all that is base, evil and vile: the kingdom of light against the
kingdom of darkness. Against a world of superhuman evil ... the power
of superhuman justice, truth and love goes out to battle.--"War
Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 125.
115. One thing, I think, is clear, God must stand on our side. We
fight for right and truth, for Kultur and civilization, and human
progress, and true Christianity, against untruthfulness and hypocrisy
and falseness, and un-Kultur and barbarism and brutality. All human
blessings, aye, and humanity itself, stand under the protection of our
bright weapons.--"War Sermons," by PASTOR H. FRANCKE, quoted in H. &.
H., p. 65.
116. There lurks in our people something of the God-consciousness
which inspired the Old Testament prophets. Very childlike indeed, but
of far deeper meaning than he could guess, was the saying of a little
boy to his playmate at the outbreak of war: "I am not in the least
afraid! The good God will help us, for he is German!"--K. ENGELBRECHT,
D.D.D.K., p. 45.
_See also Nos. 43, 145, 312, 316._
=The Chosen People and its Mission.=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
117. He who does not believe in the Divine mission of Germany had
better hang himself, and rather to-day than to-morrow.--H.S.
CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 17.
118. Now we understand why the other nations pursue us with their
hatred: they do not understand us, but they are sensible of our
enormous spiritual superiority. So the Jews were hated in antiquity,
because they were the representatives of God on earth.--PROF. W.
SOMBART, H.U.H., p. 142.
119. God has in Luther practically chosen the German people, and that
can never be altered, for is it not written in Romans xi., 29, "For
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."--DR. PREUSS,[14]
quoted in H.A.H., p. 223.
120. I want first to make it clear in what sense we may say, without
extravagance or the least trace of self-exaltation: Germany is chosen.
Germany is chosen, for her own good and that of other nations, to
undertake their guidance. Providence has placed the appointed people,
at the appointed moment, ready for the appointed task.--H.S.
CHAMBERLAIN, P.I., p. 25.
121. There is a gospel saying which bursts the bonds of its original
historical meaning and takes new wings in the storm of the world-war,
a saying which we may well take as the consecration of our German
mission: "Ye are the salt of the earth! ye are the light of the
world!"[15]--PROF. A. DEISSMANN, D.R.S.Z., p. 24.
122. It is no foolish over-valuation of ourselves, no aggressive
arrogance, no want of humility, when we more and more let Bismarck's
faith prevail within us, that God has taken the German nation under
His special care, or in any case has some special purpose in view for
it.--"On the German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p.
86.
123. Then a newly purified and newly strengthened German folk-soul
would arise out of the war, to new thoughts and new deeds, to a new
sense of its world-mission--that of imparting to the other peoples, in
a pure spirit, the achievements of its Kultur, so that all lands may
be filled with the glory of God.--PASTOR M. HENNIG, D.K.U.W., p. 63.
124. As heralds of God's will, messengers of His word, witnesses of
His benefactions to the world, we shall take up our work after the
war, and with German endurance and German industry, with German
competence and German faithfulness, with German faith and German
piety, we shall permeate, in the name of God, a world which has become
poor and desolate.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in
H.A.H., p. 128.
125. When these storms have done their work, Germany's purest mission
begins: to become a place of refuge, a holy grove for all the seekers
of the earth, a central land, a land of wisdom, a land of morals.--F.
LIENHARDT, quoted in H.A.H., p. 51.
126. The divination or the assurance of this special calling [on the
part of God] has long been present to the best among the German
people; many quotations to this effect (for example, Geibel's lines)
are to-day in everybody's mouth. Deeper thoughts are aroused by a
less-known remark of Richard Wagner's: "A great mission, scarcely
comprehensible to other nations, is unquestionably reserved for the
whole German character (_Anlage_)"; this character he defines as "the
spirit of pure humanity," and the mission of the Germans as "the
ennoblement of the world...." Not to believe in this mission is folly,
is treason.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 14.
127. God's people will come forth from this war strengthened and
crowned with victory, because they stand on the side of God; but all
God's adversaries will find out that God will not be mocked, and that
He rules the history of the nations according to His will.--"War
Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 134.
128. A good Providence watches over the fate of the German people,
which is destined to the highest things on this earth.--PROF. W.
