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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 47
The Nazis no longer seem very funny. The bad farce turned into real tragedy. It was a tragedy for democracy even more than for the German people. They, after all, got what they wanted. One reason they got it was that the democratic form of Germany's government blinded the world to the real peril behind it during just those years when the memory of the war might have made even England and America a little suspicious. Suspicion of Germany's "democracy" would have been justified whether democracy is considered as merely the machinery of administration or as a way of life. In either case, it reflects the will of the people, and certainly the German governments between the two world wars did that. The fact that it was a belligerent will is worth remembering. After all, Germany is not the first nation that has had aggressive designs. Americans like to regard themselves and the British as the most advanced exponents of the democratic process. Under somewhat different forms, both governments are and must be responsive to the will of the people. But both have turned to conquest. The British did not acquire their empire in a fit of absent mindedness or without employing armed force against other peoples. The United States did not become a great continental power possessed of certain islands overseas without picking a few fights.
Our wars with Mexico and Spain were certainly not carried on against the will of the people; both roused rather extensive enthusiasm. The fact that we hope we have learned better by now should not blind us to the historical fact that a desire for war is not incompatible with a democratic form of government. Democracy as a way of life is another matter. The idea of a government responsible to the people and obliged to obtain a fresh mandate from the people at regular intervals has broadened out into something a great deal more important but not quite so easily described. Democracy to most Americans and most Englishmen has a certain set of human values quite distinct from elections, terms of office, powers of the Executive and so on. We live by, or at least sincerely try to live by a set of freedoms and responsibilities. The rights of individuals come first with us—the right to talk and eat and write and worship as we please, the right to earn a living at anything our abilities fit us for, the right to go where we want and leave when we please. As a corollary, we believe that other individuals have the same rights and that force as an instrument of national policy is to be abhorred.
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
