Hitler made an excellent choice in Amann. Efficient, parsimonious, incorruptible, and without personal political ambition, Amann was exactly the right man for the job. He brought a commonsense business approach to Party affairs...

Max Amann was a member of the Thule Society. Everyone who belonged to the society was aware of Hitler's activities and it is hardly possible that Hitler would have failed to notice one of his old Army comrades among the Thule members. Certainly it is not likely that Hitler's offer was made to Amann on the spur of the moment or that Amann had much difficulty deciding whether or not to accept it... When the Thule Society turned the Völkischer Beobachter over to the Nazi Party, it must have been specified in the deal that a Thule member (Amann) would remain in charge of the newspaper's funds and, moreover, would be appointed "Party business manager" with control over all Party money.

However, this is not to say that Amann was not an excellent business manager for Hitler. In fact, because of his Thule Society connections, he was able to obtain short-term credit for the Party when no one else could have. In more than one instance Amann was able to get an extension on a debt when it meant the difference between survival or bankruptcy for the Völkischer Beobachter. With Amann as Party business manager, Eckart as editor of the Party newspaper, and Rosenberg as assistant editor, the Thule Society's involvement with the Nazis was stronger than ever. But since the basic ideology of the Thule Society and the Nazi Party were the same, these men could be loyal Nazis as well as members of the society.

FIFTY miles west of Munich in the wooded valley of the Lech lies the small town of Landsberg. It was here that Hitler served his term of imprisonment from 1 I November 1923 to 20 December 1924, with only the interlude of the trial in Munich to interrupt it. In the early summer of 1924 some forty other National Socialists were in prison with him, and they had an easy and comfortable life. They ate well - Hitler became quite fat in prison - had as many visitors as they wished, and spent much of their time out of doors in the garden, where, like the rest, Hitler habitually wore leather shorts with a Tyrolean jacket. Emil Maurice acted partly as Hitler's batman, partly as his secretary, a job which he later relinquished to Rudolf Hess, who had voluntarily returned from Austria to share his leader's imprisonment. Hitler's large and sunny room, No. 7, was on the first floor, a mark of privilege which he shared with Weber, Kriebel, and Hess. On his thirty-fifth birthday, which fell shortly after the trial, the parcels and flowers he received filled several rooms. He had a large correspondence in addition to his visitors, and as many newspapers and books as he wished. Hitler presided at the midday meal, claiming and receiving the respect due to him as leader of the Party: much of the time, however, from July onwards he shut himself ub in his room to dictate Mein Kampf, which was begun in prison and taken down by Emil Maurice and Hess.

Max Amann, who was to publish the book, had originally hoped for an account, full of sensational revelations, of the November putsch. But Hitler was too canny for that; there were to be no recriminations. His own title for the book was Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice, reduced by Amann to Mein Kampf - My Struggle. Even then Amann was to be disappointed. For the book contains very little autobiography, but is filled with page after page of turgid discussion of Hitler's ideas, written in a verbose style which is both difficult and dull to read.

Fifty miles west of Munich in the wooded valley of the Lech lies the small town of Landsberg. It was here that Hitler served his term of imprisonment from 11 November 1923 to 20 December 1924, with only the interlude of the trial in Munich to interrupt it. In the early summer of 1924 some forty other National Socialists were in prison with him, and they had an easy and comfortable life. They ate well - Hitler became quite fat in prison - had as many visitors as they wished, and spent much of their time out of doors in the garden, where, like the rest, Hitler habitually wore leather shorts with a Tyrolean jacket. Emil Maurice acted partly as Hitler's batman, partly as his secretary, a job which he later relinquished to Rudolf Hess, who had voluntarily returned from Austria to share his leader's imprisonment. Hitler's large and sunny room, No. 7, was on the first floor, a mark of privilege which he shared with Weber, Kriebel, and Hess. On his thirty-fifth birthday, which fell shortly after the trial, the parcels and flowers he received filled several rooms. He had a large correspondence in addition to his visitors, and as many newspapers and books as he wished. Hitler presided at the midday meal, claiming and receiving the respect due to him as leader of the Party: much of the time, however, from July onwards he shut himself ub in his room to dictate Mein Kampf, which was begun in prison and taken down by Emil Maurice and Hess.