SOMBART, H.U.H., p. 67.
129. Brethren and sisters! in a moment we ... have become the heirs of
Israel, the people of the Old Testament covenant. We shall be the
bearers of God's promises.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted
in H.A.H., p. 116.
130. As was Israel among the heathen, so is Germany among the modern
nations--the pious heart of Europe.--"My German Fatherland," by PASTOR
TOLZIEN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 136.
131. We hope that a great mission will be allotted to us Germans ...
and this German mission is: to look after the world (_zu sorgen für
die Welt_). Is it arrogance to write such a phrase? Is it vanity in
the disguise of a moral idea? No, no, and again no.--PASTOR G. TRAUB,
D.K.U.S., p. 23.
132. Friedrich Nietzsche was but the last of the singers and seers
who, coming down from the height of heaven, brought to us the tidings
that there should be born from us the Son of God, whom in his language
he called the Superman.--PROF. W. SOMBART, H.U.H., p. 53.
133. Verily the Bible is our book.... It was given and assigned to us,
and we read in it the original text of our destiny, which proclaims to
mankind salvation or disaster--according as _we_ will it!--"War
Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 134.
134. We want to become a world-people. Let us remind ourselves that
the belief in our mission as a world-people has arisen from our
originally purely spiritual impulse to absorb the world into
ourselves.--PROF. F. MEINECKE, D.D.E., p. 37.
135. Germany is the centre of God's plans for the world.--"On the
German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 78.
_See also Nos. 75, 77, 239._
"=Other Peoples.="
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
136. We had greatly over-valued all other nations, even the French.
The French are a people on the down grade.--THE KAISER, to HERR A.
FENDRICH, quoted in H.A.H., p. 55.
137. 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. In this sense we have a right to
say that we form the soul of humanity, and that the destruction of the
German nature (_Art_) would rob world-history of its deepest
meaning.--PROF. R. EUCKEN, W.B.D.G., p. 23.
139. Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, these men signify for us a
spiritual rebirth, such as never happens to other peoples, all of whom
only grow old, and can never become young again.--H. V. WOLZOGEN,
G.Z.K., p. 49.
139a. Other peoples are young, grow to maturity and then begin to
age.... We Germans have often been old, but, thank God, we have as
often been _quite_ young.... How young do we not feel ourselves in
contradistinction to these Englishmen and Frenchmen.--PROF. G. ROETHE,
D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 25.
140. No other people, not even the Greeks, have so understood
childhood as the Germans. It is we who, in the work of Campe ["The
Swiss Family Robinson"] have created children's literature,[16] and
still hold the lead in that department; it is we who provide the
whole world with children's toys. That is possible only because we
have the power of identifying ourselves with the child-soul, and this
we could not do if we had not in our own innermost soul something
childlike, simple, primitive.--PROF. R. EUCKEN, W.B.D.G., p. 13.
141. The identical ring that we put into the singing of "Ein'feste
Burg ist unser Gott" and "Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles," is
something that cannot be found among the other peoples, because they
lack the freshness of national feeling, because they are
degenerate.--K. ENGELBRECHT, D.D.D.K., p. 68.
142. I look upon it as absolutely the deepest feature of the German
character, this passionate love of right, of justice, of morality.
This is something which the other nations have not got.--"On the
German God," by PASTOR W. LEHMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 79.
143. The period of political chaos a hundred years ago was a blessing
for the Germans, who at that time were able to grow deep, while other
nations were growing superficial.--PROF. W. SOMBART, H.U.H., p. 129.
144. Our German peace is an essential factor in our Kultur. Such a
love of peace is itself of moral value, but in the person of the
Kaiser it finds a consciously religious expression ... and when the
Kaiser has to summon his people to a war which he has not willed,
there at once awakes in the whole people the religious spirit peculiar
to itself, of which the other peoples--unless it be the Turks!--have
no conception, it matters not whether they have already dethroned
"Dieu" or have "the Lord" forever in their mouths!--H. V. WOLZOGEN,
D.Z.K., p. 46.
145. But this same Demon of Baseness, who has subdued the other
peoples, was busily at work in Germany as well: ten years more, and
God would perhaps have found no one in the world to fight for
him.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 11.
