IN
SEVERAL RESPECTS THE YEAR 1921 has assumed a special significance
for me and the movement.
After
my entrance into the German Workers' Party, I at once took
over the management of propaganda. I regarded this department
as by far the most important. For the present, it was less
important to rack one's brains over organizational questions
than to transmit the idea itself to a larger number of people.
Propaganda had to run far in advance of organization and provide
it with the human material to be worked on. Moreover, I am
an enemy of too rapid and too pedantic organizing. It usually
produces nothing but a dead mechanism, seldom a living organization.
For organization is a thing that owes its existence to organic
life, organic development. Ideas which have gripped a certain
number of people will always strive for a greater order, and
a great value must attributed to this inner molding. Here,
too, we must reckon with the weakness of men, which leads
the individual, at first at least, instinctively to resist
a superior mind. If an organization is mechanically ordered
from above, there exists a great danger that a once appointed
leader, not yet accurately evaluated and perhaps none too
capable, will from jealousy strive to prevent the rise of
abler elements within the movement. The harm that arises in
such a case can, especially in a young movement, be of catastrophic
significance..
For
this reason it is more expedient for a time to disseminate
an idea by propaganda from a central point and then carefully
to search and examine the gradually gathering human material
for leading minds. Sometimes it will turn out that men inconspicuous
in themselves must nevertheless be regarded as born leaders.
But
it would be absolutely mistaken to regard a wealth of theoretical
knowledge as characteristic proof for the qualities and abilities
of a leader.
The
opposite is often the case.
The
great theoreticians are only in the rarest cases great
organizers, since the greatness of the theoretician
and program-maker lies primarily in the recognition
and establishment of abstractly correct laws, while
the organizer must primarily be a psychologist. He
must take people as they are and must therefore know them.
He must not overestimate them, any more than he must underestimate
them in the mass. On the contrary, he must endeavor to take
weakness and bestiality equally into account, in order, considering
all factors, to create a formation which will be a living
organism, imbued with strong and stable power, and thus suited
to upholding an idea and paving the way for its success.
Even
more seldom, however, is a great theoretician a great leader.
Much more readily will an agitator be one, something
which many who only work scientifically on the question do
not want to hear. And yet that is understandable. An agitator
who demonstrates the ability to transmit an idea to the broad
masses must always be a psychologist, even if he were only
a demagogue. Then he will still be more suited for leadership
than the unworldly theoretician, who is ignorant of people.
For leading means: being able to move masses. The gift
of shaping ideas has nothing to do with ability as a leader.
And it is quite useless to argue which is of greater importance,
to set up ideals and aims for mankind, or to realize them.
Here, as so often in life: one would be utterly meaningless
without the other. The finest theoretical insight remains
without purpose and value if the leader does not set the masses
in motion toward it. And conversely, of what avail would be
all the genius and energy of a leader, if the brilliant theoretician
did not set up aims for the human struggle? However, the combination
of theoretician, organizer, and leader in one person is the
rarest thing that can be found on this earth; this combination
makes the great man.
As
I have already remarked, I devoted myself to propaganda in
the first period of my activity in the movement. What it had
to do was gradually to fill a small nucleus of men with the
new doctrine, and so prepare the material which could later
furnish the first elements of an organization.
When
a movement harbors the purpose of tearing down a world and
building another in its place, complete clarity must reign
in the ranks of its own leadership with regard to the following
principles:
Every
movement will first have to sift the human material it wins
into two large groups: supporters and members.
The
function of propaganda is to attract supporters, the function
of organization to win members.
A
supporter of a movement is one who declares himself to be
in agreement with its aims, a member is one who fights for
them.
The
supporter is made amenable to the movement by propaganda.
The member is induced by the organization to participate personally
in the recruiting of new supporters, from whom in turn members
can be developed.
Since
being a supporter requires only a passive recognition of an
idea, while membership demands active advocacy and defense,
to ten supporters there will at most be one or two members.
Being
a supporter is rooted only in understanding, membership in
the courage personally to advocate and disseminate what has
been understood.
Understanding
in its passive form corresponds to the majority of mankind
which is lazy and cowardly. Membership requires an activistic
frame of mind and thus corresponds only to the minority of
men.
Propaganda
will consequently have to see that an idea wins supporters,
while the organization must take the greatest care only to
make the most valuable elements among the supporters into
members. Propaganda does not, therefore, need to rack its
brains with regard to the importance of every individual instructed
by it, with regard to his agility, capacity, and understanding,
or character, while the organization must carefully gather
from the mass of these elements those which really make possible
the victory of the movement.
