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

314 DER FUEHRER('equality and freedom cannot exist side by side, democracy is theeternal conspiracy of twerps against the outstanding head'); which doesnot believe in justice ('justice is what benefits my people, injustice whatharms my people').In September, 1928, Hitler assembled his sub-leaders in Munich for aworking session. The future of the movement did not look very hopeful.The elections had brought failure. At the end of the session, Hitler roseto the platform and declared that to him it seemed necessary 'tostrengthen the individual party comrades' confidence in the victory ofthe movement.' This victory, he continued, must come withmathematical certainty. And for this he found a reason which lifted thehearts of the small, rather depressed band:It does not require much courage to do silent service in an existingorganization. It requires more courage to fight against an existingpolitical regime. As soon as a man engages in offensive opposition to anexisting regime, he will have to summon up more courage than the manwho defends it. The movement requires more courage than nakedtenacity. Attack attracts the personalities which possess more courage.Thus a condition containing danger within itself becomes a magnet formen who seek danger. A program with radical ideas will attract radicalmen, a program with a cowardly tendency will attract cowardly men.And then there is the reaction of the existing order. Furthermore, theresistance of the masses sifts even this small number once again. Whatremains is a minority of determined, hard men. It is this process whichalone makes history explicable: the fact that certain revolutions, emanatingfrom very few men and giving the world a new face, have actuallytaken place. And now, finally, comes the active resistance of theexisting state. All parties, public opinion, take a position against us. Buttherein lies the unconditional, I might say the mathematical, reason forthe future success of our movement. As long as we are the radicalmovement, as long as public opinion shuns us, as long as the existingfactors of the state oppose us — we shall continue to assemble the mostvaluable human material around us, even at times when, as they say, allfactors of human reason argue against it!A noteworthy theory of the coup d'etat, not devised at the writingdesk, but gathered entirely from experience. If the party's propa-