Max Amann, who was to publish the book, had originally hoped for an account, full of sensational revelations, of the November putsch. But Hitler was too canny for that; there were to be no recriminations. His own title for the book was Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice, reduced by Amann to Mein Kampf (My Struggle). Even then Amann was to be disappointed. For the book contains very little autobiography, but is filled with page after page of turgid discussion of Hitler's ideas, written in a verbose style which is both difficult and dull to read.

Hitler took the writing of Mein Kampf with great seriousness. Dietrich Eckart, Feder, and Rosenberg had all published books or pamphlets, and Hitler was anxious to establish his own position of intellectual as well as political authority in the Party. He was eager to prove that he too, even though he had never been to a university and had left school without a certificate, had read and thought deeply, acquiring his own Weltanschauung. It is this thwarted intellectual ambition, the desire to make people take him seriously as an original thinker, which accounts for the pretentiousness of the style, the use of long words and constant repetitions, all the tricks of a half-educated man seeking to give weight to his words. As a result Mein Kampf is a remarkably interesting book for anyone trying to understand Hitler's mind, but as a party tract or a political best-seller it was a failure, which few, even among the party members, had the patience to read.

While Hitler turned his energies to writing Mein Kampf the Party fell to pieces; 9 November had been followed by the proscription of the Party and its organizations throughout the Reich, the suppression of the Völkischer Beobachter and the arrest or flight of the leaders. Goring remained abroad until 1927, Scheubner-Richter had been killed, and Dietrich Eckart, who had been ill for some time, died at the end of 1923. Quarrels soon broke out among those who remained at liberty or were released from prison.

The administrator of his property and his money was Max Amann in his capacity of director of the Eher Verlag, which published Mein Kampf. Once or twice a year Amann would drop in on Hitler to present his accounts. At such times he would always bring up his wishes with regard to newspapers and book publishing and would ask Hitler for authority in various matters. He was seldom or never refused. Whether his unassailable position with Hitler was due more to his capacity as the Fiihrer's business agent or to his having been the sergeant of Hitler's company during the First World War, was a subject much discussed among Hitler's intimates. In financial matters Hitler was ignorant, but generous. As a private person he did not know how to handle his own money, and as head of state he could not manage the government budget.

Hitler's strongest hold on his party in these times was the ownership of the party's paper, the Völkischer Beobachter. But the paper did not make money. Max Amann, in a practical sense the most important of his collaborators, was now business manager of the Völkischer Beobachter, paid his editorial workers starvation wages, gave them prodigious amounts of work to do, and had furious arguments with Alfred Rosenberg. The two threw scissors and ink-wells at each other's head. The paper must be sensational, Amann demanded; it must politically educate our members, said Rosenberg, whom God had not created to be a newspaperman. "I spit on the members; business comes first", Amann cried back; and he said the same thing to his leader, Hitler. Now and then Hitler, sick of working and eager for companionship, would appear in Munich; he would rage through the shabby party office above the Beobachter's print-shop, keeping the employees away from their work with endless speeches. Max Amann, none too respectfully, would drive him back to Berchtesgaden, for "the book has to come out in the autumn, or else the booksellers will cancel their orders".

And so here he was back in Berchtesgaden, writing, or dictating at the typewriter either to Hess, or to his niece, Geli. Of course, it was impossible that the book should be what Amann wanted: a history of the unsuccessful putsch of 1923. Hitler lacked the narrative gift to tell the story; but even if he had wanted to, he could not have spoken openly, for fear of the Bavarian Government, and even more of the Reichswehr. Thus the book contained no sensational revelations. Publisher and public were both disappointed; but to Hitler even less than to most men was it given to speak of himself with critical honesty.

