But we are not now concerned with the baffling personality of the Kaiser himself.  What is important for us here is the general attitude of mind among the German public of the Kaiser’s generation, which has rendered possible the prosecution of the cherished ideas of their ruler.

The school of thought which has been steadily gaining force, under official encouragement, during the last twenty-five years is best summed up in the popular watchwords, “Germany’s place in the sun” and “World-Policy” (Weltpolitik).  These phrases embody, for Germans, who always tend to be abstract in their thinking, not only a practical policy, but a philosophy of human society and government.

This is not the place in which to analyse in detail the outlook upon life (Weltanschauung) of the man in the street in modern Germany.  It is a confused and patchwork philosophy, drawn, consciously or unconsciously, from many quarters—­from the old cosmopolitan tradition of German culture, dating from Goethe and Leasing; from the brave and arrogant claims of Fichte and the prophets and poets of the Napoleonic era; from the far-reaching influence of Hegel and his idealisation of the Prussian State; from the reaction to “realism” in politics after 1848; from the prestige of Bismarck and the deep impression made by the apparent success of his methods and principles; from the gifted Prussian historians, Treitschke and Sybel, who set their own interpretation upon Bismarck’s work and imprinted it, by speech and pen, upon the mind of the German nation; and from a hasty interpretation of the theories of writers like Nietzsche and Thomas Carlyle, with their exaltation of “heroes” and “supermen,” their encouragements to “live dangerously,” their admiration for will-power as against reason and feeling, and their tirades against legal shams, “ballot-box democracy,” and flabby humanitarianism.

The practical object of the policy of Weltpolitik can be simply stated.  It is to extend to the other continents, and to the world as a whole, the power and the prestige secured for Germany in Europe by the work of Bismarck.  “When Germany had won a mighty position on a level with the older Great Powers,” says Prince Buelow, “the path of international politics lay open to her ...  In the Emperor William II. the nation found a clear-sighted, strong-willed guide who led them along the new road.”

Some such expansion of German influence was inevitable from the facts of her economic development since 1871.  The population of the Empire, which in 1871 was 41,000,000, has now risen to 65,000,000.  The resources of the country, the neglect of which during the days of disunion had forced so many Germans to emigrate for a livelihood, have been rapidly and scientifically developed.  Already in the ’eighties “Made in Germany” had become a familiar talisman, and, before the outbreak of the present war, Germany ranked with the United States as the second greatest commercial power in the world.