulled out? 
Like a real excavator. He sure can work. I could 
hardly keep up,” recounted one of the two after¬ 
wards. 


basic attitude of the workers on this project. Again 
and again in these meetings over deta Is it eventu¬ 
ally becomes clear that the FOhrer’s decisions are 
the only possible solution. 

One example of this is a decision about where to 
lay the road along a section on the south shore of 
the Chiemsee in Upper Bavaria. There was marsh 
several kilometers wide between the lake and the 
rising mountains. It had been very difficult to cross 
this marsh when the railroad was being built. The 
first draft for the Reich's autobahn avoided the 
marsh by curving away from the lake’s shore to the 



Adolf Hitler’s roads lead him to the people. 


A week after that groundbreaking a foreman came 
to the chief engineer in charge of the Reich's auto¬ 
bahn project and said, “Sir, we must put a fence up 
around the place where the Fuhrer broke ground. 
At quitting time, our workers are taking pocketfuls 
of dirt home with them. Women and children are 
taking it away too.” Anc so the Fuhrer’s work and 
the ethos of the workers had raised the status of a 
job that had previously been considered one of 
the filthiest. Today many workers’ families from 
Frankfurt carefully preserve a small packet of soil 
as a prized possession. 

(thr jiartiripatimi 

ITie Inspector General reports to the Fuhrer regu¬ 
larly on the progress of the work. The Fuhrer makes 
decisions about details, in order to influence the 


south. The Fuhrer did not like this route. It had no 
view of the lake or the mountains, and he felt that 
it was not very well situated in the countryside. He 
demanded a more exhaustive examination nto the 
possibility of locating the road closer to the lake. At 
is instigation extensive drilling was begun near 
the lake. We were greatly surprised to find a rock¬ 
like layer of molasse very close to the shore, just 
wide enough to run the road close to the lake’s 
shore as the Fuhrer wanted. 

It was usually also the Fuhrer who made the final 
decisions in selecting the design of large bridge¬ 
head structures. One of first really large projects 
that was tackled was Mangfall Brucke near 
Munich, approximately 300 meters long and 60 
meters above the valley floor. 


82 


The Fuhrer chose from amon 
0 drafts submitted in a compe¬ 
tition and decided which one 
would be used. This was to 
become a model for the con¬ 
struction of large bridges used 
later in several other places. The 
lines and shape of the structures 
that the Fuhrer chose are clear 
and simple, generous and bold. 
In addition to determining the 
shape, he also had sign ficant 
influence regarding the issue of 
soundness of construction. The 
Fuhrer rejected cheap structural 
components, such as hollow 
supports and piers, because he 
was concerned about durability. 
Like everything else, he did not 
build for the moment, but rather 



Opening the Reieh’s autobahn from Frankfurt to Darmstadt in 1935. From left to right: 
Reich ’s Minister of War von Bhmherg, the Fuhrer, Inspector General Dr. Todt, Reichshank 
President Dr Sehacht, General Director of the State Railroad Dr Dorpmidler, Reich's 
Minister of Propaganda Dr Goebbels 


for the future. “What we build must still be stand¬ 
ing long after we are no longer around 
Sometimes the Fuhrer disapproves of something 
too. He expresses his disapproval perfectly clear¬ 
ly. In one case, the Fuhrer was so clear about stop¬ 
ping work on an unsuccessful building that he 
placed a phone call to the Inspector General who 
terminated operations immediately. It was the 
Fuhrer himself also who made the decisions 
regarding the route and many other details for the 
AIpenstraBe. 

IWoM camp for markers an the iSeirh’s 

AutohaJjna 

The start of construction work all over the Reich 
during 1934 made it necessary for some workers 
to be accommodated in barracks. At first these 
work camps were set up the way construction 


what to do. When the Fuhrer learned that the bar¬ 
rack accommodations of the workers on his roads 
left something to be desired, he put his well- 
known energy to work, refusing to compromise, 
and within a few hours changes were being made. 
With the assistance of the Labor Service, model 
camps were set up within a few weeks all over 
Germany. Workers on Adolf Hitler’s roads have 
clean accommodations in these model camps. 
Meals are taken in the larger rooms. Each camp has 
large washing and shower facilities with hot and 
cold water. There is an entertainment room for after 
work. The Fuhrer himself sketched out the details of 
these camps. Because of the Fuhrei s intervention 
in the fall of 1934, the German workers accom¬ 
modations reached a level that no other European 
country can even approach. 


workers’ accommodations had 
been for decades. In the sum¬ 
mer, this style of camp was only 
barely sufficient. As winter drew 
near, urgent remedial measures 
appeared necessary, since these 
accommodations were inade¬ 
quate for the workers on Adolf 
Hitler’s roads. Repeated exhor¬ 
tations to industry were only 
partially successful. It was diffi¬ 
cult to quickly and effectively 
convince people that these 
long-accepted accommodations 
hac nhajor shortcomings. Finally, 
the Inspector General came to 
the Fi hrer for instructions about 



Seeing the h Hirer for the first time. 


83 





ull)£ jFiihrjer at conatriurtinn hiU'h 
mb mi the new rnaiitf 

The Fuhrer derives great joy from inspecting con¬ 
struction sites. He is interested in everything on 
the site: the operation, the building, and the work¬ 
er accommodations. He is particularly interested in 
the location of the road in the countryside. The 
Fuhrer wants his roads to be bold and wide, but at 
the same time in harmony with the countryside. 
The workers are usually very surprised when he 
suddenly appears among them. Some are so sur¬ 
prised that they actually drop their picks. And then 
their eyes beam with sheer joy that the Fuhrer has 
come to their workplace. It is impossible to imag¬ 
ine the happiness and joy that prevails over a con¬ 
struction site when Hitler visits. The faces of 
hundreds of grown men remind us of the joy 
expressed by children when they see a Christmas 
tree. As a rule the workers stay where they are and 
continue to work after their initial surprise. This is 
their opportunity to show what they do. The Fuhrer 
speaks with individuals, especially with older 
workers. It is not unusual to find septuagenarians 
at the construction site. The Fuhrer told one 70- 
year-old worker near Darmstadt “When 1 am as old 
as you are, I hope I am still able to work like you 
now.” 

The Fuhrer is delighted when he drives along com¬ 
pleted sections of the road for the first time. He is 
incredibly interested in traffic counts, since they 
confirm that private individuals and businesses are 
interested in the new roads. Fhe Fuhrer inaugurat¬ 
ed the section of autobahn from Heidelberg to 
Frankfurt am Main with a picnic. A few days before 
opening the road to traffic, he made the first trip 
or it on his way from Central Baden to the 
Rhineland. After the Inspector General’s announce¬ 
ment, the Fuhrer decided that they would take a 


break at a suitable picnic spot. In the magnificent, 
autumnal beech forest, the Fuhrer’s convoy left the 
road and Proviantminister Kannenberg conjured 
up his “magic table” in the forest. Third parties 
relate how enthusiastically the Fuhrer recounts his 
trips on these newly completed roads. 

Adolf Hitler has a close bond with the roads he is 
creating. He himself has constantly emphasized 
the important part the completed roads will play in 
the future development of transportation. And 
more: In a few years these roads will be a power¬ 
ful propaganda tool. Motor traffic, and the manu¬ 
facturing that goes with it, will increase to an 
extent that cannot even be anticipated today. In 
addition, our autobahns will attract many hundreds 
of thousands of foreigners each year. After the 
completion of the Reich’s autobahns, Germany will 
be blessed with by far the most modern system of 
highways in the world." (February 15, 1935- 
Opening of the Automobile Show) 

Far beyond Germany’s borders, foreign countries are 
following our Fuhrer’s road construction. Individuals 
and groups of foreign guests make appointments to 
visit the construction sites or completed sections of 
the Reich’s autobahns almost weekly. The enthusi¬ 
asm and admiration is expressed in their letters and 
newspapers by the way they fol low the expansion of 
the Fuhrer’s gigantic project. One of many foreign 
press offices writes ‘As the pyramids tell the story of 
the pharaohs, and the Roman roads bear witness to 
the power of the Roman emperor, so will these won¬ 
derful autobahns forever remind the German nation 
of the most extraordinary figure in ts history, of a 
comrade, once without name and position, who - 
out of nothing and with no outside help, but on his 
own strength - created a new Reich and stamped his 
will on the destiny of an entire nation.” 



The Fuhrer sails on the Rhine during the 1934 Saarland rally at Ehrenbreitstein. 


84 




In the aty of ihe National Socialist Party Assemblies. In the window of Deufscher Hof Hotel in Nuremberg. 


(llhtr iJttkr 

iRata symij tit (german naitmt mi tfji> Iftiljrrr’B birtlitiaij 

ly ir. Insrjil} (iuebheis 


A lthough the Fuhrer is often obligated, as a 
representative of the party and the people, to 
appear at mass rail es, receptions, or official cele¬ 
brations and to speak to thousands or hundreds of 
thousands, he nevertheless consciously avoids all 
demonstrations and tributes that apply only to him 
and his person. As a result, he has always spent his 
birthday in some small village or little town in 
Germany. No one knows his whereabouts in 
advance. The Fuhrer’s purely human and personal 
manner strongly affects his closest staff members, 
as this radio address demonstrates. It was given by 
Reich’s Minister Dr. Goebbels on the Fuhrer’s birth¬ 
day, and was heard by the German nation over all 
German transmitters. The text of the third address, 
from April 20, 1935, deserves to be recorded in 
print particularly given the scope of this book. 
National comrades! Two years ago, on April 20, 
1933, when Adolf Hitler had been in power just 
under three months, l gave a radio speech to the 
German nation on the Fuhrer’s birthday. Now as 
then, it is not my intention to read out a flaming 
editorial. That I shall leave to better stylists than I. 
Nor do I endeavor to appraise the official work of 
Adolf Hitler. On the contrary: today, on the 
Fuhrer’s birthday, I feel that it is time to place 
Hitler, the man, before the eyes of the entire 
nation, so that the entire nation will know the 
magic of his personality, the enigmatic genius and 
irresistible force of his influence. Indeed, on this 


earth there is no longer anyone who does not 
know him as a statesman and a superior popular 
leader. However, only a few have a chance to see 
and experience him as a person at close proximi¬ 
ty on a daily basis and, I would like to add, to learn 
to understand and love him ail the more as a 
result, hese few people understand: Why and 
how it is possible that a man, who just three short 
years ago was opposed by half the nation, has 
risen today above every doubt and every criticism 
in the eyes of the entire population, if Germany 
had never before found heart-stirring unity in one 
man, we have found it now in the conviction that 
Adolf Hitler is a man of destiny, who carries with¬ 
in him a calling to lead the nation from its terrible 
internal disintegration and disgraceful foreign 
political humiliation to longed-for freedom. 

