Mein Kampf (Unabridged English Translation)

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ADOLF HITLER

MEIN KAMPF Complete and Unabridged

FULLY ANNOTATED EDITORIAL SPONSORS John Chamberlain Sidney B. Fay

John Gunther Carlton J.

H. Hayes

aham Mutton Johnson

in

iam Iter

ul

L

Langer

Millis

de Roussy de

Sales

oige N. Shuster

REYNAL 1941

A

HITCHCOCK NEW

COPYRIGHT, IQ39. BY HOUGBTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM

COPYRIGHT, Ip2S, BY VERLAG FRZ. EHER NACHF. G.m.D.H. COPYRIGHT, Z927. BY VERLAG FRZ. EHER NACHF. G.m.b.H.

This Edition is published by arrangement with Hough ton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts.

NINETEENTH

PRINTED IN THE

U.S.A.

PUBLISHERS'

NOTE

and certain pubdictated the have lishing exigencies preparation of this book at a far higher rate of speed than we should have liked. We wished it editorially to be, and we believe it is, a fine, scholarly, genuinely definitive edition of an enormously important book. If small errors have crept in, and we think even those are few and far between, they are due solely to the pressure of time. We cannot possibly thank here by name all those who have assisted in the task. The work could not have been possible without the devoted help of our editorial committee, and notably Dr. Alvin Johnson, who has been a tower of strength in many directions. To Mr. George N. Shuster, who has labored with unwearying effectiveness night and day for many weeks, our debt is incalculable. Mr. Helmut Ripperger, on whom a heavy burden has fallen, and various friends and helpers at the New School for Social Research have likewise given without stint of their time and energy to the translation. Mr. C. H. Hand, Jr., will not like to find himself thus singled out, but we cannot overlook the the international situation

BOTH

tribute

we owe him

for his constant effective aid.

Two

other special friends of the enterprise who have been of enormous help, but who by their own wish shall be name-

we none

the less wish here to thank anonymously. Finally, to Houghton MifHin Company we wish to extend our hearty salutations. We should never ask for more fairless,

minded or resourceful collaborators

in a publishing enter-

prise.

E. R. C. N. H.

INTRODUCTION is

an accurate translation

of a

book which

is

likely to remain the most important political tract of our time, and which is now for the first time available in complete form to the American reader. Until now

THIS

M

ein Kampf in English has been a conthe only version of densation of the complete book, published in 1933, containing less than half of the total text. The Austrian and Czecho-Slovakian crises of last year, culminating for the moment in the pact of Munich, have awakened the American public as never before to the seriousness to the world and to themselves of the Nazi program, and consequently to the possible significance of every page of the book that can justly be regarded as the Nazi gospel. Here, then, in its entirety, for the American people to read and to judge for themselves, is the work which has sold in Germany by the millions, and which is probably the best written evidence of the character, the mind, and the spirit of Adolf Hitler and his 'government. There are undoubtedly passages of great importance which now appear in English for the first time. For example, Chapter V of the condensed version left out the whole of what Hitler describes as his wartime reflections on

propaganda and on methods for fighting Marxism. We have marked at various points in the text the important new material. Furthermore, any abridgment must necessarily fail, in proportion to the degree of its condensation, to give the full flavor of the author's mind. Even

the repetitions have their significance in conveying a sense of the character behind them. Mein Kampf is, above all, a

book

of feeling.

INTRODUCTION

vlii

no sense a condemnation of the abridgement E. T. S. Dugdale in England and published prepared by under the title My Battle, as in 1933 it seemed most unlikely that any large American public would care to read Mein Kampf as a whole, and for its time and purpose it was undoubtedly adequate. Since then the whole book has asAll this

is

in

sumed a more urgent character. The translation here offered is from the first German edition the two volumes respectively of 1925 and 1927, which are now quite

difficult to obtain.

Continuous

refer-

ence hks been made, however, to later editions, and any changes of significance have been noted. Such changes are not as extensive as popularly supposed. The reader must bear in mind that Hitler is no artist in literary expression, but a rough-and-ready political pam-

grammar and syntax alike. Departures from normal German form have not been re-

phleteer often indifferent to

produced, since no purpose would be served thereby, but where the demands of a perfectly smooth English style might seem to conflict with exactness of meaning, the original German forms have been followed as literally as possible. We believe the translation cannot be successfully challenged.

We

turn to our decision to annotate the text. Mein Kampf is frequently a difficult book for the American reader to understand. Few Americans are, in the very nature of things, so aware of the German historical background that they can surmise without help what the author is discuss1

What, for example, was meant by 'interest slavery ? And who was Leo Schlageter? In making annotations of this kind, we have tried to adhere to a middle course, assuming some familiarity with Nazi history, but leaving very ing.

Notes of this kind are based almost exclusively on German sources, and we beIfeve we can vouch for their accuracy and objectivity.

recondite information for scholars.

INTRODUCTION Then, too, Mein violent partisan.

Kampf

As such

it

1

is a propagandistic essay by a often warps historical truth and

sometimes ignores it completely. We have, therefore, felt it our duty to accompany the text with factual information which constitutes an extensive critique of the original. No American would like to assume responsibility for giving the public a text which, if not tested in the light of diligent inquiry, might convey the impression that Hitler was writing history rather than propaganda. It is more probable, however, that we shall have to face the opposite criticism

we have been

too impartial, too objective, too little concerned with rebuttal. To this we should like to reply that truth, the accurate truth, is the only argument which in the long run prevails. One may talk a fact out of existence for a time, but it somehow survives. We are prepared that

to rest our case as editors

on our

belief in that ultimate

triumph.

One

point in particular may need emphasis. Large porMrin Kampf are devoted to the question of race as

tions of

a substructure on which to erect an anti-Semitic policy. We have not let these passages go unchallenged, but we have also not felt it necessary to include a discussion of race of our own invention. The greatest anthropologists of the twentieth century are agreed that 'race' is a practically meaningless word. All one can legitimately do, therefore, is to challenge statements of 'race history' as being figments of the imagination, and to point out that they are at

bottom more or less subtle ways of supporting still more aband violent forms of nationalism than even the nineteenth century knew. In addition we have made specific objections to Hitler's anti-Semitic statements where they

solute

contradict

known

historical facts.

