Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

220 DER FUEHRERHegel, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, applied the master's doctrine tothis world, and in so doing (these were their words) stood Hegel'sdoctrine, hitherto upside down, on its feet. There was an inner necessityin world history, as Hegel had taught, but it was not the world spirit;according to Marx and Engels, it was something very unspiritual — thematerial interests of man.This would have been a feeble discovery had not Marx and Engelsbroadened and dramatized their hastily conceived world view with theprofound method of Hegel, which made their doctrine enormouslyimpressive and compelling. In 1847, the two German revolutionarieswrote a pamphlet in their Brussels exile. It began with the words: 'Aspecter is haunting Europe, the specter of Communism!' and concluded:'Workers of the world — unite!' It was — in their opinion — thehistorical task of the proletariat all over the world to abolish privateproperty, in what they called 'means of production,' from coal mines toneedle and thread in a garments sweatshop. Industrial property, theytaught, had a natural tendency to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands;inevitably the people would be driven to take this monopolized propertyback into the hands of society, and thus a society without private property,and therefore without classes, would become the inevitable next'stage' of history.To understand the enormous effect of this Communist Manifesto, itmust be realized that ever since Hegel the entire West had beenpermeated by a belief in the necessary and meaningful course of history.The world proletariat, instructed by Marx and Engels in the spirit ofHegel, fights for its interests in the conviction that it is thusaccomplishing the work of the world spirit. And there was something init; for the Marxist proletariat was the heir and successor of the Europeannational and democratic revolution. Economics becomes destiny. Withtelegraph lines, steamships, transatlantic bank drafts, the globe becomesthe scene of a commercial activity which seems to be life itself. Themerchant views himself as the spiritual leader of his time, far above thesoldier or the philosopher; and so does his antagonist, the Marxistproletarian. This belief in the supposed economic kernel of all thingswas a belief that has had its day in history — and now this day is gone.