Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

In nearly all the matters in which the Pan-German movement was wanting, the attitude of
the Christian Social Party was correct and well-planned.
It possessed the necessary understanding for the importance of the masses and from the
very first day assured itself of at least a part of them by open emphasis on its social
character. By aiming essentially at winning the small and lower middle classes and artisans,
it obtained a following as enduring as it was self-sacrificing. It avoided any struggle against a
religious institution and thus secured the support of that mighty organization which the
Church represents. Consequently, it possessed only a single truly great central opponent. It
recognized the value of large-scale propaganda and was a virtuoso in influencing the
psychological instincts of the broad masses of its adherents.
If nevertheless it was unable to achieve its goal and dream of saving Austria, this was due to
two deficiencies in its method and to its lack of clarity concerning the aim itself.
The anti-Semitism of the new movement was based on religious ideas instead of racial
knowledge. The reason for the intrusion of this mistake was the same which brought about
the second fallacy
If the Christian Social Party wanted to save Austria, then is; the opinion of its founders it
must not operate from the standpoint of the racial principle, for if it did a dissolution of the
state would, in a short time, inevitably occur. Particularly the situation in Vienna itself, in
the opinion of the party leaders, demanded that all points which would divide their following
should be set aside as much as possible, and that all unifying conceptions be emphasized in
their stead.
At that time Vienna was so strongly permeated especially with Czech elements that only the
greatest tolerance with regard to all racial questions could keep them in a party which was
not anti-German to begin with. If Austria were to be saved, this was indispensable. And so
they attempted to win over small Czech artisans who were especially numerous in Vienna, by
a struggle against liberal Manchesterism, and in the struggle against the Jews on a religious
basis they thought they had discovered a slogan transcending all of old Austria's national
differences.
It is obvious that combating Jewry on such a basis could provide the Jews with small cause
for concern. If the worst came to the worst, a splash of baptismal water could always save the
business and the Jew at the same time. With such a superficial motivation, a serious
scientific treatment of the whole problem was never achieved, and as a result far too many
people, to whom this type of anti-Semitism was bound to be incomprehensible, were repelled.
The recruiting power of the idea was limited almost exclusively to intellectually limited
circles, unless true knowledge were substituted for purely emotional feeling. The
intelligentsia remained aloof as a matter of principle. Thus the whole movement came to look
more and more like an attempt at a new conversion of the Jews, or perhaps even an
expression of a certain competitive envy. And hence the struggle lost the character of an
inner and higher consecration; to many, and not necessarily the worst people, it came to
seem immoral and reprehensible. Lacking was the conviction that this was a vital question
for all humanity, with the fate of all non-Jewish peoples depending on its solution.
Through this halfheartedness the anti-Semitic line of the Christian Social Party lost its value.
It was a sham anti-Semitism which was almost worse than none at all; for it lulled people
into security; they thought they had the foe by the ears, while in reality they themselves were
being led by the nose.
In a short time the Jew had become so accustomed to this type of anti-Semitism that he
would have missed its disappearance more than its presence inconvenienced him.
If in this the Christian Social Party had to make a heavy sacrifice to the state of nationalities,
they had to make an even greater one when it came to championing Germanism as such.
They could not be 'nationalistic' unless they wanted to lose the ground from beneath their
feet in Vienna. They hoped that by a pussy-footing evasion of this question they could still
save the Habsburg state, and by that very thing they encompassed its ruin. And the