A word now concerning the method adopted for the presentation of the notes. relative to the sources

As a rule we have put information and origins of National Socialism

INTRODUCTION

*

volume, reserving for the second volume the history of Hitler's rise to power and of German achievement since that time. Departures from this method have been made when a given point seemed explainable in no other way. This arrangement will enable the reader, should he so

into the

first

independently of the text itself. Naturally these notes are not designed to form a treatise on Hitlerism, but if they were read together with the books mentioned by name, they should provide a fairly adequate history of the Third Reich* Most of the notes are set in close proximity to the passage to which they refer. In a

desire, to read the notes

few instances, however,

it

seemed important to write at

greater length, so that the material appears in the form of an appendix to the chapter in question. The separation between text and commentary is clearly indicated, so that the

reader will have no difficulty on that score. In conclusion, what should one expect to learn from

Mein will with a clear the book show Read what Kampf? eye, Ftihrer Der is as a man one who manner of boy had nothing excepting a passionate belief that Germany must

obtain a larger place in the sun with the help of the sword once wielded so efficiently by Prussian kings; who learned to define to his own satisfaction what groups wanted this kind of Germany, and what other groups were indifferent or opposed to that ideal who after the War gathered round him all those who refused to concede that defeat necessarily meant the end of German expansion; and who, ;

with their help, got control of the government and then set out to mobilize the whole nation for a new advance. Before the War he lived in Austria and felt that the Habsburgs, by making concessions to the Slavic groups in their empire, were putting the German group on a level with others and therefore lessening its willingness to dominate. Therefore, he wanted the German group to get rid of the Habsburgs and join forces with the greater Prussian finally,

INTRODUCTION

id

Germany. After the War he felt that the leaders of the Republic, by seeking to bring about internal reconciliation and by making concessions to the Allies, were doing exactly what the old Habsburgs had done, excepting that this time it was not Austrian Germany but the holy of holies, Prussia itself, that was being weakened. To those who said that it was war which had sapped the substance of Germany, and that another war would end European civilization, he replied that it was only 'eternal peace' which destroyed peoples and that neither the individual nor society could escape Nature's decree that the

fittest

alone survive.

by no means the whole the moving force which, revealed both in his struggle for power and in his use of that power since 1933, is the most startling phenomenon of our time. Only the leaders of the Mohammedan, French, and Russian revolutions have aroused a comparable driving Yet

Hitler.

this simple philosophy is

He

has added to

it

power, and at present it dominates Europe. The forces in opposition have lacked the clearness of plan, the unity of motive, the certainty of conviction, needed to make their cause prevail. engines of industry now spin round in trepidation, of war are piled giddily in higher and higher pyramids. Already in Europe, the last are all that the others work to create an illusion and to really count

The

and the engines

help meet the staggering costs. There is no stopping them until there are in the world ideas or ideals which are stronger

than that contained in Mein Kampf. It is our profound conviction that as soon as enough people have seen through this book, lived with it until the facts they behold are so startlingly vivid that all else is obscure by comparison, the tide will begin to turn. have all of us the deepest regard for the German people. Some of us have given a good deal of time and energy

We

to the study of just

German demands and

to the fostering

INTRODUCTION

xii

of better understanding of the German tradition. None of us has abandoned the sincere belief that Germany is des-

and cherished member of the family of peoples. So we have elected to set down without malice, tined to be a great

yet with see

all

the truth

we can

muster, the record as

we

it.

JOHN CHAMBERLAIN SIDNEY B. FAY

JOHN GUNTHER CARLTON J. H. HAYES

GRAHAM HUTTON t

ALVIN JOHNSON WILLIAM L. LANGER

WALTER MILLIS R. DE ROUSSY DE SALES

GEORGE N. SHUSTER

DEDICATION ON NOVEMBER

9, 1923, at 12.30 in the afternoon, in front of the Feldherrnhalle as well as in the courtyard of the

former

War

Ministry, the following men, steadfast in their

belief in the resurrection of their people,

were

killed :

ALFARTH, Felix, businessman, b. July 5, 1901 BAURIEDL, Andreas, hatter, b. May 4, 1879 CASELLA, Theodor, bank employee, b. August 8, 1900 EHRLICH, Wilhelm, bank employee, b. August 19, 1894 FAUST, Martin, bank employee, b. January 27, 1901 HECHENBERGER, Anton, locksmith, b. September 28,; 1902

KOERNER, Oskar, businessman, b. January KUHN, Karl, headwaiter, b. July 26, 1897 LAFORCE, Karl, student of Engineering,

4,

b.

1875

October

28, 1904

NEUBAUER, Kurt,

valet, b.

March

27, 1899

PAPE, Claus von, businessman, b. August 16, 1904 PFORDTEN, Theodor von der, County Court Councillor, b.

May

14,

1873

RICKMERS, Johann,

May

7,

retired

Cavalry

Captain,

b.

1881

ScHEUBNER-RicHTER, Max Erwin von, Doctor of Engineering, b. January 9, 1884 STRANSKY, Lorenz Ritter von, Engineer, b. March 14,

1889

WOLF, Wilhelm, businessman,

b.

October

19,

1898

So-called national authorities denied these dead heroes a

common

grave. I dedicate to them, for common memory, the volume of this work, as the blood witnesses of which

Therefore first

continue to serve as a brilliant example for the followers of our movement.

they

may

ADOLF HITLER LANDSBBRG ON THE LECH PRISON OF THE FORTRESS October 16, 1924

PREFACE APRIL

I, 1924, because of the sentence handed the People's Court of Munich, I had to begin that day, serving my term in the fortress at Landsberg on the Lech. Thus, after years of uninterrupted work, I was afforded for the first time an opportunity to embark on a task insisted upon by many and felt to be serviceable to the movement by myself. Therefore, I resolved not only to set forth, in two volumes, the object of our movement, but also to draw a picture of its development. From this more can be learned than from any purely doctrinary treatise. That also gave me the opportunity to describe my own development, as far as this is necessary for the understanding of the first as well as the second volume, and which may serve to destroy the evil legends created about my person by the Jewish press. With this work I do not address myself to strangers, but to those adherents of the movement who belong to it with their hearts and whose reason now seeks a more intimate enlightenment. I know that one is able to win people far more by the spoken than by the written word, and that every great movement on this globe owes its rise to the great speakers and not to the great writers. Nevertheless, the basic elements of a doctrine must be set down in permanent form in order that it may be represented in the same way and in unity. In this connection these two volumes should serve as building stones which I add to our common work.

