The Master Nation.

Such is the idea of the master nation.  This nation must not be simply an abstract type, it must necessarily be able to realize itself in our world.  In effect the spirit is the supreme form of being; it necessarily wishes to be; and as it is infinite, it can be realized only by means of an infinite force.  A nation capable of imposing its will upon everybody is the necessary instrument of the Divine will which can grant the prayer:  “Our Father, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

As a master nation is necessary in the world there must be subordinate nations.  There can be no efficient “yes” without a decided “no.”  The ego, says Fichte, is effort.  Therefore it presupposes something that resists it, namely, that which we call matter.  The master nation commands.  Therefore nations must exist who are made to obey it.  It is needful even that these nations, which are to the master nation what the non ego is to the ego, should resist the action of this superior nation.  For this resistance is necessary to enable the latter to develop and employ its force and to become fully itself; that is, to become the whole, enriching itself by the spoils of its enemies.

The ideal nation is thus defined by a transcendental deduction, and this same deduction leads us to affirm that the master nation must be not merely an idea but a reality.  Now, it is plain that this realization of the ideal nation is going on under our eyes in the German Nation, which represents the highest created race and which surpasses all other nations in science and in power.  It is to her, and to her alone, that the task of accomplishing the will of God upon earth is consigned.

Means of Success.

To succeed in it, what means must she employ?

In the first place she must acquire complete consciousness of her superiority and of her own genius.  Nothing German is found in the same degree of excellence in other nations.  German women, German fidelity, German wine, the German song, hold the first rank in the world.  To combat Satan, that is to say, enemies of Germany, the Germans have at their service the ancient god, the German god, der alte, der deutsche Gott, who identifies His cause with theirs.  And as everything which is German is by that very fact unique and inimitable, so it is correspondingly true that everything which the world has of excellence belongs to Germany in fact and in right.  Rembrandt, Shakespeare, Ibsen, are Germans.  A German brain alone could understand them and has a right to admire them.  It is doubtful if even Joan of Arc, that sublime heroine, is French.  German savants have maintained her German nationality.  If the people of Alsace and Lorraine are faithful to France that only proves that they ought to be German subjects, because fidelity is a German virtue.