Reich

“ Today we pledge allegiance to the great Reichsbank family, to the great German community; we pledge allegiance to our newly arisen, powerful Greater German Reich, and we sum up all these sentiments in the allegiance to the man who has brought about all this transformation. I ask you to raise your hands and to repeat after me:
“I swear that I will be faithful and obedient to the Führer of the German Reich and the German people, Adolf Hitler, and will perform my duties conscientiously and selflessly. (The audience takes the pledge with uplifted hands.) ”

“ Oh, I’m so glad. Listening to Reich makes one certain that the things that seem to be happening in the world are illusions and the real result of the unseen present movement of history is war with Germany. ”

“ The leading syllable is from the same source as ragn; it is he who executes judgment, the ruler or king, the same word as the Indian rajah, and the Latin rex. It was reiks in Gothic, rich in old German, ryce in Anglo-Saxon; and its derivative reich was the origin of the Neustria and Austrasia, the oster reich and ne oster reich, eastern and not eastern, realms, of the Franks, and of the present Austria or eastern kingdom. Reich is the home term for the German empire at the present day. Our adjective rich is its sordid offspring, and in France a wealthy peasant is un richart. ”

“ When I look at the world which we embody, at all the men with whom I have the pleasure of being connected or who are my friends, and then when I look at the groups of political leaders in the Reich, at my Reich, ... ”

“ For every decision which you have to make, ask yourself: Is this decision in accordance with the National Socialist conscience of the German people? Thus you will have a firm basis of conscience which will also bear for all time, in your own sphere of decisions, the authority of the Third Reich, based on the popular National Socialist unity and on the recognition of the will of the Führer Adolf Hitler. ”

“ I expect that every soldier, mindful of the great traditions of eternal German soldiery, will ever remain conscious that he is a representative of the National-Socialist Greater Germany. Long live our people and our Reich! ”

“ They tell me: "Yes, but there is America with a hundred twenty-five million people. "-The Reich territory together with the Reich protectorate and the General-Government also has a hundred twenty-five million people ! ”

“ The German people can look back upon many thousands of years of development. Its history goes back 2000 years. For 1000 years there has been a German Reich, a Reich which actually contained only Germans. During this time our people survived the most astounding blows of fate. It will also survive everything that the present or the future may bring. ”

“ Reich spent his time mainly in France till 1893, when he settled in England for good. There as a writer, as a lecturer to popular and learned audiences in Oxford, Cambridge, and London, and as a coach at Wren's establishment for preparing candidates for the civil service, he displayed remarkable vigour, versatility, and self-confidence. ”

“ Germany, considered as a political factor in the world, was much more of a cause, for after centuries of disruption and ensuing weakness, the German tribes and states had at last combined into a new State which naturally introduced a new element into the so-called Balance of Power, an element which was regarded as an alien body by others. Even more potent, perhaps was dislike of the Reich as an economic factor. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Franklin Roosevelt took control of a country with an economy that had been ruined as a result of democratic influences, and I assumed the leadership of a Reich that was also on the edge of complete ruin, thanks to democracy. ”

“ We hence owe it to the security of the Reich to enlighten the German Volk about the true nature of these men in a timely manner. The German Volk harbors no hatred for England, America, or France, and desires nothing other than to live calmly and peacefully, while the Jewish and non-Jewish agitators persist in rousing the animosity of these peoples against Germany and the German Volk. ”

“ We are all faithful to our old principle. It is quite unimportant whether we ourselves live, but it is essential that our people shall live, that Germany shall live. The sacrifice that is demanded of us is not greater than the sacrifice that many generations have made. If we form a community closely bound together by vows, ready for anything, resolved never to surrender, then our will will master every hardship and difficulty. And I would like to close with the declaration that I once made when I began the struggle for power in the Reich. ”

“ The German Reich and its allies represent militarily, economically and also morally, a power superior to any possible coalition in the world. The German armed forces will always and everywhere intervene when and wherever it is necessary. The German nation will accompany its soldiers on their way with its confidence. It knows that the war is the consequence of the greed of a few international warmongers, and of the hatred of the Jewish democracies standing behind them. These criminals have refused every German offer of peace because it was contrary to their capitalist interests. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The program of the National Socialist Revolution, insofar as it concerned the future development of the Reich's relations with the surrounding world, was an attempt to obtain a revision of the Treaty of Versailles under all circumstances-and as far as this was possible-by peaceful means. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I have declared that the frontier between France and Germany is a final one. I have repeatedly offered friendship and, if necessary, the closest co-operation to Britain, but this cannot be offered from one side only. It must find response on the other side. Germany has no interests in the West, and our western wall is for all time the frontier of the Reich on the west. ”

“ The Emperor of Germany grows anxious and angry at the increasing numbers which are returned to the Reichstag. In France, many of the large cities, such as Marseilles, are in the hands of the Socialists. ”

