WOLFGANG MIEDER Proverbial Manipulation in Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

7/27/2019 WOLFGANG MIEDER Proverbial Manipulation in Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

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WOLFGANG MIEDER

"... as if I were the master of the situation"Proverbial Manipulation in Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

For Alan Dundes on His Sixtieth Birthday

While there is no dearth of scholarly studies on the language use in Nazi Germany,[1]recentinvestigators have pointed out that such analyses should not only look at the language of

National Socialism, but also at the German language as it was used throughout the countryduring the years of the Nazi regime.[2]Two early documents from that time clearly illustratethe latter desideratum. In his satirical work Die dritte Walpurgisnacht (1933), the Austriancultural critic Karl Kraus exposes and attacks the rising National Socialism by way of itsslogans, phrases, and proverbial expressions. He points out that this "politischePhrasenvernebelung" (political smoke-screen of phrases) had a marked influence on thegeneral German population right from the start which, however, for the most part did not

become aware of "what reality lies hidden behind such expressions".[3]Varying the Germanproverb "Die Sonne bringt es an den Tag" (The sun will bring it to light), Kraus writes that"Die Sprache [i.e., language] bringt es an den Tag".[4]This altered proverb is also citedseveral times in the autobiographical yet scholarly book entitled L[ingua] T[ertii] I[mperii]:

Notizbuch eines Philologen (1947) by the Holocaust survivor Victor Klemperer[5]in order topoint to the thoughtless and immoral language used during the Third Reich. And there is alsothe courageous essay with the Biblical-proverbial title of "An ihrer Sprache sollt Ihr sieerkennen: Die Gleichschaltung [i.e.; political coordination] der deutschen Sprache" (1938), inwhich Hans Jacob talks about the spreading "Vergewaltigung des Sprachgeistes" (rape of thespirit of the language) in Nazi Germany.[6]The title is a parody of the Bible proverb "Anihren Frchten sollt ihr sie erkennen" (Matth. 7:16; Ye shall know them by their fruits), andthe article itself explains that German citizens should pay attention to the language of Hitlerand his followers in order to comprehend their evil designs. Hitler actually used this very

proverb on March 23, 1933, in a sarcastic speech against the Social Democrats. There he addsthat "the fruits testify against them"[7]to the prophetic proverb, but little did Hitler know thatit would be the fruits of his words and deeds that would in due time incriminate himself andhis loyal Nazis.

Obviously the National Socialists had their special vocabulary which underpinned theirpolitical program with a pronounced rhetorical and propagandistic style. Detailed studies byCornelia Berning, Werner Betz, Siegfried Bork, Rolf Glunk, Heinz Paechter, Wolfgang

Sauer, Eugen Seidel and Ingeborg Seidel-Slotty, etc. have shown this in much detail,[8]but itmust not be forgotten that the Nazis also made considerable use of all aspects of folk speech.At a party convention in 1934 Joseph Goebbels called directly for the use of such language:"We must speak the language which the folk understands. Whoever wants to speak to the folkmust, as Luther says, pay heed to folk speech".[9]

Hitler actually had already said something quite similar in 1925/26 in Mein Kampf: "I mustnot measure the speech of a statesman to his people by the impression which it leaves in auniversity professor, but by the effect it exerts on the people" (477).[10]What Hitler claimsto be of specific importance to a speaker addressing the common folk is of equal significancefor the language of propaganda which he analyzes in various sections of his book: "All

propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited
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intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intendedto reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be" (180).[11]

The full text of this article is published in De Proverbio - Issue 1:1995, an electronic book,available from amazon.com and other leading Internet booksellers.

