German Propaganda Archive Calvin University


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Background: Walter Tießler was an early Nazi who held a variety of positions in the propaganda apparatus before and after the Nazis took power. When this pamphlet was put out by the party’s publishing house in 1942, he was head of the Reichsring für nationalsozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklärung, a subsection of the party’s propaganda department charged with coordinating propaganda at the local level throughout the country. He was also liaison between Goebbels and Martin Bormann, not a particularly easy task. In this pamphlet, he outlines the fundamental principles of National Socialism, attempting to make it clear to Germans what they were fighting for. The pamphlet was intended to have a long life, so there are few references to particular events that could quickly make it outdated.

The source: Walter Tießler, Nicht Phrasen sondern Klarheit (Berlin: Franz Eher, 1942).


Not Empty Phrases, but Rather Clarity

by Walter Tießler
What are you fighting for, German people?

You, German man,
you, German woman?

Pamphlet CoverWhat are you fighting for, German soldiers?

For a worldview?
For National Socialism?

Each solder in the “Soviet Paradise” has come to know Bolshevism. Each one saw what a false worldview led to: Poverty and misery!

Is it worth it to fight for a worldview?

Is it all just empty words? Or does a people need a unified, firm worldview?

Each who works for his people, who fights and risks his life for it, deserves an answer.

Let no one say: “We have more important things to do today!”

No!

Today, everyone wants to, and must, know what is at stake.

The unvarnished truth is called for:

Not empty phrases, but rather clarity!

Eternal Germany

The common life of peoples and humans beings is always made harder because simple concepts are replaced by intellectual constructs. We have the most unpleasant memories of this in Germany during the period before 30 January 1933. The German people learned a huge number of concepts that in the end turned out to be only empty phrases. The result was that men fought one another when they really had no reason to be opponents.

It is the same in relations between peoples.

An example. Think of everything that the concept “democracy” can mean!

If one translates the term “democracy” literally, it means the “rule of the people.” That is nowhere in the world so realized as it is in Germany. We do not, therefore, need to reject the term “democracy” in its literal translation. But through connections to other terms and distortions, the concept of “democracy” has become a phrase used by those circles that have always rejected and opposed popular rule.

It is much easier to distort terms by connecting them to other terms, since working people generally do not have the time to untangle all these constructions. Clever criminals have always used the resulting misunderstandings to incite people against each other, whether in partisan battles, or in struggles between the peoples, or war.

To set the German people against each other has been impossible since 1933 because it has been led by a unified worldview. The German people has increasingly come together under National Socialism, and all attempts by our opponent to disrupt this unity must always fail.

At the beginning of the war, there were brief discussions about whether the issue of worldview should be toned down, given important new tasks, or even entirely set aside. The answer is that a worldview is always present, for the term means nothing other than

a view of the world.

Any action I take depends on the standpoint I have, on how I see things. His view of the world is self-evident to each person, whether he is conscious of it or not. We cannot, therefore, decide whether or not a worldview is necessary, for it is always there. The question that people themselves can answer is this: “Do we want a conscious worldview, which means to be led by a worldview?”

Since 30 January 1933, we in Germany have been led by a clear worldview that organizes the German people from the standpoint of National Socialism. To him who says that this is unnecessary during the war, we reply:

A people never has greater need of a worldview than during war!

In any war, the passions of people are whipped up more than at any other time. Outwardly established customs and practices can easily be disregarded during the war! Such whipping up of the passions can firm up and anchor the good in a people. However, it can also lead to the destruction of the good and the victory of the lowest instincts.

We experienced just this during the World War. In November 1918, it became clear that the German people lacked a guiding worldview, with the result that it accepted entirely false views and was left with no spiritual foundation.

But from the experience of that same World War, the Führer led the best forces of the German people to victory fifteen years later. Each who experienced the period of struggle knows how hard it was to rescue the German people from the edge of the abyss into which it would have plunged because of the lack of a guiding worldview.

