Adolf Hitler Speech Appeal to the Nation 15 July 1932
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Summary
...Fate has allotted those in power today more than thirteen years to be tested and proven. But they hand down their own worst sentence...Once they claimed they would govern Germany better in the future than it had been in the past...In those November days of 1918, they solemnly pledged to lead our Volk, and in particular the German worker, into a better economic future... these experiments at splintering the nation into classes, ranks, professions, and confessions and at leading it piece by piece to future economic happiness have now failed completely... The German peasant is impoverished; the middle class is ruined; the social hopes of many millions of people are destroyed; one third of all employable German men and women is unemployed and thus without income... and all the treasuries are empty!
What more could they possibly have destroyed? The worst thing, though, is the destruction of the trust in our Volk, the elimination of all hopes and all confidence....they have played people against each other: the city against the county, the service worker against the civil servant, the manual laborer against the office worker, the Bavarian against the Prussian, the Catholic against the Protestant, and so forth, and the other way around.... only a madman can hope that those forces that caused this in the first place could now bring a resurrection. If the present parties seriously want to save Germany, why have they not done so already ...Had they wanted to save Germany, why was it neglected? Had the men of these parties honestly intended to do so, then their programs must have been bad. If, however, their programs were good, then either they themselves did not really want a resurrection, or they must have been ignorant or too weak...
Recognizing this disintegration, I formed a new movement thirteen years ago with a handful of people that in its definition was already a proclamation of the new people community...Within this feeling of inseparable solidarity, mutual respect has grown, and from this respect has come an understanding, and from this understanding the tremendous power which moves us all... Now, thirteen years later, after they have destroyed everything in Germany, the time has finally come for their own removal... If the nation does its duty, then the day will come which restores to us: one Reich in honor and freedom—work and bread!
Full Speech
The great time of decision has arrived. Fate has allotted those in power today more than thirteen years to be tested and proven. But they hand down their own worst sentence, in that they themselves confess to the failure of their efforts by the type of propaganda they use today. Once they claimed they would govern Germany better in the future than it had been in the past but could establish in their results only that Germany and the German Volk are still alive.
In those November days of 1918, they solemnly pledged to lead our Volk, and in particular the German worker, into a better economic future. Today, after they have had nearly fourteen years to keep their promise, they cannot cite a single German professional group as witness for the benevolence of their actions.
The German peasant is impoverished; the middle class is ruined; the social hopes of many millions of people are destroyed; one third of all employable German men and women is unemployed and thus without income; the Reich, the districts, and provinces are overleveraged; finances are in disorder across the board; and all the treasuries are empty!
What more could they possibly have destroyed? The worst thing, though, is the destruction of the trust in our Volk, the elimination of all hopes and all confidence. In thirteen years they have not succeeded in mobilizing the powers slumbering in our Volk in any possible way; on the contrary! Out of their fear of the awakening of the nation, they have played people against each other: the city against the county, the service worker against the civil servant, the manual laborer against the office worker, the Bavarian against the Prussian, the Catholic against the Protestant, and so forth, and the other way around.
The activism of our race was only consumed internally; what remained outwardly were fantasies: fantastic hopes of a cultural conscience, international law, global conscience, ambassador conferences, the League of Nations, the Second International faction, the Third International faction, Proletarian Solidarity, etc.—and the world treated us accordingly.
Thus Germany slowly deteriorated, and only a madman can hope that those forces that caused this in the first place could now bring a resurrection. If the present parties seriously want to save Germany, why have they not done so already? Had they wanted to save Germany, why was it neglected? Had the men of these parties honestly intended to do so, then their programs must have been bad. If, however, their programs were good, then either they themselves did not really want a resurrection, or they must have been ignorant or too weak.
Now, thirteen years later, after they have destroyed everything in Germany, the time has finally come for their own removal. Whether or not today’s parliamentary parties exist or not is not significant; what is essential is to prevent that the German nation falls completely into ruin.
