German Humility.
(Before the War.)
1. No people ever attains to national consciousness without over-rating itself. The Germans are always in danger of enervating their nationality through possessing too little of this rugged pride.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 19.
For further testimonies to German humility see Nos. [17], [20], [23], [36], [51], [106], [122], [206], [206b], [394].
2. The German people must rise as a master-folk above the inferior peoples of Europe and the primitive peoples of the colonies.—G.U.M., p. 8.
2a. The German people is always right, because it is the German people, and numbers 87 million souls.—O.R. Tannenberg, G.D., p. 231.
3. The French, under Napoleon, wanted to sacrifice the whole world to their insatiable thirst for glory, and the English treat every barrier opposed to their hunger for exploitation as a challenge to their superiority. Great is the gulf that separates these cupidities from the hitherto unrivalled moral elevation of the sense of honour in the German people.—F. Lange, R.D., p. 220 (1901).
Compare Section V., "Machiavelism."
4. My soul is heavy when I see the many enemies surrounding Germany.... And my thoughts fly forward into the far future, and ask, "Will there ever be a time when there is no more Germany?" ... How poor and empty would the rich world then become! Then all men would ask themselves, "How comes it that the peoples no longer understand each other? Whither has that great, serene power departed, that brought near the souls of the peoples, each to each? Who has shattered the marvellous mirror from which the countenance of the world was thoughtfully reflected?" Then they would strike their heads and their breasts in despair, crying: "We have criminally robbed ourselves of our wealth! The world, the great, rich world, has grown waste, poor, and empty: the world has no longer a soul, she has no longer a Germany!"—E. v. Wildenbruch (1889), quoted in D.R.S.Z., No. 12.
5. The proud conviction forces itself upon us with irresistible power that a high, if not the highest, importance for the entire development of the human race is ascribable to this German people.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 72.
6. The German is a hero born, and believes that he can hack and hew his way through life.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 230.
7. We are still child-like in our inmost feelings, innocent in our pleasures, simple in our inclinations, in spite of individual aberrations; we are still prolific, and our race multiplies, so that our own soil has long been insufficient to support us all. It is therefore doubly imperative for us to remain heroes, for who knows whether the Germanic migrations are destined to remain isolated phenomena in history! The peoples around us are either overripe fruits which the next storm may bring to the ground, such as the Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, and a great part of the Slavs; or they are, indeed, proud of their race, but senile and artificial in their Kultur, slow in their increase and boundless in their ambition, like the French; or, confident in the unassailability of their country, like the English and the Americans, they have forgotten justice and made their selfishness the measure of all things. Who knows whether we Germans are not the rod predestined for the chastening of these degeneracies, who knows whether we may not again, like our fathers in dim antiquity, have to gird on our swords and go forth to seek dwelling-places for our increase?—F. Lange, R.D., p. 159 (1893).
8. We are distinguished from other nations by our honourable love for outspoken convictions, which would make a cut-and-dried party system distasteful to us.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 148.
9. The surest means of serving the ends of humanity is to work at the elaboration of our national personality, and to develop the full strength of its crystalline radiance.—F. Bley, W.D.D., p. 23.
10. We have forced ourselves, though the last-comers, the virtual upstarts, between the States which have earlier gained their place, and now claim our share in the dominion of the world, after we have for centuries been paramount only in the realm of the intellect.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 13.
11. Why must teachers and schoolboys, year out, year in, worry about the old Greeks and Romans? To foster idealism in the young, we are told! But for that there is no need to go to Rome and Athens. Our German history offers us ideals enough, and is richer in deeds of heroism than Rome and Athens put together.—General Keim, at meeting of the German Defence League, Cassel, Feb., 1913; Nippold, D.C., p. 82.
12. History teaches us that supreme treasure of humanity, German idealism, can be preserved only in the stout bark of national development.—F. Bley, W.D.D., p. 23.
On Idealism, see also Nos. [45], [276], [442], [464].
13. A war fought and lost would destroy our laboriously gained political importance ... would shake the influence of German thought in the civilized world, and thus check the general progress of mankind in its healthy development, for which a flourishing Germany is the essential condition. Our next war will be fought for the highest interests of our country and of mankind. This will invest it with importance in the world's history. "World-power or downfall!" will be our rallying-cry.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 154.
14. In our German people, peaceful dispositions and war-like prowess are so happily mixed that in this respect no other people on the earth can rival us, and none seems so clearly predestined to light humanity on the way to true progress.—F. Lange, R.D., p. 158 (1893).
15. The Latin has no feeling for the beauty of a forest; when he takes his repose in it he lies upon his stomach, while we rest upon our backs.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 206.
(After July, 1914.)
