German Reich

“ And in a later passage in Mein Kampf, at Page 344, Hitler applies these general ideas to Germany:
“If in its historical development the German people had possessed the unity of the herd by which other people have so much benefited, then the German Reich would probably be mistress of the globe today. ”

“ Organization and Functions of the Reich Section I: The Reich and the States Article 1. The German Reich is a Republic.
The political power emanates from the people.
Article 2. The territory of the Reich consists of the territories of the German states. Other territories may be incorporated in the Reich by a national law, if their populations so desire by virtue of the right of self-determination. ”

“ So popular with Germans is this notion of unity that it has been cleverly exploited as an additional excuse for world conquest. For in every country there are Germans, and, according to the blood theory, they always remain such. There are approximately 33 million Germans outside of the German Reich. Of the 15 million in the western hemisphere, 10 million live in the United States. They cannot, according to this theory, divest themselves of exclusive loyalty to the German state even by acquiring citizenship in another. ”

“ Preamble The German people united in every respect and inspired by the determination to restore and confirm the Reich in liberty and justice, to serve peace at home and peace abroad, and to further social progress, has given itself this constitution. ”

“ I did not want this struggle. Since January, 1933, when Providence entrusted me with the leadership of the German Reich, I had an aim before my eyes which was essentially incorporated in the program of our National Socialist party. I have never been disloyal to this aim and have never abandoned my program. ”

“ Citizenship in the Reich and in the states shall be acquired and lost in accordance with the provisions of a national law.
Every citizen of a state is at the same time a citizen of the Reich.
Every German shall have in every state of the Reich equal rights and duties with the citizens of that state.
Article 111. All Germans shall enjoy freedom of movement throughout the whole Reich. Everyone shall have the right to sojourn and settle in any place he pleases, to acquire property, and to carry on any gainful occupation. Restrictions require a national law. ”

“ In order to safeguard the representation of interests which arise in particular states from their special economic relations with, or their geographical contiguity to, foreign states, the Reich shall take the necessary measures and make the necessary arrangements in agreement with the states affected. ”

“ The division of the Reich into states shall serve the highest economic and cultural progress of the people, with due regard to the wishes of the population affected. The alteration of state boundaries and the creation of states within the Reich shall take place by virtue of national law modifying the constitution. ”

“ If constitutional controversies arise within a state, for the decision of which there is no competent court, or should controversies of a public nature arise between different states or between the Reich and a single state, the Supreme Judicial Court of the German Reich shall decide the controversy on the appeal of either of the contesting parties, if no other court of the Reich is competent. ”

“ Every German has the right to emigrate to non-German countries. Emigration may be restricted only by a national law.
All German citizens within and without the boundaries of the Reich have the right of protection by the Reich against foreign countries. ”

“ Intellectual labor, rights of authors, inventors, and artists shall enjoy the protection and care of the Reich.
Recognition of, and protection for, the products of German intellect, art, and technical science shall also be secured in foreign countries by international agreements.
Article 159. For the defense and amelioration of conditions of labor and of economic life, freedom of association is guaranteed to everyone and to all professions. All agreements and provisions which attempt to limit this freedom or seek to hinder its exercise are illegal. ”

“ Moreover, in case of pressing need, the Reich may, in the interest of collectivism, combine by law, on a basis of administrative autonomy, economic enterprises and associations, in order to secure the cooperation of all human elements of production, to give to employers and employees a share in management, and to regulate the manufacture, production, distribution, use, and prices, as well as the import and export, of economic goods upon collectivist principles. ”

“ The Socialists of Germany, working upon the minds of a defeated and discouraged people, are laying the blame for this disaster upon the shoulders of the very class which has made Germany what it is. We, it is, who have made the German Empire and given to it the only system of government which, bearing in mind the century-long training and peculiar temperament of its people, can maintain it intact amid the powerful and jealous nations of Europe, and carry it forward to the greater future that awaits it. ”

“ National defense is a function of the Reich. The organization of the armed forces of the German people shall be regulated in a uniform manner by a national law with due regard to the special regional peculiarities of the population. ”

“ The Reich may by law, without prejudicing the right of compensation, and with due application of the provisions in force with regard to expropriation, transfer to public ownership private economic enterprises suitable for socialization. The Reich itself may participate or may cause the states or municipalities to share in the management of economic enterprises and associations, or may in any other manner assure to itself a determining influence therein. ”

“ The wishes of those persons having the right to education shall be considered so far as possible. Detailed regulations shall be prescribed by state legislation on the basis of a national law.
To enable those in poor circumstances to attend secondary and higher schools, the Reich, the states, and the municipalities shall provide public funds, especially educational allowances for the parents of children who are considered qualified for further education in intermediate and higher schools until the completion of such education. ”

“ The Reich shall have in addition the power of legislation as to taxation and other revenues in so far as they are claimed in whole or in part for its purposes. If the Reich lays claim to taxes or other revenues which formerly belonged to the states, due consideration must be given to the protection of the financial needs of the states. ”

“ In this Pan-German Empire, Germans alone will govern; they alone will exercise political rights; they alone will serve in the army and navy; they alone will have the right to hold land; and they will thus be made to feel that they are a people of rulers, as they were in the Middle Ages. ”

