1914] Forster on the Kaiser 



joyously hailed it for its expected fruits. What of the Kaiser? 

 Did he plan the war? Undoubtedly not. His was not a character 

 to plan anything. To bring on a world war requires a demoniac 

 strength of will and nerve which this weak and shifty ruler 

 did not possess. 



^ He toyed with the idea of a world in flames, in which the 

 German Kaiser would be absolute victor, crushing all oppo- 

 nents. . . . His heart was ice cold, and touchily sensitive, at 

 one time in wild eagerness for the fray, then suddenly overcome 

 with fear, sometimes heedless of the future and again weak 

 and cautious under some fresh impulse from outside. Thus 

 he vacillated hither and thither, the very opposite of a self- 

 contained leader, rather the very figure of a "new German 

 parvenu," an unsteady, characterless, noisy personage, with 

 never a conception of what "princely attitude" or "royal 

 dignity" should be. ... 



He was influenced by expressions such as this of General 

 von Lobell: "Wait no longer, let the war come; then the world 

 will learn something. In two weeks we conquer France, then 



uncivilized Servian assassins are a fine set of proteges of the Parisian outlanders 

 who are bragging so much about their culture, and of the Russians who are 

 trusting in their enormous armies. Will England, as usual, play tertius gaudens? 



"For every hundred of German boys that in the event of war at this time 

 will have to give their lives pro gloria et patria, we shall, as conditions now exist 

 in Europe, have to sacrifice a thousand in the not far-distant future, if 

 peace, a totally rotten peace as things now lie, shall be maintained. Therefore in 

 many quarters people are saying here, Tor God's sake let's have no more of 

 this disgraceful yielding, that was so foreign to the Germans under Bismarck's 

 leadership!' Even the flies are laughing over the 'English arbitrator' who made 

 such an eternal fool of himself during recent years in connection with the Balkan 

 troubles. 



"Even in case England because of its internal troubles should not deem the 

 present time the proper one for the squaring of accounts on the Continent, 

 Austria-Hungary, the German Empire, and Italy will have to remain firm. 

 We do not want the war, but we are not going to let any one scare us. In Servia 

 the German and Austrian flags will flutter side by side in the breezes, and Italy, 

 too, will act true to its obligations in the Alliance, and will think it advantageous 

 to enter the fray. 



"Please be sure to read the Deutsche Tageszeitung, Deutsche Zeitung, Neue 

 Preussische Kreuz-Zeitung, Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Berliner Neueste 

 Nachrichten. The Berliner Tageblatt is a Jewish international journal of lies. 



"Auf Wiedersehen, 



"Hans" 



637:1 