*...............*...............*
Propaganda
tries to force a doctrine on the whole people; the organization
embraces within its scope only those who do not threaten on
psychological grounds to become a brake on the further dissemination
of the idea.
*...............*...............*
Propaganda
works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea
and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea, while the
organization achieves victory by the persistent, organic,
and militant union of those supporters who seem willing and
able to carry on the fight for victory.
*...............*...............*
The
victory of an idea will be possible the sooner, the more comprehensively
propaganda has prepared people as a whole and the more exclusive,
rigid, and firm the organization which carries out the fight
in practice.
From
this it results that the number of supporters cannot be too
large, out that the number of members can more readily be
too large than too small.
*...............*...............*
If
propaganda has imbued a whole people with an idea, the organization
can draw the consequences with a handful of men. Propaganda
and organization, in other words, supporters and members,
thus stand in a certain mutual relation. The better the propaganda
has worked, the smaller the organization can be; and the larger
the number of supporters, the more modest the number of members
can be; and vice versa: the poorer the propaganda is, the
larger the organization must be, and the smaller the host
of followers of a movement remains, the more extensive the
number of its members must be, if it still hopes to count
on any success at all.
*...............*...............*
The
first task of propaganda is to win people for subsequent organization;
the first task of organization is to win men for the continuation
of propaganda. The second task of propaganda is the disruption
of the existing state of affairs and the permeation of this
state of affairs with the new doctrine, while the second task
of organization must be the struggle for power, thus to achieve
the final success of the doctrine.
*...............*...............*
The
most striking success of a revolution based on a philosophy
of life will always have been achieved when the new philosophy
of life as far as possible has been taught to all men, and,
if necessary, later forced upon them, while the organization
of the idea, in other words, the movement, should embrace
only as many as are absolutely required for occupying the
nerve centers of the state in question.
This,
in other words, means the following:
In
every really great world-shaking movement, propaganda will
first have to spread the idea of this movement. Thus, it will
indefatigably attempt to make the new thought processes clear
to the others, and therefore to draw them over to their own
ground, or to make them uncertain of their previous conviction.
Now, since the dissemination of an idea, that is, propaganda,
must have a firm backbone, the doctrine will have to give
itself a solid organization. The organization obtains its
members from the general body of supporters won by propaganda.
The latter will grow the more rapidly, the more intensively
the propaganda is carried on, and the latter in turn can work
better, the stronger and more powerful the organization is
that stands behind it.
Hence
it is the highest task of the organization to make sure that
no inner disunities within the membership of the movement
lead to a split and hence a weakening of the movement's work,
further, that the spirit of determined attack does not die
out, but is continuously renewed and reinforced. The number
of members need not grow infinitely; on the contrary: since
only a small fraction of mankind is by nature energetic and
bold, a movement which endlessly enlarges its organization
would inevitably be weakened some day as a result. Organizations,
in other words, membership figures, which grow beyond a certain
level gradually lose their fighting power and are no longer
capable of supporting or utilizing the propaganda of an idea
resolutely and aggressively.
The
greater and more essentially revolutionary an idea is, the
more activistic its membership will become, since the revolutionary
force of a doctrine involves a danger for its supporters,
which seems calculated to keep cowardly little shopkeepers
away from it. They will privately regard themselves as
supporters, but decline to make a public avowal of this by
membership. By virtue of this fact, the organization of
a really revolutionary idea obtains as members only the most
active among the supporters won over by propaganda. And
precisely in this activity of a movement's membership, guaranteed
by natural selection, lies the premise for equally active
future propaganda as well as a successful struggle for the
realization of the idea.
The
greatest danger that can threaten a movement is a membership
which has grown abnormally as a result of too rapid successes.
For, just as a movement is shunned by all cowardly and egotistic
individuals, as long as it has to fight bitterly, these same
people rush with equal alacrity to acquire membership when
a success of the party has been made probable or already realized
by developments
To
this it must be ascribed why many victorious movements, on
the point of success, or, rather, the ultimate completion
of their will, suddenly from inexplicable inner weakness,
flag, stop fighting, and finally die out. In consequence of
their first victory, so many inferior, unworthy, and worst
of all cowardly, elements have entered their organization
that these inferior people finally achieve predominance over
the militants and then force the movement into the service
of their own interests, lower it to the level of their own
scanty heroism, and do nothing to complete the victory of
the original idea. The fanatical zeal has been blurred, the
fighting force paralyzed, or, as the bourgeois world correctly
puts it in such cases: 'Water has been mixed with the wine.'
