Chapter 3

37. Since the great German Renaissance of the new humanism, the Hellenic has become the truly German.... As the Peloponnesian War divided the States of Hellas into two camps, so this war has divided the States of Europe. But this time it will be Athens and her spiritual power that will conquer.--PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 40.

38. After the conclusive victories for which we may confidently hope ... the whole habitable earth will far more than hitherto bend its gaze upon us, to marvel at (_anzustaunen_) our standard-setting [artistic] achievements.--G.E. PAZAUREK, P.K.U.K., p. 23.

39. A theory of the origin of species remained in England a series of isolated observations, which pointed to certain conjectures; in Germany it was transformed with resolute daring into an all-embracing whole. PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 33.

40. Never have ye seen a strong people and Empire in whiter garments of peace. We offered you palm branches, we offered you justice, ye offered us envy and hate.--J. HORT, quoted in H.A.H., p. 51.

41. Take heed that ye be counted among the blessed, who show declining England, depraved Belgium, licentious France, uncouth Russia, the unconquerable youthful power and manhood of the German people, in a manner never to be forgotten.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 131.

42. We may be sure that our French adversaries, when at Metz and St. Quentin our hosts hurled themselves upon them, saw above us in the clouds the Germans of 1870, and even the Prussians of 1813, once more swooping down upon them, and shuddered at the spectacle. And, in spite of all the boasting of Sir John [Bull], our cousins from beyond the sea must long ago have recognized that it is better to fight _with_ Prussians against the French, than _vice versa_.--PROF. G. ROETHE, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 29.

43. He who, in these days, sets forth to defend the German hearth, sets forth in a holy fight ... in which one stakes life itself, this single, sweet, beloved life, for the life of a whole nation, a nation which is God's seed-corn for the future.--"On the German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 78.

44. Our enemies are fighting us in order to restore to the world the freedom, the Kultur, which we threaten. What monstrous mendacity! Reproduce if you can the German national school teacher, the German upper-master, the German university professor! You have lagged far behind us, you are hopelessly inferior! Hence your chagrin, your envy, your fear! Powerless to rival us, you foam with hate and rage, you make unblushing calumny your weapon, and would like to exterminate us, to wipe us off the face of the earth, in order to free yourselves from your burden of shame.--PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 38.

45. We take refuge in our quite peculiar idealism, and dream--alas, aloud!--of our ideal mission for the saving (_Heil_) of mankind. Foreign countries turn away enraged from such unheard-of self-glorification and are quite certain that, behind the high-sounding words, the arrogance of "Prussian militarism" is concealed.--H. v. WOLZOGEN, G.Z.K., p. 64.

46. The future must lead France once again to our side, we will heal it of its aberrations, and, in brotherly subordination to us, it may share with us the task of guiding the fate of the world.... As we feel ourselves free from hatred toward the kindred Kultur-people of France, we have taken up the gauntlet with Teutonic pride, and we will use our weapons so that the admiration of the world, and of our enemies themselves, shall be accorded to us.--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 26.

47. When we were attacked, our German wrath awakened, and when we could not but recognize in the attack a long-plotted treason against our love of peace, our wrath became fierce and wild. Then, no doubt, some of us spoke, in our first excitement, of hatred; but this was a misinterpretation of our feeling. Seeing ourselves hated, we imagined that hate must be answered with hate; but our German spirit (_Gemuet_) was incapable of that passion. Lienhard rightly ... deplores the form of the popular Hymn of Hate against England, which, characteristically enough, proceeds from a poet of Jewish race.--H. v. WOLZOGEN, G.Z.K., p. 68.

48. Under the protection of the greatest of armies, we have laboured at scientific, social, and economic progress; our enemies trusted to the rule of force and to chatter.--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 44.

49. Work as untiringly as we, think with as much energy, and we will welcome you as equals at our side.... Imitate us and we will honour you. Seek to constrain us by war, and we will thrash you to annihilation, and despise you as a robber pack.--PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 38.

=The Gentle German.=

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

50. The German Army (in which I of course include the Navy) is to-day the greatest institute for moral education in the world.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 78.

