 Hereunder
follows the transcription of The
Ravings of a Renegade,
the English translation of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's Kriegsaufsätze.N.B.: notes with asterisks *). **), etc., are not original, but made by me.  Hieronder
volgt de transcriptie van The Ravings
of a Renegade, de
engelse vertaling van Houston Stewart Chamberlain's Kriegsaufsätze.N.B.: noten met asterisken *). **), enz., zijn niet origineel, maar van mij.
|
|
THE RAVINGS OF
A RENEGADE BEING THE WAR ESSAYS OF HOUSTON STEWART CHAMBERLAIN  Translated from the German by CHARLES H. CLARKE, Ph.D. With an Introduction by LEWIS MELVILLE LONDON JARROLD AND SONS 4 (Blank page) 5 INTRODUCTION.
IT is with much pleasure that I write a few lines to introduce Dr. Clarke's translation of Mr. Houston Stewart Chamberlain's "Kriegsaufsätze" („War Essays"). Dr. Clarke, who has spent many years in Germany, has a very wide knowledge of the language, the people, and the life of that country, and the reader may rest assured that the translation conveys the spirit of the original. *) Mr. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who was born in 1855, was intended for the British army — a circumstance which it is now amusing to remember — but being of delicate health and unable to endure the vagaries of the English climate, he went ————— *) And it more or less does. For a list of omissions and mistakes Dr. Clarke, Ph. D., has made, see my inventory. I have decided not to incorporate them as footnotes in this transcription — there are too many of them. 6 INTRODUCTION abroad, and has spent most of his days, first in Austria, and since 1900 in Germany. He married the daughter of Richard Wagner, and has written several books on German literature and music. In this country his best known work is "Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts," a translation of which appeared under the title of "The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century." When the war broke out, Mr. Chamberlain was invited by his friends to address himself to England and point out the wrong which that country had done in taking up arms against Germany; but, as he tells us, though he desired to do so, his pen absolutely declined to indite a word. He then bethought himself of telling Germany what he thought of England, and, lo! the sentences rolled over each other in their anxiety to be enrolled in that noble cause. These essays appeared in various periodicals; two of them, "England" and "Germany," were re-issued and circulated as a pamphlet; and 7 INTRODUCTION all of them were collected and published in volume form. The book was accorded a very hearty welcome throughout Germany, and the copy in front of me bears the imprint, "seventh edition." It may, of course, be held by some that no good purpose is served by presenting these essays in an English dress. I venture, however, to contend that the book is of great interest to British readers. I do not propose to discuss the taste of an Englishman who at such a time as this can abuse his country in the vitriolic style employed by Mr. Chamberlain: I merely assert that the "Kriegsaufsätze" are valuable as giving a clear insight into the Pan-German mind, in its most wild moments. Like all renegades, Mr. Chamberlain is plus royaliste que le roi. In his eyes everything in Germany is good, everything in England vile; virtue is German, culture is German, large-heartedness is German, literature and art are German, decadence and incompetence and 8 INTRODUCTION vice and stupidity are English. In fact, he echoes the refrain of Herr Lissauer's infamous (but to British folk amusing) "Hymn of Hate": "We have only one enemy — England." "As I believe in God, so do I believe in the holy German language," is the text of one of Mr. Chamberlain's essays. In another article he writes in all seriousness, "My conviction is that in all Germany during the last forty years there has not lived a single German who has wished for war — not one. Who puts forward the contrary view, lies — either deliberately or unintentionally." In a third paper he asks, "Why do all nations hate Germany and the Germans?" Mr. Chamberlain argues that this is due partly to envy, partly to misconception. The correct explanation is, however, to be found in another direction. Germany is hated because it can produce writers who are so fatuous as to put forward such opinions as are contained in this book, for it must be remem- 9 INTRODUCTION bered that while the words are Mr. Chamberlain's, the sentiments he voices are those of almost the entire educated and "cultured" classes in the unhappy country which has adopted him. LEWIS MELVILLE.
LONDON, November 29th, 1915. 10 (Blank page) 11 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
IN publishing a translation of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's "War Essays," it is perhaps necessary, from the very first, to make clear to the public that it is not an attempt to carry on German propaganda in our own country. It is certainly a most regrettable and painful fact that an Englishman should have been found capable of championing the worst form of Pan-German militarism, but it seemed impossible to allow a work emanating from such a quarter and containing so violent an attack on England to pass unheeded and unchallenged — especially in consideration of the vogue it has enjoyed in Germany, where, in spite of its exaggerated assertions and absolutely idiotic statements concerning English life and insti- 12 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE tutions, it is regarded as the last word of truth. It is read and commented on by everyone. A special edition of the two essays, "England" and "Germany," has been published as "Schützengrabenausgabe" (Trench Edition), and is supplied to the troops by thousands, the price of the copy being then reduced to the insignificant sum of thirteen pfennigs (about a penny three farthings). It is one of the principal items of a group of publications written by Sven Hedin, Ludwig Ganghofer, and Paul Oscar Hocker, which Germany with her accustomed thoroughness has mobilised against her enemies in the field. But, unlike his colleagues, Chamberlain has, as yet, not proceeded to the front. Like the General Staff in Berlin, for which he evinces such extravagant veneration, he sits in his study at Bayreuth, the holy seat of classic Wagnerism, and hurls one after another his bolts against Germany's enemies, destined, in his opinion, to have the same effect in the world of letters as the 13 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE Germans believe they have produced by their 43 cm. mortars in the war and to stagger humanity by the "frightfulness" of their irresistible logic. The purpose of this translation is to show the nature and quality of this logic, to reveal the tactics by which this renegade strategist proceeds to annihilate his native country and all her allies and to defend the country of his adoption. To do this it was necessary, though painful, to place the Essays in their entirety before the reading public. In their essence the Essays are a defence, for every German — and I believe Chamberlain will feel honoured to be counted among them — finds himself in a state of hopeless defence as soon as he ventures to write on the German political attitude in the present war. But Chamberlain has studied strategy from the famous Field-Marshal Moltke and knows "der Hieb ist die beste Parade" ("the blow is the best defence"); he therefore allows no opportunity to escape, however remote it 14 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE may be, without turning it into a stick with which to belabour his unfortunate native country. German and English literature are ransacked from their origins to the present day to rake up any comment, however trivial, derogatory to England or laudatory to Germany. It is interesting to note that all the witnesses called, both for the defence and the prosecution, are long since deceased; they are the most convenient category, unable to turn round and repudiate or qualify their testimony. A country which produced Luther and Goethe must necessarily, according to Chamberlain, be destined to great things, and cannot possibly stray from the straight path of righteousness. Shakespeare, although admittedly a great genius, was, like Chamberlain, born in England. But then England has changed completely since that time. It has changed because it harbours two races — the Norman and the Anglo-Saxon — within its shores, which have never mingled, but 15 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE throughout the centuries remained distinct in manners, speech, and attitude of mind. For Chamberlain the key of the whole present position lies in the Norman Conquest of the year 1066 and in a "turn of fate" which induced the honest Anglo-Saxon husbandman to leave his field and venture on "the dark and stormy deep," of which by nature he had an innate dread; for the sake of wealth to become a pirate, a trader. Politically, England never flourished except in Anglo-Saxon times. Her Parliament has ruined her, as, in Chamberlain's opinion, all Parliaments ruin nations who are foolish enough to adopt them. Chamberlain would probably have recommended the retention of the "folkmote," which seems to be in his mind when he speaks of the future political institutions which are to be realised in Germany, when she has overthrown all her enemies and become the leading state in the world. 16 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE These constructive remarks of Chamberlain are not unlikely to cause him some trouble, when the heat of battle has passed away, for the reactionary spirit expressed in them is too evident and pronounced to be palatable even to the most docile German. But, in the meanwhile, any stick is good enough with which to beat a dog. Burke, Bolingbroke, and Carlyle are all pressed into the ranks that are arrayed against us, especially Carlyle. But it is not the Carlyle of the "French Revolution," but the author of the "Life of Frederick the Great" and the "Essays on German Literature" — books which have long since been superseded in this country — with whom we have to contend. An essay on "Der Neue Kurs," the new course of German politics since the dismissal of Bismarck, by Carlyle, would certainly be of extreme interest, and Chamberlain might find himself in the same position as the sorcerer's apprentice in Goethe's "Zauberlehrling": 17 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE "Die ich rief, die Geister