Finally, of special interest is also the title of a short chapter (see pp. 508-517) for whichHitler cites a "geflgeltes Wort" (winged word or sententious remark) from FriedrichSchiller's drama Wilhelm Tell, namely "Der Starke ist am mchtigsten allein"[74] (TheStrong Man Is Mightiest Alone; 508). One would assume that Hitler would then write abouthis own early rise to the leadership of the National Socialists. This is, however, not at all thecase, because in this chapter Hitler wants to show how the National Socialist Party was able

to bring the so-called "folkish splintering" (see pp. 512-514) under control in Germany. Andyet, Kenneth Burke is absolutely correct when in his analysis of Mein Kampf he observes thatthroughout this chapter one senses "a spontaneous identification between leader and

people".[75] In his speech of March 20, 1936, Hitler explained this identity of "Fhrer" andNational Socialists in the following manner: "From the people I have grown, among thepeople I have stayed, to the people I return!"[76] A second "proverbial" quotation fromSchiller's Wilhelm Tell - one that has become quite popular in recent years because of its useas a slogan during the process of German reunification - also appears in Mein Kampf as "Wirsind ein einig Volk von Brdern"[77] (We are a united people of brothers; 482). But Hitlerwarns his readers and later his listeners that in his German utopia only the Aryan race can becounted among these privileged people and that he as the only "Fhrer" will brutally exclude(later exterminate) all outsiders: "It must never be forgotten that nothing that is really great inthis world has ever been achieved by coalitions [...]. Great, truly world-shaking revolutions ofa spiritual nature are not even conceivable and realizable except as titanic struggles [...]. Andthus the folkish state above all will be created [...] solely by the iron will of a singlemovement that has fought its way to the top against all" (516-517). The quotation turned

proverb "Der Starke ist am mchtigsten allein" thus becomes a metaphor for the grotesquebehavior of Germany under the absolute leadership of Adolf Hitler.

It will not surprise anyone that towards the end of Mein Kampf Hitler employs proverbialmetaphors that stem from the language of seafaring. Politicians have long referred to the ship

of state and its captain.[78] Twice Hitler speaks of the "Ruhe vor dem Sturme" (calm beforethe storm; see pp. 158 and 194) and concludes the second to the last chapter with theoppositional pair of proverbial expressions "mit dem (gegen den) Strom schwimmen" (toswim with [against] the current) as well as the phrase "einen Damm aufrichten" (to erect adam":

Today, it is true, we must brace ourselves against the current of a public opinion confoundedby Jewish guile exploiting German gullibility; sometimes, it is true, the waves break harshlyand angrily about us, but he who swims with the current is more easily overlooked than hewho bucks the waves. Today we are a reef; in a few years Fate may raise us up as a damagainst which the general current will break, and flow into a new bed (666-667).
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In the last chapter with its bellicose title "The Right of Emergency Defense" (see pp. 668-687) Hitler employs quite consciously the topos of the ship's pilot. Doubtlessly in 1926 hewas already thinking of steering the German ship of state in due time on a new course of

National Socialism:

We might hope [...] at long last to do what would have to be done in the end anyway, "dasSteuer des Reichsschiffes herumzureien" (to pull the helm of the Reich ship about) on some

particularly crass occasion, and ram the enemy. This, to be sure, meant a "Kampf auf Lebenund Tod" (life-and-death struggle) (673-674).

Here we have the pilot or "Fhrer" in his proverbial struggle for life or death. Hitlerenvisioned himself as this captain throughout Mein Kampf, and this struggle became aleitmotif for his entire existence in his later years. That he actually would bring death tomillions of people he probably did not yet imagine in the middle of the 1920s. Or did he? Atthe time of composing Mein Kampf, he wrote with fanatical confidence that his NationalSocialist movement would be victorious in Germany. With about 500 proverbs and

proverbial expressions on 782 pages of the German edition of Mein Kampf, Hitler reachesthe high frequency of one proverbial utterance for every page and a half. This is indeed aclear indication that he has made ample use of metaphorical folk speech to underpin his

program of National Socialism. In his "philosophical" and rhetorical fanaticism, it wasobvious to him that his struggle would eventually make him the indisputable "Fhrer" ofGermany. In this drive to absolute power, he shows a definite preference for the proverbialexpression "Herr der Lage sein" (to be master of the situation), as was already mentioned atthe beginning of this discussion. It is appropriate, therefore, to close these comments with yetanother reference to this phrase in which Hitler describes one of his early speeches at a

