The second pillar of the Nazi state is the Führer, the infallible
leader, to whom his followers owe absolute obedience. The Führer
principle envisages government of the state by a hierarchy of leaders,
each of whom owes unconditional allegiance to his immediate superior
and at the same time is the absolute leader in his own particular
sphere of jurisdiction.
One of the best expositions of the Nazi concept of the Führer
principle is given by Huber in his _Constitutional Law of the Greater
German Reich_ (document 1, _post_ p. 155):
The Führer-Reich of the [German] people is founded on the
recognition that the true will of the people cannot be
disclosed through parliamentary votes and plebiscites but
that the will of the people in its pure and uncorrupted form
can only be expressed through the Führer. Thus a distinction
must be drawn between the supposed will of the people in a
parliamentary democracy, which merely reflects the conflict
of the various social interests, and the true will of the
people in the Führer-state, in which the collective will of
the real political unit is manifested ...
The Führer is the bearer of the people's will; he is
independent of all groups, associations, and interests, but
he is bound by laws which are inherent in the nature of his
people. In this twofold condition: independence of all
factional interests but unconditional dependence on the
people, is reflected the true nature of the Führer
principle. Thus the Führer has nothing in common with the
functionary, the agent, or the exponent who exercises a
mandate delegated to him and who is bound to the will of
those who appoint him. The Führer is no "representative" of
a particular group whose wishes he must carry out. He is no
"organ" of the state in the sense of a mere executive agent.
He is rather himself the bearer of the collective will of
the people. In his will the will of the people is realized.
He transforms the mere feelings of the people into a
conscious will ... Thus it is possible for him, in the name
of the true will of the people which he serves, to go
against the subjective opinions and convictions of single
individuals within the people if these are not in accord
with the objective destiny of the people ... He shapes the
collective will of the people within himself and he embodies
the political unity and entirety of the people in
opposition to individual interests ...
But the Führer, even as the bearer of the people's will, is
not arbitrary and free of all responsibility. His will is
not the subjective, individual will of a single man, but the
collective national will is embodied within him in all its
objective, historical greatness ... Such a collective will
is not a fiction, as is the collective will of the
democracies, but it is a political reality which finds its
expression in the Führer. The people's collective will has
its foundation in the political idea which is given to a
people. It is present in the people, but the Führer raises
it to consciousness and discloses it ...
In the Führer are manifested also the natural laws inherent
in the people: It is he who makes them into a code governing
all national activity. In disclosing these natural laws he
sets up the great ends which are to be attained and draws up
the plans for the utilization of all national powers in the
achievement of the common goals. Through his planning and
directing he gives the national life its true purpose and
value. This directing and planning activity is especially
manifested in the lawgiving power which lies in the Führer's
hand. The great change in significance which the law has
undergone is characterized therein that it no longer sets up
the limits of social life, as in liberalistic times, but
that it drafts the plans and the aims of the nation's
actions ...
The Führer principle rests upon unlimited authority but not
upon mere outward force. It has often been said, but it must
constantly be repeated, that the Führer principle has
nothing in common with arbitrary bureaucracy and represents
no system of brutal force, but that it can only be
maintained by mutual loyalty which must find its expression
in a free relation. The Führer-order depends upon the
responsibility of the following, just as it counts on the
responsibility and loyalty of the Führer to his mission and
to his following ... There is no greater responsibility than
that upon which the Führer principle is grounded.[46]
The nature of the plebiscites which are held from time to time in a
National Socialist state, Huber points out, cannot be understood from
a democratic standpoint. Their purpose is not to give the people an
opportunity to decide some issue but rather to express their unity
behind a decision which the Führer, in his capacity as the bearer of
the people's will, has already made:
That the will of the people is embodied in the Führer does
not exclude the possibility that the Führer can summon all
members of the people to a plebiscite on a certain question.
In this "asking of the people" the Führer does not, of
course, surrender his decisive power to the voters. The
purpose of the plebiscite is not to let the people act in
the Führer's place or to replace the Führer's decision with
the result of the plebiscite. Its purpose is rather to give
the whole people an opportunity to demonstrate and proclaim
its support of an aim announced by the Führer. It is
intended to solidify the unity and agreement between the
objective people's will embodied in the Führer and the
living, subjective conviction of the people as it exists in
the individual members ... This approval of the Führer's
decision is even more clear and effective if the plebiscite
is concerned with an aim which has already been realized
rather than with a mere intention.[47]
Huber states that the Reichstag elections in the Third Reich have the
same character as the plebiscites. The list of delegates is made up by
the Führer and its approval by the people represents an expression of
renewed and continued faith in him. The Reichstag no longer has any
governing or lawgiving powers but acts merely as a sounding board for
the Führer:
It would be impossible for a law to be introduced and acted
upon in the Reichstag which had not originated with the
Führer or, at least, received his approval. The procedure is
similar to that of the plebiscite: The lawgiving power does
not rest in the Reichstag; it merely proclaims through its
decision its agreement with the will of the Führer, who is
the lawgiver of the German people.[48]
Huber also shows how the position of the Führer developed from the
Nazi Party movement:
The office of the Führer developed out of the National
Socialist movement. It was originally not a state office;
this fact can never be disregarded if one is to understand
the present legal and political position of the Führer. The
office of the Führer first took root in the structure of the
Reich when the Führer took over the powers of the Chancelor,
and then when he assumed the position of the Chief of State.
