by Adolf Hitler
Bismarck had already perceived this fortunate circumstance. More than once did he confirm the complete parallel between German and Italian interests. It was he who even then pointed out that the Italy of the future must seek her development on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and it was he who further ascertained the harmony of German and Italian interests by stressing that only France could think of disturbing this shaping of Italian life, whereas Germany was bound to welcome it from her viewpoint. Actually in the whole future he sees no necessary cause for an estrangement, let alone enmity, between Italy and Germany. If Bismarck rather than Bethmann Hollweg had guided Germany’s destiny before the World War, indeed, even this terrible enmity, incurred only on account of Austria, would never have come to pass.
Moreover, with Italy as with England, it is a positive fact that a continental expansion of Germany in Northern Europe is no threat, and thereby can give no cause for an estrangement by Italy against Germany. Conversely, for Italy the most natural interests speak against any further increase of French hegemony in Europe.
Hence Italy, above all, would warrant consideration in terms of an alliance relation with Germany.
The enmity with France has already become obvious ever since Fascism in Italy brought a new idea of the State and with it a new will to the life of the Italian Folk. Therefore France, through a whole system of alliances, is not only trying to strengthen herself for a possible conflict with Italy, but also to hamper and separate Italy’s possible friends. The French aim is clear. A French system of States is to be built that reaches from Paris via Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, up to Belgrade. The attempt to draw Austria into this system is in no way as hopeless as it may seem at first sight. In view of the dominating character of the influence which Vienna with its two million inhabitants exerts over the rest of Austria, which encompasses only six million people, this country’s policy will always be determined primarily by Vienna. The fact that an alliance with Paris is far more likely as such than one with Italy lies in the cosmopolitan nature of Vienna which has been revealed even more pointedly in the last decade. This was already taken care of by the manipulation of public opinion guaranteed by the Vienna press.
But this activity threatens to become especially effective since this press, with the help of the clamour over the Southern Tyrol, has also succeeded in stirring up the completely instinctless bourgeois national province against Italy. Thus a danger of an incommensurable extent draws near. For the Germans, more than any other Folk, can be brought to the most incredible, in reality truly suicidal, decisions by an agitational press campaign conducted consistently over many years.
If, however, France succeeds in fitting Austria into the chain of her friendship, Italy one day will be forced into a two front war, or she must again renounce a real representation of the interests of the Italian Folk. In both cases for Germany there is the danger that a possible German ally is finally excluded for an unpredictable period of time, and that France thus increasingly becomes the master of Europe’s fate.
Let no one indulge in any illusions as to what this entails for Germany. Our bourgeois national border politicians and protesters from the patriotic leagues will then have their hands full in order again, in the name of national honour, to eliminate the traces of the mistreatments which they would have to endure from France, thanks to their farsighted policy.
Since the National Socialist Movement concerns itself with ideas of foreign policy, I have tried to educate it to become a bearer of a clear foreign policy aim by a consideration of all the arguments discussed. It is unjust to raise the reproach that this is primarily the task of the Government, in a State, first of all, the official governments of which come from the bosom of parties who neither have any cognisance of Germany nor want a happy future for this Germany. Since those who were responsible for arranging the November crime have become qualified to govern, it is no longer the interests of the German Nation which are represented, but instead those of the wrongly acting parties. In general we cannot very well expect the promotion of Germany’s vital needs by people to whom the Fatherland and the Nation are but means to an end, and which, if necessary, they shamelessly sacrifice for their own interests. Indeed, the instinct of self preservation of these people and parties, so often visible, in truth by itself speaks against any resurgence of the German Nation, since the freedom struggle for German honour perforce would mobilise forces which must lead to the fall and destruction of the former defilers of German honour. There is no such thing as a struggle for freedom without a general national resurgence. But a resurgence of the national conscience and the national honour is unthinkable without first bringing those responsible for the previous degradation to justice. The naked instinct of self preservation will force these degenerate elements and their parties to thwart all steps that could lead to a real resurrection of our Folk. And the seeming insanity of many acts of these Herostrats of our Folk, once we properly gauge the inner motives, becomes a planned, adroit, albeit infamous and contemptible, action.
In a time such as this when public life acquires its shape from parties of this kind and is represented solely by people of inferior character, it is the duty of a national reform Movement to go its own way even in foreign policy which some day, according to all human prediction and reason, must lead to the success and happiness of the Fatherland. Hence, so far as the reproach of conducting a policy that does not correspond to official foreign policy comes from the Marxist democratic Centre camp, it can be set aside with the contempt it deserves. But if bourgeois national and so called Fatherland circles raise it, this is really only the expression and the symbol of the state of mind of professional joiners which exerts itself only in protests, and simply cannot seriously grasp that another movement possesses the indestructible will ultimately to become a power, and that in a prevision of this fact it already undertakes the necessary education of this power.
