CHAPTER I
MY HOME IT stands me in good stead to-day that Fate decided that Braunau on the Inn should be my birthplace. That little town lies on the frontier between the two German States, the re-union of which we younger ones regard as a work worthy of accomplishment by all the means in our power.
German-Austria will have to return to the great German Motherland, but not for economic reasons. No, no ! Even if re-union, looked at from that point of view, were a matter of indifference—nay, even if it were actually injurious—it would still have to come.
Common blood should belong to a common Reich. The German people have no right to dabble in a colonial policy as long as they are unable to gather their own sons into a common State. Not till the confines of the Reich include every single German, and are certain of being able to nourish him, can there be a moral right for Germany to acquire territory abroad whilst her people are in need. Thus it comes about that the little frontier town is to me the symbol of a great enterprise.
Are we not the same as all other Germans ? Do we not all belong together ?
This problem began to seethe in my childish brain. In answer to my shy questions, I was obliged with secret envy to accept the fact that all Germans were not so fortunate as to be members of Bismarck’s Empire.
B 1.7 I did not want to become an official. Neither “talking to” nor “serious” argument made any dif¬ ference to my reluctance. I did not