3. Pledges and Symbols of Allegiance
Party members take an oath of loyalty to the Führer in the following terms: "I pledge allegiance to my Führer, Adolf Hitler. I promise at all times to respect and obey him and the leaders whom he appoints over me."[76]
(a) The Hitler Salute
A pledge of allegiance to the Führer is also implied in the Nazi salute, which is usually accompanied by the greeting, "Heil Hitler." The phrasemit deutschen Gruss, which is commonly used as a closing salutation in letters, is another form of the Hitler greeting.Knaurs Konversations-Lexikon(Knaur's Conversational Dictionary), published in Berlin in 1934, contains the following definition:
German greeting, Hitler greeting: by raising the right arm; used by the old Germans with the spear as a greeting of arms [Waffengruss]. Communal greeting of the National Socialists; introduced into general use in 1933.
That this greeting was used by the Nazis as early as 1923 is demonstrated by a photograph which appeared inDas Buch der NSDAP, Werden, Kampf and Ziel der NSDAP(The Book of the NSDAP, Growth, Struggle, and Goal of the NSDAP) by Walter M. Espe (Berlin, 1934), illustration 34 (document 10,postp. 214).
In the same book (page 23 in the supplement entitled "Die NSDAP") the following distinction is made between the usual Nazi greeting and the Storm Troopers' salute:
While the German greeting consists merely in raising the right hand in any desired manner and represents rather a general comradely greeting, the SA salute is executed, in accordance with the specifications of the SA service regulations, by placing the left hand on the belt and raising the extended right arm.
The SA salute is to be given to all higher ranking leaders of the SA and the SS and of the veterans' organization which has been incorporated into the SA, as well as to the Army and the national and security police forces.
The comradely German greeting is to be exchanged between all equally ranking members of the SA and the SS and members of a corresponding rank in the Army, the police, the veterans' organization, the German air-sport league, the Hitler Youth, the railway guards, and the whole membership of the party so far as they are distinguishable by regulation uniforms.
(b) The Swastika
Early in its history the Nazi Party adopted the swastika banner as its official emblem.[77]It was designed by Hitler himself, who wrote inMein Kampf:
I myself after countless attempts had laid down a final form: a flag with a background of red cloth, having a white circle, and, in its center, a black swastika....
As National Socialists we see our program in our flag. In theredwe see the social idea of the movement, in thewhitethe nationalistic idea, and in theswastikathe fight for the victory of Aryan man and at the same time for the victory of the idea of creative work, which in itself always was and always will be anti-Semitic.[78]
The swastika banner came into general use after January 30, 1933 as a symbol of allegiance to the Hitler regime, but not until two years later was it made the German national flag by the Reich flag law of September 15, 1935.[79]Another law, decreed on April 7, 1937,[80]specified that:
The insignia which the NSDAP, its formations, and associated organizations use for their officers, their structure, their organization, and their symbols may not be used by other associations either alone or with embellishments.
It is interesting to note that party regulations forbid members to use passport photographs in which they appear in party uniform or wearing party insignia and that party members are forbidden to discuss foreign policy with foreigners unless they are officially designated by the Führer to do so. The pertinent regulations read:
Pass Photos on Identification Cards
Members of the NSDAP must not use pass photos which show the holder of any identification card in a uniform of the party or of any of its formations. It is also forbidden to use as pass photos pictures which show the person wearing a party button.
Conversations With Foreigners
It is forbidden to all party members to engage in discussions of foreign policy with foreigners. Only such persons as have been designated by the Führer are entitled to do so.[81]
The Totalitarian State
The Weimar Constitution, although never formally abrogated by the Nazis, was rendered totally ineffectual by two basic laws, promulgated within two months after the seizure of power by the party. The first of these was the "Decree of the Reich's President for the Protection of the People and State" (document 11-I,postp. 215), issued February 28, 1933, the day after the Reichstag was burned down. It suspended "until further notice"[82]articles of the Weimar Constitution guaranteeing essential democratic rights of the individual. Thus, according to article I of this decree, "restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."[83]The abrogation by the Nazis of these fundamental rights of democracy has never been repealed or amended. In fact, this decree represents the presupposition and confirmation of the police sway established throughout Germany by the Nazis.[84]
The second basic law, known as the "Enabling Act," the "Law To Remove the Distress of People and State," of March 24, 1933 (document 11-II,postp. 217), swept away parliamentary government entirely. By abrogating the pertinent articles of the Weimar Constitution, it enabled the Nazi Cabinet under Hitler's chancelorship to appropriate money and legislate without any responsibility to the Reichstag or any obligation to respect the Constitution.
