Chapter 5
171. The French soldiers thought they were only going to manoeuvres. Not until they were face to face with the enemy, had come under the fire of our rifles and seen our bayonets, did they find out that they had been deceived, that they had been lied into the war.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H. & H., p. 126.
172. What homage does not the stupid world pay to Carnegie; and now we learn that, through his endowments for professors and students, he has enslaved the universities, imposing upon them hard-and-fast doctrines, as, for example, the worship of England and hostility to Germany.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, P.I., p. 56.
173. When we [in 1870-71] bombarded the fortress of Paris, that was an outrage upon a sacred spot. But when the English battered to the ground the defenceless Alexandria[20]--that was of course quite in order.--PROF. U. v. WILAMOWITZ-MOeLLENDORF, R., pt. i., p. 27.
173a. When our Zeppelins drop bombs on the fortress of Antwerp, there are loud protests. But how have not French prisoners boasted of the burning by their bombs of the open city of Nuernberg. The will was there; only the power was lacking.[21]--PROF. U. V. WILAMOWITZ-MOeLLENDORF, R., pt. i., p. 27.
=German Insight and Foresight.=
(BEFORE THE WAR.)
174. [Of the "militia" of the British self-governing Dominions.] They can be completely ignored so far as concerns any European theatre of war. [Of the British Territorial Army.] For a Continental European war it may be left out of account.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 135.
175. As soon as we have won our first victory, we may be sure that Italy will unconditionally accord us her armed cooperation.--K. V. STRANTZ, E.S.V., p. 21.
176. If, in case of war, England should join the Dual Alliance against us, our military position will be in no way prejudiced, if we, on our side, take care to kindle fires at the points where her world-power is threatened. In that case, too, oversea prizes beckon us on, which will be well worth the winning.--K. v. STRANTZ, E.S.V., p. 39.
177. I do not at all believe that Zeppelins have anything to fear from aeroplanes, as their critics assert.--A. WIRTH, T.O.D., p. 52.
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
178. The far-seeing English politician expects the present war greatly to improve the position of England as against the United States. Any injury that England may conceivably inflict on its best customer, Germany ... will be as nothing in comparison with the direct and indirect losses the war must inflict on America.--DR. A. ZIMMERMANN, quoted by P. HEINSICK, W.U.G., p. 21.
179. There can be no possible doubt that England, in secret, heartily rejoices in every Russian defeat.--P. HEINSICK, W.U.G., p. 21.
=German Freedom.=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
180. An un-German freedom is no freedom.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 21.
180a. Germany has been for centuries the true and only home of a freedom worthy of humanity and elevating to humanity.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 15.
181. German freedom is thus not a natural human right, but an elevation of humanity above the despotism of its own personal inclinations.--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 46.
182. We should be in an evil case if we were to barter for these [English] "liberties," however praiseworthy in themselves, our individual many-sidedness, our temperament in constant touch with life, in short our Deutschtum.--KARL HECKEL, E.B., p. 384.
183. Ah, Milton, wert thou living at this hour!... Thou would'st understand German championship of freedom, care for justice, and love of truth.--PROF. A. BRANDL, D.R.S.Z., No. 20.
_On English Freedom, see Nos. 401a, 467._
=The German Language.=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
184. Fichte expresses in simple words a positively decisive truth ... of all the languages of Europe, German is the only living one.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 26.
185. The German ... _must_ conquer; and when once he has conquered--to-day or in a hundred years...--no duty is more urgent than that of forcing the German language upon the world.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 33.
186. If German Kultur and the German spirit are to march victorious through the world, not to oppress other peoples, but to aid them in their own development, an essential preliminary will be the spread of the German language. For only he who knows the German language, and can read the works of our spiritual heroes in the original, can really penetrate into the German spirit, and feel himself at home there.--C.L. POEHLMANN, G.D.W., p. 48.