We have learned from these experiences, and drawn the conclusion at the beginning of the war that a guiding worldview is one of the most important factors in this great and fateful battle of the German people.

The Führer charged the NSDAP with the task of human leadership as a way of showing its great importance. In his appeal to the party on 1 September 1939, he said:

“We all swear that the German Reich and people will begin and end this war with unbreakable unity. That is the greatest task for the National Socialist movement.”

Worldview leadership must aim to make the principles of the worldview so simple and clear that they never become empty phrases. Only in that way is it possible — over the long term — to prevent a worldview from becoming corrupted.

Even before the takeover of power, the National Socialist German Workers Party was able to defend itself against persecution and oppression by clearly proclaiming its worldview. All the ideas that had formerly guided Germany were more and more driven back. Even before 30 January 1933, National Socialism was the worldview that most Germans affirmed.

This fact made the worldview battle that we National Socialists fought much easier, since National Socialism is basically nothing other than simple German thinking. The foundations of National Socialism built were not built by force, but rather are nothing other than the recognition of the natural order created by the Almighty.

The German has always believed in god, regardless of the way in which he thought he had to seek his god. In the end, he understood him as the Almighty and the good. If we affirm god, it determines the view we take of all things in the world.

Only he who recognizes nature’s laws can properly see his task. In it, we always experience the Almighty in fresh ways. The races or blood communities are a party of the world’s natural order. Providence has placed the individual within his blood community. He cannot choose before birth his blood community, but rather that is foreordained. It is the single community from which no one can separate himself. Whether he wishes to or not, he belongs to it as long as he lives. Even if he assumes citizenship in another state, he cannot divorce himself from his blood community. The blood community is therefore the only god-ordained community in this world.

The greatest task of each German, therefore, is to serve this community at all times and in every way, giving his life for its greatness and its eternal life!

All other tasks are secondary to this one. If all Germans are conscious of this fundamental principle and guide all of their actions by it, it will never again be possible to misuse the German people in ways that has repeatedly happened in the past. The German people has nothing else to do but to live for its own interests! All the questions that the German faces may be answered only from the standpoint of Germany’s interests. In doing so, he serves not only Germany, but also the other peoples. At times when the German people forgot this fundamental task, it not only collapsed itself, but also disturbed the general order of the world. This is most clear during the period 1918-1933. When the German people was reborn, symbolized by the march through the Brandenburg Gate on 30 January 1933, the foundations for a new order in Europe, indeed in the entire world, were also created. The task of the German, which towers above all other tasks in this world, is also the first principle of National Socialism: “Eternal Germany.”

Honor

The other basic concepts of National Socialism flow from the fundamental task of seeing everything from the perspective of the eternal life of our people. The first concept to consider is that of honor. A life without honor is a pseudo-life. This is no empty phrase, but rather a fact. We see this in the everyday life of the individual. A person can seem to live, but is nonetheless lost, when he has lost his honor. A person without honor has lost not only the respect of his community, but also his rights within that community.

This law is just as hard in the lives of peoples. Germany experienced this in the years 1919 to 1933. Germany’s leaders did nothing to defend German honor, with the result that Germany was held in contempt by the whole world, which resulted in the loss of its rights. Those in Germany who went along did not think about it. The German people was plundered, and not even a single other people protested. Its sovereignty was taken from it. That was the result of the loss of its honor, resulting from the acceptance of the shameful Treaty of Versailles.

The Führer’s first step was aimed at Germany’s dishonoring. He created the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. It appeared for the first time with its program in February 1920.

Eliminating the shameful Treaty of Versailles was one of the most important goals of the party during the period of struggle. After 30 January 1933, it became part of Germany’s foreign policy.

The Führer also created the foundation for healthy thinking about questions of honor domestically. He eliminated the practice of giving special honor to individual professions and classes, and also the devaluing of the German worker. Today, all citizens are equal, regardless of which class they belong to. — The community defends the honor of each citizen. He who injures someone’s honor is punished.

But each individual defends Germany’s honor. Thus Germany today enjoys the respect the Führer fought for it to have.

