Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

founders; in other words, made to serve international stock exchange capital, the power
behind the German revolution.
What especially distinguished the German civil service and administrative apparatus was
their independence from the individual governments whose passing political views could have
no effect on the job of German civil servant. Since the revolution, it must be admitted, this
has completely changed. Ability and competence were replaced by party ties and a selfreliant,
independent character became more of a hindrance than a help.
The state form, the army. and the civil service formed the basis for the old Reich's wonderful
power and strength. These first and foremost were the reasons for a quality which is totally
lacking in the present-day state: state's authority! For this is not based on bull-sessions in
parliaments or provincial diets, or on laws for its protection, or court sentences to frighten
those who insolently deny it, etc., but on the general confidence which may and can be
placed in the leadership and administration of a commonwealth. This confidence, in turn,
results only from an unshakable inner faith in the selflessness and honesty of the
government and administration of a country and from an agreement between the spirit of the
laws and the general ethical view. For in the long run government systems are not
maintained by the pressure of violence, but by faith in their soundness and in the.
truthfulness with which they represent and advance the interests of a people.
Gravely as certain evils of the pre-War period corroded and threatened to undermine the
inner strength of the nation, it must not be forgotten that other states suffered even more
than Germany from most of these ailments and yet in the critical hour of danger did not nag
and perish. But if we consider that the German weaknesses before the War were balanced by
equally great strengths, the ultimate cause of the collapse can and must lie in a different
field; and this is actually the case.
The deepest and ultimate reason for the decline of the old Reich lay in its failure to recognize
the racial problem and its importance for the historical development of peoples. For events in
the lives of peoples are not expressions of chance, but processes related to the selfpreservation
and propagation of the species and the race and subject to the laws of Nature,
even if people are not conscious of the inner reason for their actions.