187. Chance brings to my hands to-day a copy of _Jugend_ for May 28, 1900, containing an article by me in which I read: "I have no firmer or more sacred conviction than this, that the higher Kultur of humanity depends upon the spreading of the German language." I go on to explain that this language is the indispensable interpreter of the German nature (_Wesen_), which is what I chiefly prize; and for the spreading of the language it is necessary that the German Empire should develop into the leading State of the world.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 9.
188. A defeat for Germany I could regard only as a deferred victory. I should say to myself: The time, then, is not yet ripe; the sacred treasure must yet awhile be guarded and cherished in the circle of the narrower Fatherland. For alone among all nations Germany possesses to-day a living, developing, sacred treasure.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 24.
189. Germanism (_Was wir "deutsch" nennen_) is the secret through which the inner man is illuminated; and the instrument of this illumination is the [German] language.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 25.
190. If Montaigne were living to-day, he would have to remain silent--or to learn German.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 29.
191. Men must come to realize that whoever cannot speak German is a pariah.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 35.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] A common expression for the ordinary, average German.
[9] This address was delivered, 9th September, 1914. The _Lusitania_ was sunk 7th May, 1915.
[10] Though this was written in the second month of the war, we must in fairness assume that Herr Chamberlain is thinking of the German state of mind before the war. But as he has lived thirty years in Germany he must have been there during the South African War, when the German feeling towards England was too mildly described by the term "animosity."
[11]
And you must love him ere to you He will seem worthy of your love
[12] M. Dumont, writing of the Albanians (_Rev. des Deux Mondes_, vi., 120, 1872), supplies a pertinent comment on German piety: "_Ce qui fait qu'une tribu croit a son dieu, c'est la haine de la tribu voisine._"
[13] Chamberlain says that this letter was addressed to him in November, 1914, by a correspondent whom he refuses to name, but of whom he will say that "few men can form such well-informed judgment upon all phases in the life of present-day Germany, and no one deserves to be listened to with higher respect." These expressions, and the mention of William I., may perhaps justify the conjecture that the writer is none other than Chamberlain's warm admirer, William II.
[14] The same author explains that "of course the German people have not in themselves deserved this calling: it proceeds from the sheer grace of God, so we can maintain it without any Pharisaism whatever."
[15] This saying had already "burst its bonds" and been appropriated to Germany by the Kaiser:--"We are the salt of the earth, but we must also be worthy to be so." (Bremen, 22nd March, 1905.)
[16] It is odd that the "creator of children's literature" should have taken the very name of his work from an English book which had been the delight of children for half a century before he wrote.
[17] Compare with this the following:--"In our struggle with the Triple Entente, we look for the most valuable aid from Pan-Islamism, from the living sense of solidarity between all Muslims of the whole world, dependent on their common religion.... If all accounts be true, the whole Muslim world is flocking round the Sultan-Kalif, and regards this war as a 'Holy War,' That would be the first and perhaps the greatest triumph of the Pan-Islamic movement."--DR. E. HUBER, in _Das Groessere Deutschland_, Christmas Eve, 1914.
[18] The particular injunction of the Evangel of Christ which inspired the sinking of the _Lusitania_ was no doubt "Suffer little children to come unto me."
[19] After making this proposal on p. 4, Professor v. Harnack, on p. 6, gives the following account of the Battle of the Marne:--"We have, without any defeat, partly withdrawn our troops to form an iron line of battle from Arras and Noyon to Verdun."
[20] "The defenceless Alexandria" was defended by an elaborate system of forts mounting hundreds of guns. It was these forts that the fleet bombarded, in the face of considerable resistance. The conflagrations in the city were the work of escaped or liberated convicts.
[21] If any French soldiers actually believed that Nuernberg had been bombed, it can only have been because the German Government spread the report, through the mouth of its Ambassador in Paris, as an excuse for declaring war. (French Yellow Book, No. 159.) It is possible that some Frenchmen may have incautiously believed the German Government. The report has been shown by German investigation to be entirely groundless.
II
GERMAN AMBITIONS
II
GERMAN AMBITIONS
=Expansion in Europe.=
(BEFORE THE WAR.)
