We loved the others; and believing ourselves among friends we were candid and disclosed our weaknesses.

Germans Trusted Too Well.

We permitted criticism and criticised ourselves, because we were convinced that those others had our welfare at heart, and also because we were convinced that only by unsparing self-knowledge can the heights be scaled which lead to superior and more refined development.  It is therefore probable that we ourselves have delivered the weapons into our enemies’ hands.

Confiding and harmless as children, we were blind to the enigmatical hatred which has to an appalling extent developed all around us.  This hate which has been nourished systematically and with satanic cleverness probably originated in a slight feeling of jealousy, and the tendency of my countrymen to criticise each other led our enemies to believe that they might look for internal discord in the Fatherland and that our humiliation could therefore be more easily accomplished.

If we had recognized the danger in time, we might have prevented this hatred, to which they at the beginning were hardly prone, from taking root in the souls of nations.  But only very few among us were aware of it and they received little credence from the others.  There were times when each one of us sensed the antipathy which we encountered beyond the boundary lines of our own country.  But we never realized how deeply it had taken root and how widely it had spread.  We loved our enemies!  We loved this French nation for its high development of etiquette, language, and taste; a culture which seemed well adapted to serve as a complement to our own.  How much misery France might have been spared had she but understood this unfortunate love of the German people for the “Hereditary Enemy!”

We loved the deep, mystically religious soul of the Russians in their anguished struggles for freedom!  How many Germans have looked upon Tolstoy as a new savior!

Above all, though, the German admired the Englishman, in the role of the “royal merchant,” the far-seeing colonizer, the master of the seas.  Without envy Germany gave England credit for all these qualities.  And when during the Boer war voices were raised to warn against the English character, even then to most of us our Anglo-Saxon cousin remained the “Gentleman beyond reproach.”

Then there is the great German love for Holland, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries; here we may find the Germanic race less adulterated than in our own country.  Scandinavian poets have become our poets and we are as proud of the works of the Swedish artist as we are of those of our people.

We gaze with delight upon the proud, blonde grace of the Norse maid; the more gentle and pliant manners of the Swedes and Danes arouse our admiration; and we dearly love their beautiful fjords and forests of beech and birch.

Love Changed to Suspicion.