Adolf Hitler - campaign speech in Essen

March 27, 1936

There has been nothing but talk for fifteen years, so someone has to come and finally take action! And I have taken action!

For fourteen years I worked on this instrument. When I came to power, I was as strong as my instrument was. And since then I have only been as strong as my Volk is. For that is the source of all my strength.

I do not delude myself that a single person can work miracles on this earth.

The miracle lies in the power of a Volk itself, given in the plans of God and Nature. I wish to create this power! I want to mobilize the best efforts and the highest values of this Volk so that this Volk will stand firm on its own and thus make me strong again. The power of this Volk is my power, and its strength is my strength! I do not serve any employer or employee or class; I belong exclusively to the German Volk.

Whatever I have undertaken I have always done with the conviction: it must be done for our Volk! [-] Whenever I stand up for the German peasant, it is for the sake of the Volk. I have neither ancestral estate nor manor. Yet I stand up for my German peasant because I know with him lies the foundation of German power! Without him Germany would go to ruin.

I do not stand up for arming the German Volk because I am a shareholder.

I believe I am the only statesman in the world who does not have a bank account. I hold no stock, I have no shares in any companies. I do not draw any dividends.

What I want is for my Volk to be strong and thus be able to survive in this world. That is my will!

I have not set foot on foreign territory! I have not robbed any nation of anything! I have not broken into a house not my own! I have not stolen anything from anyone! No one has the right to play the self-appointed judge in a matter which concerns only my German Volk.

In a German matter, my Volk alone is my judge, not an international council! Because we wish to believe in the sacredness of treaties, we would like to lay the necessary foundation.

It is my conviction that they will find but one answer everywhere: Do not talk of gestures, nor of symbolic acts, but make and keep the peace! That is the desire of the peoples.

German Volk! Look at the greatness and the scope of the last three years! Be just! Is there any reason for you-assuming you are a decent German-to be ashamed of these past three years before the German Volk, before history, or before posterity? Or could it be that, in the final assessment, you have a reason to be proud once more? Is it not possible for you to say once more, Good Lord, no matter what might have happened here or there,94 on the whole we have once again become a marvelous Volk! We have once again become such a decent Volk! We have once again become such a hard-working and energetic Volk. We are once again capable of accomplishing anything in Germany! What great tasks we have once more! In these three years we have proven that we are a Volk with nothing to be ashamed of before the other peoples.

I do not subordinate myself to the world, for it cannot pass judgment on me! Only to you, German Volk, do I subordinate myself! Pass judgment on me! Pronounce whether you hold my work to be right, whether you believe that I have worked hard, that I have taken your side throughout these years, that I have decently devoted my time to the service of this Volk.