“By not doing so—at least until the final assertion, and victory of the Party—he [Schacht] was able to assist it [the Party] much better than he would have been able to do had he become an official Party member.” (EC-460)
On 30 January 1937, Hitler bestowed the Golden Party Badge upon Schacht, in recognition of his “special services to Party and State.” Schacht accepted this hallmark of approval by the Fuehrer with effusive thanks and a pledge of continued support. In his speech of acceptance, Schacht stated:
“The presentation of the Golden Badge of the Movement is the highest honor the Third Reich has to offer. In honoring me as the head of the Reichsbank and the Reich and Prussian Ministry of Economics, it honors at the same time the two agencies which I am directing as well as the work of all those officials, employees and workers functioning in these two agencies.”
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“I thank all my colleagues among the ranks of officials, employees, and workers for their faithfulness in the performance of their work, and appeal to all of them further to devote, with all their hearts, their entire strength to the Fuehrer and the Reich. The German future lies in the hands of our Fuehrer.” (EC-500)
The depths of adulation were reached in a speech which Schacht delivered on the occasion of Hitler’s 48th birthday in April 1937. Schacht spoke as one of Hitler’s “closest collaborators,” who had seen at first hand the difficulties which beset the Fuehrer in the relentless march toward his goals. In his speech, Schacht stated:
“With the limitless passion of a burning heart and the infallible instinct of the born statesman, Adolf Hitler has won for himself the soul of the German people in a battle fought for 14 years with unswerving consequence.”
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“Only the closest collaborators of the Fuehrer know how difficult is the burden of this responsibility; how sorrowful are the hours during which decisions must be made which bear upon the well being and the fate of all of Germany.” (EC-501)
In November 1938, at a time Schacht now asserts he was plotting against Hitler, he stated in a speech: