Germany Tommorow
Germany Tommorow
Germany Tommorow
by
OTTO STRASSER
JONATHAN CAPE
THIRTY BEDFORD SQUARE
LONDON
FIRST PUBLISHED, JULY 1940
SECOND IMPRESSION, AUGUST 1940
THIRD IMPRESSION OCTOBER 1940
s
iNO.
-3X
Eool. Iv
PART ONE
IS REVOLUTION IN GERMANY
POSSIBLE? 23
PART TWO
LIQUIDATION OF THE WAR 47
PEACE PROPOSALS OF TOMORROW'S GERMANY
MENT I O2
3. POLITICAL COLLABORATION 105
4. ECONOMIC COLLABORATION 107
5. CULTURAL COLLABORATION IO8
PART THREE
THE NEW ORDER 07
STRUCTURE OF GERMAN SOCIALISM
CHAPTER ONE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS 1 1
9
1.
INTRODUCTORY j j q
2. RACE PEOPLE NATION I j
g
3- RHYTHM OF HISTORY
4. MARXISM
8
CONTENTS
CHAPTER TWO GERMAN SOCIALISM I2Q
1. THE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM 129
A. Capitalist Economic Policy 131
B. Capitalist Economic Law 133
C. Capitalist Economic Form 135
2. ECONOMIC POLICY OF GERMAN SOCIALISM 137
A. Autarchy 137
B. State Monopoly of Foreign Trade 139
C. A
Currency Standard of Our Own 140
3. ECONOMIC LAW OF GERMAN SOCIALISM 142
A. Private Property? 142
c
B. EntaiF 144
C. Repudiation of State Socialism 147
4. ECONOMIC FORM OF GERMAN SOCIALISM 150
5. AGRICULTURE 153
A. The Coming System 153
B. Management of the Transition 156
C. Great Landed Estates 158
6. INDUSTRY AND WHOLESALE TRADE l6o
A. The Factory Fellowship 162
B. Contrast to Capitalism and Marxism 165
C. Management of the Transition 166
7. HANDICRAFT AND RETAIL TRADE 169
A. The Guild (or Corporation) 1
70
B. Management of the Transition
172
8. COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 173
9. PUBLIC ASSISTANCE 1
75
APPENDIXES
I. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE
Aufbau 221
II. POSTFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE
Aufbau 223
III. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE
Aufbau 225
IV.POSTFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE
Aufbau 227
V. DANGER OF THE PARTITION OF
GERMANY 2 2Q
VL MANIFESTO OF BLACK FRONT TO THE GERMAN
PEOPLE
10
BIOGRAPHICAL AND
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
OTTO STRASSER, a Bavarian, was born on September 10,
1897. His brother, Gregor, five years older, was killed
,
5
to the policies
which must be assigned In varying degrees
of other countries than Germany.
assignment justified
and restricted by our historical
inevitable certainty we derive
outlook), Is the no less
and
that Hitler his war will be defeated.
And how?
Certainly If we regard, as I and my
friends do, the
Hitler System (and for our purposes that includes the
civil war In Europe which the Hitler System has brought
in the transition from a
about) as a necessary stage
decaying old order to an evolving new one, as the epoch
during which effete forms are being swept away why
then we shall have the joyful conviction that such an
epoch of destruction cannot possibly be lasting. It will
come to an end as soon as the old and the worm-eaten
have really been swept away, and as soon as the new and
the young that are everywhere germinating beneath the
surface of things come clearly to light.
From this is really no more than the
outlook Hitler
testing 'hammer of God' with which men and things
are tapped to discover whether life persists in them,
whether they still have faith, will, strength, and the
power of renewal. Where these good qualities are
lacking, the hammer breaks the old forms to powder
even as. In scripture, the tree which bore no fruit was to
be ruthlessly cut down. But when fruit-bearing is still
possible, the will to and the power for renewal will
16
PREFACE
infallibly spring after the hard testing of these blows;
up
under new but in the old spirit, the spirit of the
forms,,
3
'Mothers In Faust which dwells in the depths of our soul,
the soul of every human being, the soul of every nation,
the soul of the West. Revolutionary in form, conserva-
tive in substance, is the policy that derives from such a
method of contemplation.
Victory over Hitler and his system of destruction,
victory in this war over the powers of destruction, is no
less certain than were the coming of Hitler and this war;
and both spring from the necessity and the nature of the
c 3
German Revolution .
OTTO STRASSER
Penned in Exile
Easter 1940
PART ONE
IS REVOLUTION IN GERMANY
POSSIBLE?
IS REVOLUTION IN GERMANY
POSSIBLE?
THE revolutionary character of the general situation in
Germany is unquestionable. Indeed, the foundation of
the historical and political views that have guided the
thoughts and actions of myself and my friends is the fact
that revolution has been going on in Germany for the
last twenty years -
a revolution of which the Hitler
System is but one phase, the phase of destruction.
The caption of this Part One of my book can, there-
fore, relate only to the tactical question whether revolu-
tion is possible within the framework of the German
Revolution at large, to the question whether the Hitler
System can be overthrown, thereby initiating the last
phase of the German Revolution. That phase will consist
of the establishment of a new order.
Since the question Can the Hitler System be over-
c
23
GERMANY TOMORROW
(1) The prevailing atmosphere, by which I mean the
masses" widespread dissatisfaction with the
present
regime a dissatisfaction for which (as usual) numerous,
and often conflicting, causes can be found.
(2) The existence of
a minority of persons prepared to
take action, a minority willing and able at the appropriate
moment to transform passive discontent into political
action^ much as a spark occurs to discharge electrical
tensions that have accumulated beyond a certain
amount,
(3) A paralysis of will within the system, or, rather, a
paralysis of will among the active defenders of the system,
because their self-confidence has been undermined,
because their assurance of victory has waned, because
they have lost discipline and resolution. In other words,
for revolution to be possible a considerable number of
those who wield the forces of the dominant system
must have come to sympathize with the aims of the
revolutionists, or must at least have ceased active oppo-
sition to these aims.
If we proceed to enquire how far, in the
Germany of
1940, these fundamental prerequisites of a revolution
exist, it can be unambiguously shown that the
general
atmosphere discloses all the features which make revolu-
tion possible.
So widespread, so virulent isthe discontent of the
German people with the dominant Hitler System (vary-
ing, of course,
with the successes or failures of the
system)
that the enumeration of proofs would almost be
super-
fluous. All the
same, I shall give a summary of them,
to avert the
danger of that self-deception which makes
dispassionateness impossible.
24
IS REVOLUTION IN GERMANY POSSIBLE?
Surely one of the most convincing proofs is the fact
that the Hitler System, after being in power for seven
apathetic masses,
who considered it a proof of 'the
Leader's and a reward to themselves for the
genius',
sacrificesthey were making.
But since the outbreak of war this stimulus has lost its
lie to the piping of
savour, for the coming of war gave the
Goebbels during the last few years, to the unceasing
declaration that 'the Leader will do it all without war'.
During the or eight weeks after the declaration,
first six
against the
Hitler System, we have found that such a
minority really
35
GERMANY TOMORROW
exists In the German nation, but still lacks unity of
fi
3.^
No Battalion will be given street duty with its mem-
bers isolated. It would never do for a man
wearing the
death's-head emblem to be stationed alone in the streets.
38
IS REVOLUTION IN GERMANY POSSIBLE?
'4.
This force will act ruthlessly. That is what it will
5
be for.
