[3]It may, of course, be possible to find many passages in which English writers say that, as a matter of history, God, or Heaven, or Providence, has given the British race great possessions throughout the world—a fact which the Germans are the first to admit and resent. But this is totally different from claiming a Divine mission to rule, or to civilize, or to "heal" the world.
[3]It may, of course, be possible to find many passages in which English writers say that, as a matter of history, God, or Heaven, or Providence, has given the British race great possessions throughout the world—a fact which the Germans are the first to admit and resent. But this is totally different from claiming a Divine mission to rule, or to civilize, or to "heal" the world.
[4]"Das Deutsche Volk in schwerer Zeit," by R.H. Bartsch, p. 118.
[4]"Das Deutsche Volk in schwerer Zeit," by R.H. Bartsch, p. 118.
[5]Thou must mount and win, thou must triumph in victory or else sink into subjection—thou must be either anvil or hammer.
[5]Thou must mount and win, thou must triumph in victory or else sink into subjection—thou must be either anvil or hammer.
[6]Since then 'tis the joyous German right with the hammer to win land. We are of the race of the Hammer-God, and mean to inherit his world-empire. [This poem appeared in 1878, was reprinted by the author in 1900, in a selection from his own works, and is quoted in "Deutsche Geschichte in Liedern," Vol I., p. 10. The last two lines form the motto of Otto Richard Tannenberg'sGross-Deutschland: die Arbeit des 20 Jahrhunerts.]
[6]Since then 'tis the joyous German right with the hammer to win land. We are of the race of the Hammer-God, and mean to inherit his world-empire. [This poem appeared in 1878, was reprinted by the author in 1900, in a selection from his own works, and is quoted in "Deutsche Geschichte in Liedern," Vol I., p. 10. The last two lines form the motto of Otto Richard Tannenberg'sGross-Deutschland: die Arbeit des 20 Jahrhunerts.]
[7]It will be found by any one who puts the matter to the test that in no case is there any unfairness in taking these brief extracts out of their context. The context is almost always an aggravating rather than an extenuating circumstance.
[7]It will be found by any one who puts the matter to the test that in no case is there any unfairness in taking these brief extracts out of their context. The context is almost always an aggravating rather than an extenuating circumstance.
1.No people ever attains to national consciousness without over-rating itself. The Germans are always in danger of enervating their nationality through possessing too little of this rugged pride.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 19.
For further testimonies to German humility see Nos.17,20,23,36,51,106,122,206,206b,394.
2.The German people must rise as a master-folk above the inferior peoples of Europe and the primitive peoples of the colonies.—G.U.M., p. 8.
2a.The German people is always right, because it is the German people, andnumbers 87 million souls.—O.R. Tannenberg, G.D., p. 231.
3.The French, under Napoleon, wanted to sacrifice the whole world to their insatiable thirst for glory, and the English treat every barrier opposed to their hunger for exploitation as a challenge to their superiority. Great is the gulf that separates these cupidities from the hitherto unrivalled moral elevation of the sense of honour in the German people.—F. Lange, R.D., p. 220 (1901).
Compare Section V., "Machiavelism."
4.My soul is heavy when I see the many enemies surrounding Germany.... And my thoughts fly forward into the far future, and ask, "Will there ever be a time when there is no more Germany?" ... How poor and empty would the rich world then become! 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? Who has shattered the marvellousmirror from which the countenance of the world was thoughtfully reflected?" Then they would strike their heads and their breasts in despair, crying: "We have criminally robbed ourselves of our wealth! The world, the great, rich world, has grown waste, poor, and empty: the world has no longer a soul, she has no longer a Germany!"—E. v. Wildenbruch(1889), quoted in D.R.S.Z., No. 12.
5.The proud conviction forces itself upon us with irresistible power that a high, if not the highest, importance for the entire development of the human race is ascribable to this German people.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 72.
6.The German is a hero born, and believes that he can hack and hew his way through life.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 230.
