I6 
LAND & WATER 
September 14, 1916 
What Germany is Thinking 
By Hugh F. Spender 
IT is always a hazardous and difiicult matter to 
characterise with certainty the temper or mood of a 
people at any given period of its history. (Germany 
began the war intent on creating a world Empire 
and a world religion, the religion of valour, reinterpreted 
by Napoleon and Nietzsche. In the newer " Impera- 
tive " according to Prof. Cramb, rang the accents of an 
earlier greater prime. The youth of Germany assigned 
to their country a r6le which Hellas or Rome, Israel or 
Islam played in the past. German literature of the 
pre-war period led up to this idea which had its spiritual 
as well as its materialistic side, and although it was 
conceived in violence explains much that appeared ahnost 
insane to us in studying the German Press at the be- 
ginning of the war, and its lyrical outbursts on German 
culture and Germany's mission to cure the world of its 
decadence by the medicine of war. 
A Monstrous Assertion 
I recall an article in the Neiic Rundschau of November, 
It)i4, which is the most monstrous assertion of this point 
of view which one could conceive outside the pages of 
Ostwald or Houston Chamberlain. The article glorilied 
the war as one of " German culture against civilisation," 
and proclaimed that " militarism was the sole ideal of 
Cierman thought." What a change has come over the 
scene ! In a recent copy of Dcr Ta^, which embodies 
the wisdom of Militarist, Junker and Professor, I ftnd 
these words in an article on " Our War Aims " : 
In view of the terrible sacrifices which our people at 
home and in the field have made in the last two years 
and more, there is indeed no one of us who does not wish 
a speedy end to the war. 
The writer goes on to say that many people in (iermany 
believe that the wish would come nearer to fulfilment if 
Ciermany practised more moderation in expressing her 
war aims, and approached the " Entente " concerning 
peace conditions. But this is not the writer's personal 
view, for he still believes that the enemy can be made 
to realise the " invincible superiority of Germany. " 
Such an article is typical of many others which have 
been written in Conservative papers lately. Even Coimt 
Keventlow, although he still demands the utmost fright- 
fulness in the use of submarines and Zeppelins, is willing 
to consider the Chancellor's plan for " guarantees " in 
the West,, and wonders whether the time has not arrived 
when Germany ought to make peace with Russia and 
turn all her strength against England. Another section 
of Conservative opinion — the Delbriick Rohrbach party 
• — wishes to arrive at a settlement with England in order 
to crush Russia. There is confusion and doubt in the 
minds of both War Lords and Professors. 
And now the entry of Roumania has awakened an 
outburst of furious wrath in the German Press, which 
is a mecisure of the an,\ieties of the German people at 
this stage of the war. The masses are clearly disturbed, 
and the efforts of the Government to remove the effect 
of its loud boasting by revealing a little light on the 
situation has only caused greater alarm, which it is now 
sought to allay by lying bulletins and absurd talcs about 
the destruction and panic caused by the Zeppelins in 
England. The appointment of von Hindenburg to the 
Supreme Command was also intended to inspire con- 
iidence, but has apparently failed to do so from the lack 
of enthusiasm with which it was received by the Press. 
The Social Democrats had aheady revealed the trend 
of public opinion by their " Peace "petition " which has 
thrown the activities of Prince Wedel's " National Com- 
rnittee for an Honourable Peace " into the shade. This 
Committee, which was appointed under the authority 
of the Government, was intended to clear the ground of 
the more fantastic notions about the war. It has had a 
troubled career, and is now faced with the determined 
opposition of an independent Committee led by Professor 
Schtifer of Berlin, which consists of well-known Pan- 
Germans and National Liberals such as Professors von 
Gierke and Haeckel, Prince Lovvenstein, and Edouard 
Meyer. This Committee demands annexations in Russia 
and France, and the complete overthrow of England. 
It is the last stronghold of the extreme Jingoes, but it 
would be a mistake to suppose that the German people as 
a whole seriously considers the possibility of defeat. 
Professor Schmoller, a well-known Berlin economist, 
is probably right when he warns the Government that 
" they would dig their own grave if they did not insist 
on some increase of power and some sort of indemnity in 
offering terms of peace " after the great sacrifices that 
have been made and the " great victories " that have 
been won. His description of German opinion, " as 
divided into three groups," is important. 
" The first group, buoyed up by a sense of victory and 
patriotic fenthusiasm, naturally demands," he says, 1 
" as great a prize as possible. An almost over-subt e 
caution, with eyes fixed on the future, would be content 
with something like the stains t^uo. Most intelligent 
people, includin;^ the Government, take the middle line." 
Thus we see that the intelligent classes realise that Ger- 
many cannot now win the war. Bu after the excessive 
hopes they have raised, they fear to disabuse (he public 
mind by making moderate demands for p ace, and seeing 
their own position threatened both at home and abroad, 
stoke up the nation to another great effort. 
If this view of public opinion is correct, we must 
not attach too .great importance to the Socialist move- 
ment for peace. It is, however, a significant landmark 
in the progress towards a saner view in Germany, and 
in spite of the fact that the Government have forbidden 
the collection of signatures for the Peace Petition, it 
may be very glad to take advantage of the movement 
in the future. The authorities have damped it down I 
for the moment and have started a campaign to rally 
public confidcnre for a final desperate bid to outwit the 
Allies. But the Socialist movement, with its moderate 
but elastic suggestions for peace, is allowed to continue 
side by side with the attempt to stiffen public opinion. 
More Moderate War Views 
In the meantime Herr von Heydebrand, the Con- 
servative leader, has made a speech placing the Con- 
servative war views on a more moderate basis. His aim 
is to pretend that the Chancellor and his " Honourable 
Peace Committee " really mean what the Chauvinists 
mean and to treat the Chancellor's phrases about 
" guarantees " as if they meant " military, economic 
and political control." 
The closing of the ranks is regarded as particularly 
important, in view of the Socialist agitation. This has 
alarmed the Militarists, who now appeal in their news- 
papers to the idealism of the German people. " Shall 
Ciermany," they ask, " cease to be a master worker in 
the temple of Humanity, and is all the blood she has shed 
to be lost, when it might become the seed of a higher 
civihsation and of greater happiness for mankind?" 
There is another and a better idealism in the German 
people which we see fitfully struggling to find expression 
in the pages of the " Vorwiirts," when it publishes its 
sketches of life in Berlin during the war ; it is the ideal 
of peaceful home-loving (Germany which is sickened 
and saddened by its losses— the ideal of the " Inter- 
national " which shudders at the patricidal war of the 
nations. We cannot yet hope for the conversion of 
Germany's soul, but there are signs that her people 
have journeyed far from what M. Remain Rolland called 
the " entetement criminel " of the ninety-three Intel- 
lectuals who signed the notorious address at the beginning 
of the war. 
We have reached a new stage, possibly the preface to 
that last phase, when the (ierman people may turn on 
those who have dragged them through orgies of sacrilege 
and crime. 