The program of the NSDAP sprang from the will that Germany should not live only by appearance. Thus the first goal of the NSDAP’s battle was to reestablish the fundamental concept of the National Socialist worldview, “honor,” which is of equal significance both for the life of the individual and the life of the people.

Courage

Only he who is ready to fight for honor has it! Germany was treated in 1919 as a people without honor, because traitors and dreamers persuaded the Germans people that one can live in this world without fighting.

Not only did the German people destroy its weapons, and renounce them for the future, it also disarmed totally internally. He who affirmed a military spirit in Germany was hated, rejected, and destroyed.

It is no accident that it was the Jew who called courage stupid. He sought his success not in battle, but through fraud and swindling.

And in the war that began against Germany in 1939, the Jew sent other peoples into the battle. —

The German soldier is the best soldier in the world.

The Jew wanted to eliminate this danger to his domination of the world by persuading the German people that eternal peace was possible if it would destroy its weapons and not fight.

The Führer showed the German people that struggle rules in this world. Either one joins the battle to win, or one seeks to avoid it, and is destroyed. There is but one choice for people that wants to live an honorable and worthy life, and that is to fight.

The party reawakened this will to fight in the German people. Once it was spiritually rearmed, the Führer proclaimed its technical rearmament. That is how our incomparable German Wehrmacht came to be. It protects Germany from all external enemies. The NSDAP, meanwhile, ensures that the military spirit remains alive in the German people for all time. There will never again be a time when the German people forgets that only he can survive in this world who affirms a fundamental concept of the National Socialist worldview: “Courage.”

The German Racial Character (Volkstum)

The party thereby also fulfills its task to strengthen the German racial character. Courage is a characteristic of people of German blood.

In the past, one understood the concept of Germany as the territory that belonged to the German Reich. It was the Führer who taught the German people that Germany is the community of those with German blood. State borders are not created by nature as are races and peoples, but rather are the work of men. With this knowledge, we realize that the German people extends far beyond Germany’s state borders.

From the knowledge of the German idea of blood, German people in Austria affirmed the Greater German Reich in April 1938. They followed the great example of the Führer, who although born in the Ostmark began the struggle for Germany’s greatness in Munich and led it to its conclusion in Berlin, the capital of the Greater German Reich.

The idea of blood is not some sort of National Socialist fantasy, but provable reality, as can be demonstrated using other examples. We think here only of the Führer’s plan to include Germans living in Europe within the German Reich, insofar far as that is possible. His appeal to all who are of German blood had an effect that surprised not only the world, but even a large part of the German people itself. All of these Germans left a piece of earth that, according to normal human understanding, had been their home for centuries. However, the call of blood was stronger and more powerful than their home. They left not only their home, but all that they possessed in order to follow the call of blood.

Once we understand blood as a substance that, as the old proverb has it, is of a special nature, and once we have experienced its enormous influence in this appeal to the blood, we will be able to understand what it means if this blood is not kept pure. A person who sins against the natural laws of race and blood given by the Almighty commits the great crime that one can commit in this world. Keeping blood pure is so obvious that it really does not need to be discussed. It is the highest task that a German has to fulfill. Keeping the blood pure means the preservation of the German people’s character. It found its highest expression in the unique cultural achievements that the German gave not only to his own people, but also to all of humanity.

It is common blood that held German people together over the past centuries, despite their outward separation.

A knowledge that all people of German blood belong together will forever frustrate the hopes of our opponent that Germany will once again fall into particularism, with each person holding to the borders of his country or his Gau. However much our tribe and the state in which we lives may mean to us, however highly we value the tradition of Prussia, of Austria, Bavaria, Schwabia, Baden, Saxony — whatever they may be called —

In the future there is but one idea: Germany and German!

All of the characteristics of the individual German tribes, their songs and customs that express their nature, together form the concept that we have first come to understand in complete clarity through our racial thinking, and which has become a fundamental concept of the National Socialist worldview: “The German racial character.”

