Adolf Hitler – address the German youth

in the Olympic Stadium

Berlin, May 1, 1938

My Youth! My German Boys and Girls!

You have the great fortune to live in an age of which the German nation shall never have to be ashamed. In your youth you have witnessed the rise of our Volk. Your young hearts were set aglow and became impassioned by the historic events of these last weeks and months which stood under the spell of the reunion of the German Volk. This outward development was, my boys and girls, only the outcome of an inward development in our German Volk reflecting its union. And today we celebrate the day of this union of our Volk!

For centuries, our Volk was torn and at odds with itself, and hence it was incapacitated in its outside dealings; it was unhappy, lacking means of defense and a sense of honor. Ever since the victory of the Movement, under the banner of which you stand today, the inner union of the German people has been accomplished. And now Providence allows us to reap the fruits of our labor: Greater Germany! This union did not come about as a matter of coincidence, but rather as the result of the National Socialist Movement’s systematic education of our Volk. The Movement has absolved this Volk from its division into a wild agglomeration of parties, classes, confessions, and ranks and has made an entity of it. And this educational process begins at an age where the individual’s views are not yet encumbered by prejudice.

Our youth is the building block of our Reich! You are Greater Germany! For it is in you that the German Volksgemeinschaft constitutes itself. At the fore of the Reich there stands a Fuhrer; at the fore of the Reich there stands a Volk; and at the fore of this one Volk stands our German youth! Seeing you here, my belief in Germany’s future becomes boundless and unshakeable! For I know that you will fulfill all our expectations! So on this May Day, I greet you in our new great Germany! For you are our springtime! Through you shall and must be accomplished what has been fought for by generations throughout the centuries:

Deutschland!

Adolf Hitler - speech in the Lustgarten

Berlin, May 1, 1938

Earlier there were people who declared, “An end to the battle! Never again war!”-while internally they let the battle rage on. I know that motto, “Never again war.” It is my own motto as well. It is to that end that I made Germany strong once more and had it stand on its own feet.

However, in order to remain so strong and steadfast, so that no tumult abroad can endanger peace at home, it is necessary to end that fight for all time which otherwise will prevent us from making our strength felt abroad.

Not “never again war” should be our motto, but rather “never again civil war! Never again class struggle! Never again internal fighting and discord!” I have acted in accordance with these realizations-and you, my Volksgenossen, see the results before you. In a few years, we resolved those problems which were earlier held to defy resolution. So once again we celebrate the first of May and this time it is the occasion of particularly great rejoicing. Six and a half million Germans have joined us within the borders of our holy Reich. And they, too, are listening at this hour, as far south as the Karawanken, and they are happy that they now form part of our great community as well. Now we must take these new lands of the Reich into our strong community. They are to sense that they have become part of a meaningful order. We take pride in this order and through it we shall master all problems in the shortest time possible. This will bring about the same bloom there that we have already witnessed in the Old Reich.

Hence I appeal to you on this first of May: do not dwell on what might still separate us, but rather be happy about what we have already achieved. Focus on what we already have in common! No Volk is born within five years’ time, and neither is a state constructed in five years’ time. However, we have placed the cornerstone and it is this occasion that we now celebrate on this first of May.

Ours was the conviction; ours is the will! What remains to be accomplished will he accomplished if only the advocates of our great ideal are courageous and reliable and unerringly follow the path laid before them! Today we celebrate the day of this ideal, the day of the German Volksgemeinschaft and hence the day of German labor in which we all take such great pride in the cities as well as in the countryside. Once every year we wish to rejoice in that for which this day was created in the first place as the celebration of the German Volksgemeinschaft.

Deutschland - Sieg Heil!