I had repeatedly made written requests to the Fuehrer that I might be allowed to join the Wehrmacht as an ordinary soldier. He refused to give me this permission.

As I, as a worker, came to know them, the aims of German trade unions were political, and there were a number of various trade unions with varied political views.

Although as a sailor I despised politics - for I loved my sailor's life and still love it today - conditions forced me to take up a definite attitude towards political problems.

One day I heard a speech of Hitler. In this speech he said that the German factory worker and the German labourer must make common cause with the German intellectual worker.

What would you do if your country's welfare depended on labor? When a ship is in a storm it requires one captain.

The controversies between the proletariat and the middle class had to be smoothed out and bridged over by each getting to know and understand the other.

I attended the elementary school at Schweinfurt and the secondary school.