What is Völkisch?

Volume 1 of this book explained the term VÖLKISCH as the core of the closely consolidated militant community.

All kinds of people, with all kinds of divergent opinions, are parading about at the present moment under the device VÖLKISCH on their banners.

Before I come to deal with the purposes and aims of the National Socialist Labour Party I want to establish a clear understanding of what is meant by the concept VÖLKISCH and herewith explain its relation to our party movement.

The word VÖLKISCH does not express any clearly specified idea. It may be interpreted in several ways and in practical application it is just as general as the word ‘religious’, for instance. It is difficult to attach any precise meaning to this latter word, either as a theoretical concept or as a guiding principle in practical life.

The word ‘religious’ acquires a precise meaning only when it is associated with a distinct and definite form through which the concept is put into practice. To say that a person is ‘deeply religious’ may be very fine phraseology; but, generally speaking, it tells us little or nothing.

There may be some few people who are content with such a vague description and there may even be some to whom the word conveys a more or less definite picture of the inner quality of a person thus described. But, since the masses of the people are not composed of philosophers or saints, such a vague religious idea will mean for them nothing else than to justify each individual in thinking and acting according to his own bent.

It will not lead to that practical faith into which the inner religious yearning is transformed only when it leaves the sphere of general metaphysical ideas and is moulded to a definite dogmatic belief. Such a belief is certainly not an end in itself, but the means to an end.

Yet it is a means without which the end could never be reached at all. This end, however, is not merely something ideal; for at the bottom it is eminently practical.

The highest ideals are always the outcome of some profound vital need, just as the most sublime beauty owes its nobility of shape, in the last analysis, to the fact that the most beautiful form is the form that is best suited to the purpose it is meant to serve.

By helping to lift the human being above the level of mere animal existence, Faith really contributes to consolidate and safeguard its own existence.

If we abolish religious teaching without replacing it with anything of equal value, the foundations of human existence would be seriously shaken.

Man does not live merely to serve higher ideals.

Man serves higher ideals which in turn give the necessary conditions of his human existence. Thus the circle is closed.

‘Religious’ implies some fundamental ideas and beliefs, such as:

• the immortality of the soul
• its future existence in eternity
• the existence of a Higher Being, and so on.

But these ideas can be critically analysed by any person and accepted or rejected accordingly.

This means that these ideas are supported by emotion or yearning that is governed by a clearly defined doctrinal faith.

Such a faith provides the practical outlet for religious feeling to express itself.

Without a clearly defined belief, the religious feeling:

• would be worthless for the purposes of human existence
• might even contribute towards a general disorganization because of its vague and multifarious tendencies.

What I have said about the word ‘religious’ can also be applied to the term VÖLKISCH.

VÖLKISCH also implies certain important fundamental ideas.

But they are so vague and indefinite that they cannot be estimated as having a greater value than mere opinions, until they become constituent elements in the structure of a political party.

For in order to give practical force to the ideals that grow out of a WELTANSCHAUUNG and to answer the demands which are a logical consequence of such ideals, mere sentiment and inner longing are of no practical assistance, just as freedom cannot be won by a universal yearning for it. No.

Only when the idealistic longing for independence is organized in such a way that it can fight for its ideal with military force, only then can the urgent wish of a people be transformed into a potent reality.

Any WELTANSCHAUUNG, though a thousandfold right and supremely beneficial to humanity, will be of no practical service for the maintenance of a people as long as its principles have not yet become the rallying point of a militant movement. And, on its own side, this movement will remain a mere party until is has brought its ideals to victory and transformed its party doctrines into the new foundations of a State which gives the national community its final shape.

If an abstract conception of a general nature is to serve as the basis of a future development, then the first prerequisite is to form a clear understanding of the nature and character and scope of this conception. For only on such a basis can a movement he founded which will be able to draw the necessary fighting strength from the internal cohesion of its principles and convictions.

From general ideas a political programme must be constructed and a general WELTANSCHAUUNG must receive the stamp of a definite political faith.

Since this faith must be directed towards ends that have to be attained in the world of practical reality, not only must it serve the general ideal as such but it must also take into consideration the means that have to be employed for the triumph of the ideal.

Here the practical wisdom of the statesman must come to the assistance of the abstract idea, which is correct in itself. In that way an eternal ideal, which has everlasting significance as a guiding star to mankind, must be adapted to the exigencies of human frailty so that its practical effect may not be frustrated at the very outset through those shortcomings which are general to mankind.

The exponent of truth must here go hand in hand with him who has a practical knowledge of the soul of the people, so that from the realm of eternal verities and ideals what is suited to the capacities of human nature may be selected and given practical form.

To take abstract and general principles, derived from a WELTANSCHAUUNG which is based on a solid foundation of truth, and transform them into a militant community whose members have the same political faith–a community which is precisely defined, rigidly organized, of one mind and one will–such a transformation is the most important task of all; for the possibility of successfully carrying out the idea is dependent on the successful fulfilment of that task. Out of the army of millions who feel the truth of these ideas, and even may understand them to some extent, one man must arise.

This man must have the gift of being able to expound general ideas in a clear and definite form, and, from the world of vague ideas shimmering before the minds of the masses, he must formulate principles that will be as clear-cut and firm as granite.

He must fight for these principles as the only true ones, until a solid rock of common faith and common will emerges above the troubled waves of vagrant ideas. The general justification of such action is to be sought in the necessity for it and the individual will be justified by his success.

Interpreting VÖLKISCH

Currently, it is believed that the State has a creative force which can build up civilizations. But it has nothing in common with the concept of race as the foundation of the State.

The State is considered rather as something which has resulted from economic necessity, or, at best, the natural outcome of the play of political forces and impulses.

This ignores*:

• the primordial racial forces that underlie the State
• the importance of the individual

If it be denied that races differ from one another in their powers of cultural creativeness, then this same erroneous notion must necessarily influence our estimation of the value of the individual.

If all races are alike, then all nations and individuals are equal to one another.

International Marxism applies this, effected by the Jew Karl Marx who turned this idea into a definite political faith.

In reality, that general concept had existed long before the time of Karl Marx.

This is why Marxist teaching became possible.

The difference is that Karl Marx existed in a world already in gradual decomposition.

He used his keen powers of prognosis to detect the essential poisons, so as to extract them and concentrate them, with the art of a necromancer.

His resulting solution would bring about the rapid destruction of the independent nations.

But all this was done in the service of his race.

Thus, the Marxist doctrine is the concentrated extract of the mentality which underlies the general concept of life today.

This is why our bourgeois world cannot put up any effective fight against Marxism.

This bourgeois world is permeated with all those same poisons.

Its conception of life differs from Marxism only in degree and in the character of the persons who hold it.

The bourgeois world is Marxist but believes that the bourgeoisie can dominate the world.

Whereas Marxism itself systematically aims at delivering the world into the hands of the Jews.