"Our thoughts fly therefore by themselves in this festive hour of our plant community, to the man whom we thank for the ressurection of our Nation: Adolf Hitler, the patron of German labour and German art"
About this Quote
A toast disguised as civic gratitude, this line is really a corporate pledge of allegiance. Krupp frames the moment as spontaneous emotion - "Our thoughts fly therefore by themselves" - a classic rhetorical laundering: nobody is choosing complicity, it just happens, naturally, in the warm glow of a "festive hour". That cozy language matters. It domesticates politics into company culture, turning a factory community into a moral community, where loyalty feels like belonging.
The phrase "plant community" is especially chilling. It collapses workers, managers, and industrial output into a single organism, a harmonious body that conveniently has no room for dissent. In that body, Hitler appears not as a politician with policies, but as a quasi-messianic force: "the resurrection of our Nation". The religious register performs a reset. "Resurrection" implies Germany's prior suffering, absolves the present violence as necessary renewal, and invites gratitude instead of scrutiny.
Calling Hitler "the patron of German labour and German art" is strategic flattery aimed at two constituencies that industry needed to manage: the workforce and the cultural elite. "Labour" is invoked as protection while Nazi labor policy dismantled independent unions; "art" is invoked as elevation while Nazi cultural policy purged "degenerate" work. Krupp isn't naïve. As an industrialist at the center of German heavy industry, he is speaking from a world where the regime's rearmament and coercive social control promised stability, profits, and a disciplined labor force. The intent is to fuse economic power with political power, and to make that fusion sound like a heartfelt toast.
The phrase "plant community" is especially chilling. It collapses workers, managers, and industrial output into a single organism, a harmonious body that conveniently has no room for dissent. In that body, Hitler appears not as a politician with policies, but as a quasi-messianic force: "the resurrection of our Nation". The religious register performs a reset. "Resurrection" implies Germany's prior suffering, absolves the present violence as necessary renewal, and invites gratitude instead of scrutiny.
Calling Hitler "the patron of German labour and German art" is strategic flattery aimed at two constituencies that industry needed to manage: the workforce and the cultural elite. "Labour" is invoked as protection while Nazi labor policy dismantled independent unions; "art" is invoked as elevation while Nazi cultural policy purged "degenerate" work. Krupp isn't naïve. As an industrialist at the center of German heavy industry, he is speaking from a world where the regime's rearmament and coercive social control promised stability, profits, and a disciplined labor force. The intent is to fuse economic power with political power, and to make that fusion sound like a heartfelt toast.
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
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