Closing Address To The Nazi Party Congress
Nuremberg, Germany, September 14, 1934
Adolf Hitler
The Sixth Party Rally is coming to an end. What millions of Germans
outside our ranks may simply have rated as an imposing display
of political power was infinitely more for hundreds of thousands
of fighters; the great personal, political and spiritual meeting
of the old fighters and battle comrades. And perhaps, in spite
of the spectacular forcefulness of this imposing review of the
armies of the Party, many among them were wistfully thinking back
to the days when it was difficult to be a National Socialist.
For when our Party comprised just seven people, it already formulated
two principles: it wanted to be a truly ideological party; it
wanted, uncompromisingly, sole and absolute power in Germany.
We, as a party, had to remain a minority, because we mobilized the most valuable elements of fight and sacrifice in the nation, and they are never a majority but always a minority. And since the best racial component of the German nation, proudly self-assured, courageously, and daringly, demanded leadership of the Reich and the people, the people followed its leadership in ever greater numbers and subordinated themselves to it.
The German people are happily aware that the eternal flight of appearances has now been replaced by one stable pole, which sensing and knowing that it represented the very best German blood, rose to the leadership of the nation and is determined to keep this leadership, and exercise it, and never give it up again. There will always be only one segment of a people who will be really active fighters, and more is demanded of them than of the millions of other people. For them it is not enough to simply say, "I believe;" they take an oath, "I shall fight."
The party will for all times be the leadership reservoir of the German people, unchangeable in its teachings, hard as steel in its organization, pliable and adaptable in its tactics, and in its total appearance the manifestation of the spirit of the nation. Again it must be that all decent Germans become National Socialists. Only the best National Socialists become party members.
Formerly, our opponents saw to it that through prohibition and persecution our movement was periodically purged of the light chaff that began to settle in it. Now we must practice selectiveness ourselves and expel what has proved to be rotten and therefore not of our kind. It is our wish and intent that this state and this Reich shall endure through the millennia ahead. We can rejoice in the knowledge that the future belongs totally to us.
Where the older generations might still waver, the youth is sworn to us and given to us, body and soul. Only if we realize in the Party the ultimate essence and idea of National Socialism, through the joint effort of all of us, will it forever and indestructibly be a possession of the German people and the German nation. Then the splendid and glorious army of the old and proud armed services of our nation will be joined by the no less tradition-bound leadership of the Party and together these two establishments will form and firm the German people and carry on their shoulders the German state and German Reich.
At this hour, tens of thousands of party comrades are beginning
to leave town. While some are still reminiscing, others are getting
ready for the next roll call, and always people will come and
go, and always they will be gripped anew, gladdened, and inspired,
for the idea and the Movement are expressions of the life of our
people and therefore, symbols of eternity.
Long live the National Socialist Movement. Long live Germany!