Adolf Hitler – speech before the SA and the SS

Nürnberg, September 9, 1934

Men of the SA and SS!

For the fourth time in the history of the Party, the SA and the SS have assembled here. Twelve months ago as a sign of having gained power in the State! Today, to testify that this process was carried on and completed! Today, the power of the German Reich lies in our hands. The National Socialist Movement is today the master of Germany. In the twelve months lying behind us, we took possession over one position after another. No one who is willing to open his eyes can believe that this regime can be eliminated or that it would even consider stepping down of its own accord.

But these twelve months also comprised a period of hard work within the National Socialist Movement itself. When I decided to convene another Party Congress after such a short time in order to summon you, my comrades in the SA and SS, to this place, I did it for a particular reason. A few months ago, a dark shadow was cast over the Movement. Many of our opponents believed that they could see the day approaching on which the power of the National Socialist Party would perhaps come to an end. I have summoned you to this place, my comrades, in order to document three things:

1. the SA had as little to do with this shadow as any other institution in the Party;

2. in order to demonstrate to everyone that my relationship to you, my comrades, is the same as it has been for fourteen years; and

3. in order to show our enemies that the Party stands firm and that its SA and its SS stand firm as guarantors of the National Socialist Revolution.

They are all mistaken, those who believe that even a single crack has appeared in the structure of our Movement. It is standing as solidly as this block here! And it will be broken by nothing in Germany. If someone sins against the spirit and purpose of our Movement, if he sins against the spirit of my SA, this shall not affect the SA, but those very persons who dared to sin against it.

We have lined up for this roll call not only to demonstrate how indestructibly solid the structure of the Movement and its organization is, but also to demonstrate how it continues to be filled by the spirit of loyalty, of discipline and of obedience, and in order to assign 126 standards to the SA and 57 standards to the SS.

These new ensigns of the Movement will now join forces with the great columns of our old standards. You will put them at your fore and follow them loyally as you have the old.

These ensigns will serve to remind you of what made you great. You will remember the long years of difficult battles, of sacrifices, when it seemed almost impossible that we would be able to conquer the State. And you will recall the great persistence during the time of struggle which was required to wage this battle for Germany. You will learn from this the lesson that we must not allow what once enabled us to be victorious to desert us after the victory, but must hold fast today even more than in the past to the virtues of old.

SA members and SA leaders have no choice but to be loyal, obedient, disciplined, modest, and willing to sacrifice-for otherwise they are not men of the SA.

Holding fast to these virtues of old will not only make our power indestructible; it will also mean that the resurrection of the German Volk will continue to have an effect far into the future. For we are not simply a manifestation of months or years; what has come about in these fifteen years shall live on for centuries.

Only a lunatic or a deliberate liar can claim that I or anyone else ever entertained the thought of dissolving what we ourselves have built up in long years. My comrades, we now stand firmly united for our Germany, and we must stand united for this Germany. We want to continue to strengthen the Movement in the years ahead of us by more strongly than before consolidating the individual organizations and fusing them together to form a single whole.

Our flag shall truly fly over a single and unified Movement. That is our goal.

And if we work toward this goal, no one will dare to put up resistance or oppose this organization, the most tremendous of its kind in German history.

Thus I assign to you the new ensigns in the conviction that I am placing them in the most loyal hands in all of Germany.

In times past, you have proven your loyalty to me a thousand times over.

In times to come, this cannot and will not change.

Hence let me now welcome you as my old and loyal men of the SA and SS: Sieg Heil!