HITLER’S JIBE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 21 January 1939, Page 18

HITLER’S JIBE

PROTESTANT CHURCH

CATHEDRAL IN BERLIN ACCOMMODATION MOCKED LONDON, 15th December. Herr Hitler was introduced by the Nazi leader of Bavaria, Herr Adolf Wagner, as “the architect of our great German Fatherland,” when he opened the second exhibition of German architecture in the House of German Art at Munich, says the correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” in that city. Commenting on the models of Nazi architecture, including the new Government buildings, barracks, Hitler Youth halls, and also the great new motor roads, Herr Hitler stressed the political importance of the exhibition. “The people must see what is being built and how it is done,” he said. “We hope that thereby the eyes of the people will be trained to see what infinite diligence and what boundless work is put into these buildings. “Then the people will stand reverently and with devotion before these monumental accomplishments of the community.” LESSON FOR ARCHITECTS The exhibition was also intended to show young German architects what style of architecture was required from them, and to teach potential builders how to order and plan their projects in the Nazi style. Her Hitler reassured troubled contractors that the many hundreds of thousands of workmen who had been called away to build fortifications in Western Gei-many would some time return to their civilian building work. “Let us never forget that we arc building for the future, not for the present day,” he continued. “We must build a house for our people as large as present-day technical ability permits and we must build for eternity. “We must build more now than ever before, since before we came they either did not build at all or built miserably and badly. GREAT RENAISSANCE PERIOD “We find ourselves in a great renaissance period of the German nation. Such an era has not only the right, but also the duty, to immortalise itself in such works. “If someone asks why we are building more than in the past, I can only answer because there are more of us than there used to be. The German Reich deserves to have monuments erected to it that some time will speak when humanity should keep silent.” In a mocking tone. Herr Hitler criticised the Protestant Church for its inability to keep pace with the Nazi building programme. “The Protestants have built a cathedral in Berlin for the 3,500,000 Protestants living in the capital,” he said. “Tliis cathedral contains 2450 seats, numbered for the most prominent Protestant families in the Reich. “This cathedral was built in the period of so-called democratic development, and the church itself should be the most democratic of all. CHARGE OF PETTY MENTALITY “It is difficult to comprehend how the spiritual needs of 3,500,000 persons can be administered in such a central church with 2450 seats. The dimensions of this house are the result of building mentalitly that is just as petty as it is thoughtless. “In reality, the cathedral should be built to hold 100,000. Of course I shall ; be asked: “Do you believe that 100.000 persons will enter such a cathedral? The answer is not my business, but that of the Church.”