Labor

When German blood and the German nature triumphed, another view naturally had to fall, one that the Jews and their allies had suggested for decades, namely that labor was the curse of God in this world. The German never saw labor as a regrettable burden, but rather always as a blessing. To eat the bread of the sweat of his brow was to him no punishment, but rather something self-evident. He had contempt for the lazy and indolent man who believed that he could live at the cost of others. It was therefore relatively easy to restore the German viewpoint in this regard. It was made even easier by the experiences of the German people before the takeover of power. It saw how nothing was fought more bitterly than the concept of labor. It was not only degraded to being a commodity, but was seen as an evil that had to be eliminated. The ideal condition was to work as little as possible, or not at all. This was achieved by the failings of the government at the time: Unemployment came to Germany. The army of the unemployed grew from day to day, millions and millions of them.

The individual who was unemployed felt how meaningless life without work is. The whole German people, however, saw that beyond the misery of the individual, a man without work loses his foundations and becomes over time a danger to the community. For these reasons, the Führer’s first task was to eliminate unemployment and once again give the German purpose and meaning for life through his labor.

The Führer was not satisfied when he achieved this goal. He wanted to free labor from the chains resulting from a shortage of raw materials. For years the Führer attempted to negotiate with England and other countries to purchase the raw materials they possessed in abundance at a reasonable price. This attempt was in vain. The hostile attitude of international high finance in London, New York, and the other power centers of the Jewish bankers, rose at times to boycotts.

After such rejection, the Führer introduced the necessary measures in the Four Year Plan to guarantee the freedom of German labor. Although this was entirely a matter of domestic German policy, plutocrats throughout the world protested. The Führer ignored them, and went his way to win the freedom of our labor.

Plutocracy has the revolution of labor not only in this area, but it was distressed to see that the Führer wanted to overturn the social order they thought self-evident.

Until the takeover of power, the manual laborer was seen as a second class citizen in Germany as well as in the rest of the world.

In National Socialist Germany, the manual laborer has become a fully equal people’s comrade.

The concept “worker,” which was earlier a sign of inferiority, is today the most honorable title of the German people! As an eternal, living monument, the Führer created the Reich Labor Service, which constantly reminds the German that honest labor is never a disgrace, but rather is always an honor. On 1 May, the whole German people comes together to honor a fundamental concept of the National Socialist world view: “Labor.”

The Principle of Achievement

Labor is a part of a person’s accomplishment. The individual’s achievements lead to his rights. The leadership principle can only be understood on this basis. Leadership in Germany is determined not by one’s birth, but instead each has to prove what he can do and if he is capable of leadership.

A leadership principle that was not based on achievement would lose all moral justification.

Occupational competitions are a visible expression of this view. Each individual has constantly to prove himself through his achievements. Everyone in Germany has the opportunity to achieve. — The right to work is no empty phrase, but rather a reality.

The education of the youth is determined not by parents’ money, but rather by achievement. The Adolf Hitler Schools are open to all who have the necessary gifts. Admission is independent of external factors such as wealth and family name, depending only on ability and character. Each is able to reach the highest levels of leadership within the party, dependent only on his achievements.

If despite these principles someone reaches a position for which he does not possess the ability, he will not stay in the position.

Achievement has become the implacable judge of the rights of our people.

By achievement we mean the totality of a person’s service to the community of his people. Any honest and decent work achieves something that is respected and valued. No work is thought to be inferior, something for which we are “too good.” The simplest job, done honorably and well, is a more valuable achievement than a “fine” job done without a sense of responsibility.

The National Socialist worldview differs most clearly from that of the plutocrats with regards to labor and achievement. For them, labor is not a part of a moral life, but merely a means to the end of earning money. A worker to them is not a comrade, but an object of exploitation. a factor in calculations. The right to lead comes not from achievement, but only from the title and riches that he inherited from his father. His “achievements” consist in using ruthless power against others, without regard to the community of his people, or even the rights of other peoples who attempt to advance through honest achievements. If the German people becomes a leading people in the future, responsible for the order and peace of Europe, we know that this right can be maintained only by constant new achievements. National Socialist thinking about leadership can only be understood, then, when we understand it in terms of a fundamental principle of the National Socialist worldview: “The principle of achievement.”