The dissolution of democracy in Germany was sealed by the unification of the authoritarian Nazi Party with the German state. Soon after the party came to power in 1933, steps were taken to effect and secure this unity. The process is described by Huber (document 1,postp. 155) as follows:
On July 14, 1933 was issued the law against the formation of new parties which raised the NSDAP to the only political party in Germany [document 11-III] ... The overthrow of the old party-state was accompanied by the construction of the new movement-state [Bewegungsstaat]. Out of a political fighting organization the NSDAP grew to a community capable of carrying the state and the nation. This process was accomplished step by step in the first months after the National Socialist seizure of power. The assumption of the office of Chancelor by the Führer of the movement formed the basis for this development. Various party leaders were appointed asReichsminister; the governors of the provinces were national leaders orGauleiterof the party, such as General von Epp; the Prussian government officials are as a ruleGauleiterof the party; the Prussian police chiefs are mostly high-ranking SA leaders. By this system of a union of the personnel of the party and state offices the unity of party and state was achieved.[85]
The culmination of this development was reached in the "Law To Safeguard the Unity of Party and State," of December 1, 1933 (document 11-IV,postp. 221), which proclaimed the NSDAP "the bearer of the German state-idea and indissolubly joined to the state." In order to guarantee the complete cooperation of the party and SA with the public officials, the Führer's Deputy and the Chief of Staff of the SA were made members of the Cabinet.
With regard to the relation between the party and the state, Neesse writes:
The NSDAP is not a structure which stands under direct state control, to which single tasks of public administration are entrusted by the state, but it holds and maintains is claim to totality as the "bearer of the German state-idea" in all fields relating to the community—regardless of how various single functions are divided between the organization of the party and the organization of the state.[86]
To maintain cooperation between the party and state organizations, the highest state offices are given to the men holding the corresponding party offices. Gauweiler (document 8,postp. 204) attributes to the party supreme leadership in all phases of national life. Thus the state becomes merely an administrative machine which the party has set up in accordance with and for the accomplishment of its aims:
As the responsible bearer and shaper of the destiny of the whole German nation the party has created an entirely new state, for that which sought to foist itself upon her as a state was simply the product of a deep human confusion. The state of the past and its political ideal had never satisfied the longing of the German people. The National Socialist movement already carried its state within itself at the time of its early struggles. It was able to place the completely formed body of its own state at the disposal of the state which it had taken over.[87]
The official party interpretation of the relation between party and state, as set forth in theParty Organization Bookfor 1940, appears in the Appendix as document 7 (postp. 186).
Goebbels in his lecture onThe Nature and Form of National Socialism(document 2,postp. 170) stressed the importance ofGleichschaltungor the penetration of Nazi ideology into all fields of national life. This to his mind must be the result of the National Socialist revolution. The same aims, ideals, and standards must be applied to economics and to politics, to cultural and social development, to education and religion, and to foreign and domestic relations.
The result of this concept of the totalitarian state has been the compulsory regimentation of all phases of German life to conform to the pattern established by the party. The totalitarian state does not recognize personal liberties for the individual. The legal position of the individual citizen in the Third Reich is clearly set forth by Huber (document 1,postp. 155):
Not until the nationalistic political philosophy had become dominant could the liberalistic idea of basic rights be really overcome. The concept of personal liberties of the individual as opposed to the authority of the state had to disappear; it is not to be reconciled with the principle of the nationalistic Reich. There are no personal liberties of the individual which fall outside of the realm of the state and which must be respected by the state. The member of the people, organically connected with the whole community, has replaced the isolated individual; he is included in the totality of the political people and is drawn into the collective action. There can no longer be any question of a private sphere, free of state influence, which is sacred and untouchable before the political unity. The constitution of the nationalistic Reich is therefore not based upon a system of inborn and inalienable rights of the individual.[88]
In place of these rights the constitution of the Third Reich guarantees to the individual his place in the community of the people:
The legal position of the individual member of the people forms an entirely new concept which is indispensable for the construction of a nationalistic order. The legal position of the individual is always related to the community and conditioned by duty. It is developed not for the sake of the individual but for the community, which can only be filled with life, power, and purpose when a suitable field of action is insured for the individual member. Without a concrete determination of the individual's legal position there can be no real community.
