Already in the 1920s and 1921, antiquated bourgeois circles incessantly accused our movement of maintaining a negative position toward the current State, and from this accusation, partisan politicking from all quarters derived the right to initiate, by all means, the oppressive struggle against the young and awkward protagonist of a new ideological conception. It had certainly been deliberately forgotten that even the bourgeois of our time was no longer able to imagine a homogeneous organism under the concept of “State,” and that there was no, and could not be, a concrete definition for it. Added to this is the fact that in our universities, there are often “disseminators” in the form of professors of Public Law, whose “supreme task” is to concoct explanations and interpretations of the more or less fortunate existence of the State to which they owe their daily bread. The more abstruse the structure of a State, the more impenetrable, convoluted and incomprehensible the meaning of the definitions of its reason for being becomes.
Generally speaking, three different criteria can be distinguished: a) The group of those who see the State simply as a more or less spontaneous association of people subject to the power of a government. For them, the mere fact of the State’s existence constitutes a sacred inviolability. To support such a waste of human brains is to render servile worship to the so-called authority of the State. In the blink of an eye, the means becomes an end in the minds of these people. b) The second group does not accept that the authority of the State represents its sole and exclusive reason for existence, but rather, at the same time, its mission is to promote the well-being of its subjects. The idea of ”freedom”—that is, a generally misunderstood freedom—is interwoven into the conception that these circles have of the State. The form of government no longer seems inviolable by the mere fact of its existence; it is rather analyzed from the point of view of its convenience. Furthermore, it is a criterion that
It expects from the State, above all, a favorable structuring of the individual’s economic life; a criterion, therefore, that it judges from practical points of view and in accordance with general notions of economic performance. We find the principal representatives of this school in the circles of our ordinary bourgeoisie and preferably in those of our liberal democracy. c) The third group is numerically the weakest and believes it sees in the State a means for the realization of imperialist tendencies, often vaguely formulated within this State, of a homogeneous people and of the same language.
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It has been very sad to observe over the last hundred years how the word “Germanize” has been played with countless times, but in the best of good faith. I myself remember how, in my youth, this very word conjured incredibly false ideas. Even in Pan-Germanist circles, one could hear, at that time, the absurd opinion that in Austria, the Germans would successfully achieve the Germanization of the country’s Slavs.
It is an almost inconceivable error to believe that, for example, a black person or a Chinese person becomes a German because they learn German and are willing in the future to speak the new language or vote for a German political party.
Of course, this would have meant the beginning of a bastardization and thus, in our case, not a Germanization, but rather the destruction of the Germanic element.
Since nationality, or rather race, is not based precisely on language, but on blood, one could speak of Germanization only if, through such a process, the blood of those subjected could be changed, which would nevertheless constitute a lowering of the level of the superior race.
How enormous is the damage that has been indirectly caused to our nationality, with the fact that due to the lack of knowledge of many Americans, Jews who speak German and arrive in America are mistaken for Germans.
What could be profitably Germanized throughout history was the soil our ancestors conquered by the sword and later colonized with German peasants. And if foreign blood infiltrated the organism of our people there, it only contributed to the disastrous dissociation of our national character, which manifests itself in the lamentable hyper-individualism of many.
Therefore, the first duty of a new movement of opinion, based on racist ideology, is to ensure that the concept of the character and mission of the State acquires a clear and homogeneous form.
It is not the State itself that creates a certain cultural level; the State can only care for the preservation of the race on which that culture depends.
Consequently, it is race and not the State that constitutes the precondition for the existence of a higher human society.
Nations, or rather, races that possess cultural values and creative talent, carry these qualities latent within themselves, even when, temporarily, unfavorable circumstances prevent their development. From this, it also follows that it is a reckless injustice to present the Germans of the pre-Christian era as “uncultured” people, that is, barbarians, when they were never such, since they were forced to live under conditions that hindered the development of their creative energies due to the harshness of their Nordic soil. Had the classical world not existed, if the Germans had reached the southern regions of Europe, more conducive to life, and if, in addition, they had had the first technical means, making use of peoples of an inferior race, their latent cultural-creative capacity could have reached a brilliant flowering, as in the case of the Hellenes. But the innate cultural-creative force possessed by the Germans can be attributed solely to their Nordic origin.