Public Health

Only he who keeps his strength can accomplish anything. For this reason, everyone possible is done to increase the strength of the individual, whether through vacations, “Kraft durch Freude,” sports, or other means. Since one’s strength must be used on behalf of the whole German people, National Socialism cannot recognize the principle: “Your body belongs to you.” The body, the health of the individual, belong to the whole people! It is therefore not a private matter if one ruins his body through drugs or diseases that result from carelessness or an unhealthy lifestyle. Health is not only the most valuable possession of the individual, but also of the whole people.

In preserving health, National Socialism is following fundamentally new ways of thinking. In the past, one understood health care as caring for those who were ill. Enormous means were used. And in certain circles, the ill were the model of humanity, at the center of all action and thought. No one made the effort to find the roots of illness, or to consider: “How could we stop illness at its start, or at least limit it as much as possible?” The means used by National Socialism must, of course, be used to heal and care for the sick, as always has been done. However, the main focus of our health care system is avoiding illness, and maintaining the health of the individual. We include here not only the work of the doctor in the National Socialist state, but also the whole work of the NSV, which the Führer created largely for this purpose. The sterilization of genetically ill people only serves the purpose of protecting the German people from illnesses. Sterilization is not a judgment on those it affects. To the contrary, we appeal above all to their sense of community, to their knowledge that it must be their duty to subordinate their personal interests to those of the community. If they fulfill their duty, the community must ensure that they receive the appropriate respect. Those circles that consider such a requirement as inhumane may be reminded that they considered it not only not to be inhumane, but even pleasing to God, when people tortured themselves and disfigured their bodies. From a practical point of view, they benefited no one, but rather only harmed their bodies, whereas sterilization promotes the health of the people, indeed the health of the whole of humanity

The responsibility that National Socialism takes for the individuals of its people cannot be better understood than through the fact that “public health” is a fundamental principle of the National Socialist worldview.

Blood and Soil

The more naturally a person thinks, the better he will understand National Socialist thinking in the area of public health. But not only this principle, but rather all the fundamental principles of National Socialism are easiest to understand if one understands the natural order. This is obviously harder for someone who lives in a city than it is for one who is rooted to the soil. A person who lives in the country lives in a more natural way than one who lives in the city, without having to think about it. Simplicity and modesty, the most important marks of the German people’s character, are things that one does not have to talk about in the country; here they are self-evident. That is why a people must always work to remain connected to the soil.

Although now and in the future, as a result of general developments, there will be more city-dwellers, one of the most important tasks is to ensure that the German people maintain the land. A task of people’s leadership must be to maintain mutual understanding between city and country. A connection to the soil is the best guarantee for the purity of German nature as an expression of German blood.

When discussing labor we mentioned that no labor is harmful, but rather than each is ennobled by honorable labor. We may not forget the fundamental principle of agricultural labor: Only he who works the land possesses it in the end. This involves all the tasks of agricultural life. This includes the German farmer, the agricultural laborer, craftsmen and teachers, in short all the occupations that are part of the village community. They all contribute not only to maintaining the purity of German life, but also its connection to the soil — the connection between blood and soil. This is the guarantee of something that we recognize particularly during war: the assurance of he food supply. Germany can only be really free and independent if it feeds itself.

Thus agriculture has a dual task that we explain to people’s comrades using a basic term of National Socialism: “Blood and soil.”

The People’s Community

Each profession has its role in country life. No occupation is held in less esteem. This viewpoint results from our National Socialist community thinking.

One of the main failings of the German people throughout history was splintering, even fighting one another. The forces behind the Peace of Westphalia believed that this evil was so great that one only had to break up the German Reich in order to split the German people forever, to play one group against the other. This was a mistake. Although the disunity did the German people harm, there was always a longing on the part of the best Germans for the unity of our people.