The fact that a man faced with this task has won 
the heart of the whole nation (which at times has 
required very difficult and unpopular decisions) is 
perhaps the deepest and most wonderful secret of 
our time. It cannot be explained just by purely 
objective accomplishments, for those who sacri 
ficed the most for him and for his national recon¬ 
struction, and who still must sacrifice, are the very 
ones who have welcomed his mission most pro¬ 
foundly and joyfully. And they stand by him, as a 
leader and as a man, with sincere and fervent love, 
his is a result of his magic personality and the 
deep mystery of his pure and unadulterated 


85 









A final visit shortly before Hi nclen burg's death in July, 1934. 


him after the midday meai to 
sign a menu as a souvenir. He 
hesitated a moment and then 
said, laughing, “Why not? The 
menus here never change, and 
it doesn't matter who sees 
them. " 

Adoif Hitier is one of the few 
heads of state who never wears 
medais or badges of honor 
except for a single war decora¬ 
tion, awarded for exceptional 
personal bravery when he was a 
simple soldier. This is a sign of 
modesty, but also of pride. No 
man under the sun could honor 
Hitler except Hitler himself. 
Every form of ostentation is 
abhorrent to him; but when rep¬ 
resenting the country and his 
nation, he does so with impres¬ 
sive, unflappable dignity. And 
behind everything that he is and 
does stand the words that the 
great soldier Schlieffen wrote 
about his work “More than it 
appears to be!” This has to do 
with superhuman diligence and 
tenacity to pursue set goals. 
When l arrived in Berlin a few 
days ago at one in the morning 
after two exhausting days of 
work, l wanted to sleep, but I 
was called to him to give a 
report. At two o'clock in the 
morning he sat there in his 
home, still fresh, surrounded by 


humanity. 

It is this humanity, which reveals itself most gen¬ 
uinely to those who are most closely associated 
with him, that I will address here. 

His humanity, like all genuine humanity, is clear 
and simple in essence as well as in action. This 
principle is as true for the smallest circumstances 
as it is for the largest. The simple clarity which 
shapes his political image is also the dominant 
principle of his entire life. It is hard to imagine him 
with any pretenses at all. If he were pretentious his 
people would not recognize him. His daily meals 
are the simplest and most unpretentious imagina¬ 
ble. His meals are always served the same way, 
regardless of whether he is eating with a few close 
friends or with important official visitors. Recently, 
during a reception for the Gauleiter of the Winter 
Welfare Organization, an old party member asked 


work, lis tening to a report 
almost two hours long about the building of the 
Reich s autobahn. 

This topic seemed completely removed from the 
great foreign policy problems that had occupied 
him for the entire day, from early morning until 
late into the night. Before the last National Socialist 
Party Assembly in Nuremberg, I was his guest for 
a week in Obersalzberg. There was light shining 
from his window every night until six or seven in 
the morning. The Fuhrer was dictating the great 
speeches he would give several days later at the 
party congress. He thoroughly studies the smallest 
detail of every potential law before the govern¬ 
ment adopts it. He is a military expert with exten¬ 
sive training; he has a specialist's knowledge of 
every weapon and every machine gun. If you are 
reporting to him about something, you must be 
ready with the smallest details. 
















Memorial service for Generalfcldmarschall von Hindenbm g in the Courtyard of Honor at the Tannenherg Memorial. The Fiihrer's eulogy. 




His method of working is geared compieteiy 
toward ciarity. Nothing is more foreign to him than 
nen/ous hustie and hysterical exaggeration. He 
knows better than anyone eise that there are a 
hundred or more problems to be solved. And so 
he selects two or three in particular which he sees 
as universal problems . While dealing with these, 
he doesn't allow himself to be distracted by the 
severity of the remaining problems. He knows full 
well that once the few major problems are 
resolved, the second and third-order problems 
almost solve themselves. 

By attacking the problems himself, however, he 
illustrates, on the one hand, how tough one must 
be to battle through the fundamental issues, and 
how flexible the evaluating methods must be. The 
Fuhrer is a stickler for principles, and he is a disci¬ 
ple of dogma; but he tackles 
these ssues with superior plia¬ 
bility of means and methods. 

This is why principles and 
dogma never get short shrift 
with him. His goals have never 
changed. He is accomplishing 
today what he wanted in 1919. 

But the methods he has devel¬ 
oped to carry out his goals have 
always varied depending on the 
situation. When he was offered 
the Vice Chancellorship in 
August of 1932, he declined 
point-blank with brief, simple 
words. He felt that the time was 
not yet right, and that the 
ground he would have stood on 
would not be enough to support 
him. When a wider door to 
power opened to him on 
ianuary 30, 1933, he walked 
courageously through it, even 
though he wasn't given com¬ 
plete responsibility. He knew 
that the foundation on which he 
then stood was sufficient to 
begin a battle for complete 
power. he know-it-alls out 
there did not understand either 
of his decisions; today they owe 
him humble apologies. He was 
superior to them in terms of tac¬ 
tics as well as in the strategic 
use of principles. Butin a display 
of short-sightedness, those with 
less insight arrogantly criticized 
those who advocated these 


principles. 

In the past summer two photographs found their 
way into the press, showing the Fuhrer in com¬ 
plete solitude at his most heart-wrenching. The 
first picture showed him on the day after June 30, 
when he had bloodily dealt with betrayal and 
mutiny, greeting the Reichswehr as they marched 
past the window of the chancellery. His face is 
almost numb from the sharp bitterness of the diffi¬ 
cult hours he had just experienced. 

The second photograph shows him leaving the 
house of the Reich f s president in Neubeck after his 
final visit to the dying general field marshal. His 
face is overshadowed with pain and sorrow over 
the merciless death that in a few hours will tear his 
fatherly friend from him. On New Year's night, in 
an almost prophetic vision, he had already pre- 



The morning of January J5, 1935. The Fuhrer thanks Gauleiter Biirckei 
on the occasion oj the victory in the Saar. 


87 



dieted to close circles the dangers he anticipated 
in the year 1934. He even predicted that 
Hindenburg would be taken from us that year. 
Now the inevitable was upon us. And the pain of 
an entire nation was expressed, not plaintively but 
in mourning, in the stone-like ace of one individ¬ 
ual. 

The entire nation clings to him with reverence and 
with deep heartfelt love. The people eel tha he 
belongs to them - flesh of their flesh and spirit of 

their spirit. This is 
expressed in the smallest 
and most trivial everyday 
things. For example, a 
respectful camaraderie pre¬ 
vails in the chancellery, 
inextricably connecting 
everyone - down to the 
last SS men in the escort 
party - to the Fuhrer. When 
they travel, they all sleep at 
the same hotel and under 
the same conditions. Is it 
any wonder that the most 
unassuming people around 
him a re precisely th os e 
who have turned out to be 
the most loyal? They feel 
instinctively that every¬ 
thing is the result of his 
natural inner spirit and 
unaffected mental attitude; 
nothing is posturing or pre¬ 
tense. 

Several weeks ago approx¬ 
imately fifty young German 
women living abroad, who 

had just spent a year attending courses in the 
German Reich and now had to return to their trou¬ 
bled homelands, asked for permission to see him 
at his chancellery. He invited all of them to eat 
supper with him, and they spent hours telling him 
about their homes and their modest little lives. 
While saying their good-byes, they suddenly 
struck up the song “Wenn alle untreu werden” and 
they wept. In their midst stood the man who had 
become for them the personification of an eternal 
Germany, providing them with friendly, kindly 
words of consolation to take along with them on 
their difficult path. 

He came from the people, and he is still one of the 
people. This man, who deliberated for two days in 
fifteen-hour meetings with statesmen from the 
world-power England, using masterful dialectic 
and hard statistics to settle Europe s destiny, is as 


natural and comfortable when speaking to the 
man on the street, immediately putting everyone 
at ease. This same man uses the intimate “du” 
when he addresses old soldiers, soldiers who have 
been worrying for days how they would address 
him and what they would say to him. The least 
important person approaches Hitler confidently 
knowing that he is a friend and protector. The peo¬ 
ple love him because they feel as safe and secure 
in his care as a child in the arms of its mother. 

This man is fanatic about 
his work. He has sacrificed 
his happiness and private 
life for his work. For him, 
nothing is more fulfilling. 
He serves with a deep 
inner humility as the most 
loyal worker for the Reich. 
An artist becomes a 
statesman, and his great 
artistic genius manifests 
itself in his contribution to 
history. He does not need 
to have people honor 
him; his work itself honors 
him in a most lasting and 
immortal way. Those of us 
who have the privilege of 
seeing him on a daily 
basis receive nothing but 
light from his light. We 
want only to be his obedi¬ 
ent followers in the pro¬ 
cession led by his flag. He 
has frequently said to a 
small circle of his oldest 
comrades and closest 

confidants, “It will be terrible when some day the 
first of us dies and there is an empty place that no 
one else can fill. ” If fate is kind, his place will be 
occupied the longest, so that the nation can con¬ 
tinue along this path to new freedom, greatness, 
and power under his leadership for many decades 
to come. In gratitude today the entire German 
nation lays this sincere and most ardent wish at his 
feet. Those of us who stand gathered closely 
around him and the last man in the most remote 
village now proclaim at this hour: 

“He is now who he always was, 
and who he is, he shall remain: 

Our Hitler!” 



The Fuhrer on his 47th birthday. 


88 








Biickeherg, 


1934. 



Hie army of workers. National Socialist Party Assembly, 1935. 


89 




National Socialist Party Assembly, 1935: Soldier workers 


90 




Germany today. 


iFiiljtxr attii tt}£ 

hy Jinst : tOtmtUntant $mx\ ad] 


A dolf Hitler was a soldier in the German army. 

He served willingly with all his heart in the 
greatest war ever fought by any army. For four 
years he fought in the raging slaughter of world 
war, in filth and slime amidst the rain of bullets and 
clouds of gas. He fought on the front line - the 
front line that bled to death for the homeland. 

He was a remarkable observer. He understood 
what the November Revolt could not have (but 
should have) grasped to prevent this activity from 
being immediately revealed as an outrageous 
betrayal of the nation. That is to say, he under¬ 
stood that a nation that cannot protect the work¬ 
place of its Jowliest citizen from enemy attack 
cannot function, it can’t work the soil if the sword 
doesn’t protect the plough. He also saw where 
the old army was lacking. He saw how the 
Reichstag had sinned against it in the libera days 
of 1914. 

