There are some of you, probably, who will still find it hard to
believe that the Germany you knew can be guilty of the crimes which
have made it an outlaw amongst the nations. But do you know modern
Germany? Unless you have been there within the last twenty-five years,
not once or twice, but at regular intervals; unless you have looked
below the glittering surface of the marvellous material progress and
achievement and seen how the soul of Germany was being eaten away by
the virulent poison of Prussianism; unless you have watched and
followed the appalling transformation of German mentality and morality
under the nefarious and puissant influence of the priesthood of
power-worship, you do not know the Germany of this day and generation.
It is not the Germany of old, the land of our affectionate
remembrance. It is not the Germany which men now of middle age or over
knew in their youth. It is not the Germany of the first Emperor
William, a modest and God-fearing gentleman. It is not the Germany,
even, of Bismarck, man of blood and iron though he was, who had
builded a structure which, whilst not founded on liberty, yet was
capable and gave promise of going down into history as one of the
greatest examples of enlightened and even beneficent autocracy; who,
in the contemplative and mellowed wisdom of his old age, often warned
the nation against the very spirit which, alas, came to have sway over
it, and against the very war which that spirit unchained.
The Germany which brought upon the world the immeasurable disaster of
this war, and at whose monstrous deeds and doctrines the civilized
nations of the earth stand aghast, started into definite being less
than thirty years ago. I can almost lay my finger upon the date and
circumstances of its ill-omened advent.
Less than thirty years ago, a "new course" was flamboyantly proclaimed
by those in authority, and the term "new course" became the order of
the day. With it and from it there came a truly marvellous quickening
of the energies and creative abilities of the nation, a period of
material achievement and of social progress, in short, a national
forward movement almost unequalled in history. The world looked on in
admiration, perhaps not entirely free from a tinge of envy. Germany
was conquering the earth by peaceful penetration; _and no one stood in
its way_. It had free access to all the seas and all the lands.
But with that "new course" and from it there also came a new god, a
false and evil god. He exacted as sacrifices for his altars the
time-honoured ideals of the fathers, and other high and noble things.
And his commands were obeyed.
There came upon the German people a whole train of new and baneful
influences and impulses, formidably stimulating as a powerful drug.
There came, amongst other evils, materialism and covetousness and
irreligion; overweening arrogance, an impatient contempt for the
rights of the weak, a mania for world dominion, and a veritable lunacy
of power worship. There came also a fixed and irrational distrust of
the intentions of other nations, for the evil which had crept into
their own souls made them see evil in others, and that distrust was
nurtured carefully and deliberately by those in authority.
And, finally, there came "the day" in which the "new course," fatally
and inevitably, was bound to culminate. There came the old temptation,
as old as humanity itself. The Tempter took the Prussian and
Prussianized rulers up a high mountain and showed them all the riches
and power of the world. Showed them the great countries and capitals
of the earth teeming with peaceful labour--Brussels, Paris, London,
aye, and New York, and told them: "Look at these. Use your power
ruthlessly and they are yours." And those rulers did not say: "Get
thee behind me, Satan;" but they said: "Lead on, Satan, and we shall
follow thee." And follow him they did, and brought upon the green
earth the red ruin of hell.
And with rejoicing they greeted "the day." It was to bring them, as
one German in an important position here expressed it to me, in
August, 1914, "a merry war and victory before the year is out."