“German infantry marched with us into Antwerp.  How deeply it touched me to hear them sing the ‘Wacht am Rhein’ and then ’Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles,’ in the very city which was to serve as an English base for operations against our dear Fatherland.  And my Flemish companion softly hummed this splendid German song of faith.

“In that moment a spasm of pain went through my heart, that the Flemings should have to fight against us in this great struggle for the existence of Germany:  these, our lost brothers, of whom so many yearn to be with us again” (p. 86).

“With the fall of Antwerp, Flanders—­the land of the German Hanse period, of Ghent, Ypres and Bruges—­became German once more” (p. 147).

Kotzde concludes his work as follows:—­

“Holland was compelled to bow before the might of France and consent to Belgium becoming an independent State.  From that moment the Flemings, cut off in every way from their German brothers, were delivered up to the Walloons, behind whom stood the French.

“The Germans at that time lacked a Bismarck to unite them and interest them in the fate of their outlying brother tribe.  This war has freed our hands, which hitherto had been bound by the dictates of conscience.  Of himself the German would never have kindled this world conflagration, but others have hurled the torch into our abode—­and our hands are free!

“We do not yet know what Belgium’s fate will be, but we can be perfectly sure that the Flemings will never again be left to the mercy of the Walloons and French.  They have had a wild and chequered history; and although they have often shown signs of barbarism in the fight, they have not waged this war with the devilish cruelty of the Walloons.

“They lack the discipline which alone a well-ordered State can bestow.  The training and education of the German military system and German administration, will be a blessing to them.  Even to-day many Flemings bless the hour of their return into the German paternal home” (p. 190).

“In a struggle which has lasted for nearly a century, the Flemings have displayed their unconquerable will to maintain their national peculiarities.  Without outside aid, and with little or no deterioration, they have maintained their nationalism.  Now the horrors of war have swept over the lands of the Flemings and Walloons.  The Belgian army, consisting of 65 per cent.  Flemings, has been decimated by German arms.  North and south of the Meuse a wicked harvest of hate has sprung up.  But the most remarkable point is that this hate is not directed against the Germans alone; the mutual dislike of Flemings and Walloons has turned into hatred.  The Walloons cherish bitter suspicions of the Flemings; they scent the racial German, and are promising that after the war they will wage a life and death feud against the German part of the Flemish nature."[152]

[Footnote 152:  Ulrich Rauscher:  “Belgien heute und morgen” ("Belgium to-day and to-morrow").  Leipzig, 1915; p. 35.]