Brought to southern lands, neither the Lapp nor the Eskimo could develop a high culture. It was the Aryan, precisely, whom Providence endowed with the beautiful faculty of creation and organization, either because he carries these qualities latent within himself or because he imprints them on the life that is born according to the favorable or unfavorable circumstances of the geographical environment that surrounds him.
We National Socialists must establish a rigorous distinction between the State as a vessel and race as its content.
A container has its reason for being only when it is capable of containing and protecting its contents; otherwise, it has no value.
The supreme goal of a racist state is to ensure the preservation of those original racial elements that, as cultural factors, were capable of creating the beauty and dignity inherent in a superior human society. We, as Aryans, understand the state as the living organism of a people that not only guarantees its preservation but also leads it to the enjoyment of maximum freedom, fostering the development of its moral and intellectual faculties.
What is being imposed on us as a State today is generally nothing more than the monstrous product of a profound human folly that results in unspeakable misery.
We National Socialists know that, because of this way of thinking, we are placed in today’s world on a revolutionary plane and therefore bear the stamp of this revolution. However, our judgment and our way of acting must in no way depend on the applause or criticism of our contemporaries, but simply on a firm adherence to the truth of which we are convinced. Only in this way can we maintain the conviction that the clearest vision of posterity will not only understand our actions today, but will also recognize that they were just, and will ennoble them.
If we were to ask ourselves how the State we need should be constituted, we would have to specify, first of all, the kind of people it should encompass and what end it should serve.
Unfortunately, our nationality no longer rests on a homogeneous racial core.
The process of fusion of the various original ethnic components is not yet advanced enough to be able to speak of a new race resulting from it. On the contrary, the successive blood poisonings suffered by the German national organism, particularly since the Thirty Years’ War, have altered the homogeneity of our blood and also of our character. The open borders of our homeland to contact with neighboring non-Germanic peoples along the border zones, and above all the direct infiltration of foreign blood into the interior of the Reich, do not allow, due to their continuity, for the realization of a complete fusion.
The German people lack that firm gregarious instinct that lies in the homogeneity of blood and that in times of imminent danger safeguards nations from ruin. The fact that a nationality, homogeneous in blood, does not exist has caused us painful damage. It gave residential cities to many small potentates, but it deprived the people themselves of the right of dominion as a whole.
It is a blessing that, thanks to this incomplete promiscuity, we still possess in our national organism large reserves of the Nordic Germanic element of uncontaminated blood, and that we can consider it as the most valuable treasure of our future.
The German Reich, as a state, must embrace all Germans and impose upon itself the mission not only of uniting and preserving the most precious reserves of the original racial elements of this people, but also of leading them, slowly and steadily, to a predominant position.
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It is possible that for many of our current bureaucratized government leaders, it is more reassuring to work for the maintenance of an existing state of affairs than to fight for the advent of a new one. They will always find it more comfortable to view the State as a mechanism designed solely to preserve itself and, therefore, also looking out for them, since their lives “belong to the State,” as they are fond of saying.
Consequently, as we strive for a new conception that fully reflects the primordial meaning of things, we will find very few comrades within a society that has sadly aged not only organically but also spiritually. Exceptionally, perhaps some elderly people with young hearts and fresh minds will come to us from these circles, but never those who see the essential purpose of their lives in preserving an already established state of affairs.
It is a fact that when, in a nation, a certain contingent of maximum energies is definitively segregated from the inert whole of the great mass, with a common purpose, these select elements will come to be exalted to the category of leaders of the rest.
Minorities make the history of the world, since they embody, in their numerical minority, a majority of will and integrity.
Therefore, what many today consider a difficulty is, in reality, the premise of our triumph. It is precisely in the magnitude and difficulties of our task that lies the possibility that only the most qualified combatants will follow us on our path. This selection will be what guarantees success.
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Every crossbreeding of races inevitably leads, sooner or later, to the extinction of the hybrid product as long as the qualitatively superior element represented by this crossbreeding coexists in some form of racial unity in the environment. The danger threatening the hybrid product disappears at the precise moment of the bastardization of the last pure element of a superior race.