On course of writing, the book had grown beyond the original plan of the "reckoning". Hitler next wanted to call it Four and a Half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice. From this ponderous phrase Amann gleaned a short, striking title: Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

The first volume was published in June, 1925. It cost twelve marks, double the normal German book price. Amann claimed to have sold twenty-three thousand copies in the first year, but this is an extremely doubtful boast. Even Hitler's best friends said: Yes, he is an amazing speaker, probably a great leader, perhaps even a political genius - but it's a pity that he had to write this stupid book. Mein Kampf does not effectively argue Hitler's cause, because the author does not dare to express his innermost thought: that he himself is the greatest figure in history. The keynote of the book is the noisy style which signifies: Be silent, you others, I alone am right; disappear, I am the only one who matters. Trifles are said two or three times, adjectives preferably doubled. A man is "honourable and upright", an outlook is "national and patriotic". In the first edition the first volume is written almost in dialect, and the spelling is by no means above reproach. Endless heaps of substantives are intended to cover over the jargon of the Vienna lodging-house. Hitler uses few verbs, for he seldom says what happens; he always tries to create an image with his own luminous figure striding through columns of majestic substantives. He has enriched the German language with a dozen of the most hideous foreign words (hideous especially because they are not really at home in any language of the world). But even this terrifying style is not his own creation; it is borrowed from Richard Wagner's prose writings; both authors take to elaborate bombast because they fear to betray or commit themselves by a simple word. The author speaks even when he thinks nothing at all; one of the most priceless examples of empty babbling is the beginning of the tenth chapter of the first volume. In the whole book hardly a single actual fact is related tangibly and credibly. Houston Stewart Chamberlain had once said: "The frivolity with which such an artist-spirit treats facts is inspired in him by the certainty that he will penetrate to a higher truth regardless from what premises he starts; therefore he takes the best that he can assimilate". With Richard Wagner in mind, Chamberlain foreshadowed a whole school which falsifies facts and calls the result higher truth.

Mein Kampf did little to establish Hitler's intellectual authority in his party; in fact the party sailed along almost rudderless during 1925 and 1926. The Fuhrer wrote his book, worked for his newspapers, issued leading articles, occasionally spoke at meetings; but in these years another man grew to be the real leader: Gregor Strasser. He was the ideal type of armed intellectual; a former war-time officer, though no professional soldier, but an enthusiast, almost a gourmet in matters of civil war; at the same time an idealist. He owned a drug-store in Landshut, Bavaria, which he sold in 1924 to devote himself entirely to the business of National Socialist leadership; his aim was to push Hitler aside and replace him. A big, heavy man; in contrast to Hitler, an unusually monolithic type, in whom everything, gestures as well as voice, was energetic; he was ponderously loyal to his plans once they were formed, while Hitler was devious and unstable; insensitive to light winds, unable to foresee storms. For a time borne high by the wave, he missed the moment for the leap which might have assured him a place in history. Like Hitler in his early years, he was inspired by an almost boyish pleasure in political activity and work among the masses. Lacking Hitler's oratorical gift, he possessed something just as rare: the power to move an audience by his very personality. His career provides one more example of the trifles which sometimes determine historical destiny. As deputy in the German Reichstag, Strasser enjoyed parliamentary immunity and free travel on the German railways. In contrast to Hitler he could travel for nothing and insult people with impunity. It was a big thing to be able to call your opponent a traitor to the nation and a thief in the bargain - and to do so, today here, tomorrow more than six hundred miles away, without a penny's travelling expenses - and without fear of the courts. At that time the radio was virtually unavailable for political speeches, since in Germany it belonged exclusively to the State. Free travel and free slander - Strasser had a big headstart over his Führer.

