DOCUMENTS OF GERMAN POLITICS, VOLUME 5, PAGES 372, 373 and 376
Statement of accounts of the Reich Organization Leader of the NSDAP, Dr. Ley, at the 5th yearly session of the German Labor Front in Nürnberg, on 11 September 1937.
In speaking of "Soldiers of Labor" I have to demand that such soldiers of labor exist in reality. I have to demand that everybody march at the same cadence and in the same spirit. The factory-community is only then complete when every manager takes his place as an ordinary work-crew member among his crew. We shall not rest or relax before this is accomplished. Otherwise everything would be reduced to beautiful phrases resulting only in beer sessions and distribution of cigarettes. No, same cadence and stride, same pack and same marching, then no outward distinction betwen the entrepreneur and the worker shall exist anymore, and sometimes a worker might even look better from a racial point of view than the entrepreneur. And if the latter was adequately polished and drilled, he will lose his feeling of superiority and "curse" exactly like the others. That is necessary, and with this I come to another point.
My collaborators and myself found no rest. We too wanted to to have laws and legal foundations, I was constantly pursued with that request. I asked the Fuehrer myself: "My Fuehrer, can't we too get a law?"
The Fuehrer refused. That's why I say: He was of greatest help to us. Had the Fuehrer given in at the time, we would be in bad shape now. The Fuehrer said: "I think it's wrong. For once I wamt you to make a law through habit in Germany. For once I want to try if it isn't possible in Germany to set up an authority without having to issue laws and decrees on the part of the State. It must be possible to create a great institution and establishment, based only on a law through habit and it must be possible to make this law through habit of a much greater force than any other law and justice."
Once I said to the Fuehrer: "My Fuehrer, actually I am standing with one foot in jail, for today I am still the trustee of the comrades "Leipart" and "Imbusch", and should they some day ask me to return their money, then it will be found that I have spent it, either by building things, or otherwise. But they shall never again find their property in the condition in which they handed it over to me. Therefore I would have to be convicted."
190
1678—PS
The Fuehrer laughed then and remarked that apparently I felt extremely well in this condition.
It was very difficult for us all. Today we laugh about it.
We have only 70,000,000 altogether. Therefore we must use everybody. We have work for at least 300,000,000 and that figure is increasing from year to year. We must have new space. We want to repeat that again and again. We have told the world often enough. We are a people without space and we shall never forget that factor in all our social measures.
We need space, and we must never give this up in all our measures. We must never lose sight of that. That's why we need a healthy people and healthy men.
We succeeded—and this is about the most important accomplishment for the German Labor Front—in eliminating the association-character of the tradeunions and the employer-associations, and for it we have substituted the conception "Soldier of Labor" [Soldat der Arbeit].
Extracts from a speech, on workers and businessmen as equal "Soldiers of Labor," and the need for healthy men in order to gain "new space"
Authors
Robert Ley (Dr., Reichsleiter of German Labor Front)
Robert Ley
German Nazi politician; indicted by the International Military Tribunal for war crimes (1890-1945)
- Born: 1890-02-15 (Niederbreidenbach)
- Died: 1945-10-25 (Nuremberg Court Prison)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: aircraft pilot; chemist; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Sängerschaft zu St. Pauli Jena
- Military rank: lieutenant
- Position held: Member of Landtag of Prussia; member of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany; member of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
Date: 11 September 1937
Literal Title: Statement of accounts of the "Reichsorganisationsleiter" (Reich Organization Leader) of the NSDAP, Dr. Ley, at the 5th yearly session of the German Labor Front in Nuernberg, on 11 September 1937 . . .
Defendant: Robert Ley
Total Pages: 2
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-1678
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450386
Trial Issues
Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) IMT count 1: common plan or conspiracy (IMT) Nazi regime (rise, consolidation, economic control, and militarization) (I…
Document Summary
PS-1678: Speech made by Dr. Ley 11.9.1937
PS-1678: Extract from Robert Ley’s report at the fifth rally of the German workers front in Nuremberg, 11 September 1937: now that trade unions and employers’ associations have been abolished, workers and employers must March together as "soldiers of work"; Germany needs more space