'profiteers of the
system. On the contrary, they have for years been
deceived and betrayed especially since June 30, 1934.
Immediately after the alleged attempt on Hitler's life in
I
939> I g ot hold of a letter penned by one of the chiefs
of the Storm Troopers, which contains the
following
passage (quoted verbatim) :
'Various recent happenings have
pleased me very
much, although they have left a bitter taste in the mouth.
All the same, with regard to the candidate for death I
39
n ERMANY T OMORROW
hold Schiller's view, "The man must be helped". Un-
fortunately, like the rest of us in Germany, I am badly
off for news. My wireless apparatus doesn't work very
well, for It needs an overhaul; and as for the newspapers,
they lie so glibly that when one reads them, one hardly
knows whether one is standing on one's head or one's
heels. Nothing shows this better than all the hubbub
about the unfortunate Elser. What is true that is said
about him, and what false? Perhaps you can tell me, for
1 really don't know. Most of it, I expect, arises out of
Goebbels' imagination. I could tell you a lot of fine
things, were it not for technical difficulties.. But to come
to the main point, we shall have to work hard and
bring
off our coup as soon as possible. We must approach the
prop-
aganda at the presenttime; and herein he voices
nothing but his dread that the Germans may come to
realize how the precise who
opposite is true. Anyone
wants to help himself and
Germany must aid in downing
Hitler and flinging him overboard.
An intimate knowledge of my
fellow-countrymen has
taught me that millions of them today are suffering
from a conflict between their moral
duty and what they
still
regard as a national duty. Directly the western
42
IS REVOLUTION IN GERMANY POSSIBLE?
powers avow as their essential war aims the reversal -of
the violent deeds wrongfully committed by Hitler, but
declare that they have no desire to discriminate against
or destroy Germainy, that very moment there will be an
end to the cleavage in the minds of millions upon millions
of Germans, and they will tranquilly obey their con-
sciences against Hitler.
Of course we cannot expectthem to undertake an
active campaign forthwith. It is idle to ask a fettered
prisoner to begin by overpowering his heavily armed
warder, and it is unfair to blame him as guilty because
he is powerless. What we can demand of the German
people, and what we forerunners among the champions
of the German Revolution do demand, is
passive resis-
tance. But this comprehensive notion must be inculcated
in numberless separate
preliminary writings, by those
able to avail themselves of all chances of dif-
possible
fusing information.
We must not say (I am thinking of
things that can
best be said by Germans) to the German
5
aviator, 'Refuse
to obey orders for in that case as
,
things are at present
he will simply be court-martialled and
put to death.
What we should say is: 'Drop your bomb near what
you
register a hit. No one can prove
are aiming at, but don't
that you could have hit. In that
way you will help to
overthrow Hitler and to save
Germany.We must not
5
I wrote simply,
c
We must say Who are
3
. 'we
5
,
and how
can we say it?
5
ELEMENTS OF EUROPEAN PEACE
2. ELEMENTS OF EUROPEAN PEACE
At bottom what are wars but the struggles of growth
among the nations? As soon as the peoples of a particular
family of peoples within a particular area have finished
growing, there cease between these peoples in this
particular area the crises that result from the way in
which growth has made them elbow one another,, just as
the cessation of feuds among the tribes and the clans
established peace In the national units we now call
'ripened ,
all Europe the German nation
the nations in
not excepted lay the utmost stress upon political free-
dom, which includes the possibility of independently
developing whatever form of national existence they may
prefer.
Perhaps after a crushing defeat, and after seven years
5
57
CHAPTER TWO
FEDERALIZATION OF GERMANY
I. PARTITION OF PRUSSIA
AT becomes necessary to insist that with the
this stage it
penned by myself (see below, pp. 117 and foil.) ; and that
on September 20 of the same year, in No. 34 of its
c 5
central organ Die Schwarze Front (of which I was
editor), it gave an exact description with a map of
the proposed partition of Prussia, and of what was to be
the territorial distribution of the New Germany.
Consequently the German demand for the partition
of Prussia originated, not under the stresses of war, not
because of fear of military defeat, not as the outcome of
foreign or refugee influence but owing to the over-
whelming logic of a study of the political and religious
structure of Germany, its history, and its motive forces,
when contemplated by a European consciousness. I
regard it as of the utmost importance to insist on this
today.
No one well acquainted with the spirit of Germany
can overlook the fact that for centuries within the Ger-
man people there has been a mental and political struggle
between what I have called the Frederician (the Prus-
sian) and what I have called the Theresian (the Austrian)
sections. This may be compared with the
struggle that
goes on in a child's mind between the paternal and the
maternal elements a struggle which, as character
develops ultimately leads to the formation of a (new)
unity. The concept 'German' contains, and transcends,
both the Frederician (Protestant) and the Theresian
(Catholic) elements, wherein is mirrored all the multi-
plicity of the tribal souls that have respectively contri-
59
FEDERALIZATION OF GERMANY
buted to the over-riding concept German
* 9
without ,
right ,
a doctrine which forms the heart of the Prussian
mystery, that it should know no limits. That was why
Brandenburg grew into Prussia; Prussia into Great
Prussia, which struts as Germany in the belief that
Great Prussia will grow into the Continental Empire that
would like to strut as Europe.
We Germans must ourselves overcome Prussia, We
must overcome it territorially, economically, and spiritu-
ally; for only when we have done so will New Germany,
will New Europe, become possible.
3. SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION
The demand for the 'partition of Prussia would be 5
4. DEMOCRACY THE
OF VOCATIONAL
ESTATES
The picture of the far-reaching structural transforma-
tion requisite to establish the New
Germany (a transfor-
mation which would have taken place even without
this war because it would have come as the completion
of the revolutionary changes that have been going on
since 1918) would be unfinished did it not disclose the
fundamental democratization that is essential to intra-
European collaboration.
For Wilson in 1918, and Chamberlain and Daladier
in 1939, rightly insisted that the new condition of
Europe, which must be and would be the outcome of
the war, could only be lasting if it were based upon
democratic freedom and self-government.
But when we say this, we must not forget Germany's
experiences from 1918-1933 in the matter of what was
called formal democracy; nor the way in which the
western powers, under the pressure of the necessities
of war, have been compelled to make many changes in
the machinery of democratic government.
It must be added that in Germany since Hitler seized
6. RENUNCIATION OF MILITARISM
Such an avowal of a new spirit would be an idle
declamation unless it had prompt political consequences.
For the New Germany, one of these decisive results
would be the renunciation of Prussian militarism both
on principle and as a form of organization.
Unquestionably in foreign parts the idea of Prussia
was embodied, not so much in the knowledge of any
philosophy she might proclaim, as in an experience of
what use she made of her highly developed militarism.
Her practice counted for more than her precept, were it
only because of the sinister consequences of her practice.
In this connexion we must on no account forget to
allow for two decisive facts: first of all
that, as a famous
historian has said, the nineteenth
century was pre-
eminently the age of imperialism, and therefore mani-
fested a distinctive
political structure that was
by no
means confined to Prussianized
Germany; secondly that
militarism had become a
strange epidemic phenome-
70
RENUNCIATION OF MILITARISM
non, an epidemic malady of the now unbelieving souls
of European human beings.
No less notable a man than Masaryk, a great statesman
and philosopher (whose pupil I may take this oppor-
tunity of again declaring myself to be) recognized this
phenomenon, and described it as follows:
'Modem militarism, especially Prussian militarism, is,
from the fatigue and the anxiety that result from his
spiritual and moral
isolation. Militarism represents the
79
PROBLEMS OF PEACE CONFERENCE
prophecy that has been fulfilled, joins the German
critics of the peace conditions of 1919 though for other
reasons than the Germans. Whereas the Germans
consider Versailles to have been unduly harsh, Bainville
deems it too lenient and both parties seem to have
beenjustified by the results.