7.We are still child-like in our inmost feelings, innocent in our pleasures, simple in our inclinations, in spite of individual aberrations; we are still prolific, and our race multiplies, so that our own soil has long been insufficient to support us all. It istherefore doubly imperative for us to remain heroes, for who knows whether the Germanic migrations are destined to remain isolated phenomena in history! The peoples around us are either overripe fruits which the next storm may bring to the ground, such as the Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, and a great part of the Slavs; or they are, indeed, proud of their race, but senile and artificial in their Kultur, slow in their increase and boundless in their ambition, like the French; or, confident in the unassailability of their country, like the English and the Americans, they have forgotten justice and made their selfishness the measure of all things. Who knows whether we Germans are not the rod predestined for the chastening of these degeneracies, who knows whether we may not again, like our fathers in dim antiquity, have to gird on our swords and go forth to seek dwelling-places for our increase?—F. Lange, R.D., p. 159 (1893).
8.We are distinguished from other nations by our honourable love foroutspoken convictions, which would make a cut-and-dried party system distasteful to us.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 148.
9.The surest means of serving the ends of humanity is to work at the elaboration of our national personality, and to develop the full strength of its crystalline radiance.—F. Bley, W.D.D., p. 23.
10.We have forced ourselves, though the last-comers, the virtual upstarts, between the States which have earlier gained their place, and now claim our share in the dominion of the world, after we have for centuries been paramount only in the realm of the intellect.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 13.
11.Why must teachers and schoolboys, year out, year in, worry about the old Greeks and Romans? To foster idealism in the young, we are told! But for that there is no need to go to Rome and Athens. Our German history offers us ideals enough, and is richer in deeds of heroism than Rome and Athens put together.—General Keim,at meeting of the German Defence League, Cassel, Feb., 1913;Nippold, D.C., p. 82.
12.History teaches us that supreme treasure of humanity, German idealism, can be preserved only in the stout bark of national development.—F. Bley, W.D.D., p. 23.
On Idealism, see also Nos.45,276,442,464.
13.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. This will invest it with importance in the world's history. "World-power or downfall!" will be our rallying-cry.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 154.
14.In our German people, peaceful dispositions and war-like prowess are so happily mixed that in this respect no otherpeople on the earth can rival us, and none seems so clearly predestined to light humanity on the way to true progress.—F. Lange, R.D., p. 158 (1893).
15.The Latin has no feeling for the beauty of a forest; when he takes his repose in it he lies upon his stomach, while we rest upon our backs.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 206.
16.If we compare our time with the great eras of our fathers, we are perfectly capable of a sober self-criticism. We have no use for illusions and self-deceptions on the way to our indispensable victory.—Prof. F. Meinecke, D.D.E., p. 10.
17.Where in the whole world can a people be found who have such cause for manly pride as we? But we are equally far removed from presumption and from arrogance.—"War Devotions," byPastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 117.
18.As the German bird, the eagle, hovers high over all the creatures of the earth,so also should the German feel that he is raised high above all other nations who surround him, and whom he sees in the limitless depth beneath him.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 143.
19.Germany is our existence, our faith, the meaning and depth of the world.—"On the German God," byPastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 84.
20.It is not only our enemies who, by their underground intrigues, have sought to divert from us the sympathies of other peoples. If we would speak frankly, we must admit that we ourselves are partly to blame in the matter. A great part of the blame is due to our insufficient self-esteem and self-valuation—an inveterate German failing.—Prof. Dr. R. Jannasch, W.D.U.S., p. 22.
21.Germany is the future of humanity.—"On the German God," byPastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 78.
21aGod defend the noble cause of Deutschtum. There is no other hope forthe future of humanity.—H.S. Chamberlain, inHamburger Nachrichten, September, 1914.
21b.We must vanquish, because the downfall of Germanism would mean the downfall of humanity.—"Six War Sermons," byPastor 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.Oderint dum metuant.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 131.
23.We will not conceal from ourselves that these victories for which our bells ring and our flags wave, and for which we thank our God, may become a danger to us, should they make us vain and arrogant,boastful and indolent! God forbid! We will hold fast to our old modesty, with which we have so often been reproached, and which has indeed often enough degenerated into the undervaluing of ourselves and overvaluing of that which is foreign and despicable.—K. Engelbrecht, D.D.D.K., p. 53.
24.We must develop, not into "Europeans,'" but into ever higher Germans.... What sort of a European would be formed by a mixture of the heroic German with the calculating Englishman? If the result was a man who thought half calculatingly and half heroically, it would be an exaltation for the Englishman, but a degradation for the German.—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 125.
