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Yet Another WWI Book
This is a further note to our discussion last summer of WWI related books.
Yesterday I picked up a most shocking book: Gen. Friedrich von Bernhardi, "Germany and the Next War" (english translation - NY: Longmans, 1914). Originally published in Germany in 1912, this book advocates deliberate preparations to commence war against France, Russia and England. At the time he wrote he was the commanding general of the Seventh Army Corps. The message is pure real-politik and the ends justify the means. The following comes from his chapter entitled, "The Duty to Make War" (p. 45): "The lessons of history thus confirm the view that wars which have been deliberately provoked by far-seeing statesmen have had the happiest results. War, nevertheless, must always be a violent form of political agent, which not only contains in itself the danger of defeat, but in every case calls for great sacrifices, and entails incalculable misery. He who determines upon war accepts a great responsibility. "It is therefore obvious that no one can come to such a decision except from the most weighty reasons, more especially under the existing conditions which have created national armies. Absolute clearness of vision is needed to decide how and when such a resolution can be taken, and what political aims justify the use of armed force. "This question therefore needs careful consideration, and a satisfactory answer can only be derived from an examination of the essential duty of the State. "If this duty consists in giving scope to the highest intellectual and moral development of the citizens, and in co-operating in the moral education of the human race, then the State's own acts must necessarily conform to the moral laws. But the acts of the State cannot be judged by the standard of individual morality. If the State wished to conform to this standard it would often find itself at variance with its own particular duties. The morality of the State must be developed out of its own peculiar essence, just as individual morality is rooted in the personality of the man and his duties towards society. The morality of the State must be judged by the nature and _raison d'être_ of the State, and not of the individual citizen. But the end-all and be-all of a State is power, and "he who is not man enough to look this truth in the face should not meddle in politics." " Such is the attitude that led two two world wars and an acceptance of National Socialism in Germany. Francis A. Miniter |
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