"Germany must perish" - The German Soul

"Germany Must Perish"

By the Jew Theodore N. Kaufman

5. "Blessed are the War Makers"

The German Soul

"Ye Have Heard how in old times it was said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth; but I say unto you, Blessed are the valiant, for they shall make the earth their throne.

And ye have heard man say, Blessed are the poor in spirit; but I say unto you, Blessed are the great in soul and the free in spirit, for they shall enter into Valhalla. And ye have heard men say, Blessed are the peacemaker; but I say unto you, Blessed are the warmakers, for they shall be called, if not the children of Jahve, the children of Odin, who is greater than Jahve."

Thus out of the Bible of Germanism cometh the German Sermon of the Mount, as interpreted by Friedrich Nietzsche, prophet of the Superior Soul, by whose Apostolic sword millions of people in the past year have been cut down, bleeding to earth.

But the world even then was blind. It looked on saber-rattling Prussianism not as a continuance of the German war-soul developed throughout the ages, but simply as a transient period of political history. For had not the spirit of Christ, in the image of Love and Brotherhood, walked the earth for nineteen centuries, softening men's hearts and tempting men's souls? Could civilized man fall heir to such a spirit and not pay heed? In Germany great cathedrals housed the Cross, but though others did not, German thinkers knew they housed but a great emptiness of soul. For they well knew that the German gods of pagan days were not dead; that they but slept; that even in their slumber they were still charged with a fire inflaming the barbaric instincts of those people.

Heinrich Heine, in 1834 had this to say of Christ in Germany:

"Christianity and this is its fairest merit subdued to a certain extend the brutal warrior ardor of the Germans, but it could not entirely quench it; and when the Cross, that restraining talisman, falls to pieces, then will break forth again the ferocity of the old combatants, the frantic Berserker rage whereof Northern poet have said and sung so much. The talisman has become rotten, and the day will come when it will pitifully crumble to dust. The old stone gods will then arise from the forgotten ruins, and wipe from their eyes the dust of centuries, and Thor with his giant hammer will arise again, and he will shatter the Gothic cathedrals . . when ye hear the tramping of feet and the clashing of arms, ye neighbors children, be on your guard . . . it might fair ill with you . .

Smile not at the fantasy outburst of revolution that has taken place in the region of intellect. The thought precedes the deed as the lightning with thunder. German thunder is of true German character: it is not very nimble, but rumbles along somewhat slowly. But come it will, and when ye hear in the world's history, then know at last the German thunderbolt has fallen. At this commotion the eagles will drop dead from the skies and the lions in the farthest wastes of Africa will bite their tails and creep into their royal lairs. There will be played in Germany a drama compared to which the French revolution will seem but an innocent idyll. At present everything is quiet; and though here and there some few men create a little stir, do not imagine these are to be the real actors in the piece. They are only little curs chasing one another round the arena . . . till the appointed hour when the troop of gladiators appear to fight for life and death. And the hour will come."

German intellect, German culture, German emotion, industry, economics, politics, in fact all things German, are each but a tiny rivulet feeding with its water the mighty rushing stream which is the German war-soul. The war-soul itself is thus become a mighty torrent against which no dike can be built sufficiently high or sufficiently strong to stem the onrush. Our problem then is not the course-altering or damming up of any of the rivulets but in contending with and in subduing that power which they have produced, the power of the German war-soul.

Let us hold in abeyance for a moment the question of the all too obvious sufferings which the German war-soul has inflicted upon the world, and examine it objectively from the standpoint of its justification as regards world benefits,. In short, is the war-soul of Germany and its spread of Germanism worth more to civilization than its cost in human life and freedom? Will the world derive more from its perpetuation than from its extinction?

The answer requires no guesswork on our part. Once again Nietzsche in his role of spiritual Baedeker of Germanism leaves no vestige of doubt concerning German blessings. Following are random excerpts from his Ecce Homo:

"Where Germany spreads she corrupts culture . . .

Every great crime against culture committed during the last four hundred years lies on the German conscience

The Germans incurred the responsibility for everything that exists today the sickliness and stupidity that opposes culture, the neurosis called Nationalism, from which Europe suffers . . . The Germans have robbed Europe itself of meaning and intelligence and have led it into a blind alley. In the history of knowledge Germans are represented only by doubtful names, they have produced only 'unconscious swindlers'. 'German intellect' is bad air, a psychological uncleanliness that has now become instinctive an uncleanliness which in every word and gesture betrays the German. And if a man is not clean how can he be deep? You can never fathom their (the German) depths, they have none; and that ends it . . . The German soul is small and base."