25.If we come victorious out of this war, we shall be the first people on the earth, a rich stream of gold will pour over our land, and this greatness, these riches, may be a blessing to us if we always remember that true greatness, true riches, lie only in the possession ofmoraladvantages, and that to the fact of our possessing suchadvantages we owe our success.—W. Helm, W.W.S.M., p. 33.
26.Do you not see, Albion, that the German Michel,[8]on whom you looked down with such contempt, is now transformed into the Archangel Michael, and, encountering you with his flaming sword, triumphs over the race of the fallen angels and all the offspring of hell.—F. Delitzsch, D.R.S.Z., No. 13, p. 21.
27.We must win, because, if we were defeated, no one in thewhole worldcould any longer cherish any remnant of belief in truth and right, in the Good, or, indeed, in any higher Power which wisely and justly guides the destinies of humanity.—W. Helm, W.W.S.M., p. 8.
28.Every great artistic achievement of France and Italy since the time of the Romans can be traced to families and classes with a strong mixture of German blood, and, especially in earlier times, to the descendants of Germanic stocks, who hadkept their blood, or at any rate their nature (Art) pure.—H.A. Schmid, D.R.S.Z., No. 25, p. 21.
29.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. Its defeat, its decline, would mean a falling back to the worst barbarism.—"War Sermons," byPastor H. Francke, quoted in H.A.H., p. 68.
30.No nation in the world can give us anything worth mentioning in the field of science or technology, art or literature, which we would have any trouble in doing without. Let us reflect on the inexhaustible wealth of the German character, which contains in itself everything of real value that the Kultur of man can produce.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 135.
31.We have in Germany the best Press in the world, and are in that respect superiorto all other countries.—Prof. A.V. Harnack, W.W.S.G., p. 19.
32.Germany's fight against the whole world is in reality the battle of the spirit against the whole world's infamy, falsehood, and devilish cunning.—"On the German God," byPastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 81.
33.German patriotism strikes its deep roots into the fruitful soil of a heroic view of the world, and around its crown there gleam the rays of the highest spiritual and artistic culture.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 71.
34.This combination of clearness of purpose and heroic spirit of sacrifice was unknown in world-history before August, 1914. Not till then was the new German human being born.... Is this new creation to be the human being of the future?—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 103.
35.Verily it has long been an honour and a joy, a source of renown and ofhappiness, to be a German—the year 1914 has made it a title of nobility.—"War Devotions," byPastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 133.
36.When Luther, in the domain of religion, characterized as unevangelical the conception of merit and reward, and energetically banished the huckster-spirit from religious feeling, he opened to the German thought the widest possibilities of victory.... A specially Germanic way of feeling, a Germanic modesty and distinction of thought, was here powerfully promoted by means of the Gospel. True distinction is always modest, in the sense of being unobtrusive and not bragging of deserts!—K. Engelbrecht, D.D.D.K., p. 56.
37.Since the great German Renaissance of the new humanism, the Hellenic has become the truly German.... As the Peloponnesian War divided the States of Hellas into two camps, so this war has divided the States of Europe. But this time it will be Athens and her spiritualpower that will conquer.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 40.
38.After the conclusive victories for which we may confidently hope ... the whole habitable earth will far more than hitherto bend its gaze upon us, to marvel at (anzustaunen) our standard-setting [artistic] achievements.—G.E. Pazaurek, P.K.U.K., p. 23.
39.A theory of the origin of species remained in England a series of isolated observations, which pointed to certain conjectures; in Germany it was transformed with resolute daring into an all-embracing whole.Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 33.
40.Never have ye seen a strong people and Empire in whiter garments of peace. We offered you palm branches, we offered you justice, ye offered us envy and hate.—J. Hort, quoted in H.A.H., p. 51.
41.Take heed that ye be counted among the blessed, who show declining England, depraved Belgium, licentious France,uncouth Russia, the unconquerable youthful power and manhood of the German people, in a manner never to be forgotten.—"War Devotions," byPastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 131.
42.We may be sure that our French adversaries, when at Metz and St. Quentin our hosts hurled themselves upon them, saw above us in the clouds the Germans of 1870, and even the Prussians of 1813, once more swooping down upon them, and shuddered at the spectacle. And, in spite of all the boasting of Sir John [Bull], our cousins from beyond the sea must long ago have recognized that it is better to fightwithPrussians against the French, thanvice versa.—Prof. G. Roethe, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 29.
43.He who, in these days, sets forth to defend the German hearth, sets forth in a holy fight ... in which one stakes life itself, this single, sweet, beloved life, for the life of a whole nation, a nation which is God's seed-corn for the future.—"On theGerman God," byPastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 78.
44.Our enemies are fighting us in order to restore to the world the freedom, the Kultur, which we threaten. What monstrous mendacity! Reproduce if you can the German national school teacher, the German upper-master, the German university professor! You have lagged far behind us, you are hopelessly inferior! Hence your chagrin, your envy, your fear! Powerless to rival us, you foam with hate and rage, you make unblushing calumny your weapon, and would like to exterminate us, to wipe us off the face of the earth, in order to free yourselves from your burden of shame.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 38.
45.We take refuge in our quite peculiar idealism, and dream—alas, aloud!—of our ideal mission for the saving (Heil) of mankind. Foreign countries turn away enraged from such unheard-of self-glorification and are quite certain that, behind the high-sounding words, the arrogance of"Prussian militarism" is concealed.—H. v. Wolzogen, G.Z.K., p. 64.
46.The future must lead France once again to our side, we will heal it of its aberrations, and, in brotherly subordination to us, it may share with us the task of guiding the fate of the world.... As we feel ourselves free from hatred toward the kindred Kultur-people of France, we have taken up the gauntlet with Teutonic pride, and we will use our weapons so that the admiration of the world, and of our enemies themselves, shall be accorded to us.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 26.
47.When we were attacked, our German wrath awakened, and when we could not but recognize in the attack a long-plotted treason against our love of peace, our wrath became fierce and wild. Then, no doubt, some of us spoke, in our first excitement, of hatred; but this was a misinterpretation of our feeling. Seeing ourselves hated, we imagined that hate must be answered with hate; but our German spirit (Gemüt) was incapable of that passion.Lienhard rightly ... deplores the form of the popular Hymn of Hate against England, which, characteristically enough, proceeds from a poet of Jewish race.—H. v. Wolzogen, G.Z.K., p. 68.
48.Under the protection of the greatest of armies, we have laboured at scientific, social, and economic progress; our enemies trusted to the rule of force and to chatter.—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 44.
49.Work as untiringly as we, think with as much energy, and we will welcome you as equals at our side.... Imitate us and we will honour you. Seek to constrain us by war, and we will thrash you to annihilation, and despise you as a robber pack.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 38.
50.The German Army (in which I of course include the Navy) is to-day the greatest institute for moral education in the world.—H.S. Chamberlain, K.A., p. 78.
51.It is true that the breast of every soldier swelled with a noble pride at the thought that he was privileged to wear the German uniform, which history has made a garb of honour above all others; but as for arrogance, not one of them, thank God, was capable of the stupidity which alone can engender it.—K. Engelbrecht, D.D.D.K., p. 32.
52.From all sides testimonies are flowing in as to the noble manner in which our troops conduct the war.—"War Devotions," byPastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 124.
52a.We thank our German Army that it has kept spotless the shield of humanity and chivalry. It is true we believe that every bone of a German soldier, with his heroic heart and immortal soul, is worth more than a cathedral.—Prof. W. Kahl, D.R.S.Z., No. 6, p. 5.
52b.We see everywhere how our soldiers respect the sacred defencelessness of woman and child.—Prof. G. Roethe, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 23.
52c.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 inrespect 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. The officials and clergy of conquered territory have frequently borne express testimony to this fact.—Pastor M. Hennig, D.K.U.W., p. 57.
54.The losses we suffer are—even if the losses of the enemy were ten times more numerous—infinitely greater in value and infinitely more painful.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 8.
54a.One single highly cultured German warrior, of those who are, alas! falling in thousands, represents a higher intellectual and moral life-value than hundreds of the raw children of nature (Naturmenschen) whom England and France, Russia and Italy, oppose to them.—Prof. E. Haeckel, E.W., p. 36.