This legal position represents the organic fixation of the individual in the living order. Rights and obligations arise from the application of this legal position to specific individual relationships ... But all rights must be regarded as duty-bound rights. Their exercise is always dependent upon the fulfilment by the individual of those duties to which all rights are subordinate ...[89]
The concept of private property in the totalitarian state is also at variance with the democratic concept of private property. In the Third Reich the holder of property is considered merely as a manager responsible to theVolkfor the use of the property in the common interest. Huber sets forth the Nazi view in the following words:
"Private property" as conceived under the liberalistic economic order was a reversal of the true concept of property. This "private property" represented the right of the individual to manage and to speculate with inherited or acquired property as he pleased, without regard for the general interests ... German socialism had to overcome this "private," that is, unrestrained and irresponsible view of property. All property is common property. The owner is bound by the people and the Reich to the responsible management of his goods. His legal position is only justified when he satisfies this responsibility to the community.[90]
Pursuant to this view of the nature of ownership, property may be confiscated whenever the state decides that public management would be in the interests of the community, or if the owner is found guilty of irresponsible management, in which case no compensation is paid him.
Reference has been made to the appointment of party members to important state offices. Gauweiler (document 8,postp. 204) points out that the party insured the infusion of the entire structure of the state with its ideology through the civil-service law (Beamtengesetz) of January 26, 1937,[91]which provides that a person appointed to a civil-service position must be "filled with National Socialist views, since only thus can he be an executor of the will of the state which is carried by the NSDAP. It demands of him that he be ready at all times to exert himself unreservedly in behalf of the National Socialist state and that he be aware of the fact that the NSDAP, as the mouthpiece of the people's will, is the vital force behind the concept of the German state."[92]
The infiltration of party members into the civil service has now proceeded to such a point that early in 1942 Pfundtner, the Secretary of State in the German Ministry of the Interior, could write in the periodicalAkademie für deutsches Recht:
The German civil servant must furthermore be a National Socialist to the marrow of his bones and must be a member of the party or of one of its formations. The state will primarily see to it that the Young Guard of the movement is directed toward a civil-service career and also that the civil servant takes an active part in the party so that the political idea and service of the state become closely welded.[93]
Footnotes To First Section
[8]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), pp. 54-55.
[8]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), pp. 54-55.
[9]Ibid., pp. 153-155.
[9]Ibid., pp. 153-155.
[10]Ibid., pp. 156-157.
[10]Ibid., pp. 156-157.
[11]Ibid., p. 157.
[11]Ibid., p. 157.
[12]Ibid., p. 158.
[12]Ibid., p. 158.
[13]Ibid., p. 163.
[13]Ibid., p. 163.
[14]Ibid., p. 164.
[14]Ibid., p. 164.
[15]Ibid., pp. 165-166.
[15]Ibid., pp. 165-166.
[16]Neesse,Die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—Versuch einer Rechtsdeutung(Stuttgart, 1935), p. 44.
[16]Neesse,Die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—Versuch einer Rechtsdeutung(Stuttgart, 1935), p. 44.
[17]Ibid., p. 51.
[17]Ibid., p. 51.
[18]Ibid., p. 54.
[18]Ibid., p. 54.
[19]Ibid., p. 58.
[19]Ibid., p. 58.
[20]Ibid., pp. 54-56.
[20]Ibid., pp. 54-56.
[21]Ibid., p. 59.
[21]Ibid., p. 59.
[22]Ibid., pp. 60-61.
[22]Ibid., pp. 60-61.
[23]Ibid., pp. 65-66.
[23]Ibid., pp. 65-66.