51. It is true that the breast of every soldier swelled with a noble pride at the thought that he was privileged to wear the German uniform, which history has made a garb of honour above all others; but as for arrogance, not one of them, thank God, was capable of the stupidity which alone can engender it.--K. ENGELBRECHT, D.D.D.K., p. 32.

52. From all sides testimonies are flowing in as to the noble manner in which our troops conduct the war.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 124.

52a. We thank our German Army that it has kept spotless the shield of humanity and chivalry. It is true we believe that every bone of a German soldier, with his heroic heart and immortal soul, is worth more than a cathedral.--PROF. W. KAHL, D.R.S.Z., No. 6, p. 5.

52b. We see everywhere how our soldiers respect the sacred defencelessness of woman and child.--PROF. G. ROETHE, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 23.

52c. The German soldiers alone are thoroughly disciplined, and have never so much as hurt a hair of a single innocent human being.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 69.

53. The depth of the German spirit displays itself also in _respect for morality and discipline_.... How often, in these days, has the German soldier been subjected to the temptation to treat the inhabitants of foreign countries with violence and brutality. But everywhere he has obeyed the law, and shown that even in war he knows how to distinguish between the enemy to be crushed and defenceless women and children. The officials and clergy of conquered territory have frequently borne express testimony to this fact.--PASTOR M. HENNIG, D.K.U.W., p. 57.

54. The losses we suffer are--even if the losses of the enemy were ten times more numerous--infinitely greater in value and infinitely more painful.--PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 8.

54a. One single highly cultured German warrior, of those who are, alas! falling in thousands, represents a higher intellectual and moral life-value than hundreds of the raw children of nature (_Naturmenschen_) whom England and France, Russia and Italy, oppose to them.--PROF. E. HAECKEL, E.W., p. 36.

54b. When one of our ships has to sink, its going-down is even more glorious than a victory.--PROF. U. v. WILAMOWITZ-MOeLLENDORF, R., pt. iii., p. 48.

55. Where German soldiers had to seize the incendiary torch, or even to proceed to the slaughter of citizens, it was only in pursuance of the rights of war, and for protection in real need. Had they obeyed the dictates of their hearts, they would rather have shared their soup and bread with the defenceless foe.... This spirit of humanity we will preserve and cherish to the end.--PROF. W. KAHL, D.R.S.Z., No. 6, p. 5.

56. Lastly, we must not forget the German humour.... It sometimes proceeds from a firm faith in God, sometimes from a cheerful optimism, always from a serenity of spirit which nothing can disturb. Thus German soldiers out in the field, the moment there is a pause in the fighting, set about trying to ride on the camel which they have taken from the Zouaves.... So, too, a non-commissioned officer, during a fight, admonishes a soldier: "Shoot quietly, Kowalski, shoot quietly! You'll frighten away the whole French Army of the North with your confounded banging!"--PASTOR M. HENNIG, D.K.U.W., p. 59.

57. Apart from the fighting quality of these troops, their peaceful work behind all the fronts bears witness to a thorough spiritual culture (_Bildung_) and a living organization such as the world has never seen, and this again indicates an average level of culture in all grades--of spiritual development and moral responsibility--to which no people in the world can show anything in the smallest degree comparable.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 19.

58. Even when, for once, a Latin writer is favourably disposed towards Germany ... he can see in what moves his admiration nothing but animal vitality. "This terrible Germany," he says, "like a wonderful beast of the jungle, springs upon all its foes and fixes its fangs in them." How sadly he here misinterprets the nature of German heroism!--G. MISCH, V.G.D.K., p. 9.

59. It is characteristic that our cruiser _Wilhelm der Grosse_, in order to spare the women and children on board, let an English merchant ship pass unharmed,[9] which by International Law it has the right to sink ... and then come Messieurs the English and repay this act of magnanimity by sinking the same cruiser in a neutral harbour, contrary to all International Law.--PROF. G. ROETHE, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 23.

