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

362 DER FUEHRERwanted. From time to time he was possessed by a true passion forinstructing the men of his entourage. It became an established practicethat at least once a year he subjected his staff of leaders to a course inart; as a rule at the Party Days. From this developed the custom of hisso-called 'art speeches'; infinitely long-winded lectures, which inspiredsecret jokes in men who otherwise admired him. In their content theyare perhaps the most questionable, in form beyond a doubt the weakestof his speeches; and yet it is these speeches in which the oratorexpressed his profound-est, if most useless, thoughts. For here he speaksof himself, trying to attain clarity concerning his own nature. Here hespeaks of his relation to art, his power and gifts in this field, in which,outwardly at least, he doubtless failed in his youth; and the sense of thewhole speech is finally a stubborn, though inwardly uncertain: 'Anch' ioson pittore.' (I too am a painter.)For it is art which distinguishes the noble men from the commonherd; and his division, as Hitler learned from Houston S. Chamberlain,is no accident; it is here that the races divide. Therefore, in everypeople, including the Germans, there is the subhuman who merely eatsand drinks, and the Aryan yearning for higher culture:It is just as natural that a part of the human species should attain thefulfillment of their life tasks in the satisfaction of the lowest needs as itwould be unnatural if the races chosen by Providence for higher thingsshould, contrary to the admonishing voice of their conscience, yes, theburning compulsion of their being, desire to retrogress to this mostprimitive life conception or even, which is the same thing, letthemselves be coerced into it. . . . Discord entered among those nationsin which two racial ingredients, different in nature, wanted to live andexpress themselves side by side. The man who requires nothing buteating and drinking for the satisfaction and fulfillment of his life, hasnever possessed understanding for the man who would rather stint onhis daily bread in order to still the thirst of his soul and the hunger of hisspirit. But the lack of inner understanding in those who have been bornto this, the eternal incomprehension of their heart and soul, must at leastbe transformed into deferential respect by conscious education. . . .