In prehistoric times, the women looked for the protection of heroes. When two men fight for the possession of a woman, the latter waits to let her heart speak until she knows which of the two will be victorious.

As soon as a girl becomes a woman, she's faced with the problem of getting a man. If she doesn;t find a fiancé, or if she loses him, it;s possible that she may refuse to have anything more to do with life, and may prefer to retire to a convent. It can also happen that parents may promise their children to the Church. When a human being has spent ten years in a monastery or convent, he o she loses the exact idea of reality. For a woman, a part is played by the sense of belonging to a community that takes care of her. When she lacks the support of a man, she quite naturally looks for this support elsewhere.

A girl's object is, and should be, to get married. Rather than die as an old maid, it;s better for her to have a child without more ado! Nature doesn;t care the least bit whether, as a preliminary, the people concerned have paid a visit to registrar. Nature wants a woman to be fertile. Many women go slightly off their heads when they don;t bear children.. Everybody says, of a childless woman: ;What a hysterical creature!; It;s a thousand times preferable that she should have a natural child, and thus a reason for existence, rather than slowly wither.

These women are so oddly primitive. A hairdresser, clothes, dancing, theaters can distract them from any serious activity. The only things theyíre willing to read are magazines and novels. Yet Geli can follow the serials in twelve magazines and newspapers simultaneously, one or two different installments a day. And she always knows how the stories fit together, she even notices when an installment is missing.

Marriage makes sense only if one wishes to establish a family. The family is the meaning of marriage.

How very much I too would like to have a family, children, children! Oh, God, you know how much I love children, those creatures who as yet have no knowledge of good and evil, who are always ready to give and to take all at the same time, in whom laughter and tears are as close as sunshine and rain the spring. What can be more beautiful than the beaming eyes of a child who has been made happy by some insignificant little gift, a seashell, a block of wood, a pebble! And how happy parents become through such happiness!

But I have to deny myself this happiness. I have another brideóGermany! I am married: to the German Volk, to its destiny! I see the Volk suffering, tormented by the accursed provisions of the Versailles Treaty, tyrannized by enemy occupation and by foreign rule in the east and the west. I see how it is despised, defamed, and depraved, this good, sturdy Volk, these honest and industrious people, these heirs to a proud past who are undemanding and willing to make endless sacrifices! This is the Volk to whom I have given my heat, all my thinking and planning, my work, my self! Many a time I have stared at the Gospels and, reading, muttered to myself, Who are my sisters, who are my brothers? No, I cannot marry, I may not.

For you see, wherever great personalities rose from nowhere to some accomplishment of geniusóbe it in art, be it in science, be it in statesmanshipótheir sons have never attained a stature even approximating that of their fathers, they have always turned out to be inferior or nonentities. Where is there a song Goethe, a son of Schiller, a son of Beethoven? Or take Kant, or Napoleon. Any son of mine would also be nothing more than an encumbrance and thus an unhappy person or a danger.

That is why I may not marry. I must deny myself that joy.

When he was traveling, Hitler very much liked some young girl to come along. In the evenings, when we spent time together in the hotel, weary of talking, she would help him and his companions pass the time by telling plain, trifling stories or by reading aloud. The daughter of Hoffmann, the photographer, often came along on trips to Nuremberg or Weimar. She generally traveled with her father in the second car or by train. Then the cheerful chatteróin which he had stopped taking part, to which he had stopped listening entirelyógradually died down. As most of the others said good night, he asked one or another to stay and keep him company. So we sat together for several hours, over coffee or tea, just two or three of us, discussing matters that touched on everything and everyone and had nothing to do with the dayís work and current problems.

I can sit next to young women who leave me completely cold, who arouse no feeling in meóyes, who even upset me, although surely they too have some Odic force to give off. And then there will be another girlólike the little Hoffmann girl, for example, or Geliówith whom I grow light-hearted and cheerful. When Iíve listened to their chatter, which may be foolish, or an hour-or they just need to be sitting next to meóthen all my weariness and melancholy is gone, and I can throw myself into my work again.

By the way, itís the same when I spend time with young men. I have always said that I draw strength to continue my work from the beaming eyes of my young storm troopers. Itís the very same thing.

I've also gained a different view of marriage. Only now do I have an inkling of what I am giving up by abandoning the idea of marriage. But I must do without it. It is precisely now that I understand that it cannot be otherwise and why it cannot be otherwise.