Werd' ich nun nicht los." ("I cannot lay the spirits Which I conjured up.") The same would apply to Goethe. If the quotations derogatory to the German people by him and other well-known German poets and writers were to be collected, they would fill a handsome volume, without including those of Heinrich Heine, for whom Chamberlain, for obvious reasons, possesses little love; these might be bound up in a separate volume, there is no lack of them. Chamberlain is an arduous student of comparative philology and, as such, is doubtlessly acquainted with the works of a certain Max Müller, related to German poets of the same surname; perhaps in studying him he may have come across the lines: "Auf Deutsch will ich es
kühnlich sagen
Ohn' England wär die Welt nicht zu ertragen." ("I will boldly state in German that without England the world would be unbearable.") 18 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE We see ourselves humbly forced to admit that Germany surpasses us in renegades, "comme en toute chose." Seriously, Chamberlain is a man of extensive learning and great literary attainments, which he has displayed in his works on "The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century," on "Kant," on "Goethe," all of which are written in the "holy German language," the only tongue, we presume, capable, by means of its structure and "contents," of conveying the thoughts of the author in an adequate form. He lives at Bayreuth, which, by the way, is the only place, even in Germany, in which he could possibly live. He is connected by marriage with the family of the great composer, Richard Wagner. It is absolutely necessary to bear these facts in mind in order to understand the Essays and judge them in their right milieu. No man of any artistic feeling can withstand the charm of transcendental music, 19 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE which appeals to that part of the human soul which, in ordinary life, leads a half-famished existence, and in many cases has ceased to exist for want of nutriment. But it is like the flame of which Schiller speaks in his "Song of the Bell": "Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen!"' ("Woe, when untrammelled it escapes our guard.") From the oppressed it turns into the tyrant. The mind then turns entirely to the pursuit of the universal, which because it is itself of a dual constitution — like the English nation — it is unable to assimilate. It becomes unable to appreciate the facts of everyday life, to understand itself or those surrounding it, and loses itself in the dim vagueness of sentimentality — Irrlichterei-Schwefelei, as the Germans express it. It was particularly against this attitude of mind that Goethe, after having overcome it in his youth, in the period of storm and stress, contended during the rest of his long life, fixing as his ideal the harmony between the individual and the universal, in the soul 20 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE of man — this being its most natural, most human and, therefore, highest state. The poet may be granted an excess of the "universal"; for him who writes on scientific, economic, or political questions it is far safer to err on the other side. This has repeatedly been brought home to Chamberlain by his German critics, so that he has been forced to turn and face them in a defence. At present he probably believes he can let himself go with impunity; zeal for the good cause will excuse all lack of scientific exactitudes. But still we fear his Essay, "The German Language," will cause as much head-shaking in the ranks of scientific Germanic philology *) as his wild political assertions among cool-headed politicians and diplomatists, to say nothing of his praise of Luther in the ranks of the powerful Central Party (Roman Catholic) in Germany and the clerical party in Austria. Things must indeed have changed if these gentlemen are to stand quietly by and ———— *) Indeed it did. See Leo Spitzer's book "Anti-Chamberlain. Betrachtungen eines Linguisten über Houston Stewart Chamberlains „Kriegsaufsätze“ und die Sprachbewertung im allgemeinen", published by O. R. Reisland, Leipzig 1918. 21 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE be told that they, although remaining true to their old faith, have profited immensely in religion, morals, and national life by the work of Martin Luther. A later Essay called "Die Zuversicht" ("Confidence") — not included in this collection — shows that he has had to defend himself against the accusation of flattering the German people. But these are things between him and his adopted Fatherland. Much more serious is the manner in which he treats the political events which led up to the war. Nowhere does he make the slightest attempt to prove the base charges he brings against his native country. It is sufficient for him to say, "as is well known," "as is accepted." In this respect, as in all others, he forms the exact antithesis to his countryman by adoption, the author of "J'accuse," and I should strongly recommend a minute comparison of the two books. In fact, it is difficult for an Englishman to understand why the author of "J'accuse" 22 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE should go to such trouble to prove things that are self-evident, until he is confronted with amazing accusations brought forward by a representative of German opinion in the style of Chamberlain. All Chamberlain's accusations against England on account of her self-seeking policy are conclusively refuted in the chapters of "J'accuse" dealing with this subject, and the statistical material is supplied. But Chamberlain goes still farther. He hints that England was a party to the foul murder of the heir to the Austrian throne; that the whole of the British fleet was mobilised in July, 1914, in anticipation of events which those in power were trying to bring about. He states that a friendly visit by the British fleet to Kiel was undertaken for the express purpose of spying, as all other means to attain knowledge of this harbour had failed. A man born of British parents and on British soil who can do that places himself outside the pale. He exposes himself to be regarded as the paid agent of a hostile 23 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE state, and many will maintain that the "iron cross" which decks his bosom is not the only reward he has received for fouling his own nest, but that "klingende Münze" ("hard cash"), to use the pretty German expression, has also played its part. And what, after all, can be said against this assertion? Has not Chamberlain proved, to his own full satisfaction, that an Englishman will do anything for money? True, Warren Hastings did not seek to enrich himself, but his company, his country. Chamberlain admits this. But then, that was a long time ago, and we are on the downward grade and must have travelled considerably since then. It is dangerous to cut away the ground beneath one's own feet; the slightest move, and one falls into the precipice — the bottomless pit. Rightly did Schiller say: "Ans Vaterland, ans teure
schliess dich an
Da sind die starken Wurzeln deiner Kraft." ("Adhere unto thy native land, For from there thy strength doth come.") 24 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE Curious, this applies to an Englishman just as much as to a German! Even the greatest of tacticians occasionally make mistakes. A slight detail is overlooked, a loophole is left by which the enemy may break through and reach the very heart of the position. This accident would appear to have happened to our strategic author in spite of his attack, distinguished by so much brilliant impetuosity — "durch seinen flotten Schneid," as he would express it, or, perhaps, exactly on this account. When extolling the intrinsic merits of the General Staff he states that the whole plan of the campaign of 1914 was drawn up by the Great Field-Marshal Helmuth von Moltke, who died in the year 1891. This plan was modernised and kept in readiness by the General Staff. But it must necessarily have contained the passage of the German troops through Belgium and the breach of Belgian neutrality. But this, according to Chamberlain, was justified by 25 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE a convention between France and Belgium, formed in the reign of Edward VII., who ascended the throne in 1902. There is a German proverb, "Allzu scharf macht schartig" ("Too sharp turns the edge"), and Chamberlain would do well to be more careful how he deals with the secrets entrusted to him by his friends of the General Staff. But now for the lighter vein, which, fortunately, is never entirely missing, especially when learned gentlemen of Chamberlain's calibre descend into the sphere of ordinary life. It is long since I have enjoyed anything so much as Chamberlain's description of a London Christmas festival. The families, seated at thousands of tables in the dining halls of the London hotels, awaiting the stroke of twelve to sing "For he's a jolly good fellow," and indulge promiscuously in dancing the "Tango," is a picture that deserves to live; and it will live in Germany, handed down from father to son. I don't 26 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE quite understand why they should wait till midnight; there would appear to be some slight confusion between Christmas and New Year — they follow each other with such overwhelming rapidity. But, nevertheless, it is a pearl. Not less amusing is Chamberlain's hunt for a blue tie throughout the whole of London when blue was out of fashion. Hard lines! To say nothing of the English town of forty thousand inhabitants in which not a single person was to be found who could read words of four syllables without floundering, or of Chamberlain's journey through the deserted streets of the capital on boat-race day. They are all classical and will be told and told again to our children when travelling on the Continent. We offer our deepest sympathy to Mr. Chamberlain at the shock he received on hearing of the British Association, referred to as the "British Ass," and would recommend him not to expose his nerves to such a trial 27 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE again without the utmost necessity. In short, we rather fear that his humour has not survived his long sojourn in Bayreuth. Our humour has stuck to us in spite of our general depravity. Perhaps it is the last remnant of Merry Old England, and while there is humour there is still life. It proves, at least, that our minds are still healthy and capable of that harmony which Goethe considered so essential. For it is humour which, as the electric spark springing from cloud to cloud equalises the two poles, mediates in the soul of man between the individual and the universal and produces the pure air of harmony — a fresher and a purer atmosphere than would appear to prevail at Bayreuth at present. 28 (Blank page) 29 CONTENTS.
30 (Blank page) 31 I.
GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE. 32 (Blank page) 33 I.
GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE. IN these holy days of such grave import there is no inclination for the niceties of style; even the oratory of Demosthenes sounds hollow in comparison with the deed of laying down one's life for the Fatherland. Facts alone are of interest to us at the present moment. "Facts," says Carlyle, "go beyond thought; beside them words are but stammering and stuttering." But how are we to arrive at facts? Material ones, true, force themselves upon us, but how do we contrive to obtain intellectual, moral facts? The monstrous fact of the European War is borne in upon us by day and night; but what fact lies at the root of this war? Who desired it? The enemies of Germany 34 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE maintain that Germany is the breaker of the peace, there will be no lasting peace till Germany be destroyed; whence this conception of a demented brain? How is it possible to hide from the sight of millions the evident truth, the "fact"? He who says fact presupposes truth. An untrue fact is void; an "ens imaginarum"; Kant's "empty apperception without an object"; but at times this void imagination contrives to gain a demoniacal power over the ideas of man. By means of the Press, which can do so much to spread the truth, mendacity has, in the hands of few individuals, grown to a power beyond conception throughout the world; we see it drastically in the war news published in the foreign press, and yet how harmless are lying reports of victories in comparison with the systematic poisoning of a whole nation by a plan of lying which has been carefully thought out and carried on for years. 35 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE Oscar Wilde once wrote an essay on the "Art of Lying." Since then his countrymen have made considerable progress in this noble art. This does not imply that the statesmen of former times followed the straight path of open honesty; but cunning was met by cunning, the fox was out-foxed, and, thus, it can, in a certain sense, be said that the trickery of a Richelieu, for instance, was "honest cheating." But now the entirely unsuspecting are misled. No statesman of the present day can ignore public opinion; it is impossible — at least to the West of the Dwina — to carry on a war, if the great masses of the people are not persuaded of its necessity; and, as no civilised people of their own free will desire war, the necessity — a matter which Richelieu could dispense with — must be demonstrated to them. Here a terrible thing is revealed; lies have exactly the same effect as truth, for they are believed. It is sufficient to acquire 36 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE a certain number of papers with large circulation and consequently of great influence, to place them under a united management and, in a few years, the purpose is attained. Never in the history of the world has the deception of an entire nation been so shamefully, so wickedly, conceived and carried out as the deception of England in regard to Germany. This deception alone is responsible for the present war. From the very beginning England, the dynamic force, desired the war and brought it about; England caused the estrangement between Russia and Germany; England has incessantly egged on France to war. This criminal policy was possible, solely by means of a well-calculated, systematic deception of the English people. The chief agitator was a king, the mental tool of a soulless, cunning diplomatist, who worshipped the ancient English principle that in matters of state hypocrisy and mendacity are the most effective arms; as 37 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE "manager" of the plot a clever journalist was selected to whom all opinions were indifferent as long as they brought him profit. At this period he already possessed papers of the most various political opinions, he acquired more and more; ultimately the Times, whose course he had long controlled, passed into his hands; to-day, parading with the title of a Lord which hides his real name *) and his un-English descent, he rules supreme throughout the English Press. To mention one thing: for years the reports of the Times correspondent **) in Berlin have been a disgrace; this man without a conscience — on whose cowardly head a great quantity of all the misery of the war falls — has by positive and negative lying surpassed the limit of imagination. Repeatedly I asked why the villain was not hounded from Berlin to the frontier; the reply was: There is no law against lying. Such a law must be made! Liars who endanger the peace of Europe must be hanged. ————— *) Alfred Harmsworth, later Lord Northcliffe. He also owned the Daily Mail. **) Chamberlain probably refers to Robert Blatchford or G. W. Steevens. 38 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE And now, after dealing with the fictitious fact that Germany desired the war, we turn to the real fact: Germany was the guardian of the peace. My testimony as a foreigner may bear some weight in this respect. For forty-five years my intercourse has been mainly with Germans; for thirty years I have lived constantly in Germany; the love of German character, German thought, German science, German art, has sharpened my sight without making me blind to her faults. My judgment has remained entirely objective; and to many things which displeased me the day I set foot on German soil I have never been able to accustom myself. From earliest youth in close relations to France, attached to England by bonds of blood, I regarded all countries with an unbiassed eye. It is true I have led a secluded life, have never sought by vulgar sight-seeing and running after celebrities to acquire a knowledge of the country and people, but things are seen more distinctly 39 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE at a distance than at close range; in silence the ear hears more clearly than in the midst of confusing din. And my testimony is: in the whole of Germany during the last forty-three years not a single man has lived who desired war; no, not a single one. He who maintains the contrary lies — be it consciously or unconsciously. I have had the good fortune to become acquainted with Germans from all parts of the Empire and of all spheres of life, from Imperial Majesty to the honest artisan, with whom I have had daily dealings. I have known intimately schoolmasters, scholars, merchants, bankers, officers, diplomatists, engineers, poets, journalists, officials, artists, physicians, lawyers. Never have I met a warlike one or, to be more exact, one eager for war. But in England, during my last visits in 1907 and 1908, everywhere an absolutely horrifying hatred of Germany and the impatient expectation of a war of destruction. The absence of animosity to 40 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE other nations is the most striking characteristic of the Germans — and of the Germans alone. They generally err on the side of exaggerated recognition of foreign merits. Besides, every German knows that, owing to the geographical position of his country, he has everything to fear and nothing to hope for from a war. How should a people whose industry, trade, and science were thriving more and more every year, as was the case with Germany during the last forty-three years, wish to bring on a war which must destroy all three? I will now only say a few words more about the Emperor William. He alone, as an individual, could give the definite decision. I have not met the Emperor frequently, but under particularly favourable circumstances, beyond the bonds of court etiquette, unobserved, in informal interchange of opinion; I have never repeated a word of the monarch; not that he entrusted any secrets to me, but because 41 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE one can never foresee the possible effect of a word spoken by a man in so exposed a position; nor will I to-day renounce my maxim. Yet I commit no indiscretion when I say that in this important personality two traits appeared to me specially remarkable, as the two "dominants" of all his feeling, thinking, acting: the deep and never relaxing feeling of responsibility before God and — closely and exactly defined by this — the energetic, masterful, yes — should it not sound too paradoxical — the turbulent desire to preserve peace for Germany. Germany's power, which he has done so much to foster, was not to conjure up a war, but enforce peace on all ill-wishers. His actions, indeed, bear evidence of it; for, when, during the last ten years the situation became nearly unbearable for Germany's honour — and England took good care that this should be the case — it was he who again and again prevailed for peace. Not that there was ever a war party in Berlin — 42 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE that is a lie of the Times; but there were responsible ministers and soldiers who said: If England and her companions wish for war at any price, then let it be at once. But the Emperor could not let this argument prevail with his conscience. He thrust the half-drawn sword into its sheath. No wish — of that I am entirely persuaded — stood higher with him than the wish to be able to say on his death-bed: I have inviolably preserved the peace of my country, history will call me the "Emperor of Peace." If God gives the Austro-German arms the complete, overwhelming victory for which we all pray, even we who are not Germans, in so far as we value the attainments of civilised humanity higher than national vanity, then, and only then, will Europe enjoy a century of peace, and the wish of the great and good monarch, who has been so shamefully deceived by his fellow-princes, will yet be fulfilled more gloriously than he himself had thought; at the same time a 43 GERMANY'S LOVE OF PEACE justification for all Germany against slander and lying. Then, more intensely, will he be called the "Emperor of Peace," as he and his army have created peace as their own brave achievement. 44 (Blank page) 45 II.
GERMAN LIBERTY. 46 (Blank page) 47 II.
