Chapter 6
226a. Formerly German thought was shut up in her corner, but now the world shall have its coat cut according to German measure, and as far as our swords flash and German blood flows, the circle of the earth shall come under the tutelage of German activity.--"World-Germany," by F. PHILIPPI, quoted in H.A.H., p. 43.
227. We were contented within our boundaries. Not a single foot did we want of the countries adjoining our frontiers. PROF. U. V. WILAMOWITZ-MOeLLENDORF, R., pt. i., p. II.
227a. Before everything, however, we must see to the provision of agricultural land! _We require more soil for settlement_.... And we require unsettled land for settlement. No alien fellow-citizens!--PROF. M. v. GRUBER, D.R.S.Z., No. 30, p. 27.
228. With us shall right and morality, truth and faithfulness, win the fight against wrong and baseness, malice and falsehood. Through our supremacy (_Vorherrschaft_), which we hope will be the outward result of this war, God will establish His dominion over the many-coloured throng of the nations who stand against us.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 128.
229. Not through a chaotic conflict of ideas, but only through unity of conviction, can a world-ruling Germany arise; and if Germany does not rule the world (I do not mean through her power alone, but through her all-sided superiority and moral weight) then she will disappear from the map; it is a case of "Either--or."--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, P.I., p. 39.
230. Not one of our Pan-German leaders, whose plans are to-day being realized on the battlefields, received honour or recognition at the hands of the German monarchs, for whose honour and glory we had suffered and fought.--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 6.
231. If we set ourselves to multiply, as we did in the first five years of this century, then the German people would in 1950 number 118 millions, and in the year 2000, 250 millions. Then we could face the future with considerably more confidence.--PROF. M. V. GRUBER, D.R.S.Z., No. 30, p. 25.
232. Germany--of this I am convinced--may in less than two centuries succeed in dominating (_beherrschen_) the whole globe (_Erdkugel_), in part directly and politically, in part indirectly, through language, methods and Kultur, if only it can in time strike out a "new course," and definitely break with Anglo-American methods of government, and with the State-destroying ideals of the Revolution.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, P.I., p. 88.
233. If every representative, rising to the height of the great time in which he lives, will put away from him all pettiness of spirit ... we shall be an unconquerable people, capable of ruling the world.--C.L. POEHLMANN, G.D.W., p. 11.
234. Where self-interest ends the real patriotism begins; and its measure is not the loud chest-note of conviction, but self-sacrificing, untiring work in the service of the community, in order gradually to win for the German nature (_Wesen_) the first place in the world.--PROF. G.E. PAZAUREK, P.K.U.K., p. 5.
235. Just such a systematic transformation of the world as Augustus effected, Germany must now undertake--but on how much nobler a plan!--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 42.
235a. Germany will be the schoolmaster of all the world, as every German has a bit of the schoolmaster in him.--PROF. W. V. BLUME, D.D.M., p. 25.
_Compare No. 82._
236. The war must last until we have forced disarmament upon our enemies. There is a nursery rhyme which runs thus:--
Knife and scissors, fork and candle, Little children must not handle.
Since the enemy States behave so childishly as to misuse their arms, they must be placed under tutelage. Moreover, our enemies have acted so dishonourably that it is only just that rights of citizenship should be denied them.... When they can no longer bear arms, they cannot make any new disturbances.--O. SIEMENS, W.L.K.D., p. 47.
237. We must establish ourselves firmly at Antwerp on the North Sea and at Riga on the Baltic.... At all events we must, at the conclusion of peace, demand _substantial expansions of the German Empire_. In this our motive will not be the greed and covetousness of world-ruling England, nor the national vanity of _gloire_-seeking France, nor the childish megalomania of Rome-mad Italy, nor the insatiable craving for expansion of semi-barbarous Russia.--PROF. E. HAECKEL, E.W., p. 122.
