Chapter 8

Chapter 84,132 wordsPublic domain

348. Terrorism is seen to be a relatively gentle procedure, useful to keep in a state of obedience the masses of the people.--GENERAL V. HARTMANN, D.R., Vol. XIII, p. 462.

349. To protect oneself against attack and injuries from the inhabitants, and to employ ruthlessly the necessary means of defence and intimidation is obviously not only a right but a duty of the staff of the army.--G.W.B., p. 120.

350. The more pitiless is the _vae victis_, the greater is the security of the ensuing peace. In the days of old, conquered peoples were completely annihilated. To-day this is _physically_ impracticable, but one can imagine conditions which should approach very closely to total destruction.--D.B.B., p. 214.

_Compare Nos. 196, 197._

351. International law is in no way opposed to the exploitation of the crimes of third parties (assassination, incendiarism, robbery and the like) to the prejudice of the enemy.--G.W.B., p. 85.

352. In reality the evil impulses are just in as high a degree expedient, indispensable, and conservative of the species as the good--only, their function is different.--FR. NIETZSCHE, J.W., section 4.

353. If the [small] nations in question have nothing Germanic in them, and are therefore foreign to our Kultur, the question at once arises: Do they stand in the way of our expansion, or do they not? In the latter case, let them develop as their nature prescribes; in the former case, it would be folly to spare them, for they would be like a wedge in our flesh, which we refrained from extracting only for their own sake. If we found ourselves forced to break up the historical form of the nation, in order to separate its racial elements, taking what belongs to our race[32] and rejecting what is foreign to it, we ought not therefore to have any moral scruples or to think ourselves inhuman. (In this connection I refer the reader to my later chapter on humanity[33]).--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 130.

354. Article 40 of the Declaration of Brussels requires that requisitions ... shall bear a direct relation to the capacity and resources of a country, and, indeed, the justification for this condition would be willingly recognized by every one in theory, but it will scarcely ever be observed in practice. In cases of necessity, the needs of an army will alone decide.--G.W.B., p. 134.

355. In spite of his delight in mere success, in spite of his recklessness in the choice of men and methods, in spite of all the harshness and brutality which his nature must acquire, the true statesman displays a disinterestedness which cannot fail to impress.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 58.

356. Verily, ye good and just; much in you is laughable, and most of all your fear of what hath hitherto been called "devil"! ... I guess that you will call my Superman "devil"!--FR. NIETZSCHE, Z. _Of Manly Prudence_.

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

357. Our troops are assured of their mission; and they recognize clearly, too, that the truest compassion lies in taking the sternest measures, in order to bring the war itself to an early close.--PASTOR G. TRAUB, D.K.U.S., p. 6.

358. How much further would Germany have got in Alsace-Lorraine, if it had modelled its policy on Cromwell's treatment of Ulster, and had not been misled by weak humanitarianism!--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 93.

359. In the midst of this bewildering uproar, the soul again learns the truth of the old doctrine: it is the whole man that matters, and not his individual acts; it is the soul that gives value to the deeds, not the deeds to the soul.--PASTOR G. TRAUB, D.K.U.S., p. 6.

_Compare Nietzsche, passim._

360. We are not only compelled to accept the war that is forced upon us ... but are even compelled to carry on this war with a cruelty, a ruthlessness, an employment of every imaginable device, unknown in any previous war.--PASTOR D. BAUMGARTEN, D.R.S.Z., No. 24, p. 7.

361. Whoever cannot prevail upon himself to approve from the bottom of his heart the sinking of the _Lusitania_--whoever cannot conquer his sense of the gigantic cruelty (_ungeheure Grausamkeit_) to unnumbered perfectly innocent victims ... and give himself up to honest delight at this victorious exploit of German defensive power--him we judge to be no true German.--PASTOR D. BAUMGARTEN, D.R.S.Z., No. 24, p. 7.[34]

_See also No. 423._

FOOTNOTES:

[31] Observe that these two utterances are not shrieks of the war frenzy, but are the reflections of a German patriot in the year of grace 1900.

[32] The author does not explain how Germanic elements are to be discovered in peoples which he has assumed to have nothing Germanic in them.

[33] This chapter is an ingenious disquisition to prove that humanity may be all very well for inferior races, but that Germanism cannot be hampered by its restraints.

[34] This and the previous extract are taken from an address on the Sermon on the Mount!

MACHIAVELISM

=Mendacity and Faithlessness.=

(BEFORE THE WAR.)

362. A stock of inherited conceptions of integrity and morality is a necessity for government.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 317.

363. When one really meditates a war, one must say no word about it; one must envelop one's designs in a profound mystery; then, suddenly and without warning, one leaps like a thief in the night--as the Japanese destroyers leapt upon the unsuspecting Port Arthur, as Frederick II. threw himself upon Silesia.[35]--A. WIRTH, U.A.P., p. 36.

364. The brilliant Florentine was the first to infuse into politics the great idea that the State is Power. The consequences of this thought are far-reaching. It is the truth, and those who dare not face it had better leave politics alone.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 85.

365. As real might can alone guarantee the endurance of peace and security, and as war is the best test of real might, war contains the promise of future peace. But it must if possible [_womoeglich_] be a righteous and honourable war, something in the nature of a war of defence.--J. BURCKHARDT, W.B., p. 164.

366. It was Machiavelli who first laid down the maxim that when the State's salvation is at stake there must be no enquiry into the purity of the means employed; only let the State be secured and no one will condemn them.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 83.

367. The relations between two States must often be termed a latent war, which is provisionally being waged in peaceful rivalry. Such a position justifies the employment of hostile methods, cunning and deception, just as war itself does.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 49.

368. The statesman has no right to warm his hands with smug self-laudation at the smoking ruins of his Fatherland, and comfort himself by saying, "I have never lied"; this is the monkish type of virtue.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol i., p. 104.

369. Belligerent States are always and exclusively in a pure state of nature, in which there cannot possibly be any question or right [or law].--E. v. HARTMANN, quoted by EIN DEUTSCHER, W.K.B.M., p. 12.

370. How markedly Bismarck's grand frankness in large matters stands out amidst all his craft in single instances.[36]--H. V. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 90.

371. Let it be the task of our diplomacy so to shuffle the cards that we may be attacked by France, for then there would be reasonable prospect that Russia for a time would remain neutral.... But we must not hope to bring about this attack by waiting passively. Neither France, nor Russia, nor England need to attack in order to further their interests.... If we wish to bring about an attack by our opponents, we must initiate an active policy which, without attacking France, will so prejudice her interests or those of England, that both these States would feel themselves compelled to attack us. Opportunities for such procedure are offered both in Africa and in Europe.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 280.

372. When an unconscientious speculator is telling lies upon the Stock Exchange he is thinking only of his own profit, but when a diplomat is guilty of obscuring facts in a diplomatic negotiation he is thinking of his country.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol i., p. 91.

373. It is natural, and within certain limits, politically a matter of course, that the German Emperor should have thought that, until Germany had a strong fleet, we must try to keep on good terms with England, and even, on occasion, to make concessions.--GRAF E. V. REVENTLOW, D.A.P., p. 60.

374. No State can pledge its future to another. It knows no arbiter, and draws up all its treaties with this implied reservation.... Moreover, every sovereign State has the undoubted right to declare war at its pleasure, and is consequently entitled to repudiate its treaties.--H. v. TREITSCHKE, p. i., 28.

375. The question of alliances in war is always an open one, for circumstances may at any moment arise such as Bismarck referred to when he said: "No power is bound [or, we will add, entitled][37] to sacrifice important interests of its own on the altar of faithfulness to an alliance!"--GRAF E. v. REVENTLOW, D.A.P., p. 22.

376. It was a most serious mistake in German policy that a final settling of accounts with France was not effected at a time when the state of international affairs was favourable and success might confidently have been expected.... This policy somewhat resembles the supineness for which England has herself to blame, when she refused her assistance to the Southern States in the American War of Secession.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 239.

377. Since England committed the unpardonable blunder, from her point of view, of not supporting the Southern States in the American War of Secession, a rival to England's world-wide Empire has appeared on the other side of the Atlantic.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 95.

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

378. Perhaps the greatest danger for us Germans--greatest because it does not threaten us from without, but within our own hearts--is our magnanimity. O, there is something glorious about this virtue, and we Germans may be quite particularly proud of possessing it.... But woe to the people which does not stand as one man behind the statesman who, by dint of hard struggles with his own soul, has fought his way to the only true standpoint--namely, that _in international relations magnanimity is wholly out of place_, and that here the voice of expediency can alone be heard.--EIN DEUTSCHER, W.K.B.M., p. 12.

379. Through our policy of peace ... we deprive ourselves of the right of determining the time for bringing about a decision by force of arms, as Bismarck did in three wars, in which, thanks to his diplomatic adroitness, he forced upon his adversaries the outward appearance of declaring war, while in reality Prussia-Germany was the assailant. Bismarck is quoted in Germany as having discouraged preventive wars.... But we must not forget that the three great wars which Bismarck waged were in fact preventive. Even in 1870 the outbreak of war might have been stayed. It was only the brilliant manipulation (_geniale Fassung_) of the Ems telegram that put France in the wrong and drove her into war, just as Bismarck had foreseen.--K. v. STRANTZ, E.S.V., p. 38.

380. For the will of the State, no other principle exists but that of _expediency_ (_Zweckmaessigkeit_), which is at the same time _selfishness_; not, however, the short-sighted selfishness commended by Machiavelli, but _far-seeing, shrewdly-calculating_ selfishness.--EIN DEUTSCHER, W.K.B.M., p. 11.

381. Far-seeing selfishness does not exclude the endeavour to win the confidence of other nations, which can be won only by honesty. _But this honesty, at any rate on vital questions, ought on no account to be carried to the pitch of inexpedient Quixotism._ EIN DEUTSCHER, W.K.B.M., p. 11.

382. War was in our eyes the most honourable and the holiest means of awakening the people from its dazed condition. Whether this war came as an aggressive or as a defensive war was, in principle, a matter of indifference. That it came to us in the form of a war of defence was one of those historical strokes of luck which God vouchsafes to those peoples whom He loves. The time has not yet come to enquire whether the leaders of German foreign policy took deliberate measures to place us in the attitude of defence which the masses always regard as more moral. It may perhaps be so; but it is far from impossible that the disinclination for war which placed certain high dignitaries of the German Empire in constant opposition to the will of the people may have so far imposed upon our adversaries as to induce them to attack us.--K.A. KUHN, W.U.W., p. 9.

383. Treaties under international law are no more than _the formulated expression of the existent relations of power between States_. If these relations of power have so far changed that the real or imaginary vital interests of one of the States demand and render possible the alteration of such treaties, it is the simple duty of the leader of that State to effect the alteration by all conceivable means, so long as the risk does not appear greater than the anticipated advantage.--EIN DEUTSCHER, W.K.B.M., p. 7.

=Might is Right.=

(BEFORE THE WAR.)

384. The law of the strong holds good everywhere.--GENERAL V. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 18.

385. What does right matter to me? I have no need of it. What I can acquire by force, that I possess and enjoy; what I cannot obtain, I renounce, and I set up no pretensions to indefeasible right.... I have the right to do what I have the power to do.--M. STIRNER, D.E.S.E., p. 275.

386. Might is the supreme right, and the dispute as to what is right is decided by the arbitrament of war. War gives a biologically just decision.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 23.

387. Let it not be said that every people has a right to its existence (_Bestand_), its speech, &c. By making play with this principle, one may put on a cheap appearance of civilization, but only so long as the people in question ... does not stand in the way of any more powerful people.--J.L. REIMER, E.P.D., p. 129.

388. It is a persistent struggle for possessions, power and sovereignty that primarily governs the relations of one nation to another, and right is respected so far only as it is compatible with advantage.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 19.

389. The earth is constantly being divided anew among the strong and powerful. The smaller peoples disappear; they are necessarily absorbed by their larger neighbours.--PROF. E. HASSE, D.G., p. 169.

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

390. It is a base calumny to attribute to us the brutal principle that might is equivalent to right.--PROF. F. MEINECKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 29, p. 23.