GERMAN LIBERTY. THE assertion that Germany's enemies are fighting for liberty against tyranny is to be found with striking frequency in official manifestos and newspaper articles. The opinion has long been circulated throughout the world that everywhere where Germany goes there is an end to all freedom. I have met serious men, scholars in England, for instance, who had warm sympathy for German science and literature, and yet believed that, politically, it would be a misfortune if Germany's influence were to increase in Europe, for it would mean the destruction of all liberty. Now when I occasionally attempted, in 48 GERMAN LIBERTY oral disputes to support the contrary, that Germany had, for centuries, been the real and sole home of a liberty which tends to raise the human race and is alone worthy of the name, I never succeeded in rousing interest. The English and French, even the well-educated, do not reflect on the essence of liberty, on its peculiar function in the complicated organism of the human mind; for them it is purely a political idea which has been handed down through the ages; they always considered they had refuted me when they brought out as trumps that the German Imperial Chancellor was appointed and retained by the Emperor, and could remain in office in spite of the majority of the Reichstag. The essence of liberty is, therefore, to be able to overthrow chancellors. Whole books would be necessary to give real enlightenment on this subject — to destroy wrong ideas and replace them by correct ones. I will only make a few remarks, give a little food for reflection. 49 GERMAN LIBERTY Let us ask first: In what does the far-famed English political liberty really consist? If one were to sum up the internal history of England, which, till 1688, was heroic and sanguinary, and later on Machiavellian and intriguing, in a single formula, it would be: History of a struggle between nobility and crown. Neither of these factors thought of liberty; each only sought to increase its power. When Cromwell appeared, both joined issue against the one man, and the sole course which would have been capable of founding true freedom in England. Afterwards the course, thanks to the insular position of the country, was very simple, and from it rose the English Parliament, which has been set up as an unattainable pattern till one is tired of hearing of it, and in which, until a few years ago, the Lower House was just as aristocratic as the Upper House. For a long time England has been ruled by an oligarchy, the king is a puppet. Up to the commencement 50 GERMAN LIBERTY of the nineteenth century the sovereign, if he possessed the necessary energy, had a say in the election of the Prime Minister, then he lost this prerogative, and the secret committee of the parliamentary oligarchy has since governed alone. The fiction of the two chief parties is still kept up, and the minority of the male population which enjoy the franchise still decide when the one shall be superseded by the other; but the leaders of both parties work under the same cover and keep at a distance all who might be inclined to restrict their power or the profits they derive. Offices are given only by the governing caste: the leader of the victorious party must be Prime Minister, and all other ministers are elected not, as one might presume, by the party, but by the secret committee; king and people have no say whatever in the matter. Discipline is severely maintained in the parties by the Whips; woe to any member who should dare to express his own opinion. The House of 51 GERMAN LIBERTY Commons has, it is true, assumed a slightly more democratic appearance in consequence of the extension of the franchise, which was first carried out by Disraeli and then by Gladstone; but the system has remained unaltered; aristocracy is yielding to plutocracy. What the House has lost in gentility it has gained in power. The restriction of the freedom of speech, particularly by the introduction of the so-called "guillotine," which permits every debate to be broken off at a certain time and a vote to be taken at once, has transformed this pretended freest of all parliaments into a kind of machine, by means of which a small group of politicians rule and govern for seven years according to their own sweet will. The tyranny of this clique, which, as the recent Marconi scandal proved, are not even afraid of indulging in shady financial transactions, was rendered complete when, two years ago, a decisive influence on the legislation was withdrawn from the Upper House. The 52 GERMAN LIBERTY veto-right of the crown has long ago fallen into abeyance. And thus England is governed by a "Convent," or rather a "Conventicle." And that is called freedom! But I should like to go deeper. For liberty is of a frail and tender nature, and often flees from public life to take up her abode in the energetic life of individuals; this may be observed in the United States. To a certain extent it is also the case in England. I do not believe there are so many cranks — people who take no heed of public opinion or custom, who care neither for good or bad reputation, but think, act, and live as it suits them personally — anywhere as in England. But these exceptions do but prove the rule, and in their grotesque particularities show the reverse of the general lack of liberty. The last time I was a few weeks in England I made my friends very angry because I could not help exclaiming, "You are truly a nation of sheep." It 53 GERMAN LIBERTY begins with the smallest habits of daily life, and continues up to political opinions, everything on the same pattern. Every man wears the same trousers; every woman the same bonnet; I remember that once in the whole of London not a single blue tie was to be had: blue was out of fashion; such a thing is impossible in Berlin, Paris, Vienna. All people of both sex read the same novels, devour one volume a day "the novels of the week." On the day of the boat race between Oxford and Cambridge one walks through literally empty streets in London; the oldest duchess and the youngest chimney-sweep, all are seized by the same enthusiasm, as by a madness, for this event, of which, at the best, they see but little, and, in no case, understand anything, as in order to understand the achievement a special knowledge of all kinds of details — tide, wind, etc. — is requisite, which is only possessed by expert oarsmen. Closely allied to this sporting mania is a 54 GERMAN LIBERTY complete contempt for all mental attainments. I am not only speaking of ignorance alone; truly, with the exception of the small class of exquisitely trained scholars, the ignorance is so immense that no German can form an idea of it; in a town of forty thousand inhabitants it was found impossible, five years ago, to find a single man capable of reading English correctly to a convalescent. They stumbled over words of three syllables and broke down entirely when they came to those of four! But of that I will not speak for the moment, but of the conscientious objection to every intellectual occupation which is prevalent in England. Years ago, the Swede, Steffens, remarked rightly (in his excellent book, "England as a World Power"): "The English seemed to have a superstitious dread of intellectual influences in the management of human affairs.“ Every well-educated man in England is suspicious; he only gains consideration the moment when his intellectual attainments begin to bring 55 GERMAN LIBERTY in money — otherwise, he is regarded as a fool. A few years ago I arrived — unfortunately a few weeks too late — in a town where the annual meeting of the British Association had taken place; I was congratulating one of the principal inhabitants — an unusually talented man, decorated with many orders, esteemed at court, and known and admired in all quarters — on this meeting of the most important English scholars, and of many from abroad, which must have brought him stimulus and experience. At first the gentleman in question did not understand me, then he said, laughing: "Oh, you mean the British Ass, as we call the Association. I am thankful to say I managed to keep so well out of the way of the gentlemen that I did not see one of them." It is thus that pure science is treated in England, in the best circles. I could give many such examples, interesting, because they are taken from life; but my 56 GERMAN LIBERTY main purpose is to point out that true liberty is incompatible with such a frame of mind: not only is English industry and manufacture, the whole spirit of public life, blighted by this hatred of culture, but it also destroys the possibility of liberty. Liberty, we know, since Kant is an idea, no man is born free; liberty must be acquired by each individual. Its accessories are an education and strengthening of the mind, a methodical uplifting above all with which it was originally endued, until that liberation is attained which alone deserves the name of liberty. External liberty, if not preceded by internal liberty, is but licence. The English understand by liberty the right to walk on the grass without being stopped by a policeman; that they are not restricted by military duties from setting out into the world in search of adventures; that they may leave school at an early age to act as clerk in a solicitor's office, and thus, without the troublesome compulsion of studying law, in 57 GERMAN LIBERTY a few years become a solicitor, etc., etc. On the other hand, the German may not walk on the grass; he may not arrange his life as it pleases him best; but he is obliged to sacrifice valuable years of youth and, later on, many holiday weeks to his Fatherland, and his life when the necessity arises. None of the higher professions are open to him unless he has acquired extensive general and specific knowledge. Is he, on this account less free than the Englishman? Does not the irresistible superiority of the German soldier lie in his moral qualities particularly? And what does this mean but that he acts of his own free will. He alone wishes what he is ordered to do, wishes it with his whole heart; the English, the French, the Russian soldier is ordered to do a thing which has no relation to his personal will; in the best of cases he only obeys a desire of destruction which, not natural to him, has been roused by a system of lies. And is it not their education which raises the German 58 GERMAN LIBERTY middle class above that of all other nations? — the education which is enforced upon them by the nation with relentless severity, and thanks to which the individual becomes a person capable of free judgment. Even the numerous trifling annoyances, what may be done and what may not be done, which, at first, are very irksome to us foreigners in Germany, are they not at bottom the result of general good order from which all profit? They may be exaggerated, but are, on the whole, a good school of discipline and consideration of others. Martin Luther teaches: "The flesh should have no liberty"; on the contrary, every man should be "servant of all." And then he continues: "But in the spirit and in our conscience we are most free from all servitude; there we believe no man, there we trust no man, put confidence in no man, fear no man but solely Jesus Christ." I do not know if the present-day Englishmen consider Martin Luther a free man; the great majority, even among the 59 GERMAN LIBERTY educated, know, I am afraid, as little about him as their king does about Goethe, probably no more than the name. And were I now to let Frederick the Great speak: "Without liberty there is no happiness," they would certainly object that he was a tyrant. We, on the other hand, experience how liberty is obtained. Liberty is no abstract quality, that hovers in the air, and for which one needs only to stretch out one's hand; that is mock liberty that is thus caught, a deceptive illusion that falling from the horn of Pandora vanishes into thin air. German Freedom — real Freedom — was conceived and created by Martin Luther, Frederick, Kant, Goethe, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Bismarck, and thousands of others, who each, according to his strength, trod in the steps of these great creators of Freedom. An un-German liberty is no liberty. This Goethe knew right well when, towards 1792, he observed that "A certain desire for liberty, a striving for democracy," was begin- 60 GERMAN LIBERTY ning to gain possession of many German minds. "They did not seem to feel," he writes, "what they must lose first to attain some kind of questionable advantage." And bitterly he upbraids "this fluctuation of opinion — unfortunately the result of German character always prone to imitation." Germany has attained this precious possession in the course of struggles — physical and mental — throughout centuries. This German freedom is an absolutely original product. Humanity has, up to the present, known nothing which resembles it. It