This bon vivant, a lover of struggle and of girls, alcohol, cards and sports as well, now reached for the leadership of the party; he founded so-called "party gaus"; that is provincial groups, had gauleiters elected who, he hoped, would be personally devoted to him, and worked out a programme which he intended to force on the party. He had a helper in a volatile young man, little suited to the clique of free-booters, but fitting in perfectly with the bohemians. It is hard to classify this young man, for he was actually nothing - not even a former lieutenant or ensign, not even a corporal. Nature had given him a crippled foot; though seventeen at the outbreak of the World War, he had not been taken into the army. He had studied literature and philosophy at six universities, had lived on a scholarship from the Catholic "Albertus Magnus Society", and had later written film scripts which were never accepted; he had offered a "culture-Bolshevistic" publishing house in Berlin a novel which had been rejected; according to his own story, he had secretly fought the army of occupation in his native Rhenish city during the Ruhr War - but most of his later comrades did not believe this. Now, despite his six universities, he was nothing at all; that is, he was an `editor' of a National Socialist weekly. His name was Paul Joseph Goebbels.

The National Socialist seizure of power gave us the task of forming all of German life according to the spirit of National Socialism. The Führer's difficult fourteen-year struggle gave us the character and methods we needed to meet the challenges. A look back on what had been accomplished in the three and a half years since the National Socialist revolution, with its many actions and decisions, shows us that only it allowed us to fulfill our goals, and that it alone is able to find solutions to the problems facing the German people. We need the compass that the Führer gives us through his model and teachings, and to pledge to follow and remain loyal to that which we learned during the struggle for power. The virtues we learned then led to National Socialism's irresistible victory. Had we not had them, we would not have won power, and had we not maintained them, the power we gained would not have restored health and strength to the German people.

Our opponents during the struggle for power believed that they had a successful attack on us in claiming that the onrushing National Socialism had a party program that was limited to generalities, one that allowed no concrete positions on the problems of public and private life. Besides, the program was only designed to deceive the people, and National Socialism would ignore it once in power.

The Führer had already answered these charges in the party's program: It obligated National Socialists to defend the programmatic goals even at the risk of their lives. Even in the earliest days we believed that the few general principles of the program were better suited to deal with the problems of everyday life than a well-developed theoretical structure. This idea has proven its correctness a thousand times over in the past three and a half years.

I am happy to say that in my areas of endeavor in the party and state, a few National Socialist principles have given me the sure foundation for the many difficult decisions I have made. I am also convinced that the German people and the world public, insofar as it is ready to evaluate the situation objectively, will agree that developments in the German press give daily proof of the correctness and value of our National Socialist principles.

A look back before our seizure of power reminds us how numerous the problems of the press once were. Our few newspapers with their limited circulations fought heroically in the front lines to gain power. They stood against several thousands newspapers that represented other ideas and interests. There were many differences between the leading newspapers back then, but there was one thing they all lacked when compared to the National Socialist press: they had lost their connection to the people. They were responsible not to the people, but to some other group, be it parties, churches, economic interests or corporations, or they looked to their own good without considering the general good of the people. Such a press promoted class struggle, the confusion of social standing, religious incitement or moral decay. They did not promote the good of the individual and the strengthening of the community, rather collapse and decay. These newspapers that appealed to people's lowest instincts had lost their national and moral sense of responsibility, and had little influence.

Such a press could not be tolerated by National Socialism, whose task is the mobilization of all good and healthy strengths of the individual and the community, encouraging their expression and development. The German people is being rescued from a fragmentation of parties, classes, interests and special interests to enable them it to find its own nature and its own strengths once more. This requires that the whole of the German press serve German tasks. Our party's press is always a model, for it developed only to serve the idea and thereby the people. The exhausting everyday work aims at reaching that end.

That makes clear the goal of the National Socialism in the area of the press. All that is necessary is to follow a very few National Socialist principles.

