Hitler's Table Talk

242 OLYMPIC GAMES, BAYREUTH, NUREMBERG
each of Wagner's works has given me! And I remember my
emotion the first time I entered Wahnfried. To say I was
moved is an understatement! At my worst moments, they've
never ceased to sustain me, even Siegfried Wagner. (Houston
Stewart Chamberlain wrote to me so nicely when I was in
prison.) I was on Christian-name terms with them. I love
them all, and I also love Wahnfried. So I felt it to be a special
happiness to have been able to keep Bayreuth going at the
moment of its discomfiture. The war gave me the opportunity
to fulfil a desire dear to Wagner's heart: that men chosen
amongst the people—workers and soldiers—should be able to
attend his Festival free of charge. The ten days of the Bayreuth
season were always one of the blessed seasons of my existence.
And I already rejoice at the idea that one day I shall be able to
resume the pilgrimage!
The tradition of the Olympic Games endured for nearly a
thousand years. That results, it seems to me, from a mystery
similar to that which lies at the origin of Bayreuth. The
human being feels the need to relax, to get out of himself, to
take communion in an idea that transcends him. The Party
Congress answers the same need, and that's why for hundreds
of years men will come from the whole world over to steep themselves
anew, once a year, in the marvellous atmosphere of
Nuremberg. They'll come, and they'll see side by side the
proofs we shall have left of our greatness, and at the same time
the memories of old Nuremberg.
On the day following the end of the Bayreuth Festival, and
on the Tuesday that marks the end of the Nuremberg Congress,
I'm gripped by a great sadness—as when one strips the Christmas
tree of its ornaments.
The Congress, for me, is a terrible effort, the worst moment
of the year. We shall prolong its duration to ten days, so that I
may not be obliged to speak continually. It's because of the
superhuman effort which that demands of me that I was already
obliged to have the opening proclamation read out. I no longer
have the strength to speak as long as I used to. So I'll withdraw
when I realise I'm no longer capable of giving these festivities