Fundamental Ideas on The Nature And Organization Of The Storm Troops

THE STRENGTH of the old state rested on 3 pillars:

1. The monarchical form of government
2. The civil service
3. The army

The Revolution of 1918:

• abolished the form of government
• dissolved the army
• abandoned the civil service

This was in favor of the corruption of party politics.

Thus the essential supports of what is called the Authority of the State were shattered.

This authority nearly always depends on three elements, which are the essential foundations of all authority.

Popular Support

Popular support is the first element which is necessary for the creation of authority.

But an authority resting on that foundation alone is still quite frail, uncertain and vacillating.

Hence everyone who finds himself vested with an authority that is based only on popular support must take measures to improve and consolidate the foundations of that authority by the creation of force. Accordingly we must look upon power, that is to say, the capacity to use force, as the second foundation on which all authority is based.

This foundation is more stable and secure, but not always stronger, than the first. If popular support and power are united together and can endure for a certain time, then an authority may arise which is based on a still stronger foundation, namely, the authority of tradition.

Finally, if popular support, power, and tradition are united together, then the authority based on them may be looked upon as invincible.

In Germany the Revolution abolished this last foundation. There was no longer even a traditional authority.

With the collapse of the old REICH, the suppression of the monarchical form of government, the destruction of all the old insignia of greatness and the imperial symbols, tradition was shattered at a blow. The result was that the authority of the State was shaken to its foundations.

Power

The second pillar of statal authority, POWER, also ceased to exist.

To carry through the Revolution. the Army was dissolved.

Some detached fragments of the Army itself had to be employed as fighting elements in the Revolution.

The Armies at the front were not subjected in the same measure to this process of disruption.

But as they gradually left farther behind them the fields of glory on which they had fought heroically for four-and-half years, they were attacked by the solvent acid that had permeated the Fatherland.

When they arrived at the demobilizing centres they fell into that state of confusion which was styled voluntary obedience in the time of the Soldiers’ Councils.

Of course it was out of the question to think of founding any kind of authority on this crowd of mutineering soldiers, who looked upon military service as a work of 8 hours per day.

Power guarantees the stability of authority. And so the Revolution had only popular support as the basis of its authority.

But this basis was extraordinarily insecure.

3 Main Classes of People

Every national body is made up of 3 main classes.

1. The best of the people

These are highly endowed with the civic virtues and are noted for their courage and their readiness to sacrifice their private interests.

The stages of a nation’s rise are accomplished exclusively under the leadership of the best extreme.

2. The worst dregs of humanity

This is at the other extreme. In them, vice and egotistic interests prevail.

Times of national collapse are determined by the preponderating influence of the worst elements.

3. The broad middle stratum or section

Between these two extremes stands the third class. These do not represent radiant heroism nor vulgar vice.

This comes forward and make their influence felt only when the two extreme sections are engaged in mutual strife.

In case one of the extreme sections comes out victorious, the middle section will readily submit to its domination.

• If the best dominate, the broad masses will follow it.
• Should the worst extreme turn out triumphant, then the middle section will at least offer no opposition to it; for the masses that constitute the middle class never fight their own battles.

Times of stable conditions owe their existence to the influence of the middle stratum. In this stage the two extreme classes are balanced against one another; in other words, they are relatively cancelled out.

The outpouring of blood for 4.5 years during the war destroyed the inner equilibrium between these three sections.

The best class almost completely disappeared through the loss of so much of its blood in the war, because it was impossible to replace the truly enormous quantity of heroic German blood.

In hundreds of thousands of cases, it was always a matter of:

• ‘VOLUNTEERS to the front’
• VOLUNTEERS for patrol and duty
• VOLUNTEER dispatch carriers
• VOLUNTEERS for establishing and working telephonic communications
• VOLUNTEERS for bridgebuilding
• VOLUNTEERS for the submarines
• VOLUNTEERS for the air service
• VOLUNTEERS for the storm battalions, and so on.

The calls for volunteers were answered by beardless young fellows or fully developed men, all with an ardent love for their country.

Tens of thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands, of such men came forward, so that that kind of human material steadily grew scarcer and scarcer.

What did not actually fall was maimed in the fight or gradually had to join the ranks of the crippled because of the wounds they were constantly receiving, and thus they had to carry on interminably owing to the steady decrease in the supply of such men.

Our feckless parliamentarians did not give the people proper training in peacetime.

And so, in 1914, whole armies were composed of volunteers without training. They were thus thrown as defenceless cannon-fodder to the enemy.

The 400,000 who thus fell or were permanently maimed on the battlefields of Flanders could not be replaced anymore.

This reduced our best in human quality, which were replaced by those who constituted the worst extreme of our population.

While our best human material was being thinned on the battlefields, our worst people wonderfully succeeded in saving themselves.

For each hero who made the supreme sacrifice and ascended the steps of Valhalla, there was a shirker who cunningly dodged death on the plea of being engaged in business that was useful at home.

The great middle stratum of the nation had fulfilled its duty and paid its toll of blood.

The best elements had sacrificed itself.

The worst elements had preserved itself almost intact, through taking advantage of absurd laws and also because the authorities failed to enforce certain articles of the military code.

This scum of our nation then made the Revolution because the best elements were no longer there to oppose it.