There is nothing to add to these words. The myth of German intellect and culture explodes under the hand of their outstanding l)product. German-proclaimed culture is not worth its, or any, cost.

However, is there yet some fine point about the Germans Chat we do not understand? Over a generation ago, the late American historian, Charles Francis Adams, disturbed by this very question, undertook to examine it.

"Suspecting in my own case (that I did not think like a German) I have of late confined my reading on this topic almost exclusively To German sources. I have been taking a course on Nietzsche and Treitschke, as also in the German 'Denkschrift,' illumined by excerpts from the German papers in this country and the official utterances of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg. The result has been most disastrous. It has utterly destroyed my capacity for judicial consideration. I can only say that if what I find in Chose sources is a capacity To think Germanically, I would rather cease thinking at all. It is the absolute negation of everything which in the past tended To the elevation of mankind, and the installation in place thereof of a system of thorough dishonesty, emphasized by brutal stupidity. There is a low cunning about it, too, which is to me in the last degree repulsive."

Germanism was born ages ago, its growth has been proceeding for centuries, and it has now reached an advanced stage of flowering. Hitler is but a bud indicative of what kind of "flower" when it comes to full bloom, the world may expect to see!

Because she made no effort thousands of years ago, to become civilized as did her neighbors, Germany today is an outsider among all civilized nations. The processes which it has taken other nations thousands of years to absorb, cannot be suddenly absorbed by Germany overnight. Consequently, the continued existence of Germany among them becomes increasingly inimical to the best interests of civilized nations.

The deliberate and perverse distortions of what should have been a sane and normal course of development as in other nations now gives to Germany and her people a capacity unexcelled by any other peoples on earth, for fostering and propagating every indecent and inhuman precept of life. And as she seeks to distribute her own poisonous brew she has herself become so intoxicated by its ingredients that she can no longer escape the ever-constant desire, the urgent compulsion and the burning lust which it incites in her to extinguish any and all signs of good which she sees developed or practiced in other lands. Thus in self-justification Germany would excuse her own unnatural and perverse life by polluting others with her malignant infection. Germany is now well beyond all saving. The world had best look to its own preservation and welfare, lest some of those German poisons run through her system also and come to destroy it!

With each succeeding world war while she plans, plots and starts Germany comes ever closer and closer to her goal of world-dominion. At the present time Hitler, who has merely striven to remedy mistakes which previous German leaders made in attempts at world-subjection, may bring the German people very close to realizing their goal. And Hitler is not the last of the Fuehrers!

How much misery, suffering, death and destruction are needed before it becomes apparent to the world that any compromise with Germanism will, of itself, be a certain guarantee that soon thereafter, Germany must again embark upon her unholy crusade to dominate it. How many more chances will be vouchsafed it to beat back Germany? Suppose there comes a time when Germany can not be halted? Dare we risk waiting? One never knows the exact hour one is scheduled to die; can we, with any more certitude and assurance tell which opportunities shall be our last? It may well be that this is our last chance. Suppose we pass it by; look ahead. Next time, the so-called elder generation of Germany will be the Hitler-trained youth of today, and this elder generation, now mothers and fathers, will already have instilled and encouraged their children with the idea of world-dominion. Thus the next Fuehrer may come to lead a nation of born fanatics! As a consequence of this there may come to be welded a machine so gigantic in proportions, so overwhelming in destructive power, that it may well overcome every possible obstacle in its path. For assuredly the German youth of the next generation today schooled in Fuehrer schools will find a leader, as past generations of German youth have always found a leader, to incarnate and personify the body and soul of that nation and dominate its collective Will.

A leader who will feed that German body and soul the only food upon which it can subsist: War!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. ABOUT THIS BOOK
This war is not Hitler's!

II. BACKGROUND OF GERMANISM
The destructive forces of the German war-soul.

III. ORGANIZED GERMANISM
A ruthless plan of world conquest.

IV. GERMANISM ABROAD
Early fifth-column tactics.

V. "BLESSED ARE THE WAR-MAKERS"
For they shall inherit oblivion.

VI. THE MIDDLE ROAD?
Is there one?

VII. DEATH FOR GERMANY!
The Raven that croaketh Nevermore!

VIII. "LEST WE FORGET. . ."
The wave of the future.

A Sensational Idea!
(Time Magazine)

A Provocative Theory-
Interestingly Presented
(Washington Post)

A Plan for Permanent Peace
among Civilized Nations
(New York Times)

Frankly Presents the Dread
Background of the Nazi Soul
(Philadelphia Record)