This is where the process of natural regeneration comes into play, which, although slowly, with a nucleus of pure race elements and provided that bastardization has ceased, gradually absorbs the germs of racial poisoning.
A state of racist conception will have, first of all, the duty to free marriage from the plane of perpetual racial degradation and consecrate it as the institution destined to create beings in the image of the Lord and not monsters, half man, half ape.
Any protest against this thesis, based on so-called humanitarian reasons, is in open opposition to an era in which, on the one hand, any degenerate is given the opportunity to multiply, which entails imposing unspeakable hardships on his descendants and their contemporaries, while, on the other hand, drugstores and even street vendors offer the means to prevent women from conceiving, even if their parents are perfectly healthy. In the current state of “order and tranquility,” it is therefore a crime in the eyes of famous national-bourgeois personalities to try to annul the reproductive capacity of syphilitics, tuberculous, atavistic retards, defectives, and cretins; conversely, it has nothing wrong with them nor does it affect the “good morals” of this society, made up of pure
appearances and short-sighted by inertia, the fact that millions of the healthiest practically restrict births.
How infinitely lacking in ideas and nobility this whole system is! No one is concerned about bequeathing the best to posterity anymore; instead, things are simply allowed to take their course…
It is the duty of the racist state to repair the damage caused in this regard. It must begin by making the racial issue the central point of general life. It must ensure the preservation of its purity and also consecrate the child as the most precious treasure of its people. It is obliged to ensure that only healthy individuals produce offspring. It must instill in people that there is a unique disgrace: procreating while sick or defective; but that in contrast to this, there is an action that dignifies: renouncing offspring.
On the contrary, it should consider it execrable to deprive the nation of healthy children. The State must be the guarantor of a millennia-long future in which individual desire and selfishness mean nothing and will only yield. The State must put the most modern medical resources at the service of this need. Every individual who is notoriously sick and atavistically handicapped, and as such, likely to continue transmitting their defects through inheritance, must be declared unfit for procreation and subject to practical treatment. On the other hand, the State must ensure that the fertility of healthy women is not restricted as a result of the poor economic management of a government system that has turned the good fortune of having numerous offspring into a curse for parents.
He who is physically and mentally unhealthy should not, cannot, perpetuate his ills in the body of his child. The educational burden of the racist state in this regard is enormous, but its work will one day appear more magnificent than the most glorious war of our bourgeois era. The state must persuade the individual, through education, that being sick and weak is not an affront, but simply a misfortune worthy of compassion; but that it is a crime, and therefore an affront, to vilify such misfortune out of selfishness by passing it on to innocent beings.
The State must act regardless of the understanding or lack of understanding, popularity or unpopularity that its approach may provoke in this regard.
Supported by the State, racist ideology will ultimately bring about a better era, in which men will be concerned only with the selection of dogs, horses, and cats, but with raising the racial level of man himself; an era in which some, recognizing their misfortune, will silently renounce it, while others joyfully pay tribute to their offspring.
That this is feasible cannot be denied in a world where hundreds of thousands voluntarily impose celibacy on themselves without any commitment other than the precept of a religion.
When a generation suffers from flaws and acknowledges and even confesses them, only to then settle for the convenient excuse that nothing can be remedied, it means that that society has long since begun its decline.
We should not delude ourselves. No! We know very well that our bourgeois world today is no longer capable of serving any lofty mission of humanity because, quite simply, its quality is so poor. And it is so poor due less to intentional malice than to unspeakable indolence and all the harmful consequences that emanate from it.
This is also the reason why those clubs that abound under the generic name of “bourgeois parties” have long been nothing more than communities of vested interests of certain professional groups and classes, so that their ultimate objective is now limited only to the most appropriate defense of selfish interests. It is, of course, pointless to try to explain how such a group of “political bourgeois” can lend itself to anything except combat, especially if the opposing faction is not composed of timid individuals but of proletarian masses who are thoroughly trained and ready for anything.
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If we consider the first duty of the State to be the conservation, care and development of our social elements, in service and for the good of the nationality, it is logical that this protective zeal should not end with the birth of the little fellow human being, but rather the State must make it a valuable element, that is to say, one that reproduces itself later.