And when that happens, the trees can no longer grow skyward.
It
is, therefore, most necessary that a movement, for pure reasons
of self-preservation, should, once it has begun to achieve
success, immediately block enrollments and henceforth increase
its organization only with extreme caution and after the most
thorough scrutiny. Only in this way will it be able to
preserve the core of the movement in unvitiated freshness
and health. It must see to it that, from this point on,
this core alone shall exclusively lead the movement, that
is, determine the propaganda which should lead to its universal
recognition, and, in full possession of the power, undertake
the actions which are necessary for the practical realization
of its ideas.
It
must not only occupy all the important positions of the conquered
territory with the basic core of the old movement, but also
constitute the entire leadership. And this until the principles
and doctrines of the party have become the foundation and
content of the new state. Only then can the reins gradually
be handed over to the special government of this state, born
of its spirit. This, however, in turn occurs for the most
part only in mutual struggle since it is less a question of
human insight than of the play and workings of forces which
can perhaps be recognized from the first, but cannot forever
be guided.
All
great movements, whether of a religious or a political nature,
must attribute their mighty successes only to the recognition
and application of these principles, and all lasting successes
in particular are not even thinkable without consideration
of these laws.
*...............*...............*
As
director of the party's propaganda I took much pains, not
only to prepare the soil for the future greatness of the movement,
but by an extremely radical conception in this work I also
strove to bring it about that the party should obtain only
the best material. For the more radical and inflammatory my
propaganda was, the more this frightened weaklings and hesitant
characters, and prevented them from penetrating the primary
core of our organization. They might continue as supporters,
but certainly not with loud emphasis; they timidly concealed
the fact. How many thousands assured me at that time that
they were essentially in agreement with everything we said,
but that under no circumstances could they become members.
The movement, they said, was so radical that membership in
it would expose the individual to the gravest difficulties,
nay, dangers, and we shouldn't take it amiss if the honest,
peaceable citizen should stand aside for the present at least,
even if at heart he was entirely with the cause.
And
this was good.
If
these men, who at heart were not for the revolution, had all
come into our party at that time, and as members, we could
regard ourselves today as a pious fraternal organization,
but no longer as a young militant movement.
The
live and aggressive form that I then gave to our propaganda
reinforced and guaranteed the radical tendency of our movement,
since now only radical people - with some exceptions - were
ready for membership.
At
the same time, this propaganda had the effect that after a
short while hundreds of thousands not only believed us to
be right lout desired our victory, even if personally they
were too cowardly to make sacrifices for it, let alone fight
for it.
Up
to the middle of 1921 this purely propagandist activity could
still suffice and benefit the movement. But special events
in the midsummer of this year made it seem indicated that
now after the slowly visible success of our propaganda, the
organization should be adapted to it and put on a par with
it.
The
attempt of a group of folkish lunatics to obtain the leadership
of the party, with the aid and support of the party chairman
of the time, led to the collapse of this little intrigue and,
at a general membership meeting, unanimously gave me the leadership
over the whole movement. Immediately, a new by-law was passed,
transferring full responsibility to the first chairman of
the party, eliminating committee decisions as a matter of
principle, and introducing instead a system of division of
labor which has since proved its worth in the most beneficial
way.
Beginning
on August 1, 1921, I took over this inner reorganization of
the movement and in so doing found the support of a number
of excellent people whom I consider it necessary to mention
in a special appendix.
In
the attempt to organizationally exploit the results of propaganda
and thereby establish them for all time, I had to do away
with a number of previous habits and introduce principles
which none of the existing parties possessed or would even
have recognized.
In
the years from 1919 to 1920 the movement had for leadership
a committee which was chosen by membership meetings, which
themselves in turn were prescribed by rule. The committee
consisted of a first and second treasurer, a first and second
secretary, and at the head, a first and second chairman. Added
to these was a membership secretary, the propaganda chief,
and various assisting committeemen.
Strange
as it may seem, this committee actually embodied exactly what
the party most wanted to combat, namely, parliamentarianism.
For it was obvious that we were involved with a principle
which from the smallest local group, through the later districts,
counties, and provinces, up to the Reich leadership, embodied
the very same system under which we all suffered and today
still suffer.