ON

down by

THE AUTHOR LANDSBERG ON THE LECH PRISON OF THB FORTRESS

CONTENTS Volume PUBLISHERS'

I

NOTE

v

INTRODUCTION

vii

DEDICATION

xiii

PREFACE

xv Chapter

I

AT HOME

3

The Young Ringleader Enthusiasm

for

7 8 IO 12

War

Drawing Talent Never State Official But Painter

13 15 15 16 18

The Young Nationalist The German Ostmark The Fight for the German

Nationality Lessons History History Favorite Subject The Habsburgs' Policy of Slavization

2O 21

The Young Wagnerian

23 24 25

'

Father's Death

Mother's Passing

Away Chapter

YEARS OF STUDY AND SUFFERING IN VIENNA

An

Architect's Ability

Five Years of Misery Th Genius of Youth Unsocial Vienna The Contrasts

The

Unskilled

Worker

II

...

26 27 29 30 31

32 34

CONTENTS

xviil

The Uncertainty of Making a Living The Worker's Fate The Perpetual Mirage of Hunger Unfortunate Victims of Bad Social Conditions The Nature of Social Activity The Lack of National Pride The Rats of Political Poisoning Martyrdom of the Worker's Child The Presupposition for Nationalization '

'

-

'

Arduous Study of Reading Social Democracy First Encounter with Social Democrats

The Art

The Red Terror The Social Democrat Press The Psyche of the Masses Tactics of Marxism The Victims of the Red Tempters The Sins of the Bourgeoisie The Necessity of Union Activity The Struggle for Power Politization of the

Unions

The Threatening Thundercloud The Key to Social Democracy The Jewish Question The So-called World Press Criticism of Kaiser Wilhelm II

The Greatest German Mayor Is

35 36 37 37 39

This Also a Jew?

The Zionists The Spiritual Pestilence of Jewry The Cunning of the 'World Press' The Manager of Vice The Jew as Leader of Social Democracy Jewish Dialectics

The Cosmopolite Changes Semite

Marxism and Nature

41

42 43 44 44 46-49 50 5I~53 53 54 56 58 59 59

60 62 63 64 66 66 68 70 72 73 74

76 77 78 78-~79

81 into a Fanatical Anti-

83 84

CONTENTS

xlx

Chapter

GENERAL POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS FROM IN VIENNA The

MY

III

TIME 85

86

Politician

Political

Lack

87 88

Thinking

Vienna's Last Rise Germanity in Austria Centrifugal Forces The Tragic Guilt of the Habsburge The Revolution of 1848 The Historical Liquidation of the Danube Monarchy Parliamentarianism The Soil of the Marxist World Plague of Responsibility

89 96 93 94 94 95 99 IOO

The Leader and the Masses The Incompetents and the Babblers

IO2 IO2

Hiding Behind the Majority Lined up in a Queue

103 105 106 108 108 I IO

The 4

Parliamentarian Profiteers

Public Opinion'

The Machine for Educating the Masses The Cuttlefish The Will of the Majority The Intellectual Demi-monde The Gist of the Matter

1

12

1

14

115

Germanic Democracy The Collapsing Dual Monarchy The Pan -German Movement

1 16

The Dreams of the Forefathers The Rebellion of the German-Austrians

121 121

Human

123 124

Rights Breaks State Rights of the Pan-Germans in Austria Schoenerer and Lueger

The Merit

Pacifism of the

German

Bourgeoisie

The Fight Against Parliamentarism Parliament and Peoples' Assembly 'Parliamentarians' Instead of Leaders

119 I2O

125-129 130 132 133 135

CONTENTS

xx

The Magic of the Word The Power of Speech Mistakes of the Pan-German

136 137 138 139

Movement

Religion and Politics

The Los-von-Rom Movement

140-152

Concentration

The Way

of the Christian Social

152 153 154 156 158 159

Party

A Splash of Baptismal Water The Christian -Social Sham Anti-Semitism Pan-German and Christian-Social Rising Aversion Against the Habsburg State

The Old Mosaic Picture The School of my Life

1 60 161-162

Chapter IV

MUNICH

163

Germany's Wrong Policy of Alliance The Jugglery of the Triple Alliance

164 165

The Bearers

1

of the Idea of the Alliance

Insane Attitude

The Four Ways

66

167 of

German

Politics

Pyramids Standing on their Points With England Against Russia The Dream of World-Peace

With Russia Against England Peaceful Economic Conquest '

4

169-179 180 183 185 1 88

The Greatest

Folly

1 88

The Englishman as Seen by the German Cartoonist The Inner Weakness of the Triple Alliance

189 190 Ludendorff on the Weakness of the Triple Alliance 192 The Jewish-Socialist War-Agitators Against Russia 193 The Tempting Legacy 193 194 Warnings from German Conservatives The Nature of the State 195-201 201 Symptoms of Decay 2OI The Years of Destruction Prattling Quackery

203

CONTENTS

xxi

Chapter

V

THB WORLD WAR

204

The Impending Catastrophe The Slav's Greatest Friend is Murdered Austria's

205 206 206

Ultimatum

The German Nation's Existence or Non-existence The Meaning of the Struggle for Freedom Joining a Bavarian Regiment