Based on this conviction, the racist state does not narrow its educational mission to the mere task of instilling knowledge of human wisdom. No, its objective is, first and foremost, to form physically healthy individuals. Secondly, comes the development of mental faculties, and here, in turn, the fostering of willpower and determination, training the student to willingly assume responsibility for their actions. Scientific instruction is a corollary. The racist state must proceed from the perspective that a person, even if of modest education, with a healthy body and a firm character, brimming with willpower and a spirit of action, is of greater value to the community.
of the people than a weak super-intellectual.
Therefore, physical training in the racist state is not an individual matter, nor is it something that concerns only parents, with the community only in second or third place, but rather a necessity for national preservation, represented and guaranteed by the state. Just as, with regard to schooling, the state today intervenes in the individual’s right to self-determination and subordinates it to the rights of the community, subjecting the child to compulsory education without prior parental consent, so too, but on a larger scale, must the racist state one day impose its authority on the individual’s ignorance or incomprehension in matters affecting the preservation of the national heritage. Its educational work must be organized in such a way that the child’s body is properly treated from early childhood, so that it acquires the physical temperament necessary for its development. It must ensure, above all, that a generation of sedentary people is not formed.
In a racist state, schools must devote infinitely more time to physical education than is currently required. Not a single day should pass without the adolescent devoting at least an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon to training his body through sports and gymnastic exercises. In particular, one sport cannot be dispensed with, which, in the eyes of many who call themselves “racists,” is considered crude and undignified: boxing. It is incredible how erroneous are the opinions spread on this subject in “educated” circles, where it is considered natural and honorable for a young person to learn fencing and swordplay, while boxing is considered clumsy. And why? No sport exists that fosters the spirit of attack and the spirit of aggression as much as it does.
the ability to make quick decisions, giving the body the flexibility of steel. It is no more brutal for two young men to settle an altercation with their fists than with a sharpened blade of steel. Nor is it less noble for an assaulted man to defend himself against his attacker with his fists, rather than fleeing to call the police.
The ideal human type sought by the racist state is not represented by the petty bourgeois moralist or the virtuous spinster, but by the tempered embodiment of virile energy and by women capable of giving birth to true men. Thus, sport is not only intended to make the individual strong, skillful, and daring, but also to toughen him and teach him to endure harsh conditions.
If our entire upper echelon of intellectuals had not been educated so exclusively amidst the rules of polite behavior and had also learned to box, the 1918 revolution, a revolution carried out by ruffians, deserters, and other criminals, would never have been possible. Because what gave them victory was not the fruit of their daring, nor of their strength of action, but rather the result of the cowardly and miserable lack of fortitude on the part of those who then ran the state and were responsible.
Our German people, currently lying in ruins, exposed to the kicks of the rest of the world, need precisely that power of suggestion that engenders self-confidence. This sense of self-confidence must be instilled from childhood.
All the education and instruction of the young must be based on the task of cementing the conviction that they are in no way less than others. Through their physical vigor and agility, they must regain faith in the invincibility of their race, for what once led the German army to victory was the sum of self-confidence possessed by each of its members and, in turn, by everyone in the command. What must raise the German people again is undoubtedly the conviction of the possibility of returning to the enjoyment of their freedom. But this conviction can only be the result of a common sentiment rooted in the souls of millions.
Nor should we delude ourselves in this, because if the disaster suffered by our people was enormous in magnitude, no less enormous must be the effort we make to one day control the calamity that afflicts us. Only thanks to a supreme effort of the
national will and only thanks, also, to a sumum of libertarian desire and burning passion, can we compensate for what we lack today.
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The racist state must carry out and supervise the physical training of youth, not only during the school years; its obligation also extends to the post-school period, when it must ensure that while the young person is developing, that development is carried out for their own benefit. It is absurd to accept that, once the school period ends, the state’s right to supervise the lives of its young citizens suddenly ceases, only to be reasserted when the individual enters military service. This right is an obligation and, as such, is permanent.
The manner in which the State pursues this education is immaterial. The essential thing is that it do so by seeking the most appropriate means. In general terms, this education could constitute a kind of preliminary preparation for military service, so that the army would no longer need, as it has until now, to introduce young people to the most basic notions of standard exercises. Thus, it would no longer incorporate recruits of today’s standard type, but would simply transform the already excellently trained conscript into a soldier.