Therefore to conquer these parties is our duty, because in order for them to exist, they must repeatedly tear the nation apart. For years they have persuaded the German worker that he alone could save himself. They mislead the peasant for years by claiming that only his organization would help him. The middle class was to be snatched from the jaws of ruin by parties for the middle class and the economy by commerce parties. The Catholic was forced to seek his refuge with the Center party and the Protestant with the Christian Socialist Volk Service. In the end even the house owner had his own political representation, just as the tenant, the salaried worker, and the civil servant. However, these experiments at splintering the nation into classes, ranks, professions, and confessions and at leading it piece by piece to future economic happiness have now failed completely. Even on the day that our National Socialist Movement was founded, we were already governed by the conviction that the fate of the German individual is inseparably bound up with the fate of the entire nation. When Germany disintegrates, the worker will not flourish in good social fortune and neither will the entrepreneur; the peasant will not save himself then; nor will the middle class.
No, the ruin of the Reich, the decay of the nation, means the ruin and decay of all! Not a single religious group and not a single German clan will be able to escape sharing the general lot. On the day our National Socialist Movement was founded, we had long been certain that it was not the proletariat which would be victor over the bourgeoisie, and not the bourgeoisie that would be victor over the proletariat, but that international big finance must ultimately become the sole victor over both. And that is what has come to pass!
Recognizing this disintegration, I formed a new movement thirteen years ago with a handful of people that in its definition was already a proclamation of the new people community. There is no socialism which does not have the power of the spirit at its disposal; no social good fortune which is not protected by the vigor of a nation and even finds its prerequisite in it.
And there is no nation—and thus no nationalism—if the army of millions who work with their intellects are not joined by the army of millions who work with their fists, the army of millions of peasants. As long as Nationalism and Socialism march as separate ideas, they will be defeated by the united forces of their opponents. On that day when both ideas are molten into one, they will become invincible!
And who will deny that, in a time when everything in Germany is falling apart and degenerating, when everything in the business world and political life is reaching a standstill or coming to an end, a single organization has experienced an enormous and miraculous upturn? With seven men I began this task of German unification thirteen years ago, and today over thirteen million are standing in our ranks. However, it is not the number that counts, but its inner value!
Thirteen million people of all professions and ranks—thirteen million workers, peasants, and intellectuals; thirteen million Catholics and Protestants; members of all German provinces and tribes—have formed an inseparable alliance. And thirteen million have recognized that the future of all lies only in the joint struggle and the joint successes of all. Millions of peasants have now realized that the important thing is not that they comprehend the necessity of their own existence; rather, it is necessary to enlighten the other professions and walks of life as to the German peasant, and to win them for his cause.
And millions of workers have similarly realized today that, in spite of all the theories, their future lies not in some “Internationale” but in the realization on the part of their other Volksgenossen that, without German peasants and German workers, there simply is no German power. And millions of bourgeois intellectuals, too, have come to the realization of how insignificant their own illusions are if the masses of millions comprising the rest of the Volk do not finally comprehend the importance of the German intellectual class.
Thirteen years ago we National Socialists were mocked and derided—today our opponents’ laughter has turned to tears! A faithful community of people has arisen which will gradually overcome the prejudices of class madness and the arrogance of rank. A faithful community of people which is resolved to take up the fight for the preservation of our race, not because it is made up of Bavarians or Prussians or men from Württemberg or Saxony; not because they are Catholics or Protestants, workers or civil servants, bourgeois or salaried workers, etc., but because all of them are Germans.
Within this feeling of inseparable solidarity, mutual respect has grown, and from this respect has come an understanding, and from this understanding the tremendous power which moves us all. We National Socialists thus march into every election with the single commitment that we will, the following day, once more take up our work for the inner reorganization of our body politic. For we are not fighting merely for the mandates or the ministerial posts, but rather for the German individual, whom we wish to and shall join together once more to inseparably share a single common destiny.
The Almighty, Who has allowed us in the past to rise from seven men to thirteen million in thirteen years, will further allow these thirteen million to once become a German Volk. It is in this Volk that we believe, for this Volk we fight; and if necessary, it is to this Volk that we are willing, as the thousands of comrades before us, to commit ourselves body and soul.
Translated from audio file by germanvictims (aka Teutonicaworld). Please note, audio files might have parts of the speech cut out!