Since the year 1920 I have tried with all means and most persistently to accustom the National Socialist Movement to the idea of an alliance among Germany, Italy and England. This was very difficult, especially in the first years after the War, since the God Punish England standpoint, first and foremost, still robbed our Folk of any capacity for clear and sober thinking in the sphere of foreign policy, and continued to hold it prisoner.
The situation of the young Movement was infinitely difficult even vis-à-vis Italy, especially since an unprecedented reorganisation of the Italian Folk set in under the leadership of the brilliant statesman Benito Mussolini, which drew the protest of all the States directed by Freemasonry. For whereas up to the year 1922 the fabricators of official German opinion took altogether no notice of the sufferings of those parts of our Folk severed from Germany through their crimes, they now suddenly began to honour the Southern Tyrol with their attention. With all the means of a cunning journalism and a mendacious dialectic, the Southern Tyrol problem was blown up into a question of extraordinary importance so that, in the end, Italy incurred a proscription in Germany and Austria conferred on none other of the victor States. If the National Socialist Movement honestly wanted to represent its foreign policy mission, sustained by the conviction of the unconditional necessity of the same, it could not draw back from the struggle against this system of lies and confusion. Thus at the same time it could not count on any allies, but instead had to be guided by the idea that one should sooner renounce a cheap popularity rather than act against a perceived truth, a necessity that lay before one, and the voice of one’s conscience. And even if one would thereby be defeated, this would still be more honourable than to participate in a crime that had been seen through.
When in the year 1920 I pointed to the possibility of a later association with Italy, all the prerequisites thereto, at least at first, actually seemed to be lacking. Italy was in the circle of the victor States, and shared in the actual or merely presumed advantages of this situation. In the years 1919 and 1920 there seemed no prospect at all that the inner structure of the Enten
te would loosen in any predictable time. The powerful world coalition still placed a great value on showing that it was a self sufficient guarantor of the victory and thus also of the peace. The difficulties which had already come to light in connection with the drawing up of the peace treaties came all the less to the consciousness of a broad public opinion since the directors of an adroitly staged production knew how to preserve the impression of complete unity, at least outwardly. This common action was based just as much on the public opinion which had been created by a generally homogeneous war propaganda as it was on the still insecure fear of the German giant. Only slowly did the outside world get a glimpse of the dimensions of Germany’s inner decay. A further reason contributed to the seemingly almost indissoluble solidarity of the victor States: the hope of the individual States that they would thus not be overlooked when the time came to share the spoils. Finally there was the further fear that if at that time a State should actually withdraw, Germany’s fate, nevertheless, would have taken no other course, and then perhaps France alone would be the sole beneficiary of our collapse. For in Paris they naturally never gave a thought to bringing about a change in the attitude toward Germany which had been set in motion during the War. For me the peace is the continuation of the war. With this statement, white haired old Clemenceau expressed the French Folk’s real intentions.
The complete planlessness of German intentions confronted this, at least seeming, inner solidity of the coalition of victors, the immovable aim of which, inspired by France, was the complete annihilation of Germany even after the event. Next to the contemptible villainy of those who in their country, against all truth and against their own conscience, put the blame for the war on Germany and insolently deduced a justification for the enemy’s extortions therefrom, stood a partly intimidated, partly uncertain national side which believed that now after the ensuing collapse it could help matters by means of the most painful possible reconstruction of the nation’s past.
We lost the war in consequence of a lack of national passion against our enemies. The opinion in national circles was that we must replace this harmful deficiency and anchor this hatred against the former enemies in the peace.
At the same time it was noteworthy that, from the start, this hatred was concentrated more against England, and later Italy, than against France. Against England because, thanks to the Bethmann Hollwegian soporific policy, nobody had believed in a war with England up to the last hour. Therefore her entry into the war was viewed as an extraordinarily shameful crime against loyalty and faith. In the case of Italy the hatred was even more understandable in view of the political thoughtlessness of our German Folk. They had been so imprisoned in the mist and fog of the Triple Alliance by official government circles that even Italy’s non intervention for the benefit of Austria-Hungary and Germany was viewed as a breach of loyalty. And they saw a boundless perfidy in the later joining up of the Italian Folk with our enemies. This accumulated hatred was discharged in the typically bourgeois national fulmination and battle cry: God Punish England. Since God is just as much on the side of the stronger and the more determined, as well as preferably on the side of those who are cleverer, he manifestly refused to inflict this punishment. Nevertheless, at least during the war, whipping up of our national passion by every means was not only allowed but obviously called for. It was only a hindrance in that we were blinded by it to the real actualities, although the passion was never fanned too high among us. In politics there is no standpoint of contrariness, and therefore, even during the War, it was wrong to draw no other consequences, especially from Italy’s entry into the world coalition, except those of a flaming anger and indignation. For, on the contrary, we should have had the duty then especially to keep on reexamining the possibilities of the situation in order to come to those decisions that might have warranted consideration for saving the threatened German Nation. For with Italy’s entry into the front of the Entente, an extraordinary aggravation of the war situation was unavoidable, not only in consequence of the increase in terms of arms which the Entente acquired, but much more rather in consequence of the moral strengthening which necessarily lay in the emergence of such a power on the side of the world coalition being formed, especially for France. In terms of duty, the Nation’s political leaders at that time perforce should have decided, cost what it may, to put an end to the two front and three front war. Germany was not responsible for the further maintenance of the corrupt, slovenly Austrian State. Nor did the German soldier fight for the family power policy of the hereditary House Of Habsburg. This at best lay in the mind of our non combatant hurrah!