54b.When one of our ships has to sink, its going-down is even more glorious than a victory.—Prof. U. v. Wilamowitz-Möllendorf, R., pt. iii., p. 48.
55.Where German soldiers had to seize the incendiary torch, or even to proceed to the slaughter of citizens, it was only in pursuance of the rights of war, and for protection in real need. Had they obeyed the dictates of their hearts, they would rather have shared their soup and bread with the defenceless foe.... This spirit of humanity we will preserve and cherish to the end.—Prof. W. Kahl, D.R.S.Z., No. 6, p. 5.
56.Lastly, we must not forget the German humour.... It sometimesproceeds from a firm faith in God, sometimes from a cheerful optimism, always from a serenity of spirit which nothing can disturb. Thus German soldiers out in the field, the moment there is a pause in the fighting, set about trying to ride on the camel which they have taken from the Zouaves.... So, too, a non-commissioned officer, during a fight, admonishes a soldier: "Shoot quietly, Kowalski, shoot quietly! You'll frighten away the whole French Army of the North with your confounded banging!"—Pastor M. Hennig, D.K.U.W., p. 59.
57.Apart from the fighting quality of these troops, their peaceful work behind all the fronts bears witness to a thorough spiritual culture (Bildung) and a living organization such as the world has never seen, and this again indicates an average level of culture in all grades—of spiritual development and moral responsibility—to which no people in the world can show anything in the smallest degree comparable.—H.S. Chamberlain, D.Z., p. 19.
58.Even when, for once, a Latin writer is favourably disposed towards Germany ... he can see in what moves his admiration nothing but animal vitality. "This terrible Germany," he says, "like a wonderful beast of the jungle, springs upon all its foes and fixes its fangs in them." How sadly he here misinterprets the nature of German heroism!—G. Misch, V.G.D.K., p. 9.
59.It is characteristic that our cruiserWilhelm der Grosse, in order to spare the women and children on board, let an English merchant ship pass unharmed,[9]which by International Law it has the right to sink ... and then come Messieurs the English and repay this act of magnanimity by sinking the same cruiser in a neutral harbour, contrary to all International Law.—Prof. G. Roethe, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 23.
60.The absence of any sort of animosity towards other people is a strikingcharacteristic of the Germans—and of the Germans alone.[10]—H.S. Chamberlain, K.A., p. 12.
See also No.497.
61.It has been said that it is un-German to wish to be only German. That again is a consequence of our spiritual wealth. We understand all foreign nations; none of them understands us, and none of them can understand us.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 135.
62.The historian and economist Sombart has said: "We understand all foreign nations, no foreign nation understands or can understand us." In these words he rejects all community of Kultur with other peoples, and especially the so-called "Western European Ideas."—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 124.
63.In the world of the spirit, the victory of German thought seemed already almost decided. For it was able to comprehend the others, but they could not comprehend it.—G. Misch, V.G.D.K., p. 19.
64.We are still the most wide-hearted and receptive of people, a people that cannot live if it does not make its own the spiritual values of the other peoples. We can already say that we know the outer world better than they know us.—Prof. F. Meinecke, D.D.E., p. 35.
65.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 andto underrate what is his own. With foreigners it is just the other way. We Germans know about them, but they know absolutely nothing about us.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 34.
67.Apart from what Professor Larsen has said in Denmark, and Dr. Gino Bertolini in Italy, about German militarism ... we may designate as nonsense everything that foreigners, in low or in high estate, have recently said on this subject. This is a new proof of the fact that foreigners cannot understand us, apart from a few outstanding personalities whom a kind fate has borne aloft to the heights of the German spirit.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 82.
See also Nos.136-145.
68.TheKulturof the Germans [Germanen] is actually the stimulus to our present EuropeanCivilizationwith which we are conquering the world.—J.L. Reimer, E.P.D., p. 31.
69.Germanism, when it rightly understands itself, and remains true to its nature, is childlike and manlike, at once tender and strong, full of genuinely human simplicity, and therefore of irreplaceable value to Kultur.—F. Lange, R.D., p. 27 (1890).