238. We could not but say to ourselves, "If once it comes to war with England, it will be difficult for us to get at her in her island. It will be easier to strike at her in Egypt [which the writer elsewhere describes as the keystone of the arch of the British Empire]. But to that end we require an alliance with the Turks." ... Therefore Germany sent officers to instruct the Turkish Army, therefore the Emperor went in 1898 to Constantinople and Jerusalem and made his famous speech as to the friendship between Germany and the Mohammedans. Therefore we built the Bagdad Railway with German money.--P. ROHRBACH, W.W.R., p. 12.
239. _Noblesse oblige_.... The idea that we are the chosen people imposes on us heavy duties, and duties only.... We are not out to conquer the world. Have no fear, my dear neighbours, we will not devour you.... Should it be necessary to increase our territory in order that the greater body of the people may have room to develop, then in that case we shall take as much land as may appear to be necessary. We will also plant our foot where it appears important on strategic grounds that we should do so, in order to maintain our impregnable strength. Thus, if our position of strength in the world will gain by it, we will establish stations for our fleet, for example, in Dover, Malta and Suez. Beyond this we will do nothing. We have not the least desire to expand, for we have something more important to do.--PROF. W. SOMBART, H.U.H, p. 143.
239a. We trust that the German Eagle, when with one wing he has scourged the barbarians back into Asia, and with the other has freed himself from unworthy chains, will soar high over the oceans ... where his wings can grow and he can stretch them according to his needs. And we hope that this strong, united, purified Germany will be a fountain of rejuvenescence to the ageing Kultur of Europe.--PROF. G. ROETHE, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 31.
_See also Nos. 7, 84._
FOOTNOTES:
[22] It is only right to state that the author urges this spirited policy, not upon his countrymen alone, but upon the "Germanoid" races at large. The "inefficient" peoples whom he has specially in view are the non-German populations of South America, whom he proposes to deport to "reserves" in Africa!
[23] The author has previously defined two grades of denationalization. The second or weaker grade includes the substitution of German for the national language. For the diabolical means by which he proposes to secure the extinction of "undesired and enslaved races," see E.P.D., p. 159.
[24] That is, until the original landowners are forcibly expropriated.
[25] It is not quite clear what the Professor means by "colonization"--but it does not greatly matter.
III
WAR-WORSHIP
III
WAR-WORSHIP
=The Lust of Battle.=
(BEFORE THE WAR.)
240. How often, in such a charge [during manoeuvres] has my ear caught the yearning cry of a comrade tearing along beside me: "Donnerwetter, if this were only the real thing!" (_wenn das doch Ernst waere_).--KRONPRINZ WILHELM, D.I.W., Chapter II.
240a. When the Gordian knot is ready to be cut, God sends the Alexander! Does not the Crown Prince William's confession of his belief in courage as the highest flower of the human spirit, in his book "Deutschland in Waffen," sound like an answer to the longing that thrills through our whole people?--_Deutsche Tageszeitung_, 5th May, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 34.
241. In philosophic form, the idea of the beneficence of war may be traced back to the saying of Heraclitus, "_polemos pater panton_" [war is the father of everything].... War is held to be a divine institution, a law of the universe, present in all nature; not for nothing do the Indians worship Siva the Destroyer; the warrior is filled with the enthusiasm of destruction; wars purify the atmosphere like thunderstorms....[26] We may here refer to H. Leo's phrase as to the "fresh and joyous war that shall sweep away the scrofulous rabble" [_vom "frischen und froehlichen Krieg, der das skrofuloese Gesindel wegfegen soll."_].--J. BURCKHARDT, W.B., p. 163.
242. The Kaiser may have thought that war was not necessary ... because every year of peace increased the power of the Empire, and because the German hegemony in Europe was safe enough without shedding a drop of blood. To this one may reply that the noblest weapon rusts if its use is too long restricted to reviews and parades ... and that every ascent to a higher mental Kultur impairs the barbaric energy of warriors, and encumbers them with scruples which damp their joyous courage.--M. HARDEN, _Zukunft_, 19th August, 1911.
=War and Religion.=
243. It is no mere chance that the earliest piece of poetry, the oldest three distiches of the Old Testament, the Song of Lamech, is a song of triumph over the invention of the sword. (Genesis, iv., 23):--
Ada and Zillah hear my voice; Ye wives of Lamech hearken unto my speech: For I have slain a man for wounding me, And a young man for bruising me: If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
--E. v. LASAULX, P.G., p. 85.
244. Perpetual peace is a dream, and it is not even a beautiful dream: war forms part of the eternal order instituted by God.... Without war humanity would sink into materialism.--COUNT V. MOLTKE, letter to Bluntschli, 11th December, 1880.
245. To appeal from this judgment to Christianity would be sheer perversity, for does not the Bible distinctly say that the ruler shall rule by the sword, and, again, that greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friend?--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 67.
245a. But it is not worth while to speak further of these matters, for God above us will see to it that war shall always recur, as a drastic medicine for ailing humanity.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 69.
246. Christian morality is based, indeed, on the law of love. "Love God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself." This law can claim no significance for the relations of one country to another, since its application to politics would lead to a conflict of duties.... Christ himself said: "I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword." His teaching can never be adduced as an argument against the universal law of struggle. There never was a religion which was more combative than Christianity.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 29.
247. When here on earth a battle is won by German arms and the faithful dead ascend to Heaven, a Potsdam lance-corporal will call the guard to the door, and "old Fritz," springing from his golden throne, will give the command to present arms. That is the Heaven of Young Germany.--_Weekly Paper for Young Germany_, January 25, 1913.
_Compare "God and the old Kaiser" No. 97._
=War and Ethics.=
248. Nothing is more immoral than to consider and talk of war as an immoral thing. "War is the mother of all good things" (Empedocles).... And there is nothing more moral than the collective egoism, the self-conserving instinct, of nations.--PROF. E. HASSE, Z.D.V., p. 127.
248a. The idea of war is the child of _healthy egoism_, which is honest to the marrow of its bones, is ashamed of nothing in Nature.... but is the basis of all Kultur, of all morality.--K. WAGNER, K.
249. We must therefore reckon with war as a necessary factor towards higher development.... A people really learns to know its full national strength only in war ... only then, indeed, does its full strength come into existence.--J. BURCKHARDT, W.B., p. 162.
249a. War makes room for the competent at the expense of the unsound. War is the source of all good growth. Without war the development of nations is impossible--K. WAGNER, K., p. 183.
250. The sight of blood and wounds steels the nerves of the soul, the horrors of war stimulate the spirits, so that instead of the falsehood and cowardice of enervation, the old heroic virtues are restored ... fear of God, martial bravery, obedience, up-rightness of mind, constancy, truth ... manlike courage, manly pity, and all that is great and good in humanity.--E. v. LASAULX, P.G., p. 86.
_Compare Nos. 254, 311._
251. The brutal incidents inseparable from every war vanish completely before the idealism of the main result.... Strength, truth and honour come to the front and are brought in to play.--GENERAL V. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 27.
252. War is the most august and sacred of human activities.... For us, too, the great, joyful hour of battle will one day strike.... The openly expressed longing for war often degenerates into vain boasting and ludicrous sabre-rattling. But still and deep in the German heart must the joy in war and the longing for war endure.--OTTO VON GOTTBERG, in _Weekly Paper for the Youth of Germany_, 25th January, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 1.
253. Life as the most necessary medium of Kultur--that is the ground on which the modern apostles of peace take their stand.... But our German morality makes short work of all such rubbish. It says with Moltke: "Eternal peace is only a dream, _and not even a beautiful dream_!" No, certainly not beautiful, for a peace which could no longer look forward to war as the issue even of the worst complications would poison and rot away our inmost heart, until we became loathsome to ourselves.--F. LANGE, R.D., p. 157 (1893).
254. Whosoever has crossed a great battlefield and has shuddered in the depths of his soul at all the horrors confronting him, will have found new strength and exaltation in the thought that here the whole tragic gravity of military necessity is regnant, and here a justifiable passion has done its work.--GENERAL v. HARTMANN, D.R., XIV., p. 84.
255. The appeal to arms will be valid until the end of history, and therein lies the sacredness of war.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 29.