[24]Scurla,Die Grundgedanken des Nationalsozialismus und das Ausland(Berlin, 1938), pp. 10-11.
[24]Scurla,Die Grundgedanken des Nationalsozialismus und das Ausland(Berlin, 1938), pp. 10-11.
[25]Ibid., p. 9.
[25]Ibid., p. 9.
[26]Ibid.
[26]Ibid.
[27]Ibid., p. 13.
[27]Ibid., p. 13.
[28]Beck,Die Erziehung im dritten Reich(Dortmund and Breslau, 1936), p. 20.
[28]Beck,Die Erziehung im dritten Reich(Dortmund and Breslau, 1936), p. 20.
[29]Ibid., pp. 20-21.
[29]Ibid., pp. 20-21.
[30]Ibid., p. 35.
[30]Ibid., p. 35.
[31]Ibid., pp. 52-55.
[31]Ibid., pp. 52-55.
[32]Ibid., p. 46.
[32]Ibid., p. 46.
[33]Ibid., p. 57.
[33]Ibid., p. 57.
[34]Ibid., p. 118.
[34]Ibid., p. 118.
[35]Ibid., p. 140.
[35]Ibid., p. 140.
[36]Rosenberg,Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts(Munich, 1935), p. 28 (1st ed. 1930).
[36]Rosenberg,Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts(Munich, 1935), p. 28 (1st ed. 1930).
[37]Ibid., p. 114.
[37]Ibid., p. 114.
[38]Ibid., p. 479.
[38]Ibid., p. 479.
[39]Ibid., p. 542.
[39]Ibid., p. 542.
[40]Gottfried Feder,The Programme of the Party of Hitler(translated by E.T.S. Dugdale: Munich, 1932), p. 18.
[40]Gottfried Feder,The Programme of the Party of Hitler(translated by E.T.S. Dugdale: Munich, 1932), p. 18.
[41]Rosenberg,Wesen, Grundsätze und Ziele der NSDAP(Munich, 1933), pp. 16-18 (1st ed. 1922).
[41]Rosenberg,Wesen, Grundsätze und Ziele der NSDAP(Munich, 1933), pp. 16-18 (1st ed. 1922).
[42]Rosenberg,Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts, p. 673.
[42]Rosenberg,Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts, p. 673.
[43]Beck,op. cit., p. 110.
[43]Beck,op. cit., p. 110.
[44]Ibid., p. 110.
[44]Ibid., p. 110.
[45]Huber, "Aufbau und Gefüge des Reiches," published in the bookIdee und Ordnung des Reiches(ed. by Huber: Hamburg, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1941), p. 12.
[45]Huber, "Aufbau und Gefüge des Reiches," published in the bookIdee und Ordnung des Reiches(ed. by Huber: Hamburg, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1941), p. 12.
[46]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), pp. 194-198.
[46]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), pp. 194-198.
[47]Ibid., pp. 199-200.
[47]Ibid., pp. 199-200.
[48]Ibid., pp. 207-208.
[48]Ibid., pp. 207-208.
[49]Ibid., pp. 213-214.
[49]Ibid., pp. 213-214.
[50]Ibid., p. 230.
[50]Ibid., p. 230.
[51]Neesse,op. cit., p. 146.
[51]Neesse,op. cit., p. 146.
[52]Ibid., p. 143.
[52]Ibid., p. 143.
[53]Ibid., pp. 144-147.
[53]Ibid., pp. 144-147.
[54]Germany Speaks(containing articles by twenty-one leading members of the Nazi Party and the German Government: London, 1938), p. 31.
[54]Germany Speaks(containing articles by twenty-one leading members of the Nazi Party and the German Government: London, 1938), p. 31.
[55]Reichsgesetzblatt(1942), p. 247. (All citations to theReichsgesetzblattrefer to part I thereof.)
[55]Reichsgesetzblatt(1942), p. 247. (All citations to theReichsgesetzblattrefer to part I thereof.)
[56]Neesse,op. cit., p. 150.
[56]Neesse,op. cit., p. 150.
[57]Beck,op. cit., p. 131.
[57]Beck,op. cit., p. 131.
[58]My New Order, p. 159.
