“Until now wars have been carried on by the soldiery,” continued Hartrott.  “That which is now going to begin will be waged by a combination of soldiers and professors.  In its preparation the University has taken as much part as the military staff.  German science, leader of all sciences, is united forever with what the Latin revolutionists disdainfully term militarism.  Force, mistress of the world, is what creates right, that which our truly unique civilization imposes.  Our armies are the representatives of our culture, and in a few weeks we shall free the world from its decadence, completely rejuvenating it.”

The vision of the immense future of his race was leading him on to expose himself with lyrical enthusiasm.  William I, Bismarck, all the heroes of past victories, inspired his veneration, but he spoke of them as dying gods whose hour had passed.  They were glorious ancestors of modest pretensions who had confined their activities to enlarging the frontiers, and to establishing the unity of the Empire, afterwards opposing themselves with the prudence of valetudinarians to the daring of the new generation.  Their ambitions went no further than a continental hegemony . . . but now William II had leaped into the arena, the complex hero that the country required.

“Lamprecht, my master, has pictured his greatness.  It is tradition and the future, method and audacity.  Like his grandfather, the Emperor holds the conviction of what monarchy by the grace of God represents, but his vivid and modern intelligence recognizes and accepts modern conditions.  At the same time that he is romantic, feudal and a supporter of the agrarian conservatives, he is also an up-to-date man who seeks practical solutions and shows a utilitarian spirit.  In him are correctly balanced instinct and reason.”

Germany, guided by this hero, had, according to Hartrott, been concentrating its strength, and recognizing its true path.  The Universities supported him even more unanimously than the army.  Why store up so much power and maintain it without employment? . . .  The empire of the world belongs to the German people.  The historians and philosophers, disciples of Treitschke, were taking it upon themselves to frame the rights that would justify this universal domination.  And Lamprecht, the psychological historian, like the other professors, was launching the belief in the absolute superiority of the Germanic race.  It was just that it should rule the world, since it only had the power to do so.  This “telurian germanization” was to be of immense benefit to mankind.  The earth was going to be happy under the dictatorship of a people born for mastery.  The German state, “tentacular potency,” would eclipse with its glory the most imposing empire of the past and present.  Gott mit uns!

“Who will be able to deny, as my master says, that there exists a Christian, German God, the ‘Great Ally,’ who is showing himself to our enemies, the foreigners, as a strong and jealous divinity?” . . .