16. If we compare our time with the great eras of our fathers, we are perfectly capable of a sober self-criticism. We have no use for illusions and self-deceptions on the way to our indispensable victory.—Prof. F. Meinecke, D.D.E., p. 10.
17. Where in the whole world can a people be found who have such cause for manly pride as we? But we are equally far removed from presumption and from arrogance.—"War Devotions," by Pastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 117.
18. As the German bird, the eagle, hovers high over all the creatures of the earth, so also should the German feel that he is raised high above all other nations who surround him, and whom he sees in the limitless depth beneath him.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 143.
19. Germany is our existence, our faith, the meaning and depth of the world.—"On the German God," by Pastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 84.
20. It is not only our enemies who, by their underground intrigues, have sought to divert from us the sympathies of other peoples. If we would speak frankly, we must admit that we ourselves are partly to blame in the matter. A great part of the blame is due to our insufficient self-esteem and self-valuation—an inveterate German failing.—Prof. Dr. R. Jannasch, W.D.U.S., p. 22.
21. Germany is the future of humanity.—"On the German God," by Pastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 78.
21a God defend the noble cause of Deutschtum. There is no other hope for the future of humanity.—H.S. Chamberlain, in Hamburger Nachrichten, September, 1914.
21b. We must vanquish, because the downfall of Germanism would mean the downfall of humanity.—"Six War Sermons," by Pastor K. König, quoted in H.A.H., p. 99.
22. When the German stands leaning on his mighty sword, clad in steel from top to toe, whosoever will may, down below, dance round his feet—they may rail at him and throw mud at him, as the "intellectuals" ... of England, France, Russia and Italy are now doing—in his lofty repose he will not allow himself to be disturbed, and will only reflect as did his ancestors. Oderint dum metuant.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 131.
23. We will not conceal from ourselves that these victories for which our bells ring and our flags wave, and for which we thank our God, may become a danger to us, should they make us vain and arrogant, boastful and indolent! God forbid! We will hold fast to our old modesty, with which we have so often been reproached, and which has indeed often enough degenerated into the undervaluing of ourselves and overvaluing of that which is foreign and despicable.—K. Engelbrecht, D.D.D.K., p. 53.
24. We must develop, not into "Europeans,'" but into ever higher Germans.... What sort of a European would be formed by a mixture of the heroic German with the calculating Englishman? If the result was a man who thought half calculatingly and half heroically, it would be an exaltation for the Englishman, but a degradation for the German.—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 125.
25. If we come victorious out of this war, we shall be the first people on the earth, a rich stream of gold will pour over our land, and this greatness, these riches, may be a blessing to us if we always remember that true greatness, true riches, lie only in the possession of moral advantages, and that to the fact of our possessing such advantages we owe our success.—W. Helm, W.W.S.M., p. 33.
26. Do you not see, Albion, that the German Michel,[8] on whom you looked down with such contempt, is now transformed into the Archangel Michael, and, encountering you with his flaming sword, triumphs over the race of the fallen angels and all the offspring of hell.—F. Delitzsch, D.R.S.Z., No. 13, p. 21.
27. We must win, because, if we were defeated, no one in the whole world could any longer cherish any remnant of belief in truth and right, in the Good, or, indeed, in any higher Power which wisely and justly guides the destinies of humanity.—W. Helm, W.W.S.M., p. 8.
28. Every great artistic achievement of France and Italy since the time of the Romans can be traced to families and classes with a strong mixture of German blood, and, especially in earlier times, to the descendants of Germanic stocks, who had kept their blood, or at any rate their nature (Art) pure.—H.A. Schmid, D.R.S.Z., No. 25, p. 21.
29. Germany is precisely—who would venture to deny it—the representative of the highest morality, of the purest humanity, of the most chastened Christianity. He, therefore, who fights for its maintenance, its victory, fights for the highest blessings of humanity itself, and for human progress. Its defeat, its decline, would mean a falling back to the worst barbarism.—"War Sermons," by Pastor H. Francke, quoted in H.A.H., p. 68.
30. No nation in the world can give us anything worth mentioning in the field of science or technology, art or literature, which we would have any trouble in doing without. Let us reflect on the inexhaustible wealth of the German character, which contains in itself everything of real value that the Kultur of man can produce.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 135.
31. We have in Germany the best Press in the world, and are in that respect superior to all other countries.—Prof. A.V. Harnack, W.W.S.G., p. 19.
32. Germany's fight against the whole world is in reality the battle of the spirit against the whole world's infamy, falsehood, and devilish cunning.—"On the German God," by Pastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 81.
33. German patriotism strikes its deep roots into the fruitful soil of a heroic view of the world, and around its crown there gleam the rays of the highest spiritual and artistic culture.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 71.
34. This combination of clearness of purpose and heroic spirit of sacrifice was unknown in world-history before August, 1914. Not till then was the new German human being born.... Is this new creation to be the human being of the future?—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 103.