_See also Nos. 7, 8, 14, 31, 44, 321._
=Christ.=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
146. The soldier who spat in the face of the thorn-crowned Saviour did
not act more shamelessly than does England now.--"The True Unity," by
PASTOR TOLZIEN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 146.
147. Is there anyone who does not know why England declared war?
Why?... From jealousy. From shopkeeper-spite. Because she wanted to
earn the thirty pieces of silver.--"The World-Politics of England," by
PASTOR G. TOLZIEN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 143.
148. We could draw many instructive parallels: we could say that as
Jesus was treated so also have the German people been treated.--"War
Sermons," by PASTOR H. FRANCKE, quoted in H.A.H., p. 63.
149. In this solemn hour, when we lament over our dead heroes, we
experience, more deeply than ever before, the passion of our Lord....
Is not Germany itself transformed into a suffering Christ? We, too,
have gone through our hour of trial on the Mount of Olives, when with
our Kaiser we prayed that the cup of suffering might pass away from
us; and we, too, obeying the unfathomable will of God, have begun to
drain it.... We, too, were betrayed by those to whom we had shown
nothing but justice and kindness; and around us, too, resounded, in
accents of hatred and envy, the cry of "Crucify him!"--PASTOR F.X.
MÜNCH, reported by SVEN HEDIN, "With the German Armies in the West,"
p. 336.
150. We assert the view that ... what once happened to Luther is now
happening to our people: it is experiencing a repetition of the
Passion of Christ.--DR. PREUSS, quoted in H.A.H., p. 206.
151. A hard and steep _Via Crucis_ lies before the great benefactor
and magnanimous liberator of the Kultur-world, the German people.
Although it looks beyond the gloom of Good Friday to the dawn of
Easter morn, beyond the dark days of war to the beacons of
triumph--yet the cross still rests on its shoulders, and the Golgotha
of the hardest decision still awaits it.--HOFPRÄDIKANT STIPBERGER,
quoted in "False Witness" (_Klokke Roland_), p. 17.
152. It was the hidden meaning of God that He made Israel the
forerunner (_Vordeuter_) of the Messiah, and in the same way He has by
His hidden intent designated the German people to be His
successor.--DR. PREUSS, quoted in H.A.H., p. 214.
153. German craving for truth and German strength of faith, working
along Biblical paths, have attained to the true faith, the pure
religiousness, whose first and greatest spokesman is Jesus Christ.
Thus the Germans are the very nearest to the Lord, and may claim for
themselves that they have "continued His word".... We fight, then, for
Christianity[17] as against degeneration and barbarism.... God must
be with us and victory ours. This is guaranteed us by the truth of our
nature, which is as German as it is Christian.--"War Sermons," by
PASTOR H. FRANCKE, quoted in H.A.H., p. 71.
154. A Jesusless horde, a crowd of the Godless, are in the field
against us.... May God surround us with His protection ... since our
defeat would also mean the defeat of His Son in humanity.--"War
Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 119.
155. The German people, bearing forward in victory the Evangel of the
Cross of Christ,[18] is the great Christophorus in the world of the
nations.--"The Christianity of the Belligerent Nations," by PASTOR F.
ERDMANN, quoted in H.A.H., p. 148.
156. Let us rejoice that Envy has risen up against us; it only shows
that God has exalted and richly blessed us. Think of Him who was
hanged on the Cross and seemed forsaken of God, and had to tread in
such loneliness His path to victory. My German people, even if thy
road be strewn with thorns and beset by enemies, press onward, full of
defiance and confidence.... Thou and thy God, ye are the
majority.--PASTOR D. VORWERK, quoted in H.A.H., p. 38.
157. Kant and Jesus go through our people, seeking their
disciples.--PASTOR G. TRAUB, D.K.U.S., p. 22.
158. We are fighting--thanks and praise be to God--for the cause of
Jesus within mankind.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in
H.A.H., p. 126.
159. Christianity is possessed of potent spiritual energies, since it
inspires our minds, not only with patience, but also with dignified
pride. "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you,
and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." I quite
understand Friedrich Naumann's declaration that this text has meant
much to him in these days.--PROF. A. DEISSMANN, D.R.S.Z., No. 9, p. 24.
