(
The goal of a
political reform movement will never be reached by enlightenment
work or by influencing ruling circles, but only by the achievement
of political power. Every world-moving idea has not only the right,
but also the duty, of securing, those means which make possible the
execution of its ideas. Success is the one earthly judge concerning
the right or wrong of such an effort, and under success we must not
understand, as in the year 1918, the achievement of power in
itself, but an exercise of that power that will benefit the nation.
Thus, a coup d'état must not be regarded as successful if, as
senseless state's attorneys in Germany think today, the
revolutionaries have succeeded in possessing themselves of the
state power, but only if by the realization of the purposes and
aims underlying such a revolutionary action, more benefit accrues
to the nation than under the past régime. Something which cannot
very well be claimed for the German revolution, as the gangster job
of autumn 1918, calls itself.
If the achievement of political power constitutes the precondition
for the practical execution of reform purposes, the movement with
reform purposes must from the first day of its existence feel
itself a movement of the masses and not a literary tea-club or a
shopkeepers' bowling society.
(9) The young movement is in its nature and inner organization
anti-parliamentarian; that is, it rejects, in general and in its
own inner structure, a principle of majority rule in which the
leader is degraded to the level of a mere executant of other
people's will and opinion. In little as well as big things, the
movement advocates the principle of a Germanic democracy: the
leader is elected, but then enjoys unconditional authority.
The practical consequences of this principle in the movement are
the following:
The first chairman of a local group is elected, but then he is the
responsible leader of the local group. All committees are
subordinate to him and not, conversely, he to a committee. There
are no electoral committees, but only committees for work. The
responsible leader, the first chairman, organizes the work. The
first principle applies to the next higher organization, the
precinct, the district or county. The leader is always elected, but
thereby he is vested with unlimited powers and authority. And,
finally, the same applies to the leadership of the whole party. The
chairman is elected, but he is the exclusive leader of the
movement. All committees are subordinate to him and not he to the
committees. He makes the decisions and hence bears the
responsibility on his shoulders. Members of the movement are free
to call him to account before the forum of a new election, to
divest him of his office in so far as he has infringed on the
principles of the movement or served its interests badly. His place
is then taken by an abler, new man, enjoying, however} the same
authority and the same responsibility.
It is one of the highest tasks of the movement to make this
principle determining, not only within its own ranks, but for the
entire state.
Any man who wants to be leader bears, along with the highest
unlimited authority, also the ultimate and heaviest
responsibility.
Anyone who is not equal to this or is too cowardly to bear the
consequences of his acts is not fit to be leader; only the hero is
cut out for this.
The progress and culture of humanity are not a product of the
majority, but rest exclusively on the genius and energy of the
personality.
To cultivate the personality and establish it in its rights is one
of the prerequisites for recovering the greatness and power of our
nationality.
Hence the movement is anti-parliamentarian, and even its
participation in a parliamentary institution can only imply
activity for its destruction, for eliminating an institution in
which we must see one of the gravest symptoms of mankind's
decay.