Marriage is a tie, which, if it is genuine, requires governmental legitimation only for legal reasons, the blessing of the church only for reasons of faith or symbolism. For a genuine marriage is a religion unto itself. But since many marriages are marriages of convenience, or makeshift marriages, or shotgun marriages, or sexual marriages, it really is necessary and right that church and state concern themselves with marriages in order to direct them in positive ways and to further them to the point where they are what they might not have been at the outset but really should be.

If I were ever to marry, I could only have a genuine marriage. But it would be a link to another direction than the one in which my mission lies. One or the other would have to sufferóyes, one would even have to be put in second place: either my mission or my marriage. But that way, I would be deceiving all those who have followed my ideas and objectives, I would be betraying the movement I created, and in the long run, I would betray the entire German Volk, and I would feel like a traitor; or I would cheat my wife of her rights, my marriage of its holy meaning, the divine world order of its demand, and I would feel like an adulterer.

For in the eyes of the divine world order, the first purpose of marriage is, looking at it very primitively, the joining of two cells in order to create new cells for the purpose of preserving the construction and expansion of the divine creation.

But when I examine the marriages I see around me and hear about, I find most of them far removed from what they should be in meaning and content.

Just to think of the ten- or twelve-hour workday that sends the man home in the evening dirty, tired, and bad-tempered, where his wife is anxiously waiting for him because his wages were not sufficient to provide a proper supperóor when I imagine the working wife, herself with and eight- or ten-hour workday, from which she returns home to unmade beds, no fire in the stove, the dishes from the previous evening still sitting around, carrying the bread and bologna meant for that eveningís meal sloppily wrapped in newspaperóand when I think of children taken to the day-care centers every morning, no different from geese driven out of the village and cattle to the meadow, to return in the evening honking and lowing to fill their accustomed stablesóthen, I really feel the pernicious consequences of this industrialized economy.

Rather, the important thing is the restoration of the potential and development of married life, its ethics and its divine mission. Protecting children and young people, protecting women, restricting the working week to thirty-six to forty hours, establishing a two-day weekendófor it is impossible to enjoy one day of leisure until there are twoóand assuring an income that, beyond mere subsistence, provides for the pursuit of play and entertainment, of art and learningóthose are the conditions we must bring about in order to lead marriage back to what it must be in a higher sense.

In prehistoric times, the women looked for the protection of heroes.

When two men fight for the possession of a woman, the latter waits to let her heart speak until she knows which of the two will be victorious. Tarts adore poachers.

Miezel was a delightful girl. At this period, I knew a lot of women. Several of them became attached to me. Why, then, didnít I marry? To leave a wife behind me? At the slightest imprudence, I ran the risk of going back to prison for six years. So there could be no question of marriage for me. I, therefore, had to renounce certain opportunities that offered themselves.

It's lucky Iím not married. For me, marriage would have been a disaster.

As long as only other couples are involved, one hears women say: ìI donít understand Frau So-and-so. I wouldnít have behaved like that.î But when she herself is involved, every woman is unreasonable to the same degree. One must understand this demandingness. A woman who loves her husband lives only for his sake. Thatís why, in her turn, she expects her spouse to live likewise for her sake. Itís only after maternity that the woman discovers that other realities exist in life for her.

The man, on the other hand, is a slave to his thoughts. The idea of his duties rules him. He necessarily has moments when he wants to throw the whole thing overboard, wife and children, too.

The wife does not complain only of her husbandís absence. She also resents his being preoccupied, having his mind somewhere else.

I'd have had nothing of marriage but the sullen face of a neglected wife, or else Iíd have skimped my duties.

What lovely women there are in the world!

We were sitting in the Ratskeller at Bremen. A woman came in. One would truly have thought that Olympus had opened its gates. Radiant, dazzling. The diners unanimously put down their knives and forks, and all eyes were fixed on her.

Another time, at Brunswick, a young girl rushed towards my car to offer me a bouquet. She was blonde, dashing, wonderful. Everyone around me was amazed, but not one of these idiots had the idea of asking the girl for her address, so that I could send her a word of thanks. Iíve always reproached myself most bitterly.

On yet another occasion, I was at a reception at the Bayrischer Hof. There were splendid women there, elegant and covered with jewels. A woman entered who was so beautiful that all the others were eclipsed. She wore no jewels. If was Frau Hanfst‰gl. I saw her again just once, with Mary Stuck at Erna Hanfst‰nglís. Three women together, one more beautiful than the others. What a picture!

