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.
Blood and Iron.
269. The time for petty politics is past; the next century[28] will bring the struggle for the dominion of the world—the compulsion to great politics.—Fr. Nietzsche, B.G.E., section 208.
270. I greet all the signs indicating that a more manly and warlike age is commencing, which will, above all, bring heroism again into honour!—Fr. Nietzsche, J.W., section 283.
271. General Keim from Berlin insisted that the path to German unity and power was not paved with sealing-wax, printers' ink and parliamentary resolutions, but marked by blood, wounds and deeds of arms. States could be maintained only by the means by which they were created.—At meeting of Pan-German League, Augsburg, September, 1912. Nippold, D.C., p. 72.
272. It is only since the last war [1870] that a sounder theory has arisen of the State and its military power. Without war no State could be.... War, therefore will endure to the end of history, so long as there is multiplicity of States.—H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 65.