The first great visible step in fulfilling this longing was Bismarck’s work — based on the various efforts of individual Germans. Through him, “Germany” became a state concept once again, behind which there was considerable power. Bismarck completed a part of the struggle that the German people with its various tribes had always fought for with growing clarity over the years.

Nonetheless particularism remained a danger for the German Reich and the parties. Seducers and dreamers attempted to exaggerate the interests of the individual German until he forgot the common interest. In one case, one attempted to renew the old battles between the tribes. In another case, one argued that religious differences were more important than the common fate, than one’s duty as a people. For others, class struggle was the center of thought and action.

Germany was, therefore, a unity with regards to the state, but its strength and labor were always dissipated by internal struggles, the best way to destroy itself.

Here, too, the Führer worked to bring the German people away from this crazy spectacle for the world and back to healthy, natural thinking. In place of an emphasis on differences came the knowledge that the people’s community stood over all differences of region, religion, or class. In every major question of life, we are first and last German!

He who stands in the way of the unity of the German people is seen as harmful, and is dealt with and removed! The time when the German people could be set against each other is gone forever.

The community that now binds the German people together is based on the foundation of camaraderie and discipline.

Discipline is the voluntary subordination of the individual to the interests of the community.

The Reich party rallies of the NSDAP always show the German people the variety of tasks that are mastered by the whole. Their annual reports show the great achievements gained through cooperation and voluntary submission to discipline. The Führer charges the National Socialist German Workers’ Party with worldview and political leadership in all areas to ensure the unity of the German people for all time. The people’s leadership comes from every part of the German people. It is the best guarantee that all tasks we face will be dealt with in accordance with a fundamental principle of the National Socialist worldview: “The people’s community.”

Socialism in Action

The tasks that we have to resolve within the framework of the community of the German people are self-evident for each German, because by fate we were born into the community of the German people. However obvious this is, the individual must willingly affirm that he is thankful to fate for having been born into the community of the German people, that he is able to belong to this German people.

We National Socialists have never valued mere words. For us there is but one form of affirmation: deeds!

A deed that goes beyond obvious duty is a sacrifice.

The Führer originated the term “socialism in action.” In do doing, he gave socialism a meaning that has nothing to do with the demands of the individual from the community, but rather means a community of spirit in which the individual makes the sacrifices that are necessary in the interests of the community. We are reminded of this each year on the day on which the Führer’s Winter Relief campaign begins. But the Winter Relief campaign, and its financial contributions, does not exhaust the concept of socialism in action. There are ways to demonstrate socialism in action other than by contributing money.

If the German farmer, ignoring the difficulties and dangers which the weather alone can cause him, guarantees the German people’s food by unending labor, we should recall at the harvest festival that this farmer is an example of practical socialism.

Each hour of overtime — as long as the German worker does it in the interests of the German people!—is an example of socialism in action.

The German mother who devotes her entire life to the task of keeping her family in order and raising healthy and diligent children for the German people practices socialism in action. The German woman who volunteers to work in place of her husband proves her practical socialism. She knows that she must take on this task because of the lack of births in the period before 1933. The German people back then failed the natural task given to it by fate. This failing must be balanced out by action.

Political leaders the office holders in the party, party members, and men of the affiliated organizations and clubs who daily do voluntary work for the political and educational education and unity of the German people are socialists in action. The men who do their duty as soldiers also practice socialism, even to the ultimate sacrifice.

The legendary heroism on the Eastern Front shows us the ultimate in “sacrifice,” which can never be equaled by other deeds for the people’s community, and thus make them so obvious for the individual.

The individual puts his labor, his possessions, and even his life in the service of the community. For us National Socialists, this is the highest and only affirmation that a person can do to show his will for the good!

We summarize all this together in a basic concept of National Socialism: “Socialism in action.”

Loyalty

Sacrifice is the highest expression of loyalty.

National Socialism can be fully lived only by he whose loyalty is rooted in his inner being.

