Landmark Speeches in National Socialism

So far in our reading of Landmark Speeches of National Socialism, we've been narrated through speeches by Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, National Women's Leader Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, head of German Physician's Association Gerhard Wagner and newspaper editor and regional leader Julius Streicher. Prefacing the speeches was Bytwerk's own commentary on the Nazi party's (or Hitler's) views on the significance of oratory persuasion and command. The principles of Nazi propaganda rely single-handedly on Hitler himself according to Bytwerk, and the thoughts and ideas expressed in other Nazi party member's speeches could be traced back to the dictator's extremely influential dogma.

Hitler's first speech concentrates on reclaiming his power over the socialist party after being released from his jail sentence. He eloquently traces through the origins of Germany's current struggles, and often poses rhetorical questions about the German will power that, if answered undesirably, would mean failure for Germans as a race. Needless to say he proposes several ultimatums like, 

"Is it still possible in Germany to reach the masses who no longer believe in their ethnicity, but rather see their brother more in their enemy than in their racial comrades who are of a different party or worldview, and will it be possible to lead this great mass back to a united people's community? Yes or no?" 

These dramatic questions instill the emotion in his listeners that is necessary for Hitler to come back into power. He claimed that "Hundreds of thousands cheered [their] defeat," shaming and humiliating those who settled with the outcome of WWI. While he might be offending most by putting into question the loyalty and the confidence of the German people, he does not hesitate to do so, and thusly forces the Germans to reevaluate their optimistic views of the result of the war. To the audience who are unhappy with the war's outcome, Hitler's criticism of the people's antinationalism outrages them into wanting to prove to Hitler there were still people displeased with the way things were. In this way Hitler dynamically captures both types of Germans with one question.

Bytwerk believes that in Goebbels' speech on the 9th of July 1932, he strategically does not speak to win over the crowd by summing up the Nazi's plans of action to restructure the country, but rather to criticize the current operating government and to put them down. Goebbels employs an array of weighted diction in his speech, from negative connotation like, "disgrace," "misery," "failure,""terror," and "suffering," to inflict shame on the people and condemn the opposing parties, while killing his audience with kindness, with words like, "re-birth," "awakened,""proud," "brave," "victory," and "faith." 

In this speech, Goebbels employs several traditional Nazi speaking strategies. He, like Hitler believed in, spoke to the "lowest common denominator" of the people-the common folk-so as to captivate audiences ranging in all levels of intellect. Doing so was outstandingly brilliant, for the perfect balance of ethos and verbosity was needed so as to avoid turning away confused audience members and bored audience members alike. 

The other speeches by  Scholtz-Klink and Wagner pertain more to the ideals of the Nazi movement, such as the duties of women and anti-semitic beliefs.

Mein Kampf and thoughts

In this excerpt from Hitler's memoir Mein Kampf, Hitler spells out his political and social ideology to his desired audience. From behind bars he writes "My struggle" as an attempted plea and call to the people. He infuses nationalistic diction into his racist arguments to ward off any discomfort the extreme statements may cause.

He compares and contrasts the differences between categories of civilizations he refers to as "culture creating," "culture bearing," and "culture destroying". The Aryan, according to Hitler, is the single-handed source of all art, science and technology and therefore is superior to all races by far. They can attribute some claim to this superiority to fertile and bountiful lands, however it is the intellect of the people and the motivation that creates their prosperity. And how could they get there without exploiting the labor that inferior races provide (unwillingly)? Hitler compares these races- ones primarily sucked into slavery- to horses. Useful, yes, when building up countries but in this day and age, obsolete.

The correlation Hitler draws between slaves and horses perfectly illustrates his extremism. How bold he can be with his language. Hitler not only claims Aryans as the only source for culture in the world, but also the source for every other race's culture too, as exemplified in the statement "the first cultures originated in those places where the Aryan, by meeting lower peoples, subdued them and made them subject to his will." Of course, Hitler could get away with such fictitious statements granted his critical audience was too base to read Mein Kampf themselves, and his intellectual audience already bolstered his movement and ideals. The common folk easily accepted these beliefs in his rallies and demonstrations, where his verbose speaking skills persuaded many.

The decline of the Aryan race, Hitler continues to explain, is solely attributed to the lower races overcoming the master-slave dynamic and rightfully taking their places in Aryan society. The infiltration led to the mixing of races and the blood lines becoming impure. It is here that we can see Hitler's connection to Social Darwanism and the genome understanding. "He became submerged in the race-mixture. he gradually lost his cultural ability more and more, till at last not only mentally but also physically he began to resemble more the subjected and aborigines than his ancestors." Hitler's interpretation of Social Darwanism is so outlandish to we who finally understand evolution and its concepts on a molecular level, yet in a society where these ideas were still thrown around and given many inferences, Hitler's connections could more easily be accepted and believed. Especially so when the people wanted very much to believe it.

Hitler then begins his rant on the Jews. He bashes them for their alleged "self-preservation" and describes them as the "so-called 'chosen people'". To be facetious, I want to know what Jewish kid bullied Hitler in primary school to make him so butt hurt about their entire race. He literally carries no justification in any way shape or form to hate on them so ferociously. And how on earth he rallied so many people to act with such a hatred I can never personally comprehend.