Mein Kampf
So long as it is not touched, the work of art can still pretend existence; but the moment it receives a jar, it falls into a thousand fragments. The only question was when the jolt would come.
Since my heart had never beat for an Austrian Monarchy, but only for a German Reich, the moment of the State’s collapse could but seem to me the beginning of the salvation of the German nation.
For all these reasons my longing grew ever stronger to go at last where my secret wishes and secret love had been pulling me since early youth.
I hoped some day to make a name as an architect, and so, on the large or small scale which Fate might assign me, to devote my honest labors to the nation.
And lastly I wanted to enjoy the happiness of being and working at the place whence the most burning wish of my heart must some day be fulfilled: Union of my beloved homeland with its common Fatherland, the German Empire.
Many people even today will not be able to realize the greatness of my longing; but I address myself to those whom Fate has either thus far denied this happiness, or with harsh cruelty has deprived of it; I addressed myself to all those who, separated from the mother country, must fight for even the sacred possession of language, who are pursued and tormented for their faithfulness to the Fatherland, and who long in anguished emotion for the moment that will bring them back to the heart of the beloved Mother; to all these I address myself, and I know they will understand me!
Only those who know by bitter experience what it means to be a German without the privilege of belonging to the dear Fatherland can measure the deep longing which always burns in the heart of the children parted from the mother country. It torments its victims, and denies them happiness and contentment until the doors of the paternal house shall open, and common blood shall find rest and peace in a common realm.
Vienna was and remained the hardest, if also the most thor-
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