60. The absence of any sort of animosity towards other people is a striking characteristic of the Germans--and of the Germans alone.[10]--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 12.

_See also No. 497._

=The Great Misunderstood.=

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

61. It has been said that it is un-German to wish to be only German. That again is a consequence of our spiritual wealth. We understand all foreign nations; none of them understands us, and none of them can understand us.--PROF. W. SOMBART, H.U.H., p. 135.

62. The historian and economist Sombart has said: "We understand all foreign nations, no foreign nation understands or can understand us." In these words he rejects all community of Kultur with other peoples, and especially the so-called "Western European Ideas."--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 124.

63. In the world of the spirit, the victory of German thought seemed already almost decided. For it was able to comprehend the others, but they could not comprehend it.--G. MISCH, V.G.D.K., p. 19.

64. We are still the most wide-hearted and receptive of people, a people that cannot live if it does not make its own the spiritual values of the other peoples. We can already say that we know the outer world better than they know us.--PROF. F. MEINECKE, D.D.E., p. 35.

65. Whole-hearted understanding for another people can be fully attained only by treason to one's own nature, to one's own national personality. That is what makes the renegade so hateful, and those unpatriotic half-men, the intellectuals and aesthetes.--PROF. M. V. GRUBER, D.R.S.Z., No. 30, p. 14.

66. The German is docile and eager to learn. His interest embraces everything, and most of all what is foreign. He is disposed to admire everything foreign and to underrate what is his own. With foreigners it is just the other way. We Germans know about them, but they know absolutely nothing about us.--PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 34.

67. Apart from what Professor Larsen has said in Denmark, and Dr. Gino Bertolini in Italy, about German militarism ... we may designate as nonsense everything that foreigners, in low or in high estate, have recently said on this subject. This is a new proof of the fact that foreigners cannot understand us, apart from a few outstanding personalities whom a kind fate has borne aloft to the heights of the German spirit.--PROF. W. SOMBART, H.U.H., p. 82.

_See also Nos. 136-145._

=Kultur.=

(BEFORE THE WAR.)

68. The _Kultur_ of the Germans [_Germanen_] is actually the stimulus to our present European _Civilization_ with which we are conquering the world.--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 31.

69. Germanism, when it rightly understands itself, and remains true to its nature, is childlike and manlike, at once tender and strong, full of genuinely human simplicity, and therefore of irreplaceable value to Kultur.--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 27 (1890).

70. The champions of the so-called race-idea are clear as to the importance of the Germanic race for our civilization and Kultur.... Their meritorious work has converted the dim divinings of instinct into the certainty of knowledge; and yet a sense of oppression steals upon us when we think of what still remains to be done (as they all agree) against a hostile world in arms, both of the flesh and of the spirit--a world of treachery and hypocrisy, of error and of fanaticism, of stupidity and of craft.--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 50.

70a. Kultur is best promoted when the strongest individual Kultur, that of a given nation, enlarges its field of activity at the expense of the other national Kulturs. If we one day come into conflict with the Martians, then humanity--all the peoples of the earth--will have common interests: but not until then.--K. WAGNER, K., p. 46.

71. I cannot accept the definition of Kultur which identifies it with "form," with the harmonious "rhythm" which, in the English, for example, permeates and unifies everything, from the highest spiritual life to clothes, footwear and table manners.... I am of opinion that we shall apply to this care for "form," for "rhythm," and whatever results from it, the name of "civilization," reserving the nobler word "Kultur" for higher values, and that we should look to our army and the corps of officers to endow us with, and educate us in, these higher values.--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 217 (1901).

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

72. Our belief is that the salvation of the whole Kultur of Europe depends upon the victory which German "militarism" is about to achieve.--Manifesto signed by 3,500 "Hochschullehreren" (professors and lecturers), quoted by PROF. U. v. WILAMOWITZ-MOeLLENDORF, R., pt. ii, p. 33.

73. If Fate has selected us to assume the leadership in the Kultur-life of the peoples, we will not shrink from this great and lofty mission.--G.E. PAZAUREK, P.K.U.K., p. 23.

