Hitler's Table Talk

CIVILISATIONS, CLIMATES, COLONISATION
Holstein have not changed in two thousand years, whilst those
who had emigrated to Greece raised themselves to the level of
civilisation.
What persists, through the centuries, in a people's customs is
what relates to their habits of eating. I'm convinced that the
soup of Holstein is the origin of the Spartan gruel. As regards
the archaeological discoveries made in our part of the world,
I'm sceptical. The objects in question were doubtless made in
entirely different regions. Their presence would indicate that
they were articles of exchange, which the Germanics of the
coast obtained for their amber. In the whole of Northern
Europe, the level of civilisation cannot much have surpassed
that of the Maoris. Nevertheless, the Greek profile, and that of
the Caesars, is that of the men of this North of ours, and I'd
wager that I could find amongst our peasants two thousand
heads of that type.
If Henry the Lion had not rebelled against the Imperial
power, certainly nobody would ever have had the notion of expanding
to the East. Supposing he'd succeeded, the Slav world
would have been given a Germanic ruling class, but it wouldn't
have gone further than that. All these strivings towards the
East were translated into a loss of Germanic blood, to the profit
of the Slavs.
I prefer to go to Flanders on foot rather than eastwards in a
sleeping-car. It has always been my delight, towards March,
to leave Munich and go to meet the spring in the Rhineland.
On the way back, one leaves the sweetness of living behind as
one passes the mountains of Swabia. There is still a smiling
valley near Ulm, and then one is definitely caught once more
by the rude climate of the high Bavarian plain. I'm sorry for
those who have to suffer this hardening process permanently.
Yet we've made those inclement regions habitable. In the
same way, we'll transform the spaces of the East into a country
in which human beings will be able to live. We must not forget
that over there are found iron, coal, grain and timber. We'll
build there welcoming farms, handsome roads. And those of
our people who thrust as far as that will end by loving their
country and loving its landscapes—as the Germans on the
Volga used to do.