National Socialist meeting. This short passage shows his complex character and hispathological struggle to become the "Fhrer". It should, however, be noted that at this earlytime he uses the still unfulfilled proverbial subjunctive:

"After about an hour and a half - I was able to talk that long despite interruptions - it seemedalmost 'als ob ich Herr der Lage wrde' (as if I were going to be master of the situation)"(505).

If only he had never become this master, who "marched straight to destruction, drawing thedear people behind like the Pied Piper of Hamelin" (149).[79] Even this last quotation out ofMein Kampf can once again today be read as an ironic and prophetic statement by the

proverbially bankrupt Adolf Hitler.

Notes:

1 See Michael Kinne, "Zum Sprachgebrauch der deutschen Faschisten: Ein bibliographischerberblick," Diskussion Deutsch, 14 (1983), 518-521.

2 See Utz Maas, "Sprache im Nationalsozialismus," Diskussion Deutsch, 14 (1983), 499-517;ibid., Als der Geist der Gemeinschaft eine Sprache fand: Sprache im Nationalsozialismus.
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Versuch einer historischen Argumentationsanalyse (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1984);and Carola Sachse, Tilla Siegel, Hasso Spode, and Wolfgang Spohn, Angst, Belohnung,Zucht und Ordnung. Herrschaftsmechanismen im Nationalsozialismus (Opladen:Westdeutscher Verlag, 1982).

3

See Karl Kraus, Die dritte Walpurgisnacht, ed. by Heinrich Fischer (Mnchen: Ksel,1952), p. 208 and p. 211. It should be noted here that the translations of all secondaryliterature is my own. For additional comments concerning the use of proverbial texts duringthis period see Wolfgang Mieder, "Karl Kraus und der sprichwrtliche Aphorismus,"Muttersprache, 89 (1979), 97-115; also in W. Mieder, Deutsche Sprichwrter in Literatur,Politik, Presse und Werbung (Hamburg: Helmut Buske, 1983), pp. 113-131. O interest is alsoAndrea Hoffend, "Bevor die Nazis die Sprache beim Wort nahmen: Wurzeln undEntsprechungen nationalsozialistischen Sprachgebrauchs," Muttersprache, 97 (1987), 257-299.

4 Kraus, p. 241.

5 See Victor Klemperer, LTI: Notizbuch eines Philologen (Kln: Rderberg, 1987; 1st ed.1947), p. 16 and pp. 166-167.

6 Hans Jacob, "An ihrer Sprache sollt Ihr sie erkennen: Die Gleichschaltung der deutschenSprache," Das Wort, 1 (1938), 81-86. The Bible proverb is used as a powerful leitmotifthroughout this article, and at the very end it is cited with an imperative exclamation mark,trying to activate the German population to deal critically with the language and deeds of thegrowing number of National Socialists.

7 All quotations out of Hitler's speeches are cited from the standard edition by Max Domarus,Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932-1945, 2 vols (Neustadt a. d. Aisch: Schmidt, 1962-1963), vol. 1, p. 244. All the translations into English are my own.