It
was urgently necessary to bring about a change in this some
day, unless the movement, in consequence of the poor foundation
of its inner organization, were to be forever ruined and hence
incapable of ever fulfilling its high mission.
The
committee sessions, of which minutes were kept, and in which
votes were taken and decisions made by a majority, represented
in reality a parliament on a small scale. Here, too, all personal
responsibility was lacking. Here, too, the same irrationality
and the same unreasonableness reigned as in our great state
representative bodies. For this committee, secretaries; treasurers,
membership secretaries, propaganda chiefs, and God knows what
else were appointed, and then all of them together were made
to deliberate on every single question and decide by vote.
And so the man who was there for propaganda voted on a matter
that regarded the finance man, and he in turn voted on a matter
regarding organization, and the latter in turn on a matter
which should only have concerned the secretary, etc.
Why
they bothered to appoint a special man for propaganda, when
treasurers, secretaries, membership secretaries, etc., had
to decide on questions regarding it, seems just as incomprehensible
to a healthy mind as it would be incomprehensible if in a
big industrial enterprise the directors or engineers of other
departments and other branches had to decide on questions
having nothing to do with their affairs.
I
did not submit to this lunacy, but after a short time stayed
away from the sessions. I did my propaganda work and let it
go at that, and I did not stand for any incompetent trying
to tell me what to do in this field. Just as, conversely,
I did not interfere in the business of the others.
When
the acceptance of the new statutes and my appointment to the
position of first chairman had meanwhile given me the necessary
authority and the rights that went with it, this nonsense
immediately stopped. In the place of committee decisions,
the principle of absolute responsibility was introduced.
The
first chairman is responsible for the total leadership of
the movement. He apportions the work to be performed among
the committeemen subordinated to him and among whatever other
collaborators are needed. And each one of these gentlemen
is absolutely responsible for the tasks transferred to him.
He is subordinated only to the first chairman, who must procure
the cooperation of all, or else must bring about this cooperation
by the choice of persons and the issuance of general directives.
This
law of fundamental responsibility was gradually taken for
granted within the movement, at least in so far as the party
leadership was concerned. In the little local groups and perhaps
even in the counties and districts, it will take years before
these principles will be forced through, since scare-cats
and incompetents will of course always fight against it; to
them sole responsibility for an undertaking will always be
unpleasant; they always felt freer and better when in every
grave decision they were covered by the majority of a so-called
committee. But to me it seems necessary to express myself
with the greatest sharpness against such an attitude, to make
no concession to cowardice in the face of responsibility,
and thereby, even if it takes a long time, to achieve a conception
of leader's duty and leader's ability, which will bring to
leadership exclusively those who are really called and chosen
for it.
In
any case a movement that wants to combat the parliamentary
madness must itself be free of it. Only on such a basis can
it win the strength for its struggle.
A
movement which in a time of majority rule orients itself in
all things on the principle of the leader idea and the responsibility
conditioned by it will some day with mathematical certainty
overcome the existing state of affairs and emerge victorious.
This
idea led to a complete reorganization within the movement.
And in its logical effects also to an extremely sharp division
between the business activities of the movement and the general
political leadership. As a matter of principle, the idea of
responsibility was extended to all the party activities and
led inevitably to their recovery, in exact proportion as they
were freed from political influences and adjusted to purely
economic considerations.
When
in the fall of 1919, I joined the handful of men who then
constituted the party, it had neither a business office nor
a clerk, not even forms or rubber stamps; and no printed matter
existed. The committee room was first a tavern in the Herrengasse,
and later a café on the Gasteig. That was an impossible
state of affairs. Soon afterward I started out and visited
a number of Munich restaurants and taverns with the intention
of renting a back room or some other space for the party.
In the former Sterneckerbräu in the Tal, there was a
small vault-like room which had once served the imperial councilors
of Bavaria as a sort of taproom. It was dark and gloomy and
thus was just as well suited for its former purpose as it
was ill-suited for its projected new use. The alley on which
its single window opened was so narrow that even on the brightest
summer day the room remained gloomy and dark. This became
our first business office. But since the monthly rent was
only fifty marks (then an exorbitant sum for us!), we could
make no greater demands and were not even in a position to
complain when, before we moved in, the wall paneling, formerly
intended for the imperial councilors, was quickly torn out,
so that now the room really gave more the impression of a
funeral vault than of an office.