Two basic necessities became clear to him. One 
was to recreate German military freedom while 
simultaneously building a new German 
Wehrmacht strong enough to protect Germany’s 
borders against attack. The second was to bu Id up 


this Wehrmacht based on the old approaches to 
general military service. This philosophy assumes 
that military service is an honor to the nation, and 
therefore anyone unworthy or foreign should not 
be awarded this honor. But neither should any 
individual be given preference or special rights. 
The Fuhrer took a personal interest in the German 
Wehrmacht and was satisfied to see that it was 
possible for the Reichswehr to keep it in shape in 
the midst of the pacifism and defeatism, betrayal 
and corruption of the November Republic. He 
even saw that it could be forged into a useful 
weapon. 

And so, early on, the Reichswehr and the NSDAP’s 
Fuhrer formed a bond. The younger officers soon 
recognized that Hitler was the only man capable 
of re-establishing the German army. 

A few days after January 30, 1930 the Fuhrer, 
recently named Chancellor, assembled all the high 
commanders of the Wehrmacht at the Reichswehr 
min stiy. He detailed the basic tenets of National 
Socialist policy for them. He gave them their 
assignments, showed them where they fit into the 
picture of what he wanted from the Wehrmacht, 


91 



and showed them what the 
Wehrmacht's purpose in National 
Socialist Germany would be. 
Nothing that transpired in this 
meeting was made public. It was 
still not the time to draw atten¬ 
tion to these questions. It would 
be another two years before the 
new German Wehrmacht could 
come out into the bright light of 
day. 

In his book, “Mein Kampf,” Hitler 
honors the old army where he 
had served for four years as a 
simple soldier and later as a cor¬ 
poral. The words he uses to 
honor this experience express his 
great pride n the German 
Wehrmacht now and forever: 
“The army was the most power¬ 
ful school for the German nation. 
Our enemies hated this particular 
shield of national self-preserva¬ 
tion and freedom for good rea¬ 
son. There can be no greater 
memorial to this single institution 
than to accept the fact that it was 
slandered, hated, fought, and 
feared by all those inferior 
beings. We can summarize in 
one word what the German 
nation can thank the army for: 
everything! The army taught 
absolute responsibility in an age 
where responsibility was very 
rare indeed. It taught personal 
courage in an age where cow¬ 
ardice threatened to become a 
raging sickness. The willingness 
to sacrifice, to initiate oneself for 
the general good was looked 
upon as stupidity. Only those 
who knew how to protect and 
further themselves were consid¬ 
ered intelligent. The army was 
the school that still taught indi¬ 
vidual Germans that the well¬ 
being of the nation cannot be 
found in the lies of our interna¬ 
tional brothers, but in the power 
and unity of our own nation. 

The army taught decisiveness at 
a time when indecisiveness and 
doubts dominated people's lives 
elsewhere. It was not easy to 



Wehrmacht Day in Nuremberg, 1935: Anti-aircraft guns in formation. 



Anti-aircraft battery telemetry on Wehrmacht Day at the National Socialist Party Assembly 1935. 



Protecting the coast: Navy artillery for coastal defense. 


92 



Launching ceremony of the Panzer ship "Admiral Graf Spec". 



Vi si ti ng th e fleet. 


maintain discipline at a time 
when so many set an example of 
an undisciplined life. There is an 
unspoiled, robust healthiness n 
this fundamental principle. It 
would have disappeared from 
our daily lives a long time ago if 
the army and the army’s teachi¬ 
ng had not provided continuous 
renewal of this basic force. The 
army taught idealism and devo¬ 
tion to the great Vaterland. It 
espoused a united nation instead 
of separation into classes. 
Probably the only thing wrong 
with the army was the one-year 
voluntary enlistment policy. 
However, much credit must be 
given to the army of the old 
Reich. It stood above the majori¬ 
ty in an age of majority rule. 
Compared to the Jewish- 
Democratic blind worship of 
numbers, the army believed in 
the individual. The army educat¬ 
ed men, and this was what these 
new times needed most. Despite 
the spreading swamp of emascu¬ 
lation and feminism, the army 
produced 350,000 powerful 
young men from its ranks each 
year. These young men shed their 
youthful weakness and devel¬ 
oped strong bodies during their 
two-year education. Only those 
who learned to obey during this 
time also learned how to give 
orders. A German soldier could 
be recognized by the way he 
walked. This was the German 
nation s foremost school. The 
army was hated (and for good 
reason) by those who, out of jeal¬ 
ousy or greed, wanted a power¬ 
less Reich with defenseless 
citizens. Many Germans, blinded 
by hate or delusions, did not 
want to see what the outside 
world already knew: the German 
army was the most powerful 
force available to help Germany 
obtain freedom and nourishment 
for its children. 

However, there was a reason that 
the Fuhrer felt this could not be 


93 




transferred from the old army into the new 
Wehrmacht in accordance with the Treaty of 
Versailles. This treaty was not designed to satisfy 
the will of the nation. It was forced upon the 
nation in its present form by outsiders. Only two 
citizens per thousand of the entire population 


this chancellor. The strongest political movement 
of the nation was marching behind him. 
in the ranks of the Reichswehr, however, it was 
clear that this act of freedom would not be child’s 
play. They must reckon with extreme difficulty. 
But they had rock solid trust that the Fuhrer, and 



National Socialist Party Assembly in Nuremberg, 1935. 
The flags of the glorious ok! army on Wehrmacht Day. 


were allowed to serve in the military. This meant 
of course that the Wehrmacht would not be 
allowed to have this all-encompassing effect of 
educating the nation. 

For the Fuhrer, it was obvious that this kind of reg¬ 
ular army was not a real people’s army. The sol¬ 
diers knew this too. It is no surprise, then, that the 
Wehrmacht enthusiastically greeted the decision 
of von Hindenburg, the president of the Reich at 
that time, to make the Fuhrer chancellor. If any 
power in Germany could free the army and navy 
from the shackles of Versailles, it was the power of 


no one but the Fuhrer, was capable of pulling it off. 
When on October 14, 1933 Hitler announced the 
decision to leave the League of Nations, every sol¬ 
dier’s heart went out to him in joy. They realized 
that was the beginning of re-establishing German 
military freedom. 

It is no accident that the German army has 
marched beside the SA and party formations on 
every German holiday since that momentous day 
in Potsdam. This new army is a true people’s 
army. The army no longer looks at differences in 
descent, ability, or social position, just as the party 


94 







Proclamation of military freedom, 1935. 



Swearing in new recruits to the people's army at the heidherrnhalle in Munich on November 7, 1935. 


95 











The Fiihrer with the Reich's Minister of War and the Supreme Commander of the army 
in 1935 at maneuvers, Mit ns te Hager troop exercise grounds. 


96 





Bomber over Nuremberg 


First visit to the Richthofen Squadron 


The arrival of German troops on the Mainz Bridge 
over the Rhein, March 7 . 1936. 












never has. The army now 
belongs to the people, and it 
belongs right in the middle. Anc 
so, although it is not a rule, it is 
taken for granted that the army 
will be at center stage on the 
nation’s lolidays. This is true of 
all holidays - the First of May, 
Harvest Day, a festive or sad 
occasion, or great Nuremberg 
Volkstag. No matter what the 
occasion, the Wehrmacht is 
there among the people. 

In his great Reichstag speech on 
January 30, 1934, the anniver¬ 
sary of the National Socialist 
Revolution, the Fuhrer said these 
words about the Wehrmacht’s 
role in it: 

“It is a unique historical event 
that, to serve the nation, such 
heartfelt unity has arisen 
between the forces of the revolu¬ 
tion and the leaders of a most 
disciplined Wehrmacht. Much 
like the bond between the 
National Socialist Party and 
myself as its Fuhrer on the one 
hand, and my bond with the sol¬ 
diers of the German Reich’s army 
and navy on the other, the 
Wehrmacht and its leaders stand 
beside the new state with total 
trust.” 

The Wehrmacht is not a separate 
entity. Rather, it is a National 
Socialist Wehrmacht. This goes 



"Liitzow" tower and the battle mast of the "Admiral Scheer" as seen from the port bow. 



^Ta 


Our Air Force. 


without saying in a National 
Socialist state. This is most 
proudly expressed when 
everyone serving in the 
Wehrmacht, from the 
Supreme Commander to the 
newest recruit, wears the 
National Socialist emblem on 
his shirt. 

The Fuhrer has emphasized 
this often and has identified 
the party and the Wehrmacht 
as the two pillars on which the 
National Social st Third Reich 
is based. He has identified the 
party as the political arm of 
the nation, and the 
Wehrmacht as the military 


98 







arm. Consciously, without 
being forced, and moved by a 
deep inner power, the 
Wehrmacht embraced the 
whole concept of the new 
National Socialist state and 
bonded with it. There is an 
uninterrupted continuity from 
the introduction of the NSDAP 
greeting, to participation in all 
party and state celebrations, 
to the introduction of the 

Wehrmacht Day, 1935: The Fiihrer with 

T-' 

h is commanders (left to right: 
Generaloberst Goring, Commander of 
the Air Force; Gen era Ife Idmcu sell all von 
Blond? erg. Commander of the 
Wehrmacht; Generalfeldmarschall 
Baron v. Fritsch, Commander of the. 
Infantry; Generaladmiral Dr. h. C 
Boeder, Commander of the Navy). 



National Socialist Assembly in Nuremberg, 1935. 
The navy in procession on Wehrmacht Day. 


Wehrmacht emblem, to partic¬ 
ipation in party assemblies, 
and to raising a battle flag 
adorned with the swastika. 
The “duties of the German sol¬ 
dier are written with National 
Socialist spirit, as is the oath of 
allegiance; “1 swear to God 
and all that is holy my absolute 
obedience to the leader of the 
German Reich and nation, 
Adolf Hitler, the Supreme 
Commander of the 
Wehrmacht. As a steadfast 
soldier I will be prepared to 
risk my life at all times on 
behalf of this oath.” 

From the first day in office, the 
Minister of War made it clear 
that the German Wehrmacht 
would be founded on the 
Weltanschauung of the 
National Socialists. Whenever 
he spoke to troops or to other 
groups he emphasized that 
this pledge of trust to the 
Fiihrer was sincere and unwa¬ 
ver ng. The Wehrmacht was 
deeply engrossed in the 
rebirth of the German state. 
The Minister of War himself 
once said in an article in the 
Voelkschen Beobachter. “The 
Wehrmacht is what it has 
always been - pure inner-dis- 
ciplined power - because of its 
leadership. It serves this state 


99 







Greyhounds of the Baltic Sea: A German speedboat. 


