[58]My New Order, p. 159.
[59]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), p. 410.
[59]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), p. 410.
[60]Gauweiler,Rechtseinrichtungen und Rechtsaufgaben der Bewegung(Munich, 1939), p. 2.
[60]Gauweiler,Rechtseinrichtungen und Rechtsaufgaben der Bewegung(Munich, 1939), p. 2.
[61]Ibid., p. 9.
[61]Ibid., p. 9.
[62]Neesse,op. cit,, p. 71.
[62]Neesse,op. cit,, p. 71.
[63]Ibid., p. 119.
[63]Ibid., p. 119.
[64]Ibid., p. 126.
[64]Ibid., p. 126.
[65]Ibid., pp. 139-140.
[65]Ibid., pp. 139-140.
[66]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), pp. 293-296.
[66]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), pp. 293-296.
[67]Beck,op. cit., p. 37.
[67]Beck,op. cit., p. 37.
[68]Ibid., pp. 37-38.
[68]Ibid., pp. 37-38.
[69]Goebbels,op. cit., p. 19.
[69]Goebbels,op. cit., p. 19.
[70]Germany Speaks, pp. 30-31.
[70]Germany Speaks, pp. 30-31.
[71]Reichsgesetzblatt(1941), p. 295.
[71]Reichsgesetzblatt(1941), p. 295.
[72]Ibid., (1942), p. 35.
[72]Ibid., (1942), p. 35.
[73]Organisationsbuch der NSDAP(ed. by the National Organizational Director of the NSDAP: Munich, 1940), p. 5.
[73]Organisationsbuch der NSDAP(ed. by the National Organizational Director of the NSDAP: Munich, 1940), p. 5.
[74]Ibid., p. 6b.
[74]Ibid., p. 6b.
[75]Ibid., p. 6d.
[75]Ibid., p. 6d.
[76]Ibid.
[76]Ibid.
[77]The German pocket reference book for current events (Taschen-Brockhaus zum Zeitgeschehen: Leipzig, 1942) states that the swastika banner was designed by Hitler for the NSDAP in 1919.
[77]The German pocket reference book for current events (Taschen-Brockhaus zum Zeitgeschehen: Leipzig, 1942) states that the swastika banner was designed by Hitler for the NSDAP in 1919.
[78]Adolf Hitler,Mein Kampf(Munich, Verlag Frank Eher, G.m.b.H., 1933 [copyright 1925]), pp. 556-557.
[78]Adolf Hitler,Mein Kampf(Munich, Verlag Frank Eher, G.m.b.H., 1933 [copyright 1925]), pp. 556-557.
[79]Reichsgesetzblatt(1935), p. 1145.
[79]Reichsgesetzblatt(1935), p. 1145.
[80]Ibid.(1937), p. 442.
[80]Ibid.(1937), p. 442.
[81]Organisationsbuch der NSDAP(Munich, 1940), p. 8.
[81]Organisationsbuch der NSDAP(Munich, 1940), p. 8.
[82]Reichsgesetzblatt(1933), p. 83.
[82]Reichsgesetzblatt(1933), p. 83.
[83]Ibid.
[83]Ibid.
[84]In his bookDie deutsche Polizei(The German Police) (Darmstadt, L.C. Wittich Verlag, 1941), p. 24, the prominent Nazi police official, Dr. Werner Best, wrote that this law "is to be regarded not as a 'police law'—that is, as the regulation of police functions and activities—but as the expression of the new conception of the state as it has been transformed by the National Socialist revolution, from which the new 'police' concept is derived." Also, this law was for the police "the confirmation that the work already begun was in agreement with the law giving will of the Supreme Leadership of the Reich."
[84]In his bookDie deutsche Polizei(The German Police) (Darmstadt, L.C. Wittich Verlag, 1941), p. 24, the prominent Nazi police official, Dr. Werner Best, wrote that this law "is to be regarded not as a 'police law'—that is, as the regulation of police functions and activities—but as the expression of the new conception of the state as it has been transformed by the National Socialist revolution, from which the new 'police' concept is derived." Also, this law was for the police "the confirmation that the work already begun was in agreement with the law giving will of the Supreme Leadership of the Reich."