_See also No. 314._
=War and Biology.=
256. We children of the future ... do not by any means think it desirable that the kingdom of righteousness and peace should be established on the earth.... We rejoice in all men who, like ourselves, love danger, war and adventure ... we count ourselves among the conquerors; we ponder over the need of a new order of things, even of a new slavery--for every strengthening and elevation of the type "man" also involves a new form of slavery.--FR. NIETZSCHE, J.W., section 377.
257. Unless we choose to shut our eyes to the necessity of evolution, we must recognize the necessity of war. We must accept war, which will last as long as development and existence; we must accept eternal war.--K. WAGNER, K., p. 153.
258. "War is the father of everything," says Heraclitus. It will be the father of the new German race of the future.--PROF. E. HASSE, Z.D.V., p. 126.
259. The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, but absolutely _immoral_, and must be _stigmatized as unworthy of the human race_.... The weak nation is to have the same right to live as the powerful and vigorous nation! The whole idea represents a presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws of development.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 34.
260. It is proved beyond all shadow of doubt that regular war (_der regelrechte Krieg_) is, not only from the biological and true kultural standpoint, the best and noblest form of the struggle for existence, but also, from time to time, an absolute necessity for the maintenance of the State and society.--DR. SCHMIDT, of Gibichenfels, at meeting of Pan-German League, Berlin, October, 1912. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 73.
261. War is a biological necessity of the first importance, a regulative element in the life of mankind which cannot be dispensed with.... "War is the father of all things." The sages of antiquity, long before Darwin, recognized this.... "To supplant or to be supplanted is the essence of life," says Goethe, "and the strong life gains the upper hand."--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 18.
_See also No. 386._
=War and Kultur.=
262. It is nothing but fanaticism to expect very much from humanity when it has forgotten how to wage war. For the present we know of no other means whereby the rough energy of the camp, the deep impersonal hatred, the cold-bloodedness of murder with a good conscience, the general ardour of the system in the destruction of the enemy ... can be as forcibly and certainly communicated to enervated nations as is done by every great war. Kultur can by no means dispense with passions, vices and malignities.--FR. NIETZSCHE, H.T.H., section 477.
263. It is here demonstrated with rare cogency and conclusiveness that war is not only a factor, but the main factor, in true, genuine Kultur--not only its creator but its preserver.... Although the author thus recognizes war as an element in the divine world-order, he by no means ignores the blessings of peace, as the second factor in true, genuine Kultur, in a certain measure complementary to war.--_Berliner neueste Nachrichten_, 24th December, 1912, in review of _Der Krieg als Kulturfaktor_, by DR. SCHMIDT, of Gibichenfels. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 20.
264. No sooner are airships invented than the General Staffs set to work to devise methods of applying them to destruction.... Thus every achievement of "Kultur"[27] and of the human intelligence is only a means to more barbarous processes of war: and yet the pacifists see in the progress of the human intelligence a guarantee of world-peace!--L. GUMPLOWICZ, S.I.U., p. 161.
265. I must first of all examine the aspirations for peace, which seem to dominate our age and threaten to poison the soul of the German people.... I must try to prove that war is not merely a necessary element in the life of nations, but an indispensable factor of Kultur, in which a truly civilized nation finds the highest expression of strength and vitality.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 14.
266. If the Twilight of the Gods that has now so long brooded over the European race and Kultur is at last to vanish before the light of morning, then we Germans in particular must no longer see in war our destroyer ... but must recognize in it our healer, our physician.--_Taegliche Rundschau_, 12th November, 1912. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 23.
267. Our own country, by employing its military powers, has attained a degree of Kultur which it never could have reached by the methods of peaceful development.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 119.
268. War is to us only a means, but the state of preparation for war is more than a means, it is an end.--PROF. E. HASSE, Z.D.V., p. 126.
_See also Nos. 84, 91._
=Blood and Iron.=
269. The time for petty politics is past; the next century[28] will bring the struggle for the dominion of the world--the _compulsion_ to great politics.--FR. NIETZSCHE, B.G.E., section 208.
