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Henry Morgenthau, The German Character
Five chapters from Morgenthau’s book, Germany is our Problem, here published with an introductory note by Ellopos. Emphasis, in bold or italic letters, by Ellopos. Complete book in print.
52 Pages
Page 39
The history of German aggression in these years was a blend of action and propaganda. When the Kaiser was bringing on the Moroccan crisis of 1911 and extorting a slice of the Congo from France as the price of refraining from war over a settlement he had agreed to in 1906, German fondness for war was being stimulated by the printed page. General von Bernhardt strategically brought out a new book called Germany and the Next War in which Berlin was stirred to a strong support of the possible conflict over Morocco. "Our people must learn that the preservation of peace cannot and must never be the aim of our policy," he wrote, and:
"War is not only a necessary element in the life of peoples, but also the indispensable factor in culture, indeed the highest expression of the strength and life of truly cultural peoples."
As World War I drew nearer, the glorification of war and contempt for other peoples grew even more blatant.
Two examples from 1913 give the tone of innumerable speeches and articles of the time. "War is the noblest and holiest expression of German activity," proclaimed the October issue of Jungdeutschland, a magazine for German youth of Boy Scout age. "... Let us ridicule to the utmost the old women in breeches who fear war and deplore it as cruel and revolting. No! War is beautiful! Its august sublimity elevates the human heart beyond the earthly and the common." "The historical view as to the biological evolution of races tells us that there are dominant races and subordinate races," explained the Pan-German organ, Alldeutsche Blaetter, "... Conquest in particular is always a function of the dominant races... . The conquerors are acting only according to biological principles if they suppress alien languages and undertake to destroy strange popular customs... . Only the conquering race must be populous, so that it can overrun the territory it has won."
When war came, the arrogance of the Kaiser was hardly to be distinguished from that of Hitler a quarter of a century later, except that Wilhelm's effusions were couched in somewhat better grammar. Representative of four years of imperial rabble rousing was this proclamation to the Armies of the East in 1914:
Cf. H. Arendt: totalitarianism reduces men to impersonal natural forces * German philosophers in support of Nazism * Beethoven and Mauthausen * The Superior Race of Germans * Kalergi, European Spirit must Precede Europe's Political Unification * La Construction de l'Europe selon Jean Monnet * Plan Fouchet * Mitterrand and Kohl urge European Political Union * Il Manifesto di Ventotene
