THE HITLER TRIAL, THE SIGNAL FOR GERMANY'S AWAKENING
[Der Hitler Prozess, Das Fanal zum Erwachen Deutschlands], 2nd Edition, compiled on the basis of the official court records by Ludwig Voggenreiter, and published in 1934 by Ludwig Voggen-reiter at Potsdam, Germany.
Hitler's speech in his own defense.
Hitler: May it please the Court!
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[Page 16]
Replacing the person by the cipher, energy by volume, the Marxist movement is destroying the foundation of all human cultural life. Wherever this movement breaks through, it must destroy human culture. The future of Germany means: destruction of Marxism. Either Marxism poisons the people, their Germany is ruined or the poison is going to be eliminated,— then Germany can recover again, not before that. For us, Germany will be saved on that day on which the last Marxist has either been converted or broken.
[Page 17]
We will fight spiritually for one who is willing to fight with the weapons of the spirit; we have the fist for the one who is willing to fight with the fist.
When we recognized that the territory of the Ruhr would be lost, our movement arrived at a big point of discord with the Bourgeois world. The National Socialist movement recognized clearly that the territory of the Ruhr would be lost if the people would not wake up from its lethargy. World politics are not made with the palm branch, but with the sword. But the Reich too. must be governed by National Socialists.
A few weeks later, there was the Ruhr uprising and with that German unity broke down. Since then I did not go to Corps Area Headquarters [Wehr-Kreis-KommandoJ anymore because I regarded all other discussions as completely useless.
6ut our movement has not been founded to gain seats in parliament and daily attendance fees; our movement was founded to turn Germany's fate in her twelfth hour.
[Page 18]
As we had declared at numerous public meetings, that our leaders would not, like those of the Communists did, stand in the rear in the critical hours, our leaders marched in front. On
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Ludendorff's right side Dr. Weber marched, on his left, I and Scheubner-Richter and the other gentlemen. We were permitted to pass by the cordon of troops blocking the Ludwig Bridge, who wept bitter tears, were deeply moved and all gone to pieces. People who had attached themselves to the columns, yelled from the rear, that the guys should be knocked down. We yelled that there was no reason to harm these people. We marched on to the Marienplatz. The rifles were not loaded. The enthusiasm was indescribable. I had to tell myself: The people are behind us, they no longer can be consoled by ridiculous resolutions. The people want a reckoning with the November criminals, as far as it still has a sense of honor and human dignity and not for slavery. In front of the Royal Residence a weak police cordon let us pass through. Then there was a short hesitation in front, and a shot was fired. I had the impression that it was no pistol shot but a rifle or carbine bullet. Shortly afterwards a volley was fired. I had the feeling that a bullet struck in my left side. Scheubner-Richter fell, I with him. At this occasion my arm was dislocated and I suffered another injury while falling.
I only was down for a few seconds and tried at once to get up. Another shot was fired, out of the little street to the rear of the Preysing Palace. Around me there were bodies. In front of us were State Police, rifles cocked. Farther in the rear there were armored cars. My men were 70 to 80 meters in back of me. A big gentleman in a black overcoat was laying half covered on the ground, soiled with blood. I was convinced that he was Ludendorff. There were a few more shots fired from inside the Royal Residence and from the little street near the Preysing Palace, and maybe also a few wild shots fired by our men. From the circle near the Rentamt, I drove out of town. I intended to be driven back the same night.
[Page 19]
A few days later, at Uffing, we found out that I had suffered a fracture of the joint and a fracture of the collarbone. During those days I was all broken down by pains of body and soul, if only because I believed that Ludendorff was dead. I obtained the first newspapers at Landsberg. There I read the statement about a breach of my pledged word, that I had pledged my word to Mr. von Kahr never to undertake anything without informing him, that I had given this pledge still on the evening of November 6th. There I stood as a perfect scoundrel without honor. That is the lowest thing to do; that man, who worked together with us the whole time, stepped up with such lies against us now,
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when we could not defend ourselves and, to an extent, were broken down in spirit. I never gave such a pledge to Mr. von Kahr. I have said, I am standing Behind you loyally, I will do nothing against you. Finally I said: "If you are not going to make up your mind, then I will not consider myself obligated as far as my decisions are concerned." When this campaign of slander continued in the course of the next few days and one after the other was brought in to Land'sberg, whose only guilt was to have adhered to our movement, then I resolved to defend myself and to resist until the last breath. I did not enter this court to deny anything or to reject my responsibility. I protest against the attempt that Herr von Kriebel tries to assume the responsibility, be it only for the military preparations. I bear the responsibility all alone, but I declare one thing: I am no criminal because of that and I do not feel as if I would be a criminal. I cannot plead guilty, but I do confess the act. There is no such thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918. It is impossible that I should have committed high treason, for this cannot be implicit in the action of November 8th and 9th, but only in the intentions and the actions during all the previous months. But if I really should have committed high treason, then I am surprised not to see those gentlemen here at my side, against whom the prosecutor would be obliged to file indictments; those who willed together with us the same action, discussed and prepared things down to the smallest detail, things which may be described in particular at a closed session later. I do not consider myself as a man who committed high treason, but as a German, who wanted the best for his people.