stands incomparably higher than Hellenic liberty; besides, it is much more firmly founded than that ephemeric product which could resist neither the external enemy nor internal decay. Characteristic of German liberty is the conscious assertion of the whole. All individual parts of the empire preserve their independence and submit to be subjected to the whole. Thus, too, every man submits 61 GERMAN LIBERTY from infancy for the good of the whole. That is the first step to liberty. This freedom, and only this, can hope for duration. For the first time in the history of the world, freedom, as an inclusive and continuous property, becomes possible. Let this, above all, be borne in mind. "Freedom is not licence but truthfulness," says Richard Wagner. But how can a whole commonweal, a whole nation in its political structure and character be no longer arbitrary but truthful? The sublime spectacle which Germany in the war of 1914 offers teaches us. Let that be compared with the trivial nonsense we hear from kings, ministers, orators, and poets. It is unnecessary to speak of the liberty Russia has to dispense; what liberty poor betrayed and ruined France can promise, the country of political corruption, of hollow words, needs as little explanation. England understands by liberty only the right of the mighty, and this right only for herself. Not a single 62 GERMAN LIBERTY spark of intellectual life has ever sprung from its immense colonial empire. The inhabitants are all only cattle-owners, slave-owners, merchandise accumulators, mine exploiters, and everywhere there reigns the absolute licence of brutality which develops everywhere where it is not opposed by intellectual culture: that brutality which Rudyard Kipling, England's most popular poet, has the front to claim as the highest power and greatest glory of England. The continuance and development of freedom on earth depends on the victory of the German arms and on Germany's remaining true to herself after victory. And just as freedom in Germany though at first only the dream and hope of a few God-favoured men, and which even to-day can only be completely and consciously conceived by those who are favoured by nature and circumstances — nevertheless gradually permeates the whole people, as we now experience it in this war, when millions immediately rush to arms, who 63 GERMAN LIBERTY could not have been called upon, therefore by their own free will. In this same manner German freedom will spread over all the world as far as the German language sounds. True freedom will form a better glue than jingoism. And the German language — the holy warden of these mysteries — no longer despised and soon forgotten by her own children in far-off lands, but everywhere fostered and developed, will found a universal Teutonism, and by degrees educate other nations, in so far as nature has granted them the capacity, to understand liberty and thus enter into its possession. God grant this victory. 64 (Blank page) 65 III.
THE GERMAN LANGUAGE (LETTER TO E. E.). 66 (Blank page) 67 III. THE GERMAN LANGUAGE (LETTER TO E. E.). YOU are certainly right. It would be criminal, if just in these September days, when the great decision is pending which will decide all future issues, to abandon oneself to the intoxication of foolhardy confidence. From a thinking being, at least, more logic is to be expected than humbly to petition God for help and, at the same time, to be persuaded the Germans could not possibly fail to be victorious. I believe that the Germans have done everything humanly possible to emerge as victors from this struggle which has been forced upon them; but I know what part is played in history by 68 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE insignificant circumstances, accidents, as they are called. From the bottom of my heart, I turn to God and say as our Saviour has taught us: "Father, not as I will; Thy will alone be done." True humility means to be prepared for all. Do we, indeed, know which would be more difficult to bear — victory or defeat? And yet, how shall I express myself? I am afraid I shall become illogical or even impious. I could only regard a German defeat as a deferred victory. I should say to myself, the time is not yet ripe, we must continue to preserve the holy treasure in the restricted circle of the Fatherland. For Germany alone, at the present day, among all nations preserves a living, holy treasure, capable of development. It is inexpressible like all that comes from God, and I feel myself not only incapable of describing it or even of circumscribing it. One must be born a German, or have become one, to understand this; one must live in the midst 69 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE of this manifold blessing, must breathe its air, work in its light, live in its sunshine, rest under its benevolent protection. And there the word of our so exclusively German Schiller occurs to me: "When once light has penetrated a man, there is no night outside." For the moment let these words suffice. What we call "German" is the secret by which mankind is enlightened; and the means of this enlightenment is the German language. Nothing can persuade me that this language is destined to destruction! There are other languages rich in works of the spirit; who would deny it ? I, least of all, who from infancy up to the present day have felt myself at home in English and in French, so that Shakespeare, Hume, and Sterne, Ronsard, Pascal, and Rousseau, are in their own words, their untranslatable idioms, nearly as accessible and familiar to my ear and understanding as Luther, Herder, and Goethe. I also possess a slight idea of 70 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE the structure and vigour of the ancient languages; can read Italian, and owe lasting impressions to the study of Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. Based on this knowledge and other knowledge acquired from comparative philology, I maintain that, among living languages, German occupies, unquestionably, a unique position of majesty and vitality which excludes any comparison. This lies partially in the structure of the language, as it has been formed by history, partially in the products which it has received from an unparalleled series of virile, eminent, and partially heroic minds. These products — let this be added at once — transcend the realm of language. Thus, for instance, Johann Sebastian Bach, the marvel, whom Goethe can only compare with God, is unthinkable beyond the pale of the German language and beyond the lines which Luther indicated for the development of the spirit of this language. All this is but one and the same current. 71 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE In regard to its structure, so many excellent things have been said and so many things are treasured in your faithful memory that I can merely restrict myself to referring you to the fourth of Fichte's "Orations to the German Nation." On the whole, I must confess, I find Fichte difficult. He generally goes against my grain; but this lecture on "The principal differences between the Germans and other nations of Teutonic origin" I always read again from time to time, and derive benefit from it. First, I am pleased to see that he reckons among the "nations of Germanic origin" the French, the Spaniards, and the Italians. It is quite evident how much Germanic blood must flow in their veins as the source of their vigour. It is sufficient to know what the idea "German" means, and to have studied a little history; and yet this evident truth stated in the winter-term, 1807-8, had to be rediscovered in our days. Secondly, Fichte pronounces in simple words an absolutely decisive 72 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE fact by seeking the reason for the increasing differences between nations, above all, in their languages. Among the languages of Europe, German is the only living one. Everything else is deducted from this fact, for, as Fichte observes: "Between the living and the dead no comparison is possible, and the former has an infinite advantage over the latter," therefore all direct comparisons between the German language and the Neo-Latin languages are entirely void of sense and forced to treat of matters which are not worth the trouble. The catastrophe which has deprived all these languages of life — English forms no exception — is that they are founded on dead roots, that is to say, composed of dead material; therefore they were from the beginning artificial, not natural languages. These nations, Fichte rightly says, "have, exactly speaking, no native language," a fact for which Richard Wagner found the adequate expression: "Their language speaks for them, but they do not 73 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE speak in their language." That is to say, the moment all words which do not designate only concrete things, but serve to express and communicate thought, are no longer derived from impressions known to the senses — when, for instance, "Erfolg" is expressed by "succès," and thus, in the place of a vivid idea of striving for a goal, crowned by the prefix "er" to indicate attainment, two syllables "suc" and "cès" stand, both of which for the present-day Frenchman have no signification. As soon as this takes place, words become only counters, incapable of inflexion, modulation, or composition; the ordinary man ceases to think and genius finds no instrument by which he can produce new thought, la médiocrité est de rigeur, — mediocrity is absolutely imposed. Whereas in a language which has retained its living qualities, like the German, "the transcendental part is metaphorical, comprising at every step the entire physical and mental life of the nation in complete unity, in order 74 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE to express an idea which is not arbitrary but has resulted from the past life of the nation." The fact must not be overlooked that the Latin language when, towards the end of the Republic, it became a language of culture, was forced to borrow; for it cannot be maintained as of the Greek that it is living; for it borrows from the Greek numerous terms for thoughts, sentiments, and ideas, ready made, as they had been coined during the centuries of the absolutely original development of the Hellenic races, and in the attempt to adapt native words to the foreign meaning, misunderstandings arose, from which we still suffer to-day. I need only refer you to the chapter on the word "Nature" in my book on Goethe. There were partial and complete misunderstandings; the Latin language of the classical period possessed consequently the moment it rose above the sphere of everyday life no living connection with the language of the people; it was an artificial language 75 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE which was incomprehensible to the people, "half dead in its own home." The result of this is that the present languages of Western Europe spring from a doubly dead root. Besides the German, the Scandinavian languages alone have remained pure. So much about the structure of the German language, just to refresh your memory. The German language is a living tongue, and because it lives it is fit to serve as a vessel for divine thought. But now I beg you to direct your glance to the critical point at which the contents are poured into the vessel. "To the possessor of such a language the spirit speaks directly, and reveals itself to him, as one man to another," says Fichte; and Goethe exclaims: "Come, Holy Ghost, Thou all-creator, and visit all our souls!" But to attain this many things are necessary. An individual spirit, here and there, capable of receiving and transmitting the revelations of the Holy Ghost is not suffi- 76 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE cient. If the language is to derive strength, each of these favoured souls must belong to a national life on broad foundation, rich in forces, talents, and a passionate desire for activity; souls must be linked one to the other and one after another; language and thought are interdependent; they grow one upon the other; united they rise like a tree with spreading boughs. The Scandinavian languages form a valuable reserve, a kind of reinforcement behind the German lines; but their geographical position has refused an extensive and luxuriant expansion to these nations. But in Germany this expansion took place in an ideal manner. Let the historian deplore Germany's lack of unity, and the innumerable sufferings it has caused in times gone by. The intellectual life profited by it to attain the incomparable diversity of conditions and, therefore, the variety of determinating influences within the unity of experience and thought provided by the language. By this means the language was 77 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE kept alive and remains so to-day. If you trace French from