74. At bottom we Germans are fighting for the same thing which the Greeks defended against the Persians, the Romans against the Carthaginians and Egyptians, the Franks against Islam: namely, the chivalrous European way of thinking, which is ever being threatened by brutal force and puling baseness. We stand once more at a watershed of Kultur.--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 119.

75. If we are beaten--which God and our strong arm forbid--all the higher Kultur of our hemisphere, which it was our mission to guard, sinks with us into the grave.--PROF. A. v. HARNACK, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 26.

76. That it will be German Kultur that will send forth its rays from the centre of our continent, there can be no possible doubt.--PROF. O. v. GIERKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 19.

77. We are indeed entrusted here on earth with a doubly sacred mission: not only to protect Kultur ... against the narrow-hearted huckster-spirit of a thoroughly corrupted and inwardly rotten commercialism (_Jobbertum_), but also to impart Kultur in its most august purity, nobility and glory to the whole of humanity, and thereby contribute not a little to its salvation.--EIN DEUTSCHER, W.K.B.M., p. 40.

78. [Germany has neglected] the highest duty of every Kultur-State--to carry its Kultur into foreign parts, and to win the confidence and affection of other peoples.--F. v. LISZT, E.M.S., p. 12.

79. The idea of the exclusive justification of one's own Kultur which is innate in the French and English, is foreign to us. But we are conscious of the incomparable value of German Kultur, and will for the future guard it against being adulterated by less valuable imports. We do not force it upon any one, but we believe that its own inner greatness will everywhere procure it the recognition which is its due.--PROF. O. v. GIERKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 25.

80. The more German Kultur remains faithful to itself, the better will it be able to enlighten the understanding of the foreign races absorbed, incorporated into the Empire, and to make them see that only from German Kultur can they derive those treasures which they need for the fertilizing of their own particular life.--PROF. O. V. GIERKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 19.

81. We will not in the future let foreign idols be forced upon us, but will serve our own Gods.--PROF. RUDOLF EUCKEN, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.

82. Germanism was for several decades, in spite of the mighty and over-towering height of its Kultur, hindered in the imparting of this Kultur to other nations. In the first years after the war [of 1870] this was not painfully felt, as a powerful _exchange of Kultur_ was still in progress between different parts of the German Empire.... But when this exchange of Kultur between the German stocks had run its course, and the Germanization of the frontier districts [Poland, Alsace] had reached its limit, then the spiritual need of the German victor and conqueror began to make itself felt. He became a teacher without scholars, he had no longer an audience.--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 11.

_See also No. 235a._

83. Our German Kultur has, in its unique depth, something shrinking and severe (_Sproedes und Herbes_), it does not obtrude itself, or readily yield itself up; it must be earnestly sought after and lovingly assimilated from within. This love[11] was lacking in our neighbours; wherefore they easily came to look upon us with the eyes of hatred.--PROF. R. EUCKEN, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.

84. And the graves which border the path to glory of the Romans, the Germans, the British and the French, the stench of robbery, plunder and theft which hangs around these millions of graves? Must Kultur rear its domes over mountains of corpses, oceans of tears, and the death-rattle of the conquered? YES, IT MUST! [There follows an image too grotesquely indecent to be quoted.] Either one denies altogether the beneficent effect of Kultur upon humanity, and confesses oneself an Arcadian dreamer, or one allows to one's people the right of domination--in which case the might of the conqueror is the highest law of morality, before which the conquered must bow. _Vae victis!_--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 10.

85. The whole of European Kultur ... is brought to a focus on this German soil and in the hearts of the German people. It would be foolish to express oneself on this point with modesty and reserve. We Germans represent the latest and the highest achievement of European Kultur.--PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 13.

86. The Kultur-mission of a people is fulfilled when there are no longer any people of the same race and kindred to which their Kultur has still to be imparted.... Our Kultur-mission has in view some hundred millions of Slavs, and draws its geographical frontier-line at the Ural Mountains.--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 13.

87. The attempt of Napoleon to graft the Kultur of Western Europe upon the empire of the Muscovite ended in failure. To-day history has made us Germans the inheritors of the Napoleonic idea.--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 17.

