i9i 2] Bernhardi 



next war 



mont Hotel, San Francisco, by General Friedrich von 

 Bernhardi, a retired officer of cavalry who had 

 attracted some attention in Germany and con- 

 siderably more outside by his frank, logical, and 

 medievally brutal exposition of the German military 

 theory in " Deutschland und der Ndchste Krieg. " 1 Ex- Germany 

 cept for a reporter or two, Dr. Wheeler and I were the andthe 

 only persons present not German, at least in origin 

 I being no doubt included in the usual perfunctory 

 way as head of Stanford, while Wheeler had served 

 for a year as exchange professor in Berlin. 



Bernhardi was a tall, spare, soldierly man, very 

 erect and stiff, and with head scarcely developed 

 back of the ears, a mark by which the Prussian may 

 always be known. He read his address sitting down 

 and in a monotonous tone, no part of it being eloquent 

 or calculated to awaken enthusiasm. He began with 

 the statement that 



people who do not defend by force of arms their own spiritual 

 and political rights are slipping backward. The development of 

 life is a warfare and the individual who gives up struggling for 

 what he regards as holiest will cease to develop. Universal peace 

 is impossible; moreover, a peace tribunal cannot be maintained 

 because the conscience to back up such a tribunal does not exist, 

 and there would be no power to enforce the decisions of a world 

 court except by the establishment of a world state likewise an 

 impossibility. 



America inclines toward a universal Peace Tribunal, but not 

 being ringed by enemies she is not forced to recognize the need 

 for national solidarity. Germany is surrounded and she must 

 fight; because the Germans are so crowded, war is a necessity. 2 

 This she knows. America too must fight, but does not know 

 it. For us there are two alternatives only, dominion or downfall, 

 " Weltmacht oder Niedergang" 



1 "Germany and the Next War." 



2 "Die Deutschen sind so besckrankt, sie mussen Ausgang haben; so stammt die 

 Notwendigkeit des Krieges" 



C4I53 



