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 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. 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 sometimes
proceeds 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 cruiser _Wilhelm 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
striking characteristic of the Germans--and of the Germans
alone.[10]--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 12.
_See also No. 497._
=The Great Misunderstood.=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
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 and to 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._
=Kultur.=
(BEFORE THE WAR.)
68. The _Kultur_ of the Germans [_Germanen_] is actually the stimulus
to our present European _Civilization_ with 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
the Martians, 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).
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
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
and lecturers), quoted by PROF. 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
future guard 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 powerful _exchange of Kultur_ was
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 human race.--PROF.
R. EUCKEN, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.
89. More than a hundred years ago (1808) Johan Gottlieb Fichte, in his
ever-memorable _Speeches 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 being _compelled_ to do injury to a
priceless 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._
=Der deutsche Gott.=[12]
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
95. If God is for us, who can be against us? It is enough for us to be
a part of God.--"On the German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in
H.A.H., p. 77.
96. We have become a nation of wrath; we think only of the war.... We
execute God's Almighty will, and the edicts of His justice we will
fulfil, imbued with holy rage, in vengeance upon the ungodly. God
calls us to murderous battles, even if worlds should thereby fall to
ruins.... We are woven together like the chastening lash of war; we
flame aloft like the lightning; like gardens of roses our wounds
blossom at the gates of Heaven.--F. PHILIPPI, quoted in H.A.H., p. 52.
97. The principle which the Kaiser impressed on his soldiers lives in
his own soul: "Each must so do his duty that, when he shall one day
answer the heavenly bugle-call, he may stand forth with a good
conscience before his God and his old Kaiser."--PASTOR M. HENNIG,
D.K.U.W., p. 21.
_Compare No. 247._
98. Thou who dwellest high in Thy Heaven, above Cherubim, Seraphim,
and Zeppelins, Thou who art enthroned as a God of thunder in the midst
of lightning from the clouds, and lightning from sword and cannon,
send thunder, lightning, hail and tempest hurtling upon our enemy ...
and hurl him down to the dark burial-pits.--_Battle Prayer_, by
PASTOR D. VORWERK, quoted in H.A.H., p. 40.
99. Is the living God, the God whom one can only have and understand
in the spirit of Jesus Christ, is He the God of those others? No; they
serve at best Satan, the father of lies!--"War Sermons," by PASTOR H.
FRANCKE, quoted in H.A.H., p. 72.
100. England is our worst enemy, and we will fight her till we have
overthrown her! So may it please our Great Ally, who stands behind the
German battalions, behind our ships and U-boats, and behind our
blesséd "militarism"!--E. v. HEYKING, D.W.E., p. 23.
101. The German soul is the world's soul, God and Germany belong to
one another.--"On the German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in
H.A.H., p. 83.
102. On this planet, as a result of millenniums of development, has it
come to this, that Germany--and in a wider sense _Germanism_, within
and without the Empire--has become an instrument of God, an
indispensable, irreplaceable instrument of God? This question I ask,
and I answer it in the affirmative.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 15.
103. The French, of course, count on the possibility that Germany may
be weakened in the further course of the war, and at last beaten by
the Russian Army and the English Fleet. This we do not believe,
because we know Germany and hold the alliance between Providence and
our people to be a matter of necessity.--F. NAUMANN, Member of the
Reichstag, D.U.F., p. 19.
104. The difficult Christian commandment, "Love your enemies," is
nowhere more easily obeyed than in war! There is much talk about
"hate" against England. But how do our warriors greet each other?
"Gott strafe England!" They thus invoke God, but not the God of
hatred, of vengeance, but the God of justice. It is the just God at
whose hands we hope for the punishment of the unjust man or
nation.--H. v. WOLZOGEN, G.Z.K., p. 19.
105. It might come to pass that we succumbed in this fight of
righteousness and purity against falsehood and deceit. That could only
happen, I am sure, over the dead body of the last German--but should
it happen, I assert that we should all die happy in the consciousness
of having defended God against the world.--"On the German God," by
PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 79.
106. We are beginning slowly, humbly, and yet with a deep gladness, to
divine God's intentions. It may sound proud, my friends, but we are
conscious that it is also in all humbleness that we say it: the German
soul is God's soul: it shall and will rule over mankind.--"On the
German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 83.
107. 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. The German, the national, God!... Has war
in this case impaired, or has it steeled religion? I say it has
steeled it.... This is no relapse to a lower level, but a mounting up
to God Himself.--PROF. A. DEISSMANN, D.R.S.Z., No. 9, p. 16.
108. [Extract from a letter[13] to Chamberlain.] "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; for we were on the point of becoming untrue to our
old-established nature (_Wesen_). He who has imposed upon us this
ordeal will also help us out of it."--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 13.
109. What a difference is there between armies, one of which carries
its God in its heart, whilst the others think they can conquer by the
weight of their numbers, by cunning tricks of devilish cruelty, by
shameless contempt for the provisions of International Law.--"War
Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 121.
110. Even the Crusaders with their cry of "God wills it!" were not so
penetrated by the Christian spirit as our warriors whose motto is, "As
God will!"--H. v. WOLZOGEN, G.Z.K., p. 19.
111.
Ortelsburg und Gilgenburg,
Dazu als Sieger Hindenburg,
Das sind der Burgen drei,
Die vierte, die ist auch dabei:
Die macht der Feinde Tun zu Spott,
Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott.
Translation: Ortelsburg and Gilgenburg [two places in East Prussia]
with victory for Hindenburg--that makes three "Burgs" in all. Nor is a
fourth "Burg" wanting: one that puts to shame the efforts of our
enemies: for "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott."--Quoted by M. HENNIG,
D.K.U.W., p. 82.
112. On us Germans the eye of God, we take it, must especially rest in
this war: we must be His ultimate purpose.--"On the German God," by
PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 89.
113. For a just cause, the German is ready to sacrifice life, blood,
gold and goods. Once more, as of old, David goes forth against
Goliath. The German people says with David: "Thou comest to me with a
sword and with a spear and with a javelin; but I come to thee in the
name of the Lord of Hosts," in the name of faith, right and truth.
Great is his might who has these powers on his side; for the living
God stands behind him.--PASTOR M. HENNIG, D.K.U.W., p. 65.