8 See Cornelia Berning, Vom Abstammungsnachweis zum Zuchtwort: Vokabular desNationalsozialismus (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1964); Werner Betz, "The National-SocialistVocabulary," in The Third Reich, ed. by Maurice Baumont, John Fried and Edmond Vermeil(New York: Frederick Praeger, 1955), pp. 784-796; Siegfried Bork, Mibrauch der Sprache:Tendenzen nationalsozialistischer Sprachregelung (Mnchen: Francke, 1970); Rolf Glunk,"Erfolg und Mierfolg der nationalsozialistischen Sprachlenkung," Zeitschrift fr deutscheSprache, 22 (1966), 57-73 and 146-153; 23 (1967), 83-113 and 178-188; 24 (1968), 72-91

and 184-191; 26 (1970), 84-97 and 176-183; and 27 (1971), 113-123 and 177-187; HeinzPaechter, Nazi-Deutsch: A Glossary of Contemporary German (New York: Frederick Ungar,1944); Wolfgang Sauer, Der Sprachgebrauch von Nationalsozialisten vor 1933 (Hamburg:Helmut Buske, 1978); and Eugen Seidel and Ingeborg Seidel-Slotty, Sprachwandel imDritten Reich (Halle: Verlag Sprache und Literatur, 1961).

9 Quoted from Cornelia Berning, "Die Sprache der Nationalsozialisten," Zeitschrift frdeutsche Wortforschung, 18 (1962), 109. Berning's long article contains more explanatoryinformation than her book cited in note 8 above; it can be found in the following volumes ofthis journal: 16 (1960), 71-149 and 178-188; 17 (1961), 83-121 and 171-182; 18 (1962), 108-118 and 160-172; 19 (1963), 92-112. Klemperer (see note 5), p. 246, also quotes this

statement by Goebbels.


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10 All numbers in parentheses refer to the following edition of the English translation ofAdolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, translated by Ralph Manheim (Boston: Houghton Mifflin [SentryEdition], 1962; 1st ed. 1947). Please note here and in other quotations from this book the useof italics in order to render Hitler's affinity to the use of spaced type. I thank my friend Prof.George B. Bryan for lending me his copy of this book and for helping me with the translation

of some of the proverbial language which Ralph Manheim failed to render into equivalentEnglish. Thanks is also due my friend Veronica Richel for her help with some of thetranslations of proverbs and quotations. The English citations are all from this book, butwhere necessary I attempted a more colloquial translation of the German proverbial language.Reading Mein Kampf in the German original indicates Hitler's frequent use of proverbiallanguage much better than this otherwise excellent translation.

11 Compare also this additional irreverent statement by Hitler: "The receptivity of the greatmasses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous.In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few pointsand must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you

want him to understand by your slogan" (180-181). See also Walther Dieckmann, "ZumWrterbuch des Unmenschen: Propaganda," Zeitschrift fr deutsche Sprache, 21 (1965), 105-114.


77 Schiller actually writes "Wir sind ein Volk und einig wollen wir handeln" (We are onepeople and united we want to act". For the more modern use of this quotation turned proverbsee Ulla Fix, "Der Wandel der Muster - Der Wandel im Umgang mit den Mustern.Kommunikationskultur im institutionellen Sprachgebrauch der DDR am Beispiel vonLosungen," Deutsche Sprache, no volume, no. 4 (1990), 332-347; and Hans-Manfred Militz,"Das Antisprichwort als semantische Variante eines sprichwrtlichen Textes," Proverbium, 8(1991), 107-111.

78 For a discussion of such proverbs and proverbial expressions see Irene Meichsner, DieLogik von Gemeinpltzen. Vorgefhrt an Steuermannstopos und Schiffsmetapher (Bonn:Bouvier, 1983); and Wolfgang Mieder, "'Wir sitzen alle in einem Boot': Herkunft, Geschichteund Verwendung einer neueren deutschen Redensart," Muttersprache, 100 (1990), 18-37.

79 Hitler speaks in this quotation of the politics of Austria and could, of course, not surmisethat he himself would become the most terrible incarnation of the "Pied Piper of Hamelin"motif. See also the numerous interpretations of Hitler as a Pied Piper in modern literature andcaricatures in Wolfgang Mieder, "'The Pied Piper of Hamelin': Origin, History, and Survivalof the Legend," in W. Mieder, Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature (Hanover, NewHampshire: University Press of New England, 1987), pp. 45-83 and 236-243 (notes).