192. Germany cannot be suspected of wishing for war.... She covets no possession of her neighbours. Any one who says that she does, slanders her.--_Manifesto of the German Defence League, March, 1913._ NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 85.
192a. A developing, onward-striving people like ourselves requires new land for its energies, and if peace will not secure it, then only war remains. To arouse people to a realization of this fact was the mission of the Defence League.--GENERAL v. WROCHEM, at meeting of German Defence League, Danzig, March, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 84.
192b. It is precisely our _craving_ for expansion that drives us into the paths of conquest, and in view of which all chatter about peace and humanity can and must remain nothing but chatter.--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 154.
193. A new period of progress towards unification is possible only by means of a great and courageous policy, which should lead to victorious wars, and if possible to the territorial expansion of the Empire.--D.B.B., p. 202.
194. All the policy, internal and external, of the Empire ought to be subordinated to this governing idea--the Germanization of all the remains of foreign populations within the Empire, and the procuring for the German people of new territories, proportionate to its strength and its need of expansion.--PROF. E. HASSE, B.D.V., p. 126.
195. Our frontiers are too narrow. We must become land-hungry, must acquire new regions for settlement, otherwise we will be a sinking people, a stunted race. True love for our people and its children commands us to think of their future, however much they may accuse us of quarrelsomeness and lust of war. If the Germanic people shrank from war it would be as good as dead.--BARON V. VIETINGHOFF-SCHEEL, at meeting of Pan-German League, Erfurt, September, 1912. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 72.
196. Let us bravely organize great _forced migrations_ of the inferior peoples. Posterity will be grateful to us. We must coerce them! This is one of the tasks of war: the means must be superiority of armed force. Superficially such forced migrations, and the penning up of inconvenient peoples in narrow "reserves," may appear hard; but it is the only solution of the race-question that is worthy of humanity.... Thus alone can the over-population of the earth be controlled: the efficient peoples must secure themselves elbow-room by means of war, and the inefficient must be hemmed in, and at last driven into "reserves" where they have no room to grow ... and where, discouraged and rendered indifferent to the future by the spectacle of the superior energy of their conquerors, they may crawl slowly towards the peaceful death of weary and hopeless senility.[22]--K. WAGNER, K., p. 170.
197. We desire, and must desire ... a world-empire of Teutonic (_germanisch_) stock, under the hegemony of the German people. In order to secure this we must--
(a) Gradually Germanize the Scandinavian and Dutch Teutonic States, denationalizing them in the weaker signification of the term;[23]
(b) Break up the predominantly un-Teutonic peoples into their component parts, in order to take to ourselves the Teutonic element and Germanize it, while we reject the un-Teutonic element.
--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 137.
197a. Such false ideas as to nationality, speech and race are now prevalent ... that it is often maintained that no breaking-up of nations would be necessary, but that a "Germanization" _in the mass_ of the nations in question [Germany's smaller neighbours] would be sufficient.--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 130.
198. We are indubitably the most martial nation in the world.... We are the most gifted of nations in all the domains of science and art. We are the best colonists, the best sailors, and even the best traders! And yet we have not up to now secured our due share in the heritage of the world.... That the German Empire is not the end but the beginning of our national development is an obvious truth.--F. BLEY, W.D., pp. 21-22.
199. We must create a Central Europe which will guarantee the peace of the entire continent from the moment when it shall have driven the Russians from the Black Sea and the Slavs from the south, and shall have conquered large tracts to the east of our frontiers for German colonization. We cannot let loose _ex abrupto_ the war which will create this Central Europe. All we can do is to accustom our people to the thought that this war must come.--P. DE LAGARDE, D.S., p. 83.
200. Before seeking to found a Greater Germany in other continents, we must create a Greater Germany in Central Europe.... In seeking to colonize the countries immediately contiguous to our present patrimony, we are continuing the millenary work of our ancestors. There is nothing in this contrary to nature.--PROF. E. HASSE, D.G., p. 168.