The main objective of military training, however, must be the same as that which once constituted the greatest merit of the old army: to ensure that this school makes a man out of the young man; there he will not only learn to obey, but also to acquire the skills that will enable him to command one day. He must learn to remain silent not only when rightly reprimanded, but also—if necessary—in the reverse case.
Upon completion of military service, two documents must be issued: 1) your citizen’s diploma, as a legal qualification that qualifies you to perform public service in the future; 2) your health certificate, as proof of physical fitness for marriage.
Analogously to the procedure used with boys, the racist state can guide the education of girls, starting from equal points of view. In this case, too, attention must be paid to
First and foremost, it is important to focus on physical training; immediately afterward, it is important to foster moral faculties, and finally, intellectual faculties. The purpose of female education is immutably to shape the future mother.
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How often was there cause during the war to complain that our people were so incapable of discretion. How difficult was it, therefore, to conceal important secrets from the enemy? But we must ask ourselves, what did pre-war German education do to instill in the individual the notion of discretion, and was it even attempted to present it as a manly and worthy virtue? In the eyes of our present-day educators, all this is mere trifle—a trifle, however, that costs the state countless millions in legal fees, since 90 percent of all lawsuits for libel or similar reasons arise solely from a lack of discretion. Irresponsibly flung expressions are passed around with equal abandon. Our national economy is constantly suffering damage due to reckless revelations about special manufacturing methods, etc., to the point that even the secret preparations related to the country’s defense are illusory, because the people simply haven’t learned to keep things secret, but rather to divulge everything. Certainly, in a war, this hesitancy to talk can lead to the loss of battles and thus significantly contribute to the unfavorable outcome of the conflict. Here too, we must share the belief that what was not practiced in youth can hardly be practiced in old age.
Today, in school, the conscious development of good and noble qualities of character is zero. In the future, it is essential to give this aspect all the importance it deserves. Loyalty, a spirit of sacrifice, and discretion are indispensable virtues for a great people; virtues whose teaching and cultivation in school are more important than many of the subjects that fill the school curriculum.
The racist state, therefore, alongside physical training, must, within its educational work, give maximum importance to the development of character. Numerous moral defects that are currently
weigh on our people, could be, if not completely eradicated, at least largely attenuated, thanks to the advantages of a well-oriented education system.
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We have all often lamented that in those fateful times of November and December 1918, all authorities had yielded, and that, from the monarch to the last divisional commander, no one had the fortitude to act on their own initiative. This terrible event was also the result of our upbringing, for in this catastrophe, the flaw that, on a small scale, was common to all was revealed to an enormous extent. This lack of will, and not precisely the lack of weapons, is what makes us incapable of true resistance today. This defect is rooted in the soul of our people, opposing any decision that entails risk, as if the magnificence of an action were not precisely manifested in its daring. Without realizing it, a German general found the classic formula to define such a lack of will: “I usually act,” he said, “only when I have a 51 percent chance of success.” Here, in these “51 percent” lies the cause of the tragic German disaster.
He who demands from fate the guarantee of success in advance, renounces the merit of a heroic action, since this lies precisely in the persuasion that, faced with the fatal danger of a given situation, one chooses the step that might prove to be saving.
It can be said that the fear of responsibility that pervades the atmosphere corresponds to the same line of conduct. In this case, too, the error lies in the false education of our youth, an error that later saturates the whole of public life and ultimately finds its immortal culmination in the institution of parliamentary government.
Just as the racist state will one day have to devote maximum attention to the education of willpower and the spirit of determination, it must also, from the outset, instill in the hearts of youth the satisfaction of responsibility and the courage to acknowledge one’s own guilt.
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With only a few modifications, the racist State will be able to incorporate into its educational system the current scientific instruction plan, which in reality constitutes the beginning and end of all educational work of the current State.
First of all, the young brain should not, in general, be overloaded with knowledge that, in a proportion of 95%, is not utilized by it and is, consequently, forgotten.
Take, for example, the average civil servant aged 35 to 40, who attended a Gymnasium or other liberal arts institution (Oberrealschule); if you examine the knowledge he laboriously acquired at school, you will see how little of it remains!
