“ 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. ”

“ War does not depend on the human will, but is for the most part an ineluctable, elementary happening, a dæmonic 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. ”

“ Germany is precisely—who would venture to deny it—the representative of the highest morality, of the purest humanity, of the most chastened Christianity. He, therefore, who fights for its maintenance, its victory, fights for the highest blessings of humanity itself, and for human progress. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We must vanquish, because the downfall of Germanism would mean the downfall of humanity.—"Six War Sermons," by Pastor K. König, quoted in H.A.H., p. 99.
22. When the German stands leaning on his mighty sword, clad in steel from top to toe, whosoever will may, down below, dance round his feet—they may rail at him and throw mud at him, as the "intellectuals" ... of England, France, Russia and Italy are now doing—in his lofty repose he will not allow himself to be disturbed, and will only reflect as did his ancestors. ”

“ Can it be a mere coincidence that, in the first war which Germany has waged since Nietzsche entered upon his apostolate of ruthlessness, the German armies should have been animated, to all appearance, by a literal interpretation of his "beast of prey" ideal? ”

“ 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 ... ”

“ 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!" ”

“ We will hate the will of the nation which has so basely set upon our peace-loving people in order to destroy us. We will hate the Satanic powers of arrogance and selfishness, of treachery and cruelty, of lying and hypocrisy. We will fight without scruple, and employ all means of destruction, however terrible they may be. We cannot do otherwise; but we do not hate the individual human beings.... The true, beneficent hatred applies to things, not persons.—The Fifth Petition in the Lord's Prayer and England, by Pastor J. Lahusen, quoted in H.A.H., p. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A war fought and lost would destroy our laboriously gained political importance ... would shake the influence of German thought in the civilized world, and thus check the general progress of mankind in its healthy development, for which a flourishing Germany is the essential condition. Our next war will be fought for the highest interests of our country and of mankind. ”

“ Indeed, few contemporary German names of much distinction are absent from my list. Wilamowitz-Möllendorf, Harnack, Wundt, Oncken, Eucken, Haeckel, Naumann, Rohrbach, Sombart, Liszt, all join with a will in the chorus of arrogance, ambition, and hate. Many quotations come from a series of pamphlets called Deutsche Reden in schwerer Zeit, to which all the most eminent professors of Berlin University have contributed, with some from other universities. ”

“ The German God is not only the theme of some of our poets and prophets, but also a historian like Max Lenz has, with fiery tongue and in deep thankfulness, borne witness to the revelation of the German God in our holy war. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ For the German sportsman "takes more pleasure in the life that surrounds him and which he protects, than in the shot which only the last hot virile craving (Mannesgier) wrings from him, and which he fires only when he knows that he will kill, painlessly kill. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is my firm belief that the country to which God gave Luther, Goethe, Bach, Wagner, Moltke, Bismarck and William I., has still a great mission before it, to work for the welfare of humanity. God has put us to a hard probation ... that we may the better serve as His instrument for the saving of mankind ”

“ True love for our people and its children commands us to think of their future, [109] 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. ”

“ But one might as well compile an Old Testament anthology and omit Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. For, whatever the Germans may say, they are the major prophets of the new-German spirit. Treitschke is the prophet of tribalism, Nietzsche of ruthlessness, Bernhardi of ambition. It is absurd to say that they are not influential. Treitschke may have fallen [21] somewhat out of fashion in the years immediately preceding the war, but his spirit had permeated the political thought of a whole generation. To the living influence of Nietzsche there is a host of witnesses. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It will be noted that many of the wildest shrieks of self-glorification and ferocity proceed from clerics and theologians.
The world as a whole has been curiously blind to the inordinate self-valuation characteristic of the German spirit. So long ago as the beginning of last century, we find Fichte assuring his countrymen that: "There [8] are no two ways about it: if you founder, the whole of humanity founders with you, without hope of any possible restoration." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.... ”

“ Success is necessary to gain influence over the masses, and this influence can only be obtained by continually appealing to the national imagination and enlisting its interest in great universal ideas and great national ambitions.... We Germans have a far greater and more urgent duty towards civilization to perform than the Great Asiatic Power. We, like the Japanese, can only fulfil it by the sword.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. ”

“ All the deep things: courage, patriotism, faithfulness, moral purity, conscience, the sense of duty, activity on a moral basis, inward riches, intellect, industry, and so forth [!] —no other nation possesses all these things in such high perfection as we do.—"On the German God," by Pastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 76.
138. Fichte was right in calling us the people of the soul (Gemüt) ... [in the sense that] the depth of feeling common to us Germans has become a power controlling our activity and permeating our history, to a degree unknown to any other people. ”

“ There is among us much unripe, unclear Nietzsche enthusiasm: many a German ass has thrown the lion's skin of the great man round his shoulders, and thinks he has thereby become a philosopher and prophet. ”

“ 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 ... ”

“ 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, Blücher, Moltke, Bismarck, the hard men of blood. It is to them, who [148] offered up thousands of lives, that the soul of the people goes out with tenderest affection, with positively adoring gratitude. ”

“ But in the very best there is little that gives one even literary pleasure, and nothing that shows any depth of humanity, any generous feeling, any openness of outlook. Even a happy phrase is so rare that, when it does occur, one treasures it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 æsthetes.—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 [57] to underrate what is his own. With foreigners it is just the other way. ”

“ Then all men would ask themselves, "How comes it that the peoples no longer understand each other? Whither has that great, serene power departed, that brought near the souls of the peoples, each to each? ”