207 210 212

The Baptism of Fire A Monument to Immortality The Parliamentarian Prattlers

213 216 216

Wormwood

217 2l8 220

Drops

of

in the

General Enthusiasm

Misunderstood Marxism What Was to be Done Now? The Use of Force

221 222

Perseverance

The Attack Against The Same Rubbish The Great Gap

the View of Life

223 224 225

Chapter VI

WAR PROPAGANDA

227

Propaganda a Means of Propaganda Propaganda Only for the Masses

The Purpose

The Task of Propaganda The Psychology of Propaganda The Consequence of Half Measures German Mania of Objectivity Pacifistic

Dishwater

Propaganda

for the

Masses

The Enemy's Propaganda

228

229 230 231-232 233 236 237 238 239 240

CONTENTS Chapter VII

THE REVOLUTION The Enemy's

243 First Leaflets

245 246 246 Wounded 247 Boasting of One's Own Cowardice 248 The Duty-Shirkers 249 The Most Ingenious Trick of the Jew 252 The Greatest Villainy The Ammunition Strike 253 Russia's Collapse 256-257 The 'German Revolution Awaited Its Entry 258 The Result of the Ammunition Strike 258 260 The Front and the Political Rascals Increase of the Decay 262 The Younger Reinforcements Fail 264 Poisoned by Mustard Gas 264 266 'Republic' Lamenting Letters from Home The Poison on the Front

'

In Vain all the Sacrifices Wretched and Miserable Criminals! Scoundrels Are Without Honor

267 268 269

Chapter VIII

BEGINNING OF

MY

POLITICAL ACTIVITY

Social Revolutionary Party

Gottfried Feder

The Task

of the Program-Maker Program-Maker and Politician The Marathon Runners of History

Breaking of the Tyranny of Interest

The

'

Instruction Officer

'

.

.

.

.277 280-281 282

283 284 286 287 289-290

CONTENTS

xxlii

Chapter IX

THB 'GERMAN WORKERS' PARTY' 'My

Political

291

Awakening*

The Board Meeting in the 'Alte Rosenbad The So-called Intelligentsia The Seventh Member

9

'

'

Chapter

296 297-298 300 301

X

THE CAUSES OF THE COLLAPSE

302

Premonitory Symptoms of Collapse The Great Lie The Culprits of the Collapse

Do Nations Perish by Lost Wars? Among the Germans Every Third Man The Great Masters

3O3~~34 306 307 308 a Traitor

of Lying

Diseases of National Bodies

The Signs of Decay The Idol of Mammon

311

313 314 315 316 319

Labor as the Object of Speculation Half Measures One of the Most Evil Symptoms of Decay 322 The Gravediggers of the Monarchy 323 The Meaning of the Monarchy 324 The Cowards of 1918 326 Cowardice Towards Responsibility 327 Three Groups of Readers 328 The Pretended 'Freedom of the Press* 330 Mass Poisoning of the Nation 330 Tactics of the Jewish Press 331 The Result of Our Semi- Education 334 The Decent Press 335 '

'

Syphilis

The Miserable Products of The Defining of Attitude '

'

Financial Expediency

336 337 338

CONTENTS The

Sin Against the Blood and the Degradation of the Race 339 The Task of the Nation 341 A Disgrace to Mankind Prostitution 342

Marriage Not an End in Itself Education of Youth Premature and Prematurely Old One of the Most Colossal Tasks

343 345~346 348 349 350

The 'Protective Paragraph* The Energy for the Fight for Health The Bolshevism of Art The Decay of the Theater The Tainting of the Great Past Meaning and Purpose of Revolutions Intellectual Preparation for Political Bolshevism

'Inner Experience*

'Human Settlements' Monuments of the Community Department Store and Hotel

Characteristic Ex-

pression of Culture The Religious Situation

Organic State Laws and

Abuse of Religion

Without

Political

The

363 364 366 367 368 369 370 374 376

Dogmas

Political

Aims

Failure of Parliamentarism

Half-hearted Solutions '

'

The Lie of the German Militarism The 'Idea of Risk' The Parliamentarian Head, the Misfortune

Navy Villains, Scoundrels, Rascals,

and Criminals

The German Advantages Parade and Public Kitchen

The The The The The The

351 352 355 356 358 359 360 360 362

Stability of the State Authority Greatest Factor of Value The

Army

Greatest School of the

German Nation

Incomparable Body of

Officials

State Authority

Ultimate Cause of the Collapse

of the

377 378 380 381 382 383 384 386 387 388

CONTENTS

xxv

Chapter XI

NATION AND RACE The Race The Result

389 390-391 392 394 396 397 398 400 402 Cultural Development 404

of All Race-crossing

Man

and Idea Race and Culture

is a Struggle Founders of Culture The Mirror of the Past

Life

The Ingenious Race The Aryan is the Bearer of The Loss of the Purity of the Blood The Aryan's Will to Sacrifice Himself

406 407

Purest Idealism

41 1

Deepest Knowledge

The Aryan and the Jew The 'Clever' Jew Jewry's Instinct of Self-Preservation Judaism's Sham Culture The Jewish Ape

The Parasite The First Great Lie The Jewish Religion

Men

Protocols of the Wise

of Zion

The Development of Judaism The Final Goal of Judaism The Factory Worker '

'

Employer and Employee

412 412 414 416 417 419 421 422 423 425 435 436 438 440

The Tactics of Judaism The Nucleus of the 'Marxist* View of Life 441 The Organization of the Marxist World Doctrine 443 The Central Organization of International World Cheating Dictatorship of the Proletariat The Great, Final Revolution Bastardized Nations The Sham Prosperity of the Old Reich A Germanic State of the German Nation

447 449 450 452 453 457

CONTENTS

xx*

Chapter XII

THE FIRST PERIOD IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS' PARTY A People Tom in Two Parts The Lacking Will for Self-Preservation The Winning of the Broad Masses The Weak Momentum The Best Property of the Nation The Nationalization of the Masses The Demands for This The Smashing of Parliamentarianism The Ingenious Idea The Organization of the National Socialist Movement Fanaticism

The Honorary Scar Personality

Cannot be Substituted

The Eternal Hands The Speech Evening The First Meeting The First Success Fight Against the Red Terror The Second Meeting The Shaping of the Young Movement German Folkish Wandering Scholars Folkish Comedians 'Folkish' Spiritual