As far as the fight against Berlin is concerned, the gentlemen Kahr, Lossow and Seisser planned that too, but seemingly in the federal sense.
[Page 20]
In contrast to that, I, from the beginning took the following point of view: The fight against Berlin will never be carried on by clothing it in a defense of strictly Bavarian rights, but the people expect that Bavaria will advocate a general German right in this fight, and by leading all of Germany will succeed in attaining fulfillment of her wishes for her very own state. * * *
[Page 21]
But the fact was: The whole time Lossow, Seisser and Kahr arrived at the same goal together with us, namely to remove the Reich Cabinet with its international parliamentary attitude of
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today and to replace it by a nationalistic, absolutely antiparliamentary government, to put there a dictatorship of leadership. If it had been declared that they were not willing to go ahead by force, yet exercise pressure, I do regret that we were not informed of the planned coup d' Etat. Revolution means the overthrow of a government by the former opposition. Coup d' Etat means the throwing overboard of a government by men already in power. In short, our conception was the generally customary one. To us, it was self-evident that if, for instance, Seeckt or Lossow would approach Mr. Ebert with the friendly suggestion: Mr. Ebert, here are our divisions, we will not employ force, but they do not belong to you anymore, you better leave through the door over there, then it would be Called: without force and bloodshed. If really our entire enterprise would have been high treason, then Kahr, Lossow and Seisser must have conspired together with us to commit high treason, because they did not do anything else during all these months but the very things for which we are now in the dock. If those gentlemen would have declared: We are not willing, then the whole thing would have been settled. But during the last days they made their willingness so clear that we had to arrive at the conviction, they are willing, but they lack one thing, the will to jump off. * * *
[Page 23] '
Now for the events themselves: I went to the Buergerbraeu-cellar at 8 o'clock. At 8:34 the shock squad arrived, scarcely a handful of people, and occupied the ante-hall. I drew my pistol, as I naturally could not enter with a palm branch, and I also explained to my companion Graf: Watch out so that I will not be shot in the back. On the platform, Kahr, extremely pale and trembling, stepped back immediately. That I fired a pistol shot and had to speak my piece within a short time, which was just natural under the circumstances. Only a gentleman who reads his speech from notes written by others cannot understand such a thing. I had Kahr, Lossow and Seisser asked to come out. I felt bad, to be compelled to have had German officers escorted out in such a manner. But there was nothing else to do, and for that reason I apologized at once. Anything published about that is torn from the context, pieced together arbitrarily and partially invented. Kahr's remark about "to live or not live" belongs especially in this category. I must emphasize that Kahr did not stand there in the pose of a hero. I again gave him the assurance that there was no danger for his person. To which Kahr replied: "I am not afraid of that, to live or not to live, makes no difference to
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me either." I smilingly replied: "Here in my pistol there are still five bullets, four for traitors and one, if things go wrong, for myself." * /*, *
[Page 27]
Dr. Weber then decribes how the column arrived at the Feldherrnhalle. A Nazi flag and a banner of the Oberland organization were carried in the front. I still see, Dr. Weber says, very clearly the plastic picture, how an officer of the State police, I learned later on that this was First Lieutenant von Grodin, snatched a carbine from one of his men, putting it on the chest of a banner bearer, who was from the Oberland organization. He beat the carbine sidewards with the hammerstick. I am convinced that the shot went off, and this seems to have been the first shot. Furthermore I am still seeing very distinctly, how a big, broad-shouldered man, a Nazi, jumped forward and yelled: "Don't shoot, his excellency von Ludendorff is coming." The next moment he fell, hit. We all felt terribly petrified at this moment. The security police [Schutz-polizei] started a violent shooting with carbines right away. Some started hitting with carbines turned downward, with the butt-end. In the last moment I saw a group of State Police fan out at the gallery of the Feldherrnhalle and commenced firing on the people as on wild dogs, despite the fact that they were already lying on the ground and running away, so that people already hit and the dead ones too were hit a second time. I too threw myself on the ground; when I was calm again and the shooting had stopped, I saw his excellency Ludendorff, escorted by Major St'reck, walk from the odious place towards the Residence. I followed Ludendorff into the Residence. I was all done in about the fact that such a terrible unheard of thing should happen in Nationalist Bavaria; that the State Police, supposedly national-minded, should fire at the greatest of the German army leaders.