200a. _Every great people needs new territory_; it must _expand over foreign soil_; it must expel the foreigners by the power of the sword.--K. WAGNER, K., p. 80.
201. For this evil [the emigration of the surplus population] we see only one remedy: _the extension of our frontiers in Europe_.... We must make room for an Empire of Germanic race which shall number 100,000,000 inhabitants, in order that we may hold our own against masses such as those of Russia and the United States.--D.B.B., p. 115.
202. [In the Great-German Confederation which will comprise most of Europe] the Germans, being alone entitled to exercise political rights, to serve in the Army and Navy, and to acquire landed property, will recover the feeling they had in the Middle Ages of being a people of masters. They will gladly tolerate the foreigners living among them, to whom inferior manual services will be entrusted.--G.U.M., p. 47.
203. The principles which must guide the German people in the establishment of the new Germanic world-empire are these:--
(1) The strengthening of its Germanic race-foundation.
(2) The securing of room for its surplus of births.
(3) The greatest possible expansion of this surplus over a portion of the earth which shall be sufficiently large, various and geographically well-situated to form an economic unit.
--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 135.
204. Our own social health, towards which, in the name of our moral ideals, we are now striving, may one day compel us to force upon other nations the benefits of the new economic forms.--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 160 (1893).
205. One thing alone can really profit the German people: the acquisition of new territory. That is the only solid and durable gain ... that alone can really promote the diffusion, the growth and the deepening of Germanism.--A. WIRTH, O.U.W., p. 56.
206. Excessive modesty and humility, rather than excessive arrogance and ambition, is a feature of the German character. Therefore we shall know how to set a limit to our desire for expansion, and shall escape the dangers which have been fatal to all conquerors whose ambition was unbridled.--PROF. E. HASSE, W.I.K., p. 63.
206a. The territory open to future German expansion ... must extend from the North Sea and the Baltic, to the Persian Gulf, absorbing the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Switzerland, the whole basin of the Danube, the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor.--PROF. E. HASSE, W.I.K., p. 65.
206b. Nowhere in the world is there so much declamation about Chauvinism as in Germany, and nowhere is so little of it to be found. We hesitate to express even the most natural demands that a nation can make for itself.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i.
207. When one wishes a thing, one must effectually will it. Our sense of justice [!] may in future lead us not to desire what does not belong to us, but _if_ we take we must also _hold fast_. In other words, hitherto foreign territory is not incorporated into Germany until German proprietorship is rooted in the soil.[24]--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 206 (1893).
208. A people that has increased so much as the German people is forced to carry on a constant policy of expansion. It must be candidly confessed that since the retirement of Bismarck the Will to Power had been lacking.--GENERAL v. LIEBERT, Member of the Reichstag, at meeting of Pan-German League, Hamburg, January, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 76.
209. Since the Western Powers restrict our right to life, it is necessary that we should attach one of them to us or that we should sweep them out of our way by force.--M. HARDEN, _Zukunft_, 12th August, 1911.
210. The Rhine ... is a priceless natural possession, although by our own fault we have allowed its most material value to fall into alien hands, and it must be the unceasing endeavour of German policy to win back the mouths of the river.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 125.
211. The Jablunka must never hear any language but German, and the [German] wave must spread thence towards the south until nothing remains of all the lamentable nationalities of the Imperial State [Austria].--P. DE LAGARDE, D.S., p. 112.
212. If our area of colonization[25] does not coincide with our political boundaries, the healthy egoism of our race commands us to place our frontier-posts in foreign territory, as we have done at Metz.--PROF. E. HASSE, D.G., p. 166.
213. A sturdy German egoism must characterize all political action.... The first principle of our policy, both at home and abroad, must be that, in everything that happens, the Germans [literally, the most German] should come off best, and the others should have a bad time of it (_sich unbehaglich fuehlen_).--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 213 (1893).
213a. A Ministry of Colonization must make up for lost time. With all prudence, but also with inflexible determination, a process of expropriation should be inaugurated, by which the Poles and the Alsatians and Lorrainers would be gradually transported to the interior of the Empire, while Germans would replace them on the frontier.--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 206.