The

'

Spiritual

Folkish

The

Marches Against Berlin

Weapon

'

Moths

First

Great Mass Meeting

Fraternization Between Pfchner and Frick

Marxism and Center ,

The Foundations of the Coming State The Victory of the First Great Demonstration The Coming Rise POSTER APPENDIX

456 457 459 461 462 463 464 465 479 481 482 486 488 488 489 490 491 492 494 495 496 498 499 501 502 503 504 505 507

58 5IO 512 515 517

CONTENTS

xxvii

Velum* Chapter

II

I

VIEW OF LIFE AND PARTY

563

Bourgeois 'Program Committees' From the Life of a 'People's Representative'

Marxism and Democratic Principle View of Life Against View of Life '

'

The Conception Folkish From Religious Feeling to Apodictic Belief From 'Folkish Feeling to Political Creed From Creed to Community of Struggle '

Marxism Against Race and Personality Folkish Attitude Towards Race and Personality

The Challenge

of the Free Play of Forces Condensation in the Party Crystallization of a Political Creed

Chapter

THB STATE '

'

State

II

584

Three Reigning Conceptions of the State False Notion of Germanization Only Land Can Be Germanized

The

564 565 $68 570 573 575 576 57^ 579 579 581 582 583

No End

in Itself

Cultural Level Conditioned

by Race

National Socialist Conception of the State Viewpoints for Judging the State Consequences of Our Racial Dismemberment Mission of the German People Task of the German State

World History

is

Made by

Minorities

The Bastard Must Succumb Natural Process of Regeneration of the Race Danger of Race-Mixing

585-587 588 591 592 593 594 596 598

600 6oi

603 604 605 606

CONTENTS

xxviil '

608 6lO

'Folkish State and Race Hygiene Race-pure Border Colonies Call to

The

German Youth

Bourgeoisie's

Healthy Body Educational

The Value

Lack

6ll 6l2

of

Energy Healthy Spirit

Maxims

of the

'

Folkish

'

State

of Sports

Suggestive Force of Self -Confidence Suggestive Force of United Action

614 615 616 618 618

Control Between School Age and Military Service

Age The Army

as Final

and Highest School

Character Formation

Education

in Discretion

Cultivation of Will Power and Determination

619 620 621 622

Principles of Scientific Schooling No Overburdening of the Brain

623 625 626 626

Principles of Language Instruction Principles of History Instruction

627 628

Fostering Readiness for Responsibility

General Training Professional Training Value of Humanistic Training

Current 'Patriotic* Education Inspiring Force of Great

Models

Awakening National Pride Fear of Chauvinism is Impotence Inculcation of a Racial Sense

Human

Selection

Capability and Learning

Training Prodigies State Selection of the Qualified The Catholic Church's Link with the People Appraisal of Work Grading of Services Ideal

and Reality

630 631 632

633 633 636 636 637 638 640 640 643 645 649 650

CONTENTS

mi* Chapter

III

....

SUBJECTS AND CITIZENS OF THE STATE How One Becomes a Citizen Today

657 658 659

State Subjects Aliens State Citizen Master of the Reich

Citizens

The

656

Chapter IV

PERSONALITY AND THE CONCEPTION OF THE NATIONAL STATE 660 Construction on Aristocratic Principle Rise of Human Culture

66 1 662

Personality and Progress of Culture

663 664 666 666 668

Value of Personality The Majority Principle Marxism Denies Personality Marxism is Uncreative The Best State Constitution

669 670 672

Responsible Leaders Advisory Chambers Towards the Future State

Chapter

VIEW OF LIFE AND ORGANIZATION

673

Struggle and Criticism Views of Life are Intolerant Parties Seek

Compromises

Community on

the Basis of

New View of

Leadership and FollowingNecessity of Guiding Principles Formulation of Guiding Principles Stability of Spirit,

Not

Program Letter, Decides

National Socialism and Folkish Idea

THe Sham

Folkish

V

Life

674 676 676 677 678 680 68 1 682 683 684 685

CONTENTS

xxx

Chapter VI

THE STRUGGLE OF THE EARLY DAYS CANCE OF THE SPOKEN

THE

SIGNIFI-

WORD

695

Struggle Against Poisoning Propaganda Against the Current

696 699 700

Far Sight

Politics at

Oratorical Experiences

701 Enlightenment on the Peace Treaties 702 Speech More Effective than Writing 704 Psychological Aspects of Oratory 704 Oratory and Writing in the Service of Agitation 705 Psychological Conditions of Oratorical Effectiveness 709 Orators and Revolution 711 Printed Speech Disappoints 712 Bethmann and Lloyd George as Orators 712 Necessity of

Mass Meetings Community Feeling

715 715 716

Significance of

Orators

Who

Break

Down Chapter VII

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE RED FRONT

.

.

Bourgeois Mass Meetings National Socialist Mass Meetings The Equivocal Red Posters Vacillating Tactics of the Marxists

Opponents Make Us Known Law-Breaking Police Procedure Psychologically Correct Rally Management Marxist Rally Technique Bourgeois Rally Technique National Socialist Order Troops Significance of the Unified

Old and Old and

New New

The National

.

717

'

'

Symbol

Black-Red-Gold Reich Flag Socialist Flag

718 720 721

723 723 724 725 726 727 729 730 731

733 734

CONTENTS

xxxi

Interpretation of the National Socialist The First Circus Rally

Symbol

736 739 743 746 749

Rally After Rally Futile

Attempts at Disruption

The Meeting Continues

Chapter VIII

THE STRONG MAN

is

MIGHTIEST ALONE

.

.

Right of Priority in a Movement Struggle for Leadership

.

