Background: This is a report of a speech by Robert Wagner,Gauleiter of Baden from 1925-1945. He was executed in 1946 for criminal actions while in office. He was speaking to a gathering of party members from Country Freiburg (Breisgau). It’s a good example of Nazi bombast. Wagner tells his followers that they are about great work, and that they should continue to work and sacrifice for Hitler’s cause.
The newspaper report consists of summaries and excerpts, not the full speech.
The source: Gauleiter Robert Wagner, “Keiner Macht der Welt wird uns überwinden,” Freiburger Zeitung (Morgenausgabe), 15 January 1938, pp. 1-2. The newspaper is available on-line.
The Gauleiter walked along the row of political leaders and asked about the life experiences of individuals, their background, job, and function within the party. Repeatedly he thanked men who, despite heavy job demands or advanced age serve the movement and the people.
“Only the tiniest fraction [of party leaders] hold paid positions,” he said as he began his remarks. The overwhelming majority work voluntarily for the party. An army of voluntary political soldiers has come together. Voluntary fulfillment of duty is an expression of our new age.
We are all Adolf Hitler’s volunteers. My fellow party comrades, that has never been possible before in any people, and that is the great revolutionary value of our movement.
That was also the prerequisite for the success of National Socialist efforts in the last five years, and will remain so forever into the future.
And if we succeed — as we will succeed — in training the whole people in this spirit, there will be no power in this world that will be able to overcome our people.
The time will come when people will look back with thankful hearts on the men and women who once again made the German people strong.
We will have to work as hard in the future as we have in the past. That means that we will always work and sacrifice, that we must be fighters in the old and best sense of the party.
It is a mistake if someone thinks that he has come along too late.
My party comrades, today, too, is a period of struggle. There will be a period of struggle as long as our people faces new challenges. Those who join today have not joined too late, no more than those who joined ten years ago were too late.
It is true that most of the opponents we formerly dealt with have been driven from the field. The political bourgeois class and Marxism are dead. Still, within any people there are always destructive elements and viewpoints. One must be internally prepared. Through training, one must have the necessary defenses so that we can disarm the opponent and help our people to become always stronger, healthier, more cheerful, and happier. That is the task the party has to fulfill.
Our opponents today ensure that we do not fall asleep politically. In one sense, we may be thankful for that.
One group of opponents we faced from the beginning, namely the politicized clergy. Old party members from 1923 and before knew enough about them. And who of us has done anything to these politicized clergy? We had not had even the slightest thought of busying ourselves with the Churches. Despite that fact, we were attacked by certain elements of a politicized clergy and its supporters. They did all they could to persecute us, to oppress us.
They have now said: We are persecuted! My party comrades! Who among us has ever persecuted a believing person in Germany, or oppressed him? It is an insolent charge to say that religious beliefs are attacked in Germany. It is not true that a civil servant is persecuted because he is a believing Catholic or Protestant. I do have to say one thing, however:
We cannot tolerate that a civil servant, who has a special relationship of trust with the Führer and the state, can allow himself to sit in church and let agitation against National Socialism and the state flow around him.
A Catholic or Protestant civil servant will never find any hindrance to his religious obligations.
This is not a battle against religion or against the Church itself.
It is directed only against agitation and against claims of power by politicized clergy who are not able to accept the fact that their secular power has diminished.
Christ said: My kingdom is not of this world — but I fear that claim to power is in fact only of this world (stormy applause).
In opposing such political arrogance there can be no compromise. Compromising in this matter would mean sinking back into the era of decline and impotence.
The Gauleiter then said plainly to his subordinates:
We would be wrong to accept such attacks. He who makes them must leave our ranks (Renewed stormy agreement). He who does not voluntarily go with the Führer has no place among us. He is least capable of being a political leader.
We are not afraid of agitation from the other side. It springs from a sense of desperation. We do our duty for the National Socialist idea. That last five years has proven its correctness. 1500 years of history prove that the other side is wrong. It is not our problem if they do not want to correct their errors. They will not need to wonder why time passes them by.
My friends! The stronger faith is on our side. The greater internal strength is on our side, the greater devotion. Above all, moral justice is on our side.
My party comrades, let nothing stop you from following the straight path of duty that you have followed in the past. We want to serve only truth.
Believe me, our people will render a just verdict. It will follow those who preach the truth, who represent the greater, deeper values. We can stand with heads high and look forward, standing before our people with an honest, free, and good conscience. Whether or not the others an do that, the people, and history, will decide! — Again the Gauleiter’s remarks were greeted with stormy applause.
“Continue to do your duty in your local groups, your strong points, your blocks, your cells. Help to continue that which has begun in the past five years.
I know that I can rely on those of you here in Oberland, from Kaiserstühl, from the Black Forest. I know that you will continue to fight with the same determination and stubbornness, thereby being able to take credit for a significant part of the successes and victories.”
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