The Führer as a Speaker
There are two fundamentally different kinds of
speakers: those who use reasoning, and those who speak from the heart. …The
speaker who uses reason… must be a master of dialectic as the pianist is
master of the keyboard. With ice cold logic, he develops his line of
thinking….
The speaker from the heart is different. … He
combines clear diction with simple argumentation, and instinct tells him what to
say and how to say it. Language is united with ideas. He knows the secret
corners and aspects of the mass soul and knows how to reach and touch
them. … He outlines people and conditions; he inscribes his theses on the
tablet of the age; with deep and noble passion he explains the pillars of
his world view. His voice reaches out from the depths of his blood into the
depths of the souls of his listeners. He brings to expression the secrets of
the human soul. He rouses the tired and lazy, fires up the indifferent
and the doubting, turns cowards into men and weaklings into heroes….
As any great man, a gifted speaker has his
individual style…. His words are written into his body….
There are many examples in history that prove
that great speakers resemble each other only in their effects. … Each used
language that his hearers understood… that reached their emotions and found an
echo in their hearts. The daemon of their era gave each the ability to speak in
a way that raised them above his century as one of the eternal proclaimers of
great ideas, one of those who make history and transform nations.
….revolutions bring forth true speakers, and
true speakers make revolutions! One should not overestimate the role of written
or printed words in revolutions, but the secret magic of the spoken word
reaches directly the emotions and the hearts of people. It reaches the eye and
the ear, and the electrifying force of the masses seized by the human
voice sweeps with it the wavering and the doubting….
An organization comes from the propaganda
of the word, a movement from the organization, and that movement conquers the
state. The important thing is not whether an idea is right; the decisive
thing is whether one can present it effectively to the masses so that they
become its adherents. Theories remain theories when living men to not give
them expression. Living people in difficult times follow only an appeal that
reaches their hearts because it comes from the heart.
[The Führer’s] ability to reach the masses is
unique and remarkable, fitting no organizational scheme or dogma…. He speaks
his heart, and therefore reaches the hearts of those who hear him. He has the
amazing gift of sensing what is in the air. He has the ability to express things
so clearly, logically and directly that listeners are convinced that that is
what they have always thought themselves. That is the true secret of the
effectiveness of Adolf Hitler’s speeches…. The essential characteristics of
his speeches to the people are: clear organization, irrefutable logical
reasoning, simplicity and clarity of expression, razor-sharp dialectic, a
developed and sure instinct for the masses and their feelings, an
electrifying emotional appeal… and the ability to reach out to the souls
of the people in a way that never goes unanswered….
He understood the cares and worries of the little
man and spoke about them, but they were for him only brush strokes on the
dreadful painting of Germany’s collapse…. He took the events of the day and
gave them a larger national significance that put them in context…. His
speaking was a magnet that drew to him whatever in the people still had iron in
its blood.
Stupid and empty-headed bourgeois people for a
time were pleased to disparage him as a “drummer.” … Since they entirely
lacked rhetorical ability, they thought his was a lesser form of leadership. …
The masses bow only to him who puts them under his uncompromising command. They
obey only him who knows how to give orders….
He speaks as confidently before workers as before
scientists. His words strike deep into the hearts of farmers and city-dwellers.
When he speaks to children, they are deeply moved. The magic of his voice
reaches men’s secret feelings. … The Führer it at his best, however, before a
small audience. Here he is able to reach each individual member of the audience.
His speaking carries away the listener, who never loses interest because he
always feels spoken to directly. …
Joseph Goebbels, “Der Führer als
Redner,”Adolf Hitler. Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers (Hamburg:
Cigaretten/Bilderdienst Hamburg/Bahrenfeld, 1936, pp. 27-34.