Wolfgang MiederDepartment of German and RussianUniversity of Vermont

Burlington, Vermont 05405USA
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"... as if I were the master of the situation"Proverbial Manipulation in Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

For Alan Dundes on His Sixtieth Birthday

While there is no dearth of scholarly studies on the language use in Nazi Germany,[1] recentinvestigators have pointed out that such analyses should not only look at the language of

National Socialism, but also at the German language as it was used throughout the countryduring the years of the Nazi regime.[2] Two early documents from that time clearly illustratethe latter desideratum. In his satirical work Die dritte Walpurgisnacht (1933), the Austriancultural critic Karl Kraus exposes and attacks the rising National Socialism by way of itsslogans, phrases, and proverbial expressions. He points out that this "politischePhrasenvernebelung" (political smoke-screen of phrases) had a marked influence on thegeneral German population right from the start which, however, for the most part did not

become aware of "what reality lies hidden behind such expressions".[3] Varying the Germanproverb "Die Sonne bringt es an den Tag" (The sun will bring it to light), Kraus writes that

"Die Sprache [i.e., language] bringt es an den Tag".[4] This altered proverb is also citedseveral times in the autobiographical yet scholarly book entitled L[ingua] T[ertii] I[mperii]:

Notizbuch eines Philologen (1947) by the Holocaust survivor Victor Klemperer[5] in order topoint to the thoughtless and immoral language used during the Third Reich. And there is alsothe courageous essay with the Biblical-proverbial title of "An ihrer Sprache sollt Ihr sieerkennen: Die Gleichschaltung [i.e.; political coordination] der deutschen Sprache" (1938), inwhich Hans Jacob talks about the spreading "Vergewaltigung des Sprachgeistes" (rape of thespirit of the language) in Nazi Germany.[6] The title is a parody of the Bible proverb "Anihren Frchten sollt ihr sie erkennen" (Matth. 7:16; Ye shall know them by their fruits), andthe article itself explains that German citizens should pay attention to the language of Hitlerand his followers in order to comprehend their evil designs. Hitler actually used this very

proverb on March 23, 1933, in a sarcastic speech against the Social Democrats. There he addsthat "the fruits testify against them"[7] to the prophetic proverb, but little did Hitler know thatit would be the fruits of his words and deeds that would in due time incriminate himself andhis loyal Nazis.

Obviously the National Socialists had their special vocabulary which underpinned theirpolitical program with a pronounced rhetorical and propagandistic style. Detailed studies byCornelia Berning, Werner Betz, Siegfried Bork, Rolf Glunk, Heinz Paechter, WolfgangSauer, Eugen Seidel and Ingeborg Seidel-Slotty, etc. have shown this in much detail,[8]but itmust not be forgotten that the Nazis also made considerable use of all aspects of folk speech.

At a party convention in 1934 Joseph Goebbels called directly for the use of such language:"We must speak the language which the folk understands. Whoever wants to speak to the folkmust, as Luther says, pay heed to folk speech".[9]

Hitler actually had already said something quite similar in 1925/26 in Mein Kampf: "I mustnot measure the speech of a statesman to his people by the impression which it leaves in auniversity professor, but by the effect it exerts on the people" (477).[10] What Hitler claimsto be of specific importance to a speaker addressing the common folk is of equal significancefor the language of propaganda which he analyzes in various sections of his book: "All

propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limitedintelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended

to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be" (180).[11]
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Finally, of special interest is also the title of a short chapter (see pp. 508-517) for whichHitler cites a "geflgeltes Wort" (winged word or sententious remark) from FriedrichSchiller's drama Wilhelm Tell, namely "Der Starke ist am mchtigsten allein"[74] (TheStrong Man Is Mightiest Alone; 508). One would assume that Hitler would then write abouthis own early rise to the leadership of the National Socialists. This is, however, not at all thecase, because in this chapter Hitler wants to show how the National Socialist Party was ableto bring the so-called "folkish splintering" (see pp. 512-514) under control in Germany. Andyet, Kenneth Burke is absolutely correct when in his analysis of Mein Kampf he observes thatthroughout this chapter one senses "a spontaneous identification between leader and

