Monday, August 23, 2010

Political Science: 1933 & 34


Hitler addresses the folk, 1933:


Hitler addresses the party, 1934:



It is important to note the following distinction:


1) The 1933 speech was for public consumption and rolls out the talking points and especial "codes" that lead the party to power.


2) The 1934 speech addresses NAZI Party concerns, which rather comes off as a mix of corporate religion and politics.


While the former speech is of interest to history, the latter is of interest to political science.

It's clear to see in the 1934 speech (and I have seen this described elsewhere) that Hitler set party members against each other to enhance the "strength" and "integrity" of the power structure, as well as to enhance his position at the top.

In regard to Hitler's language, figures of speech and logic in the 1934 party speech: The subtitles either represent a poor translation, or this is indeed the face of ruptured sense and meaningless language, the very mark of totalitarian madness.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The translation is a good one.

They were that nuts.