January 30, 1936
Men of the SA! National
Socialists! Party Comrades!
When we take
a retrospective look today, it does not end in the year 1933, but must go back
further. What was a moment of surprise back then for many who did not know our
Movement, was for us and for you, my Old Fighters, but the hour of fulfillment.
There were many, particularly
outside Germany, who may have been amazed on January 30 and in the following
weeks and months at the miracle which had taken place before their very eyes.
Yet you, my comrades, and I had together awaited this hour for a decade, had
believed in it and placed our hopes in it. For us, it was not a surprise but
rather the culmination of fourteen years of hard fighting. We set forth not
blind, but seeing and believing. And thus when I look back on that day I am
gripped with a deep gratitude, gratitude to those who enabled me to experience
this day three years ago. Today they are gathered here from throughout the German
Reich as the pioneers and banner bearers of our Movement, the two eldest from
each storm troop. They all experienced first-hand the evolution of our
Movement, the evolution of its struggle, its fight and its conquests. And I
myself stood over this fight for fourteen years. I conducted the fight for
fourteen years; I also founded this SA and, in its ranks and at its fore, led
the Movement onward for fourteen years. I have come to know you. And I know:
everything you are, you are through me, and everything I am, I am through you
alone.
The best core of the German
nation already stood in our ranks that day. The best of our Volk had already
chosen us that day. Only the petty doubters and the unreasonable were still
standing to the side. But now these ranks have been markedly diminished. For
what stands against us today is not standing against us because we are National
Socialists, but because we have made Germany free and strong once again. Those
are the enemies of our Volk in our own land whom we know from the time of the
Great War, from the time of the regrettable revolt in 1918, and whom we know
from the time of our worst decay. They are the only ones who not only do not
want to find their way to us, but who will also never be able to find the
way-and whom we ourselves can do without.
The Movement has given to the
German Volk an element of oneness and unity which will long have an effect, far
into the most distant future. Those who believe that this Movement is still
bound today to a single person are mistaken.
I was its herald. And today
from this one herald have come millions. If one of us draws his last breath
today, he knows that after him come ten others! This Movement will fade no
more. It will lead Germany on, and even if our enemies refuse to accept the
fact, Germany will never again lapse into a state of that most sorry disgrace
we were forced to endure.
And you, my oldest Party
fighters, men of the SA and SS and political soldiers, are the guarantors of
this being as it is. You are the guarantors that this spirit shall never die
out. As you stand here, members of the entire German Volk, of all professions,
all ranks, and all classes, from every confession, joined to form a whole,
blind to all but this Germany and your service to it, there will grow forth
from among you a young generation, inspired by the same spirit, seeing in you
their model and following you.
Germany will not live through
the times of November 1918 again. Let every man relinquish the hope that the
wheels of world history could ever he turned back.
At the same time, just as we
have always preached peace to our Volk at home, we want to be a peace-loving
element among the other peoples. We cannot repeat that often enough. We seek
peace because we love peace! But we stand up for honor because we have no
desire to live without it.
Today we can proudly stand up
before the world as Germans. For particularly in this last year of our regime,
the German Volk has been given back its honor before the world. We are no
longer defenseless Helots but have become free and self-assured ‘world
citizens.’ It is with pride that we can allow these three years to pass before
our mind’s eye. They constitute an obligation for the future as well. The
coming years will not require less work. There are individuals who believe
themselves capable of striking a blow at National Socialism in that they claim,
‘Yes, but all of that requires sacrifices.’ Yes, my worthy petits bourgeois,
our fight has required constant sacrifice. But you did not go through that.
Perhaps you imagine Germany has become what it is today because you did not
make any sacrifices.
No! It is because we were able
to make sacrifices and wanted to do so that this Germany came to be! So if
someone tells us, ‘That means the future will require sacrifices, too,’ we say
‘Quite right!’ National Socialism is not a doctrine of lethargy, but a doctrine
of fighting.
Not a doctrine of good
fortune, of coincidence, but a doctrine of work, a doctrine of struggle, and
thus also a doctrine of sacrifices. That is how we did things before the fight,
and in these past three years this has not changed, and it will remain so in
the future!
Only one thing matters: for
millenniums our Volk has had to make sacrifices for its chosen path in life and
its life-struggle. It has been given nothing, but only too often the sacrifices
have been for naught. Today the Movement can give the German Volk this
guarantee: whatever sacrifices you, German Volk, make, will no longer be in
vain; rather, these sacrifices will always win you a new life.
And I would like to ask you to
join me once again in uttering the battle cry for what means most to us in this
world, for which we once fought and struggled and triumphed, which we did not
forget in the time of defeat, which we loved in the time of need, which we
adored in the time of disgrace, and which is sacred and dear to us now in the
time of victories.
Our German Reich, our German
Volk, and our one and only National Socialist Movement:
Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!
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