391. In the age of the most tremendous mobilization of physical and spiritual forces the world has ever seen, we proclaim--no, we do not proclaim it, but it reveals itself--the Religion of Strength.--PROF. A. DEISSMANN, D.R.S.Z., No. 9, p. 24.

_See also Nos. 84, 499._

FOOTNOTES:

[35] Frederick the Great's principle was: "When kings want war they begin it, and leave learned professors to come after and prove that it was just."

[36] In other words, Bismarck always told the truth when it was absolutely convenient.

[37] Reventlow's interpolation.

ENGLAND, FRANCE & BELGIUM--ESPECIALLY ENGLAND

=The False Islanders.=

(BEFORE THE WAR.)

392. The climate, the want of wine, and lack of beautiful scenery, have all been obstacles in the way of English Kultur. H. V. TREITSCHKE, P., Vol. i., p. 222.

393. The English nationalism is also cosmopolitanism: the service of his own nation appears to the Englishman the service of mankind. For he regards his own nation as the mistress of the highest Kultur-treasures, to which other nations look up in order to admire and imitate. Thus Anglification is identified with the furtherance of human Kultur.--G. v. SCHULZE-GAEVERNITZ, B.I., p. 49.

394. England's strength resides in arrogant self-esteem, Germany's greatness in the modest appreciation of everything foreign. England is self-seeking to the point of insanity, Germany is just even to self-depreciation.--TH. FONTANE (about 1854), E.B., p. 389.

395. At the time of the illness of the Emperor Frederick, Treitschke, at the end of a long speech, summed up his sentiments in these words: "It must come to this that no German dog shall for evermore accept a piece of bread from the hand of an Englishman." These words, uttered in an outburst of passion, aroused no mirth, but went to the heart of the audience.--E.B., p. 395.

396. After the Boer War, Wildenbruch was done with England.... She was dead for him, and erased from the Book of Life. All the contempt which now leads us to raise, not the sword, but the whip, against that abortion compounded of low greed and shameless hypocrisy, he then screamed out to the world in words which we could not even to-day make bitterer or more scathing.--PROF. B. LITZMANN, D.R.S.Z., No. 12, p. 13.

397. It is just as Schleiermacher said a hundred years ago: "These false islanders, wrongly admired by many, have no other watchword but gain and enjoyment. They are never in earnest about anything that transcends practical utility."--PASTOR M. HENNIG, D.K.U.W., p. 37.

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

=Hymns of Hate.=

398. The war has laid bare the British soul, and a cold shudder goes through the Germanic Kultur-world.--"GERMANUS," B.U.D.K., p. 52.

398a. A hundred times more glowing than our steel, shall the mark of our contempt be branded upon thee. Wander thou as a lonely Ahasuerus, restless and unhappy, over land and sea. And if thou sayest, "I have flung the firebrand of hell from earth to heaven, over sea and land, I have struck God and mankind in the face, and must now bear all their curses, an everlasting stigma seared with fire," then shalt thou speak the truth for the first time.--OTTO RIEMASCH, quoted in H.A.H., p. 49.

399. No people has done so much harm to civilization as the English.--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 122.

400. King William I. issued on August 11, 1870, a proclamation to the effect that "Germany made war only against the armies of the enemy, not against the civil population."... There can be no doubt that, in the case of an eventual landing in England, the proclamation of the Emperor William II. to the English people would be couched in very different terms from those in which King William I. addressed the people of France.--A HAMBURG MERCHANT, E.S.S.H., pp. 8, 10.

401. England has nothing but the instincts of a beast of prey. This alone can explain her foreign and domestic policy of the past decades. Her one object has been to increase her outward possessions and to let her own people starve.--K.L.A. SCHMIDT, D.E.E., p. 6.

401a. We willingly leave to the Britons their "freedom." It is nothing but the freedom of the English aristocracy to impose its will on the English people. It is the freedom of individuals, bought with the misery of millions and with the blood of hirelings.--PROF. W. V. BLUME, D.D.M., p. 21.