As I learned afterwards, a great number of people in northern Germany were set to go on account of the Munich happenings, in order to start the push for Berlin in contact with Bavaria. I consider it as self-evident that the goal in Germany would have been reached, if those three men would have stuck to us and would not have broken their pledge in such a disgraceful manner.
[Page 28]
Chairman: You had made up your mind that an action could have been performed only in coordination with the Reichswehr and the State Police?
693256—46--6
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Dr. Weber: This was self-evident.
Dr. Hull: Do you know that at the end of October orders pertaining to personnel [Personalverfuegungen] of the Ministry of War in Bavaria simply were not carried out any more?
Dr. Weber: Yes, this I do know. It was self-evident to me, that the Weimar Constitution for Bavaria had stopped to exist altogether, that it was annulled by the legal Bavarian authorities.
[Page 43]
The racial movement does not consider itself as an end in itself. It had and has no obligations whatsoever, but considers itself only as a means for the purpose of strengthening the German Fatherland and the whole German people and of making it free. Regarding it politically, the racial movement, which combined its forces in the German Fighter League [Deutsche Kampfbund] at Nürnberg on September 1st and 2nd 1923, declared its program in the Nürnberg Manifestation. This manifestation has not been attacked by anyone, and has essentially remained the political confession of the movement. This movement was Pan-German politically, regarded both religions as having complete equal rights, but repudiated a political activity on the part of the churches. It was extremely nationalist and militaristic in addition race-conscious, and for that reason anti-Jewish. It was regarded by the Bavarian-Peoples-Party as an adversary, also by leading dignitaries of the Catholic Church, which fact was deeply regretted and for which no explanation could be found. * * *
[Page 44]
In military respect the Fighter League [Deutsche Kampfbund] was of loose structure. It had set for itself the supreme goal of preserving the physical fitness and military spirit of the people ana especially for the youth—desperately scanty substitute for general conscription; abandonment of which is the cause of our misery.
After the creation of the General Staatskommissaria on September 27th, 1923, I did not doubt that by this act the first step had been taken to solve the German problem—and that by force. If I do mention the names Kahr, Lossow and Seisser, they are not the names of private individuals, but of those who are in control of State and Police in Bavaria and of those parts of the Reichswehr which had already put themselves at the disposal of this Bavarian executive power. This relation explains a double breach of the constitution, committed on the one hand by the Bavarian
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State and on the other hand by General von Lossow, but also by officers who followed suit, if one takes the viewpoint, that obedience stops at high treason. High treason had been committed, it pressed for action. Otherwise this high treason would be ridiculous in the eyes of the world, as ridiculous as it actually is today. [Page 45]
Well at that time I believed in action, considering this the more serious, when I had learned that Poehner was supposed to be made State Commissar for Saxonia and Thuringia. This position could only be maintained if the protecting power was standing in Berlin. Everything else is nonsense, military spoken.
Extracts from Hitler's speech at his trial in 1924, including the events of the Munich putsch and the goals of the Nazi movement
Authors
Adolf Hitler (Fuehrer, Reich Chancellor, Supeme Commander of Wehrmacht)
Adolf Hitler
Austrian nationalized German politician, leader of the National Socialist party and dictator of Germany (1889-1945)
- Born: 1889-01-01 1889-04-20 (Braunau am Inn) (country: Austria-Hungary; located in the administrative territorial entity: Archduchy of Austria above the Enns; statement is subject of: Adolf-Hitler-Geburtshaus)
- Died: 1945-04-30 (Berlin Führerbunker) (country: Nazi Germany; located in the administrative territorial entity: Berlin; statement is subject of: death of Adolf Hitler)
- Country of citizenship: Cisleithania (period: 1889-04-20 through 1918-11-11); First Republic of Austria (period: 1919-01-01 through 1925-04-30); Nazi Germany (end cause: death of Adolf Hitler; period: 1933-01-30 through 1945-04-30); Republic of German-Austria (period: 1918-01-01 through 1919-01-01)
- Occupation: painter (statement is subject of: paintings by Adolf Hitler); political writer; politician (reason for preferred rank: generally used form); soldier
- Member of political party: German Workers' Party (period: 1919-09-12 through 1921-07-11); Nazi Party (series ordinal: 556)
- Member of: Nazi Party
- Participant in: Aktion T4; Beer Hall Putsch; The Holocaust; ethnic cleansing
- Significant person: Albert Speer; Benito Mussolini; Eva Braun; Joseph Stalin
Date: 1934
Literal Title: Der Hitler Prozess . . . The Hitler Trial, The Signal for Germany's Awakening . . . Hitler's speech in his own defense.
Total Pages: 5
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2404
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450176
Notes:The trial was held in 1924. This second edition of proceedings was published in 1934.