160. On the paths of commerce and intercourse, we shall go forth to
all nations, and, after the fierce fight is over, carry Jesus to them
in the quiet, peaceful work of a true Kultur. England, in these paths,
has lowered herself to become a nation of hucksters, who have long
abandoned the service of God for that of Mammon.--"War Devotions," by
PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H.A.H., p. 130.
161. It is on account of its admirable qualities that Germany has so
many enemies. Friedrich v. Schiller says: "The world loves to blacken
whatever is radiant and shining, and to drag what is exalted in the
dust.... Socrates had to drain the bowl of poison, Columbus was cast
into fetters, Christ was nailed to the cross,"--FELDMARSCHALLEUTNANT
FRANZ RIEGER, quoted by KR. NYROP, _Er Krig Kultur?_ (Copenhagen).
162. The thief who expiated a sinful past by his repentance in the
last hour, and was outwardly subjected to the same suffering as our
Lord, is the type of the Turkish nation, which now puts Christianity
(outside Germany) to shame.--DR. PREUSS, quoted in H.A.H., p. 211.
_See also Nos. 428, 444._
=Die Deutsche Wahrheit (German Truth).=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
163. The International Lie-Press has risen up as a fourth Great Power
against Germany, and deluges the world with lies against our
magnificent and strictly moral (_sittenstrenges_) Army, and slanders
everything that is German. I propose that in the treaty of peace we
should claim a special milliard as indemnity for lies.[19]--PROF. A.
v. HARNACK, W.W.S.G., p. 4.
164. The Germans demand truth, even from orators. It would be quite
impossible to entangle the Germans in a network of impudent lies, as
the other nations have been entangled.--PROF. A. LASSON, D.R.S.Z.,
No. 4, p. 23.
165. There was no war party in Germany; that is a _Times_ lie; but
there doubtless were responsible statesmen and soldiers who rightly
said: "If England and her gang want war at any price, then the sooner
the better."--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 13.
166. [The sailors of the British Fleet are] a gang of adventurers and
criminals who serve only for filthy lucre ... and among whom
desertions and mutinies belong to the order of the day.--W. HELM,
W.W.S.M., p. 20.
167. I have travelled at midsummer through the length and breadth of
England, from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and to Wales; but I
have not seen a single cornfield.--K.L.A. SCHMIDT, D.E.E., p. 29.
168. Not only were the most monstrous untruths as to the violent
proceedings of Germany disseminated by the Press, but care was taken
to suppress all mention of the twice repeated _generous offer of
Germany to compensate Belgium in every respect_, if she would permit
the transit of German troops.--"GERMANUS," B.U.D.K., p. 31.
169. If, apart from one or two acts of rascality (_ein paar
Bubenstreichen_), we have as yet seen nothing of the British Fleet, it
is [among other reasons] because John Bull knows that the crews of his
ships are simply not to be trusted.--W. HELM, W.W.S.M., p. 20.
170. We know, for example, that English prisoners and wounded passing
through [Cologne] ... could scarcely believe their eyes when they saw
that our noble cathedral was not a heap of ruins, as their papers had
assured them!--PROF. A. SCHRÖER, Z.C.E., p. 55.
171. The French soldiers thought they were only going to manoeuvres.
Not until they were face to face with the enemy, had come under the
fire of our rifles and seen our bayonets, did they find out that they
had been deceived, that they had been lied into the war.--"War
Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H. & H., p. 126.
172. What homage does not the stupid world pay to Carnegie; and now we
learn that, through his endowments for professors and students, he has
enslaved the universities, imposing upon them hard-and-fast doctrines,
as, for example, the worship of England and hostility to
Germany.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, P.I., p. 56.
173. When we [in 1870-71] bombarded the fortress of Paris, that was an
outrage upon a sacred spot. But when the English battered to the
ground the defenceless Alexandria[20]--that was of course quite in
order.--PROF. U. v. WILAMOWITZ-MÖLLENDORF, R., pt. i., p. 27.
173a. When our Zeppelins drop bombs on the fortress of Antwerp, there
are loud protests. But how have not French prisoners boasted of the
burning by their bombs of the open city of Nürnberg. The will was
there; only the power was lacking.[21]--PROF. U. V.
WILAMOWITZ-MÖLLENDORF, R., pt. i., p. 27.
=German Insight and Foresight.=
(BEFORE THE WAR.)
