78. [Germany has neglected] the highest duty of every Kultur-State—to carry its Kultur into foreign parts, and to win the confidence and affection of other peoples.—F. v. Liszt, E.M.S., p. 12.
79. The idea of the exclusive justification of one's own Kultur which is innate in the French and English, is foreign to us. But we are conscious of the incomparable value of German Kultur, and will for the future guard it against being adulterated by less valuable imports. We do not force it upon any one, but we believe that its own inner greatness will everywhere procure it the recognition which is its due.—Prof. O. v. Gierke, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 25.
80. The more German Kultur remains faithful to itself, the better will it be able to enlighten the understanding of the foreign races absorbed, incorporated into the Empire, and to make them see that only from German Kultur can they derive those treasures which they need for the fertilizing of their own particular life.—Prof. O. v. Gierke, D.R.S.Z., No. 2, p. 19.
81. We will not in the future let foreign idols be forced upon us, but will serve our own Gods.—Prof. Rudolf Eucken, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.
82. Germanism was for several decades, in spite of the mighty and over-towering height of its Kultur, hindered in the imparting of this Kultur to other nations. In the first years after the war [of 1870] this was not painfully felt, as a powerful exchange of Kultur was still in progress between different parts of the German Empire.... But when this exchange of Kultur between the German stocks had run its course, and the Germanization of the frontier districts [Poland, Alsace] had reached its limit, then the spiritual need of the German victor and conqueror began to make itself felt. He became a teacher without scholars, he had no longer an audience.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 11.
See also No. [235a].
83. Our German Kultur has, in its unique depth, something shrinking and severe (Sprödes und Herbes), it does not obtrude itself, or readily yield itself up; it must be earnestly sought after and lovingly assimilated from within. This love[11] was lacking in our neighbours; wherefore they easily came to look upon us with the eyes of hatred.—Prof. R. Eucken, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 74.
84. And the graves which border the path to glory of the Romans, the Germans, the British and the French, the stench of robbery, plunder and theft which hangs around these millions of graves? Must Kultur rear its domes over mountains of corpses, oceans of tears, and the death-rattle of the conquered? Yes, it must! [There follows an image too grotesquely indecent to be quoted.] Either one denies altogether the beneficent effect of Kultur upon humanity, and confesses oneself an Arcadian dreamer, or one allows to one's people the right of domination—in which case the might of the conqueror is the highest law of morality, before which the conquered must bow. Væ victis!—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 10.
85. The whole of European Kultur ... is brought to a focus on this German soil and in the hearts of the German people. It would be foolish to express oneself on this point with modesty and reserve. We Germans represent the latest and the highest achievement of European Kultur.—Prof. A. Lasson, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 13.
86. The Kultur-mission of a people is fulfilled when there are no longer any people of the same race and kindred to which their Kultur has still to be imparted.... Our Kultur-mission has in view some hundred millions of Slavs, and draws its geographical frontier-line at the Ural Mountains.—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 13.