Adolf Hitler – speech in Festsaal of the Hofbräuhaus

Munich, February 24, 1934

On November 12 last year the Volk made a unique and miraculous affirmation, the greatest which has ever been given to a Movement in this world: we are of the conviction that it will be bestowed upon us again and again, if we again and again fight and struggle for this Volk. Hence we are also of the conviction that we must stand up before this Volk many times over. We are experiencing now, in another State, what happens when one no longer has the courage to step before the nation and ask it for its affirmation.

Things must never be allowed to progress so far in this country that, out of fear of rejection, we might have to resort to violence! We wish to bear in mind at all times that the powers of the German Volk must not be allowed to be squandered at home. Hence in future we want to give the Volk the opportunity to pass judgment upon us at least once a year.

Just as we have stepped before the Volk in tens of thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of rallies to ask for its ballot again and again, we must also continue this fight in the future in tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of rallies and meetings with the purpose of addressing an appeal to the entire nation at least once every year.

If the appeal ends badly, no one shall be able to say the Volk is to blame, but instead know that the Movement has become lethargic, that the Movement and other SA leaders on January 22, 1934 in the Reich Chancellory (following the convention in Friedrichsroda).

Fate has taken from us the cannons, the machine guns, the planes, and the tanks, and this obligates us all the more to at least gather the entire Volk around us.

This is also the greatest conceivable policy of peace. He who represents an entire Volk will carefully consider the consequences which might easily ensue from a fight thoughtlessly started! He who has only a small clique to call his own and must fear being eliminated by the Volk might be inclined to give in to the temptation to compensate for an absence of internal successes by external ones.

We do not need any successes in foreign policy to win the Volk for our cause, for the Volk belongs to us. He who feels that an entire Volk as a whole is behind him will be careful not to thoughtlessly squander this blood, and he will consistently aim to promote the interests of the Volk with the instruments of peace, work and culture which the intellect has given to man. He will only appeal to the power of the nation in dire emergencies. However, he who knows that the Volk is behind him and does indeed have the Volk behind him can face even troubled times with confidence.

If we take a stand for true peace between nations, we can also require that the German Volk not be denied what every decent Volk has a right to demand.

That is why we are just as fanatic advocates of peace as we are advocates of equal rights and hence of the vital rights of the German nation.