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Excerpts: NatSo Alfred Rosenberg’s Memoirs Courtesy of AHRS
Source: http://www.nazi.org.uk/
With incredible tenacity Hitler had refused all offers to appoint him vice chancellor. And eventually he did succeed in enforcing what he and millions of others considered essential. In doing so Hitler fought a difficult battle with himself. After he had been chancellor for a short while he told me with evident pride: All week long I have managed each day to clear my desk of all current work. I actually felt like laughing, for this, of all things, certainly was not his forte. And, sure enough, he soon gave up these attempts at bureaucratic systematising, not only because Lammers, Meissner, and others quickly adapted themselves to his needs, but also because he now began to concentrate all his energies on one rather than on many problems. Once immersed in that he refused to listen to the pleas and complaints of any other department until he thought he had fully acquainted himself with all relevant details. During the days of Munich, for example, he once ordered every available book on the fleets of all nations. These he studied for weeks at a stretch, often until four in the morning. The result was that he was later able to make decisions that sent the admirals, who had very skeptically arrived for a conference, out of the office of the new chancellor shaking their heads over the expert knowledge he had displayed. Even after Hitler's death, Admiral Raeder admitted emphatically: I often felt like one being taught, rather than like a teacher. Admiral Dönitz admitted he had felt the same way. Or else Hitler would order fifty or a hundred bound volumes of old magazines, to study the technique of criticism applied to music and the drama. He was enraged by modern critics who commented on artists obviously giving their best, with nothing but caustic witticism and arrogant condescension. Once he told me: How clean, decent, and understanding the critics were, by and large, in 1850! They tried hard to understand and help instead of tearing down and destroying by sarcasm.
These studies were responsible for Hitler's later demand that we forgo the idea that a critic's chief is to criticise. Instead, he said, they should approach musicians and actors in a spirit of benevolence. Hitler's effectiveness had its source in this ability of his to concentrate; a corollary was the neglecting of a great many other problems. Hitler never forgot that the generals had looked down upon him from the pinnacle of their strategic knowledge, as the corporal of World War I. That is why he spent years studying every single type of military writing, the published works of general staffs, and all the new technical improvements. Finally, and in spite of certain mental reservations, he forced them to take cognizance of his amazing knowledge, so much so, that Colonel General Jodl one day frankly declared that Hitler was a great strategic thinker. But beyond the purely strategic, Hitler also had that spark which even many generals lacked when faced with modern developments. The new tactics used in the conquest of Eben Emael were Hitler's personal triumph, just as he mapped out the campaign in France, which, in many essentials, did not follow the old Schlieffen Plan, but specified a break-through and the rolling up of the enemy front toward the Channel. This was an achievement quite as great as the forcing of the Maginot Line, considering all the negative memoranda on this plan which were submitted by generals who were later made field marshals. I did not hear about this until later. From Hitler himself only this much: Now the gentlemen want their memoranda back. But I shall keep them in my safe for future study. Did success in military matters also produce -- megalomania? I said also. For in the course of events it became ever more apparent that Hitler, who formerly had been so open-minded, was not only becoming stubborn in political matters, but also in the fields of art and science, an attitude that frequently resulted in tension and intolerance.
In the course of the Nuremberg trials such mediocrities as Schirach and Fritzsch maintained that the Führer had cheated them, had told them untruths and outright lies. High-ranking officers whom Hitler had either kept in the dark politically, or had told only the barest essentials, now claimed this, too. As a matter of fact, the head of the state was under no obligation whatsoever to keep his generals and ministers informed about confidential matters or the decisions he made. Gossip had to be avoided, the respective persons might be transferred and, after all, it was Hitler who made, and was responsible for, all important decisions. What must be examined is what he did and ordered, not whether he informed certain officials accordingly. Schacht once said that Hitler's book was written in the worst possible German, but neglected to explain why he constantly kept on offering his services to him. This remark touches upon something that, more than anything else, enables the observer to watch Hitler's growth. In his youth he had been deprived of a thorough schooling, and no amount of self-education can possibly make up for that. Besides, his work in Vienna took up practically all of his time, nor did four and one-half years of war among real soldiers tend to improve his style. Hitler wrote and dictated, furthermore, as a speaker, and it was often difficult to untangle his sentences and pour them into a more permanent mould. I still remember how Stolzing-Cerny, the editor of the Folkish Observer, sweated over the galleys of Mein Kampf after Hitler had asked him to proof read. Naturally, certain questionable lines were discovered and corrected, but they simply couldn't be rewritten into entirely new sentences. In the meantime, however, Hitler's language and style improved so remarkably that some of the speeches he later made before cultural rallies were absolutely outstanding examples of German linguistic art.
