Adolf Hitler on The State, part 1 - Germanization

CHAPTER TWO OF VOLUME TWO, THE STATE, is quite long so I will present my selected excerpts in several separate installments--as many as it takes. It begins with a description of different conceptions of the State, followed by comments on the policy of so-called  “Germanization.”

(See here for series introduction)

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GENERALLY SPEAKING, one can distinguish three different conceptions [of the State].

(1) Those who hold that the State is a more-or-less voluntary group of men under a ruling authority … those who worship legalized authority; the will of the people has no role whatsoever. This is the largest group.

(2) The second group ... includes those who desire a uniform system of governemt, but also a uniform language—though solely for technical reasons of administration. State authority … must also promote the good of its subjects … it's primary duty is to ensure the economic well-being of the individual citizens. The chief representatives are to be found among the average German bourgeoisie, especially our liberal democrats.

(3) The smallest group sees the State as … a people who are ethnically homogenous and speak the same language … they think-basically falsely-that it would enable them to carry out a process of nationalization in a definite direction.

During the last century it was regrettable to witness how these circles played with the word 'Germanization' … They didn't understand that Germanization can only be based on soil and not on mere people. What they mostly meant by this word was simply the forced acceptance of the German language.

But it's an almost inconceivable mental error to think that a Negro or a Chinese will become a German because he has learned the German language and is willing to speak it in the future, or even that he will vote for a German political party. […]

That which make a people, or better, a race, is not language but blood. Therefore it would only be justifiable to speak of Germanization if that process could change the blood of the subjected people. [...]

Today we must consider it fortunate that a Germanization of Austria, according to the plan of Joseph II [to make German the official language throughout the Habsburg empire -cy], did not succeed. … For the (survival of the) German nation, it was better that this process of intermixture did not take place. […]

A Polish policy, involving a Germanization of the East, was demanded by many and was unfortunately based on the same false reasoning … [that it] could occur by a purely linguistic union. The result would have been catastrophic: A foreign people expressing their foreign thoughts in the German language. […]

A terrible damage is indirectly done to Germanism today when, due to the ignorance of many Americans, the German-babbling Jews are classified as Germans when they set foot on American soil! […]

That which has been beneficially Germanized in the course of history is the land that our ancestors conquered with the sword and settled with German farmers. To the extent that they introduced foreign blood into our national body in this process, they aided that catastrophic splintering of our inner being, resulting in our German hyper-individualism—something which is unfortunately frequently praised.

[…]

We can sum things up as follows: All these views have the common feature that they don't recognize that the capacity for creating cultural values is essentially based on a racial element. They therefore fail to acknowledge that the highest purpose of the State is to preserve and improve the race; this is the indispensable condition of all human cultural development.

To be continued ...