Hitler visiting the battleship "Schleswig-Holstein" in Hamburg harbor 









and affirms it with deepest conviction. It stands by emblem of Germany’s rebirth proudly on its hel- 

the leadership that restored its distinguished right met and uniform. The Wehrmacht stands with dis- 

- not only as a weapon, but also as a champion of cipline and trust behind the leader of the state, the 

the unbounded trust of the people and of the Fuhrer of the Reich, Adolf Hitler, who came from 

state. Today, a sense of duty permeates the entire our ranks and will always be one of us. 

German nation. The power of the Wehrmacht This is the real secret of the bond between the new 

flows from a strong belief in Germany and army and the Fuhrer. It is the same secret that 

l 

m 


1 1 



Germany s right to life. Today’s soldier is actively 
involved in the political life of this nation. Once 
again, the German people consider military serv¬ 
ice honorable. In Germany’s period of darkness, 
the Wehrmacht passed the difficult test of disci¬ 
pline, sometimes under atrocious difficulties. 
Adolf Hitler took the fighting community in the 
trenches of the world war and made it the basis for 
a new national community. This became the foun¬ 
dation of a great tradition and the Wehrmacht, as 
heir of the old army, embraced it. The Wehrmacht 
is closely aligned with the nation and wears the 


unites the Fuhrer and the worker, the Fuhrer and 
the farmer, the Fuhrer and the political fighters. All 
can say with conviction: He is one of us. The Fuhrer 
comes from the farmer, he was a worker like mil¬ 
lions and millions of his national comrades. He lay 
as a simple soldier in the trenches of a four-year 
battle for the homeland as did millions and mil¬ 
lions of Germans. He was a soldier; a brave soldier 
who risked his life as a beacon in hellish crossfire. 
Today, when the old soldiers from the World War 
sit with the Fuhrer, they reminisce about when 
they put their lives on the line for the Vaterland, an 

103 



experience that holds them all together as com¬ 
rades. They all know that when they swear alle¬ 
giance to their comrade from the Great War they 
are honoring the legacy of all those who have fall¬ 
en. It is this that makes the Wehrmacht a National 
Socialist organization from the inside: the Fuhrer is 
their leader. He will always be a soldier ready to 
risk his own life in the face of the enemy. And as 
such, he has the right to lead others. He knows the 
needs and concerns of soldiers. He knows what 
soldiers want and what must be held back from 
them. This knowledge does not come from 
reports or stories, but from his own vast experi¬ 
ence. It is clear that nothing makes the Wehrmacht 
more proud than to be bonded with this man 
today. When the troops parade before him, the 
eyes of the soldiers sparkle, they step more 
crisply, they tense every muscle. The leadership 
knows too that they have only Hitler to thank for 
the very existence of the Wehrmacht. It was 
Hitler’s tough and exhausting political work that 
made it possible to re-establish German military 
might and to re-establish the traditional right of 
free German men to serve in the armed forces. 
The Fuhrer always impresses upon the young sol¬ 
diers that this honor of serving the nation carries 
with it immense responsibility. He emphasizes his 
support of the Wehrmacht. He emphasizes to 
each soldier that without the sacrifices of the 
entire nation he would not be able to execute this 


honor and duty. After the glorious military parade 
at the 1935 party assembly in Nuremberg, the 
Fuhrer said these eloquent words to his soldiers, 
“If you must make a personal sacrifice of obedi¬ 
ence and duty, of subordination, hardship, stami¬ 
na and performance, do not forget, my soldiers, 
that the entire German nation is also making a 
great sacrifice. We make this sacrifice with the 
conviction that we do not need war to get paid 
back. You truly need not glorify the German army; 
already glorious, you need only to protect it. 
Germany has not lost its military honor, particular¬ 
ly not in the last war. Take care that the nation can 
put its trust once again in the army because you 
wear the helmet of the army’s most glorious 
times. Then the German nation will love you. The 
people will believe in their army and joyfully and 
happily sacrifice for it. The people will know that 
these sacrifices enable the army to protect the 
nation’s peace and that the education of the 
German nation will be secure. This is the nation’s 
plea, its hopes, and this is what the nation 
demands of you. And I know you will respond to 
this demand, these hopes, and this plea because 
you are new soldiers of the new German Reich." 
The Fuhrer and Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht and 
the nation are one, as nation and Fuhrer are one, 
united not only by an oath and a promise, but also 
by the common striving and common will for a 
free and strongly united Nat onal Socialist Reich. 



The Fuhrer visits Norwegian fjords on hoard a navy ship. 


104 



National Socialist Assembly: 1 he nation's youngest drummers 


tyqz jFiiljrer an& (Scmum fnuilj 

hij iatimr mm §cffirad| 


ur young people honor the Fuhrer in all parts 
of the Reich. Today the enthusiastic and 
enraptured youth who serve him and cheer him 
on is part of the very concept of Adolf Hitler. We 
take this for granted. Wherever the Fuhrer is, chil¬ 
dren are too, proclaiming their loyalty to him. It 
doesn’t matter if he is out driving on one of his 
trips past an unbroken honor guard compi sed of 
these young people, or if they surround him like a 
wall with their parades and rallies at large, festive 
political events. That which is commonplace for us 
Germans never ceases to amaze foreigners. The 
mysterious connection between our nation’s 


Fuhrer and this young generation is an unaccount¬ 
able phenomenon which foreigners call “The 
German Wonder.” And indeed, what better way 
to describe the total unification of every class, 
trade, and religious denomination, n addition to 
all general ons of our people. To us as Germans, it 
is also a wonder that the Fuhrer could manage to 
get people of all ages to commit themselves to a 
common ideal, each in his or her own way, each 
trying to follow with his or her particular, individ¬ 
ual strength. 

The young and the youngest, with their passion 
and capacity for excitement, have always been the 

105 










symbol of impetuous German youth; the elderly 
and the eldest are distinguished in years by their 
quiet clarity, constancy, and mature strength. 
Adolf Hitler raised an entire nation to serve this 
ideal. A ten-year old finds just as strong an aware¬ 
ness in shouldering his work and heralding his will 


decade after the Great War. It is pointless to ask 
who is to blame. Let me just say that the youth of 
those days is most definitely not to be solely 
blamed for the lack of respect and discipline, 
here were no role models for young people any¬ 
where among the older generation. Because of 



Reciting her poem. The Fiihrer on one of his election campaign tours. 1932. 


as a thirty-year-old or forty-year old. Yes, it is these 
very youth who feel particularly tied to the Fiihrer 
because, with the unmistakable certainty of their 
instinct, they feel that the Fuhrer has dedicated his 
thoughts and his concern to them all. They know 
that he serves the future that they themselves per¬ 
sonify. 

Particularly in the recent past Germany suffered 
terribly because of the conflicts between the 
younger and older generations. This conflict was 
especially tangible in every family during the 


the r personalities and actions, the so-called 
statesmen of the time were not able to evoke 
enthusiasm. They were either rejected or 
despised; so it was that inappropriate and false 
role-models such as film and sports stars 
remained. Is it the fault then of our young oeople 
that they were not able to fulfill the expectations 
of their elders? 

Doesnrt every educator know that more than any¬ 
thing young people must have heroic role models 
to demonstrate the proper way for a nation to 


106 





develop? Men who served heroically in the World 
War could have been sustained by the youth, 
nstead the press and even influential men in the 
government ridiculed and insulted them. 
Unpunished, they were allowed to publicly deride 
the heroic ideal as stupid. In these circumstances, 


the war are still alive in our memories. These trials 
demonstrated to us with shocking clarity how 
trapped German youth can be when there is no 
leadership. 

From the very first day, Adolf Hitler, through his 
works, tried to lead our youth back to itself. We 





Again and again the Fiihrer is seen surrounded hy children. Right, Baldur von Schirach. 


it is perfectly understandable that our youth lost all 
necessary standards and acceptable behavior. 
Because our young people observed so many 
people of the older generation behaving improp¬ 
erly, they held all of them in contempt. Cowardice 
was praised, and our youth believed everyone was 
a coward. The younger generation lost all sense of 
justice and injustice, boundaries and laws: the 
great court cases dealing with sexual issues 
brought against youth of that time as well as all 
the other juvenile crime during the years following 


can credit the success of this attempt, which not 
even the most optimistic ever expected, exclu¬ 
sively to Hitler s Inexhaustible will power and per¬ 
sistence. The casual observer of the National 
Socialist movement’s years of struggle overlooks 
all too easily the detailed work necessary to the 
movement that went along with the great slogans 
and slaughter. And the Fuhrer was not simply 
handed the National Socialist Youth Movement as 
some believe. Nor did it emerge solely from 
newspaper appeals and speeches. 


107 




Young Germany greets the Fiihrer in the election campaign. 


Here, as in all areas of the movement, the Fiihrer 
wrestled continuously year in and year out with 
draft laws until he was ready to announce the fun¬ 
damental theorems with which his youth leaders 
would have to operate. A new chapter ir the rear¬ 
ing of mankind began when Adolf Hitler coined the 
phrase, Youth must lead youth. Only a genius 
could simultaneously close the door to the past 
and open the door to the future with one phrase. 
With this motto for education, Adolf Hitler won 
over the hearts of his nation’s youth to his flag. It 
doesn’t matter that hardly anyone understood the 
Fuhrer’s motto at first. Indeed, the fact that people 
ridiculed and disparaged it as simply another pro¬ 
grammatic statement of the Fiihrer is unimportant 
too - as is the fact that this law dictated the devel¬ 
opment of the Youth Movement and that this 
movement only included a few thousand mem¬ 
bers. Only one thing is all-important and signifi¬ 
cant: Adolf Hitler, empathic and in tune with the 
spirit of youth, set up and proclaimed a thesis that 
no other statesman or educator had been able to 
bring about. We felt even then that the largest 
youth movement in the world would grow from 
this tiny community. 

With the exception of Adolf Hitler, all statesmen 
past and present have regarded leadership of the 
youth as the general responsibility of their own 



Children’s hands. 


108 




generation. They have seen 
youth exclusively from the 
point of view of the older 
generation. For them it was a 
given (about which they 
never gave a second 
thought) that the older gen¬ 
eration was to take responsi¬ 
bility and leadership of the 
youth into its own hands. 

This is the model that large 
state youth organizations in 
other lands follow. In con¬ 
trast to all these earlier edu¬ 
cational methods, Adolf 
Hitler has taken full responsi¬ 
bility for the outcome of his 
method. It was he who 
claimed responsibility as the educational authority. 
The fact that the German youth does not betray 
the Fuhrer’s trust can be linked to the stirring tes¬ 
timony of youth's inner value, instead of betraying 
trust, the youth endeavors to justify as honor and 
duty, despite error and turmoil, this trust that they 
continue to feel. And so it is that they respect the 
Fuhrer’s mandates and painstakingly march for¬ 
ward, step by step, developing into a mighty 


Hitler Youth as guests in Obersalzherg. 

organization - the envy of the world. And all of this 
without being compelled by a law, or a decree, but 
rather solely by the inner power of an influential 
dea. Envision what it means that, even before he 
came to power through the National Socialists, the 
Fuhrer knew that the great majority of German 
youth was behind him. The Reich’s Youth Day took 
place in Potsdam three months before the Fuhrer 
was elected Chancellor, and it is still the I irgest 



Munich , November 9, 1935. Before a festive reception into the party in front oj the Braunes Haas. 


