Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

against German interests in critical matters affecting the Germans-in order not to alienate
the members of the various foreign nationalities. Even in those days the Social Democracy
could not be regarded as a German party. And with the introduction of universal suffrage the
German superiority ceased even in a purely numerical sense. There was no longer any
obstacle in the path of the further de-Germanization of the state.
For this reason my instinct of national self-preservation caused me even in those days to
have little love for a representative body in which the Germans were always misrepresented
rather than represented. Yet these were deficiencies which, like so many others, were
attributable, not to the thing in itself, but to the Austrian state. I still believed that if a
German majority were restored in the representative bodies, there would no longer be any
reason for a principled opposition to them, that is, as long as the old state continued to exist
at all.
These were my inner sentiments when for the first time I set foot in these halls as hallowed
as they were disputed. For me, to be sure, they were hallowed only by the lofty beauty of the
magnificent building. A Hellenic miracle on German soil!
How soon was I to grow indignant when I saw the lamentable comedy that unfolded beneath
my eyes!
Present were a few hundred of these popular representatives who had to take a position on a
question of most vital economic importance.
The very first day was enough to stimulate me to thought for weeks on end.
The intellectual content of what these men said was on a really depressing level, in so far as
you could understand their babbling at all; for several of the gentlemen did not speak
German, but their native Slavic languages or rather dialects. I now had occasion to hear with
my own ears what previously I had known only from reading the newspapers. A wild
gesticulating mass screaming all at once in every different key, presided over by a
goodnatured old uncle who was striving in the sweat of his brow to revive the dignity of the
House by violently ringing his bell and alternating gentle reproofs with grave admonitions.
I couldn't help laughing.
A few weeks later I was in the House again. The picture was changed beyond recognition. The
hall was absolutely empty. Down below everybody was asleep. A few deputies were in their
places, yawning at one another; one was 'speaking.' A vicepresident of the House was
present, looking into the hall with obvious boredom.
The first misgivings arose in me. From now on, whenever time offered me the slightest
opportunity, I went back and, with silence and attention, viewed whatever picture presented
itself, listened to the speeches in so far as they were intelligible, studied the more or less
intelligent faces of the elect of the peoples of this woe-begone state-and little by little formed
my own ideas.
A year of this tranquil observation sufficed totally to change or eliminate my former view of
the nature of this institution. My innermost position was no longer against the misshapen
form which this idea assumed in Austria; no, by now I could no longer accept the parliament
as such. Up till then I had seen the misfortune of the Austrian parliament in the absence of a
German majority; now I saw that its ruination lay in the whole nature and essence of the
institution as such.
A whole series of questions rose up in me.
I began to make myself familiar with the democratic principle of majority rule as the
foundation of this whole institution, but devoted no less attention to the intellectual and
moral values of these gentlemen, supposedly the elect of the nations, who were expected to
serve this purpose.
Thus I came to know the institution and its representatives at once.
In the course of a few years, my knowledge and insight shaped a plastic model of that most
dignified phenomenon of modern times: the parliamentarian. He began to impress himself
upon me in a form which has never since been subjected to any essential change.