The German Enigma: Being an Inquiry Among Germans as to what They Think, what They Want, what They Can DoA study of Germany just before World War 1. |
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GERMAN ENIGMA BEING AN INQUIRY Georges 1868-1938 Bourdon,Beatrice Marshall No preview available - 2016 |
GERMAN ENIGMA BEING AN INQUIRY Georges 1868-1938 Bourdon,Beatrice Marshall No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
Agadir Alfred Kerr alliance Alsace Alsace-Lorraine Alsatian army asked Austria believe Berlin Bethmann Hollweg Bismarck Cambon Chancellor civilisation colonies declared desire Deutsche Bank diplomacy doubt Emperor empire England English Europe fact force foreign France France and Germany Frankfort French German opinion Germany Germany's give Helfferich Herr von Bethmann Herr von Kiderlen Herr von Kiderlen-Waechter idea increase industry interests Jena journals Jules Cambon Karl Lamprecht ment military million francs mind minister monsieur moral Morocco Morocco affair nation never organised pacific Pan-Germans Paris patriotism peace politics Prince von Bülow professors Prussia public opinion pupils question race reason regard Reichstag schools sentiments Slavs soldiers soul speak spirit talk teachers Theodor Wolff things thought tion to-day Treaty of Frankfort truth understand victory Walther Rathenau whole wish words
Popular passages
Page 166 - It [the prospect of war] is entertained without emotion. The profits are calculated — the annihilation of France, an indemnity of war amounting to twenty-five milliards because it is remembered that last time you paid up too easily — and then we shall rub our hands. You smile! That is because you don't know what Germany is today. It is a nation of shopkeepers; love of gain is its ruling passion ; to earn money, get rich quickly> is its one ideal.
Page 128 - For instance, we are not, as you are, in the habit of reckoning with public opinion. With us it does not count for anything. Opinion has never had any effect on policy. It resembles rather the chorus of antiquity which looks on and comments on an action unfolding around it. I should compare it to a crowd which follows, but is not admitted to the game.
Page 137 - For example, Louvain was to be always LSwen, and Malines, Mecheln, thus in a way anticipating events of the following year. 2 "Country for them (the Pangermanists) is an isolated organism, and . . . they live and breathe in an atmosphere of haughty contempt for their neighbors. Or rather, they conceive their country as a permanent element of dissolution like a devouring and insatiable monster, a beast of prey, whose one function is to plunder. All that it does not possess it has been robbed of. Whoever...
Page 128 - Here, again, it is necessary to look at the matter from a different point of view, and...
Page 170 - ... vitality; it is fated to be dominated by a younger and fresher race. Think of Greece and the Roman empire! It is a law of history that the elder societies shall cede their place to the younger, and this is the condition of the perpetual regeneration of humanity. Later our turn will come, and the ferocious rule will apply to us; then the reign of the Asiatics will begin, perhaps of the blacks, who can tell?
Page 318 - ... presidents of the two chambers were ready to obey his orders. The German newspapers have pretended that their statements were enthusiastically acclaimed. As a matter of fact the deputies who applauded could be counted on the fingers of the two hands. Most of the assembly had left the hall in protest.2 1910: "We should be entirely satisfied if we could obtain complete autonomy, equal in every point to that enjoyed by the Confederated States; that is the goal we aim at.
Page 166 - It is not a personal quarrel that we seek with you (France). Nothing of the kind. But it is interest, profit, do you see ? The whole of Germany is hypnotised by the golden calf of prof1t You are rich.
Page 94 - Above all let us refrain from introducing into politics extravagant sentiment, and let us recognise the fact that it is to the interest of France to enter into friendly relations with the enemies of Germany, as she has done, yesterday with Russia, to-day with England. I don't believe in the least that she does so with bellicose intentions, but merely as an attempt to weaken her rival.
Page 79 - I wish to see the grand apotheosis of the German idea which is one of the great forces of the modern world.
Page 101 - After lunch the princess showed me a little book, and asked if I knew it. It was a French brochure that I had not seen before. I looked through it, and found its pages reeking with a low and vulgar chauvinism. In conclusion to a ridiculous farrago in which...