people".[75] In his speech of March 20, 1936, Hitler explained this identity of "Fhrer" andNational Socialists in the following manner: "From the people I have grown, among the

people I have stayed, to the people I return!"[76] A second "proverbial" quotation fromSchiller's Wilhelm Tell - one that has become quite popular in recent years because of its useas a slogan during the process of German reunification - also appears in Mein Kampf as "Wirsind ein einig Volk von Brdern"[77] (We are a united people of brothers; 482). But Hitlerwarns his readers and later his listeners that in his German utopia only the Aryan race can becounted among these privileged people and that he as the only "Fhrer" will brutally exclude(later exterminate) all outsiders: "It must never be forgotten that nothing that is really great inthis world has ever been achieved by coalitions [...]. Great, truly world-shaking revolutions ofa spiritual nature are not even conceivable and realizable except as titanic struggles [...]. Andthus the folkish state above all will be created [...] solely by the iron will of a singlemovement that has fought its way to the top against all" (516-517). The quotation turned

proverb "Der Starke ist am mchtigsten allein" thus becomes a metaphor for the grotesquebehavior of Germany under the absolute leadership of Adolf Hitler.

It will not surprise anyone that towards the end of Mein Kampf Hitler employs proverbialmetaphors that stem from the language of seafaring. Politicians have long referred to the shipof state and its captain.[78] Twice Hitler speaks of the "Ruhe vor dem Sturme" (calm beforethe storm; see pp. 158 and 194) and concludes the second to the last chapter with theoppositional pair of proverbial expressions "mit dem (gegen den) Strom schwimmen" (toswim with [against] the current) as well as the phrase "einen Damm aufrichten" (to erect adam":

Today, it is true, we must brace ourselves against the current of a public opinion confoundedby Jewish guile exploiting German gullibility; sometimes, it is true, the waves break harshlyand angrily about us, but he who swims with the current is more easily overlooked than hewho bucks the waves. Today we are a reef; in a few years Fate may raise us up as a damagainst which the general current will break, and flow into a new bed (666-667).

In the last chapter with its bellicose title "The Right of Emergency Defense" (see pp. 668-687) Hitler employs quite consciously the topos of the ship's pilot. Doubtlessly in 1926 hewas already thinking of steering the German ship of state in due time on a new course of

National Socialism:
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We might hope [...] at long last to do what would have to be done in the end anyway, "dasSteuer des Reichsschiffes herumzureien" (to pull the helm of the Reich ship about) on some

particularly crass occasion, and ram the enemy. This, to be sure, meant a "Kampf auf Lebenund Tod" (life-and-death struggle) (673-674).

Here we have the pilot or "Fhrer" in his proverbial struggle for life or death. Hitlerenvisioned himself as this captain throughout Mein Kampf, and this struggle became aleitmotif for his entire existence in his later years. That he actually would bring death tomillions of people he probably did not yet imagine in the middle of the 1920s. Or did he? Atthe time of composing Mein Kampf, he wrote with fanatical confidence that his NationalSocialist movement would be victorious in Germany. With about 500 proverbs and

proverbial expressions on 782 pages of the German edition of Mein Kampf, Hitler reachesthe high frequency of one proverbial utterance for every page and a half. This is indeed aclear indication that he has made ample use of metaphorical folk speech to underpin his

program of National Socialism. In his "philosophical" and rhetorical fanaticism, it wasobvious to him that his struggle would eventually make him the indisputable "Fhrer" of

Germany. In this drive to absolute power, he shows a definite preference for the proverbialexpression "Herr der Lage sein" (to be master of the situation), as was already mentioned atthe beginning of this discussion. It is appropriate, therefore, to close these comments with yetanother reference to this phrase in which Hitler describes one of his early speeches at a

National Socialist meeting. This short passage shows his complex character and hispathological struggle to become the "Fhrer". It should, however, be noted that at this earlytime he uses the still unfulfilled proverbial subjunctive:

"After about an hour and a half - I was able to talk that long despite interruptions - it seemedalmost 'als ob ich Herr der Lage wrde' (as if I were going to be master of the situation)"(505).

