Gems (?) of German Thought Part 6

=Die Deutsche Wahrheit (German Truth).=

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

163. The International Lie-Press has risen up as a fourth Great Power against Germany, and deluges the world with lies against our magnificent and strictly moral (_sittenstrenges_) Army, and slanders everything that is German. I propose that in the treaty of peace we should claim a special milliard as indemnity for lies.[19]--PROF. A.

v. HARNACK, W.W.S.G., p. 4.

164. The Germans demand truth, even from orators. It would be quite impossible to entangle the Germans in a network of impudent lies, as the other nations have been entangled.--PROF. A. La.s.sON, D.R.S.Z., No. 4, p. 23.

165. There was no war party in Germany; that is a _Times_ lie; but there doubtless were responsible statesmen and soldiers who rightly said: "If England and her gang want war at any price, then the sooner the better."--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 13.

166. [The sailors of the British Fleet are] a gang of adventurers and criminals who serve only for filthy lucre ... and among whom desertions and mutinies belong to the order of the day.--W. HELM, W.W.S.M., p. 20.

167. I have travelled at midsummer through the length and breadth of England, from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and to Wales; but I have not seen a single cornfield.--K.L.A. SCHMIDT, D.E.E., p. 29.

168. Not only were the most monstrous untruths as to the violent proceedings of Germany disseminated by the Press, but care was taken to suppress all mention of the twice repeated _generous offer of Germany to compensate Belgium in every respect_, if she would permit the transit of German troops.--"GERMa.n.u.s," B.U.D.K., p. 31.

169. If, apart from one or two acts of rascality (_ein paar Bubenstreichen_), we have as yet seen nothing of the British Fleet, it is [among other reasons] because John Bull knows that the crews of his s.h.i.+ps are simply not to be trusted.--W. HELM, W.W.S.M., p. 20.

170. We know, for example, that English prisoners and wounded pa.s.sing through [Cologne] ... could scarcely believe their eyes when they saw that our n.o.ble cathedral was not a heap of ruins, as their papers had a.s.sured them!--PROF. A. SCHRoER, Z.C.E., p. 55.

171. The French soldiers thought they were only going to manoeuvres.

Not until they were face to face with the enemy, had come under the fire of our rifles and seen our bayonets, did they find out that they had been deceived, that they had been lied into the war.--"War Devotions," by PASTOR J. RUMP, quoted in H. & H., p. 126.

172. What homage does not the stupid world pay to Carnegie; and now we learn that, through his endowments for professors and students, he has enslaved the universities, imposing upon them hard-and-fast doctrines, as, for example, the wors.h.i.+p of England and hostility to Germany.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, P.I., p. 56.

173. When we [in 1870-71] bombarded the fortress of Paris, that was an outrage upon a sacred spot. But when the English battered to the ground the defenceless Alexandria[20]--that was of course quite in order.--PROF. U. v. WILAMOWITZ-MoLLENDORF, R., pt. i., p. 27.

173a. When our Zeppelins drop bombs on the fortress of Antwerp, there are loud protests. But how have not French prisoners boasted of the burning by their bombs of the open city of Nurnberg. The will was there; only the power was lacking.[21]--PROF. U. V.

WILAMOWITZ-MoLLENDORF, R., pt. i., p. 27.

=German Insight and Foresight.=

(BEFORE THE WAR.)

174. [Of the "militia" of the British self-governing Dominions.] They can be completely ignored so far as concerns any European theatre of war. [Of the British Territorial Army.] For a Continental European war it may be left out of account.--GENERAL v. BERNHARDI, G.N.W., p. 135.

175. As soon as we have won our first victory, we may be sure that Italy will unconditionally accord us her armed cooperation.--K. V.

STRANTZ, E.S.V., p. 21.

176. If, in case of war, England should join the Dual Alliance against us, our military position will be in no way prejudiced, if we, on our side, take care to kindle fires at the points where her world-power is threatened. In that case, too, oversea prizes beckon us on, which will be well worth the winning.--K. v. STRANTZ, E.S.V., p.

39.

177. I do not at all believe that Zeppelins have anything to fear from aeroplanes, as their critics a.s.sert.--A. WIRTH, T.O.D., p. 52.

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

178. The far-seeing English politician expects the present war greatly to improve the position of England as against the United States. Any injury that England may conceivably inflict on its best customer, Germany ... will be as nothing in comparison with the direct and indirect losses the war must inflict on America.--DR. A. ZIMMERMANN, quoted by P. HEINSICK, W.U.G., p. 21.

179. There can be no possible doubt that England, in secret, heartily rejoices in every Russian defeat.--P. HEINSICK, W.U.G., p. 21.

=German Freedom.=

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

180. An un-German freedom is no freedom.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p.

21.

180a. Germany has been for centuries the true and only home of a freedom worthy of humanity and elevating to humanity.--H.S.

CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 15.

181. German freedom is thus not a natural human right, but an elevation of humanity above the despotism of its own personal inclinations.--O.A.H. SCHMITZ, D.W.D., p. 46.

182. We should be in an evil case if we were to barter for these [English] "liberties," however praiseworthy in themselves, our individual many-sidedness, our temperament in constant touch with life, in short our Deutschtum.--KARL HECKEL, E.B., p. 384.

183. Ah, Milton, wert thou living at this hour!... Thou would'st understand German champions.h.i.+p of freedom, care for justice, and love of truth.--PROF. A. BRANDL, D.R.S.Z., No. 20.

_On English Freedom, see Nos. 401a, 467._

=The German Language.=

(AFTER JULY, 1914.)

184. Fichte expresses in simple words a positively decisive truth ...

of all the languages of Europe, German is the only living one.--H.S.

CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 26.

185. The German ... _must_ conquer; and when once he has conquered--to-day or in a hundred years...--no duty is more urgent than that of forcing the German language upon the world.--H.S.

CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 33.

186. If German Kultur and the German spirit are to march victorious through the world, not to oppress other peoples, but to aid them in their own development, an essential preliminary will be the spread of the German language. For only he who knows the German language, and can read the works of our spiritual heroes in the original, can really penetrate into the German spirit, and feel himself at home there.--C.L. POEHLMANN, G.D.W., p. 48.

187. Chance brings to my hands to-day a copy of _Jugend_ for May 28, 1900, containing an article by me in which I read: "I have no firmer or more sacred conviction than this, that the higher Kultur of humanity depends upon the spreading of the German language." I go on to explain that this language is the indispensable interpreter of the German nature (_Wesen_), which is what I chiefly prize; and for the spreading of the language it is necessary that the German Empire should develop into the leading State of the world.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, D.Z., p. 9.

188. A defeat for Germany I could regard only as a deferred victory. I should say to myself: The time, then, is not yet ripe; the sacred treasure must yet awhile be guarded and cherished in the circle of the narrower Fatherland. For alone among all nations Germany possesses to-day a living, developing, sacred treasure.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 24.

189. Germanism (_Was wir "deutsch" nennen_) is the secret through which the inner man is illuminated; and the instrument of this illumination is the [German] language.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 25.

190. If Montaigne were living to-day, he would have to remain silent--or to learn German.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 29.

191. Men must come to realize that whoever cannot speak German is a pariah.--H.S. CHAMBERLAIN, K.A., p. 35.

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