=Expansion beyond Europe.=
214. We must ... see to it that the outcome of our next successful war must be the acquisition of colonies by any possible means.--H.V. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 119.
215. A German policy of expansion is to-day generally accepted. The Empire must acquire more colonies.--DR. POHL, of Berlin, at meeting of Pan-German League, Augsburg, September, 1912. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 72.
216. In all lands under German influence a double power is more or less strongly at work: the _creative power of the spirit_ ... and the _creative power of the body_, that is to say, fecundity.... Whither our spiritual and our bodily fecundity impel us, thither we must go--_out over the world!_ (_hin ueber die Welt!_).--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 66.
217. The longing for an eternal peace was Utopian and enervating.... Nor was there any lack of a great national aim. At the division of the earth between the other Great Powers, Germany had gone almost empty away. But Germany needed new regions for the planting-out of its ever-growing, inexhaustible wealth of people.--GENERAL V. WROCHEM, at meeting of the German Defence League, Hanover, February, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 83.
218. With all respect to the rights of foreign nations, it must be said that Germany has not as yet the colonies which it must have.... Our development demands recognition. That is a natural right. There is here no question of prestige-politics, of adventurer-politics. Further, we are not an institute for lengthening the life of dying States.... Those half-States which owe their existence only to the aid of foreign weapons, money or knowledge, are hopelessly at the mercy of the modern States.--_Leipziger Tageblatt_, 24th January, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 51.
219. The Ministry of Colonization must also arrange systematically for emigration to foreign countries.... The Government alone can, by the uncompromising (_ruecksichtslos_) employment of its methods of power, conclude treaties ... imposing on [the foreign countries] the conditions which it regards as desirable.--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 207 (1893).
220. In this nineteenth century, when Germany has become the first Power in the world, are we incapable of doing what our ancestors did? Germany must lay her mighty grasp upon Asia Minor.--AMICUS PATRIAE, A.U.K., p. 15.
221. The hostile arrogance of the Western Powers releases us from all our treaty obligations, throws open the doors of our verbal prison-house, and forces the German Empire, resolutely defending her vital rights, to revive the ancient Prussian policy of conquest. All Morocco in the hands of Germany; German cannon on the routes to Egypt and India; German troops on the Algerian frontier; this would be a goal worthy of great sacrifices.--M. HARDEN, _Zukunft_, 29th July, 1911.
222. If we do not soon acquire new territory, a frightful catastrophe is inevitable. It signifies little whether it be in Brazil, in Siberia, in Anatolia or in South Africa.... To-day, as 2,000 years ago, when the Cimbri and the Teutons beat at the gates of Rome, a cry arises ... ever louder and louder, "Give us land, give us new land!"--A. WIRTH, V.U.W., p. 227.
223. Thanks to our youthfulness and our capacity of development, thanks also to our military power, many things are possible: we can create a German nation which shall number 100,000,000 inhabitants, we can become "Europe," and dominate the seas into the bargain.--D.B.B., p. 211.
223a. This Germany of ours was once the greatest of the Sea Powers, and, God willing, so she will be again.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 213.
224. "_Civis Germanicus sum--ich bin ein Deutscher!_" As the free Roman, in his character of _Civis Romanus_, formerly ruled the world, so must every continental German of to-day, and of the future, rule the world in his character of _Civis Germanicus_.--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 146.
=Weltmacht (World-Dominion).=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
225. _We want no world-dominion_.... It is unjust, and therefore un-German.--PROF. W. v. BLUME, D.D.M., p. 23.
225a. Germany, as the preponderant Power in a Great-German League, will with this war attain world-supremacy.--R. THEUDEN, W.M.K.B., p. 13.
226. We _want_ no hegemony, no world-dominion! Such ambitions mean everlasting war; whereas Germany sincerely desires peace, and the influence which shall enable her to establish it.--PROF. DR. R. JANNASCH, W.D.U.S., p. 22.