174. [Of the "militia" of the British self-governing Dominions.] They
can be completely ignored so far as concerns any European theatre of
war. [Of the British Territorial Army.] For a Continental European war
it may be left out of account.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 135.
175. As soon as we have won our first victory, we may be sure that
Italy will unconditionally accord us her armed cooperation.--K. V.
STRANTZ, E.S.V., p. 21.
176. If, in case of war, England should join the Dual Alliance
against us, our military position will be in no way prejudiced, if we,
on our side, take care to kindle fires at the points where her
world-power is threatened. In that case, too, oversea prizes beckon us
on, which will be well worth the winning.--K. v. STRANTZ, E.S.V., p.
39.
177. I do not at all believe that Zeppelins have anything to fear from
aeroplanes, as their critics assert.--A. WIRTH, T.O.D., p. 52.
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
178. The far-seeing English politician expects the present war greatly
to improve the position of England as against the United States. Any
injury that England may conceivably inflict on its best customer,
Germany ... will be as nothing in comparison with the direct and
indirect losses the war must inflict on America.--DR. A. ZIMMERMANN,
quoted by P. HEINSICK, W.U.G., p. 21.
179. There can be no possible doubt that England, in secret, heartily
rejoices in every Russian defeat.--P. HEINSICK, W.U.G., p. 21.
=German Freedom.=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
180. An un-German freedom is no freedom.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p.
21.
180a. Germany has been for centuries the true and only home of a
freedom worthy of humanity and elevating to humanity.--H.S.
CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 15.
181. German freedom is thus not a natural human right, but an
elevation of humanity above the despotism of its own personal
inclinations.--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 46.
182. We should be in an evil case if we were to barter for these
[English] "liberties," however praiseworthy in themselves, our
individual many-sidedness, our temperament in constant touch with
life, in short our Deutschtum.--KARL HECKEL, E.B., p. 384.
183. Ah, Milton, wert thou living at this hour!... Thou would'st
understand German championship of freedom, care for justice, and love
of truth.--PROF. A. BRANDL, D.R.S.Z., No. 20.
_On English Freedom, see Nos. 401a, 467._
=The German Language.=
(AFTER JULY, 1914.)
184. Fichte expresses in simple words a positively decisive truth ...
of all the languages of Europe, German is the only living one.--H.S.
CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 26.
185. The German ... _must_ conquer; and when once he has
conquered--to-day or in a hundred years...--no duty is more urgent
than that of forcing the German language upon the world.--H.S.
CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 33.
186. 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. For only he who knows the German language, and
can read the works of our spiritual heroes in the original, can
really penetrate into the German spirit, and feel himself at home
there.--C.L. POEHLMANN, G.D.W., p. 48.
187. Chance brings to my hands to-day a copy of _Jugend_ for May 28,
1900, containing an article by me in which I read: "I have no firmer
or more sacred conviction than this, that the higher Kultur of
humanity depends upon the spreading of the German language." I go on
to explain that this language is the indispensable interpreter of the
German nature (_Wesen_), which is what I chiefly prize; and for the
spreading of the language it is necessary that the German Empire
should develop into the leading State of the world.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN,
D.Z., p. 9.
188. A defeat for Germany I could regard only as a deferred victory. I
should say to myself: The time, then, is not yet ripe; the sacred
treasure must yet awhile be guarded and cherished in the circle of the
narrower Fatherland. For alone among all nations Germany possesses
to-day a living, developing, sacred treasure.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN,
K.A., p. 24.
189. Germanism (_Was wir "deutsch" nennen_) is the secret through
which the inner man is illuminated; and the instrument of this
illumination is the [German] language.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 25.
190. If Montaigne were living to-day, he would have to remain
silent--or to learn German.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 29.
191. Men must come to realize that whoever cannot speak German is a
pariah.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 35.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] A common expression for the ordinary, average German.
[9] This address was delivered, 9th September, 1914. The _Lusitania_
was sunk 7th May, 1915.
[10] Though this was written in the second month of the war, we must in
fairness assume that Herr Chamberlain is thinking of the German state
of mind before the war. But as he has lived thirty years in Germany he
must have been there during the South African War, when the German
feeling towards England was too mildly described by the term
"animosity."
[11]