In particular, a reform in the method of teaching history is essential. Probably no country teaches more history than Germany, and there is no nation in the world that, like ours, knows how to use the lessons it offers so poorly. In 99 percent of cases, the results of the current form of teaching in this branch of science are minimal. Often, memory retains only a few dates and names, while the absolute lack of any broad and clear orientation is noticeable. Everything essential, that is, what really needs to be learned, is simply not taught; it is left to the more or less brilliant intuition of the student to deduce from a mass of dates and the succession of events the determining causes of historical processes.
It is precisely in the teaching of history that a simplification of the curriculum is necessary. The usefulness of this study lies in clarifying the main lines of human evolution, since history is not learned solely for the purpose of learning what was, but to find in it a source of learning necessary for the future and the preservation of one’s own nationality. It goes without saying that a thorough study of history presupposes a detailed knowledge of dates as a basis for deducing the main lines. This deduction is the responsibility of scientific researchers.
Furthermore, it is the task of a racist state to ensure that, in the end, a universal history is written in which the racial problem occupies a predominant place.
In the teaching of history, it is essential not to neglect the study of the classical period.
Roman history, properly appreciated in its broadest aspects, is and always will be the greatest teacher of all time.
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The second indispensable modification in school curricula under the racist state is as follows: A characteristic sign of the materialistic age in which we live is the fact that our instruction is increasingly limited to the exact sciences, that is, mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. However necessary this may be in times when technology and chemistry dominate, the growing scientific exclusivity of general instruction in a nation nonetheless poses an imminent danger. On the contrary, general instruction should always be of an idealistic nature.
It is important to establish a clear distinction between general education and professional specializations; and because the latter are increasingly threatened with descending to a level of exclusive service to the god Mammon, idealistically oriented general education should be maintained as a counterweight.
Here too, it is necessary to firmly establish the principle that industry and technology, commerce and the professions, can flourish only as long as a national community, inspired by idealistic goals, provides the conditions inherent to their development. But these conditions are not rooted in materialistic selfishness, but in an altruistic spirit, willing to sacrifice.
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Since the current State does not represent in itself more than a simple form, it is very difficult to educate men with that orientation and even less to impose it on them.
duties. A form is easily broken. In any case, the concept of “State” lacks a clear meaning today, and there is no other path than that of current “patriotic” education. In pre-war Germany, this “patriotism” was based on an unintelligent and often very dull glorification of tiny potentates, which of course implied renouncing the worship owed to the truly eminent figures of our people.
It’s obvious to note that under these conditions, it was impossible to conceive of a true national enthusiasm. Our symbolic figures were not presented as supreme heroes in the eyes of today’s generation, thus drawing general attention to them and thus creating a shared civic sentiment.
Since the defeatist revolution of 1918 made its triumphant entry into Germany and monarchical patriotism thus came to an end, the purpose of teaching history in our schools has been nothing other than the mere acquisition of knowledge. The State, as it now exists, does not require national sentiment, and what it yearns for will never be achieved. If, in an era governed by the principle of nationalities, a determined dynastic patriotism could not have existed, republican enthusiasm is even less feasible now. And there can be no doubt that, under the motto “For the Republic,” the German people would never have remained on the battlefields for four long years.
It is evident that the German Republic owes its peaceful existence to the docility with which it everywhere voluntarily accepts any tribute imposed on it or the ease with which it signs any pact that implies a national renunciation.
It is only natural that this republic should enjoy sympathy in the rest of the world; a weak person is always more agreeable to those who serve him than a strong spirit. The German republic is loved and allowed to live for the simple reason that a better ally could not be found for the work of enslaving our people. The racist German state will have to fight for its existence. It is evident that it will not be able to maintain itself or defend its existence by the sole virtue of signing a Dawes Plan. The racist state will require for its existence and security precisely those things that today are believed to be dispensable. The more incomparable and valuable this state becomes in its form and substance, the greater will be the emulation and resistance that its detractors will oppose to it.
Its citizens themselves, not its weapons, will then be its best means of defense; it will not be protected by barricades but by the living wall of men and women filled with supreme love for their country and fanatical national enthusiasm.
