Adolf Hitler on 'Causes of the Collapse'

Continuing with passages from Mein Kampf, 2017 Thomas Dalton translation. See here.

Chapter 10 – Causes of the Collapse – is a long chapter, about 50 pages. I  reproduce here the parts that I think are most relevant and essential, beginning with Hitler's introductory thoughts.

P 427

Only that which is capable of extraordinary heights can experience a profound decline or collapse. The collapse of the Reich [referring to the 'Second Reich' or reign of Hohenzollerns (1871-1918), initiated by Bismarck] was so difficult and terrible because it had fallen from a height that can hardly be imagined in these days of misery and humiliation [in 1925].

[T]his empire had not been brought into existence by a series of parliamentary maneuvers, but by reason of the noblest circumstances. Its foundations were laid not amidst parliamentary debates but with the thunder and boom of war along the front that encircled Paris. It was thus that an act of statesmanship was accomplished whereby the German princes and people established the future Reich, and restored the symbol of the imperial crown. Bismarck's state was not founded on treason and assassination by deserters and slackers, but by the regiments that fought at the front.

This unique birth and baptism of fire surrounded the Reich with a halo of historical splendor such as only the oldest states—seldom—could do.

P429 10.1 THE SIGN OF COLLAPSE

[…] The signs of future collapse were certainly there in those earlier days, although very few made any attempt to draw a practical lesson from them. But today, this is more necessary than ever. Just as bodily diseases can be cured only when their origin has been diagnosed, so too with political disease. […]

[T]he majority of people among us recognize the German collapse only in terms of the prevailing economic distress and its consequences. Almost everyone has to carry his share of this burden, and that's why each one looks on the economic catastrophe as the cause of the present deplorable state of affairs. The broad masses of people see little of the cultural, political and moral background of this collapse. […]

That the masses should hold such a view is quite understandable. But the fact that intelligentsia regard the German collapse primarily as an 'economic catastrophe,' and consequently that a cure requires an economic solution, seems to me the reason why any recovery has been thus far impossible. No improvement can be brought about until it is understood that economics play only a second-or third-rate role, while the primary factors are politics, morality, and blood. Only when this is understood will it be possible to understand the causes of the present evil, and thus to find the ways and means of curing them. […]

In discussions I have had about Adolf Hitler with like-minded people, all have emphasized his “economic miracle” for Germany as representing his essential program (even saying National Socialism is basically an economic program), thinking that will bring more sympathy and/or acceptance for his time as Fuehrer. I always feel it necessary to take a counter position to affirm that his firm stance on Race—Blood and Soil—was the #1 feature of National Socialism. Here, and in the pages to follow, we will see that I am right.

P431 10.2 THE CAUSES OF COLLAPSE

The most facile, and therefore the most widely-accepted way of accounting for the present misfortune is to say that it's the result of a lost war, and that the World War was therefore the real cause.

Probably there are many who honestly believe this nonsense, but there are many more in whose mouths this is a lie and a conscious falsehood. This applies to all those who are now feeding at the government troughs. For didn't the prophets of the revolution repeatedly declare to the people that the outcome of the war would be immaterial to the great masses? On the contrary, didn't they solemnly assure the public that it was 'big capital' that was principally interested in a victorious outcome of this gigantic struggle—but never the German people or the German workers? Indeed, didn't these apostles of world conciliation habitually assert that, far from any German downfall, the opposite was bound to take place: namely, that the German nation would be resurrected, once 'militarism' had been destroyed? Didn't these circles sing the praises of the Entente [France, Britain, Russia, Italy], and did they not also lay the whole blame for the bloody struggle on Germany? Without this explanation would they have been able to put forth the theory that a military defeat would have no political consequences for the German people? Wasn't the whole revolution dressed up in gala colors as preventing a victory of the German flag, and thus that the German people would be assured of freedom, both at home and abroad?

Isn't that so, you miserable, lying scoundrels?