The fact was that the most urgent problems were
then very understood, so that those who had to
little
solve them were not ready for their task. Old and new
and profound discussions, sound and
outlooks, superficial
unsound methods, were grotesquely Intermingled, with
the unfortunate consequence that, far from reinforcing
one another, they cancelled one another out.
The Peace of Versailles, like those dictated at Brest-
Litovsk and Bucharest, was a nineteenth-century and
not a twentieth-century peace. But the peace that
follows the present war must give a new visage to
twentieth-century Europe.
Without for a moment ignoring the material demands
for general security which Germany will have to satisfy
in order to atone for her complicity in Hitler's outburst
of violence (an atonement whose effects will be more
lasting, the more thorough and the more enduring the
German repudiation of the Hitler System), the coming
peace must be designed with an eye to the future of
Europe, to averting the evils that stand in the way of the
true pacification and the trusty collaboration of the
peoples of our continent.
This peace must embody:
(1) The principle of liberty, of independence, of self-
determination for all nations,
large or small
(2) The principle that right, not might, shall prevail
80
PRELIMINARIES TO PEACE
in ail nations,, both in their domestic and in their foreign
affairs.
(3)
The principle of joint security, joint wellbeing,
and joint culture.
These same principles must likewise secure expression
in the preliminaries to the peace., and in the methods by
which it is approached.
On German side an essential will be that the
the
Germans must repudiate on principle Hitler's unwar-
rantable use of force, and the conditions that have
resulted therefrom. Without such repudiation there can
be neither armistice nor peace.
The repudiation of Hitler's unwarrantable use offeree
will imply the immediate evacuation by German troops
of all the non-German areas they may have occupied,
and a pledge to pay compensation for any damage they
may have done.
This re-establishment of right as against might will
not be a part of the peace, but a preliminary to peace,
and a main constituent of the agreement for an armistice.
The peace itself, if it is to deserve that name, must not
be the upshot of a dictatorship, but of comprehensive
negotiations, not only between Germany and her
adversaries, for the neutrals great and small must par-
ticipate in them, probably choosing the United States
and Italy as their representatives. A
sort of Vienna
Congress will have to debate and adjust the interests
and wishes of the peoples of Europe, and elaborate a
harmony, bearing ever in mind the great commonwealth
of Europe and the salvation of the West.
81
PROBLEMS OF PEACE CONFERENCE
2. THE GERMAN PARTNER
plebiscite.
As a matter of course this involves the cancellation of
the results of Hitler's conquest, i.e. that only men and
practicable issues:
(1) Joining the Germanic Federation.
(2) Independence of the Red-White-and-Red
Schuschnigg Austria.
(3) Re-establishment of the Black-and-Yellow Habs-
burg-Austria, either as a personal union with
Hungary, or as a Danubian Federation con-
sisting of Austria, Hungary, and Czecho-
slovakia.
I shall venture no prophecy as to what would be the
outcome of such a plebiscite, and shall content myself
with affirming that in any case New Germany would
abide by the plebiscitary decision of its Austrian
brethren.
Joining the Germanic Federation must on no account
be confounded with the 'Anschluss 5 to Hitlerian
86
THE AUSTRIAN QUESTION
Germany, or with the 'Anschluss
3
to the Weimar
was talk at one time. As
Republic of which
there
previously explained,
New Germany will be federal in
structure throughout, will be a league of autonomous
and from its size and population Austria
provinces,
would have a considerable say in the Federation. I have
said that it must be a firmly established principle of the
federal constitution that all officials in a province must
be natives of that province, so that in Austria only
Austrians would rule and function, in Bavaria only
Bavarians, in Rhineland only Rhinelanders. Thus a
strong safeguard of the federal structure would be the
direct interest of the local intelligentsia in their own
locality.
A Red-White-and-Red Austria would seem thereby
to be outclassed in respect of the chief points in its
program. Besides, the experiment of St. Germain has
shown very clearly the weaknesses of such a scheme
though we must remember that the problem of a larger
economic area could be solved within the framework of
the European Federation. A
decisive matter here, how-
ever, will be the question of the time-lag, for the Austrian
problem will demand prompt solution, whereas in the
most favourable circumstances there is likely to be con-
siderable delay in getting the European Federation into
working order.
The re-establishment of Habsburg Austria, whether
in the direct form of an Austria-Hungarian double
monarchy or in the indirect form of a Danubian Federa-
tion, presents itself almost as a matter of course, and
would find many supporters among the western powers.
In conformity with my principle that the Austrians
87
PROBLEMS OF PEACE CONFERENCE
(like any other people) should enjoy the right of self-
determination and be left to settle their own affairs, I
must point out that the re-establishment of the Habsburg
realm is primarily a concern of the Austrian, Hun-
garian, Czech, and Slovak peoples. Secondly, the
demands of Jugoslavia, Rumania, Poland, and Italy for
security would run counter to any such re-establishment,
and these countries might be expected in this matter to
have a more lasting pull at the Peace Conference than
would the Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, and Slovaks
in respect of their right to self-determination. Anyone
who recalls the terms of the oath which had to be taken
by the wearer of the crown of St. Stephen, will feel that
there might be some justification for uneasiness on the
part of the neighbours of a re-established double
monarchy.
In whatever way the Austrian problem might be
formulated, and no matter what solution might seem
most accordant to the feelings and interests of those
concerned, it remains indubitable that the decisive
matter must be the right of self-determination of the
3
appeal to the
Munich Agreement of September 1938
on the ground that it was Voluntarily' signed by the
Czechoslovak government,, for the signature was really
extorted by threats and by force, and the agreement
brought nearly a million Czechs under foreign (i.e.
German) rule.
But no settlement can be sound if it deprives the
Sudetenland Germans of their right to self-determina-
tion.
Here the application of the principle will need special
safeguards if we
are to avoid fresh injustices and the risk
of further disturbances.
So much intermingled are Germans and Czechs in
Sudetenland, that there a vote by districts rather than a
general counting of heads will be expedient. Nor must
the existence of 'national enclaves be made a pretext for
5
92
POLAND, DANZIG, THE CORRIDOR
More difficult is the question of the Corridor. Here
two vital interests are in conflict: the German interest
in direct contact with an outlying portion of the Reich;
and the Polish interest in a route to the sea.
The recognition that both these interests are vital
makes a solution all the more urgent. In order to avert
causes of unceasing friction. To begin with, the Germans
must admit that for them the only vital matter is the
part of the Corridor which ensures direct communica-
tion between Pomerania and East Prussia.
98
CHAPTER FOUR
EUROPEAN FEDERATION
I. A EUROPEAN CIVIL WAR
THE historical demonstration that in the war which
began at the close of August 1939 the trigger was pulled
by the Hitler System's will-to-power (behind which
stood the traditional Prussian and the
imperialism), by
Bolshevik will-to-power (mainly
inspired by the Pan-
slavist tendencies of
Tsarism), must be supplemented by
an account of the ideological character of the
war, which
gives it the aspect of a European Civil War.
For the fact is that in every
country, throughout
Europe, there is a party opposed to the official policy of
its own land: in
Germany no less than in France; in
Finland no less than in
Portugal; in Ireland as well as
in Rumania. No matter whether this internal
opposi-
tion large or small, whether it is evoked and sustained
is
are not
nations but groups of zealots. This is of
typical civil war.