_But see No. 432, on the disgusting "comfort" of the British workman._

402. We need not be ashamed of our hatred [for England]. It is rooted in our love for our innocently suffering fellow-countrymen. This sanctifies it. The Gospel does not say, "If any one strikes thy child on the right cheek, turn to him also the left cheek of thy child," It speaks only of one's own cheek. But it also speaks of the hell-fire of which the offender stands in danger.--PROF. R. LEONHARD, D.R.S.Z., No. 16.

403. Our war expenses will be paid by the vanquished. The black-white-red flag shall float over all seas.... The whole world shall stand open to us, to develop the energy of the German nature in unhampered competition.... We must break the tyranny which England, in base self-seeking and shameless contempt of law, exercises over the seas.--PROF. O. v. GIERKE, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 23.

404. It is high time to shake off the illusion that there is any moral law, or any historical consideration, that imposes upon us any sort of restraint with regard to England. Only absolute ruthlessness makes any impression on the Englishman; anything else he regards as weakness.... _A corsaire, corsaire et demi!_--PROF. O. FLAMM, E.B., p. 400.

405. That foreign Kulturs offer us things of spiritual value, whether it be for our enjoyment or by way of a challenge, is true--always, of course, with the exception of England, which does not produce anything of spiritual value.--PROF. W. SOMBART, H.U.H., p. 137.

406. Our real fight is against England, the master of calculation. The miraculous fights against the commonplace, German spirit against English shrewdness, imperturbable heroism against crafty statesmanship. Even those people who now think that they are fighting in the name of civilization against us barbarians, will shortly discover their mistake, and recognize the German miracle which has come to save the world from the spirit of calculating rationalism.--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 105.

407. It is certain that the present generation of continental Europe, which has been for fifteen months a daily witness of Great Britain's _barbarous_ and infamous conduct of the war--the unexampled massacres, the shameless political falsity and hypocrisy, the cowardly ill-treatment of prisoners and wounded!--cannot possibly make any move towards reconciliation.--PROF. E. HAECKEL, E.W., p. 113.

408. Hastily, and just at the time appointed for the murder of Franz Ferdinand, a friendly visit of battleships to Kiel is arranged[38]--for the other attempts to spy out the harbour had failed.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 67.

408a. We have now ascertained that the plan for the assassination of the Austrian Crown-Prince was known in the Serbian Legation in London, and we shall certainly soon learn that it was known in other places as well.--K.L.A. SCHMIDT, D.E.E., p. 7.

409. That the blood-guiltiness of this "greatest crime in world-history" lies at the door of _England alone_ and that she has for more than forty years been plotting the _annihilation_ of her dangerous German competitor, has been established by numerous facts ... and, during the past three months, by the naive admissions of English statesmen.--PROF. E. HAECKEL, E.W., p. 113.

410. It is a pity that Nietzsche did not live to see the success of his teaching in England.... Britain may claim to have bred the Superman in the highest potency yet attained. He has made a clean sweep of the old British morality. He is coldly and unfeelingly inspired by a _frightful craving for power_, that wades through rivers of blood, and knows neither compunction nor pity. These are weaknesses which the Superman has conquered.--"GERMANUS," B.U.D.K., p. 9.

_But see No. 132._

411. It is a pity that men like Newton, Darwin, Shakespeare, Marlborough, Nelson, Wellington, Spurgeon, etc., should have their birth recorded in British registers. But they are exceptions. Among the millions of the Cities of the Plain, there must be a few just men.--PASTOR B. LOeSCHE, D.S.E.S.D., p. 15.

411a. Death and destruction to the poison-mixers on the banks of the Thames! Cain, Ahab, Judas, Ephialtes, and the disciples of these master-assassins, whatever they may be called, are positive heroes in comparison with the ruffians who, jeering at all Kultur, have committed a crime against innocent blood which no words can characterize.--PASTOR B. LOeSCHE,[39] D.S.E.S.D., p. 4.

412. The unexampled sorrow and need begotten by the gigantic world-war conjured up by England's brutal egoism--"_the greatest crime in the whole world-history_"--has inclined many suffering people to suicide.--PROF. E. HAECKEL, E.W., p. 39.