Hitler

Even the ideological enemies of Adolf Hitler will admit that he was a highly gifted and prolific speaker. The following are excerpts from some of the most memorable speeches that he gave.

MUNICH, GATHERING OF THE SA

SPEECH OF NOVEMBER 9, 1921 On November 9, 1921--just five days after the Battle of the Hall (Saalschlacht) where fewer than fifty SA Men had beaten back more than 400 communists and Jews who had tried to disrupt Hitler's speech in the Festival Hall of the Hofbrauhaus--Adolf Hitler addressed a gathering of SA Men. The following is what he told them: For us there are only two possiblities: either we remain German or we come under the thumb of the Jews. This latter must not occur; even if we are small, we are a force. A well-organized group can conquer a strong enemy. If you stick close together and keep bringing in new people, we will be victorious over the Jews.

MUNICH,SPEECH OF SEPTEMBER 18, 1922

. . . ECONOMICS is a secondary matter. World history teaches us that no people became great through economics: it was economics that brought them to their ruin. A people died when its race was disintegrated. Germany, too, did not become great through economics. A people that in its own life [volkisch] has lost honor becomes politically defenseless, and then becomes enslaved also in the economic sphere. Internationalization today means only Judaization. We in Germany have come to this: that a sixty-million people sees its destiny to lie at the will of a few dozen Jewish bankers. This was possible only because our civilization had first been Judaized. The undermining of the German conception of personality by catchwords had begun long before. Ideas such as 'Democracy,' 'Majority,' 'Conscience of the World,' 'World Solidarity,' 'World Peace,' 'Internationality of Art,' etc., disintegrate our race-consciousness, breed cowardice, and so today we are bound to say that the simple Turk is more man than we are. No salvation is possible until the bearer of disunion, the Jew, has been rendered powerless to harm. 1. We must call to account the November criminals of 1918. It cannot be that two million Germans should have fallen in vain and that afterwards one should sit down as friends at the same table with traitors. No, we do not pardon, we demand - Vengeance! 2. The dishonoring of the nation must cease. For betrayers of their Fatherland and informers the gallows is the proper place. Our streets and squares shall once more bear the names of our heroes; they shall not be named after Jews. In the Question of Guilt we must proclaim the truth. 3. The administration of the State must be cleared of the rabble which is fattened at the stall of the parties. 4. The present laxity in the fight against usury must be abandoned. Here the fitting punishment is the same as that for the betrayers of their Fatherland. 5. WE MUST DEMAND A GREAT ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE SUBJECT OF THE PEACE TREATY. WITH THOUGHTS OF LOVE? NO! BUT IN HOLY HATRED AGAINST THOSE WHO HAVE RUINED US. 6. The lies which would veil from us our misfortunes must cease. The fraud of the present money-madness must be shown up. That will stiffen the necks of us all. 7. AS FOUNDATION FOR A NEW CURRENCY THE PROPERTY OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT OF OUR BLOOD MUST DO SERVICE. If families who have lived in Germany for a thousand years are now expropriated, we must do the same to the Jewish usurers. 8. WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE EXPULSION OF ALL JEWS WHO HAVE ENTERED GERMANY SINCE 1914, and of all those, too, who through trickery on the Stock Exchange or through other shady transactions have gained their wealth. 9. The housing scarcity must be relieved through energetic action; houses must be granted to those who deserve them. Eisner said in 1918 that we had no right to demand the return of our prisoners - he was only saying openly what all Jews were thinking. People who so think must feel how life tastes in a concentration camp! Extremes must be fought by extremes. Against the infection of materialism, against the Jewish pestilence we must hold aloft a flaming ideal. And if others speak of the World and Humanity we say the Fatherland - and only the Fatherland! EVEN TODAY WE ARE THE LEAST LOVED PEOPLE ON EARTH. A world of foes is ranged against us and the German must still today make up his mind whether he intends to be a free soldier or a white slave. THE ONLY POSSIBLE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH A GERMAN STATE CAN DEVELOP AT ALL MUST THEREFORE BE: THE UNIFICATION OF ALL GERMANS IN EUROPE, education towards a national consciousness, and readiness to place the whole national strength without exception in the service of the nation. . . .

MUNICH ,SPEECH OF APRIL 10, 1923

NO ECONOMIC POLICY IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT A SWORD, no industrialization without power. Today we have no longer any sword grasped in our fist-how can we have a successful economic policy? England has fully recognized this primary maxim in the healthy life of States; for centuries England has acted on the principle of converting economic strength into political power, while conversely political power in its turn must protect economic life. The instinct of self preservation can build up economics, but we sought to preserve World Peace instead of the interests of the nation, instead of defending the economic life of the nation with the sword and of ruthlessly championing those conditions which were essential for the life of the people. Three years ago I declared in this same room that the collapse of the German national consciousness must carry with it into the abyss the economic life of Germany as well. For liberation something more is necessary than an economic policy, something more than industry: IF A PEOPLE IS TO BECOME FREE IT NEEDS PRIDE AND WILL-POWER, DEFIANCE, HATE, HATE, AND ONCE AGAIN HATE.... The spirit comes not down from above, that spirit which is to purify Germany, which with its iron besom is to purify the great sty of democracy. To do that is the task of our Movement. The Movement must not rust away in Parliament, it must not spend itself in superfluous battles of words, but the banner with the white circle and the black Swastika will be hoisted over the whole of Germany on the day which shall mark the liberation of our whole people.