And
yet this was an immense step forward. Slowly we obtained electric
light, even more slowly a telephone; a table and a few borrowed
chairs were brought in, finally an open book-stand, still
somewhat later a cupboard; two sideboards belonging to the
landlord served for keeping pamphlets, posters, etc.
The
previous system - that is, having the movement run by a committee
session taking place once a week - was impossible in the long
run. Only an official paid by the movement could guarantee
the day-to-day business organization.
At
the time that was very difficult. The movement still had so
few members that it took great skill to find among them a
suitable man who, making the smallest demands for his own
person, could satisfy the innumerable demands of the movement.
In
the person of a soldier, named Schüssler, one of my former
comrades, the first business manager of the party was found.
At first he came to our new office only daily from six to
eight o'clock, later from five to eight, finally every afternoon,
and shortly afterward he was taken on full time and served
from morning until late into the night. He was a man as conscientious
as he was upright and absolutely honest, who personally took
the greatest pains and was devoted with especial loyalty to
the movement itself. Schüssler brought with him a small
Adler typewriter that belonged to him. It was the first such
instrument in the service of our movement. Later the party
acquired it by installment payments. A small safe seemed necessary
to safeguard the card index and the membership books from
thieves. We did not acquire it in order to deposit any large
sums of money we might have had at the time. On the contrary,
everything was extremely threadbare, and often I contributed
from my own small savings.
A
year and a half later, the business office was too small,
and we moved into a new place in the Corneliusstrasse. Again
it was a tavern we moved to, but now we no longer possessed
only a single room, but three rooms and one large additional
room with a wicket-window. At the time that seemed to us like
a good deal. Here we remained until November, 1923.
In
December, 1920, we acquired the Völkischer Beobachter.
This paper, which, as its name indicates, stood on the whole
for folkish interests even then, was now to be transformed
into the organ of the NSDAP. At first it appeared twice a
week, at the beginning of 1923 became a daily, and at the
end of August, 1923, it received its large format which later
became well known.
As
a total novice in the field of journalism, I sometimes had
to pay dearly for my experience in those days.
The
mere fact that in comparison with the enormous Jewish press
there was hardly a single really significant folkish paper
gave food for thought. This, as I later ascertained any number
of times in practice, was in large part due to the unbusinesslike
management of so-called folkish enterprises in general. They
were too much conducted from the angle that loyalty takes
precedence over achievement. An absolutely false standpoint,
in so far as loyalty must not be an outward thing, but find
its most eminent expression in achievement. Anyone who creates
something really valuable for his people thus gives evidence
of an equally valuable loyalty, while another, who merely
displays hypocritical loyalty, but in reality performs no
useful services for his people, is an enemy to any true loyalty.
And his loyalty is a burden to the community.
The
Völkischer Beobachter, as its very name indicates,
was also a folkish organ, with all the advantages, and even
more faults and weaknesses, that were characteristic of folkish
institutions. Honest as its content was, the management of
the enterprise was impossible from the commercial viewpoint.
It, too, was run on the assumption that folkish newspapers
must be supported by folkish contributions, instead of the
principle that they must make their way in competition with
other papers and that it is indecent to cover the negligence
or mistakes of their business management by the donations
of well-situated patriots.
In
any case I attempted to eliminate this state of affairs, the
objectionableness of which I had soon recognized, and luck
favored me by making me acquainted with the man who since
then, not only as business manager of the paper, but also
of the party, has performed services of the greatest value
for the movement. In 1914 - at the front, that is - I met
Max Amann, the present general business manager of the party
(then still my superior in rank). During the four years of
the War, I had an almost continuous opportunity to observe
the extraordinary ability, the industry and scrupulous conscientiousness
of my future collaborator.
In
midsummer of 1921, when the movement was in a grave crisis
and I could no longer be satisfied with a number of employees,
and with one in fact had had the bitterest experience, I turned
to my former regimental comrade, whom chance brought to me
one day, with the request that he become business manager
of the movement. After long hesitation - Amann was holding
a position with good prospects - he finally consented, though
on condition that he would never serve as a stooge for any
incompetent committees, but would exclusively recognize a
single master.
It
is the inextinguishable merit of this first business manager
of the movement, a man of really comprehensive business training,
to have brought order and neatness into the party's business
affairs. Since that time they have remained exemplary and
could be equaled, let alone surpassed, by none of the subdivisions
of the movement, but, as always in life, outstanding ability
is not seldom the cause of envy and disfavor. This, of course,
had to be expected in this case and to be taken patiently
into account.