109 




youth march the world has ever seen. The 
Communist and Social-Democrat youth organiza¬ 
tions were overpowered before January 30, 1933 
- not by brutal violence, but rather because the 
National Socialists won the souls of its members 
through their ideas. 

This greatly differentiates the Hitler Youth from the 


youth organizations of other countries: the Hitler 
Youth have not been allotted their responsibilities 
after the fact, but fought in the battle for power, 
sacrificed in this battle, and placed themselves in 
the spring of 1936 as volunteer followers whereby 
ten- and fourteen-year-old youngsters comprised 
well over 90% of all these youth. 



National Socialist Assembly on the Strength of the Party, 1934. At the stadium with young people. 


To this day, Adolf Hitler closely follows the work of 
his youth movement in all its facets. Year after year 
he receives in the chancellery the male and female 
winners of the Reich Vocational Competition in 
order to personally congratulate them. He nspects 
the miniature youth hostels the youngsters have 
built and looks at the plans they show him. He 
draws on his vast building experience to help 
them in word and deed. He often initiates contact 
by inviting a group of young people or a group 


handicrafts, hand-drawn postcards, needlework, 
and travel books. All of th s expresses more elo¬ 
quently than words how the thoughts of the 
younger generation encompass this man who 
gave them a sense of purpose and duty. 

How often I have observed how the Fuhrer tarried 
n front of these small and humble gifts rather than 
pausing at the costly and spectacular. These 
youngsters’ birthday gifts seem to give him the 
most joy. They are, in truth and reality, made from 







from the BDM over whom he met while traveling 
in Berchtesgaden or Berlin. He surprises them by 
serving coffee and cake while listening to them 
sing or tell of their travels. Perhaps the strongest 
expression of the unconditional relationship 
between the Fuhrer and his youth is on his birth¬ 
day. The long tables in the chance ery are cov¬ 
ered with thousands of small gifts presented by 
boys and girls of the Reich with great care and the 
hope that their gifts will bring their Fuhrer joy: 


the most precious material: from the love of the 
children that, as no one before him, Adolf Hitler 
feels so deeply. 

The Hitler Youth carries the name of the Fuhrer as 
part of its name. This bond between our nation’s 
youth and the eader of our Reich symbolizes the 
deep inner bond between Adolf Hitler and the 
youngest of our nation. Today, once again, each 
girl and boy, as individuals and as a unit, is dedi¬ 
cated to one ideal and has a role model to whom 



National Socialist Assembly, 1935, the Fuhrer and our youth. 


he or she is devoted and strives to follow. The 
German people can look to their future and see 
tranquillity. 1 he fallacies of the past have been con¬ 
quered. The time of generational problems is past. 
Although once youth groups of various political 
parties were wont to stand against each other in 
political controversy, today all stand as one front. 
Whereas, in the past, the poor and the rich were 
seen in a dismal clash of class, the present sees a 
faithful alliance of young people whose social 


awareness is stronger than any selfish desire. 
Herein is revealed the Fuhrer’s great educational 
power. What a short time ago appeared impossi¬ 
ble and even a utopian claim is now a convincing 
reality. It is true that our young people have had to 
make sacrifices to bring about this reality. Some 
youth groups of the past in a sincere effort to 
achieve a greater goal have had to sacrifice in 
order to bring about a greater alliance of youth. 
The Hitler Youth, too, has had to lay some of its 


111 







comrades in the bier in order to attain this inner 
oneness and unity. But without this unity, no com¬ 
munity on earth can exist. The young people who 
died believing in the Fuhrer and his forthcoming 
Reich, and the millions of young people still living 
are bound together in this same belief. They all 
feel that they cany the duty the Fuhrer has placed 


upon them. They are one with him in serving the 
greatness of the Reich. Adolf Hitler’s work is 
immortal because every German youngster stands 
ready to joyfully, dutifully, and oyally serve this 
cause his whole life long and to pass this on to 
those who come after him. This is how they will 
greet the next millennium. 



A fter getting the Fiihrer's autograph , she is 


lucky enough to he photographed with him, too . 


112 




The heroes of the movement, who were failed on the 9 th of November 1923, were interred 
in the two Temples oj Honor on Kbnigsplafz in Munich on November 9, 1935. 



hg Philipp loufykr 


hen an anonymous soldier of the World War, 
who was temporarily blinded by mustard gas 
on November 8, 1918, decided, under the shat¬ 
tering impression of the miserable revolt n the 
stock market, to become a politician in order to 
intervene in the destiny of his nation, blinded to 
reason and humiliated, no one could have known 
that fourteen years later this same man would 
head the whole German nation as FGhrer and 
Reich’s Chancellor. Only Adolf Hitler himself knew 
his own path, with the infallible belief that a 
genius has in his own power. But he also knew 
that even in chaotic postwar Germany, the politi¬ 
cal leadership would never go to a man who had 
neither reputation nor fame, title nor money. He 
could bring only his knowledge, his personality, 
and his belief in himself. He knew that the road to 
oower in the state, which alone offered the possi¬ 
bility of changing Germany’s hopeless situation, 
could only be taken by storm at the head of a 
movement, imbued with a triumphant idea and 
fanaticism, the nucleus of which in turn would 
have to be anchored by a strict organization. 


Where would Friedrich the Great have been with¬ 
out the army he inherited from his father? It was 
this army that brought him his victories. Adolf 
Hitler, too, created an instrument that would be 
the very foundation of his politics. He created the 
NS DAP. 

From very modest beginnings, he created this 
organization organically, an organization based on 
the idea of a Fuhrer as absolute leader and a fol¬ 
lowing of vo unteers. This idea broke with all par¬ 
liamentary traditions. Instead of the empty 
democrat c principle of the equality of all men and 
majority rule, it gave absolute power and unlimit¬ 
ed authority to the leadership. While German 
regional parliaments were bargaining for the per¬ 
sonal advantages of separate cliques and exhaust¬ 
ing themselves with fruitless votes regarding the 
vital problems of the German nation; while under 
the very eyes of the government, foreign ele¬ 
ments were denigrating Germany s honor and 
reputation and spending the last monetary 
reserves of the German nation; and while the state 
stood by helpless and passive as the German 

1 13 



fatherland stumbled ever more hopelessly into the 
abyss of political and economic slavery, Adolf 
Hitler was forging the instrument that would free 
Germany from within as well as from without. 

For fourteen years, he steered his party around the 
obstacles. He worked tirelessly and doggedly to 
overcome danger. And finally, despite many set- 


and shame, made a laughingstock in the eyes of 
the world by jews and deserters, is gone. The 
years of slavery, inner strife, persecution, and 
oppression of the German in his own land, and 
the all-pervasive corruption in public life have 
vanished like a nightmare. The dream of centuries 
has become reality. A united German Reich has 



A monument of honor in memory of those who fell at the Feldherrnhalle in Munich on the 9 th of November 1923. 


backs, they began to celebrate success after suc¬ 
cess. Not because justice was on their side; justice 
can be perverted. Not because a devoted and 
fanatic following, trusting blindly, was fighting for 
the final victory; even the greatest sacrifices of 
property and blood can be for naught. Not 
because the opponents, driven by blind hatred 
and the will to destroy, made unimaginable mis¬ 
takes. The movement was victorious because 
Adolf H tier stood at its head, because he is the 
movement, because he personifies the idea of 
National Socialism. 

Today Germany is free. The Germany of ignominy 

114 


risen. Class hatred and snobbery have disap¬ 
peared. There are no longer any political pan es in 
Germany. Ur ted like brothers n striving to reach 
one single goal, the German tr bes obey but one 
command. 

All this is the work of Adolf Hitler. And if he had 
achieved no more han this - to reestablish 
Germany’s ability to defend itself, this German 
nation that for one and a half decades had lain 
shattered and defenseless, at the mercy of its 
enemies - this alone would have been enough 
immortalize his name by carving it nto the 
Parthenon [sic] of history. 







Think about it: the courage and trust, the infinite 
willingness to sacrifice, the devotion that thrived 
in the small group of faithful throughout all the 
long years of struggle, the group that grew and 
grew until it became a people’s movement and 
finally an army of millions in the brown uniform of 


cherished most, say; “I am proud of this sacrifice?” 
Think about it. How was it possible to mold a sin¬ 
gle strong movement out of the jumble of parties 
and groups representing so many different inter¬ 
ests, across differences in rank and class, across all 
religious denominations and opinions about how 



National Socialist Assembly, 1934. Consecrating the flags. 


honor. Think about it. Why did thousands happily 
and blindly obey his every signal for ten or more 
years, why did they put their professions and fam¬ 
ilies last, why did they suffer mockery and scorn, 
why did they take insults, why did they donate 
their last, hard-earned penny without a word of 
complaint and without asking for thanks? Why did 
tens of thousands fall beneath the blows of their 
bestial enemies, and why did hundreds go to their 
death with a last “Heil Hitler” on their pale lips? 
Why did mothers, who had lost all they had and 


to structure the state. There is always but one 
answer: because Adolf Hitler was the leader of this 
movement. Brilliant organizer, fascinating speaker, 
and master of propaganda, dismissed by many an 
arrogant intellectual as a “political drummer,” but 
who in reality was a born statesman, a daredevil 
with a burning heart who looked danger in the eye 
and faced it head on, a cool strategist who knew 
to wait until the hour had come. The leader who 
saw through the ruses of his opponents and took 
action against the wolves in sheep's clothing and 


115 
















- xiLny- 


The first of the old comrades on the 9th of November 1935 in front of the Braunes Hans in Munich 










the sheep in wolves’ clothing. The generous and 
ki d man who is fond of everyone, who under¬ 
stands everyone and was always prepared to help 
when he could. He gave the movement its funda- 
mental Weltanschauung, the quintessence of his 
political and philosophical knowledge, born in the 


you remained unsha cable. When others lost 
courage, you radiated new courage. When others 
eft us, you took up the flag with more determi 
nation than before.” 

Adolf Hit r never thinks of himself. Determined 
to give his all, he marched away from the 



National Socialist Assembly, 1934. 


hard years of his youth, years of learning and suf¬ 
fering, and purified and hardened in the heavy fire 
of the World War. He was and is the dynamic 
power that feeds the movement and drives it for¬ 
ward. 

