Hitler's Table Talk

IO4
PLANNED CIVIL SERVICE REFORM
Not long ago a staff member of the Ministry of Propaganda
contested the right of the man who built Munich opera-house
to bear the title of architect, on the grounds that he did not
belong to one or another professional organisation. I immediately
put an end to that scandal.
I'm not surprised that the country is full of hatred towards
Berlin. Ministries ought to direct from above, not interfere
with details of exécution. The Civil Service has reached the
point of being only a blind machine. We shan't get out of that
state of affairs unless we decide on a massive decentralisation.
Even the mere extensiveness of Reich territory forces us to do
this. One mustn't suppose that a regulation applicable to the
old Reich or a part of it is automatically applicable to Kirkenaes,
say, or the Crimea. There's no possibility of ruling
this huge empire from Berlin, and by the methods that have
been used hitherto.
The chief condition for decentralisation is that the system of
promotion by seniority shall be abandoned in favour of appointment
to posts. The former system means simply that, as soon
as an official has entered into it, he can be moved regularly into
higher grades, no matter what his abilities may be. It also
means the impossibility of particularly qualified men's being
able to skip whole grades, as it would be desirable that they
could.
As regards salaries, I'm likewise of the opinion that new
methods should be adopted. The allowance allocated in
addition to the basic salary should be in inverse ratio to the
number of colleagues employed by the head of a department.
This allowance will be all the higher, the fewer the aforesaid
departmental head's colleagues. He will thus escape the
temptation to see salvation only in the multiplication of his
subordinates.
When we get as far as rebuilding Berlin, I'll instal the
Ministries in relatively confined quarters, and I'll file down
their budgets as regards their internal needs. When I think of
the organisation of the Party, which has always been exemplary
from every point of view, or of the organisation of the State
railways, which are better run—much to the irritation of Herr
Frick—I can see all the more clearly the weaknesses of our