Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

of this character should be enhanced by the formation of a new young army. It is against all
sound reason.
The importance which this State attached, after the Revolution of 1918, to the reinforcement
of its position from the military point of view is clearly and unmistakably demonstrated by its
attitude towards the large self-defence organizations which existed in that period. They were
not unwelcome as long as they were of use for the personal protection of the miserable
creatures cast up by the Revolution.
But the danger to these creatures seemed to disappear as the debasement of our people
gradually increased. As the existence of the defence associations no longer implied a
reinforcement of the national policy they became superfluous. Hence every effort was made to
disarm them and suppress them wherever that was possible.
History records only a few examples of gratitude on the part of princes. But there is not one
patriot among the new bourgeoisie who can count on the gratitude of revolutionary
incendiaries and assassins, persons who have enriched themselves from the public spoil and
betrayed the nation. In examining the problem as to the wisdom of forming these defence
associations I have never ceased to ask: 'For whom shall I train these young men? For what
purpose will they be employed when they will have to be called out?' The answer to these
questions lays down at the same time the best rule for us to follow.
If the present State should one day have to call upon trained troops of this kind it would
never be for the purpose of defending the interests of the nation vis-à-vis those of the
stranger but rather to protect the oppressors of the nation inside the country against the
danger of a general outbreak of wrath on the part of a nation which has been deceived and
betrayed and whose interests have been bartered away.
For this reason it was decided that the Storm Detachment of the German National Socialist
Labour Party ought not to be in the nature of a military organization. It had to be an
instrument of protection and education for the National Socialist Movement and its duties
should be in quite a different sphere from that of the military defence association.
And, of course, the Storm Detachment should not be in the nature of a secret organization.
Secret organizations are established only for purposes that are against the law. Therewith the
purpose of such an organization is limited by its very nature. Considering the loquacious
propensities of the German people, it is not possible to build up any vast organization,
keeping it secret at the same time and cloaking its purpose. Every attempt of that kind is
destined to turn out absolutely futile. It is not merely that our police officials today have at
their disposal a staff of eavesdroppers and other such rabble who are ready to play traitor,
like Judas, for thirty pieces of silver and will betray whatever secrets they can discover and
will invent what they would like to reveal. In order to forestall such eventualities, it is never
possible to bind one's own followers to the silence that is necessary. Only small groups can
become really secret societies, and that only after long years of filtration. But the very
smallness of such groups would deprive them of all value for the National Socialist
Movement. What we needed then and need now is not one or two hundred dare-devil
conspirators but a hundred thousand devoted champions of our philosophy of life. The work
must not be done through secret conventicles but through formidable mass demonstrations
in public. Dagger and pistol and poison-vial cannot clear the way for the progress of the
movement. That can be done only by winning over the man in the street. We must overthrow
Marxism, so that for the future National Socialism will be master of the street, just as it will
one day become master of the State.
There is another danger connected with secret societies. It lies in the fact that their members
often completely misunderstand the greatness of the task in hand and are apt to believe that
a favourable destiny can be assured for the nation all at once by means of a single murder.
Such a belief may find historical justification by appealing to cases where a nation had been
suffering under the tyranny of some oppressor who at the same time was a man of genius
and whose extraordinary personality guaranteed the internal solidity of his position and