The 25 Points 1920: An Early Nazi Program
This text is a summary of the points, and not the full text, which were
not given in the order below. Some readers have expressed concern that
there was an effort at distortion here. As a result, the full text of the 25
points, as translated in Document No. 1708-PS of the Nuremburg Trials, and
mounted at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/1708-ps.asp has been added.
These combine extreme nationalism, racism and some socialist concepts.
- Unification of Greater Germany (Austria + Germany)
- Land + expansion
- Anti-Versailles - abrogation of the Treaty.
- Land and territory - lebensraum.
- Only a "member of the race" can be a citizen.
- Anti-semitism - No Jew can be a member of the race.
- Anti-foreigner - only citizens can live in Germany.
- No immigration - ref. to Jews fleeing pograms.
- Everyone must work.
- Abolition of unearned income - "no rent-slavery".
- Nationalisation of industry
- Divison of profits
- Extension of old age welfare.
- Land reform
- Death to all criminals
- German law, not Roman law (anti- French Rev.)
- Education to teach "the German Way"
- Education of gifted children
- Protection of mother and child by outlawing child labour.
- Encouraging gymnastics and swimming
- Formation a national army.
- Duty of the state to provide for its volk.
- Duty of individuals to the state
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1708-PS
Edited by: Dr. Robert Ley
Published by: Central Publishing House of the N.S.D.A.P.
Franz Eher, successor Munich
The program of the NSDAP
The program is the political foundation of the NSDAP and accordingly the
primary political law of the State. It has been made brief and clear
intentionally.
All legal precepts must be applied in the spirit of the party program.
Since the taking over of control, the Fuehrer has succeeded in the
realization of essential portions of the Party program from the fundamentals
to the detail.
The Party Program of the NSDAP was proclaimed on the 24 February 1920 by
Adolf Hitler at the first large Party gathering in Munich and since that day
has remained unaltered. Within the national socialist philosophy is summarized
in 25 points:
1. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the
basis of the right of self-determination of peoples.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the
other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our
people, and colonization for our surplus population.
4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can
only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed.
Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race.
5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a
guest, and must be under the authority of legislation for foreigners.
6. The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs
only to the citizen. Therefore we demand that every public office, of any sort
whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only
by citizens. We combat the corrupting parliamentary economy, office-holding
only according to party inclinations without consideration of character or
abilities.
7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity
for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to
sustain the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations
(non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.
8. Any further immigration of non-citizens is to be prevented. We demand
that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since the 2 August 1914,
be forced immediately to leave the Reich.
9. All citizens must have equal rights and obligations.
10. The first obligation of every citizen must be to work both spiritually
and physically. The activity of individuals is not to counteract the interests
of the universality, but must have its result within the framework of the
whole for the benefit of all Consequently we demand:
11. Abolition of unearned (work and labour) incomes. Breaking of
rent-slavery.
12. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice in property and blood that
each war demands of the people personal enrichment through a war must be
designated as a crime against the people. Therefore we demand the total
confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand the nationalization of all (previous) associated industries
(trusts).
14. We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries.
15. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation,
immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at
low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in
contracts with the State, county or municipality.
17. We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for
the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition
of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land.
18. We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity
is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers,
Schieber and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of
confession or race.
19. We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law
serving a materialistic world-order.
20. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our
whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious
German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading
positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to
conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the
concept of the State must be striven for by the school [Staatsbuergerkunde] as
early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the
expense of the State of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor
parents without consideration of position or profession.
21. The State is to care for the elevating national health by protecting
the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of
physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport
obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the
physical instruction of the young.
22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national
army.
23. We demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through
the press. In order to enable the provision of a German press, we demand,
that: a. All writers and employees of the newspapers appearing in the German
language be members of the race: b. Non-German newspapers be required to have
the express permission of the State to be published. They may not be printed
in the German language: c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial
interest in German publications, or any influence on them, and as punishment
for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate
expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are
counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution
of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our
national life, and the closure of organizations opposing the above made
demands.
24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within
the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral
senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a
positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one
denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us,
and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from
within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.
25. For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong
central power in the Reich. Unlimited authority of the central parliament over
the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The forming of state and
profession chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the
various states of the confederation. The leaders of the Party promise, if
necessary by sacrificing their own lives, to support by the execution of the
points set forth above without consideration.
Adolf Hitler proclaimed the following explanation for this program on the
13 April 1928:
Explanation
Regarding the false interpretations of Point 17 of the program of the NSDAP
on the part of our opponents, the following definition is necessary:
"Since the NSDAP stands on the platform of private ownership it
happens that the passage" gratuitous expropriation concerns only the
creation of legal opportunities to expropriate if necessary, land which has
been illegally acquired or is not administered from the view-point of the
national welfare. This is directed primarily against the Jewish
land-speculation companies.
Source:
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Volume IV
Office of the United States Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality
Washington, DC : United States Government Printing Office, 1946
USMARC Cataloging Record
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(c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997. Modified 2003
