Toast to the Chancellor of the Reich Adolf Hitler
By Benito Mussolini
Excellency!
The cordial words of greeting which Your Excellency was so kind as to address to me have deeply touched me.
Since I have been on German soil I have felt everywhere around me the spiritual atmosphere of a great, friendly people, of brown-shirted Germany, of Hitler's Germany.
I salute in the Führer and Chancellor of the Reich the warrior who has restored to the German people the consciousness of their greatness. I greet in him the Re-creator of the Nation with which Fascist Italy is linked by so many ties of spirit and of work.
The Fascist revolution and the National Socialist revolution were and are creative revolutions. Germany and Italy have created on their soil great works of civilization and progress. New and equally great works will rise in the future. During my stay in Germany I have seen and admired such works of civilization and progress. I saw and admired the will to live and create which inspires the German people; their discipline, their energy, their faith.
Italo-German solidarity is a living and active solidarity: it is not a result of political calculations or diplomatic subtleties but the expression and result of natural affinities and common interests. It is not and does not aspire to be an exclusive bloc distrustfully and fearfully shutting out the rest of the world. Italy and Germany are ready to collaborate with all other nations of good will. What they demand is respect and understanding for their needs, their necessities, and their legitimate claims. As the sole condition for their friendship they demand only that no attempt is made to disturb the very foundations of our glorious European civilization.
The conversations which I have had with your Excellency in the last few days have strengthened our friendship and made it immune from any attempt to disturb or divide it from whichever side it may come.
When I return to Italy I shall take with me the memory of your powerful troops, of your popular demonstrations, of the spiritual and technical reconstruction which the German people has accomplished under your leadership; the recollection of your energy, and of the reception you have prepared for me, for which I am most deeply grateful to you. But, above all, I take with me—in my heart—the certain consciousness of our unbreakable friendship.
I raise my glass to the health of the Führer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler, and to the prosperity and greatness of National Socialist Germany.
At the end of the meal, Adolf Hitler addresses the following toast to Mussolini:
Excellency!
As Führer and Chancellor of the German people, today it is an honor to me and my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to Your Excellency in the Capital of the Reich.
The German nation joins me in this solemn hour to salute you as the brilliant creator of Fascist Italy, the founder of a new empire. On your journey through Germany, Your Excellency will have concluded from the great enthusiasm with which all the classes of the German people greeted you that your visit means more to us than a mere diplomatic event and therefore this is not a purely conventional meeting.
In an age in which the world is full of tensions and uneasy confusion, and in which the most dangerous elements are attempting to attack and destroy the ancient culture of Europe, Italy and Germany have united in sincere friendship and mutual political collaboration.
This collaboration is supported not only by the same indestructible will for life and self-assertion common to the Italian and the German peoples, but, moreover, by strongly affiliated political ideals as well, which in our conviction constitute a foundation for the internal strength and solidity of our States.
The fact that these common fundamental political views act as a strong bond linking our two peoples is further complemented by the fact that, as regards the real vital interests of Italy and Germany, there are no elements dividing the two, but only elements which supplement and join it together in union. The conversations Your Excellency and I have had these past days have served to verify this anew.
We are convinced, therefore, that our political work of safeguarding the peace and the flourishing of European culture cannot be interpreted as the formation of a bloc directed against other European states. On the contrary: we are convinced that, by virtue of our joint efforts, we are best serving the interests of our two countries and, furthermore, the goal so close to our hearts: that of a general international understanding.
It is in this spirit that Italy and Germany, side by side, will examine and conduct their political tasks, in order to thereby counter any and all attempts to divide these two nations or to play them off against each other.
I raise my glass and drink to the health of His Majesty, the King of Italy and Emperor of Ethiopia, your esteemed sovereign, as well as to the personal well-being of Your Excellency, and to the greatness and prosperity of the Italian Fascist Nation.
