TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93HT1283> <link 93XP0427> <link 93XP0425> <title> Hitler: Hitler To His People </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--Hitler Portrait </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> December 23, 1940 Hitler to His People </hdr> <body> [Herewith TIME presents a condensed version of an extraordinary speech made by Adolf Hitler to the workers and women of Germany, delivered beneath a shiny new cannon in the Rheinmetall-Borsig munitions works. Hitler, in a magnificent piece of propaganda argued that the cause of Naziism was not only the cause of the have-not nations, but of the have-not classes against the oppression of the rich. He justified Nazi oppression as a method of combating that oppression. Apart from that attempted justification, it was a plausible argument--so plausible that the Roosevelt-hating Chicago Tribune equally plausibly editorialized that Hitler "revealed himself once again as a good New Dealer." But Hitler's declaration that Germany was capable of beating the world, was something else. Every middle-aged citizen remembers the long grim war and final defeat which occurred the last time Germany took on the world.] We find ourselves amid a controversy which aims at more than victory of one or another country. In fact, it is a struggle of two worlds. Forty-six million English rule and govern a total territory of roughly 40,000,000 square kilometres in this world. Eighty-five million Germans have a living space of hardly 600,000 square kilometres and these only through their own initiative. This earth, however, was not distributed by Providence or by Almighty God. This distribution is being taken care of by the peoples themselves and this distribution chiefly took place in the past 300 years at a time when our German people were domestically unconscious and torn apart. The right to live constitutes a claim of fundamental nature. The right to live includes the right to the soil, which alone gives life. For this claim peoples have even fought when a lack of wisdom threatened to interfere with their relationship, for they knew that even bloody sacrifices are better than the gradual dying off of nations. National unity was our first demand. Piece by piece and move by move this was realized. Haves & Have-Nots. Whoever has not anything will not get anything either. All my life I have been a have-not. I count myself as one of their number and have fought for them. Now again, I enter the fight as the representative of the have-nots. I will never recognize the claims of others to that which they have gained by force and robbery. In no case will I permit this claim to apply to what has been taken from us. It is interesting to observe the mode of living of the rich. They have so-called democracy in the Anglo-French world. In reality, capitalism reigns supreme, that is, there is a band of several hundred people who possess unmeasurable fortunes and who, because of the peculiar construction of the State, are more or less completely independent and free. It is said this means rule by the people. But when you look closer, the people as such have not an opinion--it is placed before them. Now, who places this viewpoint before them? Why, it is capitalism! The slogan of liberty really means freedom of economy--namely, for everybody to grab for himself without state control. Capital first makes the newspapers subservient. The lord of the so-called press is the man who supplies the capital, this press molds public opinion, the papers appear according to political parties, but in reality there is no difference between them. Now, one might suppose that in lands of freedom and democracy everybody lived in plenty. The contrary is true. Nowhere is the standard of the masses lower. England for decades has had two-and-a-half million unemployed. Rich America has twelve to thirteen million unemployed annually. These people, to give but one example, have the possibility of pocketing up to 160 percent dividends from the ammunition industry. They say that if these German methods gain ground and prove victorious all this will stop. They are right. I believe six per cent sufficient. It's natural for the English leaders to say they do not want their world to go under because they fear Germany's new ideas may spring over to England. They say, "We don't like these methods." What were those methods? I am proud that the revolution occurred in 1933 without a single window being smashed. They claim in England that we have terrorized liberty. Yes, that is true, namely, when freedom was at the expense of the common weal. Certainly, we will not permit anybody freely to dispose of his earnings if thereby the common weal is interfered with. Two worlds are in conflict, two philosophies of life. They say we should help to keep up the gold standard--of course, for they have the gold and we haven't it. In the course of fifteen years all our gold has been taken away from us. If we already have no gold, then we have the power of work, and German power of work is our gold and our capital, and with this gold I can beat any other power in the world. I built up my entire economy on the conception of work. Our German mark without gold is worth more than gold. Opportunity for Man. What we are reconstructing is a world of cooperative labor, but also a world of cooperative duties. For the first time in our own German history there exists a State which, in principle, has removed all social prejudices as regards appointment to positions. I myself am the best document to prove this. I am not even trained in the laws. Nevertheless I am your leader. Our ideal is that every position in the country shall be filled by a true son of the people. We want a State in which birth matters nothing, achievement means everything. For this we are working with tremendous fanaticism. Contrasted with this is the idea of our enemies--a fight for egoism, for capital, for individual and family privileges. One of these two worlds must break asunder. The traffic signals are now placed as follows: Gold versus labor. We know perfectly well that if we succumb in this fight that is the end. That other world says, "If we lose then our world capitalistic structure will crumble." If the other world cracks, I am convinced that it will only then become free. War & Peace. How often have I stretched out my hand! I was not in any mood to arm. That devours so much labor power. I wanted to use German labor power for other plans. My ambition is to make the German people rich and the German land beautiful. I would like us to have the most beautiful and best culture. I was determined to rear our structure in the world, to widen our position and, secondly, to arm at home so that the German soldier must no longer stand alone on a front, lonely and the victim of superior forces. Then I did everything humanly possible to avoid a conflict. I made offer after offer to the English, but there wasn't anything to be done--they wanted war. For seven years Churchill said "I want war." Now he has it. I did not want aerial warfare. We launched no night attacks. I wanted military objectives attacked only at the front; to fight against soldiers, not against women and children. That is why we did not do it. We did not do it in France, either. When we attacked Paris, only Parisian armaments objectives were singled out. Then, however, it occurred to that great strategist Churchill to begin unlimited air warfare at night. But not a single munitions plant was put out of action. Many unhappy families, however, were struck. I could no longer take the responsibility before the German people of letting our own people perish while strangers were spared. Thereupon this warfare, too, had to be conducted. And it will now be fought. It will be conducted with all the determination and courage at our disposal. We determine the hour for this conflict. I decide in such matters. The world must take cognizance of one thing: there will be no defeat in Germany, either military or economic on the grounds of time. Whatever may happen, Germany will emerge victorious from this fight. This fight not only is a struggle for the present but especially a fight for the future. We are decided more and more to tear down barriers restraining the individual from unfolding his possibilities, acquiring that place which he deserves. The others fought their fight only for the damned plutocracy, those few dynasties which administer the capital market for those few hundred who, in the last analysis, direct these people. When this war is over the great work of creation is to begin in Germany. Then the German people will cease manufacturing cannon and will begin works of peace and reconstruction. This time will come again when we will struggle trustfully together for this great Reich of peace, work, prosperity and of the culture we desire to rear and shall rear. </body> </article> </text>