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Friedrich Kellner Quotes

August Friedrich Kellner was a mid-level official in Germany who worked as a justice inspector in Mainz and Laubach. During the First World War, Kellner was an infantryman in a Hessian regiment. After the war he became a political organizer for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which was the leading political party during the time of the turbulent and short-lived Weimar Republic, Germany's first period of democracy. Kellner and his wife, Pauline, campaigned together as Social Democrats against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. During World War II, working as a civil servant at a small court house, he wrote a diary to record his observations of the Nazi regime. Based on conversations and attentive reading of newspapers, he described the various crimes of that regime. He titled his work Mein Widerstand, meaning "My Opposition". After the war Kellner served on denazification boards, and he also helped to reestablish the Social Democratic Party. He gave his diary to his American grandson in 1968 to translate into English and to bring it to the attention of the public. In the epilogue, the author's grandson Robert Scott Kellner tells how the diary came to be published: German publishers were not interested until in 2005 it was reported in Der Spiegel that former US President George H. W. Bush had looked at Kellner's original notebooks in the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University. He explained his purpose for writing the diary:



"I could not fight the Nazis in the present, as they had the power to still my voice, so I decided to fight them in the future. I would give the coming generations a weapon against any resurgence of such evil. My eyewitness account would record the barbarous acts, and also show the way to stop them."The diary was published in its original language in 2011 and in English in 2018. Wikipedia  

✵ 1. February 1885 – 4. November 1970
Friedrich Kellner photo
Friedrich Kellner: 21   quotes 0   likes

Famous Friedrich Kellner Quotes

“Now the following questions must be raised: Have we become happier since occupying these other countries? Has the individual German gained anything from such conquests? Will we not get into trouble with another powerful nation at some point--if not tomorrow, then the day after? Making ourselves bigger will not diminish potential conflicts of interest.”

Friedrich Kellner

October 7, 1940; Vol. 1, p. 92.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“Why only hate? Where does love remain? Or at least a little decency toward other people? We think we can behave against everyone in the exact same rabid way we did against the Jews: to smash, crush--and even exterminate.”

Friedrich Kellner

March 30, 1940; Vol. 1, p. 62.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“The world will rightfully be outraged over so much inhumanity, and it will ignite a hatred that can never be extinguished.... How long will this reign of terror continue?”

Friedrich Kellner

October 26, 1941; Vol. 1, p. 191.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“I could not fight the Nazis in the present, as they had the power to still my voice, so I decided to fight them in the future.”

Friedrich Kellner

“Ich entschloss mich, die Nazis in der Zukunft zu bekämpfen,” Giessener Anzeiger, Giessen, Germany, April 6, 2005.
Attributed

“If now, after the collapse, any of these lackeys of Adolf Hitler has the insolence to want to be considered as a harmless onlooker, then one can only wish he immediately feels the scourge of avenging mankind.... Whoever cries about having lost the totalitarian system or wants to resurrect National Socialism is to be treated as an incorrigible lunatic.”

Friedrich Kellner

May 8, 1945; Vol. 2, p. 935.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“Spineless politics do not change the mind of a tyrant.”

Friedrich Kellner

May 29, 1940; Vol. 1, p. 73.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

Friedrich Kellner Quotes about people

“To trample democracy with one’s feet and give power to a single man over almost eighty million people is so terrible that one can really tremble over the things that will come.”

Friedrich Kellner

September 17, 1939; Vol. 1, p. 26.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“When dictators enslave their own people and seek to impose their anti-democratic ideology upon others, when evil seeks power, men and women of good will must set aside their own differences of opinion and stand together and fight – including those who hate war.”

Friedrich Kellner

“German’s war diary goes public,” Washington Times, UPI News, March 25, 2005.
Attributed

“My main goal after the war was to help rebuild the Social Democratic Party that Hitler had banned, and use it to reunite the people of Germany who had forgotten how a democracy worked – through tolerance, compromise and a dedication to individual freedom.”

Friedrich Kellner

“Search led to family, diary and a cause,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), April 22, 2007.
Attributed

“The Party uses the lies up to the last moment as a cover-up. Thus it intimidates the political opponents and provides its Party comrades with sedatives. It is so unbelievably simple for the current gang to lie to this German people and to lead these fools around by the nose.”

Friedrich Kellner

March 26, 1945; Vol. 2, p. 920.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“There is no punishment that would be hard enough to be applied to these Nazi beasts. Of course, in the case of retribution the innocent will have to suffer along with them. Ninety-nine percent of the German people, directly or indirectly, carry the guilt for the present situation. Therefore we can only say this: Those who travel together, hang together.”

Friedrich Kellner

October 28, 1941; Vol. 1, p. 192.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“The craziest of all political systems, the unique leader state, has found its deserved end. History will note for eternity that the German people were not able on their own initiative to shake off the yoke of the National Socialists. The victory of the Americans, English, and Russians was a necessary occurrence to destroy the National Socialists' delusions and plans for world domination.”

Friedrich Kellner

May 1, 1945; Vol. 2, p. 930.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

Friedrich Kellner Quotes

“Terror is trump. Methods of common brutal suppression are considered sanctified laws. "Old Fighters" are saints, and from the district leader upwards there are only Gods!”

Friedrich Kellner

October 7, 1939; Vol. 1, p. 30.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

God , Law

“The carnage will eventually come to an end, but the Western powers will carry the historical guilt for not promptly providing the most intensive preventative measures against Germany's incessant attack-politics. Possibilities existed, but no actions were taken.”

Friedrich Kellner

May 29, 1940; Vol. 1, p. 73.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“Gutenberg, your printing press has been violated by this evil book!”

Friedrich Kellner

Referring to Mein Kampf, in Kellner's political speeches against the Nazis, 1926 - 1932. “Tagebücher gegen den Terror,” Mainz Allgemeine Zeitung, Mainz, Germany, September 24, 2005.
Attributed

Books , Evil

“This "Conqueror of Berlin," as he [Joseph Goebbels] has named himself, has completely conquered Germany. And not only that: many Germans living abroad--all too many of them, unfortunately--have fallen for the cunning propaganda.”

Friedrich Kellner

October 14, 1939; Vol. 1, p. 40.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“We can hold up under everything if only we have the certainty the monster Hitler with his insatiable bloodletting and plundering will have committed soon his last shameful deed.”

Friedrich Kellner

March 28, 1945; Vol. 2, p. 922.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

“Every person has the choice between Good and Evil. Choose Good, and stand against those who would choose Evil.”

Friedrich Kellner

“Welt muss mehr denn je diese Botschaft hören,” Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung, Giessen, Germany, April 12, 2005.
Attributed

Evil , Personality

“Under the category, "Air Force aided by Hitler youth," the children wear military uniforms and become used to handling the artillery. Fifteen- and sixteen-year-old children as warriors! If the war still continues to last for a long time, perhaps infants also will be used. Total war!”

Friedrich Kellner

December 14, 1943; Vol. 1, p. 580.
Diary (1939 - 1945)

War , Children , Youth , Time

“Even in days of loss and sorry, beauty remains, and I am ever grateful.”

Friedrich Kellner

July 1968, of the Lennebergwald (Lenneberg Forest), Mainz, Germany.
Attributed

Loss , Beauty

“Thank God for youth; there will always be love.”

Friedrich Kellner

Attributed
Source: July 1968, referring to the Lennebergwald (Lenneberg Forest) and youthful hikers, Mainz, Germany.

God , Youth , Love

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