The Decline of the German Army and Navy

Germany’s excellence lay in its:

• economic strength
• social and political life in 3 spheres

1. The statal Monarchial form developed for Germany in modern times.

This excludes those failing monarchs.

The monarchy had become alien in spirit to many citizens and especially the broad masses.

This happens when the monarchs are not always surrounded by the highest intelligence or by persons of the most upright character.

Unfortunately, many of them preferred flatterers to honest-spoken men and hence received their ‘information’ from the former.

The country was destined to disaster when the old Government, which had at least striven for the best, became replaced by a new regime which was not of the same quality.

But against these and other defects, there were certain qualities which had a positive effect.

The monarchical form of government:

• guarantees stability in the direction of public affairs
• safeguards public offices from the speculative turmoil of ambitious politicians
• arouses a feeling which gives weight to the monarchical authority
• raises the whole corps of officials, and the army in particular above the level of political party obligations
• puts the supreme rulership of the State in the monarch, as an individual person
  • The proverbial honesty and integrity of the German administration must be attributed chiefly to this fact.

• fulfilled a high cultural function among the German people, which made amends for many of its defects.

The German residential cities have remained, even to our time, centres of that artistic spirit which now threatens to disappear and is becoming more and more materialistic.

The German princes gave a great deal of excellent and practical encouragement to art and science, especially during the 19th century. Our present age certainly has nothing of equal worth.

2. The Army

The army:

• trained the people to personal courage when the virtue of timidity threatened to become an epidemic
• developed the individual’s powers of resolute decision, and this at a time when a spirit of indecision and scepticism governed human conduct
• imbued its members with a spirit of idealism and developed their readiness to sacrifice themselves for their country and its honour, while greed and materialism dominated in all the other branches of life.
• united a people who were split up into classes

The army allowed exemption from One Year Military Service to those who had passed through the high schools.

• This violated the principle of absolute equality

Those who had a better education were thus placed outside the cadres to which the rest of their comrades belonged.

Our upper classes were ignorant of what was going on in the nation and were estranged from the people.

• The army would have accomplished a very beneficial mission if it had refused to discriminate in favour of the so-called intellectuals, especially within its own ranks.

3. The Civil Service

German administration was better organized and better carried out than the administration of other countries.

There may have been objections to the bureaucratic routine of the officials, but from this point of view the state of affairs was similar, if not worse, in the other countries.

But the other States did not have the wonderful solidarity which this organization possessed in Germany, nor were their civil servants of that same high level of scrupulous honesty.

It is certainly better to be a trifle overbureaucratic and honest and loyal than to be over-sophisticated and modern, the latter often implying an inferior type of character and also ignorance and inefficiency.

For if it be insinuated to-day that the German administration of the pre-War period may have been excellent so far as bureaucratic technique goes, but that from the practical business point of view it was incompetent, I can only give the following reply: What other country in the world possessed a better-organized and administered business enterprise than the German State Railways, for instance?

The 1918 Revolution tried to destroy this standard organization through socialization to the international stock-exchange capitalists who were the wire-pullers of the German Revolution.

The most outstanding trait in the civil service and the whole body of the civil administration was its independence of the vicissitudes of government, the political mentality of which could exercise no influence on the attitude of the German State officials.

Since the Revolution this situation has been completely changed.

Efficiency and capability have been replaced by the test of party-adherence; and independence of character and initiative are no longer appreciated as positive qualities in a public official. They rather tell against him.

The wonderful might and power of the old Empire was based on the monarchical form of government, the army and the civil service. On these three foundations rested that great strength which is now entirely lacking; namely, the authority of the State.

For the authority of the State cannot be based on the babbling that goes on in Parliament or in the provincial diets and not upon laws made to protect the State, or upon sentences passed by the law courts to frighten those who have had the hardihood to deny the authority of the State, but only on the general confidence which the management and administration of the community establishes among the people.

The ultimate and most profound reason of the German downfall is to be found in the fact that the racial problem was ignored and that its importance in the historical development of nations was not grasped.

Notes

[Note 14. Probably the author has two separate incidents in mind. The first happened in 390 B.C., when, as the victorious Gauls descended on Rome, the Senators ordered their ivory chairs to be placed in the Forum before the Temples ofthe Gods. There, clad in their robes of state, they awaited the invader, hoping to save the city by sacrificing themselves. This noble gesture failed for the time being; but it had an inspiring influence on subsequent generations. The second incident, which has more historical authenticity, occurred after the Roman defeat at Cannae in 216 B.C. On that occasion Varro, the Roman commander, who, though in great part responsible for the disaster, made an effort to carry on the struggle, was, on his return to Rome, met by the citizens of all ranks and publicly thanked because he had not despaired of the Republic. The consequence was that the Republic refused to make peace with the victorious Carthagenians.]

[Note 14a. Swedish Chancellor who took over the reins of Government after the death of Gustavus Adolphus]