American observers, with the of
advantage distance,
have plainly discerned this characteristic of the
war,
comparing it with the American War of Secession, in
which political and economic differences were doubtless
at work, but which was
essentially an ideological war,
and for this reason the U.S.A.
in
procreated its present
form.
99
EUROPEAN FEDERATION
The recognition that the war is really a civil war,
that ideological or almost religious in type finds
it is 5
mention:
The transformation of Europe into a league of free
nations.
For centuries the poets and imaginative writers of all
the peoples of Europe have been dreaming of this unity,
the best thinkers have contributed to the idea, and during
the terrible years from 1920 to 1940 the economists have
again and again been forced to admit that their plans
willremain fruitless so long as 'Europe' does not really
exist.
Notable persons, among whom Axistide Briand and
Count Coudenhove-Kalergi should be especially men-
tioned, have made admirable efforts in this direction,
achieving important preliminary advances, but the
peoples still lag far behind these bold pioneers.
Only of late, in the theoretical disputes that preceded
the Civil War, and in the ideological clarifications which
it has promoted
among all the peoples, have widespread
100
A EUROPEAN CIVIL WAR
for unity arisen, a knowledge of its impor-
aspirations
tance, a longing for collaboration,
and a will to bring it
about. The Pangermans' recent and present attempts
to achieve the conquest of Europe, with the consequent
revival of memories of the earlier attempts of Napoleon
and Charles V, have made it no one nation in
clear that
101
EUROPEAN FEDERATION
2. GUARANTEES OF SECURITY AND
DISARMAMENT
Before I begin a sketch of that European Federation,
a picture of which must loom in the minds of all the
soldiers (whether they are aware of it or not) as the aim
of the sacrifices they are making, let me turn back to the
practical political question of the guarantees for security
upon whose provision will depend fruitful negotiations
for the establishment of anew order in Europe.
Between us and this new order stands the war, the
extent of whose sacrifices is still uncertain, but whose most
c
immediate aim cannot but be the never again of the
5
Siegfried
Line under the supervision of British and
French experts while agreeing to the maintenance of the
Maginot Line!
New Germany will likewise agree to France's main-
3. POLITICAL COLLABORATION
Our earnest desire for a European Federation and our
determination to establish it must not blind us to the
immense difficulties that will have be overcome.
to
In my view the chief reason why so support has
little
Empire.)
At the start, of course, the European Federation can
only be a voluntary union of European States, access to
which will be open to every European State that com-
plies with the prescribed regulations. It will be advan-
tageous to the Federation to make membership a thing
to be coveted by every European State.
representation
of continental groups.
4. ECONOMIC COLLABORATION
Much (and therefore doubly attractive to out-
closer
5, CULTURAL COLLABORATION
The most obvious of all the features of the Federation
will be,and should be, the cultural collaboration of its
members.
Among the peoples of Europe, which have too long
been spellbound by narrow national ideas, it is time to
revive an awareness of their historical and cultural
assocation.
Nothing will contribute more to this awakening than
a knowledge of the national peculiarities of the various
peoples of Europe, for that will make them respect one
another, and take pride in the multifariousness of the
West, inasmuch as variety is not only the charm of
Europe but its
very essence.
A noble rivalry of national spirits and national arts,
1 08
CULTURAL COLLABORATION
an 'Olympiad of the mind should be inaugurated to
5
109
CHAPTER FIVE
THE COLONIAL PROBLEM
EVEN within sketchy account of the Problems of the
this
Peace Conference and of the European Federation it is
desirable to consecrate a section to the colonial problem,
for the Conference will certainly have to consider the
German claim to colonies. Furthermore the treatment
of the colonial problem will give a crucial example of
the new spirit that will be essential to the establishment
of a new order in Germany and in Europe.
Speaking generally, the colonial problem must not be
solved, either for Germany or for the other European
States which have or desire colonies, in such a way that
the limited (and for various reasons dwindling) colonial
areas can ever again change masters in consequence of
an intra-European war.
There must be an entirely new attitude towards this
powers.)
Thus the scheme would apply to the former German
colonies in Africa and to the African possessions of
Belgium and Portugal. These large, valuable, and still
for the most part
undeveloped, areas would be placed
under the joint administration of all the European
powers, with the exception of the four great colonial
powers previously named.
With end in view, the European States other than
this
those purposely excludedwould jointly from a 'European
5
Colonial Company (E.C.C.) to which each State would
subscribe funds proportional to the number of its inhabi-
tants. Investments, administrative posts, and possi-
iii
THE COLONIAL PROBLEM
bilities of settlement would be allotted pro rata to the
various States that had formed the E.C.C., subject to
adjustment every decade in accordance with the census
returns of the nations concerned. Any national quota
not taken up would be open to the public on loan, but
here also subject to decennial revision and recall.
The European Colonial Company would pledge itself
to respect the rights of the previous owners or man-
dataries of the regions it would take over.
To the previous owners or mandataries must, above
be assigned a ninety-nine year right to the returns on
all,
the basis of the average yield of the last ten years.
Furthermore the E.C.C. would guarantee the main-
tenance of existing material and personal rights,
especially the tenure of their posts by extant officials,
military officers, and subordinate soldiers for life or
while fit for service^ previous rights to pensions, etc,,
H
CHAPTER SIX
WAR AIMS
SUMMARIZING the ideas hitherto expounded, we can make
the following of war aims:
list
115
PART THREE
THE NEW ORDER
STRUCTURE OF GERMAN SOCIALISM
CHAPTER ONE
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS
I. INTRODUCTORY
IN contradistinction to the hitherto prevailing liberal and
mechanistic views, we start with the belief that a people
or a nation is an organism, a living body, with definite
peculiarities of a corporeal, mental, and spiritual kind.
From this it follows that to the history of a nation there
applies the eternal law of organic life, the 'die and
5
become a biological compulsion to pass along the
,
3. RHYTHM OF HISTORY
From the foregoing dissertations it will have become
plain that we accept the validity of Oswald Spengler's
brilliantly formulated law of the rise and fall of the
121
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS
cultural circle in this instance the western cultural circle;
and that we perceive therein a great law of motion of all
organic life, the law of birth, maturity, and death.
As something essentially new, we supplement this law
of motion which is comparable to the movement of the
earth round the sun, by a second law of motion one
whose manifestations I myself described several years
ago, giving name of the Law of Triune Polarity.
it the
Its working may be compared to the rotation of the earth
on its own axis.
matters) .
125
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS
economic disquisitions that follow. But I regarded it and
regard it as incumbent on me, as a matter of personal
decency, to allude, however briefly, to the deeper wells
from which I myself have drawn the constructive forms
I am going to expound, although others may wish to
importance for
everyone wishes who
to "play an active
4 . MARXISM
It also seemed indispensable to begin Part Three by a
clear statement of the philosophical foundations of Ger-
man socialism, that we might thus early explain the
internal and fundamental opposition of German social-
ism to international Marxism a matter to which
allusion will frequently have to be made in the sequel.
For us National Socialists, of course, there is no question
of Marxism being an invention of the Jew Marx
c 5
1
C.f. the book Volk und Arbeiter by Wenzel Jaksch, a German social
democrat of Sudetenland,
128
CHAPTER TWO
GERMAN SOCIALISM
I . THE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM
IN the forefront of every consideration of economics
The man of the people
stands the question of its function.
always answers as follows: 'The function of a nation's
5
economic system is to satisfy all the citizens needs for
food, clothing, and shelter, and to put by reserves for
troublous times.'