Loyalty is the main element of character. He who does not have it lacks character. The Führer, therefore, has always forgiven individual transgressions; only in punishing lack of loyalty is he without pity. Loyalty is always particularly important in our community life. Even within a factory, the factory head and the employee must be loyal to each other. Loyalty is the foundation of the community of the party and of the Wehrmacht. Being loyal is more than camaraderie and more than voluntary obedience through discipline. It is the culmination of both concepts. Loyalty can only be demanded by him who is willing to be loyal to others. “Loyalty for loyalty” is no cheap phrase, but rather reveals the deepest meaning of this concept.

How serious a lack of loyalty can be is shown by examples from the history of the German people. When the leadership or followers were no longer loyal, the whole German people collapsed. In the failure of worldview in November 1918, we experienced the most terrible effects of disloyalty. A part of the followers deserted the leadership because they believed the false views of seducers and dreamers. Even more catastrophic was the disloyalty of the leadership, which left the whole German people in the lurch. They took from the healthy part of the German people the strength and determination that alone could have rescued Germany.

The Führer eliminated the results of those November days of 1918.

In his first steps in those days, he eliminated disloyalty. In November 1923, we saw how the Führer took full responsibility and stood freely before his opponents to protect his followers. We also experienced how those followers, at a time when the whole world considered National Socialism and the Führer to be lost, increased their enthusiasm for the Führer to the level of fanaticism that enabled them to withstand future blows in a way that our opponents were never able to understand.

Thus at the beginning of the struggle of the National Socialist German Workers Party, a fundamental concept was writ large: “Loyalty.”

The Family

Each worldview has eternal value if we experience it not only at great moments and events, but also if it is useful in daily life. Just as we experience the loyalty of the whole people as well as the individual at important moments for the nation, we have also in private life the most varied opportunities to prove our loyalty. The relationship between husband and wife, from which the core of each people, “the family,” springs, has real value and strength only if it is based on loyalty,

We must experience all the great National Socialist concepts within the family. Here each can show whether or not he is serious about his worldview. The essential characteristics of the German racial character, simplicity and modesty, are most visible in family life.

The last and deepest sense of family life is having many children, from which the family is born.

If, therefore, Germans gather together at Christmas to celebrate in the close family circle, the individual German, consciously or unconsciously experiences anew the festival of the German family. Parents express their love for their children in these days and hours, particularly in the preparations. They sense that the meaning of their family life is in their children. And the feelings of the children toward their parents, the older they become, are less thanks for their presents and more thanks for all the work and love of their parents, which they come to esteem. For us National Socialists, the family is not only a private matter, but rather the task eternal Germany gives us to ensure life through our children for all time.

The concept of “family” has a meaning that is often misunderstood: the affirmation of life. If we combine an affirmation of life with the idea of the family, we experience the personification of pure joy. We well never fall victim to the misunderstanding that confuses an affirmation of life with a lack of restraint and debauchery. Only he who knows the limits and holds to them can enjoy the beautiful, can have real joy. We thus experience the affirmation of life most beautifully and clearly within the family, since the birth of each child is an affirmation of life.

History shows us how important it is to connect the affirmation of life with the family. We need think only of Carthage and Rome and all the other examples from antiquity to remember that, but we can also look at the present state of the world to find many more examples.

If, therefore, we want to root National Socialism in practical life and preserve it, we can best do this by always keeping in mind a fundamental concept of National Socialism:The family.”

The family is the eternal wellspring of the people. From it the people is constantly renewed. It is thus one of the most essential requirements for an eternal Germany.

This completes the

circle of fundamental National Socialist concepts.

An

eternal Germany

can exist only if the German people preserve its

honor.

Only he has honor who is ready to display

courage

even to the ultimate. The battle for Germany can be guided only by deepest conviction by someone who knows that Germany is not a geographical concept, but rather the community of people of German blood who reveal their

German racial character.

