130 PEOF. D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, D.LITT.j ON THE INFLUENCE OF 



The War was not caused by the need for German expansion. 

 She had colonies, and sent a very small German population to them. 

 In the five years between 1908 and 1913 her total emigration 

 averaged 23,000 per annum, while that of other nations from her 

 ports was 215,000. 



Xietzsche, as the Lecturer said, had not a large influence in his 

 time in Germany. He was a professor in Switzerland, yet he led 

 the anti-Christian philosophy which fitted in with German mate- 

 rialism. He perverted Darwinism, and established as the motive 

 force which produces the superman the principle of the Will to 

 Power, which Germans had now adopted as their dominating guide. 

 Xietzsche was confessedly anti-Christian, and rejoiced in making war, 

 not only against Christian dogma, but Christian morals. 



Treitschke, however, was much more the paid exponent of Imperial 

 and militarist views, having been Professor at Freiburg, Heidelberg, 

 and Berlin from 1863 to 1896. He enunciated clearly the principle 

 which he was paid to put forth : " that we must distinguish between 

 private and public morality," " that duties obligatory for the indi- 

 vidual are not to be thought of by the State," the same teaching as 

 was enunciated by the Kaiser to his soldiers at Bremerhaven on 

 July 27, 1900, when he said : "Quarter is not to be given, prisoners 

 are not to be made." Treitschke called himself religious, but clearly 

 stated that he considered religion useful mainly in keeping the 

 " under dog " down, by holding before him the hope of compensation 

 in a future life. 



The real causes of the War were (1) German materialism, fostered 

 by commercial success and by non-moral teaching ; (2) the Kaiser 

 willed the War from the time when he dismissed Bismarck. A year 

 after, he refused to renew the entente between Germany and Russia ; 

 and Bismarck then foretold that this would eventually lead to a 

 union against Germany of England, France and Russia. 



The Kaiser and his militarist clique deliberately poisoned the 

 German mind, with the aid of men like Treitschke. " One must 

 seek," said Baron Beyens, "the origin and permanence of the 

 German feeling of hatred against England and France in the 

 historical education given in the universities at the instigation of 

 the Prussian historical school from Niebuhr, Ranken, Mommsen, 

 Sybel, to Treitschke, Giesebrecht, Hausser, Droysen, Lamprecht, 

 and Delbriick." 