70.The champions of the so-called race-idea are clear as to the importance of the Germanic race for our civilization and Kultur.... Their meritorious work has converted the dim divinings of instinct into the certainty of knowledge; and yet a sense of oppression steals upon us when we think of what still remains to be done (as they all agree) against a hostile world in arms, both of the flesh and of the spirit—a world of treachery and hypocrisy, of error and of fanaticism, of stupidity and of craft.—J.L. Reimer, E.P.D., p. 50.
70a.Kultur is best promoted when the strongest individual Kultur, that of a given nation, enlarges its field of activity at the expense of the other national Kulturs. If we one day come into conflict with theMartians, then humanity—all the peoples of the earth—will have common interests: but not until then.—K. Wagner, K., p. 46.
71.I cannot accept the definition of Kultur which identifies it with "form," with the harmonious "rhythm" which, in the English, for example, permeates and unifies everything, from the highest spiritual life to clothes, footwear and table manners.... I am of opinion that we shall apply to this care for "form," for "rhythm," and whatever results from it, the name of "civilization," reserving the nobler word "Kultur" for higher values, and that we should look to our army and the corps of officers to endow us with, and educate us in, these higher values.—F. Lange, R.D., p. 217 (1901).
72.Our belief is that the salvation of the whole Kultur of Europe depends upon the victory which German "militarism" is about to achieve.—Manifesto signed by 3,500 "Hochschullehreren" (professors andlecturers), quoted byProf. U. v. Wilamowitz-Möllendorf, R., pt. ii, p. 33.
73.If Fate has selected us to assume the leadership in the Kultur-life of the peoples, we will not shrink from this great and lofty mission.—G.E. Pazaurek, P.K.U.K., p. 23.
74.At bottom we Germans are fighting for the same thing which the Greeks defended against the Persians, the Romans against the Carthaginians and Egyptians, the Franks against Islam: namely, the chivalrous European way of thinking, which is ever being threatened by brutal force and puling baseness. We stand once more at a watershed of Kultur.—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 119.
75.If we are beaten—which God and our strong arm forbid—all the higher Kultur of our hemisphere, which it was our mission to guard, sinks with us into the grave.—Prof. A. v. Harnack, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 26.
76.That it will be German Kultur that will send forth its rays from the centre of our continent, there can be no possible doubt.—Prof. O. v. Gierke, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 19.
77.We are indeed entrusted here on earth with a doubly sacred mission: not only to protect Kultur ... against the narrow-hearted huckster-spirit of a thoroughly corrupted and inwardly rotten commercialism (Jobbertum), but also to impart Kultur in its most august purity, nobility and glory to the whole of humanity, and thereby contribute not a little to its salvation.—Ein Deutscher, W.K.B.M., p. 40.
78.[Germany has neglected] the highest duty of every Kultur-State—to carry its Kultur into foreign parts, and to win the confidence and affection of other peoples.—F. v. Liszt, E.M.S., p. 12.
79.The idea of the exclusive justification of one's own Kultur which is innate in the French and English, is foreign to us. But we are conscious of the incomparable value of German Kultur, and will for the futureguard it against being adulterated by less valuable imports. We do not force it upon any one, but we believe that its own inner greatness will everywhere procure it the recognition which is its due.—Prof. O. v. Gierke, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 25.
80.The more German Kultur remains faithful to itself, the better will it be able to enlighten the understanding of the foreign races absorbed, incorporated into the Empire, and to make them see that only from German Kultur can they derive those treasures which they need for the fertilizing of their own particular life.—Prof. O. v. Gierke, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 19.
81.We will not in the future let foreign idols be forced upon us, but will serve our own Gods.—Prof. Rudolf Eucken, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.
82.Germanism was for several decades, in spite of the mighty and over-towering height of its Kultur, hindered in the imparting of this Kultur to other nations. In the first years after the war [of 1870] this was not painfully felt, as a powerfulexchangeof Kulturwas still in progress between different parts of the German Empire.... But when this exchange of Kultur between the German stocks had run its course, and the Germanization of the frontier districts [Poland, Alsace] had reached its limit, then the spiritual need of the German victor and conqueror began to make itself felt. He became a teacher without scholars, he had no longer an audience.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 11.
See also No.235a.
83.Our German Kultur has, in its unique depth, something shrinking and severe (Sprödes und Herbes), it does not obtrude itself, or readily yield itself up; it must be earnestly sought after and lovingly assimilated from within. This love[11]was lacking in our neighbours; wherefore they easily came to look upon us with the eyes of hatred.—Prof. R. Eucken, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.
