To understand the true inwardness of this cartoon, the reader must
be familiar with the writings of General von Hartmann, one of the
chief evangelists of German methods of warfare. The following gem
is extracted from an article by von Hartmann, published in 1877, on
“Military Necessities and Humanity”:--
“The warrior has need of passion. It must not, indeed, as the result
of opposition, be regarded as a necessary evil; nor condemned as a
regrettable consequence of physical contact; nor must we seek to
restrain and curb it as a savage and brutal force; for in causing a
powerful and exclusive concentration of individual energies it becomes
an indispensable agent of the consummation of conflict. Every warlike
exploit is before all things of a personal nature; it puts before all
else the affirmation of the individual character, and it demands, in
its agent, a release from the oppressive rule of the moderating laws of
everyday life.... _Violence_ and _passion_ are the two levers essential
to any warlike action, and, we say it advisedly, of all _military
greatness_.”