Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

INTERLUDE 239After the outbreak of the First World War, Chamberlain tried to createa world program for the German intellectual. The German monarchy, hetaught, should direct Germany as an engineer directs a factory. 'Themonarchy represents an age-old German heritage; what is new — risingin our midst but an unconscious process — is a second politicalprinciple of the German future: the indubitable mission of Germany toorganize all political life scientifically. ... By "scientific organization" Imean application of those scientific principles which in Germany haveled to such unprecedented results in the fields of technology, research,and, to a great extent, in administration as well; furthermore, I includethe most meticulous precision in directing the available means towardthe aims to be achieved, and the application of forces in such a way asto obtain the maximum results with a minimum expenditure, thusmultiplying the forces at our disposal a hundredfold; besides, division oflabor, whereby every man does the work he understands and for whichhe is suited by nature — all this presupposes practical sys-tematization;that is to say, planned co-ordination of all the parts of every productiveunit.''Productive unit!' Here we have the future state called by its propername. Its member is the technically thinking man, to whom the worldappears as a task that can and must be solved.The man of this type lives in order to work. 'If I were dictator of theworld,' one of the better-paid priests of the idol of mass laborprophetically cried, 'I would shoot all idlers at sight.' This type ofengineer-tyrant is by no means limited to Germany; the above-quotedsentence was uttered by a Dutchman, knighted by the King of Englandfor his services to the empire: the oil magnate, Sir Henri Deterding.Chamberlain's 'scientific' world plan for Germany is based on the ideathat there can be no world domination through mere power, as there isno domination of any sort through mere power — as far as power meanscompulsion. No, this coming German world domination must be 'therealm of homo sapiens ... an entirely new type of power, resting onintellectual and moral foundations : on a high average development ofpurely intellectual faculties, on thorough scientific knowledge, on theintegration of individuals into the frame of scientific methods.'