After discussing chapters one and two of Hitler’s novel, Mein Kampf, in the last post, I will now be talking about some main points and points that were interesting to me from chapters two and three. First, I wanted to say that of course, from a political perspective, there are always going to be people who have different thoughts on political parties. Thoughts on political parties is one topic that was discussed by Hitler is these chapters.
Chapter 3: “General Political Considerations Based on My Vienna Period”
Something that slightly surprised me in this chapter is the very first sentence when Hitler states that “Today it is my conviction that in general, aside from cases of unusual talent, a man should not engage in public political activity before his thirtieth year” (61). I think one reason why this slightly surprised me is because now there are political and even activists that are working to achieve a dream or goal of theirs who are younger than thirty. It has become much more common for people to start becoming more seen as an activist or political figure. However, I did use the word “slightly” when describing my reaction as I was also expecting this.
Going back to political thoughts, Hitler states that “[he] always hated parliament, but not as an institution in itself” and that he “was an enemy of the Austrian parliament” (70). Throughout much of this chapter Hitler does go through his beliefs on parliament and the Pan-German movement. He discussed what they achieved, what they also needed to improve on, and why most of what they focused on did not work out.
Chapter 4: “Munich”
One thing that truly struck me in this chapter is when Hitler lists “four ways of avoiding so terrible of development for the future” (120). The “development” that Hitler was concerned about was how Germany was having a yearly increase in the population by almost 900,000. He stated that “The difficulty of feeding this arm of new citizens grow greater from year to year and ultimately end in catastrophe, unless was and means are found to forestall the danger of starvation and misery in time” (120). Like I stated, this is what resulted in Hitler giving a list on how to “forestall the danger of starvation and misery in time” (120).
Hitler’s first point was that “the increase of births should be artificially restricted” (120). He believed that Germany would be able to help their citizens more if the population was smaller. The second point he made was “internal colonisation” (122). These two points were, according to Hitler, “rejected in the so-called national circles of the Reich” (126). Due to moral, the government did not agree with limiting reproduction. Hitler then said that they rejected “internal colonisation” because “they scented an attack against large landholdings” and a “wider struggle against property in general” (122,126). With the rejection of his first two points, there were only two left that Hitler could use. The third point as “new soil could be acquired and the superfluous millions sent off each year” and if this point could not work, the fourth point was that they would “Produce for foreign needs through industry and commerce, and defray the cost of living from the proceeds” (126). Hitler then stated that both last two points were looked at and the last one was taken.