Führer

“ This doctrine permeated the Nazi Party and all its formations and allied organizations and eventually permeated the Nazi State and all institutions, and is of such importance that I would like to dwell upon it for a few moments and attempt to explain the concepts which it embraces.
The Führerprinzip embodies two major political concepts:
1. Authoritarianism;
2. Totalitarianism.
Authoritarianism implies the following: All authority is concentrated at the top and is vested in one person only, the Führer. It further implies that the Führer is infallible as well as omnipotent. ”

“ The leadership principle applies not only to Hitler as the supreme leader but also to the political leaders under him and thus permeated the entire Leadership Corps. I quote from the middle of Page 2 of Document 1893-PS:
“The basis of the Party organization is the Führer idea. . . .
“All political leaders stand as appointed by the Führer and are responsible to him. They possess full authority toward the lower echelons. ”

“ The draft of that instruction remained in the Führer’s hands for weeks. He always objected that this instruction would hamper the troops in ruthlessly combating the guerrillas. As at that time I had already issued that instruction and he still had not given his approval, I became rather rude; and when he once more came with lengthy explanations of his fighting experience, his experience of fighting the Communists in Chemnitz, I said, in order to break the ice at last, “My Führer, what people do in battle does not come into this instruction at all. ”

“ Limitless Party propaganda attempted to introduce the idea of a Führer as a lasting principle into politics. That of course is utter nonsense, and I took the opportunity—I always took such opportunity whenever it was possible—of expressing my dissenting opinions publicly. I took the opportunity in an address to the Academy of German Law, of which not only Nazis but lawyers of all groups were members, and in that speech I lectured about the Leadership Principle in economics. ”

“ This Führer Principle has, in fact, for the eyes and even more for the ears of the German people and of the world in general, been the organizational guiding principle in the development of the Reich constitution after 1933.
It has never been unambiguous, and it considerably changed in character during the course of the years. In human life leading and dominating present inherent contradictions. ”

“ No one, the Führer has ordered, may know more or be told more than he needs for his own immediate task, but I have no doubt at all in my mind, gentlemen, but that you need a great deal, in order to be able to cope with your tasks. It is in your Gaue, after all, and among their inhabitants that all the widespread enemy propaganda, defeatism, and malicious rumors are concentrated. Up and down the country the devil of subversion strides. All the cowards are seeking a way out, or—as they call it—a political solution. ”

“ DR. EXNER: To what extent did the Führer confide in you regarding his political intentions?
JODL: Only as far as we needed to know them for our military work. Of course, for the Chief of the Armed Forces Operations Staff political plans are somewhat more necessary than for a battalion commander, for politics is part of strategy. ”

“ It is this man and his satellites, all except the Deputy Führer, now otherwise engaged, who control the lives and liberties of all who dwell in these vast territories. In all these lands once free, no man or woman can by any legal means read in a newspaper, hear on the wireless, or harbour a thought of which the Führer does not approve. ”

“ ROSENBERG: The Führer once spoke to me in this connection and explained to me that in the leadership of a large movement and of a state three factors had to be considered. There are, for instance, men who by their natures feel they must deal with any rising problems fundamentally through contemplation and then in lectures ”

“ I believe that various attempts were made in this direction from other sources, too; but the Führer did not let him go. In the second place, of course our mutual attitude was that we were, after all, engaged in a war for existence in which an officer, in the long run, could not stay at home and knit stockings. Over and over again it was the sense of duty that won the upper hand and caused us to bear all the difficulties.
DR. NELTE: You will understand that one must hold up to the generals “loyalty unto loyalty” and that duty can only go to the point where it does not injure human dignity. ”

“ The banner of the Third Reich appears to us to be His banner; and the Führer of the people is the savior whom he sent to save us from the calamity and peril into which we were actually plunged by the most pious parties of the defunct German Republic.”
VON SCHIRACH: I should like to see the original of this text, please.
MR. DODD: All right.
VON SCHIRACH: Here I write:
“We consider that we are serving the Almighty when with our youthful strength we seek to make Germany once more united and great. ”

“ The Führer does not stand for himself alone and can be understood not of himself, but only from the idea of a work to be accomplished ... Both the Führer and his following are subject to the idea which they serve ”

“ In the Führer are manifested also the natural laws inherent in the people: It is he who makes them into a code governing all national activity. In disclosing these natural laws he sets up the great ends which are to be attained and draws up the plans for the utilization of all national powers in the achievement of the common goals. ”

“ RAEDER: I am not telling untruths, I would not think of doing it. I do not do that sort of thing.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Well, that is what I am suggesting to you, and I will show it out of this document.
“The Führer’s proposal for the restoration of a just, honorable peace and the new adjustment of the political order in Central Europe had been turned down. The enemy powers want the war, with the aim of destroying Germany. ”

“ The Führer assembled all the leaders in order to give them his opinion about this whole matter. He stated—and I was present myself—that up to that time he had always been right in his decisions and that he would also be right in the opinion that the western offensive had to be undertaken in the fall if possible. Toward the end he used very harsh words; in the third from the last paragraph of the document he states: “I shall not be afraid of anything and I shall destroy everyone who is against me.” That was directed against the generals. ”

“ Therefore, without being bound by existing legal regulations, in his capacity as leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Governmental Chief and Supreme Executive Chief, as Supreme Justice and as leader of the Party, the Führer must be in the position to force with all means at his disposal every German, if necessary—whether he be a common soldier or officer, low or high, official or judge, leading or subordinate official of the Party, worker or employee—to fulfill his duties. ”