Rudolf Hess, when he opened the 1933 National 
Socialist Assembly victory party in Nuremberg, 
aptly and movingly described the unique bond 
that the movement shares with its Fuhrer when he 
said, My Fuhrer! As leader of the party, you guar¬ 
anteed our victory. When others stumbled, you 
remained upright. When others advised compro- 


Burgerbraukeller at the head of the procession that 
broke down in a hail of bullets next to the 
Feldherrnhalle. On that ill-fated morning in 
Wiessee, accompanied by just a few faithful com¬ 
panions, he arrested the traitors with his own 
lands. These are just two stories of many to exem¬ 
plify the entire history of the party. A history that 
is one great example of the Fuhrer’s infinite devo¬ 
tion to his work and the unprecedented personal 
effort he gives it. 

For him, there was no rest, no holiday. A fourteen- 
or sixteen-hour workday was not unusual for him. 




For nights on end he dictated, wrote proclamations, 
or designed flyers and posters. Then he wou 
off ai ;ain by car, train, or airplane. His success as an 
orator is unparalleled as far as one can judge. He 
has held as many as four huge rallies in four d ffer- 
ent cities in a single day. "here is no village, no 
town in which he does not recall menacing crowds 
of misguided Germans, distraught to he point of 
madness, following his car with dull murmu ing, 
wild shouts, or even throwing stones, crowded 
masses showing him their love and devotion with 
roaring cries of ‘ Heil Hitler” and a shower of flow¬ 
ers, overcrowded village taverns with several hun¬ 
dred people, or city assembly halls filled to bursting 
and with tens of thousands frenetically applauding 
his words, blond children lifted to his car by trusting 
mothers, or the modest light at an airfield shining 
like a guiding star after a frightening flight in the 
fog. 

And once the decision had been made, when the 
election campaign was over, the Fuhrer sat through 
the entire night with his faithful entourage next to 
the loudspeaker waiting for the results. 

Breathlessly, hearts beating faster, they listened to 
the reports. They took notes and made calculations, 
estimated results, and when the numbers surpassed 
even their most daring expectations, their jubilation 
knew no bounds. election there was a drop in votes for the National 

There were also days with failures; there were set- Socialists, Adolf Hitler threw himself immediately 
backs. But the Fuhrer never lost heart. Never did he and with determination - and it was long after 
allow his courage to fail. Even after unprecedented midnight - into preparation for the next battle. He 
successes, his watchword was, “The struggle con- thought of ways to greatly increase the already 
tinues immediately!” especially if his projected goal vigorous propaganda activity in order to do better 
had not yet been reached. After the November the next time around. 

election in 1932, when compared to the previous Sometimes Adolf Hitler’s physical and emotional 

vigor seemed to go beyond 
what was humanly possible. 
Once he had just arrived at his 
hotel in Bayreuth in the early 
morning hours after a tiring 
night drive from 

Berchtesgaden when he 
received a telephone mes¬ 
sage about the mutiny crisis of 
SA-Fuhrer Stennes in Berlin. 
’Tie situation had already 
reached dangerous propor¬ 
tions. There was no stopping 
him. He got back in the car 
immediately ano raced to 
Berlin. He held meetings and 
negotiated until evening and 
gave speeches to the SA-men 
on their premises. He 
returned to Munich that same 


On (he 9th of November 1934 in front of belciherrnha/le. 

The F (Hirer with his deputy. Rudolph Hess, and the old comrades. 


1935 National Soeialist Assembly; 
with the workers on Zeppelinwiese. 






lie fifteenth anniversary of the oldest town group 
of NS DAP in Rosenheim, 1925. 


night, straightaway to the Braunes Haus from 
where the rebellion was finally quashed. For hours 
he dictated extemporaneously, his words imme¬ 
diately transcribed by typists: a special newspaper 
edition, appeals, flyers, meetings late into the 
night. 

And again an attempt to split the movement 
failed. 


when the moment demands lightning-fast action. 
They know too that there is no protective shelter 
for this man. At the moment of danger he will 
always be at the in the center of action leading his 
followers as he has in the past and as he will in the 
future. 

Those who have seen the Fuhrer during times ike 
this also know that this man, whose eyes sparkle 
with unbounded kindness, becomes hard and 
relentless when his work is disrupted, when his 
movement is endangered. 

No one is more generous than Adolf Hitler. He 
who has reestablished the right of German individ¬ 
ualism does not want lackeys. He wants upright 
men around him, independent thinkers who act 
responsibly at their own discretion. He can accept 
frankness, and he has the superior insight to allow 
himself to be convinced by cogent logic. Because 
he has no use for bootlickers, but wants to promote 
independent thinking, he gives his collaborators 
the greatest possible freedom to act independent¬ 
ly. l ie is a stranger to oetty limitations or restric¬ 
tions on the work of others. He sets up a basic 
course of action and points the direction, but he 
allows each individual the greatest possible lee¬ 
way. He measures people by character and 
achievements, not by details of how and why and 
when, and not based on formulaic rubbish which 
he dislikes intensely. So he is always ready to for¬ 
give mistakes. He turns a blind eye when someone 
has erred or used poor judgment. With great 
patience and forbearance, he overlooks personal 
flaws and inadequacies knowing they are part of 
human nature. 

But woe is him who tries to shake the foundations 
of the movement! Woe is him who dares to sin 


This is Adolf Hitler. 

Tireless work for the good of 
the movement, and constant 
worry about the fate of the 
movement have been Adolf 
Hitler’s constant companions 
throughout the long years of 
struggle. This work, the con¬ 
tinuous struggle, deprivation 
and sacrifice, and agonizing 
concern, has elevated him to 
colossal greatness as he now 
stands before Germany and 
the world. 

Those who have seen the 
Fuhrer in times of extreme 
difficulties, when the move¬ 
ment was at grave risk, know 
that this man is at his best 



An old soldier: The t ihrer congratulates GeneraI Utzmann (now deceased) on his birthday. 








against the spirit of the movement o to destroy 
the nature of the organization! Woe is him who has 
sworn loyalty to the Fiihrer and to the movement 
and who breaches it. Disloyalty will not be par¬ 
doned. No one is spared. In th s case rank and 
name make no difference. In this case merit, no 
matter how great, does not weigh enough; the 


And Adolf Hitler looks back often. He is richly 
blessed with a trait common in all truly great men: 
gratitude. Gratitude for providence which time and 
time again has seemed to work in mysterious, 
incomprehensible ways, providence which fortu¬ 
nately pointed to the one right path; gratitude to 
his movement and to his fellow fighters who were 



National Socialist Freedom Assembly. The Fiihrer awaits the brown eohmms. 


scales tip and the offender falls back into the void 
from whence he came. 

As a mountaineer who has arduously reached the 
steep summit of a mountain looks down at the 
winding, stony path, through hills and valleys, 
today Adolf H tier, Germany’s Fiihrer, can look 
back upon the path, fourteen years of struggle for 
an unprecedented rise to the position of leader of 
a nation, fourteen years replete with danger, sacri¬ 
fice, and tribulation, but also with trust, happiness, 
and proud satisfaction. 


true to him through thick and thin. He knows all 
these men personally, he is sincerely pleased for 
the opportunity to shake hands with these men 
when he runs into them unexpectedly out in the 
country. And they can always count on him to lis¬ 
ten to what they have to say. There is a particular¬ 
ly warm comradeship between him and his old 
SA- and SS-men. The soldier in Hitler has always 
found the right words for fighting party troops 
trained in the spirit of true soldiers. Since the 
National Socialist Party was a movement of sol- 


120 






diers from the very beginning, it drew fighting 
men to it like a magnet. In the early days of the 
movement, when the A was slowly emerging 
from the troopers of the party, which consisted of 
only a handful of the Fuhrer’s war comrades, Adolf 
Hitler spent a great deal of time in their midst. He 
demonstrated with them in the streets; he went 


party members by agreeing to be their sons’ god¬ 
father. How often has he hospitably entertained 
SA-comrades in his house or received them in the 
chancellery. And how often has he even gone to 
them when they have met for the traditional, sim¬ 
ple commemoration celebrations in restaurants or 
in the mess hall of the Braunes Haus. Whenever 



The 1923 'Bloody Flag' a! the National Socialist Assembly in Nuremberg. 


with them to their opponents rallies where his 
heckling always hit the target. When they marched 
outside cities, he shared with them the straw pal¬ 
lets of their quarters; when the Red mob in Coburg 
crowded howling around the SA, he stood n the 
midst of the thickest throng and delivered many a 
powerful blow himself. 

It is no wonder that even today, as Reich’s 
Chancellor, he feels comfortable among his old 
comrades. How often has he been best man at 
their weddings, how often has he thrilled fellow 


the old and young, all n their brown shirts and 
ever radiant in his presence, sat around him, Adolf 
Hitler was as ever one of their own, a comrade 
among comrades. 

More than anything else, it is this human side that 
has etched a picture of the Fuhrer upon millions of 
hearts. People can always be forced to obey. But 
because of this man’s extraordinary achievements, 
our nation voluntarily and gladly shows its respect 
to the man leading it. No power on earth could 
force the people to support the Fuhrer with this 


121 






The 9 th of November 1935 in Munich. The Fiihrer speaks with a 
party member, the widow of a man who fed on the 9th of 
November 1923. Bra lines Hans in the background. 


love and devotion, nor is it a product of pure 
chance. And it is rooted in the personality of Adolf 
Hitler. His personality pulls the people powerfully 
under his spell, and once they have sensed even a 
hint of his spirit it never lets them go. His person¬ 
ality is a source of courage for the timid, strength 
for the weak, and fresh hope for those who are 


it possible for him to take the rudder of German 
destiny and put his ideas and plans into action one 
after another. In addition, the movement and his 
preoccupation with it have filled his life to such an 
extent that he would not be able to live without it. 
Even though the time-consuming but fulfilling 
business of Adolf Hitler the statesman leaves him 
little time to deal with matters of the party, he 
takes as much interest as he always has in every' 
thing that goes on within the whole organization. 
He remains in constant contact with the men who 
are in leadership positions within the party. When 
visiting ministers of the Reich or a Gau, or top lead¬ 
ers in the SA or the SS, or when youth organiza¬ 
tions come to Berlin, the Fuhrer invites them to be 
his guests in the chancellery. 

When he is tired and weary, contact wit! the move¬ 
ment revitalizes him. When he steps up to the 
podium at National Socialist rallies and begins to 
speak, when he sees thousands of trusting eyes 
trained expectantly on him, then the spark that 
leapt from him to the masses leaps back to him, 
renewing his vigor and fill ng him with an increased 
desire for action. This constant current running back 
and forth between Fuhrer and followers, this effect 
on others that reflects back to him, is perhaps the 
final mystery of Adolf Hitler’s success and of the 
success of the National Socialist Movement. 