But his primary significance is always as leader of the
movement; he has absorbed within himself the two highest
offices of the political leadership of the Reich and has
created thereby the new office of "Führer of the people and
the Reich." That is not a superficial grouping together of
various offices, functions, and powers ... It is not a union
of offices but a unity of office. The Führer does not unite
the old offices of Chancelor and President side by side
within himself, but he fills a new, unified office.[49]
The Führer unites in himself all the sovereign authority of
the Reich; all public authority in the state as well as in
the movement is derived from the authority of the Führer.
We must speak not of the state's authority but of the
Führer's authority if we wish to designate the character of
the political authority within the Reich correctly. The
state does not hold political authority as an impersonal
unit but receives it from the Führer as the executor of the
national will. The authority of the Führer is complete and
all-embracing; it unites in itself all the means of
political direction; it extends into all fields of national
life; it embraces the entire people, which is bound to the
Führer in loyalty and obedience. The authority of the Führer
is not limited by checks and controls, by special autonomous
bodies or individual rights, but it is free and independent,
all-inclusive and unlimited. It is not, however,
self-seeking or arbitrary and its ties are within itself. It
is derived from the people; that is, it is entrusted to the
Führer by the people. It exists for the people and has its
justification in the people; it is free of all outward ties
because it is in its innermost nature firmly bound up with
the fate, the welfare, the mission, and the honor of the
people.[50]
Neesse, in his _The National Socialist German Workers Party--An
Attempt at Legal Interpretation_, emphasizes the importance of
complete control by the party leadership over all branches of the
government. He says there must be no division of power in the Nazi
state to interfere with the leader's freedom of action. Thus the
Führer becomes the administrative head, the lawgiver, and the highest
authority of justice in one person. This does not mean that he stands
above the law. "The Führer may be outwardly independent, but inwardly
he obeys the same laws as those he leads."[51]
The _leadership_ (_Führung_) in the Nazi state is not to be compared
with the _government_ or _administration_ in a democracy:
_Führung_ is not, like government, the highest organ of the
state, which has grown out of the order of the state, but it
receives its legitimation, its call, and its mission from
the people ...[52]
The people cannot as a rule announce its will by means of
majority votes but only through its embodiment in one man,
or in a few men. The principle of the _identity_ of the
ruler and those who are ruled, of the government and those
who are governed has been very forcibly represented as the
principle of democracy. But this identity ... becomes
mechanistic and superficial if one seeks to establish it in
the theory that the people are at once the governors and the
governed ... A true organic identity is only possible when
the great mass of the people recognizes its embodiment in
one man and feels itself to be one nature with him ... Most
of the people will never exercise their governing powers but
only wish to be governed justly and well ... National
Socialist _Führung_ sees no value in trying to please a
majority of the people, but its every action is dictated by
service to the welfare of the people, even though a majority
would not approve it. The mission of the _Führung_ is
received from the people, but the fulfilment of this mission
and the exercise of power are free and must be free, for
however surely and forcefully a healthy people may be able
to make decisions in the larger issues of its destiny, its
decisions in all smaller matters are confused and uncertain.
For this reason, _Führung_ must be free in the performance
of its task ... The Führer does not stand for himself alone
and can be understood not of himself, but only from the idea
of a work to be accomplished ... Both the Führer and his
following are subject to the idea which they serve; both are
of the same substance, the same spirit, and the same blood.
The despot knows only subjects whom he uses or, at best, for
whom he cares. But the first consideration of the Führer is
not his own advantage nor even, at bottom, the welfare of
the people, but only service to the mission, the idea, and
the purpose to which Führer and following alike are
consecrated.[53]
The supreme position of Adolf Hitler as Führer of the Reich, which
Huber and Neesse emphasize in the preceding quotations, is also
stressed in the statements of high Nazi officials. For example, Dr.
Frick, the German Minister of the Interior, in an article entitled
"Germany as a Unitary State," which is included in a book called
_Germany Speaks_, published in London in 1938, states:
The unity of the party and the state finds its highest
realization in the person of the Leader and Chancelor who
... combines the offices of President and Chancelor. He is
the leader of the National Socialist Party, the political
head of the state and the supreme commander of the defense
forces.[54]
It is interesting to note that, notwithstanding the generally
recognized view as expressed in the preceding citations that the
authority of the Führer is supreme, Hitler found it necessary in April
1942 to ask the Reichstag to confirm his power to be able at any time,
if necessary, to urge any German to fulfil his obligations by all
means which appear to the Führer appropriate in the interests of the
successful prosecution of the war.[55] (The text of the resolution
adopted by the Reichstag is included as document 5, _post_ p. 183.)
