Hitler's Table Talk

DUTIES OF CIVIL SERVANTS 103
2. In the event of a divergence between the interests of the
State and private interests, an independent organisation shall
settle the dispute in accordance with the interests of the German
people.
The State could not be independent and possess indisputable
authority unless those of us who had interests in private undertakings
were excluded from the control of public affairs—and
the simple fact of owning shares in a private company would
be enough. Every person shall have the alternative of giving
them up or of leaving the service of the State. Servants of the
State must not be in any way involved in financial speculations.
If they have money, let them buy real property or invest this
money in State securities. Thus their wealth would be bound
up with the future of the State. After all, the safety offered by
these investments makes them more lucrative in the long run
than investments in private industry, which is necessarily
liable to booms and slumps.
These regulations apply to members of the Reichstag,
members of the Civil Service, regular officers and the chiefs of
the Party. These men must be totally unconnected with
interests foreign to those of the State. We see what it leads to
when laxity is permitted in this field. England would not have
slipped into this war if Baldwin and Chamberlain hadn't had
interests in the armaments industry. The decadence of the
princely houses began in the same fashion.
59 Night of 1st-2nd November 1941
The blind machine of administration—The hesitant mind
of the jurists—The administration of the Party—-In praise
of individual qualities—The SS and racial selection—
Reform of the magistrature.
Our Civil Service often commits crude errors. One day the
mayor of Leipzig, Goerdeler, came to offer his resignation.
The reason was, he'd wanted to instal electric lighting in a
street, and Berlin had been against it : it was obligatory to stick
to lighting by gas. I enquired into the matter, and found that
this asinine decision had been taken by a squirt of a lawyer in
the Ministry of the Interior!