“ In order to cover the costs of maintenance and construction of inland waterways, any person who profits from the construction of dams otherwise than by navigation may by national law be called upon to contribute, if more than one state shares in, or if the Reich bears, the cost of the work. ”

“ The National Ministry shall, with the consent of the Reichsrat, establish an advisory council to consult and cooperate in matters pertaining to the posts, telegraphs, telephones, and rates.
Treaties with foreign states in respect to communication may be made only by the Reich.
Article 89. It shall be the duty of the Reich to acquire as its own property all railroads serving as means of general communication and to administer them as a uniform system of transportation. ”

“ Thus ignobly fell the noblest of the ancient Germans, the man whose patriotism saved the realm of the Teutonic tribes from becoming a province of the empire of Rome. Had not Hermann lived, the history of Europe might have pursued a different course, and the final downfall of the colossus of the south been long averted, Germany acting as its bulwark of defence instead of becoming the nursery of its foes. ”

“ A system which has brought disaster to Germany and chaos to all Europe can never, one would think, be resumed, and amid the debris of his Empire the German may pick up that precious jewel of personal freedom which is above the splendour of foreign conquest. A Hapsburg or a Hohenzollern may find his true place as the servant rather than the master of a nation. But apart from Germany, look at the effects which our victory must have over the whole wide world. ”

“ Had not the uprising of the peasants been shamefully betrayed by the leaders of German culture and civilization, the development of the nation would, at that time, have already assumed a normal form, and not only would Germany be the equal of the other civilized nations, but as the first-born modern nation, would have held the roost prominent place among them. ”

“ The German Empire is the clearinghouse, the adjutant, the executive officer, the official clerk, the representative in many social, financial, military, and diplomatic capacities of Germany; but it is not, and never for a moment should be confused with, what all Germans love, and what it has cost them blood and tears and great sacrifices to bring into the circle of the nations, the German Fatherland! ”

“ Germany as the embodiment of the defect of the political present, constituted in her own world, will not be able to overthrow the specifically German obstacles without overthrowing the general obstacles of the political present. ”

“ Germany! Germany is left—Deutschland über Alles!
That is what we are fighting—that claim of the predominancy of a civilization, a material one, a hard one, a civilization which at once rules and enslaves the world. Liberty goes, democracy vanishes, and unless Britain comes to the rescue with her sons, it will be a dark day for humanity!
Have you followed the Prussian Junker and his doings? We are not fighting the Germans. The German people are just as much under the heel of this Prussian military caste, and more so, thank God, than any other nation in Europe. ”

“ We fight for the strong, deep Germany of old, the Germany of music and of philosophy, against this monstrous modern aberration the Germany of blood and of iron, the Germany from which, instead of the old things of beauty, there come to us only the rant of scolding professors with their final reckonings, their Welt-politik, and their Godless theories of the Superman who stands above morality and to whom all humanity shall be subservient. ”

“ Their territories were so small, and so scattered, their resources were so meagre and so precarious, that feudal independence meant to them but a limited, localised, and stunted career, and afforded them few guarantees of protection against the aggressions of their stronger neighbours. In such men there was no strong bias of self-interest to prevent their giving rein to the wholesome sentiment of love of fatherland which still survived in German breasts. ”

“ In the revolution which Germany has undergone within a generation, has not the good been sacrificed as well as the evil? Besides its vague longings, its futile struggling, its uneasy doubts as to its own powers, has not the German nation furthermore dropped somewhat of its enthusiasm for ideals—its unselfish striving after truth, its deep and quiet inner life? ”

“ Perhaps it is well to remind American readers, who are accustomed to dealing with large, simple, and plainly demarcated political and economic units, that in Europe there are many millions of Germans outside the German Empire who take an active part in their nation's essential and ultimate destiny—by which I do not mean its political destiny. ”

“ Here and there a thin voice from the ranks of the overtired men could be heard to sing, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt." With sore feet and broken energy, full of disgust with their "glorious" trade of warriors, they sang that symphony of supergermanism that sounded then like blasphemy, nay, like a travesty—"Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt." ”

“ The general situation of the German Empire in the period before the war had become continually more brilliant, and for that very reason continually more difficult from the point of view of foreign politics. Unprecedented progress in industry, commerce, and world traffic had made Germany prosperous. The curve of our development tended steadily upward. ”

“ One of the chief instruments of the German Government is the belief which they foster that any peace that the Allies would, if they had their way, impose would mean the internal ruin of Germany, and this again would mean that each individual German family would find itself without work, without money, and without food. ”

“ Other adult Prussian citizens who were born within the territory of the province of Upper Silesia and who within one year after the establishment of the state (No. 2) declare that they desire to be citizens of Upper Silesia shall be citizens on the date of the filing of such declaration; (c) All citizens of the Reich who by birth, legitimation, or marriage follow the citizenship of any person specified in (a) or (b) . ”

“ In the plenitude of his arrogance, which made him consider himself beyond all human laws, he regarded the rights and wishes of others as entirely negligible quantities where the greatness of the German Empire, which meant his greatness, was concerned. Every German child was taught that Germany should be supreme over all. In the schools they learnt that nothing, not even truth or justice, could be allowed to interfere with Germany’s commercial progress. ”