Minor details apart, an economic system which does
these things secures the general approval of those whose
bodily needs are thus satisfied.
These considerations explain, not only the existence
and the duration of the liberal (i.e. the capitalist)
economic system, but also its present crisis and its
approaching end. Independently of all anti-capitalist
theories, the capitalist economy would Ger- persist (In
many) could continue to perform its task of ensuring
if it
for all Germans a sufficiency of food, clothing, and
shelter. The 'crisis of capitalism', therefore, Is not an
outcome of the socialist movement, but, on the contrary,
its main cause.
For an obvious fact that the capitalist economic
It Is
U.S.A.
c. Another change having important consequences
was in connexion with the Bolshevik Revolution the
'private property 3
gives this token its value, makes the token 'current coin
(or current notes) All currency is therefore sustained by
.
B. 'Entail^
This difference is based upon our (conservative) view
of the nature of (German) human beings.
Biological and historical experience precludes the
1
This termis not here quite identical with the specifically English use of the
word but we know of no other possible term for the rendering of the
'entail*,
German Erblehen. We therefore use it in quote marks. Its meaning will
soon become plain to careful readers. A conceivable alternative term would be
'usufruct', but this lacks the 'atmosphere' of 'entail*. Translators" Note.
144
ECONOMIC LAW OF GERMAN SOCIALISM
deduce an economic theory from the nature of Germans,
and, more particularly, we must then formulate an
economic system under which Germans can live and
develop. (If, in what follows, we deal exclusively with
5
'possession [Besitz].
To have a thing as one's 'private property' means that
one can do what one likes with it can sell it,
injure it,
or destroy it at will.
To have 'possession' of a thing means usufruct, that
one entitled to use the thing, to exploit it, but subject
is
pays best ,
the greatest good of the greatest number ,
etc.
5
settlements .
5. AGRICULTURE
A. The Coming System
The object of agriculture is to make sure that the
community will be fed.
The land available for the use of the community is
owned exclusively by the nation, for it was not by any
individual but by the community at large that the land
was acquired, by battle or by colonization on the part
of the community, and by the community it has been
defended against enemies.
The community as owner puts the land at the disposal
153
GERMAN SOCIALISM
3
of the nation in the form of 'entails to those able and
willing to use them for husbandry and stock-raising.
This 'entailing' will be undertaken by the self-govern-
ing corporation of the local peasant-councils (see below,
Chapter Three, 5 J3, Vocational Councils, pp. 192 and
and the appropriate circle president
foil.) will merely act
on the instructions of that corporation.
The size of the farms will be limited in accordance
with the local qualities of the land: the maximum being
determined by the principle that no one may hold in
c
entail' more land than he is able to farm unaided; and
the minimum being determined by the principle that the
landholder must have enough land to provide, not only
food for self and family, but a superfluity by the disposal
of which he will be able to obtain clothing and shelter
for self and
family.
The maximum limitation will result in freeing large
quantities of land for settlement by peasants, particularly
in Eastern Germany. This peasant settlement is all the
more necessary because the existence of an abundance of
peasants thus settled on their own farms furnishes the best
guarantee for the maintenance of public health and
public energy.
The landholder who thus receives a farm on entail'c
gages., land
held as an 'entail under the new system
being by hypothesis unmortgageable. The transforma-
tion would free the peasants from their burden of debt,
and would make it impossible for them to get into debt
again. The new (really Old-Germanic) organization of
land tenure would make the man who is now enslaved
by having to pay interest into a free peasant.
This complete liberation of German agriculture from
c
hazards'
all a need
which would impair the chances for the establishment of
a planful agricultural system in this
part of the world.
It has already been out that these changes will
pointed
take time. Obviously, therefore, the
partition of the
great landed estates must be part of a general plan for
agrarian reform that will look years ahead, making
arrangements for the erection of the necessary farm-
buildings and habitations, the choice of the young
peasants who will run the new small farms, the provision
of agricultural implements, etc. Not the
live-stock, least,
State will have to found in each
province a number of
model farms, as centres for the
supply of seed, for
stock-raising, and general agricultural This
progress.
159
GERMAN SOCIALISM
development will facilitate the maintenance of the extant
c 5
model farms that have been established by progressive
landowners, the personal services and peculiar skill of
these being recognized and utilized by
appointing them
'bailiffs of the domains'.
important to remember that the tithe-rent payable
It is
to the Statecan be paid in kind, and that this will save
the peasants from the wasteful conversion of their
pro-
duce into money, whereas the State will in a very simple
way come into possession of a notable part of the harvest,
which some extent use directly as food-supply
it will to
for the
army, and to some extent put on the market as
may seem desirable to regulate prices. (The salaries of
officials, allowances to pensioners, etc., may be partly
payable in kind.)
The transition from the capitalist agriculture of today
to the socialist agriculture of tomorrow will thus be com-
1
i
)
There will come
into being, in contradistinction to
5
the extant of capitalists, an 'estate of managers
'class'
164
INDUSTRY AND WHOLESALE TRADE
5. Contrast to Capitalism and Marxism
It .seems desirable to give a brief account of the basic
between the watchwords of German socialism
distinction
and those of capitalism, on the one !iand
in these matters ?
169
GERMAN SOCIALISM
These handicraft enterprises and petty establishments
for retail trade are fundamentally different from the
factory fellowships. Whereas in a factory fellowship the
success of the concern, and therewith the weal or woe of
every one of the workers engaged in it, does not depend
upon individuals but on the associated labour of all, the
welfare of an independent handicraft enterprise depends
5
170
HAND 1 C! RA F T AXD RET n ! I T T
l A DR
These regulations will renaer it impossible for the
guildsman to pursue his own interests ruthlessly, to make
an improper use of his economic freedom, for he will
have to subordinate his interests to the needs of the com-
munity.
It willbe obvious that one who is employed in such a
petty enterprise is
not entitled to any share in its posses-
dis-
sion, profits, or management. Though apparently
advantaged as compared with the members of the work-
this is because the position
ing staff of a great enterprise,
of the former as employed members is different. In
reality they are nothing more
than apprentices or pupils
who know that in due time, when they have given
will become independent
proof of competence, they
masters.
This presupposes that the possibilities for such ad-
vancement have been duly considered by the guild and
the administration, working together, and bearing in
mind the public demand for persons practising such
crafts or professions. The granting of diplomas by the
authorities will be subordinated to the growth of popula-
tion, and the schools will have to guide
their pupils in the
choice of avocations. Especially does this apply to the
liberal and academic professions.
Such inevitable encroachments upon individual liberty
will be more than compensated by increasing security of
livelihood and promotion; apart from the fact that the
encroachments will not be the work of bureaucratic State
officials, but will be made solely through
the instruments
of a system of self-government that will have to act
within a framework prescribed by the State.
171
GERMAN SOCIALISM
B. Management of the Transition
Here the extant vestiges of the guilds and cooperatives
will provide stepping-stones. The advantages to the
independent handicraftsmen and the members of the
middle class that will derive from the new vocational
associations, from the fixing of maximum numbers, etc.,
will be so great that the apparent disadvantage of the
official control of prices will be fully made good all the
supervision.
Of great importance in this connexion will be the
abolition of the existing scale and method of taxation, in
place of which the guild will pay a lump sum, collected
by the guild from its members.