One of the fundamentals of this German racial character — in contrast to the views of other peoples — is

labor,

seen not as a burden, but rather as a requirement if one is to find inner satisfaction. National Socialism, therefore, has concluded that achievement is the measure of the worth of the individual and the community. The

principle of achievement

has thus become the National Socialist leadership principle. Since labor and achievement have a higher meaning for us Germans who serve the community, so also the health of the individual is not his private concern, but rather is a matter of the community, one of

public health.

The more naturally the German sees things and lives his life, the easier it will be to maintain the health of the German people. For this reason, the connection to nature finds its most beautiful expression in the concept of

blood and soil,

a prerequisite for the eternity of the German people. This does not mean that city and country people have a different value, for both must fulfill their duty to Germany, but rather only a compelling necessity. In National Socialist Germany, each German is of equal value and has equal obligations. Above all the varying tasks stands what we share, the

people’s community.

We are not only ready to fulfill our duty toward it, but also to provide ever new support through our sacrifices.

Socialism in action

brings together all of these various sacrifices. It is not to deal with a particular need, but rather it is a demand of Germans at all times. Sacrifice is the final result of

loyalty,

which binds together leadership and followers so firmly that nothing and no one can separate them. It is not only that which holds together the great community of the German people, but also every community of life. The most important individual community within the people’s community, for all healthy peoples at all times, is the

family.

For us National Socialists it means not only the firm foundation of a state, but also the community from which children are born, which are to us the living expression of

eternal Germany.

We experience National Socialism as a totality. Only in that way can we truly understand it, seeing it not from the standpoint of the part, but of the whole. Everything, whether in politics, the economy, culture, or the private life of the individual must be examined, seen, and fulfilled according to the fundamental concepts of National Socialism. Why is it necessary for the German people to see the world from a firm foundation?

No people takes challenges, problems, or outlooks as seriously and earnestly as does the German people. It does not matter if the individual is conscious of this or not. History teaches that the German people always plunged from the heights of its development and greatness, because it did not see the world in a united way. It was not clear about the foundations of its worldview. Only because of that was it possible for seducers and dreamers repeatedly to incite the German people against each other through slogans and ideologies.

If the German people sees the questions that it faces from a united view of he world, even the loveliest slogans will no longer be able to lead it astray. But it is not only important to guarantee the unity, and therefore the greatness, of the German people by ensuring that it sees the world from a united perspective, but it is also important that the individual knows the basis from which he faces life’s tasks. Therefore, it is necessary to speak not only of the totality of the National Socialist idea, to speak not only of a “worldview” or of “National Socialism,” but also to show the individual concepts that make up the whole idea.

In putting fundamental National Socialist concepts into practice, it is necessary to mention the fact that the Führer has always said:

National Socialism is not a matter of the moment, but rather an eternal task for the German people!

We must, therefore, realize that on the one hand we are at the beginning of the National Socialist education of the German people. We must evaluate individual instances in which these fundamental principles are not held to from this perspective.

On the other hand, the eternal task means that the German people must always be reminded of National Socialism and its individual principle to train them in National Socialist thinking and behavior. Today we have the Führer as the great model toward whom each individual German people’s comrade can strive and imitate. For eternity, however, the Führer gave the German people a worldview able to guide all of its actions:

National Socialism!

NSDAP Pamphlet Series

This series, in cooperation with numerous leading personalities of the movement and state, has the important task of firming up and strengthening the intellectual-spiritual resistance of the German people, which is inextricably bound to the certainty of its worldview. It meets the wishes of millions of German people’s comrades who want answers to many of the questions raised by the war. This series will provide them with the necessary knowledge to form an independent and politically confident judgment about the deeper causes of our present fight for existence, as well as about the background of today’s world-political situation. This includes not only a clear understanding of the nature of our opponent, but also instruction on the most pressing problems the German people faces at home. The individual publications are by experts in the political and economic areas, but are also written in a way that can be easily understood, and should remain useful and valid after the end of the war.

The price of each pamphlet is low enough so that no people’s comrade will be unable to purchase it for financial reasons.

Last edited 24 November 2023

[Page copyright © 2009 by Randall L. Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page.]


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