This bond of destiny for better or for worse 
between Fuhrer and movement explains why Adolf 
Hitler is drawn as f by mag e to the historical sites 
of the movement, to those well-known places 
which for him are linked for all time to indelible 
memories. And sometimes perhaps he feels slight¬ 
ly melancholy as he thinks about the past, of a time 


desperate. 

But just as Adolf Hitler contin¬ 
ues to pump impetus and 
strength to the movement, 
just as his spirit and blood flow 
and pulse through this huge 
body of the party, the move¬ 
ment in turn continues to be a 
source strength for him. 

The movement is his home¬ 
land. It is the soil in which his 
whole being is rooted, just as 
it is impossible to imagine the 
National Socialist Movement 
without Adolf Hitler, so it is 
impossible to imagine the 
Fuhrer without the movement. 



It is with this movement that 
he first developed the funda¬ 
mental principles which made 


A historical sight. The Fiihrer and Dr. Goebbels visit the room in the Sferneckerhdu 


that served as the first office of the party in 1920. 


122 





when it was still difficult to be a National Socialist! 
In an unprepossessing corner of the street, 
SterneckergaBchen, in Munich there is an old 
house with the little dark room that had served as 
the party office in the early days of the movement. 
After seizing power, the Fuhrer requested that it be 
returned to its old condition and preserved for 
posterity. Some time later when Chancellor Adolf 
Hitler entered this broom closet of a room in the 
Sterneckerbraus after a get-together in the adja 
cent Leiber Room with his old guard, he found on 
the walls the very same red posters he had used to 
appeal to the people of Munich to come to the 
NSDAP rallies. 

Those large, red posters contained nothing but 
text, rousing manifestos designed to clear the way 
for the opinion of the people previously poisoned 
by Marxism. Those posters drew increasing 
crowds of people around Munich's kiosks, until the 
police finally banned them, ostensibly for “logisti¬ 
cal reasons." In this room Hitler found the first fly¬ 
ers he had written and used relentlessly to get 
even with all the enemies of the German nation. 
He picked up the cigar box that had substituted for 
a safe in those times when everything was so 
scarce, and old images came alive and drifted 
through his mind. In this room, where there is 
practically no daylight, he had sat while doggedly 
fighting to get his way within the committee of the 
new party. All of them meant well, but it was very 
difficult to convince them that if the movement 
were going to cross swords with Marxism, it 
needed the ear of the public, more precisely the 
ear of the workers, the “proletariat. And to be 
successful they would have to use propaganda. 



Preparing for (he National Socialist Party Assembly in 1935. 

The Fuhrer discussing the order of the procession. 

And in the end reason won. Adolf Hitler’s popu¬ 
larity constantly increased and there was no argu¬ 
ing that his strategies had been successful. And so 
the young party was not forgotten, it did not slow¬ 
ly die like a meaningless club. It became a move¬ 
ment, filling more and more people with its 
concepts until by and by Germany had a new face- 
because now it had a Fuhrer. 

November 9, 1933 was the 
tenth anniversary of the day on 
which Adolf Hitler had made a 
desperate attempt to change 
Germany's destiny. Dejected 
and defenseless the fatherland 
faced a world of enemies. Torn 
apart from within, powerless 
and w thout a common goa , 
Germany was at the mercy of 
rebels greedy for booty. There 
was a kind of method to the 
madness of inflation that was 
driving the country inexorably 
toward catastrophe. Like hye¬ 
nas, although disguised as the 
bourgeois, separatists sneaked 
throughout the country and 
waited for the right moment to 
realize thei dark goals and 



123 












Visit to Laiulsberg Prison, 1934. 


124 










Consecration of the jlags and honoring the dead, 1935. 


125 














destroy the German Reich for good. If action were 
not taken now, it would be forever too late. And 
Adolf Hitler acted. The attempt failed, the uprising 
fell apart - not only because of the shameful trai¬ 
tors, disgraced forever. Now, ten years later, the 
Fuhrer realizes that this failure was actually a 
stroke of luck. If the coup had been successful, 
would the movement, which had no resources at 
the time, have been able to fulfill its task? The con¬ 
cept of National Socialism had not yet permeated 
the German nation. The people had not yet 
grasped its meaning. It would not have been pos- 


old comrades-in-arms spent the night before in the 
historical hall in the Burgerbraukeller where the 
uprising had begun. It was here that the Fuhrer 
with his storm troopers had forced his way into a 
patriotic demonstration during Bavarian 
Commissar von Kahr’s speech. It was here tha 
Hitler had proclaimed the revolution. The bullet 
hole of the shot he had fired at the ceiling with his 
handgun as a signal was still visible. It was here 
that Kahr, Lossow and Seisser had given their word 
to take part in the new national government, only 
to despicably go back on their word just a few 



The 9 th of November, 1935 at the Konigspiatz In Munich . The Fithrer's personal guard. 


sible yet for a spiritual revolution to penetrate 
everything. A new Weltanschauung to completely 
replace the old system could not have followed 
radical political change. It takes more than ideal¬ 
ism to build a state. 

The time was not yet right. The movement did not 
yet have the necessary prerequisites to take over a 
state. And yet it was necessary to march in Munich 
on the ninth of November. It was necessary that 
the first victims of the movement lose their lives at 
the Feldherrnhalle. And the seed that was planted 
by the blood of the fallen grew and bore fruit in all 
of Germany. 

The inspiring celebration on this important day in 
the history of the movement and for the whole 
German nation put all of Munich under a spell. The 


hours later. The Fuhrer commemorated that great 
moment and then gave a retrospective of the 
years that followed, the years of struggle, strug¬ 
gle, and more struggle that had finally led to vic¬ 
tory. For a long time afterward Adolf Hitler sat 
with his men exchanging words, greetings, and 
glances. 

The next morning he gathered his comrades-in- 
arms around him again. They lined up just as they 
had ten years before. Everyone wore a simple 
brown shirt. Just like that day, the historical pro¬ 
cession came together at the Ludwigsbrucke and 
marched through the decorated streets of the city 
to the Feldherrnhalle. On the Odeonsplatz stood 
surrounded by a closely packed crowd of people, 
interminable rows of brown and black columns of 


126 


SA and SS. Standard bearers stood n front. It was 
an unforgettable scene as the procession came 
closer. The Fuhrer, himself deeply moved, spoke 
emotionally in memory of the first victims of the 
German revolution. Then he walked with meas¬ 
ured steps down the stairs of the Feldherrnhalle 
and stepped up to the newly built monument of 
honor about to be unveiled. It was breathtaking as 
he let the large wreath slide down the marble 
plaque. The touching greeting on the wreath to 
those who had fallen said: And still you were vic¬ 
torious! Ever since this solemn hour, two steel- 


clear, sunny days that only comes in the fall, we 
drove to Landsberg by car. The Fuhrer, the present 
Municipal Administrator of Munich and SS-Officer 
Maurice, and I all sat in the car. All three of us had 
been imprisoned at Landsberg together. 

The autumn wind tossed the leaves as we drove 
through Rasing, past the Ammersee, and further 
into Bavarian Swabia. Shortly before we reached 
Landsberg, we stopped briefly at a firebreak in the 
woods. The car accompanying ours was sent 
ahead to announce the unexpected visit of the 
Fuhrer to the prison so that we could drive up to 



The Fuhrer at the National Socialist Freedom Assembly. Inspecting the honor company of his personal guard. 


helmeted SS honor guards stand day and night on 
either side of the monument. Everyone passing by 
reverently raises an arm in German greeting. In 
ensuing years as well, this day has been celebrat¬ 
ed ceremoniously, and it is the will of the F hrer 
that this will be so forevermore. 

SS Generalmajor Julius Schaub, one of the Fuhrer s 
oldest comrades-in-arms and a constant compan¬ 
ion, tells the following story about a visit to 
Landsberg Prison ten years after the Fuhrer and his 
faithful men had been held there for over a year: 
“After a truly heroic struggle leading to the nation¬ 
al revolution breakthrough, the Fuhrer wanted to 
visit Landsberg Prison on the Lech River where he 
had spent over a year and where he wrote most 
of his book “Mein Kampf. 

On the afternoon of October 7, 1934, one of those 


the prison without causing a stir. 

As we drove, memories of those early days in 
Landsberg returned. And the closer we got to the 
town, the more vivid the images were as we 
recalled the experiences we had had as prisoners 
ten years before. Names such as F-Iess, Kriebel, 
Weber, Kallenbach, Fischer, and Frosch came to 
mind. We spoke of Mufti, his is what the prison¬ 
ers in Landsberg called the prison warden who 
was the master of our fate in Landsberg. And as 
the gates and walls of the marvelous old town 
appeared in the distance, the Fuhrer told us how 
he had been released in 1924 a few days before 
Christmas, how Adolf Muller had picked him up in 
an old Benz, and how his photograph had been 
taken next to the car in front of the gate. 

We drove through the gate slowly into town, on a 

127 



Hi i*V 


II A* 19357 







J 

\® 

ft 



m 

m 









Photograph taken while imprisoned at Landsherg Prison in 1924. The Fiihrer returns ten years later. At the window of his former eell. 



At a eonference during the days of struggle. The h'uhrer takes a few notes while listening to a speaker 
Prom left to right in the front row: Hess, Rust, the Fiihrer, Zorner, Kerri. 2nd row: Schreek, sitting behind Hess. 


129 










The Fuhrer surrounded 


by his closest colleagues the night of the Reichstag Election, March 29, 1936. 


narrow, steep street down to the lovely market 
place. Our visit was so unexpected that very few 
people on the street recognized the Fuhrer. We 
drove on through town and crossed the bridge 
over the Lech. Then on our right we could see the 
roofs of the prison complex sitting in the land¬ 
scape there like a small fortress, built in the tradi¬ 
tional shape of a star. A narrow road, past a 
development, leads to the prison entrance. As 
soon as they had heard about the Fuhrer’s arrival, 
the wives and children of the prison officials had 
alerted one another and came with bouquets of 
flowers they had hurriedly picked from their gar¬ 
dens. 

Then the Fuhrer got out and walked through the 
great portal which he had first entered on 
November 1 1, 1923. 

The prison officials, some of whom had been here 
since that time, were obviously deeply moved by 
this reunion. Huge key rings clattered. It was the 
same melody we had heard in the tedious monot¬ 
ony of imprisonment as our days in the narrow 
cells slipped by and the “lights out” order was 
given. Doors closed and then the steps of the jail¬ 
er could be heard moving ever further down the 
corridor. 

