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Folk Community
by Alfred Kotz
18 September 2004
You know the colonies of small gardens on the outskirts of large cities - participation in the fatherland, the joy of the flourishing flowers and the growth of practical plants on this piece of leased land. One would think that at least here a community, carried by a deeper purpose, would be affirmed. We have almost forgotten how poorly the community looked just a few short years ago. There was a harvest festival, but it didn't always bear the face of our community.
I remember the end of one such festival. The colorful lights went out. A last laugh sounded, and then a latecomer, a musician, played into the quiet night: "Deutschland über alles!" -- What courage! Germany had become in bad taste in Germany. Enraged men fumed. They felt "provoked." A few notes from the German national anthem meant a declaration of war to them. Misery surrounded the people and misery surrounded Germany. Germany stood before its death hour. German hearts had been devoured by the crookedness of the political parties. Equality of all with a human face was preached, but one smashed his brother's skull! The men standing at the machines during the workday felt no joy from the swing of hammers and the turning gears. They sang nothing other than the song of deep hatred.
These men did not see themselves as the masters of the machines, rather as their servants. In them was no pride that they were the ones who shaped the strong steel, ratherthe gears ruled the men, because the men did not rule themselves. They had lost themselves in thoughts that flowed into hate, hate against German people and against the machinery which actually only had the purpose to serve men.
German life has greatly changed since then! In such a short time! Let us never forget that, so that we do not sin against what has become and again endanger it! Over technology stands the German man. The German men, however, have become comrades. They are the masters over the machines again and feel joy from the glowing pinchers. They now know: they command the machines and the result of these commands and the obedience of the machines serves not just one businessman, rather the entire German nation.
A few years ago one believed the machines -- or the execution of some task -- was the company. Machines alone and work alone are still not the company! The company is creation through the community of leadership and following. It represents the harmony of spirit, creativity and materials. Clever consideration and skilled hands form the raw materials and create products that the salesman brings to the market. The company, however, has a soul, a living purpose that is higher than simply producing products and selling them for a profit.
Hitler soldiers, you now stand in the companies, whether the roar of motors surrounds you or the silence of the office. It's up to you that not only brains and hands create, rather also the hearts of the creators, that the love of all for their work is there, and that joy for work is made easy. It's not about a boring uniformity, rather it's about everybody's value being recognized. For each is just as important. But nobody should act more important; otherwise he destroys the other's joy and faith. The general director is important. The cleaning lady is also important, so that he has a clean work place.
Company after company, large and small, factories and work places in the home, all of them produce the community of creative Germans, and the unity of living requirements for all. The unity grows into the Germany that belongs to these creative people, in which there is no place for people who only take. It grows into the German folk. The individual must not just hear of this. He must experience and understand it. He understands it best through the deed. You, Hitler soldier, are the deed! You must live as an example of this community for the folk comrades! Those who think they can perform their task through great words and acting are not Hitler soldiers. Look at their mouths and their fingers! They smash what Hitler built; they wound the souls of those for whom we struggle and whom we must not lose. All Germans belong to us. It depends on every single man and woman.
None of us belongs solely to himself. Each also belongs to the other; we just didn't know that before. Each belongs to the other just as the other belongs to him. Resistance and standing aside don't help. All of us belong together, even if we pass each other a thousand times on the street without a greeting. We are bound by the community, regardless of whether we reject or affirm it.
Yes, it binds us even on the last journey. If this community dies, the folk dies. We often bow to this compulsion without realizing it. But it is such a shame that we are not always conscious of this community -- live it, experience it and joyfully affirm it.
Think of this: Would one of us even get a glass of water if other folk comrades hadn't built pipes, others laid them, others manned the pumping station, so that one simply has to turn a handle? At breakfast do you consider that the bread has a long path behind it? That an unknown folk comrade tilled the soil and planted the seed, that one cut the wheat and brought the harvest home, that one baked the flour into bread? You couldn't walk home with dry feet if others had not placed stone after stone to form the pavement and still others had not created a drainage system for the rainwater. Who produced our clothes; who built your home? You do not recognize or greet them. You enjoy reading a book that uplifts you and helps you to widen your perspective. Do you also think of the person who wrote it for you in long nights? Or about the craftsmen who printed and bound it? Can you build a telephone all by yourself which you can use with reliability? Whom do you call under
distress to the sickbed of a loved one? You call a doctor, a folk comrade, and hence another one. Always and everywhere you find silent witnesses that others create for you, so many that you cannot even perceive them. Your entire being depends on them. Know that you must cease to exist if your folk comrades cease to create for you! None of us can withdraw himself from this bond, not even the most stubborn loner.
We want to make at least a modest effort to become conscious of this bond, to contribute our love and loyalty, so that it becomes a harmony of hearts. Works and materials are otherwise cold and joyless. So we stand at our work and in our folk with our industriousness and our love. It's not longer hard for us to practice consideration for others. It becomes easy for us to cast off from ourselves whatever would hurt others.
The German folk community is something different than the achievement of the Marxist dreams of equality. Our community is based on the bonds of a blood, of a folk kind. But it's inconceivable that all individuals become personal friends. The traits and abilities are, thank God, different for all. One is more advanced in the intellectual area and another has skilled hands. The violin player cannot drive a beer truck or the craftsman become the senate president. The demands of a profession increase the demands of education. Intellectual education requires greater means, which many have to scrape together under hunger. It is just for a judge to receive a larger salary than his typist, for he had no income for a long time while the typist already did. The general director must -- he must -- dress differently than his clerk. He must -- he must -- be able to join a circle of culture that corresponds to his intellectual level.
It does not harm the folk community if a tuxedo is worn to a formal occasion, if regulations do not call for a uniform. It does, however, disturb the folk community if we find fault with the folk comrade in tuxedo. It undermines the folk community if we criticize and envy the person with a higher wage. We should make a greater effort to look more closely and to understand the other, for he also has his cares. It's in our hands to teach our boy industriousness and ambition so that he becomes capable and can earn more.
No, the differences of rank, class and intellectual interests do not hamper the folk community; they are necessities. What is constructive and what must be shared is the clarity of attitude and character and the understanding for the other, the pride of every man and woman to be a member of the German unity. Work ennobles, if it is honest. Hence it's wrong for somebody to say, "I am 'only' a worker!" He demeans himself. In the folk community there is no "only." If a right-thinking street cleaner performs his work faithfully and conscientiously, then he performs a noble service for the nation. This man stands endlessly higher than some dignitary with the character of a scoundrel does.
This, however, should hinder neither tuxedo nor bricklayer's apron. Each folk comrade's heart should be warm for the other. Everything else follows naturally. Then no one hungers or freezes without his own fault while others live in luxury without earning it.
Hitler men, we grew from our formation -- and through our tasks -- into the folk community. It's up to us to form this community and to indestructibly anchor its foundation, namely justice. As we are, so will the others be. All of us must fulfill the highest purpose, to serve Germany with all our strength. It depends on service alone. Earning is just a means toward an end. End and goal is, however, service to folk and fatherland. That's how we perceive Germany. It's up to us to make sure that never again do people curse because a trumpeter plays: "Deutschland über alles!"
ALFRED KOTZ
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