1. The good of the German people was the goal from the beginning. The party's fight and our positions on individual issues were never ends in themselves, rather they illuminated each aspect of our efforts in the light of the whole. We knew that the people were our highest treasure. We never wanted to impose an alien dictatorial system, rather through the work of each individual National Socialist to win the confidence of the people. That is the prerequisite for leadership. Loyalty to the people and concern for their welfare is the foundation of the will and actions of National Socialism.

This led to my first task: the transformation of the German press into a true German people's press, a press that eliminated harmful, selfish or foreign elements and served only the people and its welfare. That means that the reader is no longer the object of a press that is harmful or foreign to him. Rather the principle guiding the press is the good of the individual and the community. A government that has as its only task securing the future of the nation can create such a press, and only such a state. In it, the interests of the state, of the community and of the individual agree. What is it that the reader wants from his newspaper? It should acquaint him with daily events both large and small, letting him know how these affect his life and how he can help the whole community. The newspaper should bring him into contact with the community and the community into contact with him, putting him in the center of what is happening. Besides meeting the needs of the individual and the community, which is the highest goal of the press, it should also satisfy his need for relaxation.

The press has a role in the daily life of every citizen, man, women or maturing youth, that cannot be filled by anything else, and the state has the duty to ensure that it can fulfill its role. Any state that is not an end in itself has the duty to see that the only goal of the press is to serve the people. That is why the Führer supported a people's press at the very beginning, and commented on the harmful effects of the press at the time in "Mein Kampf." He declared that it was the duty of the state to stop any misuse of this instrument of public opinion.

2. The idea of the equality of all people stood in contrast to the National Socialist principle of the creative power of personality. The responsibility of the individual replaced the irresponsibility of the masses. The accomplishment principle replaced all other principles for evaluating people. We could therefore have no doubt that the principle of accomplishment also applied to the press, that it was the foundation of a press that served the people. It can be controlled only by people who have the necessary prerequisites of character and will for these important tasks.

As in very area of life, here too competition is important to the full development of abilities. Accomplishment and creativity are therefore the marks of the press in a National Socialist state. All governmental measures concerning the press must serve these principles.

This rules out monopoly control of the press by any single hand. Despite all predictions to the contrary, it is also clear that private ownership of the press, as long as it is consistent with National Socialist views, has been maintained. This is compelling proof for our faithfulness to our party program and the depth of our adherence to the correctness of its principles, since otherwise it would have been easy for us to establish a party-owned press monopoly. That certainly would have been pleasanter for the party press itself. But the party did not choose the comfortable way. In the past three and a half years its own press too has been subordinate to these principles. The party press faced competition and had to improve. It has gained its position as the politically leading press by its own efforts.

3. The affirmation of the creative power of personality and accomplishment in the press proves the falsity of our opponents' claims about National Socialism plans and ideas. Supposedly the press would lose all lose all independence by state ownership and control of its content.

To the contrary, we have created the foundations for a truly independent press!

In the past, the so-called freedom of the press did not mean the press served the people, only that it was independent of the state. It was, however, left under the control of other powers and influences. The freedom of the press can only be secured when it is free from every kind of dependence. The first prerequisite is that only worthy and appropriate people are able to work in the press. The press must also have a sound economic foundation that removes any possibility of influencing it by financial means. Our principle of guaranteeing that the press is formed by the creative power of personality assures the freedom of its contents from outside influences, for such personalities would not work in the press if their abilities were restricted. We also know that a press that is the people's best comrade in their daily struggles can develop only from the work of the newspaper itself. A relationship between reader and the newspaper requires a precise knowledge of the needs of the readership. Also, we have not interfered with, and will not interfere in the future, with the mature variety of the German press, unique in all the world. Such variety would be destroyed by central control of its contents. Of course, the way in which the important questions of a nation are discussed in public does require that the state protect the people from harm. A state that fails in its duty to protect the people from such damaging press activity has lost its right to exist, for the people, not the press is the measure of all things!