Chapter 9: “The German Workers Party”
Starts by saying he has intent to look into a small new party called the German Workers party.
Then goes on a tangent:
-Centrists and social democrats were beginning to lead towards nationalist rhetoric
-Nationalism would mean these groups wouldn’t insight revolutions
-Briefly mentions that an army without nationalism is just a police force, with no ability to fight an enemy
Attends Meeting of GWP:
-Small gathering of 20-25 people
-Laments that small new parties were common, with dissatisfied populous creating these parties and then soon these parties will disappear
-Hitler retorts one person’s argument during the meeting, apparently impressing the members and embarrassing the opponent
-Man hands him a political pamphlet to read, which he relates to and finds interesting.
Receives Letter Inviting Him to Join GWP:
-He had no intent to join and thought it was a foolish invitation
-Decides to attend one more meeting
- Finds it disorganized
- Thinks it is boring and will fail at drawing in youth
-Still questions whether to join or not
Large vs Small parties
-When deciding whether or not to join, Hitler realizes that political action may be smarter to take in a smaller party, which has greater potential for growth and would allow him to reorganize and shape their ideals, than an already large, established party that would feel pressure to stick to a regime/formula.
(Egotistical mini rant about how he is unschooled, and how he finds it unfair that educated people will look down on him for a lack of schooling despite theirs being required “empty-headed nonsense,” perhaps implies schools can indoctrinate students?)
Decides to Register for GWP
Chapter 10: The Cause of the Collapse
(Chapter 10 is very long and repetitive and you really don’t need the details. After reading this I realized my notes on the very short Chapter 9 may have been excessive. So I will give a basic rundown of Hitler’s main points.)
Hitler speaks about how Germany was founded in glory, a great, strong nation full of strong people, but has a collapsed economy and it is causing problems in the country.
-The dream of a strong Germany is so far ago many have forgotten it compared to the conditions of the current era.
-He also says that while most people only recognize economic collapse, however, Germany is suffering from a cultural, moral, ethical, and political aspect.
-Many people point to the loss of the war as the reason for the disparity, but Hitler disagrees.
-Hitler says that those who blame the military for the collapse are lying hypocrites, who were revolutionaries that felt indifferent about the war and what happened to the nation, and he feels as if they are using a war as the scapegoat while said revolutionaries caused the failure of Germany.
-He calls these revolutionaries marxist Jews (calls Jews a race, and that calling them a religious group is a lie).
-He says Jewish people are essentially causing the collapse of Germany.
-Hitler also mentions that schools are teaching kids to belong as a brotherhood of races, including German, French, African, Jewish, Chinese, etc, and this leads to a weak nation without enemies to conquer.
-weird hypocrisy? Says the military failure didn’t cause Germany’s collapse, but says Jewish/revolutionary/anti-nationalist ideals caused military failure which then caused Germany’s collapse
