Hermann Goering
With the disastrous end of the War the German people began its time of trial. With the introduction of pernicious doctrines of the Jew Karl Marx into Germany began the attack on the strength of the Reich and the attempt to undermine the peace and well-being of the people. The basis of Marxism is class war, and the destruction of national unity is its point of departure. German is set against German; the enemy is no longer the adversary beyond the frontier, but only those fellow-countrymen within who belong to a different social stratum. If Marxism was to succeed, a strong and contented Germany had to be made weak and discontented. And so for many decades Marxists were working systematically with this end in view. Everywhere hatred, envy, discontent and suspicion were being preached and the stability of the Reich was being undermined. Now the Army and Navy have always symbolized the strength of a people. It was therefore against the armed forces of the State that Marxism directed its passionate hatred. And so, where ver it could, the Social Democratic party injured the prestige of the army, refused to vote for supplies, and undermined discipline. For decades this party carried on an agitation against all authority, undermined existing institutions by every means, in order finally, with one last stab in the back, to overthrow the State itself. It was a matter of indifference to this party that Germany herself, by losing the War, would be given over to destruction.
And so on the 9th November, 1918, that vile rising of mutineers took place and Marxist dominance was established. On the same day there began for the poor tormented German people that period of history that may be described as 'The Period of German Shame and Tribulation.' From the steps of the Reichstag, Scheidemann, a prominent leader of the Social Democrats, proclaimed "Today the German people is victorious all along the line." And at that very moment the German people plunged from proud heights into the abyss. It was not the people which was 'victorious' on that day, for all the best elements of the people still stood on all fronts, ready to give their last drop of blood in defence of their country. Only those traitors were victorious for whom the very idea of a Fatherland was non-existent. Those cowards who had deserted from the front were victorious, that human scum that always makes its appearance in times of stress. It was Marxism that was victorious. But wherever Marxism is victorious, at that same moment a nation collapses. Where Communism raises its head a people is destroyed.
The returning soldiers, without leaders, uprooted from their civil occupations, estranged from their homes, disappointed and even desperate, fell an easy prey to Marxist agitation. Social Democracy increased enormously, took over the leadership everywhere and from that time on became responsible for Germany's destiny. An unspeakable hatred was preached against everything which did not conform to Marxist doctrine. The brilliant past was trod in the dust, and scorn and ridicule were heaped on everything which the people still held sacred. Morality was banished and immorality was declared moral. The very idea of patriotism was denounced and national Parties were destroyed. For the strength and power which lies in national unity was to be substituted international solidarity. The class-conscious proletarian was to take the place of the patriotic German. Germany broke up into two camps, on the one side the Proletariat, on the other the Bourgeoisie. The whole German people had to atone terribly for this crime of class war.
But in accusing Social Democracy of this crime of treason towards the people, one must not forget that it was made possible only because the Middle Classes altogether failed to act. The Middle Class had even before the War degenerated to become the Bourgeoisie. The complete bankruptcy of Middle Class leadership before the War, the lack of understanding on the part of the Middle Classes for the German worker, their snobbery and self-conceit, made it possible that the leaderless German worker should prove all too susceptible to the seductions of Marxism and should lend a ready ear to demagogues who were mostly of an alien race and who claimed to represent the interests of the working class. If one looks back at the time before the War, one is amazed to see how weak the leaders of the nation really were and with what apathy they looked on while the people were being duped.
But one will also be amazed to see what a high percentage of the Social Democratic leaders and agitators were Jews. But now in the days of the post-War rising these Jewish leaders sprouted from the ground like poisonous fungi. Wherever soldiers' councils were formed Jews were the leaders, those very same Jews who had not been seen out at the front, but had been employed in the supply departments at the base or had filled indispensable official and military posts at home. In the streets the mob raged. Soldiers had their badges and shoulder-straps torn off. The flag, which for decades had symbolized the greatness of the Reich, was trampled in the mud. On all buildings fluttered the red flag of rebellion; everywhere there was disorder and dissolution. This disorder was deliberately displayed in the way people deported themselves, to make it quite clear that now everyone could do, or not do, what he liked. There was to be no State, no order, no authority, and the moral conception of freedom was to be rejected in favour of immoral shamelessness. The misled soldiers began slowly to sink to the level of a mere rabble. Dissolution grew daily, even hourly; radicals had their places taken by even more extreme radicals; and gradually it seemed as if the new rulers, who had set themselves at the head of the nation with such high-sounding proclamations, would themselves be drawn into the whirlpool of destruction. They could no longer get rid of the spirits they had invoked. The independent Social Democrats pressed forward, and then these too were overtaken and were succeeded by the Spartacists. In this chaos, which the new leaders could do nothing to overcome, there was only one way out. An appeal was made to the remnants of the army, once so powerful, but now so weak.
In the midst of the general dissolution, a few thousand who were not willing timidly to abandon everything, had come togetlier in order to withstand the general collapse and to defend their ideals of patriotism and honour. These were the Volunteer Corps, and to them the new Government appealed. They were cleverly able to befool the Volunteer Corps into believing that they would have to come forward to save their country, by which the leaders of the Government really meant their own power and safety. The unpolitical soldiers of the Volunteer Corps did not understand the true state of things. They were accustomed always to intervene where their country was in danger, and so once more without thinking of themselves they did their duty. They staked their lives and threw themselves into the battle against the Spartacist rabble. But hardly had they won and become masters of the situation and hardly did the Government feel itself safe in the saddle, when it showed its true face and rewarded the Volunteer Corps by dissolving them and throwing them on to the streets.
But to the world the German Social Democrats suddenly proclaimed themselves to be the maintainers of order, the guardians of the Reich. Even today one still frequently hears the objection that the Social Democrats did at any rate in 1918 and 1919 save the Reich by courageously restoring order. Ebert, Schneidemann and Noske are said to have saved the Reich from dissolution. With the Social Democrats we are accustomed to such distortions of fact and such attempts to divest themselves of responsibility. The delegates of the people had announced in high-sounding proclamations that the age of freedom had dawned, that the worker was now ruler in the land and that he would have little work and large earnings, that the age of peace and universal prosperity was at hand, that the other nations would joyfully welcome a Germany (freed from militarism and monarchic tyranny), that poverty and want would cease, that corruption would be abolished; in short, that the Golden Age was about to begin. But they forgot that before this famous proclamation the German people did not even know what corruption meant. It was left to the Social Democrats to introduce corruption as one of the most essential phenomena of their rule. The end of the proclamation was that Germany was now to become a land of freedom, beauty and honour. None of these promises, not one of them, was kept. On the contrary, one can today show conclusively that the exact opposite took place.