87a. It is perhaps the stupidest of the suspicions under which we labour that we aim at a world-empire after the Roman fashion, and wish to thrust our Kultur on the conquered peoples.--PROF. F. MEINECKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 29, p. 26.

88. We, however, will not let ourselves be diverted by all this hatred and envy from our striving towards a world-Kultur. We will busily and cheerfully work on at the elevation of the whole human race.--PROF. R. EUCKEN, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.

89. More than a hundred years ago (1808) Johan Gottlieb Fichte, in his ever-memorable _Speeches to the German Nation_, proclaimed the German people to be the only people in Europe which had preserved its primitive genuineness (_urspruengliche Echtheit_), and therefore its spiritual creative faculty, and found the transition from his previous cosmopolitan way of thinking to flaming national enthusiasm, in the idea that this people was called to be the upholder of world-Kultur, and that it was therefore its duty to humanity to look to its own preservation.--PROF O. v. GIERKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 23.

90. We claim only the free development of our individuality, and are only fighting against the attempt to throttle it, while contrariwise our enemies are conducting an aggressive war, which they have to disguise as a Kultur-war in order to make it appear defensive.--PASTOR E. TROELTSCH, D.R.S.Z., No. 27, p. 27.

91. The highest steps of Kultur have not been mounted by peaceable nations in long periods of peace, but by warlike peoples in the time of their greatest combativeness.--R. THEUDEN, W.M.K.B., p. 4.

92. German Kultur is moral Kultur. Its superiority is rooted in the unfathomable depth of its moral constitution. Should it forfeit its moral purity, it would cease to be German.--PROF. O. V. GIERKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 23.

92a. The further we can carry our Kultur into the East, the more, and the more profitable, outlets shall we find for our wares. Economic profit is of course not the main motive of our Kultur-activity, but it is no unwelcome by-product.--C.L. POEHLMANN, G.D.W., p. 35.

93. The individual Frenchman may fight as heroically as he pleases, his cause is nevertheless lost, because he does not believe that where the German element has never penetrated, or has penetrated only to disappear again, no development of Kultur, in the true sense of the word, is possible.--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 26.

94. But what about Louvain and Rheims? Has not war, the rude and ruthless destroyer, trodden down glorious cities and priceless buildings that might claim to rank among the greatest Kultur-treasures of humanity? Exactly the opposite may be said: war has in these cases led the way to a really clear recognition of the value to humanity of these Kultur-treasures! The cry of indignation which went up against us had long before made itself heard in our own breasts in view of the thoughtlessness and indifference, nay, the frivolity with which these immeasurable values had been ruthlessly exposed to destruction by nations which have always plumed themselves excessively on their western Kultur.--K. ENGELBRECHT, D.D.D.K., p. 14.

94a. The fury of our gunners at the enemy's unprincipled use of the cathedral of Rheims as a means of defence, was doubtless mingled with indignation and disgust at being _compelled_ to do injury to a priceless work of art. But no phrase-making aestheticism, thank God, such as our neighbours cultivate, rendered us untrue to the conviction that, when all is said and done, every drop of blood of the meanest of our brave soldiers is worth more than any individual work of artistic Kultur.--K. ENGELBRECHT, D.D.D.K., p. 14.

_See also Nos. 7, 30, 46, 62, 115, 123, 151, 160, 186, 187, 232, 239a, 242, 248a, 262-268._

=Der deutsche Gott.=[12]

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

95. If God is for us, who can be against us? It is enough for us to be a part of God.--"On the German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 77.

96. We have become a nation of wrath; we think only of the war.... We execute God's Almighty will, and the edicts of His justice we will fulfil, imbued with holy rage, in vengeance upon the ungodly. God calls us to murderous battles, even if worlds should thereby fall to ruins.... We are woven together like the chastening lash of war; we flame aloft like the lightning; like gardens of roses our wounds blossom at the gates of Heaven.--F. PHILIPPI, quoted in H.A.H., p. 52.