The third aspect to consider regarding education is this: Science, too, must serve the racist state as a means of fostering national pride. Not only universal history, but the entire history of human culture, must be taught from this perspective. It will not be enough for an inventor to appear great solely as an inventor; he must appear even greater as a son of his nation. The admiration inspired by every great feat must be transformed into the pride of knowing that its promoter was a fellow countryman. From the innumerable array of great men who fill German history, it is essential to select the most eminent to instill in the minds of youth, so that these names become unshakable pillars of national sentiment.
For this national sentiment to be legitimate from the outset and not merely a pretense, it is only fair that a firm principle be cemented in the formable minds of youth: Those who love their country prove that love only through the sacrifice they are willing to make for it. A patriotism that seeks only personal benefit is not patriotism at all.
Nor is it nationalism, the nationalism that encompasses only certain social classes. Cheers prove nothing and do not give the right to call themselves a patriot if they are not imbued with the noble concern to ensure the preservation of their race. One can only feel proud of their people when they no longer have to be ashamed of any of the social classes that make up this people. But when half of it lives in miserable conditions and has even become depraved, the picture is so sad that there is no reason to feel pride. Only when a nation is, materially and morally, healthy in all its constituent parts, can the satisfaction of belonging to it, experienced by the individual, rightfully be elevated to the category of the lofty feeling we call national pride. But this noble pride can only be felt by those who are aware of the greatness of their people.
The fear that “chauvinism” inspires in our time is a sign of its impotence. It is evident that today’s world is heading towards a
great revolution. And it all comes down to the question of whether it will result in the good of Aryan humanity or in the benefit of the Wandering Jew.
Through proper education of youth, the racist state will be able to count on a generation capable of withstanding the test at the hour of supreme decisions.
The people who first choose this path will be victorious.
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The culmination of all educational work by the racist state will consist in instinctively and rationally instilling in the hearts and minds of the youth entrusted to it the notion and feeling of race. No adolescent, male or female, should leave school before being fully attuned to the meaning of blood purity and its necessity. Furthermore, this education, from a racial point of view, must reach its perfection in military service; that is, the duration of this service must be considered the final stage of the normal process of the education of the German in general.
If the form of physical and intellectual education is to be of capital importance in the racist state, the selection of the best elements will be no less essential. This aspect is taken into account very superficially today. Generally, only the children of families of high economic and social standing are considered worthy of receiving a higher education. Talent plays a secondary role here. Strictly speaking, it can be assessed only relatively. It is possible, for example, that a peasant boy, although of lesser education than the son of a family that has held a high rank for generations, may possess more talent than the latter. The fact that the bourgeois child demonstrates greater knowledge has nothing to do with talent itself, but rather stems from the noticeably greater accumulation of impressions that this child continuously receives as a result of his varied education and the comfortable living environment that surrounds him.
Today there is perhaps only one field of activity where social origin truly has less influence than innate talent: Art. In it, it is clearly evident that genius is not an attribute of the social spheres.
superiors and not of fortune. It is not unusual for the greatest artists to come from the poorest families.
The claim is that what is undeniable in the art field has no place in the so-called exact sciences. Although, with a certain amount of mental training, it is possible to infuse the brain of an average person with knowledge superior to that of his environment, all this is nothing more than dead science and, therefore, sterile. This person will become a living encyclopedia, but he will be completely useless in all of life’s difficult situations and decisive moments.
Only where ability and knowledge are combined can works of creative impulse emerge. If the number of important inventions has increased extraordinarily in recent decades, especially in the United States, it is undoubtedly for no other reason than the fact that there—more than in Europe—a considerable percentage of talents from lower social strata have the opportunity to achieve higher education. The inventive faculty, therefore, does not depend on the simple accumulation of knowledge, but on the inspiration of talent.
In this regard, the racist State will one day have to make its educational impact felt.
The racist state’s mission is not to maintain the influence of a particular social class; rather, its task is to select the most capable within the national population and then promote them to the position of dignity they deserve.
Furthermore, the role of the racist state is not limited solely to the obligation to provide children with a specific education in primary school; it also entails the duty to foster talent by providing it with appropriate guidance. Above all, it must consider its highest duty to open the doors of public higher education institutions to all gifted individuals, regardless of their social origin.