750 751

The

753 754 757 758 760 762

Austria and Prussia

Causes of Folkish Dismemberment The Formation of Joint Efforts The Essence of Joint Efforts The Collapse of Joint Efforts

Chapter IX

FUNDAMENTAL THOUGHTS ON THE MEANING AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STORM TROOPS 764 The Three Pillars of Authority The Three Classes of Folk Bodies The Sacrifice of the Best The Hyperfecundity of the Bad Resulting Disorganization

Founding of the Free Corps Misplaced Leniency to Deserters Deserters and Revolution Fear of the Front Soldiers Collaboration of Left Parties

The Capture

of the Bourgeois

Capitulation of the Bourgeois

Why

Did the Revolution Succeed?

Passivity of the State Guardians Capitulation to Marxism

764 766 767 768 770 771 773

773 775 776 777 779 780 781 782

CONTENTS

xx*K

Breakdown of the National Parties Without an Idea, No Force for Struggle

783 784 786 787 790 791 792 793 795 796 797 798 800 801 802

Advocacy of the Folkish Idea Need for Guard Troops Guarding the Nation, Not the State Not 'Defense League' Why No Defense Leagues

Self-Protection,

Impossibility of Proper Drilling Counter-Tendency of the State

The

Sacrifice of

Our Army

No

Secret Organizations The Danger of Secret Organizations Shall Traitors be

'

Eliminated

'

?

Sport Training of the S.A. Designation and Publicity First Parade in Munich

The March to Coburg The Reception in Coburg Red Demonstration The S.A. Stands the Test

805 806 806 807 as a Vital Organization

of Struggle of 1923

809 810

The End

Chapter

FEDERALISM AS A

War

MASK

816

Associations and Anti-Prussian Sentiment

Anti- Prussian Agitation as a Diversion

Kurt

Eisner, 'Bavarian Particularist

Maneuver

817 818

'

My Struggle Against the Anti-Prussian 1

X

'

Federative Activity Jewish Incitement Tactic

Incitement

819 820 822

Anti-Semitism and Defense The Jew Creates Confessional Conflict The Curse of Religious Wars

823 824 825 826

Necessity for Agreement 1 Struggle Against the 'Center

827 828

CONTENTS

xxxiii

Federal or Unified State? Federal State

830

The Gentian

831

Bismarck's Creation 832 The Revolution and the Federal State 833 The Policy of Redemption and the Forfeiture of the Federal States' Sovereignty Results of Reich Foreign Policy

834 836 837 838 839 841 841 842 842 843 845

National State or Slave Colony Unifying Tendencies

Abuse

of Centralization

Oppression of the Individual States Centralization Benefits Party Coffers Reich State Sovereignty Cultural Tasks of the Provinces Unification of the Army One State One People

Chapter XI

PROPAGANDA AND ORGANIZATION Theoretician

Organizer

Followers and

846 Agitator

Members

Propaganda and Organization

The Power

for Struggle of Activistic Selection Limitation on Membership Enrolment Frightening the Half-Hearted Reorganization of the Movement

Suspension of 'Parliamentarism* Responsibility of the Chief Principle of the Leader Idea The Embryonic State of the Movement Building the

Movement

847 849 850 853 854 856 857 858 859 859 860 86l

CONTENTS

xxxhr

Chapter XII

THE TRADE-UNION QUESTION

868

Arc Trade Unions Necessary? National Socialist Trade Unions? Future Chambers of Economy Corporation Chambers and Economic Parliament No Dual Unions First the Battle for the View of Life, Later the Libera-

870 871 875

876 877 880

tion of the Individual

Better no National Socialist Trade Union than a Mis-

882

carriage

Chapter XIII

GERMAN POLICY OF ALLIANCE AFTER THE WAR Reasons

for the

.

.

Breakdown

The Goal

of Foreign Policy: Freedom for Tomorrow Precondition for the Liberation of the Lost Regions

Strengthening of Continental Power False Continental Policy Before the War European Relations of Power

885

886 888 888

The Hegemony of France Political Aims of France and England

892 894 894 895 896 898 899 899

On

900

England and Germany Shifting of the

England's

4

Balance of Power'

War Aim Unachieved

the Possibilities of Alliances

Necessity of

Community

of Interests

Germany Capable of an Alliance? The Will to Destruction of Jewish Finance Jewish World Incitement Against Germany Is

Adaptation to the Mentalities of Nations Possible Allies: England Italy Hobnobbing with France The South Tyrol Question

Two

901 903

905 906 907 908 909 911

CONTENTS

XKXV

Frustration of German-Italian Agreement Who Betrayed the South Tyrol

Not Armed

Force,

But the

Three Questions on the

The

First

Symptom

of

915 915 917 918 919 920

Politics of Alliance

Politics of Alliance

German Rebirth

Neglected Exploiting of the Versailles Treaty Lord Bless Our Struggle Inversion of the Anti-German Psychosis 4

'

921 922

The

Will to Liberation Struggle Concentration on One Opponent Settling Accounts with One's Own Traitors War of the Nations Against Jewry

923 925 925 927 928 929 931

England and Jewry Japan and Jewry Jewry, the World Enemy

Chapter

XIV

EASTERN ORIENTATION OR EASTERN POLICY

.

Prejudice in Questions of Foreign Policy Significance of the State's Territorial Extensiveness

Area and World Power French and German Colonial Policy

Out of the Constricted Existence! The Strength of a State is Relative The Fruits of a Millennium of German

Policy Hurrah-Patriotism! The Call to the Old Borders Foreign Poljpy Aim of the National Socialists

No

No

Sentimentality in Foreign Policy

Germanic Elements in Russia End of Jewish Domination in Russia? Bismarck's Russian Policy of Oppressed Nations' Is England's Hold on India Shaking? Is England's Hold on the East Shaking? German Alliance with Russia?

The 'League

.

933 934 935 936 937 939 941 941 943 944 947 948 951 952 953 954

955 957 957

CONTENTS

xxxvi

Germany-Russia Before the War Political Testament Advantages of an Anglo-German-Italian Alliance The Preconditions for an Eastern Policy

A

The National

Socialists

Chapter

XV

EMERGENCY DEFENSE AS A RIGHT

968

Jewish Leadership of Foreign Policy Seven Years to 1813 Seven Years to Locarno Persecution of Unpleasant Prophets France's Immovable War Aim France's

Immovable

Political

960 963 964 965 966

970 971 972

974 977 978 979

Aim

Settlement with France The Occupation of the Ruhr District Foreign and Domestic Political Results of the

Ruhr

Occupation 979 What Should Have Been Done After the Ruhr Occupation?