If only he had never become this master, who "marched straight to destruction, drawing thedear people behind like the Pied Piper of Hamelin" (149).[79] Even this last quotation out ofMein Kampf can once again today be read as an ironic and prophetic statement by the

proverbially bankrupt Adolf Hitler.

Notes:

1 See Michael Kinne, "Zum Sprachgebrauch der deutschen Faschisten: Ein bibliographischerberblick," Diskussion Deutsch, 14 (1983), 518-521.

2 See Utz Maas, "Sprache im Nationalsozialismus," Diskussion Deutsch, 14 (1983), 499-517;ibid., Als der Geist der Gemeinschaft eine Sprache fand: Sprache im Nationalsozialismus.Versuch einer historischen Argumentationsanalyse (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1984);and Carola Sachse, Tilla Siegel, Hasso Spode, and Wolfgang Spohn, Angst, Belohnung,Zucht und Ordnung. Herrschaftsmechanismen im Nationalsozialismus (Opladen:

Westdeutscher Verlag, 1982).
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3 See Karl Kraus, Die dritte Walpurgisnacht, ed. by Heinrich Fischer (Mnchen: Ksel,1952), p. 208 and p. 211. It should be noted here that the translations of all secondaryliterature is my own. For additional comments concerning the use of proverbial texts duringthis period see Wolfgang Mieder, "Karl Kraus und der sprichwrtliche Aphorismus,"Muttersprache, 89 (1979), 97-115; also in W. Mieder, Deutsche Sprichwrter in Literatur,

Politik, Presse und Werbung (Hamburg: Helmut Buske, 1983), pp. 113-131. O interest is alsoAndrea Hoffend, "Bevor die Nazis die Sprache beim Wort nahmen: Wurzeln undEntsprechungen nationalsozialistischen Sprachgebrauchs," Muttersprache, 97 (1987), 257-299.

4 Kraus, p. 241.

5 See Victor Klemperer, LTI: Notizbuch eines Philologen (Kln: Rderberg, 1987; 1st ed.1947), p. 16 and pp. 166-167.

6 Hans Jacob, "An ihrer Sprache sollt Ihr sie erkennen: Die Gleichschaltung der deutschen

Sprache," Das Wort, 1 (1938), 81-86. The Bible proverb is used as a powerful leitmotifthroughout this article, and at the very end it is cited with an imperative exclamation mark,trying to activate the German population to deal critically with the language and deeds of thegrowing number of National Socialists.

7 All quotations out of Hitler's speeches are cited from the standard edition by Max Domarus,Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932-1945, 2 vols (Neustadt a. d. Aisch: Schmidt, 1962-1963), vol. 1, p. 244. All the translations into English are my own.

8 See Cornelia Berning, Vom Abstammungsnachweis zum Zuchtwort: Vokabular desNationalsozialismus (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1964); Werner Betz, "The National-SocialistVocabulary," in The Third Reich, ed. by Maurice Baumont, John Fried and Edmond Vermeil(New York: Frederick Praeger, 1955), pp. 784-796; Siegfried Bork, Mibrauch der Sprache:Tendenzen nationalsozialistischer Sprachregelung (Mnchen: Francke, 1970); Rolf Glunk,"Erfolg und Mierfolg der nationalsozialistischen Sprachlenkung," Zeitschrift fr deutscheSprache, 22 (1966), 57-73 and 146-153; 23 (1967), 83-113 and 178-188; 24 (1968), 72-91and 184-191; 26 (1970), 84-97 and 176-183; and 27 (1971), 113-123 and 177-187; HeinzPaechter, Nazi-Deutsch: A Glossary of Contemporary German (New York: Frederick Ungar,1944); Wolfgang Sauer, Der Sprachgebrauch von Nationalsozialisten vor 1933 (Hamburg:Helmut Buske, 1978); and Eugen Seidel and Ingeborg Seidel-Slotty, Sprachwandel imDritten Reich (Halle: Verlag Sprache und Literatur, 1961).

