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.When I heard Gottfried Feder s first lecture on The Abolition of the Interest-Servitude , I understoodimmediately that here was a truth of transcendental importance for the future of the German people.Theabsolute separation of stock-exchange capital from the economic life of the nation would make it possible tooppose the process of internationalization in German business without at the same time attacking capital assuch, for to do this would jeopardize the foundations of our national independence.I clearly saw what wasdeveloping in Germany and I realized then that the stiffest fight we would have to wage would not be againstthe enemy nations but against international capital.In Feder s speech I found an effective rallying-cry for ourcoming struggle.Here, again, later events proved how correct was the impression we then had.The fools among our bourgeoispoliticians do not mock at us on this point any more; for even those politicians now see if they would speakthe truth that international stock-exchange capital was not only the chief instigating factor in bringing onthe War but that now when the War is over it turns the peace into a hell.The struggle against international finance capital and loan-capital has become one of the most importantpoints in the programme on which the German nation has based its fight for economic freedom andindependence.Regarding the objections raised by so-called practical people, the following answer must suffice: Allapprehensions concerning the fearful economic consequences that would follow the abolition of the servitudethat results from interest-capital are ill-timed; for, in the first place, the economic principles hithertofollowed have proved quite fatal to the interests of the German people.The attitude adopted when thequestion of maintaining our national existence arose vividly recalls similar advice once given by experts theBavarian Medical College, for example on the question of introducing railroads.The fears expressed bythat august body of experts were not realized.Those who travelled in the coaches of the new Steam-horsedid not suffer from vertigo.Those who looked on did not become ill and the hoardings which had beenerected to conceal the new invention were eventually taken down.Only those blinds which obscure the visionof the would-be experts , have remained.And that will be always so.In the second place, the following must be borne in mind: Any idea may be a source of danger if it be lookedupon as an end in itself, when really it is only the means to an end.For me and for all genuineNational-Socialists there is only one doctrine.People and Fatherland.What we have to fight for is the necessary security for the existence and increase of our race andpeople, the subsistence of its children and the maintenance of our racial stock unmixed, the freedomand independence of the Fatherland; so that our people may be enabled to fulfil the mission assigned toit by the Creator.All ideas and ideals, all teaching and all knowledge, must serve these ends.It is from this standpoint thateverything must be examined and turned to practical uses or else discarded.Thus a theory can never becomea mere dead dogma since everything will have to serve the practical ends of everyday life.Thus the judgment arrived at by Gottfried Feder determined me to make a fundamental study of a questionwith which I had hitherto not been very familiar.I began to study again and thus it was that I first came to understand perfectly what was the substance andpurpose of the life-work of the Jew, Karl Marx.His Capital became intelligible to me now for the first time.119 Mein KampfAnd in the light of it I now exactly understood the fight of the Social-Democrats against national economics,a fight which was to prepare the ground for the hegemony of a real international and stock-exchange capital.In another direction also this course of lectures had important consequences for me.One day I put my name down as wishing to take part in the discussion.Another of the participants thoughtthat he would break a lance for the Jews and entered into a lengthy defence of them.This aroused myopposition.An overwhelming number of those who attended the lecture course supported my views.Theconsequence of it all was that, a few days later, I was assigned to a regiment then stationed at Munich andgiven a position there as instruction officer.At that time the spirit of discipline was rather weak among those troops.It was still suffering from theafter-effects of the period when the Soldiers Councils were in control.Only gradually and carefully could anew spirit of military discipline and obedience be introduced in place of voluntary obedience , a term whichhad been used to express the ideal of military discipline under Kurt Eisner s higgledy-piggledy regime.Thesoldiers had to be taught to think and feel in a national and patriotic way.In these two directions lay myfuture line of action.I took up my work with the greatest delight and devotion.Here I was presented with an opportunity ofspeaking before quite a large audience.I was now able to confirm what I had hitherto merely felt, namely,that I had a talent for public speaking.My voice had become so much better that I could be well understood,at least in all parts of the small hall where the soldiers assembled.No task could have been more pleasing to me than this one; for now, before being demobilized, I was in aposition to render useful service to an institution which had been infinitely dear to my heart: namely, thearmy.I am able to state that my talks were successful.During the course of my lectures I have led back hundredsand even thousands of my fellow countrymen to their people and their fatherland.I nationalized thesetroops and by so doing I helped to restore general discipline.Here again I made the acquaintance of several comrades whose thought ran along the same lines as my ownand who later became members of the first group out of which the new movement developed.120 Mein KampfCHAPTER IXTHE GERMAN LABOUR PARTYOne day I received an order from my superiors to investigate the nature of an association which wasapparently political.It called itself The German Labour Party and was soon to hold a meeting at whichGottfried Feder would speak.I was ordered to attend this meeting and report on the situation.The spirit of curiosity in which the army authorities then regarded political parties can be very wellunderstood.The Revolution had granted the soldiers the right to take an active part in politics and it wasparticularly those with the smallest experience who had availed themselves of this right.But not until theCentre and the Social-Democratic parties were reluctantly forced to recognize that the sympathies of thesoldiers had turned away from the revolutionary parties towards the national movement and the nationalreawakening, did they feel obliged to withdraw from the army the right to vote and to forbid it all politicalactivity [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]