The Neglected Accounting with Marxism Not Weapons, but Will, Decides! Cuno's Road The 'United Front' Passive Resistance

The Position of the National Socialists November 1923 Our Dead as Monitors of Duty

981 983 987 987 988

989 990 992 993

*

CONCLUSION

994

INDEX

995

Volume One

AN ACCOUNTING

This translation was prepared under the auspices of Dr. Alvin Johnson, of The New School for Social Research.

The typography of the text of this book follows that of the first German edition. Both italics and bold-faced type are used wherever they occurred in the original.

The more important

portions of this book, omitted from the Dugdale Abridgment or condensed in that version, are indicated by a dagger at the

beginning of such passages and by an arrow at the end.

CHAPTER

I

AT HOME

FODAY I consider it my good fortune that Fate de1 signated Braunau on the Inn as the place of my birth. For this small town is situated on the border between those two German States, the reunion of which seems, at least to us of the younger generation, a task to be furthered with every means our lives long. German-Austria must return to the great German motherland, and not because of economic considerations of any sort. No, no: even if from the economic point of view this union were unimportant, indeed, if it were harmful, it ought nevertheless to be brought about. Common blood belongs in a common Reich. As long as the German nation is unable even to band together its own children in one common State, it has no moral right to think of colonization as one of its political aims. Only when the boundaries of the Reich include even the last German, only when it is no longer possible to assure him of daily bread inside them, does there arise, out of the distress of the nation, the moral right to acquire foreign soil and territory. The sword is then the plow, and from the tears of war there grows the daily bread for generations to come. Therefore, this little town on the border appears to me the symbol of a great task. But in another respect also it looms up as a warning

MEIN KAMPF

4

More than a hundred

years ago, this insignificant little place had the privilege of gaining an immortal place in German history at least by being the scene of a tragic misfortune that moved the entire nation. to our present time.

There, during the time of the deepest humiliation of our fatherland, Johannes Palm, citizen of Nurnberg, a middleclass bookdealer, die-hard 'nationalist, an enemy of the 1

The

Wars

waged by Prussia Johann Phillip Palm, Nurnberg book-seller, who in 1806 issued a work entitled, Deutschland in seiner tiefsten Erniedrigung (Germany in the Hour of Its Deepest Humiliation). This was a diatribe against the Corsican. Palm was tried by a military tribunal, sentenced to death, and shot at Braunau on August 26, 1806. During the centenary year (1906) a play in honor of Palm was written by A. Ebenhoch, an Austrian author. It is possible that Hitler may have seen or read this drama. Leo Schlageter, a German artillery officer who served after the World War in the Free Corps with which General von der Goltz attempted to conserve part of what Germany had gained by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, was found guilty of sabotage by a French military tribunal during the Ruhr invasion of 1923. He had blown up a portion of the railway line between Dusseldorf and Duisburg, and had been caught in the act. The assertion that he was 'betrayed* to the French is without historical foundation. It was the policy of the German government to discountenance open military measures and to place its reliance upon so-called 'passive resistance.' Karl Severing, then Social Democratic Minister of the Interior in Prussia, was a zealous though cautious patriot whose firm defense of the idealism of the

against Napoleon,

is

of Liberation,

reflected in the career of

democratic institutions of Weimar angered extremists of all kinds. He was thus a favorite Nazi target. The governments oi the Reich and of Prussia made every effort to save Schlageter. The Vatican intervened in his behalf, and it is generally supposed that the French authorities would have commuted the sentence had it not been for a sudden wave of opposition to

AT HOME

5

French, was killed for the sake of the Germany he ardently loved even in the hour of its distress. He had obstinately refused to denounce his fellow offenders, or rather the chief offenders. Thus he acted like Leo Schlageter. But like him, he too was betrayed to France by a representative of his government. It was a director of the Augsburg police who earned that shoddy glory, thus setting an example for the new German authorities of Heir Severing's Reich, t In this little town on the river Inn, gilded by the light of

German martyrdom, of the last century, trian by nationality

there lived, at the end of the eighties

my :

parents, Bavarian

the father a faithful

by

civil

blood, Ausservant, the

Poincar6's policy in the Chamber. That induced the governto make a show of firmness. Schlageter, whose last words

ment

are said to have been,

'Germany must

live,'

was executed on

Immediately he became a German national hero. May His example more than anything else hallowed the tradition of the Free Corps in the popular mind and thus strengthened pro26, 1923.

militaristic sentiment.

One

of the first cultural activities of the

Nazi regime was a tribute to Schlageter. Hitler's family background has been a subject for much research and speculation. The father, Alois Hitler (1837-1903), was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber; and it is

generally assumed that the father was the man she married Johann Hiedler. Until he was forty, he bore the name of his

mother, being known as Alois Schicklgruber. Then on January 8, 1877, he legally changed the name to Hitler, which had been that of his maternal grandmother. His third wife was Klara Poelzl (1860-1908), who on April 20, 1889, gave birth to Adolf if Hitler. There may have been a brother or half-brother reports current in Nazi circles are to be credited. At any rate, Hitler has a living sister and a half-sister. The first has lived in a woman of considerable charm retirement, but the second

and

ability

times.

is

known

to

have exercised no

little

influence at

MEIN KAMPF

6

herself to the cares of the household and looking after her children with eternally the same loving kindness. I remember only little of this time, for a few years later my father had again to leave the little border town he had learned to like, and go down the Inn to take a new position at Passau, that is in Germany proper.

mother devoting

an Austrian customs official of those days meant 'moving on.' Just a short time afterwards my father was transferred to Linz, and finally retired on a pension there. But this was not to mean rest' for the old man. The son of a poor cottager, even in his childhood he had not been able to stay at home. Not yet thirteen years old, the little boy he then was bundled up his things and ran away from his homeland, the Waldviertel. Despite

But the

lot of

frequently

*

the dissuasion of 'experienced' inhabitants of the village

he had gone to Vienna to learn a trade there. This was in the fifties of the last century. A bitter resolve it must have been to take to the road, into the unknown, with only three guilders for traveling money. But by the time the thirteenyear-old lad was seventeen, he had passed his apprentice's examination, but he had not yet found satisfaction. It was rather the opposite. The long time of hardship through which he then passed, of endless poverty and misery, strengthened his resolve to give up the trade after all in order to become something 'better.' If once the village pastor had seemed to the little boy the incarnation of all obtainable human success, now, in the big city which had so widened his perspective, the rank of civil servant became the ideal. With all the tenacity of one who had grown old through want and sorrow while still half a child, the sev'

'

and became enteen-year-old youth clung to his decision . a civil servant. The goal was reached, I believe, after nearly .