Slowly the Fuhrer, with Maurice and me at his side, 
strode down the path he had walked hundreds of 
times ten years before. Many ideas had come to 
him here, ideas which had in the meantime taken 
shape and become reality. We walked around the 
prison’s church, past one of the prison wings, in 
those days filled with the men of Hitler’s combat 
patrol because the prison had been so over occu¬ 
pied. 

The main part of the prison is behind the wing 
connected to it by a low, two-story building. As 
we rounded the corner, the Fuhrer instinctively 
stopped for a moment. One of the windows above 


belonged to cell number seven where he had 
lived for a year. 

An official had preceded us, and he opened the 
narrow door leading into the corridor of the 
prison. There were flowers on the table and gar¬ 
lands wound around the doors. This wing of the 
prison is no longer used, but it remains as a his¬ 
torical monument, an outward sign that chains 
cannot kill the spirit. It is a reminder that, while 
they were in prison, the very men who were sup¬ 
posed to have been destroyed drew strength to 
begin the struggle anew and to fight to a victori¬ 
ous end. A narrow staircase leads up to the sec¬ 
ond floor where the Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess, 
Lieutenant Colonel Kriebel and the leader of the 
Oberlandbund, Dr. Weber, had been housed. 

The doors to the separate cells all open on a corri¬ 
dor. Above cell number seven is a plaque com¬ 
memorating the Fuhrer’s imprisonment there. On 
the table is a visitors’ book, where the Fuhrer, ten 
years after he had left Landsberg, signed his name 
boldly. He spent a long time in his former cell. As 
he stood at the window through which he had so 
often looked over the walls into the Swabian coun¬ 
tryside, Heinrich Hoffmann recorded this historical 
visit with a photograph. And he showed us a pho¬ 
tograph that had been taken from the same spot 
ten years earlier. 

The Fuhrer now went out to the other part of the 
prison, to the visitors’ room, where he had often 
been visited by his old comrades-in-arms, who 
were keeping the organization going on the out¬ 
side and who had created a small but powerful 
Greater German troop which he would later 
depend on. 

The sun was setting as the Fuhrer strode out into 
the courtyard. Everything was as it had been. Out 
of reverence nothing had been changed. Along 
the wall is a narrow path that has been named 


130 




Adolf Hitler Path. While other prisoners had spent 
their time playing loud games, the Fuhrer had 
walked up and down this path, deep in thought or 
engrossed in conversation with a comrade. 

By the time we reached the gate, it was twilight. 
The old prison officials who still had not composed 
themselves and were speechless upon seeing that 


to the gate. What a reunion it was! Ten years 
before, the prisoners had secretly published a 
small, satirical newspaper titled “The Landberg 
Freeman.” Now, ten years later, this title was real¬ 
ity: former prisoner Adolf Hitler had become the 
free man of the town of Landsberg and the whole 
population cheered him on! 



The Fuhrer with the Labor Corps at Zeppelinfelcl in Nuremberg. 
National Socialist Assembly. 1935. 


the man they had guarded so long ago stood 
before them now as the Fuhrer of the Reich. The 
Fuhrer said a warm good-bye to them. 

In the meantime, in Landsberg the rumor had 
raced from person to person; the Fuhrer is here. 
When we returned to town it was overflowing 
with people who wanted to take advantage of this 
opportunity to see the Fuhrer. The car could make 
its way only very slowly through the cheering 
crowds. Closely packed, they crowded around fill¬ 
ing the market place, and the narrow, steep street 


We stopped again on the hill n front of the gate 
where on a cold, gray winter s day a photograph 
had been taken of the Fuhrer next to Adolf 
Muller’s car to mark the beginning of a new phase 
in his life. And Heinrich Hoffmann recorded this 
moment with his camera too. 

In the meantime, the twilight had darkened and 
we drove toward evening, back to Munich. We 
were silent in the car. Each one of us, filled with 
the great events of the last ten years, in the grip of 
the wonderful change that had taken place, pur- 


131 



sued his own thoughts. Much that had been born 
in quiet loneliness was now reality. And over 
prison walls, the German people had received the 
most marvelous gift from the Fuhrer: freedom. 

The Ftihrer has always shown a special interest in 
the NSDAP Assemblies. They have always been 
the a showplace for all to see the greatness and 
the unity of the movement. There is always a large 
military parade drawing together comrades in 
brown shirts from all over Germany. They were, 
and still are, the benchmarks of development and 
growth of the movement. The first National 
Socialist Assemblies in Munich in January 1923 
were more or less local events. But the second, 
three and a half years later in Weimar, showed 
Germany and the world that the movement which 
had been declared dead was alive. And it was 
gathering strength to rise again. The fact that Adolf 
Hitler declared that Durer’s old historical city of 
Nuremberg would forever be the city of National 
Socialist Assemblies after the 1927 and 1929 con¬ 
gresses had been held there is characteristic of the 
Fiihrer’s desire, expressed over and over again, to 
give the movement a sense of tradition. 

The Fuhrer always felt an inner need to be involved 
in every preparatory detail for each National 
Socialist Assembly. In the days of the struggle he 
went deeply into debt to make it possible for as 
many SA-men as possible to participate. He him¬ 
self always made decisions regarding the details of 
the programs. It was Hitler himself who provided 
the guidelines for various special conferences 
where presentations and specific discussions in 
areas such as youth concerns, women’s concerns, 
students’ concerns, and local politics were dealt 
with. He always personally supervised the exten¬ 
sive preparations necessary for transporting, hous¬ 
ing, and feeding the masses. Organizing special 
trains, preparing mass quarters, distributing deliv¬ 
eries of food for the crowds, and later purchasing 
special field kitchens - these all became more and 
more important as the National Socialist 
Assemblies grew to be major productions. The 
Fuhrer and his staff are often in Nuremberg to 
supervise preparation on the spot. And then the 
curtain rises and the powerful drama unfolds 
before the eyes of the enthusiastic crowd. The 
framework always remains the same, but each 
time it presents new impressions of incredible 
beauty and power. It has been a simple matter of 
honor that the Fuhrer always make it possible for a 
number of the oldest party members and the sur¬ 
vivors of fallen soldiers to be present with great 
numbers of other guests of honor at these celebra¬ 
tions. 


Of course the Fuhrer could not begin to restruc¬ 
ture the National Socialist Assemblies completely 
in accordance with his wishes until after the revo¬ 
lution achieved victory. First the great square in 
Luitpoldhain was rearranged according to his 
requirements. The intention here was to make 
room for SA and SS formations and consecration 
of the flags. Soon afterward a huge grandstand 
overshadowed by a gigantic eagle was built on 
Zeppelinfeld where great processions of political 
leaders have taken place since 1933. 

In the meantime this tremendous project for the 
future, initiated by the Fuhrer, has begun, and it 
will be completed in eight years. This will be a cul¬ 
tural monument to the National Socialist move¬ 
ment. The impressive size of this project will show 
future generations the victorious, all-powerful 
concept embodied in these proud buildings. 

A whole new city is being built on the National 
Socialist rally grounds southeast of Nuremberg. It 
will have its own water supply and electricity 
works, and its own sewage system making it 
completely independent of the city of Nuremberg. 
Tent cities will be built on the huge camping 
ground providing accommodations for up to 
500,000 people. The Congress Hall, the corner¬ 
stone of which is just now being laid, will hold 
65,000 people. A special field large enough for 
400,000 spectators will be set aside for 
Wehrmacht’s demonstrations. Wide roads leading 
to the area and a special railroad station will pro¬ 
vide smooth transportation for the crowds of peo¬ 
ple. And finally an 80-90 meter-wide road running 
through Dutzendteich on a huge dam will be built 
for parades. A special association has been found¬ 
ed with representatives of the party, the state, the 
German Reich’s railroad, and the city of 
Nuremberg to guarantee uniform completion of 
this tremendous task. 

Once this work is complete, the Nationalist 
Socialist Assembly will concentrate on a complete 
display of the strength National Socialist Germany. 
It will truly become the Reichstag of the German 
nation. The Fuhrer is following the progress of this 
momentous project with joyous pride and heart¬ 
felt interest. 

Years ago the Fuhrer said: “Soon I will have to go 
to Berlin, because Berlin is the center of political 
life. But the seat of the movement will always 
remain Munich.” And he has kept his word about 
Munich. Braunes Haus has come to represent 
something special in the whole world and has 
become a symbol of National Socialism. Near the 
housing departments of the Reich’s leadership 
two massive buildings are being built, the Fuhrer 



Building and the Administration Building, as a vis¬ 
ible statement of the Fuhrer’s will. The Fuhrer him¬ 
self, who still keeps an apartment in Munich, 
returns as often as possible. It has become a sec¬ 
ond home for him and whenever possible he stays 
at Braunes Haus where he used to work. The lead¬ 
ers of the Reich meet here for conferences and 
important party discussions take place here too. 
And finally, the Fuhrer has officially dubbed 
Munich the “City of the Movement” as a way of 
immortalizing the bond between the party and 
this city. This gift is in gratitude to Munich for the 
early political successes there, for the sacrifices 
Munich made for the sake of the movement, and 
for the loyalty the city has shown him. 

Munich is the birthplace of the movement. 

It was here that the movement proved its right to 
exist. 

It was here that the first demonstrations took 
place, beginning modestly and gradually growing 
into mass rallies on a grand scale. 

It was in the meeting halls here that the first bat¬ 
tles and the first violent clashes with the Marxists 
took place. 

The ground in front of the Feldherrnhalle is sancti¬ 
fied by the blood of the first martyrs of the 


National Socialist concept. 

It was here that the great trial took place bringing 
Adolf Hitler’s name to the attention of the world 
for the first time. 

It was here that the NSDAP was founded for the 
second time in a historical place. 

It was from here that the NSDAP began its tri¬ 
umphal march through all of Germany. 

Adolf Hitler has never been a party leader in the 
usual sense, just as the NSDAP has never been a 
party like other parties. It has always been only the 
organizational center of the great National 
Socialist Movement. It is the National Socialist 
Movement that is the sole representative of the 
political will of the German nation. 

From the very beginning, the task of the NSDAP 
was to absorb the many other parties, to get rid of 
the diversity of parties in Germany, and to replace 
them with a single national community. Adolf 
Hitler never saw the NSDAP as an end in itself. He 
always saw it as nothing more than the active cen¬ 
ter of the German nation. Beyond the NSDAP is 
the higher goal of his yearning - the goal he has 
fought for and worked for and cared for: 
“Germany, and Germany alone!” 





The Fuhrer consecrates fla\*s at the National Socialist Assembly . 


133 



opposed to the absolute truth told to the rest of the world?