84.And the graves which border the path to glory of the Romans, the Germans,the British and the French, the stench of robbery, plunder and theft which hangs around these millions of graves? Must Kultur rear its domes over mountains of corpses, oceans of tears, and the death-rattle of the conquered?Yes, it must![There follows an image too grotesquely indecent to be quoted.] 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.Væ victis!—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 10.
85.The whole of European Kultur ... is brought to a focus on this German soil and in the hearts of the German people. It would be foolish to express oneself on this point with modesty and reserve. We Germans represent the latest and the highest achievement of European Kultur.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 13.
86.The Kultur-mission of a people is fulfilled when there are no longer any people of the same race and kindred to which their Kultur has still to be imparted.... Our Kultur-mission has in view some hundred millions of Slavs, and draws its geographical frontier-line at the Ural Mountains.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 13.
87.The attempt of Napoleon to graft the Kultur of Western Europe upon the empire of the Muscovite ended in failure. To-day history has made us Germans the inheritors of the Napoleonic idea.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 17.
87a.It is perhaps the stupidest of the suspicions under which we labour that we aim at a world-empire after the Roman fashion, and wish to thrust our Kultur on the conquered peoples.—Prof. F. Meinecke, D.R.S.Z., No. 29, p. 26.
88.We, however, will not let ourselves be diverted by all this hatred and envy from our striving towards a world-Kultur. We will busily and cheerfully work on at the elevation of the whole humanrace.—Prof. R. Eucken, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.
89.More than a hundred years ago (1808) Johan Gottlieb Fichte, in his ever-memorableSpeeches to the German Nation, proclaimed the German people to be the only people in Europe which had preserved its primitive genuineness (ursprüngliche Echtheit), and therefore its spiritual creative faculty, and found the transition from his previous cosmopolitan way of thinking to flaming national enthusiasm, in the idea that this people was called to be the upholder of world-Kultur, and that it was therefore its duty to humanity to look to its own preservation.—Prof O. v. Gierke, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 23.
90.We claim only the free development of our individuality, and are only fighting against the attempt to throttle it, while contrariwise our enemies are conducting an aggressive war, which they have to disguise as a Kultur-war in order to make it appear defensive.—Pastor E. Troeltsch, D.R.S.Z., No. 27, p. 27.
91.The highest steps of Kultur have not been mounted by peaceable nations in long periods of peace, but by warlike peoples in the time of their greatest combativeness.—R. Theuden, W.M.K.B., p. 4.
92.German Kultur is moral Kultur. Its superiority is rooted in the unfathomable depth of its moral constitution. Should it forfeit its moral purity, it would cease to be German.—Prof. O. v. Gierke, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 23.
92a.The further we can carry our Kultur into the East, the more, and the more profitable, outlets shall we find for our wares. Economic profit is of course not the main motive of our Kultur-activity, but it is no unwelcome by-product.—C.L. Poehlmann, G.D.W., p. 35.
93.The individual Frenchman may fight as heroically as he pleases, his cause is nevertheless lost, because he does not believe that where the German element has never penetrated, or has penetrated only to disappear again, no development of Kultur,in the true sense of the word, is possible.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 26.
94.But what about Louvain and Rheims? 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! The cry of indignation which went up against us had long before made itself heard in our own breasts in view of the thoughtlessness and indifference, nay, the frivolity with which these immeasurable values had been ruthlessly exposed to destruction by nations which have always plumed themselves excessively on their western Kultur.—K. Engelbrecht, D.D.D.K., p. 14.
94a.The fury of our gunners at the enemy's unprincipled use of the cathedral of Rheims as a means of defence, was doubtless mingled with indignation and disgust at beingcompelledto do injury to apriceless work of art. But no phrase-making æstheticism, thank God, such as our neighbours cultivate, rendered us untrue to the conviction that, when all is said and done, every drop of blood of the meanest of our brave soldiers is worth more than any individual work of artistic Kultur.—K. Engelbrecht, D.D.D.K., p. 14.
See also Nos.7,30,46,62,115,123,151,160,186,187,232,239a,242,248a,262-268.