The Führer correctly differentiated between the religious beliefs of the individual and political reasoning. What his own beliefs were he never told me in so many words. Once, at table, he said a high-placed Italian had asked him point-blank what his religious beliefs were. He had begged permission not to answer that question. In his speeches Hitler frequently referred to Providence and the Almighty. I am certain that he was inwardly convinced of a fate predestined in its general outlines, but preferred not to formulate what parts compulsion and free will played. He became more and more convinced that Providence had entrusted him with a mission. This became noticeable upon his return from his incarceration in the Landsberg, and grew ever more evident after the Machtübernahme, until, toward the end of the war, it assumed positively painful proportions. This conviction that, as Bismarck had once been chosen to unite the northern Germans in one Reich, so he was chosen to bring the southern Germans (Austrians) into this Reich, was certainly deep-rooted in him. As for the Christian concept of God, Hitler definitely rejected it in private conversations. That I know even though in the course of the years I heard only two or three pertinent remarks. Once he told me:
Look at the head of Zeus! What nobility and exaltation there are in those features! About communion: It is primitively religious to crush one's God with one's teeth. He held against Gothic art that it symbolised everything dark and brain-beclouding. Later on he granted at least the impressiveness of the cathedral in Straßburg. When, in the course of one of these conversations, I ventured the opinion that one could not destroy the churches, but could merely attempt to fill them gradually with new people, he replied: That is a very wise thought! Fundamentally, as far as his attitude was concerned, Hitler had very definitely discounted churches and Christianity, although he fully acknowledged the importance of their initial appearance on earth, granted everyone the right to his own conviction, and supported the Wehrmacht in its religious and confessional demands. In fact, by setting up a Church Ministry and instituting a Protestant Bishop of the Reich, he even tried to give the strife-torn Evangelicals a chance to unite in one all-embracing social group. For this purpose he received in audience a delegation of Protestant bishops.
Afterward he spoke of this meeting with utter contempt. You would think, he said at dinner one day that these gentlemen would understand that an audience with the Reich Chancellor is in a way a rather solemn affair. Instead they came garbed in their clerical robes, most of which were already a bit tacky with age, and the thing that was of the greatest importance for them was -- their allowance! I'll say this much for the Catholics: if they had come, they would have been more dignified.
Hitler had steadfastly refused to let himself become involved in any conspiracy. He used his appearance as a witness in a trial at Leipzig to emphasise this attitude, which he maintained to the last. In utilising his great gifts as a speaker, and in thoroughly organising his party, he was merely exercising rights everyone has. The battle for the soul of the people was waged in broad daylight; the arguments of every single party were available. The attacks against us were vicious, and we answered viciously.
Admittedly, all sides committed occasional blunders. In looking over my collected articles, I admitted to myself that criticism could occasionally have been handled differently. But these articles were frequently written at seven o'clock in the morning, were based on reports that had just come in, and were thus not always considered opinions. In their attacks our opponents spared us absolutely nothing. For the middle classes we were camouflaged Bolshevists and atheists, for the Marxists, agents of Deterding, capitalistic varlets, and monarchistic reactionaries. ....
The Nuremberg show trials will presently be over and our fates decided. Let my confession stand behind them: National Socialism was the European answer to a century-old question. It was the noblest of ideas to which a German could give all his strength. It made the German nation a gift of unity; it gave the German Reich a new content. It was a social philosophy and an ideal of blood-conditioned cultural cleanliness. National Socialism was misused, and in the end demoralised, by men to whom its creator had most fatefully given his confidence. The collapse of the Reich is historically linked with this.
But the idea itself was action and life, and that cannot and will not be forgotten. As other great ideas knew heights and depths, so National Socialism too will be reborn someday in a new generation steeled by sorrow, and will create in a new form a new Reich for the Germans. Historically ripened, it will then have fused the power of belief with political caution. In its peasant soil it will grow from healthy roots into a strong tree that will bear sound fruit. National Socialism was the content of my active life. I served it faithfully, albeit with some blundering and human insufficiency. I shall remain true to it as long as I still live.
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