The transformation of the minor handicrafts and petty
retail establishments into the guild system of German
socialism will be all the easier because the German
handicraftsmen and small traders have a vital interest
in escaping the destruction with which they are
threatened by the capitalist system, and thus maintain-
ing their existence as independent artisans, small shop-
keepers, etc.
For the sake of completeness I must point out that
house-ownership comes within the category of 'goods
which can be augmented in quantity as much as you
please' (see above, pp. 134-5), and will therefore remain
private property. The
necessary adjustment of rents will
be arranged by seeing to it that municipalities and
for
8. COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES
One of the mainobjects of German socialism is to
combine the personal egoism that Is a necessary and use-
fulpart of our human equipment with advantage for the
general welfare, much as the working of the engine
propels an automobile.
This aim finds expression, for example. In the fact that
a peasant's tenure of his farm is to be arranged with an
eye to communal benefit. The surplus he produces
by
5
9. PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Public assistance comprises care for those members of
the community who are no longer in a position to gain
their own livelihood.
The main significance of the term Community' or
that no one who belongs to it shall
5
"commonwealth is
M
CHAPTER THREE
THE GERMAN SOCIALIST STATE
I. MATTERS OF PRINCIPLE
IN accordance with the organic conception that all
must be judged by the extent to which they
institutions
favour organic life, we regard
the State, not as something
that stands above the community at large, but as
nothing else than the organizational form of the peopkj
the form that will ensure the fullest possible development
of the organism known as the 'German people
5
The .
3. ADMINISTRATION
The president of the Reich, elected for life, will be
the supreme representative of the State authority. The
182
A1> M !XI >TR AT10N
ministers appointed by and subordinate to him will
merely be experts \\ith advisory functions, and will not
be responsible wield ers of Slate power: they will be
personally responsible to the president.
The second wielder of State authority will be the
Great Council.
The Great Council will consist of the presidents of
the provinces (from twelve to seventeen in number),
the five ministers of State,, and the presidium of the
Reich Chamber of the Estates. It will therefore have
about two dozen members, all of them persons of
outstanding importance. By a simple majority vote, the
Great Council will also elect the president of the Reich
(who need not be a member of the Council).
The third wielder of State authority will be the
Reich Chamber of Estates. This will consist of no
members, 100 being elected and 10 being nominated.
It stands at the head of the entire Estates System,
fulfil all the demands for efficiency and hard work that
are made of the members of the liberal professions, and
184
P ROVIXCTAL SUBDIVISION
to share in the vicissitudes of the general welfare. In
other words, whereas In contemporary Germany the
officials have peculiar rights in that they cannot be
dismissed and are entitled to pensions when the new
order has been established, absolute security against
dismissal will have been forfeited by officials of all
grades, whilst the right to a pension will belong to every
German citizen without exception.
It will be a firm principle with German socialism that
a privileged and powerful officialdom bureaucracy, in
short will be a deadly peril, against which the only
perative.
4. PROVINCIAL SUBDIVISION
One of the most difficult questions of German home
policy, hitherto, has been the puerile one, unitarism or
federalism? The question Is of typically liberal origin,
and It need hardly be said that the liberal answer has
5
spirit,
I have, indeed, too much respect for the Prussian
spirit, and am too keenly aware of the important part
it has played in German history, to be moved by
any
anti-Prussian resentment such as I might be supposed
to have imbibed in my Bavarian homeland.
But myknowledge of the German character and of
German history have convinced me that the Prussian
particularist solution was no more than an arbitrary
expedient which did not cease to be an arbitrary
expedient because it was advocated and adopted by
in Prussian particularism.
This recognition of the necessarily unified character
of the German State is not an acceptance of the ideal of
liberal unitarisrn. For this unified German State must
not be ruled centrally from one spot. There are such
marked geopolitical, religious, and cultural differences
within the German people as to forbid a uniformity that
would conflict with the very nature of the Germans.
Though, therefore, the coming German realm will be
unified, it will be federally subdivided into provinces.
The extant arbitrarily formed States and territories
having been broken up, they will be rearranged into
from twelve to fifteen provinces, each corresponding to
a geopolitical, cultural, and tribal entity.
The weekly periodical I used to edit under the title of
c
Der schwarze Front' contains, in its issue of September
1
B. Vocational Councils
It of the utmost importance, therefore, to establish
is
process of disintegration.
These things will only be possible if we can liberate
once more the mighty energies of self-government,
loosen the framework of society, educate the people by
systematically encouraging political responsibility in the
very lowest strata of the community, and thus consolidate
a supporting tier, without which authoritative demo-
cracy Is impossible.
We must therefore create, instead of the bureau-
cratically dictatorial State of fascist, bolshevist, or par-
liamentary irresponsibility, the genuinely popular State
of German democracy and aristocratic responsibility.
192
THE ESTATES SYSTEM
The principles and forms of an aristocratically
responsible way of carrying on the State have been
expounded in the first four sections of this chapter.
We now to consider the principles and forms of
have
supervision and collaboration by the people, of self-
government by the estates, of what I call 'German
5
democracy .
194
THE ESTATES SYSTEM
the Reich, each consisting of one hundred members,
belonging to the appropriate vocation.
The decisive feature here is that these elections of the
provincial chambers and the Reich chambers Is not
primary,, but Indirect; not by the ultimate electors, but
by the members of the next lower grade of vocational
representation. The object here is, of course, to ensure
that the most capable and effective vocational represen-
tatives shall rise into the higher bodies, which will be
*95
THE GERMAN SOCIALIST STATE
of persons in relation to whom the masses of active
workers have no rights whatever. (It is the same here
in Germany under the Hitler System, without even the
trifling fragment of the corporations.)
It is somewhat different in Russia, where (in
theory,
at least) the whole mass of active workers has the suf-
frage. Still, the different categories of active workers
have different voting powers, and some are expressly dis-
franchized. Five peasant votes correspond to one
worker vote though we are told that there is to be a
change in the next elections; and many persons engaged
3
in 'bourgeois vocations, notably the intellectual pro-
fessions, are disfranchized. It is significant that in
Russia the motions that are to be voted on are decided
party, and merely have to be 'approved by the
5
by the
assemblies. Also we note in Russia a very remarkable
fact that whereas in the councils of the lower grade there
are many non-party members (of course persons
acceptable to the party), there is a much larger propor-
tion of communists in the middle-grade bodies, and the
highest councils consist exclusively of party members.
This signifies that there can be no genuine, independent,
democratic representation of the interests of all active
workers.
Contrariwise the war-cry of German socialism is that
we shall ensure unrestricted, truly democratic self-
government by all the active workers of the population.
There must be no influence exerted by, no dependence
upon, any powerful group or party, and least of all upon
the State. No matter what the State may desire, under
the German system any German who enjoys the con-
fidence of others that pursue the same vocation will be
196
THE ESTATES SYSTEM
able to make his way by which the
into the highest offices
State Is controlled
led; and
even becoming a member of
the Reich Chamber of Estates or the Great Council.
This will mean the most complete democracy attainable
and without a chance of Its degenerating Into demagogic
rule.
C. Chambers of Estates
Inasmuch as the vocational councils of the circle, the
province, and the Reich will represent nothing but
vocational Interests, they must be supplemented by
general popular representation.
In each administrative unit (circle, province, Reich)
there will, consequently, be formed out of Its vocational
councils a Chamber of Estates, as follows.
The Circle Chamber of Estates will consist of twenty-
five persons elected by the vocational councils of that
circle and three additional members nominated by the
circle president. These nominees must be eminent and
respected inhabitants of the circle.
