War and Kultur.
262. It is nothing but fanaticism to expect very much from humanity when it has forgotten how to wage war. For the present we know of no other means whereby the rough energy of the camp, the deep impersonal hatred, the cold-bloodedness of murder with a good conscience, the general ardour of the system in the destruction of the enemy ... can be as forcibly and certainly communicated to enervated nations as is done by every great war. Kultur can by no means dispense with passions, vices and malignities.—Fr. Nietzsche, H.T.H., section 477.
263. It is here demonstrated with rare cogency and conclusiveness that war is not only a factor, but the main factor, in true, genuine Kultur—not only its creator but its preserver.... Although the author thus recognizes war as an element in the divine world-order, he by no means ignores the blessings of peace, as the second factor in true, genuine Kultur, in a certain measure complementary to war.—Berliner neueste Nachrichten, 24th December, 1912, in review of Der Krieg als Kulturfaktor, by Dr. Schmidt, of Gibichenfels. Nippold, D.C., p. 20.
264. No sooner are airships invented than the General Staffs set to work to devise methods of applying them to destruction.... Thus every achievement of "Kultur"[27] and of the human intelligence is only a means to more barbarous processes of war: and yet the pacifists see in the progress of the human intelligence a guarantee of world-peace!—L. Gumplowicz, S.I.U., p. 161.
265. I must first of all examine the aspirations for peace, which seem to dominate our age and threaten to poison the soul of the German people.... I must try to prove that war is not merely a necessary element in the life of nations, but an indispensable factor of Kultur, in which a truly civilized nation finds the highest expression of strength and vitality.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 14.
266. If the Twilight of the Gods that has now so long brooded over the European race and Kultur is at last to vanish before the light of morning, then we Germans in particular must no longer see in war our destroyer ... but must recognize in it our healer, our physician.—Tägliche Rundschau, 12th November, 1912. Nippold, D.C., p. 23.
267. Our own country, by employing its military powers, has attained a degree of Kultur which it never could have reached by the methods of peaceful development.—General v. Bernhardi, G.N.W., p. 119.
268. War is to us only a means, but the state of preparation for war is more than a means, it is an end.—Prof. E. Hasse, Z.D.V., p. 126.