Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

As Social Democracy gradually gained power it lost more and more the character of a crude
revolutionary party. Of course in their inner hearts the Social Democrats wanted a
revolution; and their leaders had no other end in view. Certainly not. But what finally
resulted was only a revolutionary programme; but not a body of men who would be able to
carry it out. A revolution cannot be carried through by a party of ten million members. If
such a movement were attempted the leaders would find that it was not an extreme section
of the population on which they had to depend butrather the broad masses of the middle
stratum; hence the inert masses.
Recognizing all this, already during the war, the Jews caused the famous split in the Social
Democratic Party. While the Social Democratic Party, conforming to the inertia of its mass
following, clung like a leaden weight on the neck of the national defence, the actively radical
elements were extracted from it and formed into new aggressive columns for purposes of
attack. The Independent Socialist Party and the Spartacist League were the storm battalions
of revolutionary Marxism. The objective assigned to them was to create a fait accompli, on
the grounds of which the masses of the Social Democratic Party could take their stand,
having been prepared for this event long beforehand. The feckless bourgeoisie had been
estimated at its just value by the Marxists and treated en canaille. Nobody bothered about it,
knowing well that in their canine servility the representatives of an old and worn-out
generation would not be able to offer any serious resistance.
When the Revolution had succeeded and its artificers believed that the main pillars of the old
State had been broken down, the Army returning from the Front began to appear in the light
of a sinister sphinx and thus made it necessary to slow down the national course of the
Revolution. The main body of the Social Democratic horde occupied the conquered positions,
and the Independent Socialist and Spartacist storm battalions were side-tracked.
But that did not happen without a struggle.
The activist assault formations that had started the Revolution were dissatisfied and felt that
they had been betrayed. They now wanted to continue the fight on their own account. But
their illimitable racketeering became odious even to the wire-pullers of the Revolution. For
the Revolution itself had scarcely been accomplished when two camps appeared. In the one
camp were the elements of peace and order; in the other were those of blood and terror. Was
it not perfectly natural that our bourgeoisie should rush with flying colours to the camp of
peace and order? For once in their lives their piteous political organizations found it possible
to act, inasmuch as the ground had been prepared for them on which they were glad to get a
new footing; and thus to a certain extent they found themselves in coalition with that power
which they hated but feared. The German political bourgeoisie achieved the high honour of
being able to associate itself with the accursed Marxist leaders for the purpose of combating
Bolshevism.
Thus the following state of affairs took shape as early as December 1918 and January 1919:
A minority constituted of the worst elements had made the Revolution. And behind this
minority all the Marxist parties immediately fell into step. The Revolution itself had an
outward appearance of moderation, which aroused against it the enmity of the fanatical
extremists. These began to launch hand-grenades and fire machine-guns, occupying public
buildings, thus threatening to destroy the moderate appearance of the Revolution. To prevent
this terror from developing further a truce was concluded between the representatives of the
new regime and the adherents of the old order, so as to be able to wage a common fight
against the extremists. The result was that the enemies of the Republic ceased to oppose the
Republic as such and helped to subjugate those who were also enemies of the Republic,
though for quite different reasons. But a further result was that all danger of the adherents
of the old State putting up a fight against the new was now definitely averted.
This fact must always be clearly kept in mind. Only by remembering it can we understand
how it was possible that a nation in which nine-tenths of the people had not joined in a