For yet another reason, the state’s foresight must act in this direction: Intellectual circles in Germany have become so exclusive and sclerotic that they have lost all living contact with the lower classes. This exclusiveness is doubly harmful: first, because these circles lack understanding and sympathy for the great masses, and second, because they lack willpower, which is always less firm in caste-minded intellectual circles than among the people themselves.
Political preparation, as well as technical equipment for the world war, was deficient, not because our leaders had little education, but precisely the opposite. Those men were highly educated, brimming with knowledge and spirituality, but lacking all healthy instincts and devoid of energy and audacity. It was unfortunate that our people had to fight for their existence under the government of a chancellor who was a philosopher without character. If, instead of Bethmann-Hollweg, we had had as our Führer a popular man of robust build, the heroic blood of the common grenadier would not have been shed in vain. This same exaggerated cult of the purely intellectual among our leaders was the best ally for the revolutionary rabble of 1918.
The Catholic Church offers an example from which much can be learned. The celibacy of its priests underlies the imperative need to always recruit generations of the clergy from among the classes of the people and not from within its own ranks. But this very aspect of the institution of celibacy is often not appreciated in its true importance. Celibacy is responsible for the astonishing vitality of the gigantic organism of the Catholic Church, with its spiritual flexibility and iron willpower.
It will be the mission of the racist State to ensure that its educational system allows for a constant renewal of the remaining intellectual strata through the influx of young elements from the lower classes.
The State has the obligation to select from the entire population, with the utmost care and thoroughness, that human material notoriously endowed by nature with capacity, in order to then use it in the service of the community.
When two peoples of identical character enter into competition, the winner will be the one whose government represents its best values in the leadership of the State, and the loser will instead be the one whose government resembles nothing more than a large common manger for determining two groups or social classes, without taking into account the innate aptitudes that each of the leading elements should possess.
Regarding the concept of work, the racist state will have to develop a completely different approach than the one that exists today. Using, if necessary, a centuries-long educational process, it will put an end to the injustice of undervaluing the labor of the worker. As a matter of
From the outset, the individual will have to be judged not according to the nature of his occupation, but according to the form and quality of the work performed. This will seem monstrous in an age when the most stupid scribe, by the mere fact that he works with a pen, is above the most skilled mechanic-technician. This erroneous assessment does not, as has already been said, lie in the nature of things, but is the product of an artificial education, which did not exist before. The current unnatural situation is therefore based on the morbid general symptoms that characterize the materialism of our times.
In its absence, all work has a double value: the purely material and the ideal. The former depends not on the importance of the work performed, materially assessed, but on its intrinsic necessity. The community must recognize, ideally speaking, the equality of all, provided that each person, within their sphere of action—whatever it may be—strives to do the best they can.
Material reward will be granted to those whose work is related to the benefit that results for the community; the ideal reward, on the other hand, must consist of the appreciation that can be claimed by anyone who dedicates to the service of their people the aptitudes that nature has given them and that the community has taken it upon itself to foster.
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Gold may have become the exclusive sovereign of life today, but there is no doubt that one day man will once again bow before higher gods. And it is also possible that many things in the present owe their existence to the thirst for money and fortune; but it is evident that very little of all this represents values whose nonexistence would make humanity poorer.
Here too, a special role falls to the National Socialist movement, which today predicts the coming of an era that would give everyone what they need for their existence, taking care, however, as a matter of principle, that man does not live solely concerned with the enjoyment of material goods. This will one day find expression in the form of a wisely limited gradation of wages,
so that even the last of those who work honestly can count in every case, as a citizen and as a man, on an honest and orderly existence.
And let it not be said that this would be an ideal state of affairs, impractical in the world in which we live, and impossible to ever achieve.
Nor are we so naive as to believe that an era free of anomalies could be created. But this consideration does not obviate the imperative to combat errors recognized as such, correct defects, and aspire to the attainment of the ideal. Harsh reality will, of its own accord, impose multiple limitations on us. And precisely for this reason, man must strive to serve the supreme end without being deterred from his purpose, for the same reason that one cannot renounce the courts of justice because they make mistakes, nor can one detest medicines because, despite them, diseases continue to exist.
Take great care to properly appreciate the power of an ideal.