It takes a typically Jewish impudence to proclaim the defeat of the army as the cause of the collapse. Indeed, the Berlin Vorwärts, that organ and mouthpiece of sedition, wrote that the German nation should not be permitted to bring home its banner triumphantly!

[…]

As a matter of fact, the loss of the war was a result of their activities and not of 'bad' leadership, as they now would like to maintain. […] Indeed, it is universally admitted that the German victories that were steadily won during four years of warfare against the whole world were due to superior leadership, apart of course from the heroism of the troops. [...]

The collapse of that army was not the cause of our present distress. It was itself the consequence of other crimes. But this consequence in turn ushered in a further collapse, which was more visible.

[...]

P435 10.3 “EVERY THIRD GERMAN IS A TRAITOR”

Let's examine the symptoms that were evident at the time that the German people accepted this defeat. Isn't it true that, in several circles, the Fatherland's misfortunes were even welcomed with a shameless joy? […] Weren't there people who even went further and boasted that they had caused the front to waver? […] Was there ever a case in history where a people declared itself guilty of a war? And that, even against better judgment and better knowledge!

No, and again no. From the way that the German nation reacted to its defeat, we can see that the real cause of our collapse must be sought elsewhere, and not in the purely military loss of a few positions or the failure of an offensive. […] The war was the catastrophic consequence, visible to all, of an ethical and moral poisoning, and of a degeneration of the instinct for self-preservation. These were the preliminary causes that, for many years, had been undermining the foundations of the nation and the Reich.

[…]

Above all, we would never have had that disgraceful state of affairs in which a British officer, Colonel Repington, declared with scorn: “Every third German is a traitor!” [...]

P439 10.4 (THE BIG LIE) – MORAL DISARMAMENT

It required the entire bottomless falsehood of the Jews, and their fighting comrades the Marxists, to lay blame for the collapse precisely on the man who alone had shown a superhuman will and energy in his effort to prevent the catastrophe that he had foreseen, and to save the nation from that time of humiliation and disgrace. By placing sole blame for the loss of the World War on Ludendorf,* they took away the weapon of moral right from the only adversary dangerous enough to be likely to succeed against the betrayers of the Fatherland.

*Erich Ludendorf, Prussian WWI general, victor of the Battle of Liège and the Battle of Tannenberg, who became a German nationalist and member of the NSDAP.

All this was inspired by the unquestionably true principle that in the Big Lie there is always a certain degree of credibility, because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the very bottom of their hearts than consciously or voluntarily. And in the primitive simplicity of their minds, they more readily fall victims to the Big Lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters, but would be ashamed to resort to large scale falsehoods. It would never occur to them to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.

Everyone reading this should be able to come up with their own examples of how suspicion can be aroused by totally false accusations, leaving behind traces of doubt that can perhaps never be totally erased.

[…]

From time immemorial, however, the Jews have known better than any others how to exploit falsehood and calumny. Their very existence is based on one great lie, namely, that they are a religious commuity and not a race. And what a race. One of the greatest thinkers of mankind [Schopenhauer] has branded them for all time with a statement that is profoundly and precisely true: he called them “The great master of the lie.” Those who don't realize the truth of that statement, or don't wish to believe it, will never be able to lend a hand in this world to help truth prevail.

It was a great stroke of fortune for the German nation that this period of lingering sickness was so suddenly ended by a terrible catastrophe. If things had gone on as they were, the nation would have slowly but surely come to ruin. The disease would have become chronic; whereas, in the acute form, it at least showed itself clearly to a considerable number of observers. […]

It is then a stroke of luck—although a bitter one—when fate decided to intervene in this slow process of decay and suddenly brings the victim face to face with the final stage of the disease. More often than not, the result of a catastrophe is that a cure is undertaken immediately, and carried through with a firm determination.

But even in such a case, the prerequisite [for cure] is always the recognition of the internal causes that created the disease in question.

To be continued ...