“ But the Führer and his associates are full of the greatest confidence; for the sanctimonious British will not succeed in throttling our economy, and militarily we are without worry. Decisive is the will of the people to stick it out, and this the many strong-willed and devoted men who are today at the head of the districts and in other responsible posts will take care of. ”

“ The Führer, Hitler, abused his authority and his fundamental Order Number 1 in an irresponsible way with respect to us. This Order Number 1 read, more or less:
“ ‘1. No one shall know about secret matters which do not belong to his own range of assignments.
“ ‘2. No one shall learn more than he needs to fulfill the tasks assigned to him. ”

“ That persons of so-called “German blood” (as specified by the Nazi conspirators) were a “master race” and were accordingly entitled to subjugate, dominate, or exterminate other “races” and peoples;
2. That the German people should be ruled under the Führerprinzip (Leadership Principle) according to which power was to reside in a Führer from whom sub-leaders were to derive authority in a hierarchical order, each sub-leader to owe unconditional obedience to his immediate superior but to be absolute in his own sphere of jurisdiction ”

“ In Document Number 2354-PS, which is an excerpt from the Organization Book of the Party, on Page 1 of the English translation—it is quoted in the text—I quote Paragraph 1:
“Education and training, according to the doctrines and aims of the Führer as they are set down in Mein Kampf and in the Party program, for all phases of our living and of our National Socialist ideology. . . .” ”

“ And that statement may be found in the Document 1301-PS, on Page 25 of that document, and particularly the second sentence of the opening paragraph:
“Everybody knows from the press what the world situation looks like, and therefore the Führer has issued an order to him to carry out a gigantic program compared to which previous achievements are insignificant. There are difficulties in the way which he will overcome with the utmost energy and ruthlessness.” ”

“ During the fighting they can do whatever they like, they can hang them, hang them upside down or quarter them; it says nothing about that. The only limitation applies to reprisals after the fighting in those areas in which the partisans were active....
“Answer: ‘It is correct that the Führer had fundamental misgivings about these restrictions. Jodl’s remark is correct as far as its contents are concerned. ”

“ I now come to Volume III and I ask the Tribunal to refer to a quotation on Page 17 in my document book. It is an entry following a government meeting of 18 October 1941. I quote the eighth line from the bottom; it is a statement of the Governor General:
“I shall first of all state, when replying to these demands”—that means, the demands of the Reich—“that our strength has been exhausted and that we can no longer take any responsibility as regards the Führer. ”

“ But perhaps one was entitled to rely on the fact that from time to time a referendum, a plebiscite, a new expression of the will of the people would take place by which the Führer could have been corrected, because a leader who cannot be corrected becomes a menace. ”

“ Now the sergeant wanted to tell his august master how gallantly the Prince had borne himself and what an example he had been to the soldiers. The letter was simply and ingenuously written and showed how deep and strong is the loyalty which binds the German Army to its supreme Chief and Emperor. The loyalty and unity between Emperor and people, between Commander and Army, form the firm and immovable rock on which the German Empire has been built up. ”

“ But it was the deciding vote of the Great General Staff that finally embarked the German nation on this dangerous course.
I do not think the Emperor himself, unless backed by the whole public opinion of Germany, would dare to withstand the Great General Staff which he himself creates. They are so much his devotees that they would overrule him in what they consider his interest.
Whatever thinking the Emperor does nowadays is more or less on his own account. There is to-day no shining favourite who has his ear to the exclusion of others. ”

“ To my mind, the course which really determined the Emperor and the ruling class for war was the attitude of the whole people in the Zabern Affair and their evident and growing dislike of militarism. The fact that the Socialists, at the close of the session of the Reichstag, boldly remained in the Chamber and refused to rise or to cheer the name of the Emperor indicated a new spirit of resistance to autocracy; and autocracy saw that if it was to keep its hold upon Germany it must lead the nation into a short and successful war. ”

“ This monarch missed his great opportunity to raise Germany, by means of supporting social, political and religious reform, to the dignity of a useful modern State, to liberate it from the yoke of Feudalism and save it from disruption, and finally to create for himself a nation and to give to the people a real king, to create a modern monarchy which would support all the oppressed peoples and terrify the conquering mediaeval lords of war. ”

“ Some newspapers have been indulging in extravagant statements about the despotic power of the Emperor of Germany. Why, sir, the Emperor of Germany cannot declare war without the consent of the Federal Council. The Emperor of Germany cannot remove, at his arbitrary pleasure, the officeholders of the empire. ”

“ Most of the nobility and the greater part of the General and field officers are however inveterate aristocrats.
You have heard, I dare say, of the attempt made by some officers among the nobility to exclude from the service, after the peace, those officers who were not noble. When it is considered that their best and most zealous officers sprung from the burghers, and that Prussia, when abandoned by her King and nobles, was saved from permanent subjection only by the unparalleled exertions of her burghers and peasantry, one is shocked at such ingratitude and absurdity. ”

“ It is our duty to maintain, in all its parts, the army, the work of the great Emperor, against every influence and to defend it against every opposition from without, and I hope that every general will be as faithful and as upright as you are, and that he will strive to achieve this aim in his field with as good results as you have done. ”

“ It is a mistake to suppose that there are dissensions or differences of opinion in the German nation, or that the Kaiser or the military party has imposed war on the people. In modern times [Pg 216] it would not be possible for even an absolute monarch to force an unwilling people into such a momentous step. The German Government is the product and expression of the German people. They have made it and, having created it, they are proud of their work. ”