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

THE UPROOTED AND DISINHERITED 313the night before the German Reichstag elections of 1928, Hitlerpromised five thousand listeners: 'If Fate should give us the power, weshall use it to cleanse the nation of its enemies and we hope that Godgives us strength to march to the ultimate destiny on this earth. It willnot be spared us. . . . We shall grow into a mighty army of termites,before the final hour comes. . . .' The 'ultimate destiny,' the 'hour': these,of course, are the war, and 'we hope' for its coming. The nationalelections of May 20, 1928, following this speech, brought Hitler twelveseats out of six hundred in parliament — it was a grave defeat.Despite such disappointments the war speeches served a purpose.They were addressed to a type of man who, like Hitler, found hisfatherland in war; to this type Hitler promised a new home — a homewith boots, spurs, gold epaulets, and three hundred marks a month. Hewanted this kind of men because they possessed what he called the'sense of struggle.' The type is found in all classes, including theworking class; he must only be freed of his class conceptions, his faithin economics and work ('through work and industry a people has nevergrown free, only through hatred'). Let the Social Democrats preach thelove of peace to the German masses. Perhaps they will have success fora time, 'until suddenly a plain ordinary military band comes by; then theman awakens from his dream state, suddenly he begins to feel like amember of the nation that is marching, and he joins in. All our peopleneed is this one example — one, two, three, we are on the march.[Thunderous cries of "Heil!"] . . . There was one place in Germany inwhich there was no class division. That was the front-line company.There no one ever heard of a bourgeois and a proletarian platoon; therewas just the company and that was the end of it. And there has to be away of creating this unity at home too. . . .' Therefore, we must wagewar at home: 'If I want to weld the people into unity, I must first form anew front, facing a common enemy. Then each man will know that wemust be one, because this enemy is the enemy of us all.' To that end wewage meeting-hall battles and war on the open highway — assemble thehuman type which no longer believes in work ('by work we shall neverget the Frenchmen out of the country'); which does not believe inequality