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' Wh at Hitler Believ ed 135
can conquer us. I was able to eliminate our opponents when
they had all the power and we had nothing; so let me say to
you: today we have power, and you have nothing! You will
surely not eliminate us.
Hitler held the erroneous opinion that foreign powers, too, would never
be able to “eliminate” him. He stated:
The rest of the world will have to change its views. It will
have to erase the fourteen years of German history before us
from its memory and put in its place the memory of a thou-
sand-year history prior thereto, and then it will understand
that this Volk was without honor for fourteen years thanks
to a leadership without honor but was strong and brave and
honest the thousand years prior thereto. And it can rest as-
sured that the Germany that is living today is identical with
the eternal Germany.
The humiliating interim is over! The nation is united in
a yearning for peace and determined to defend German lib-
erty. We want nothing but to coexist with other peoples in
mutual respect. We do not wish to threaten the peace of any
people. But we will tell the world that anyone who would rob
the German Volk of liberty must do so by force, and each and
every one of us will defend ourselves against force!
Never will I nor any government after me that is born of
the spirit of our Movement affi x the nation’s signature to a
document signifying a voluntary waiver of Germany’s honor
and equality of rights. Conversely, the world can also rest
assured that, when we do sign something, we adhere to it.
Whatever we believe we cannot adhere to, on principles of
honor or ability, we will never sign. Whatever we have once
signed we will blindly and faithfully fulfi ll!
▶ May 1, 1935 Hitler saw political power as a force that depended on unity
of purpose among the Volk. In many ways, Hitler found Oswald Spengler’s
ideas attractive but the fact that Spengler rejected National Socialism became
a problem. Spengler’s book, written in 1919, asserted that human societies
form an artistic, intellectual, and social unity that progresses through a pre-
determined development of growth, maturation, and death. These stages of
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