-shouters, but not in that of those at the front shedding their blood. The sufferings and hardships of the German musketeers were already immeasurable in the year 1915. These sufferings could be demanded for the future and the preservation of our German Folk, but not for the salvation of the Habsburg big power megalomania. It was a monstrous idea to let millions of German soldiers bleed in a hopeless war only so that a dynasty could preserve a State, the most private dynastic interests of which for centuries had been anti German. This insanity will become completely understandable to us in its entirety only if we keep in view that the best German blood had to be shed so that, in the most favourable case, the Habsburgs might again have another chance to denationalise the German Folk in peacetime. We not only had to undertake the most monstrous bloodshed on two fronts for this madness, which screamed to heaven, no, we were even duty bound again and again to fill the holes which treason and corruption had torn in our worthy ally’s front with German flesh and blood. And thereby we made this sacrifice for a dynasty which itself was ready to leave its all sacrificing ally in the lurch at the first opportunity which offered itself. And who indeed later did just this. To be sure, our bourgeois national Fatherland patriots speak as little of the betrayal as they do of the continuous betrayal of the Austrian troops of Slavic nationality allied with us, who went over to the enemy’s side in whole regiments and brigades, in order finally in their own legions to join the fight against those who had been dragged into this dreadful misfortune by the operations of their State. Moreover, by itself, Austria-Hungary would never have participated in a war which might have involved Germany. That here or there some perhaps really believed to gain protection from the Triple Alliance, grounded in reciprocity, can be ascribed only to the boundless ignorance of Austrian conditions which generally prevailed in Germany. The worst disappointment for Germany would have materialised had the World War broken out on account of Germany. The Austrian State, with its Slav majority and with its Habsburg Ruling House, fundamentally anti German and anti Reich oriented, would never have taken up arms to defend and assist Germany against all the rest of the world, as Germany stupidly did. As a matter of fact, vis-à-vis Austria-Hungary, Germany had but one duty to fulfil, namely: to save the German element of this State by all means, and to eliminate the most degenerate, most guilt laden dynasty that the German Folk ever had to endure.
For Germany, Italy’s entry into the World War perforce should have been the occasion for a fundamental revision of her attitude vis-à-vis Austria-Hungary. It is not a political act, let alone an expression of the sagacity and competence of political leaders, in such a case to find no other answer than sullen indignation and impotent rage. Such a thing is usually harmful even in private life, but in political life it is worse than a crime. It is an act of stupidity.
And even if this attempt at a change of the former German attitude had led to no success, it at least would have absolved the nation’s political leadership from the guilt of not having tried it. In any case, after Italy’s entry into the World War, Germany should have tried to put an end to the two front war. She should then have striven for a separate peace with Russia, not only on the basis of a renunciation of any utilisation of the successes in the east already achieved by German arms, but even, if necessary, of a sacrifice of Austria-Hungary. Only the complete dissociation of German policy from the task of saving the Austrian State and its
exclusive concentration on the task of helping the German Folk could still afford a possibility of victory, according to human appraisals.
Moreover, with the demolition of Austria-Hungary, the incorporation of nine million German Austrians into the Reich as such would have been a more worthwhile success before history and for our Folk’s future than the gain, doubtful in its consequences, of a few French coal and iron mines. But it must be stressed again and again that the task — even of a German foreign policy that is only bourgeois national — should not have been the preservation of the Habsburg State, but exclusively the salvation of the German Nation, including the nine million Germans in Austria. Otherwise nothing else at all, indeed absolutely nothing else.
As is known, the reaction of the Reich’s leaders to the situation created by Italy’s entry into the World War was quite different. They tried more than ever to save the Austrian State with its deserting Slavic brothers of the alliance by staking German blood in a still greater measure, and, in the homeland, by calling down heaven’s revenge on the faithless erstwhile ally. In order to cut themselves off from any possibility of ending the two front war, they let the artful and cunning Vienna diplomacy induce them to found the Polish State. Thereby any hope of arriving at an understanding with Russia, which naturally could have been obtained at the expense of Austria-Hungary, was shrewdly prevented by the Habsburgs. Thus the German soldier from Bavaria, Pomerania, Westphalia, Thüringia and East Prussia, from Brandenburg, Saxony and from the Rhine, was given the high honour, in the most terrible, bloody battles of world history, to sacrifice his life by the hundreds of thousands, not for the salvation [formation] of the German Nation, but for the formation of a Polish State to which, in case of a favourable outcome of the World War, the Habsburgs would have given a representative, and which then would have been an eternal enemy for Germany.