270. I greet all the signs indicating that a more manly and warlike age is commencing, which will, above all, bring heroism again into honour!--FR. NIETZSCHE, J.W., section 283.
271. General Keim from Berlin insisted that the path to German unity and power was not paved with sealing-wax, printers' ink and parliamentary resolutions, but marked by blood, wounds and deeds of arms. States could be maintained only by the means by which they were created.--At meeting of Pan-German League, Augsburg, September, 1912. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 72.
272. It is only since the last war [1870] that a sounder theory has arisen of the State and its military power. Without war no State could be.... War, therefore will endure to the end of history, so long as there is multiplicity of States.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 65.
273. We owe it to Napoleon ... that several warlike centuries, which have not had their like in past history, may now follow one another--in short, that we have entered upon _the classical age of war_, war at the same time scientific and popular, on the grandest scale (as regards means, talents and discipline) to which all coming millenniums will look back with envy and awe as a work of perfection--for the national movement out of which this martial glory springs, is only the counter-_choc_ against Napoleon, and would not have existed without him. To him, consequently, one will one day be able to attribute the fact that man in Europe has again got the upper hand of the merchant and the Philistine.--FR. NIETZSCHE, J.W., section 362.
274. What men tower highest in the history of the nation, whom does the German heart cherish with the most ardent love? Goethe? Schiller? Wagner? Marx? Oh, no--but Barbarossa, the great Frederick, Bluecher, Moltke, Bismarck, the hard men of blood. It is to them, who offered up thousands of lives, that the soul of the people goes out with tenderest affection, with positively adoring gratitude. Because they did what now we ought to do.... Our holiest raptures of homage are paid to these Titans of the Blood-Deed.--DR. W. FUCHS, in article on "Psychiatrie and Politics," in _Die Post_, 28th January, 1912. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 2.
275. I must assert with emphasis that the cardinal sin of our whole policy has hitherto been that we have lost sight of the eternal truth: POLITICS MEAN THE WILL TO POWER.... The history of the world teaches us that only those people have strongly asserted themselves who have without hesitation placed the Will to Power higher than the Will to Peace.--GENERAL KEIM, at meeting of Central Committee of Pan-German League, Munich, April, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 77.
276. This nation possesses an excess of vigour, enterprise, idealism, and spiritual energy which qualifies it for the highest place; but a malignant fairy laid on its cradle the most petty theoretical dogmatism.... Yet the heart of this people can always be won for great and noble aims, even though such aims can only be attended by danger.... An intense longing for a foremost place among the Powers and for manly action fills our nation. Every vigorous utterance, every bold political step of the Government, finds in the soul of the people a deeply-felt echo, and loosens the bonds which fetter all their forces.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 256.
277. War does not depend on the human will, but is for the most part an ineluctable, elementary happening, a daemonic power forcing itself upon us, against which all written treaties, all peace conferences and humanitarian agitations, come pitifully to wreck.--GENERAL KEIM, at meeting of the German Defence League, Cassel, February, 1913. NIPPOLD, D.C., p. 82.
=War Necessary to Germany.=
278. If the health and life of Germany require this mortal and terrible remedy [war], _let us not hesitate to apply it_, so be it! God is the Judge. I accept the awful responsibility.... God never forsakes a good German.--"AMICUS PATRIAE," A.U.K., p. 15.
278a. Whoever loves his people and wishes to hasten the crisis of the present sickness, must yearn for war as the awakener of all that is good, healthy and strong in the nation.--D. FRYMANN, W.I.K.W., p. 53.
279. The duties and obligations of the German people ... cannot be fulfilled without drawing the sword.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 15.
280. It is for social as much as for national and political reasons that we must fix our minds incessantly upon war; may the first ten or twenty years of the twentieth century bring it to us, for we have need of it!--D.B.B., p. 191.
281. It must be regarded as a quite unthinkable proposition that an agreement between France and Germany can be negotiated before the question between them has been once more decided by arms.--GENERAL V. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 91.