Mein Kampf
This raised a question of fundamental importance for the movement. In order to destroy the Parliament, should they go into Parliament, to “bore from within,” as they used to say, or should they attack the institution as such from outside?
They went in, and came out beaten. True, they did have to go in. To fight such a power from outside means to arm oneself with unshakable courage, and to be ready for infinite sacrifice. In so doing we seize the bull by the horns. We take many a shrewd blow, are often knocked down, perhaps to arise only with shattered limbs; only after supreme struggle will victory rest with the bold attacker. Only the magnitude of the sacrifices can gain new fighters for the cause, until at last doggedness is rewarded with success.
But for that purpose we need the children of the people from out of the great masses. They alone are determined and tenacious enough to fight the battle through to the bloody end.
These great masses the Pan-German movement did not control; there was no choice, therefore, but to go into Parliament.
It would be a mistake to think their decision a result of long-continued spiritual torment, or even reflection; no, they had never thought of anything else. Participation in this nonsense was but the concrete result of generally vague ideas concerning the importance and meaning and effect of taking part in an institution which they recognized as wrong in principle. In general, they probably hoped it would be easier to enlighten the broad masses of the people by grasping the opportunity to speak before a “forum of the whole nation.” Also it seemed obvious that an attack at the root of the evil must be more successful than assault from without. They believed the screen of parliamentary immunity would add to the safety of the individual fighter, so that the force of the attack could not but be increased.
In reality the course of events was quite different. The forum before which the Pan-German deputies spoke had become not greater but smaller, for no one can speak out further than to the circle which can hear him, or to the circle which receives in the papers a report of what he has said. The greatest direct forum of
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