and with whom I could thoroughly discuss the situation of the moment. We were all more or less convinced that Germany could not be saved from the collapse, which was becoming more and more imminent, by the perpetrators of the crime of November, the Centre and Social Democratic Parties—also that the so-called “Bourgeois-national” groups could, with the best will in the world, never be capable of repairing the damage which had been done.
This formation of a new Party was discussed in our small circle. The ground principles, which we con¬ templated, were the same which were realized later on in the German Workers’ Party. The title of the new Movement was to point from the start to the possibility of penetrating the mass of the people ; for, if it lacked this quality, the whole work seemed pointless and super¬ fluous. So we decided to call it the “Social Revolu¬ tionary Party”—because the social ideas of the new foundation did really involve a revolution.
There was, moreover, an even deeper reason. All the attention I had devoted earlier in my life to economic problems had always left me more or less on the edge of the ideas arising out of my consideration of social problems. It was not until later that I widened these boundaries as a result of my consideration of Germany’s policy of alliances. The latter was very largely the result of a false estimate of economics, and vagueness as to the principles on which the German nation was to be provided with food in the future. These ideas were based on the assumption that in all cases capital was merely an outcome of labour, and moreover was, like labour itself, the basis for correcting all the factors which can either further or restrict human activity. This, then, was the national significance of capital— that it depended so entirely on the greatness, freedom and power of the State, i.e., the nation, that the union of the two by itself was bound to lead to the State and the nation being helped forward by capital, by the simple method of maintaining and increasing itself. This dependent connection of capital with the free, independent State obliged the latter to aim at making the nation free and powerful.