Militarism Exultant.
(After July, 1914.)
305. I have lived for forty-five years mainly in the society of Germans, and thirty years exclusively in German countries ... and my testimony is this: in the whole of Germany there has not been for the past forty-three years a single man who has wished for war—not one. Whoever denies this, lies.—H.S. Chamberlain, K.A., p. 11.
305a. It is only in war that we find the action of true heroism, the realization of which on earth is the care of militarism. That is why war appears to us, who are filled with militarism, as in itself a holy thing, as the holiest thing on earth.—Prof. W. Sombart, H.U.H., p. 88.
306. Every age requires its war, lest civilization stagnate.—O.A.H. Schmitz, D.W.D., p. 116.
Bestir you, my comrades! To horse, to horse!
And away to the field and to freedom....[30]
Truly a splendid song. It thrills through all our muscles, and makes us feel as though we ourselves would like once more to take our share in a joyous fight.—Prof. U. v. Wilamowitz-Möllendorf, pt. I., p. 4.
Compare No. [241].
308. Anti-militarism was enraptured. What we had laboriously built up through the cultivation of the warlike spirit sank to ruins.... God be eternally praised! The great masses of the people would have nothing to say to these doctrines of the evil of war.... It appeared as clear as daylight that we had always been right, and that the warlike spirit, that deepest and purest joy of the great heart of our people, was unshaken and unchanged. The warlike spirit, the love of war and the craving for battle, was no imaginary characteristic of our people—no, and a thousand times no!—K.A. Kuhn, W.U.W., p. 7.