By
1922 there existed, by and large, firm directives for the
business as well as the purely organizational development
of the movement. There was already a complete central card
index which embraced all members belonging to the movement.
Likewise the financing of the movement had been brought into
healthy channels. Current expenses had to be covered by current
receipts; extraordinary receipts were used only for extraordinary
expenses. Despite the hard times, the movement thereby remained,
apart from small running accounts, almost free of debt, and
even succeeded in steadily increasing its resources. We worked
as in a private business: the employed personnel had to distinguish
itself by achievement, and could not get by on the strength
of any of your famous 'loyalty.' The loyalty of every National
Socialist is demonstrated primarily by his readiness to work,
his industry and ability in accomplishing the work entrusted
to him by the community. Anyone who does not fulfill his duty
in this should not boast of his loyalty, against which he
is actually committing an offense. With the utmost energy
the new business manager, in opposition to all possible influences,
upheld the standpoint that party enterprises must not be a
sinecure for supporters or members with no great enthusiasm
for work. A movement which fights in so sharp a form against
the party corruption of our present administrative apparatus
must keep its own apparatus pure of such vices. There were
cases where employees were taken into the administration of
the newspaper, who in their previous allegiance belonged to
the Bavarian People's Party, but, measured by their achievements,
showed themselves excellently qualified. The result of this
attempt was in general outstanding. By this honest and frank
recognition of the individual's real achievement, the movement
more quickly and more thoroughly won the hearts of its employees
than would otherwise have been the case. They later became
good National Socialists and remained so, and not only in
words; they also demonstrated it by the conscientious, regular,
and honest work which they performed in the service of the
new movement. It goes without saying that the well-qualified
party comrade was given preference over the equally qualified
non-party member. But no one obtained a position on the basis
of his party membership alone. The firmness with which the
new business manager upheld these principles, and gradually
enforced them despite all opposition, was later of the greatest
benefit to the movement. Through this alone was it possible,
in the difficult inflation period, when tens of thousands
of businesses collapsed and thousands of newspapers had to
close, for the business leadership of the movement, not only
to remain above water and fulfill its tasks, but for the Völkischer
Beobachter to be expanded more and more. It had entered
the ranks of the great newspapers.
The
year 1921 had, furthermore, the significance that I gradually
succeeded, through my position as chairman of the party, in
withdrawing the various party services from the criticism
and interference of dozens of committee members. This was
important, because it was impossible to obtain a really capable
mind for a job if incompetents kept on babbling and interfering,
knowing everything better than anyone else and actually creating
a hopeless muddle. Whereupon, to be sure, these know-it-alls
usually withdrew quite modestly, to seek a new field for their
inspiring supervisory activity. There were men who were possessed
by a positive disease for finding something behind anything
and everything, and who were in a kind of continuous pregnancy
with excellent plans, ideas, projects, methods. Their highest
and most ideal aim was usually the formation of a committee
or controlling organ to put its expert nose into other people's
serious work. It never dawned on many of these committee people
how insulting and how un-National Socialist it is, when men
who do not understand a thing keep interfering with real specialists.
In any case, I regarded it as my duty in these years, to take
all real workers, charged with responsibility in the movement,
under my protection against such elements, to cover them in
the rear, as it were, so as to leave them free to work forward.
The
best means for making harmless such committees, who did nothing
and only cooked up decisions that could not be practically
carried out, was to assign them to some real work. It was
laughable how silently one of these clubs would then disappear,
and suddenly was impossible to locate. It made me think of
our greatest institution of the sort, the Reichstag. How all
its members would suddenly evaporate if, instead of talk,
some real work were assigned to them; and particularly a task
which every single one of these braggarts would have to perform
with personal responsibility.
Even
then I always raised the demand that, in the movement as everywhere
in private life, we keep looking until the obviously capable
official, administrator, or director for the various business
sections had been found. And this man was then to receive
unconditional authority and freedom of action downward, but
to be charged with unlimited responsibility upward, and no
one obtains authority toward subordinates who does not know
the work involved better than they. In the course of two years,
I enforced my opinion more and more, and today it is taken
for granted in the movement, at least in so far as the top
leadership is concerned.
The
visible success of this attitude was shown on November 9,
1923: when I came to the movement four years previous, not
even a rubber stamp was available. On November 9, the party
was dissolved, its property confiscated. This, including all
properties and the newspaper, already amounted to over a hundred
and seventy thousand gold marks.
........