The Provincial Chamber of Estates will consist of
fifty persons elected by the vocational councils of the
post.
THE GERMAN SOCIALIST STATE
The decisive importance of this scheme for the
repre-
sentation of the estates, lies in the fact that
thereby the
popular will can find expression throughout the work
of administration no matter what the State authorities
may do or desire to do.
The distinction between vocational councils and
Chambers of Estates, both as regards their composition
and as regards their duties, is of the utmost moment.
Whilst the vocational councils give expression and
influence to the vertical stratification of the German
people, the Chambers of Estates represent the horizontal
stratification, and thus give a cross-section through
the interests of various parts of the population in all areas
of the Reich.
The councils represent purely vocational interests, so
that their duties are correspondingly restricted to the
particular vocations and the relation of these to the
State; but the Chambers secure for the localities a
general popular representation, and consequently form
an important part of the general State administration
and State guidance.
Of especial consequence is it that thereby will be
ensured a direct and lasting popular control of the State
and its officials in all parts of the State apparatus.
In the fascist State there is no such control; in the
c
bolshevik State it can only be exercised by way of the
5
2OI
CHAPTER FOUR
CULTURAL POLICYOF GERMAN
SOCIALISM
I. CONSERVATIVE REALISM
IN conformity with our knowledge of the completeness
of the revolution that is inevitable, and is therefore in
phenomena of life.
Here, then, arises (more especially in view of the turn
the German Revolution has taken of late), the question
where Christianity stands in the picture.
We should be false to the teachings of history were we
to deny that the source of Christianity did not flow from
the spot where the heart of the West beats. But if, as we
showed In the chapter on Philosophical Foundations, the
3
1 in the
Cf. the article entitled 'Katholische Kirche und National- Sozlalismus*
Neue Zurdwr Zeitung, No. 1268, July 21, 1935.
205
CULTURAL POLICY OF GERMAN SOCIALISM
tion going on in Christianity. A glance at the religious
Is
207
CULTURAL POLICY OF GERMAN SOCIALISM
3. THE NEW SCHOOL
homes will
be defrayed by the State.
A people's community can have only one kind of
primary schools, at which there will be separate classes
for more highly gifted and less
highly gifted children.
When the course at the elementary school is finished,
education will be continued at a technical or vocational
school, in other cases at a higher school,, and later, in
suitable cases, at a university. The uniformity of system
does not mean that all the schools will be exactly alike,
for they will be variously adapted to peculiarities in the
organism.
It is expedient to point out that for such a structural
alteration in the German educational
system, a spiritual
change throughout will be indispensable.
Hitherto the main object of schooling has been to 'im-
part information', but henceforward it will be regarded
as at least equally
important to train character. As a
result, not only will the pupil's character have a decisive
influence upon his chances of
promotion to a higher
school or a university, but the educational institutions
210
THE NEW SCHOOL
will thereby be profoundly modified both
subjectively
and objectively.
More especially the universities will differ greatly from
our present ones. They will lose the duplex character
they now have of being institutions both for teaching and
for research. Whereas, nowadays, for
practical reasons
more emphasis is usually laid upon research than upon
teaching, in days to come there will be great stress on
teaching and on character-training. The universities
willbe of a collegiate type, that is to say they will be cir-
cumscribed institutions, in the country rather than in
towns, with an attached economic branch where in the
vacations the students will be engaged in practical
labours. The two first terms will be devoted to general
philosophical, historical, and artistic studies, after which
the separation into faculties will begin. Great value will
be attached to sports, comradeship, and the like; each
university will probably have its own tradition, to the
maintenance of which sometime-students' clubs will
contribute.
The higher schools will be analogous to our present
gymnasia, but early specialization will be avoided,
Special importance will be attached to high schools
having courses conducted in foreign tongues, which will
not only promote close touch with the intellectual world
of foreign nations, but will encourage the appearance of
many good linguists among the Germans. (This will
further have a good effect upon the national minorities
living in Germany, and will encourage foreigners to come
to German schools.)
One may hope that former pupils of a high school will
continue to take a lively interest in its work, partly in the
CULTURAL POLICY OF GERMAN SOCIALISM
indirect form of patronage, partly in the direct form of
assistance as examiners. These outsiders, both in the
high school and in the elementary school,, will assist the
teaching staff in deciding a pupil's chances of promotion.
It is of fundamental importance that by thus
regulating
promotion the State should be able to prevent the over-
stocking of the country's professional intelligentsia, for
any such overproduction of intellectuals or would-be in-
tellectuals is most unwholesome to the social organism.
217
APPENDIXES
APPENDIX I
draft our plan, for this will help to explain and give a meaning
to what has been happening since 1914, and to all the sacrifices
of wealth and blood that have been demanded of the German
It will console us, will
people during these eighteen years.
bear the of the transition, will give
encourage us to last years
221
APPENDIXES
us strength to further the new developments; for awareness of
what is happening, when it comes to countless Germans, will
give them a sense of purpose which
can accelerate the changes
and make the sacrifices seem less onerous. The clearer the
grasp of the direction and the better the preparations, the less
resistance will there be, and the smaller the sacrifices.
It seems to us as if the tediousness of the process we term the
German Revolution were an indication given by fate that the
German people must systematically and deliberately prepare
must recognize that the sacrifices of wealth
for the revolution,
and blood demanded are not more than the organism of the
German people (no longer very young) can properly be ex-
pected to bear, and that the last violent act of birth can be
achieved with a minimal loss of energy.
That is how the author and his friends contemplate the
German situation, and they believe it to be incumbent on them
to explain what they have learned from the last two decades of
German history, to indicate the nature of the trend which
discloses itself and to show how its fulfilment offers the only
way of restoring health to the German people. To promote
such a restoration of health must assuredly be the aim of
German policy.
Berlin, Autumn, 1931.
222
APPENDIX II
many important details have been omitted, but I trust that the
223
APPENDIXES
to maintain a portion of the system or one of its essential
measures.
Of great importance, finally, is it to recognize that this
revolution will not be made by the masses, but by a small
number of persons who are ready to take risks, who have in
their minds a clear picture of the new order, who are
sufficiently
self-sacrificing and sufficiently pugnacious to stake their lives
in the hope of making their picture a reality.
This demands strength of character; readiness to endure
solitude, persecution, mental and spiritual isolation. Unless
the would-be revolutionist is prepared, as were Lenin and his
associates, to risk exile or a long term in Siberia, fate will not
hold him worthy to share responsibility for
establishing the
new order.
It is my daily prayer that great numbers of Germans see this
and possess the required energy, so that at length there may be
established in Germany the new order on behalf of which
millions of the best of my fellow-countrymen have died.
Hail Germany!
224
APPENDIX III
No, what was necessary, now and again, was to show that
the draft paid due heed to extant data, and yet solved all the
important problems that arose. Also it was important that the
author should make his meaning clear, even as an architect
must clearly show what he is planning to build. But the
architect is not concerned with the question whether those
who examine his plans will agree with him in every detail.
Of course such a method of demonstration involves a certain
coldness, a lack of impetus, a dryness of exposition. But one
P 225
APPENDIXES
who, beyond the details, can see the great aim, one who bears
within his own mind a vision of the cathedral of German
socialism, one who feels the rhythm of life that pulsates beneath
the abundance of social and economic details such a one
will grasp the essential spirituality of a dry architectural
226
APPENDIX IV
to the first edition, but must start from the fact of the Hitler
solved them.