I detest women who dabble in politics. And if their dabbling extends to military matters, it becomes utterly unendurable.

In no local section of the party has a woman ever had the right to hold even the smallest post. It has therefore often been said that we were a party of misogynists, who regarded a woman only as a machine for making children, or else as a plaything. Thatís far from being the case. I attached a lot of importance to women in the field of the training of youth, and that of good works. In 1924, we had a sudden upsurge of women who were attracted by politics: Frau von Treuenfels and Matilde von Kemnitz. They wanted to join the Reichstag, in order to raise the moral level of that body, so they said. I told them that 90 per cent of the matters dealt with by parliament were masculine affairs, on which they could not have opinions of any value. They rebelled against this point of view, but I shut their mouths by saying: ìYou will not claim that you know men as I know women.î A man who shouts is not a handsome sight. But if itís a woman, itís terribly shocking. The more she uses her lungs, the more strident her voice becomes. There she is, ready to pull hair out, with all her claws showing. In short, gallantry forbids one to give women an opportunity of putting themselves in situations that do not suit them. Everything that entails combat is exclusively menís business. There are so many other fields in which one must rely upon women. Organising a house, for example. Few men have Frau Troostís talent in matters concerning interior decoration. There were four women whom I give star rÙles: Frau Troost, Frau Wagner, Frau Scholtz-Klink and Leni Riefenstahl.

I've made innumerable excursions on the mountain, led by the Baroness Abegg.

Dietrich Eckart used to say that she was the most intelligent woman heíd ever known. Iíd have been willing to accept the intelligence, if it hadnít been accompanied by the most spiteful tongue imaginable. The woman was a real scorpion. She was as blonde as flax, with blue eyes and excessively long canine teeth, like an Englishwoman. I admit she was remarkably intelligent.

She would sprawl on her veranda, like a run-down battery, whilst everybody around her was kept busy attending her. The second state was one of incredible petulanceósheíd fly into a rage, sweep out like a whirlwind, climb up somewhere and come rushing torrentially down again.

In my opinion, the most attractive thing about her was the famous bust by Donatello.

The Baroness's husband had thrown himself into the Kˆnigssee. As can well be understood!

In the eyes of a woman, the finest of dresses at once loses its charmóif she sees another woman wearing one like it. Iíve seen a woman suddenly leave the opera at the sight of a rival who had entered a box wearing the same dress as herself.

In the pleasure a woman takes in rigging herself out, there is always an admixture of some trouble-making element, something treacherousótoo awaken another womanís jealousy by displaying something that the latter doesnít possess. Women have the talent, which is unknown to us males, for giving a kiss to a woman-friend and at the same time piercing her heart with a well-sharpened stiletto. To wish to change women in this respect would be ingenuous: women are what they are. Letís come to terms with their little weaknesses. And if women really only need satisfactions of that sort to keep them happy, let them not deprive themselves, by any means! For my part, I prefer to see them thus occupied than devoting themselves to metaphysics. Thereís no worse disaster than to see them grappling with ideas.

Other women are extremely careful of their appearance, but not beyond the moment when theyíve found a husband. Theyíre obsessed by their outlines, they weigh themselves on exact scalesóthe least gramme counts! Then you marry them, and they put on weight by the kilo!

Without doubt, when we mock at womenís artifices, they could pay us back by pointing out our own coquetryóour poor, male coquetry. Itsí true that we shave, that we get our hair cut, that we, too, try to correct the mistakes of nature!

In the countries where women are more numerous than men, the female has recourse to all kinds of methods to dispossess her rivals. Itís a form of the spirit of conservation, a law of the species. The gentlest woman is transformed into a wild beast when another woman tries to take away her man. The bigger the element of femininity in a woman, the further is this instinct developed.

I've much more respect for the woman who has an illegitimate child than for an old maid. Iíve often been told of unmarried women who had children and brought these children up in a truly touching manner. It often happens amongst women servants, notably. The women who have no children finally go off their heads.

What harm is there, then, in every womanís fulfilling her destiny?

Marriage, as it is practised in bourgeoise society, is generally a thing against nature. But a meeting between two beings who complete one another, who are made for one another, borders already, in my conception, upon a miracle.

I often think of those women who people the conventsóbecause they haven't met the man with whom they would have wished to share their lives. With the exception of those who were promised to God by their parents, most of them, in fact, are women cheated by life.

