Gems (?) of German Thought Part 7

[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 a.s.sume 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 G.o.d, 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 Grossere 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 Nurnberg had been bombed, it can only have been because the German Government spread the report, through the mouth of its Amba.s.sador 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 wis.h.i.+ng 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. Ha.s.sE, 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 l.u.s.t 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 ma.s.s_ 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. Ha.s.sE, 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 ma.s.ses 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 ent.i.tled 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.