Rabelais and Montaigne down to Voltaire, you perceive an increasing impoverishment in the vocabulary as well as in the inflexions, until the structure has definitely been beaten to shining steel and functions mechanically. This development, which, regarded from a higher standpoint, is retrogressive, corresponds to the instinct of genius; as the language was artificial, there was only one means of attaining relative perfection — it must be entirely artificial — no trace of nature. A Montaigne at the present date must hold his peace — or learn German. I should like to call your special attention to the following: If this peculiar process led to an unprecedented result it was not due solely to the logical necessity of the linguistic position, but, to a great extent, to political development. The French language developed exactly on the lines of unity and sameness desired by the monarchy; the French Revolution might 78 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE destroy the external Bastille, but not the internal; the spirit of this nation is for ever imprisoned. The German language, too, has suffered many losses in vocabulary and idioms since the days of Martin Luther; particularly the unfortunate prevalence of Latin among the educated classes till about 1750 had a destructive effect. It was exactly this political diversity which, together with the essential properties of the language, averted a catastrophe. One need but cast a glance on Upper and Lower Austria, on Styria, on Switzerland, on the Low German provinces, to perceive what treasures of living words and idioms were preserved. Thanks to the political disunity, these remained capable, at any moment, of once more becoming common property of the nation. A large proportion of the present-day vocabulary has been preserved from threatening oblivion in the course of the eighteenth century by the works of Gottsched, Adelung, and their con- 79 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE temporaries and successors. Leibnitz, in his "Unvorgreifliche Gedanken" ("Essays without Prejudice") indicated the way; Goethe and Richard Wagner boldly returned to the original roots, but much remained to be done in this respect. It is an inestimable blessing that political notion and language did not coincide. He is a German who speaks the German tongue. No nation of the present or the past — except the Greeks — can compare in rich diversity with German. And upon this fertile soil the spirit has revealed itself continuously for centuries so that the thought expressed in German now occupies a unique position in the world. It is of supreme importance that the beginnings of the German language reach, without interruption, back into antiquity. This is the foundation of the living roots of which I spoke above. A similar state exists in no other language of the present time, at least in no language of literature — French, particularly, shows in its very origin 80 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE an arbitrary development dependent on chance. It developed as a compromise between two contending idioms; the Germanic conqueror learnt the language of the conquered, Gaul, lopped off, without any consideration, all inflexions which he found cumbersome, and was thus forced to submit to a definite rule the sequence of words in sentences which till then had been quite free; besides, he grafted on the dry Latin stock numerous new and vigorous expressions borrowed from his native German. Up to the sixteenth century traces of Germanic vigour remained alive. Montaigne still indulged in the liberty of forming and composing words; but he did not prevail, and shortly after him the flame died out for ever. A much stronger force lives in the English language; it alone possesses qualities capable of making it a dangerous rival of the German. Here the conditions are just the opposite of the French; the Norman Conqueror had already succumbed to the French 81 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE language; the Anglo-Saxon, beaten on the field, but numerically the stronger, possessed the more vigorous language. Prom this composition, in which the Teutonic element retained the upper hand — particularly in respect to the general structure of the language — a marvellous medium of human intercourse has developed, so that a Shakespeare could arise from its midst and shed forth light. And yet! As soon as we look more closely we discover a terrible and irreparable blemish. English is capable of serving as a vehicle for the sublime, the phantastic as well as for the energetic, the political debate, for all that is direct, thus also for business, sport, for the trivial and the brutal; but it is impossible to reveal thoughts of delicacy and depth in English. Even the thoughts of brilliant thinkers are stunted and parched, and half Scottish Kant had to be born in Germany, so that he might complete the work begun by his countryman 82 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE Hume. The reason is this: for all higher mental activity words of Latin-French origin only are employed; the nobleman alone had leisure to think; the Saxon populace that had become serfs was occupied with hard work and could, at the most, find time for poetry in the evening when toil was done. Thus, when the time came for new modes of thought there was no tractable material, only clumsy, rusty armour. Consequently England remained excluded from the highest attainments of the last two centuries, as it could not participate in the conscious and unconscious mental life of Germany, which was leading in the world; thence a daily increasing leeway, which had long become evident to the more clearsighted. For by thought I by no means mean, in the first place, philosophy, but the most valuable part of science and art as well as of all that contributes to culture and to the formation of a scientific point of view, to a life of mental activity. English natural 83 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE science, for instance, is for the uneducated man an entirely incomprehensible rigmarole, composed of nothing but barbaric Latin and Greek words, interspersed with still less comprehensible and unpronounceable German technical terms — it is a technical achievement and not a means of culture. An English theologian — to take another example — who is ignorant of German, no longer knows what are the questions of the day in this science. This is the reason why not a single ray of real enlightenment ever penetrates to the people; there is no language by the medium of which it might find its way. Fichte's words: "In a people with a living tongue culture penetrates daily life, where this is not the case culture and life take each its own separate course," may be applied to a comparison between the German and the English language. The very high, aristocratic, liberal culture to be found in England stands completely outside the pale of national life; it has not the slightest 84 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE influence on the attitude of the people, on the ruling classes, on the aims and means of the state. Hence the absolute necessity that the German language — not the English — should become the universal language. Should English come off victorious, human culture is cut off, dedicated to death. The moral corruption of England has revealed itself since the commencement of the present war in the most terrible manner; mendacity, brutality, violence, boasting, at the same time a complete lack of dignity, justice, virility, truly a sad spectacle. Let the immense colonial possessions and other countries of English tongue get into a position to expose their thoughts and souls, and with horror it will be revealed what brutality is hidden here, the final phase of brutality in the human race. Therefore the German — and with him the German language — must be victorious. And when once he has gained the victory — be it to-day or in a hundred 85 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE years — the necessity remains the same — then there will be no more important task than to enforce the German language on the world. Everywhere, even among foreign races, there are, among hundreds of thousands, men of great talents and of noble mind; without a knowledge of German they remain excluded from the highest range of culture. Nor do I only think of men of genius, on all, particularly on the simple, the humble, those who stand closest to nature, the German language acts as a blessing sent straight from the hand of God into the human heart. What language contains "tales" like those collected by the brothers Grimm? And, although Shakespeare, who, by the way, lives only in Germany and not in England, is always being cast up to us, does not the German language possess in Luther an incomparable treasure, an inexhaustible source of popular eloquence, flowing besides from a heroic genius? Why was the Reformation never 86 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE a success in England, in Poland, and in France? Because only the German language possessed the strength to overcome the foreign element in Christianity. I do not say this to annoy German Roman Catholics, let them remain faithful to their creed; but we all became Germans through Luther's work. He taught us to see in the German people, in German politics, divine institutions worthy of love and veneration. Thus he laid the foundation. And from then on — I mean from the moment when the German soul revealed itself in folk-lore tales and its natural vigour in this strong man — the divine "thought" of the German language rises to the great creator of thoughts and words in which new ideas gain form and live — to Immanuel Kant, whom none can fathom who do not know German — it rises to Goethe, the sublime counterpart of Kant, of whom Jacob Grimm so rightly says: "Without him we can hardly imagine ourselves Germans," so strong is this mystic 87 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE power of native language and poetry. It rises to the high summit where German music — the art that stormed the heavens — united so completely with the German language that from this moment the latter became capable of expressing the inexpressible, and thus humanity received in works of art a new organ which is inseparable from the German language, as word and sound form but a single unity. This dream of the universal German language is practicable; it is not only in the interest of the Germans, it is their duty. This duty contains two commands. Firstly: no German must ever abandon his language, neither he nor his children's children. Secondly: in every place and at every time he should endeavour to enforce it on others, till everywhere it triumphs like the arms of our national armies. Let the business man lead the way and demand German from his correspondents, as has been done up to now by the English and Americans in 88 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE regard to their language. By extension of colonial empire and increase of the mercantile marine the German language will go with the German flag to all quarters of the world, and no longer as an inferior idiom begging for sufferance and decked with disjointed scraps of English, but everywhere regarded as the language of efficiency, honesty, and enlightenment, and, therefore the most esteemed. As far as the Empire extends let the clergymen teach and preach only in German, the teacher instruct in no other tongue. Abroad, let no German commit the crime of abandoning his language. Let him learn to understand that in so doing he renders himself guilty of a disgraceful deed. If all Germans in the United States, in Canada, Australia, etc., faithfully retain their language throughout generations, then the day will soon come when this language will claim equal rights in legislative bodies and government departments, and when this is attained 89 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE it will penetrate victoriously into the life of the continents. In the meanwhile, schools must do their uttermost that German become the language of all higher education. It must be rendered clear that he who does not know German is a pariah. Foreign nations will learn German forced by envy, avarice, duty, ambition. All causes are the same to me; with the German language we make everyone an inestimable gift, and we need have no compunction as to the means by which we force it on him. It is thus that I image the victorious course of the German language; and should I no longer experience it, the present war leads me to hope that, perhaps, I shall not close my eyes without seeing the beginning of the realisation of the most fervent of all the wishes of my heart. You see, there is a subjective tinge in the confidence of which I spoke above, a subjective tinge: As I believe in God, so I believe in the holy German language! 90 (Blank page) 91 IV.
GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD. 92 (Blank page) 93 IV.
GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD. A FRIEND of mine — a German — is asking himself and therefore also me, in evident anxiety, if a victorious Germany would possess the political maturity which would render it capable of becoming the leading power in the world. I am deeply touched that, in the midst of the joy of victory, a man should put this anxious question to his soul; this is true German. If many think thus, then we may look with confidence towards the coming days of peace. At all events, the question deserves an answer. I will give mine in the few following lines. It is not easy at the present time to remain calm, to observe calmly, judge calmly, speak 94 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD calmly. And yet it is dangerous not to do so. For things of heavy import are not produced in excitement, but by clear-sightedness, reflection, energy. The German victories are not, in the first place, due to the "furor teutonicus" of which one hears so much; on the contrary, they are mainly based on the calm, efficient, and foreseeing work of decades. By well-informed quarters I am told the whole of the present plan of campaign dates in its very details back to old Moltke; he had drawn up a plan for a war on two as well as on three fronts. This plan has been kept up-to-date by the indefatigable labours of the General Staff — new means of transport, auto-transport, aeronautics, the new arms have all been taken into consideration, and the plan extended; in addition it has been nearly daily tested as to its readiness. Thus we had first the deed of the genius and then the never relaxing difficult application to duty of the many. And only then, finally, the 95 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD third factor — which in reality lay as an element at the bottom of the other two — the usually hidden vigour of the nation, a greatness of ideal reality which unites the mental ardour of the genius with the implicit sacrifice of obedience. We see, in order that a nation may accomplish really great things, three factors must unite: thorough efficiency of the nation as a whole; great talents in individuals; a methodical training of many. Yet it is evident that the simple existence of these forces is of no avail, if they do not work together in such a manner that each attains its full result. But here we are laying our hand on the sore place in the political state of Germany to-day. As in no other country in the world all that is necessary exists to attain in this sphere also the greatest of results; but the different parts do not work in union; waste of strength, waste of time, waste of men. Of what use would a Moltke have been if he had been sent "planter ses choux" in 96 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD some provincial town? Thus the most capable men of Germany are allowed to decay. What could a nation attain that never had a chance of revealing itself as "spontaneous force," but must submit for years to be lectured by pettifogging lawyers and pot-house politicians on things which it does not understand, to be broken up into twenty parties who are constantly at one another's throat. How magnificently great, yes, let us say it, how holy great, does the German nation appear as soon as the above-mentioned elements work together. Ah, happy we, to-day we once more experience it! Every belief bursts forth again, every hope, even the most forlorn, seems to find justification. We see that the impossible is possible. As in the army, so in the work of peace, there is nothing which Germany could not attain. And what a glorious prospect for the future of humanity to be placed under the influence of such a Germany. And yet many men are unable to 97 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD feel confident in this respect. The difference between military Germany and political Germany is too marked. Of the forces which give their power to military Germany only the second comes into play in political matters. All respect for German officials! And yet into what a groove of disappointment and sourness they have got. Officials like the German ones, scientifically and methodically trained for the highest functions, require internal liberty to carry out with joy their duty, and this can only be given them by tasks which appeal to their genius, and the execution of which demands that they employ all their faculties. The official, if great things are to be attained, should be in a similar position to the officer in times of war, raised up by wings from above with firm support below. For this, new ways would have to be prescribed by the hand of a genius, and boldly and calmly entered on. New ideals cannot be attained by old ways. The organisation 98 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD of the German army was at first an idea in the brain of an individual man before, in the course of a century, it became that which causes our astonishment and admiration to-day; and because it was an idea, thousands have joyfully collaborated at its realisation. The German national vigour should not become a parody of itself in the unbearably trivial form of the German Reichstag. What a satire on the tragic events of 1914 is the Zabern debate which preceded them and ended with the disgraceful and, at the same time, ridiculous vote of censure! It will be said that the Reichstag has now behaved well! That is not so. It was the whole German people that rose as one man in their unique greatness. No Reichstag could oppose this mighty movement; not members of the Reichstag, but Germans seized the Kaiser's hand; as German men they acted in the only possible way. But the Reichstag reassembled, and at once the old trouble recommenced; everything was delayed, 99 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD everything suffocated, and political life resembled a Trojan field of ruins. If Germany desires, as a political power, the same success as a military power, radical changes must be carried out; and for new wants new forms and new methods be found and invented. To tell the truth, all nations of the earth are sick and tired of parliaments; tired of the sacred general franchise; tired of the ever-running flow of oratory, which threatens to drown the whole of the civilised world, as in a new Deluge. Silence is strength. Ask General Quartermaster von Stein if I am not right. Chattering leads to complete imbecility. That will be the result of present-day parliaments. And if I am asked what position the people are to occupy in the arrangement of the new political whole, my answer is: The people will be the unconscious root, supplying nutriment, the reserve of forces, and will then prove themselves as efficient as now in the German army. As soon as the people are brought to silence, their voice 100 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD is most distinctly heard. Their speech is not dialectic, but something which far surpasses it. A monarch may be represented, a class, a profession a people cannot be represented. The people are nature, and a Mr. Müller or Mr. Meyer is as little able to represent them as he is to represent a mountain or a wood. This pretended representation of the people does nothing but destroy the real vigour of the people and cause a chaos. It causes incessant restlessness and, therefore, anxiety. It consumes every root fibre which would have served to sustain life. It stultifies by its debate and nullifies all great plans by its disputes. In addition to this, like a monstrous dragon, it swallows mountains of strength and oceans of time, all of which are lost for ever for the life of the nation. The people naturally recognise and foster great characters; parliament invariably refuses to tolerate any talent that arises above mediocrity. Read Bismarck's speeches and then read the speeches in which 101 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD the "High House" replied. It is a school of disgust! However, it is a good sign that, among all the parliaments of the world, the German "Reichstag" must be regarded as the most unbearable. From this we see how un-German this inheritance of the French Revolution is. It is true the French Chamber is slowly ruining the country, but more "esprit" and wit are shown there than in the German Reichstag; to bandy words so that assertion and retort fly like a ball from one to the other suits the French character better, as well as the spectacular nature of the prearranged debates to which spectators of both sex press as to a theatre. All this in nowise suits the German character. The English Parliament is also rapidly approaching a catastrophe since the days when it ceased to be an assembly of landed proprietors and intellectual capacities to become the hunting-ground of political attorneys. Yet there still exist in it great traditions of real Germanic worth which endow it 102 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD with a dignity which the German Reichstag lacks entirely. No nation is nearly so rich in manifold political institutions as Germany. Truly she has no need to borrow forms of government from abroad. How dead is France with her single town where politicians, artists, scholars, and cocottes all live one upon the top of the other, all round surrounded by 500,000 square kilometres of philistines without art, without science, without society, "agri deserti" as far as intellectual life is concerned. What an unformly, monstrous chaos Russia represents, a conglomerate held together only by the law of indolence! What a weak ideal is beautiful Austria united solely by its loyalty to the House of Hapsburg, but otherwise all parts striving asunder in hostile antipathy. And how deep has England sunk since she abandoned her inherited aristocratic principles of government for the gain of money. But in Germany every spot is alive, because 103 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD here manifold historical traditions live and work, because here alone the present grows out of the past. The kingdoms, duchies, free towns, the democratic and aristocratic forms of government, all exhale a life such as has never been seen before. For God's sake no unifying, no uniformity. Germany is a real, organic unity, because it consists of parts. The present German Empire is an entirely new formation in the history of mankind, therefore it can, shall, and must produce new forms of political life. Away with English and French patterns! No less must Germany adopt new ways in the conception of her relations to other states. Here Bismarck has shown us the way. Instead of accepted "diplomacy" he showed how to practise statesmancraft, a new, real German statesmancraft, wary but not mendacious, clever but not Machiavellian, daring to foolhardiness; but, in truth, as well thought out and cautious as a campaign plan of the German General Staff. 