227
APPENDIXES
It behoves us to effect the overthrow of the Hitler
System; it
behoves us, therefore, above all, to soiv$ these urgent problems,
and thus to inaugurate a new epoch of German and European
whose business
history, it is to give human life once more a
meaning and a goal.
228
APPENDIX V
political j udgmen t.
Since then, with somnambulist confidence,
he has been
229
APPENDIXES
advancing towards war, whose successive stages
-
armament,
compulsory military service, the fortification of Rhineland,
Danzig, two years' army service, the treaty between Germany
and Japan are still fresh in all men's memories.
However just and necessary it was and is, for the sake of
our national freedom and the future of Germany, to shake off
the fetters of the Treaty of Versailles, it was and is no less
unreasonable and criminal to adopt and advocate German
imperialism in place of the imperialism of those who coerced
us in 1919.
Apart from thefact that one injustice is not overcome
by
substituting for another injustice, every glance at German
it
Fellow-countrymen :
A GALL TO ARMS
(Watchword for the New Year, by Otto Strasser)
For two years the policy of the Hitler System has profited by
the torpidity that seized poor old Europe after the consternating
experiences of 1933. The system deliberately availed itself of
the dread inspired by the prospect of a German Revolution, of
the National Socialist renovation and renaissance of the Ger-
man people, to stupefy capitalist Europe and scare it into inert
neutrality. But this torpidity necessarily passed off, the spell
was necessarily broken, when the alleged German Revolution
disclosed itself to be no more than a desperate attempt on the
part of the dominant classes to ensnare, slow down, strangle the
revolution. The plainer it became to the governments of the
victors of 1919 that the Hitler-Schacht-Goering-System lacked
the inspiration of the revolutionary idea, that the wind of the
revolutionary storm had blown over, that there was no genuinely
234
AP P E'N DIXES
creative revolutionary conception to animate the Continent, the
more resolutely did they prepare for defence. When, after June
30, 1934, it became increasingly obvious to them that Hitler
was playing the same cards as those which other statesmen had
played before and were now playing beside him; that arma-
ments, alliances, devices and momentary feints, opportunist
combinations and veiled intrigues, were merely the pawns of
his statecraft; but that he was nowise moved by a great idea
able to revolutionize the old w orld
T
5
to procreate a new order in
But much the most dangerous measure was the systematic re-
armament of Great Britain and the whole British Empire.
but themilitary weakness of
During the years 1933-1936, nothing
made it for Italian and German imperialism
England possible
created situations in which
to achieve notable advances, and
inertness by a badly
Eneland showed herself inert, or masked
for treaty revision
simulated inattention towards the demand
235
APPENDIXES
and the pugnacity of the other side. By now, in the beginning
of 1937, England is getting ready to utter decisive words in
international policy.
In order to Western Europe,
set off the increasing activity of
in 1936 Hitler and Mussolini began a counterstroke in Spain.
The enterprise initiated by Generals Sanjurjo and Franco in
July of that year (an enterprise they would never have ventured
at that time unless they had come to an
understanding with
Berlin and Rome) was designed as a preventive
occupation of
what was ideologically, politically, and from the military stand-
point the weakest point of Western Europe and of a future
Franco-British coalition; it was a stab in the back for France, a
preparation for a naval campaign against Britain. Actually for
the time being the affair seemed to bode well for the interven-
tionists. England was hampered by a dislike (based upon
private capitalist interests) for the prospect of socialization of
the Spanish mines, disinclined for anything that
might lead to
the U.S.S.R. getting established in the Western
Mediterranean,
and, being still only in the earlier stages of rearmament, again
pretended to be blind and deaf, and let the reins drop. France,
under the rule of the comparatively unstable popular front,
could venture nothing without British aid. Russia, at first, was
as neutral as the western
powers.The generals, armed by Italy
and Germany, were able to drive back the badly equipped and
imperfectly trained militia of the Spanish government. A
triumph of the Berlinese and of the Italian revisionary policy
seemed assured. After three months, however, at long last,
Russia began to intervene. Whether Moscow is moved
by
idealist
promptings, stirred up by the internal pressure of the
unsettled struggle between Stalinism and
Trotskyism, and
still
many, during the last war, between 1916 and 1918. For
whereas in 1935 and 1936, after a difficult winter it was possible
without serious risk to open the safety-valve of foreign policy,
in March 1937 this safety-valve will probably have to take
the form of war.
That will not merely be a matter of Hitler's political choice,
for military considerations will likewise be operative. So bad is
the prognosis for Germany that at the last moment a preventive
war probably be begun, simply because it will be im-
will very
240
APPENDIX V I
HUTTEN BRIEF
MANIFESTO OF THE BLACK FRONT TO THE
GERMAN PEOPLE
[Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1533) was inspired
throughout his
short adult career
by the aim of promoting a political and
religious renaissance of Germany. His chief was the weapon
pen, his chief medium consisted of letters, and he was
probably
one of the main authors of the famous obscurorum
virorum. His letters have become proverbial, and it was natural
that the champions of theGerman Revolution in the twentieth
century should claim to be speaking in the name of the man
who laboured on behalf of a German a Revolu-
European
tion four hundred years ago.]
cordiality and unstinted zeal for toil that enabled him to move
persons and master things. Thousands valued him as a friend,
a helper in time of trouble, a leader into a new intellectual and
spiritual world.
Not that he was ever a leader' in that superficial, arrogant,
for the
246
APPENDIXES
In the people's movement there Is much talk about the
crystallizing of a new and this touches upon what I
leadership,
have just been saying. But the methods that have been
sug-
gested for coming to a decision as to the best leaders,, such as
examination of the blood, and what not, seem to
my practical
mind rather dubious as to their possibility, their use, and their
s
247
APPENDIXES
The human beings are overshadowed by a terrible
souls of
in the ears of you all, are not you scourged by the same dread
of poverty? Are not your lives unhappy enough already, with-
out these quarrels? Are not you universally defrauded of the
Rights of Man? (Pp. 146-148.)
249
APPENDIXES
less passionately determined to repudiate the hateful attempt
to turn matters upside-down at the will of the brutalized masses
of those who have hitherto been under the harrow, and are
now unable to recognize the impossibility of detaching the
fortunes of one class (be it a small minority or a large majority)
from the fortunes of the nation. For here is our great discovery,
that true socialism is identical with true nationalism, both being
equally hostile to the class rule of a privileged bourgeoisie and
the class rule of the proletariat.
What do we want, then? Neither the 'bourgeois nor yet the
3
253
APPENDIXES
Economic Field: Destruction of the private capitalist and
State-capitalist economic system, and upbuilding of the new
order of German socialism; nationalization of the German
popular economy, under the economic form of life, with an aim
at the effective deproletarianization of the German people.
Home Policy: Overthrow of the party dictatorship and the
establishment of a political system legally based upon self-
government by the estates; a new subdivision of Germany into
provinces with federalized administration and a supreme
centralized federal government.
Cultural Field: Break the idol of the 'totalitarian State',
enthrone the true faith; establish freedom of conscience;
restrict the partial truths of 'blood and soil' to their proper
fieldsof application; recognize the value of the spirit, the
value of the soul, the value of religion.
Foreign Repudiate every kind of imperialism;
Policy:
effectively recognize a European federation on the basis of
national freedom and the popular development of all nations
and minorities.
To sum up: A New Germany in a New Europe, on the basis
of
National Freedom,
Social Justice,
European Collaboration.
As groundworks and provisos of
The Rebirth of the West.
G.