Great emphasis is placed by the Nazi leaders on the infallibility of
the Führer and the duty of obedience of the German people. In a
speech on June 12, 1935, for instance, Robert Ley, director of the
party organization, said, "Germany must obey like a well-trained
soldier: the Führer, Adolf Hitler, is always right." Developing the
same idea, Ley wrote in an article in the _Angriff_ on April 9, 1942
(document 6, _post_ p. 184): "Right is what serves my people; wrong is
what damages it. I am born a German and have, therefore, only one holy
mission: work for my people and take care of it." And with reference
to the position of Hitler, Ley wrote:
The National Socialist Party is Hitler, and Hitler is the
party. The National Socialists believe in Hitler, who
embodies their will. Therefore our conscience is clearly and
exactly defined. Only what Adolf Hitler, our Führer,
commands, allows, or does not allow is our conscience. _We
have no understanding for him who hides behind an anonymous
conscience, behind God, whom everybody conceives according
to his own wishes._
These ideas of the Führer's infallibility and the duty of obedience
are so fundamental in fact that they are incorporated as the first two
commandments for party members. These are set forth in the
_Organisationsbuch der NSDAP_ (_Nazi Party Organization Book_) for
1940, page 7 (document 7, _post_ p. 186). The first commandment is
"The Führer is always right!" and the second is "Never go against
discipline!"
In view of the importance attached to the Führer principle by the
Nazis, it is only natural that youth should be intensively
indoctrinated with this idea. Neesse points out that one of the most
important tasks of the party is the formation of a "select group" or
elite which will form the leaders of the future:
A party such as the NSDAP, which is responsible to history
for the future of the German Reich, cannot content itself
with the hope for future leaders but must create a strain of
strong and true personalities which should offer the
constantly renewed possibility of replacing leaders whenever
it is necessary.[56]
Beck, in his work _Education in the Third Reich_, also insists that a
respect for the Führer principle be inculcated in youth:
The educational value of the Hitler Youth is to be found in
this community spirit which cannot be taught but can only be
experienced ... But this cultivation of the community spirit
through the experience of the community must, in order to
avoid any conception of individual equality which is
inconsistent with the German view of life, be based upon
inward and outward recognition of the Führer principle ...
In the Hitler Youth, the young German should learn by
experience that there are no theoretical equal rights of the
individual but only a natural and unconditional
subordination to leadership.[57]
German writers often pretend that the Führer principle does not
necessarily result in the establishment of a dictatorship but that it
permits the embodiment of the will of the people in its leaders and
the realization of the popular will much more efficiently than is
possible in democratic states. Such an argument, for example, is
presented by Dr. Paul Ritterbusch in _Demokratie und Diktatur_
(_Democracy and Dictatorship_), published in 1939. Professor
Ritterbusch claims that Communism leads to a dictatorial system but
that the Nazi movement is much closer to the ideals of true democracy.
The real nature of National Socialism, however, cannot be understood
from the standpoint of the "pluralistic-party state." It does not
represent a dictatorship of one party and a suppression of all others
but rather an expression of the will and the character of the whole
national community in and through one great party which has resolved
all internal discords and oppositions within itself. The Führer of
this great movement is at once the leader and the expression of the
national will. Freed from the enervating effects of internal strife,
the movement under the guiding hand of the Führer can bring the whole
of the national community to its fullest expression and highest
development.
The highest authority, however, Hitler himself, has left no doubt as
to the nature of Nazi Party leaders. In a speech delivered at the
Sportpalast in Berlin on April 8, 1933, he said:
When our opponents say: "It is easy for you: you are a
dictator"--We answer them, "No, gentlemen, you are wrong;
there is no single dictator, but ten thousand, each in his
own place." And even the highest authority in the hierarchy
has itself only one wish, never to transgress against the
supreme authority to which it, too, is responsible. We have
in our movement developed this loyalty in following the
leader, this blind obedience of which all the others know
nothing and which gave to us the power to surmount
everything.[58]
As has been indicated above, the Führer principle applies not only to
the Führer of the Reich, Adolf Hitler, but to all the subordinate
leaders of the party and the government apparatus. With respect to
this aspect of the Führer principle, Huber (document 1, _post_ p.
155), says:
The ranks of the public services are regarded as forces
organized on the living principle of leadership and
following: The authority of command exercised in the labor
service, the military service, and the civil service is
Führer-authority ... It has been said of the military and
civil services that true leadership is not represented in
their organization on the principles of command and
obedience. In reality there can be no political leadership
which does not have recourse to command and force as the
means for the accomplishment of its ends. Command and force
do not, of course, constitute the true nature of leadership,
but as a means they are indispensable elements of every
fully developed Führer-order.[59]
The Führer principle is officially recognized by the party, and the
party interpretation thereof is set forth in the _Party Organization
Book_ (document 7 and charts 1 and 1-A, _post_ pp. 186, 488, 489).
There are also included herein, as charts 2 and 2-A and 3 and 3-A
(_post_ pp. 490, 491, 492, 493), photostatic copies and translations
of two charts from _Der nationalsozialistische Staat_ (_The National
Socialist State_) by Dr. Walther Gehl, published in 1935. These charts
clearly show the concentration of authority in the Führer and the
subordinate relation of the minor leaders in both the state and the
party.