struggle for existence, exposed to the light of day a lack of character, an unabashed servility, a dog like crawling fawning that can only be called shameless. For the reason that we subjected ourselves miserably without being forced to do so, indeed because the leaders of this Folk, against eternal historical truth and our own knowledge, themselves assumed the war guilt, and indeed burdened our whole Folk with it, because there was no oppression by the enemy which would have not found thousands of creatures as willing helpers among our Folk. Because, conversely, there were those who shamelessly reviled the time of the great deeds of our Folk, spat upon the most glorious flag of all times, indeed defiled it with dirt, tore the cockades from home coming soldiers before whom the world had trembled, pelted the flag with mud balls, ripped off ribbons and badges of honour, and degraded a thousandfold even the memory of Germany’s greatest period. No enemy had so reviled the German Army as it was defiled by the representatives of the November crime. No enemy had disputed the greatness of the Commanders of the German Army as much as they were calumniated by the scoundrelly representatives of the new idea of government. And which was more certain dishonour for our Folk: the occupation of German areas by the enemy, or the cowardice with which our bourgeoisie surrendered the German Reich to an organisation of pimps, pickpockets, deserters, black marketeers and hack journalists? Let not the gentlemen prattle now about German honour, as long as they bow under the rule of dishonour. They have no right to want to conduct a foreign policy in the name of national honour, if the domestic policy is one characterised by the most antinationalist shamelessness which has ever afflicted a great nation.
Whoever wants to act in the name of German honour today must first launch a merciless war against the infernal defilers of German honour. They are not the enemies of yore, but they are the representatives of the November crime. That collection of Marxist, democratic pacifistic, destructive traitors of our country who pushed our Folk into its present state of powerlessness.
To revile former enemies in the name of national honour and recognise the shameless allies of this enemy as the rulers within their own country — that suits the national dignity of this presentday so called national bourgeoisie.
I frankly confess that I could reconcile myself to any of the former enemy, but that my hatred against the betrayers of our own Folk in our ranks is and remains irreconcilable.
What the enemy inflicted on us is grievous and deeply humiliating to us, but the wrong committed by the men of the November crime is the most dishonourable, the basest crime of all times. I am helping to make amends for German honour by striving to bring about a situation in which these creatures will some day be called to account.
I must, however, reject the idea that any other grounds could be a standard for the ordering of foreign policy save that of the responsibility of securing the freedom and the future of the life of our Folk.
The whole senselessness of the patriotic national bourgeois border policy shows itself on the basis of the following consideration:
If the avowal of German as the mother tongue is used as a basis, the German nation numbers ……… Folk.
Of this figure, ……… millions are in the mother country.
In which …… Consequently, of all the Germans in the world, there are only ……… millions within the present Reich territory, who represent ……… percent of the total number of our Folk altogether.
Chapter 9
HOPELESSNESS OF AN ECONOMIC SOLUTION
Of the Germans not united with the motherland, in consequence of the slow loss of dedicated racial comrades, the following must be regarded, that is, a total number of approximately ……… million Germans find themselves in a situation which, in all human probability, will one day cause their de-Germanisation. In no case, however, will they be able to take further part in the motherland’s fateful struggle in any kind of decisive form, and just as little, too, in the cultural development of their Folk. Whatever the German element individually accomplishes in North America, it will not be reckoned to the benefit of the German Folk as such, but adds to the cultural aggregate of the American Union. Here the Germans are really only the cultural fertilisers for other Folks. Indeed, in reality, the greatness of these nations is, in general, not seldom to be ascribed to the high percentage of German contributions and accomplishments.
Once we keep the size of this constant loss of people in view, we will immediately be able to estimate the slight importance of the border policy sponsored by the bourgeois world.
Even if a German foreign policy were to restore the borders of the year 1914, the percentage of Germans living within the Reich territory, that is, belonging to our nation, would rise despite this only, from ……… percent to ……… percent. Thus the possibility of enlarging this percentage considerably could hardly be in question any more.
If, notwithstanding, the German element abroad wants to remain true to the nation, this can at the outset be only a question of a language and cultural loyalty, in that the more it rises to a consciously manifested feeling of belongingness, the more does the motherland of the German nation honour the German name in the dignity of her representatives.
Thus the more Germany as a Reich transmits a mark of the greatness of the German Folk to the world, the more will the German element conclusively lost to the State receive a stimulus at least to take pride in belonging spiritually to this Folk. On the other hand, the more wretchedly the motherland herself attends to her interests, and accordingly transmits a bad impression abroad, the weaker will the inner inducement be felt to belong to such a Folk.
Since the German Folk does not consist of Jews, the German element, especially in Anglosaxon countries, nevertheless and unfortunately will increasingly be anglicised and presumably likewise be lost to our Folk, spiritually and ideologically as well. Just as its practical work accomplishments are already lost to them.
Insofar, however, as it is a matter of the fate of those Germans who were broken off from the German Nation by the events of the World War and the peace treaty, it must be said that their fate and future is a question of regaining the motherland’s political power.
Lost territories will not be retrieved by protest actions, but rather by a victorious sword. Thus, whoever today desires the liberation of any territory whatsoever in the name of national honour must also be ready to stake all, with iron and blood, for the liberation, otherwise such a chatterbox should keep his mouth shut. Along with this, to be sure, follows the duty also of carefully considering whether we possess the power to carry out such a struggle, and secondly whether the blood risked leads, or can lead, to the desired success, and thirdly, whether the success achieved matches the blood that must be staked.
I most solemnly protest against the claim that a duty of national honour exists which compels us to have two million men bleed to death on the battlefield in order that, under the most favourable result, we may be able to enter a total of a quarter million men, women and children on our books. This is not national honour that is made manifest here, but rather a lack of principle, or madness. It is no national honour, however, for a Folk to be ruled by madmen.
Certainly a great Folk will protect even its last citizen with collective action. But it is an error to impute this to sentiment to honour, rather than primarily to a sagacious insight and human experience. As long as a nation tolerates an injustice that is inflicted on some of its citizens, it will slowly but increasingly weaken its own position, since such a tolerance would serve the inner strengthening of an aggressive minded enemy just as it grinds down trust in the strength of one’s own State. We know all too well what the consequences are in history of a constant yielding in little things, not to know how to be able to judge the necessary consequences in big things. Hence a solicitous State leadership will all the more preferably attend to the interests of its citizens in the smallest things, as with that the risk of its own commitment is reduced in proportion as that of the adversary rises. If today in any State an injustice is committed against an English citizen, and England undertakes her citizen’s defence, the danger of England being involved in a war on account of this one Englishman is no greater for England than for the other State, which inflicts the injustice. Hence the firm action of a government respected as such in defence of even a single person is altogether not an unbearable risk, since indeed the other State will have just as little interest in starting a war on account of a trifling injustice that may have been inflicted on a single person. A general