“ I now hold it to be the duty, my Reichstag Deputies, of every German man and every German woman to comprehend the conduct of the Reich’s economic policy. In the cities and in the countryside you have to consider in particular that Germany’s economic policy is not based on some sort of financial theory, but rather on a very primitive understanding of production, on the realization that the sole determining factor is the quantity of goods produced. ”

“ On September 1 of the year now past, I already explained to you that, come what may, neither the force of weapons nor time shall force Germany to the ground. The Reich today stands stronger militarily than ever before.
You have seen the losses, individually surely heavy, though as a total relatively low, which the German Wehrmacht has suffered in battle within the past three months. When you consider that, within this time, we erected a front which reaches from the North Cape to the Spanish border, then our losses are extraordinarily low, especially when compared with those of the World War. ”

“ Countless examples can be given from speeches in the Reichstag and from leaders and newspapers of virtually all parties in Germany, showing this desire for conquest, showing that Germany will not be content to go back to the situation before the war. ”

“ Until the first President of the Reich assumes office, the President of the Reich elected by virtue of the law relating to the provisional powers of the Reich shall exercise the functions of the office. ”

“ By putting an end to this fruitless struggle, National Socialism released the inner strength otherwise suppressed and set it free to realize the vital interests of the nation in the sense of managing the great community tasks in the interior of the Reich and securing the vital necessities for the community with regard to the surrounding world. ”

“ From its ranks, therefore, I should like to name the men, who along with countless others, attained great merit in securing the opportunity to celebrate victory in a new Germany: Party comrade Reich Minister Hess, himself an old soldier of the World War, has been one of the most loyal fighters for the erection of the present state and its Wehrmacht ever since the early days of the foundation of the Movement. ”

“ But a change was notable in Germany before the war began, and will be far more notable after it has ended. The socialistic movement waxes strong throughout the nation, and the proceedings of the Reichstag show us that the nation is marching steadily, though perhaps slowly, toward a real democracy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This unworthy picture reminded me of a later scene in the Reichstag, in which the Iron Chancellor, after reviewing with complacency the profitable results of Germany’s deliberately provoked wars against Denmark, Austria, and France, added the pious ejaculation:
Wir Deutsche fürchten Gott sonst nichts in der Welt.
(We Germans fear God but nothing else in the world.)
It is not necessary to impeach the sincerity of [Pg xx] this pious glorification of the successful results of land grabbing. The mind in moments of exaltation plays strange tricks with the soul. ”

“ To make an understatement, therefore, it is with insolent impertinence that foreign politicians accuse the Third Reich of hostility to religion. Should the churches within Germany regard the situation as unbearable, then please bear in mind that the National Socialist State is willing, and prepared at any time, to undertake a clear separation of church and state, as is the case in France, America, and other countries. ”

“ The President shall exercise powers of discipline and police within the Reichstag building. The administration of the building is under his control; he has control over the income and. expenditures for the building within the limits laid down by the national budget, and he represents the Reich in all legal business and legal actions involved in his administration of the building.
Article 29. The sittings of the Reichstag shall be public. On the demand of fifty deputies the public may be excluded by a two-thirds majority vote. ”

“ Something had to be done in the Reichsland. The anomalous position of almost two million German subjects, fighting for their political rights, and forming a compact mass upon the borders of France, was a question which compelled the interest of German statesmen, not only on account of its international aspect, but also because of the growing German public sentiment for social and political justice. ”

“ Revolutions—Not unknown in Germany—Prussia and the Hohenzollerns—Frederick the Great—Germany under foreign domination—The Battle of the brotherhood of man—Lassalle's national Socialists join the Internationale—Germany's political backwardness—The war of 1870-71—Erection of the German Empire—Why the Reichstag failed to become a real parliament—The Emperor's powers as Kaiser and as King of Prussia. ”

“ To us it is an honor never to have partaken in the sympathy and support extended by a foreign government. Evidently, such support is lent exclusively to those who aim to destroy the German Reich. Hence, in our eyes, the display of such support would indicate the necessity to step up measures previously taken in any such case.
In view of the dangers enveloping us today, I regard it as most fortunate to have found states within Europe and beyond Europe which, like the German Volk, have had to struggle hard to preserve their existence: Italy and Japan. ”

“ Today many of them rest in the same graves in which their fathers have rested since the Great War. They bear evidence to silent heroism. They stand as a symbol for all those hundreds of thousands of musketeers, anti-tank gunners and tank gunners, pioneers and artillerymen, soldiers of the Navy and the Luftwaffe, men of the Waffen SS, and all those other fighters who stood for the German Wehrmacht in the struggle for the freedom and future of our Volk and for the eternal greatness of the National Socialist Greater German Reich. ”