At an earlier epoch, to be sure, when Germans had in the course of centuries grown accustomed to the degradation of being robbed of all political significance, a large section of our people did not feel this insufficiency.  Even during the age of our classical literature the patriotic pride of that idealistic generation “was contented with the thought that no other people could follow the bold flights of German genius or soar aloft to the freedom of our world citizenship.” [B]

[Footnote B:  Treitschke, “Deutsche Geschichte,” i., p. 195.]

Schiller, in 1797, could write the lines: 

  “German majesty and honour
  Fall not with the princes’ crown;
  When amid the flames of war
  German Empire crashes down,
  German greatness stands unscathed.” [C]

[Footnote C:  Fragment of a poem on “German Greatness,” published in 1905 by Bernhard Suphan.]

The nobler and better section of our nation, at any rate, holds different sentiments to-day.  We attach a higher value to the influence of the German spirit on universal culture than was then possible, since we must now take into consideration the immense development of Germany in the nineteenth century, and can thus better estimate the old importance of our classical literature.  Again, we have learnt from the vicissitudes of our historical growth to recognize that the full and due measure of intellectual development can only be achieved by the political federation of our nation.  The dominion of German thought can only be extended under the aegis of political power, and unless we act in conformity to this idea, we shall be untrue to our great duties towards the human race.

Our first and positive duty consists, therefore, in zealously guarding the territories of Germany, as they now are, and in not surrendering a foot’s breadth of German soil to foreign nationalities.  On the west the ambitious schemes of the Latin race have been checked, and it is hard to imagine that we shall ever allow this prize of victory to be snatched again from our hands.  On the south-east the Turks, who formerly threatened the civilized countries of Europe, have been completely repulsed.  They now take a very different position in European politics from that which they filled at the time of their victorious advance westwards.  Their power on the Mediterranean is entirely destroyed.  On the other hand, the Slavs have become a formidable power.  Vast regions which were once under German influence are now once more subject to Slavonic rule, and seem permanently lost to us.  The present Russian Baltic provinces were formerly flourishing seats of German culture.  The German element in Austria, our ally, is gravely menaced by the Slavs; Germany herself is exposed to a perpetual peaceful invasion of Slavonic workmen.  Many Poles are firmly established in the heart of Westphalia.  Only faint-hearted measures are taken to-day to stem this Slavonic flood.  And yet to check this onrush