1914:1 'I'he Psychology of Blame 



Leonhard 



tions from university men the activities of the Pan- 

 germanists, both miUtary and journalistic, seemed to 

 be utterly ignored. Apparently the professors did not 

 read war journals. Dr. Rudolf Leonhard of Breslau ^ss.ruo 

 m a personal letter (in English) dated November 22, "^ 

 1915, wrote, for example, as follows: ' '' 



Unhappily it is true that some writers (who are not Junkers) 

 have published (before the war) opinions of an exalted patriot- 

 ism, recommending unjust attacks against innocent neighbors. 

 I never heard such things before the war and only in the last 

 weeks I received indeed proofs of the existence of such a liter- 

 ature. ... We all know how things have happened because 

 we lived here at the time of the beginning of the war. We all 

 know that the Emperor had not the least intention to seize 

 Belgium. We know that the war prepared long ago was made 

 m order to destroy Germany's legal influence in the world. 

 Our Junkers are a very harmless people who did their duty. 

 . . . Germany does not struggle for glor}\ She struggles only 

 for defense. The success is not in our hands, but the interior 

 peace of the soul, which is higher than human reason, will 

 make us endure every hardihood even for years and years. 



In answer to these distinguished scholars let me FHed's 

 now quote from Fried's "Psychology of Blame": summing 



. . . Every nation has its advocates of imperialism, 

 chauvinism, nationalism, militarism, but in Germany alone 

 have these doctrines been unfolded without limit, developed 

 without check, and separated by no bar from the power of 

 the state. The result is all the more tragic because before the 

 beginning of the war a change for the better had been felt in 

 Germany. Only another decade, perhaps half a decade, and 

 the catastrophe would have been averted. 



1:661 1 