35. Verily it has long been an honour and a joy, a source of renown and of happiness, to be a German—the year 1914 has made it a title of nobility.—"War Devotions," by Pastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 133.
36. When Luther, in the domain of religion, characterized as unevangelical the conception of merit and reward, and energetically banished the huckster-spirit from religious feeling, he opened to the German thought the widest possibilities of victory.... A specially Germanic way of feeling, a Germanic modesty and distinction of thought, was here powerfully promoted by means of the Gospel. True distinction is always modest, in the sense of being unobtrusive and not bragging of deserts!—K. Engelbrecht, D.D.D.K., p. 56.
37. Since the great German Renaissance of the new humanism, the Hellenic has become the truly German.... As the Peloponnesian War divided the States of Hellas into two camps, so this war has divided the States of Europe. But this time it will be Athens and her spiritual power that will conquer.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 40.
38. After the conclusive victories for which we may confidently hope ... the whole habitable earth will far more than hitherto bend its gaze upon us, to marvel at (anzustaunen) our standard-setting [artistic] achievements.—G.E. Pazaurek, P.K.U.K., p. 23.
39. A theory of the origin of species remained in England a series of isolated observations, which pointed to certain conjectures; in Germany it was transformed with resolute daring into an all-embracing whole. Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 33.
40. Never have ye seen a strong people and Empire in whiter garments of peace. We offered you palm branches, we offered you justice, ye offered us envy and hate.—J. Hort, quoted in H.A.H., p. 51.
41. Take heed that ye be counted among the blessed, who show declining England, depraved Belgium, licentious France, uncouth Russia, the unconquerable youthful power and manhood of the German people, in a manner never to be forgotten.—"War Devotions," by Pastor J. Rump, quoted in H.A.H., p. 131.
42. We may be sure that our French adversaries, when at Metz and St. Quentin our hosts hurled themselves upon them, saw above us in the clouds the Germans of 1870, and even the Prussians of 1813, once more swooping down upon them, and shuddered at the spectacle. And, in spite of all the boasting of Sir John [Bull], our cousins from beyond the sea must long ago have recognized that it is better to fight with Prussians against the French, than vice versa.—Prof. G. Roethe, D.R.S.Z., No. 1, p. 29.
43. He who, in these days, sets forth to defend the German hearth, sets forth in a holy fight ... in which one stakes life itself, this single, sweet, beloved life, for the life of a whole nation, a nation which is God's seed-corn for the future.—"On the German God," by Pastor W. Lehmann, quoted in H.A.H., p. 78.
44. Our enemies are fighting us in order to restore to the world the freedom, the Kultur, which we threaten. What monstrous mendacity! Reproduce if you can the German national school teacher, the German upper-master, the German university professor! You have lagged far behind us, you are hopelessly inferior! Hence your chagrin, your envy, your fear! Powerless to rival us, you foam with hate and rage, you make unblushing calumny your weapon, and would like to exterminate us, to wipe us off the face of the earth, in order to free yourselves from your burden of shame.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 38.
45. We take refuge in our quite peculiar idealism, and dream—alas, aloud!—of our ideal mission for the saving (Heil) of mankind. Foreign countries turn away enraged from such unheard-of self-glorification and are quite certain that, behind the high-sounding words, the arrogance of "Prussian militarism" is concealed.—H. v. Wolzogen, G.Z.K., p. 64.
46. The future must lead France once again to our side, we will heal it of its aberrations, and, in brotherly subordination to us, it may share with us the task of guiding the fate of the world.... As we feel ourselves free from hatred toward the kindred Kultur-people of France, we have taken up the gauntlet with Teutonic pride, and we will use our weapons so that the admiration of the world, and of our enemies themselves, shall be accorded to us.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 26.
47. When we were attacked, our German wrath awakened, and when we could not but recognize in the attack a long-plotted treason against our love of peace, our wrath became fierce and wild. Then, no doubt, some of us spoke, in our first excitement, of hatred; but this was a misinterpretation of our feeling. Seeing ourselves hated, we imagined that hate must be answered with hate; but our German spirit (Gemüt) was incapable of that passion. Lienhard rightly ... deplores the form of the popular Hymn of Hate against England, which, characteristically enough, proceeds from a poet of Jewish race.—H. v. Wolzogen, G.Z.K., p. 68.
48. Under the protection of the greatest of armies, we have laboured at scientific, social, and economic progress; our enemies trusted to the rule of force and to chatter.—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 44.
49. Work as untiringly as we, think with as much energy, and we will welcome you as equals at our side.... Imitate us and we will honour you. Seek to constrain us by war, and we will thrash you to annihilation, and despise you as a robber pack.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 38.