Herr Paul Rohrbach, who is generally more moderate in his expressions, has written a pamphlet entitled Warum es der Deutsche Krieg ist ("Why this is the German War").
It would be useless to insist on the general aspects of the question. Let us consider only a few of the immediate consequences of this frame of mind: militarism, disdain for others, cynicism, and absence of the critical spirit.
1. Militarism.
Might comes before Right.
Bismarck has given us a precise formula of the cult of brute force, "Might comes before right!" Nietzsche has gone further, "Might creates right." "You say that a good cause sanctifies even war? I tell you that a good war sanctifies any cause!" (Thus Spake Zarathustra).
Herr Maximilian Harden, the well-known polemical writer, expressed the same idea in a lecture delivered at Duisbourg and reproduced in K.Z. (8th December, 1914). It is expressed with equal lucidity in an article published in Zeit im Bild (19th November, 1914), and signed Vitus Bug; the author, after inquiring into the reasons which make Germany hated, adds: "Let us be victorious, and people will immediately discover that we were in the right!"
It is, consequently, towards the army that the essential aspirations of the German nation converge; everything must give way to the military interest; the moment this is in question there is no longer any room for morality, says Professor Rein, of the University of Jena (N.R.C., 22nd January, 1915, morning), nor for humanity, says Herr Erzberger (N.R.C., 6th February, 1915, evening), nor even for the law of nations, declares Professor Beer, of the University of Leipzig (Völkerrecht und Krieg). In other countries people have remained simple enough to believe that it is precisely in time of war that the prescriptions of international law should be most strictly respected. Nothing of the sort, say the Germans; the moment war breaks out everyday justice can only efface itself. On the slightest accusation, the least pretext, or even without any, they begin to shoot and to burn. If by accident those put to death are innocent, or if there was in truth no complaint to be made against the inhabitants of the houses burned to ashes, it is obviously regrettable; but such commonplace considerations will not prevent the German army from inflicting on the nearest village a punishment any less exemplary. Es ist Krieg: in this phrase is contained the whole psychology of the German soldier in war-time. "Do you suppose," said a German at Louvain, "that we've got time to make inquiries?" (N.R.C., 9th September, 1914, morning). "You understand clearly," said an officer at Francorchamps, "that we cannot stop the German army to inquire if this man has really fired on us; he was accused of doing so; isn't that sufficient reason for shooting him?"
Before leaving the subject of militarism, we will cite one insignificant fact which, however trifling, clearly reveals the importance which the military idea has assumed in the conceptions of the German people. According to the N.R.C. of the 6th February, 1915 (evening), Vorwärts has protested against the following measure: The German wife whose husband is under arms cannot be expelled from her dwelling for non-payment of rent; but if her husband should be killed in the war the landlord immediately recovers the right to turn her out.