In woman, jealousy is a defensive reaction. It surely has an ancestral origin, and must go back to the time when woman simply couldnít do without the protection of a man. First of all, itís the reaction of a pregnant woman, who as such has all the more need of protection. She feels so weak in those circumstances, so timidófor herself and for the child sheís carrying. And this child itself, how many years will it take to gain its independence! Without the protection of a man, woman would feel exposed to all perils. So itís natural that she should be quite particularly attached to the hero, to the man who gives her the most security. Once this security is obtained, itís comprehensible that she should bitterly defend her propertyóhence the origin of jealousy.

These people are shocked at the idea that a Turk may have four legitimate wives, but they admit that the Prussian Princes had forth, and often more, mistresses in the course of their lives. Such hypocrisy drives me to fury. The Prussian Prince, as he gets bored with his successive mistresses, can pack them off like bits of refuse of no importance, and we have here among us blackguards who regard them as men of honour. And these same renegades heap sarcasm on the honest German citizen who, with complete disregard of caste, marries the girl by whom he has had a child! It is these hypocrites who are responsible for mass abortions and for the existence of all those healthy women deprived of a man, simply as a result of reigning prejudice. Is there a more lovely consecration of love, pray, than the birth of a handsome babe, glowing with health? Although it is obvious to the eyes of any reasonable person that nature blesses the love of two beings by giving them a child, these sinister degenerates claim, if you please, that the status of a man or a woman depends on a sealed document given by the Stateóas if that were of any importance in comparison with the ties which unite two people in love!

A people submits thus voluntarily to authority primarily because its instincts are of a feminine rather than a dominant nature. In the married state, a woman will sometimes perhaps reconnoitre a bit, to see whether she could impose her will, but deep within her, she has no desire at all to wear the trousers. Itís the same thing with the people.

In short, the people expect not only that their leaders should govern them, but also that they should look after them. For the same reason the officer wielding the greatest authority is he who succeeds in deserving the confidence of his men by paying attention to their well-being. Let him but fuss about their food, their sleeping-quarters and their little family worries, and his men will go through fire for him, even though in other respects, he may be an exceptionally severe and hard taskmaster.

Man is inspired by a similar feeling towards the woman he loves, but the realm of feminine jealousy is infinitely vaster. A mother is jealous of her daughter-in-law, a sister of her sister-in-law.

Man's universe is vast compared with that of woman. Man is taken up with his ideas, his preoccupations. Itís only incidental if he devotes all his thoughts to a woman. Womanís universe, on the other hand, is man. She sees nothing else, so to speak, and thatís why sheís capable of loving so deeply.

Intelligence, in a woman, is not an essential thing. My mother, for example, would have cut a poor figure in the society of our cultivated women. She lived strictly for her husband and children. They were her entire universe. But she gave a son to Germany. Marriages that originate only in sensual infatuation are usually somewhat shaky. Such bonds are easily untied. Separations are particularly painful when there has been a genuine comradeship between man and wife.

I have no sympathy whatever for the man who maltreats his wife, and who subjects her either to moral torture or material burdens.

What I like best is to dine with a pretty woman.

To convince women by reasoned argument is always impossible;

Numerous examples taken from history prove that womanóhowever intelligent she may beóis not capable of disassociating reason from feeling, in matters of a political nature. And the formidable thing in this field is the hatred of which women are capable.

It is the same technique as that employed by sophisticated women, who at first exude charm in order to gain a manís confidence, and then gradually tighten the strings, until they hold them so firmly that the man dances like a puppet to their whims.

That it is they who rule the roost, and this in spite of the nose-ring on which they are so obviously being led!Gauleiter Forster said that the cafÈs in Danzig were literally packed in the afternoons. As they had observed that there were a large number of women, heavily made-up and apparently with nothing to do, the police had asked Forsterís permission to take these cafÈs under control. He himself was disinclined to give his permission.

if you keep all the somewhat flighty women out of the cafÈs, the first people to suffer in consequence will be the lads on leave from the front.

Intelligence, in a woman, is not an essential thing. My mother, for example, would have cut a poor figure in the society of our cultivated women. She lived strictly for her husband and children. They were her entire universe. But she gave a son to Germany. Marriages that originate only in sensual infatuation are usually somewhat shaky. Such bonds are easily untied. Separations are particularly painful when there has been a genuine comradeship between man and wife.

Chapter 4: Racism, Eugenics & Human Nature, by Adolf Hitler