Whenever I spoke, it was important to get a clear idea beforehand of the probable form and character of the arguments we had to expect during the discussion, and then to tear them to pieces in my own opening speech ; the thing was to mention all the possible arguments contra at once and prove their hollowness.
This was the reason why, after my first lecture on the Versailles Peace Treaty which I delivered to the troops in my capacity as lecturer to them, I made an alteration and now spoke on the “Peace Treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Versailles”. For I quickly ascer¬ tained in the discussion following my first lecture that the men really knew nothing whatever about the BrestLitovsk Treaty, but that it was due to the successful propaganda of their parties that they imagined that Treaty as one of the most shameful acts of oppression in the world. The persistency with which this lie was put before the public was the cause why millions of Germans regarded the Versailles Treaty as nothing more than a just retribution for the crime we committed at Brest-Litovsk ! And therefore they considered any real struggle against Versailles would be wrong, and in many cases there was genuine moral dislike of such a proceeding. And that was the reason why the shame¬ less and monstrous word “Reparations” was able to find a home in Germany. In my lectures I put the two Peace Treaties together, compared them point by point and demonstrated how truly and immensely humane the one was in contradistinction to the inhuman cruelty of the other ; the result was most remarkable. Once more a great lie was expunged from the hearts and brains of audiences amounting to thousands, and a truth was planted in place of it.
These meetings brought profit to me in that I slowly became an orator at mass-meetings and that the pathos and gesture, acquired in large halls holding a thousand people, became a matter of second nature to me.
Our first meetings were distinguished by the fact that there were tables covered with leaflets, papers and pamphlets of every kind. But we relied