9 Quoted from Cornelia Berning, "Die Sprache der Nationalsozialisten," Zeitschrift frdeutsche Wortforschung, 18 (1962), 109. Berning's long article contains more explanatoryinformation than her book cited in note 8 above; it can be found in the following volumes ofthis journal: 16 (1960), 71-149 and 178-188; 17 (1961), 83-121 and 171-182; 18 (1962), 108-118 and 160-172; 19 (1963), 92-112. Klemperer (see note 5), p. 246, also quotes thisstatement by Goebbels.

10 All numbers in parentheses refer to the following edition of the English translation ofAdolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, translated by Ralph Manheim (Boston: Houghton Mifflin [SentryEdition], 1962; 1st ed. 1947). Please note here and in other quotations from this book the use

of italics in order to render Hitler's affinity to the use of spaced type. I thank my friend Prof.George B. Bryan for lending me his copy of this book and for helping me with the translation


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of some of the proverbial language which Ralph Manheim failed to render into equivalentEnglish. Thanks is also due my friend Veronica Richel for her help with some of thetranslations of proverbs and quotations. The English citations are all from this book, butwhere necessary I attempted a more colloquial translation of the German proverbial language.Reading Mein Kampf in the German original indicates Hitler's frequent use of proverbial

language much better than this otherwise excellent translation.11 Compare also this additional irreverent statement by Hitler: "The receptivity of the greatmasses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous.In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few pointsand must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what youwant him to understand by your slogan" (180-181). See also Walther Dieckmann, "ZumWrterbuch des Unmenschen: Propaganda," Zeitschrift fr deutsche Sprache, 21 (1965), 105-114.


77 Schiller actually writes "Wir sind ein Volk und einig wollen wir handeln" (We are onepeople and united we want to act". For the more modern use of this quotation turned proverbsee Ulla Fix, "Der Wandel der Muster - Der Wandel im Umgang mit den Mustern.Kommunikationskultur im institutionellen Sprachgebrauch der DDR am Beispiel vonLosungen," Deutsche Sprache, no volume, no. 4 (1990), 332-347; and Hans-Manfred Militz,"Das Antisprichwort als semantische Variante eines sprichwrtlichen Textes," Proverbium, 8(1991), 107-111.

78 For a discussion of such proverbs and proverbial expressions see Irene Meichsner, DieLogik von Gemeinpltzen. Vorgefhrt an Steuermannstopos und Schiffsmetapher (Bonn:Bouvier, 1983); and Wolfgang Mieder, "'Wir sitzen alle in einem Boot': Herkunft, Geschichteund Verwendung einer neueren deutschen Redensart," Muttersprache, 100 (1990), 18-37.

79 Hitler speaks in this quotation of the politics of Austria and could, of course, not surmisethat he himself would become the most terrible incarnation of the "Pied Piper of Hamelin"motif. See also the numerous interpretations of Hitler as a Pied Piper in modern literature andcaricatures in Wolfgang Mieder, "'The Pied Piper of Hamelin': Origin, History, and Survival

of the Legend," in W. Mieder, Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature (Hanover, NewHampshire: University Press of New England, 1987), pp. 45-83 and 236-243 (notes).

Wolfgang MiederDepartment of German and RussianUniversity of VermontBurlington, Vermont 05405USA
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WOLFGANG MIEDER Proverbial Manipulation in Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

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