Social question was aroused for Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf

Social questions were aroused for Adolf Hitler.

Once my interest in the social question was aroused, I began to study it with all thoroughness. It was a new and hitherto unknown world which opened before me.

In the years 1909 and 1910, my own situation had changed somewhat in so far as I no longer had to earn my daily bread as a common laborer. By this time I was working independently as a small draftsman and painter of watercolors. Hard as this was with regard to earnings-it was barely enough to live on- it was good for my chosen profession. Now I was no longer dead tired in the evening when I came home from work, unable to look at a book without soon dozing off. My present work ran parallel to my future profession. Moreover, I was master of my own time and could apportion it better than had previously been possible.

I painted to make a living and studied for pleasure.

Thus I was able to supplement my visual instruction in the social problem by theoretical study. I studied more or less all of the books I was able to obtain regarding this whole field, and for the rest immersed myself in my own thoughts.

I believe that those who knew me in those days took me for an eccentric.

Amid all this, as was only natural, I served my love of architecture with ardent zeal. Along with music, it seemed to me the queen of the arts: under such circumstances my concern with it was not 'work.' but the greatest pleasure. I could read and draw until late into the night, and never grow tired. Thus my faith grew that my beautiful dream for the future would become reality after all, even though this might require long years. I was firmly convinced that I should some day make a name for myself as an architect.

In addition, I had the greatest interest in everything connected with politics, but this did not seem to me very significant. On the contrary: in my eyes this was the self-evident duty of every thinking man. Anyone who failed to understand this lost the right to any criticism or complaint.

In this field, too, I read and studied much.

By 'reading,' to be sure, I mean perhaps something different than the average member of our so-called 'intelligentsia.'

I know people who 'read' enormously, book for book, letter for letter, yet whom I would not describe as 'well-read.' True they possess a mass of 'knowledge,' but their brain is unable to organize and register the material they have taken in. They lack the art of sifting what is valuable for them in a book from that which is without value, of retaining the one forever, and, if possible, not even seeing the rest, but in any case not dragging it around with them as useless ballast. For reading is no end in itself, but a means to an end. It should primarily help to fill the framework constituted by every man's talents and abilities; in addition, it should provide the tools and building materials which the individual needs for his life's work, regardless whether this consists in a primitive struggle for sustenance or the satisfaction of a high calling; secondly, it should transmit a general world view. In both cases, however, it is essential that the con tent of what one reads at any time should not be transmitted to the memory in the sequence of the book or books, but like the stone of a mosaic should fit into the general world picture in its proper place, and thus help to form this picture in the mind of the reader. Otherwise there arises a confused muddle of memorized facts which not only are worthless, but also make their unto fortunate possessor conceited. For such a reader now believes himself in all seriousness to be {educated,' to understand something of life, to have knowledge, while in reality, with every new acquisition of this kind of 'education,' he is growing more and more removed from the world until, not infrequently, he ends up in a sanitarium or in parliament.

Never will such a mind succeed in culling from the confusion of his ' knowledge ' anything that suits the demands of the hour, for his intellectual ballast is not organized along the lines of life, but in the sequence of the books as he read them and as their content has piled up in his brain If Fate, in the requirements of his daily life, desired to remind him to make a correct application of what he had read, it would have to indicate title and page number, since the poor fool would otherwise never in all his life find the correct place. But since Fate does not do this, these bright boys in any critical situation come into the most terrible embarrassment, cast about convulsively for analogous cases, and with mortal certainty naturally find the wrong formulas.

If this were not true, it would be impossible for us to understand the political behavior of our learned and highly placed government heroes, unless we decided to assume outright villainy instead of pathological propensities.

On the other hand, a man who possesses the art of correct reading will, in studying any book, magazine, or pamphlet, instinctively and immediately perceive everything which in his opinion is worth permanently remembering, either because it is suited to his purpose or generally worth knowing. Once the knowledge he has achieved in this fashion is correctly coordinated within the somehow existing picture of this or that subject created by the imaginations it will function either as a corrective or a complement, thus enhancing either the correctness or the clarity of the picture. Then, if life suddenly sets some question before us for examination or answer, the memory, if this method of reading is observed, will immediately take the existing picture as a norm, and from it will derive all the individual items regarding these questions, assembled in the course of decades, submit them to the mind for examination and reconsideration, until the question is clarified or answered.