[85]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939) p. 288.
[85]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939) p. 288.
[86]Neesse,op. cit., p. 131.
[86]Neesse,op. cit., p. 131.
[87]Gauweiler,op. cit., p. 3.
[87]Gauweiler,op. cit., p. 3.
[88]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), p. 361.
[88]Huber,Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches(Hamburg, 1939), p. 361.
[89]Ibid., pp. 365-366.
[89]Ibid., pp. 365-366.
[90]Ibid., pp. 372-373.
[90]Ibid., pp. 372-373.
[91]Reichsgesetzblatt(1937), pp. 39-70.
[91]Reichsgesetzblatt(1937), pp. 39-70.
[92]Gauweiler,op. cit., p. 156.
[92]Gauweiler,op. cit., p. 156.
[93]Reported in a bulletin of the official German news agency, DNB, Apr. 14, 1942.
[93]Reported in a bulletin of the official German news agency, DNB, Apr. 14, 1942.
Political Aims
The political aims of National Socialism have been written so clearly in history in the past 10 years that it does not appear necessary to discuss them at length here.
The detailed program of the Nazi Party consists of the 25 points which were adopted on February 24, 1920 at a party mass meeting in Munich. (The 25-point program appears in the Appendix as document 12,postp. 222.) The points of particular interest in this study are the first four, which are set forth below:
1. We demand the union of all Germans to form a Great Germany on the basis of the right of the self-determination enjoyed by nations.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German People in its dealings with other nations, and abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the nourishment of our people and for settling our superfluous population.
4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the State. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation.[94]
1. Internal Objectives
A statement of the internal objectives of National Socialism is made by Gauweiler in hisLegal Organization and Legal Functions of the Movement(document 8,postp. 204). The laws of the Reich must seek to establish and promote the five basic values recognized by Nazi ideology:
1. Race: The legal protection of the race, which has created a new concept of nationality [Volkszugehörigkeit], is consciously put in first place, for the most significant historical principle which has been established by the victory of National Socialism is that of the necessity for keeping race and blood pure. All human mistakes and errors can be corrected except one: "the error regarding the importance of maintaining the basic values of a nation."
The purpose of this legal protection of the basic value ofracemust be the prevention for all time of a further mixture of German blood with foreign blood, as well as the prevention of continued procreation of racially unworthy and undesirable members of the people.
2. Soil [Boden]: The living-space and the basis for the food supply of the German people are its territory and soil. The farmer is the first and deepest representative of the people since he nourishes the people from the fertility of the earth and he maintains the nation through the fertility of his own family. Here National Socialism had to accomplish two great legal ends: the reestablishment and the protection of the farmer class and the securing of its land for the farmer family.
3. Work: The nation's work as a basic national value is grounded on the leading concept of "work of the hands and of the head" within and for the community of the people and the elevation of work to the only criterion for the value of an individual within the community. In place of the idea of class warfare, National Socialism had to establish the national community legally; in place of the defamation of work and its degradation to an object of barter, National Socialism had to raise it to an ethical duty and the right to work had to become the most clearly defined personal right of the individual. The concept of the honor of work had to be established as the basic concept of the national honor.
4. The Reich: With the securing of the three basic values of race, soil, and work arises the National Socialist Reich.
The infusion of foreign cultural and legal influences in Germany was a consequence of the weakening of the central authority of the German Reich since the Middle Ages. The creation and insuring of a strong central authority in contrast to the disorganized, federalistic system of the Weimar Republic became one of the principal lines of National Socialist legal policy. In consequence of the National Socialist revolution, the Reich took on the legal form of a totalitarian state and received a supreme and completely authoritative lawgiver in the person of the Führer. The principle of a division of power could no longer maintain itself: The formulation, the interpretation, and the execution of the law are all performed by the Führer himself or under his authority.
5. Honor: The fifth great value of the nation is its honor. The honor of the people, the Reich, the party, the Führer, and the individual citizen are all regarded as goods to be protected by law. The basis of national honor is loyalty. National Socialist criminal law is therefore essentially organized as a system of punishment for breaches of faith. Every crime and offense against the community is a breach of faith which must result in loss of honor.[95]