.

twenty-three years. Now there had been realized the premise of the vow that the poor boy once had sworn, not to return to his dear native village before he had become something.

AT

HOME

7

Now the goal was reached, but nobody in the village remembered the little boy of long ago, and the village had become a stranger to him. When he retired at the age of fifty-six, he was unable to spend a single day in 'doing nothing.' He bought a farm near Lambach in Upper Austria which he worked himself, thus returning, after a long and active life, to the origin of his ancestors.

was probably

my first ideals were the long around out-of-doors, romping to and with the school, unusually 'rotrip companionship bust boys, which at times caused my mother much grief, made me anything but a stay-at-home. Though I did not brood over my future career at that time, I had decidedly no sympathy for the course my father's life had taken. I believe that even then my ability for making speeches was trained by the more or less stirring discussions with my comrades. I had become a little ringleader and at that time learned easily and did very well in school, but for the rest I was rather difficult to handle. Inasmuch as I received It

formed.

A

at that time that

lot of

1

singing lessons in

my spare time in the choir of the Lambach

Convent, I repeatedly had an excellent opportunity of intoxicating myself with the solemn splendor of the magnificent church festivals. It was perfectly natural that the position of abbot appeared to me to be the highest ideal obtainable,

my

just as that of being the village pastor had appealed to father. At least at times this was the case. For obvious

reasons

my

father could not appreciate the talent for ora-

tory of his quarrelsome son in the same measure, nor could he perceive in it any hope for the future of the lad, and so he showed no understanding for these youthful ideas. Sadly he observed this dissension of nature. Actually,

my

occasional longing for this profession dis-

appeared very quickly and made way for aspirations more in keeping with my temperament. Rummaging through

MEIN KAMPF I stumbled upon various books on military subjects, and among them I found a popular edition dealing with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. These were two volumes of an illustrated journal of the period which now became my favorite reading matter. Before long that great heroic campaign had become my greatest

my father's library,

From then on I raved more and more about everything connected with war or with militarism.

spiritual experience.

Since Hitler's outlook and policies are rooted in Austrian experience (it is sometimes said that he 'made Germany an Aus-

some remarks on the general situation in his land may be helpful. The Austria-Hungary of the last three decades of the nineteenth century was only the remnant of a Habsburg Empire that had once included most of western trian's province')

home

Europe. It was a 'dual monarchy,' the crown belonging to the monarch as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Since most of Germany had been welded together (1871) by Bismarck in an empire ruled by the Hohenzollern kings of Prussia, the Germans who remained in Austria-Hungary constituted a minority, even though most of the important bureaucratic positions were still in their hands. The position obtained by Hungary made their lot no easier. For soon every nationality '

wished to secure comparable advantages for

The monarchy

'

itself.

had suffered many a reverse. Under Frederick the Great and Bismarck, the Prussians had inflicted several major defeats upon their Austrian rivals. While the revolutionary liberalism of 1848 was successfully put down at the cost of severe fighting, the power of the bureaucratic State was none the less seriously undermined and the eventual triumph of 'constitutionalism* in 1860-61 was assured. In addition the unification of Italy was achieved at the cost of Austrian prestige and possessions. And though the Partition of Poland had added Galicia to the Habsburg domains, it was itself

always doubtful who ruled the province Austrians.

Galicia

was

home

the Poles or the

of large Jewish comstrong contingents moved to Vienna also the

munities, from which and other important cities.

AT

HOME

9

me in another time the question confronted I was a bit confused, perhaps if and what differme ence there was between those Germans fighting these battles and the others. Why was it that Austria had not taken part also in this war, why not my father, and why not all But

this

was to prove

direction as well.

the others?

For the

of importance to

first

-
% tac^Si or its w^mv^Sedrd twapj a trick as

completely ignoring IranK, clever as

it

was

mWw\he^^riJHpa*

thratripfl

criticisms

always dealt with JewmK rathorel dna-ne^ecJold they attack anyone except the sljgtft^ypricks against Wilhelm II proved in and so

GfinXThe

mJ^ghsi^^c^J^^methods,

did the commendation of F^tejSaaBrfrore and civilization. The trashy contents of the novel now became obscene, and the language contained tones of a foreign race; the general intention was obviously so detrimental to the German nationality that it could only have been intentional.

But who had an interest in this? it all a mere accident? Slowly I became uncertain. This development was accelerated by my insight into a series of other events. This was the conception of manners and morality as it was openly shown and exercised by a great number of Jews.

Was

MEIN KAMPF

7t Again the

life

in the street

gave some really

evil

demon-

strations.

In no other city ot western Europe could the relationship between Jewry and prostitution, and even now the white slave traffic, be studied better than in Vienna, with the possible exception of the seaports of Southern France. When walking at night through the streets and alleys of the Leopoldsstadt, with every step one could witness things which were unknown to the greater part of the German nation until the war gave the soldiers on the Eastern Front an opportunity to see similar things, or rather forced them to see them. An icy shudder ran down my spine when seeing for the first time the Jew as a cool, shameless, and calculating manager of this shocking vic, the outcome of the scum of

'L ^f

the big city.

But then

^

my

indignation flare*? upa Now 1 did not evade the discussidn

bumped against him in a place where I* had never suspected. The scales dropped Jrom n\y eye^