CHAPTER XXXII
THE MILITARISTS AND THE MILITARIZED
To properly understand the German mentality one must turn to the country’s military history. Germany–that is, Prussia and her forty millions of people; a few smaller kingdoms such as Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtemburg; and some fifteen lesser States–was federated in 1871. In 1864 Prussia made victorious war against Denmark. In 1866 she carried on another victorious campaign against Austria. Then, in 1870, after an exceedingly adroit diplomatic campaign which assured the neutrality of the other great nations of Europe, she, by the falsification of a despatch, inaugurated the Franco-Prussian war. She dragged into it the other German States right under the walls of Paris, and at Versailles founded the German Empire, comprising twenty-six States, with the King of Prussia proclaimed as Emperor.
She was at the zenith of her power. Bismarck the statesman, Von Moltke the soldier, were hailed as demigods after the conclusion of a treaty which wrested from France two of her Provinces and imposed an indemnity of five billions; these two men were held up to the universal admiration of the German people.
The artistic sense and idealism which had impregnated the German soul up to this period, even–which seems impossible now–under Frederic II., now gave way to the new-born Positivism. Bismarck had said: “Might is right,” and “One has only the right that Force can sanction.” These maxims had justified those who framed them in 1864, 1866, and again in 1870. Henceforward for the Emperor, for his entourage, for the hundreds of thousands of officers, war was to be an element, a factor, and the chief author of the nation’s grandeur. This was the spirit which dominated the classes, and it must be introduced to, and spread amongst, the masses. Literature, science and the arts were made to contribute to the work of this new formation. But it was chiefly through education and legislation that the new principle was expounded. Veterans of the war of 1870 became so many tutors who trained the mind of the rising generation. The children were taken regularly to the museums where they were shown the flags and cannons taken from the enemy.
An old officer was showing these trophies to his two grandsons.
“Who is our enemy?” he asked.
“France,” replied the boys.
“We defeated them, did we not?”