104 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD After Bismarck's, unfortunately, too early departure, Germany immediately strayed again on foreign paths. No attention was paid to the fundamental truth that a statesman may occasionally be an excellent diplomatist (vide Bismarck in Petrograd and Paris), but an ordinary diplomatist never has the makings of a real statesman. No worse misfortune could happen to Germany than once more to come under Metternich's principles of government. Let it not be said history knows but one Bismarck; principles work with might when once they have been recognised and boldly seized; they show the way and produce men; exactly as in war, all at once, generals arise whose genius, in times of peace, no one would have suspected. No, there is no lack of the right men in Germany, only room must be made for them. Therefore, above all, away with the old school of diplomatists. There is not a German who within the bounds of real "diplomacy" is capable of contending with the Greys, 105 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD Delclassés, Iswolskis, or whatever their names may be. The best feature of post-Bismarckean time was that men were sent to the most dangerous posts who by nature of their character and intelligence could not be led into dark, tortuous ways. Thus, at least, a German trait was preserved in the midst of all this un-German business. But now things must become different, otherwise political Germany will succumb in spite of all the victories of military Germany. For God's sake, no more Ambassadors' Conferences! When once Germany has gained the power — and that she will gain it we all most confidently expect — she must at once set about instituting the scientific policy of genius. Exactly as Augustus undertook a reformation of the world, so Germany must do it now. A great policy can only be thought out by a few and carried out with iron consequence. It is absurd to think that a whole people can carry out a policy. There is much talk of the people nowadays, but, after all, in the 106 GERMANY AS LEADING POWER IN THE WORLD last instance, it is always certain classes who gain possession of the power and use it for their own selfish ends. Germany must not become an industrial, nor a financial, nor an agricultural state. It must be governed by a class which stands outside the parties and spheres of special interest. These are the sole conditions of a scientific policy of genius. All this may sound Utopic, but a new era demands new methods. The fact should not be overlooked that, although Germany is now victorious in Europe, that is not an end to the struggle. The inhabitants of other continents are there. The ultimate victory will be with him who judges the problems as Moltke judged the possible eventualities of the war, and who, like the German General Staff, strong, conscious, faithful, and above all without having to submit to any interference by lawyers representing, or rather misrepresenting, the people, carries out the firmly drawn up plan. For the new time new aims and new means! 107 V.
ENGLAND 108 (Blank page) 109 V.
ENGLAND. AN old experience teaches us: Anyone who has spent six weeks in a foreign country sits down boldly and writes a bright book describing clearly and briefly with astonishing simplicity the national character, the customs, qualities, and failings of a people, so that he who runs may read, as the English say. He who has spent six months in conscientious observation writes with much greater caution; his book runs the risk of wearying the reader, who wishes to acquire definite knowledge and now gropes in uncertainties, due to reservations and indefinite statements. But he who his lived there six years and had the opportunity of coming into close contact 110 ENGLAND with a number of differently constituted individuals of the nation in question, so that he has been able to observe in their minds the effect of events in action and reaction, and has gained knowledge not only of their character, but of the peculiar trend of their character — he will abandon the intention of writing a book on that nation, because he cannot hope to do justice to so complicated a subject into which it is so difficult to gain an insight. It is a different matter when a man who himself belongs to this people, and therefore possesses an inexhaustible and inexhaustive knowledge of them, lets the past which also is well known to him pass before his mind's eye; he gains deep insights at certain points; it is there where character and history clash. Suddenly, he then becomes aware that this character, if the course of historic events had not forced upon it just this definite line of development, must have turned out quite different and that the same historic course would certainly have 111 ENGLAND had quite a different effect on a character moulded on other lines. One must proceed with the utmost caution as soon as one speaks of the "character" of a nation; for, as it is necessarily composed of innumerable, different, individual characters, one runs the risk of producing a picture in the manner of Lombroso, who had the faces of fifty murderers photographed one above the other in order to attain the physiognomy of the ideal murderer, by which means a perfectly characterless type was produced, the only certain quality of which was that it certainly did not resemble any murderer who had ever lived. But with a nation the blood relationship which penetrates everywhere does much to unify, and much is also contributed by the "psyche" of the masses, i.e., the influence to which the individual is subjected by those around him. Thus, for instance, the unity of the German national character is revealed with overwhelming force at the present 112 ENGLAND moment; 1914 is for Germany one of those moments when history and character clash; suddenly we gain an insight right into the interior, which is otherwise hidden from the eye by the deceptive surface. In the same manner and at the same moment — not with the same unity, let us hope to God, but yet distinctly and decisively — a clash between English character and English history is revealed. And we stand before it overwhelmed with horror and shame. For it is of no avail that journalists maintain that the English are no longer Teutons, and that they prove it by their conduct; they are Teutons, much purer Teutons than many Germans, and the development of the last two centuries has placed the Anglo-Saxon element, i.e., the real Teuton element, more and more in the foreground at the expense of the Norman-French element, which is constantly losing ground by intermarrying. The influence of the Jews cannot be asserted, although it is particularly great 113 ENGLAND in the present government. Germany has twenty times as many Jews, where are they now? As if blown away by the mighty rising, as "Jews" no longer to be found; for they are doing their duty as Germans at the front or at home. Whereas the English Jews, who are the natural brothers and cousins of the German Jews, participate in all the disgraceful actions there, hastily change their German names into English ones, and, in the Press, of which they have gained almost complete possession, lead the campaign of slander against Germany. If a nation rises, the Jew follows. He does not lead. The causes of the development which has placed England where she now stands are to be sought much deeper, in the events of past centuries. This was one of the possible developments of the Germanic race; from the disharmony between history and character it has become a fact. If one reflects on the history of states, one is more and more astonished at the far-reaching effect, 114 ENGLAND which spreads by channels no eye can overlook, of simple events and of hardly perceptible turns of fate. It is sufficient to bear in mind one single event at the commencement of English history, and a single turn caused by external circumstances which took place five hundred years later, to understand many things which would otherwise remain an unsolvable enigma. From these two facts there results — as effect — a third. From the peculiarly constituted effect arises necessarily a just as peculiar counteraction, and thus, ultimately — as with all organic life — an infinitely manifold and individual whole is composed of the most simple components imaginable, in which all parts are interdependent. The conquest by the Normans, which, in the eleventh century, subjected the Anglo-Saxon population, is the "event" which I have in my mind; the "turn of fate" is the process, beginning about the sixteenth century, by which the agricultural inhabitants of England, in spite 115 ENGLAND of their innate dread of the sea, were turned into mariners and merchants. There can be no doubt that distinctive and, for a foreigner, inexplicable traits of character in the English nation are derived, in the first place, from a conjunction of the Saxon forms of government, which already, under Alfred the Great, had attained a very high standard, with the spirit of the vigorous Norman; just as little can it be doubted that from the moment when the change to a commercial nation took place, a change commenced in the whole political community, which ultimately was bound to lead to the catastrophe, the commencement of which we see to-day. By "nobility" something quite different is understood in England to what the term conveys in other countries. It is not a question of a title by which all members of the family are externally distinguished for all times; but of belonging to a social caste, which forms a distinct internal contrast to 116 ENGLAND the |