Only this kind of reading has meaning and purpose.

An orator, for example, who does not thus provide his intelligence with the necessary foundation will never be in a position cogently to defend his view in the face of opposition, though it may be a thousand times true or real. In every discussion his memory will treacherously leave him in the lurch; he will find neither grounds for reinforcing his own contentions nor any for confuting those of his adversary. If, as in the case of a speaker, it is only a question of making a fool of himself personally, it may not be so bad, but not so when Fate predestines such a know-it-all incompetent to be the leader of a state.

Since my earliest youth I have endeavored to read in the correct way, and in this endeavor I have been most happily supported by my memory and intelligence. Viewed in this light, my Vienna period was especially fertile and valuable. The experiences of daily life provided stimulation for a constantly renewed study of the most varied problems. Thus at last I was in a position to bolster up reality by theory and test theory by reality, and was preserved from being stifled by theory or growing banal through reality.

In this period the experience of daily life directed and stimulated me to the most thorough theoretical study of two questions in addition to the social question.

Who knows when I would have immersed myself in the doctrines and essence of Marxism if that period had not literally thrust my nose into the problem!

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler: Chapters Below.

• German-Austria must return to the great German mother Vol 1: Ch 1.
• The Mother of Adolf Hitler Vol 1: Ch 2.
• Matter of livelihood for Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf Vol 1: Ch 2 Con 1.
• My struggle for existence in Vienna - Mein Kampf Vol 1: Ch 2 Con 2.
• Social Democracy in my youth Vol 1: Ch 2 Con 4.
• Fools obtain no peace says Adolf Hitler Vol 1: Ch 2 Con 5.
• defending myself against the Jews Vol 1: Ch 2 Con 6.
• Political leadership of the general public Vol 1: Ch 3.
• German nation Vol 1: Ch 3 Con 1.
• Adolf Hitler; The consequence of all this Vol 1: Ch 3 Con 2.
• the geniusVol 1: Ch 3 Con 3.
• Jewish tendency of Manchester liberalism Vol 1: Ch 3 Con 4.
• early days Vol 1: Ch 3 Con 5.
• in the newspapers Vol 1: Ch 3 Con 6.
• German nation gain a victory Vol 1: Ch 3 Con 7.
• dream of saving Austria Vol 1: Ch 3 Con 8.
• before the War Vol 1: Ch 4.
• the existence of mankind Vol 1: Ch 4 Con 1
• standpoint of racial policy Vol 1: Ch 4 Con 2.
• strength of the state Vol 1: Ch 4 Con 3.
• my wild years Vol 1: Ch 5.
• political events Vol 1: Ch 6.
• enemy propaganda began in our country Vol 1: Ch 7
• continuation of the revolution Vol 1: Ch 8.
• German Workers' Party Vol 1: Ch 9.
• true of nations and states Vol 1: Ch 10
• disregards the racial laws Vol 1: Ch 11.
• backbone of the German army Vol 1: Ch 12.
• -----------------------------Volume 2.-------------------------------
• What God Himself could not do Vol 2: Ch 1.
• principal duty of the National socialist People's State Vol 2: Ch 2.
• the Jews will one day devour the other nations Vol 2: Ch 3.
• Responsibility for the War Vol 2: Ch 4.
• German people Vol 2: Ch 5.
• The average citizen Vol 2: Ch 6.
• Authority of the State Vol 2: Ch 7.
• Germans and Germany Vol 2: Ch 8.
• Propaganda Vol 2: Ch 9.
• Rapid growth of the Nazi movement Vol 2: Ch 10.
• German national economy and German Labour Vol 2: Ch 11.
• Young National socialist movements Vol 2: Ch 12.
• THE ARMISTICE of November, 1918 Vol 2: Ch 13.

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