The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1917-05-24

~ most classical expressions in a COL
lection of poems published by q German pastor
KonsistOriarat Dietrich Vorwerk hnder the sio.
nifcant title, Hurrah and Hallelujah,' and find
in this combination something so absolutely char
acterstic of the German spirit that have adopted
if as the title for this book"
This book in the opinion of Ralph Conner, who
has written the preface to it, constitutes the most
terrific arragnment of Germany through her in
teIectual and religious leaders which has vet been
nut FORTH Out of her own mouth it is that she
stands before the world condemned. And the
tragedy of it all is in this, that these men (whom
Doctor Bang quotes) sincere, deeply, pas
sOnately sincere And herein consists the awful
nemesis that has after so years pursuit at length
overtaken the German SOUL For the crime of
Germany today of which these sermons and 1ec
lures convict her is not hypocrisy; but the long
practice of hypocrisy has induced in her a spirit
ual blindness which has become at once her
calamity and her CURSE
"The allies, "<says Doctor Bang, 'have denounced
the Germans as barbarfans. If this were meant to
imply that Germany not q civilized nation
(KulturnatiOn) such accusation would of
course, be absurd Germany is unquestionably a
civilized nation and none of the spOkesmen of
the allied powers would think of denying that she
has produced rich treasures of Kultur' Wherever
the German mind has labored, wonderful riches
have been the outcome In the most diverse do
mains, but especially in those of music of liter
allure, of science and religion, it would be easv
to mention that shine with the ulster of
throughout the whole world But the
charge of barbarfsm points in entirely different
direction. It points to a development within Ger
many which has been going on with headlong
rapdity, especially during the last so years. Even
the highest kultur can turn to barbarsm when
1t becomes subServient to utterly false and i'm
moral ideas In Germany such q craving for
power such a worship for mere strength has
taken root and grown, that the claim of right to
be determining factor in international relations
rp1 hod do
ever increasing standardization, q belief in the
glory Of all things German, the SURPRISING merits
of the German nature (Wesen), which alone has
the right to rule the world, cynical brutal asser-
ton that in relation to this claim all existing
treaties, all appeals to international law all
sderaton for weaker peoples, are of no signif-
canoe whatever-all this have witnessed with
shuddering establishment
Foretod BeIgium's Fate.
"The first place is due to Ernst Moritz Arndt,
the great German patriot of the time of the War
Of Liberation. AS early as 1884 he declared in one
OF his writings that the neutrality of Belgium
could not possibly be maintained in a future war.
He wrote
Belgium, the granary and armory, is predes-
tined to be the battlefield in the struggle for the
Mouse and the Rhine. ask any general or states
man who has seriously considered the problems
OF war and politics whether Belgium can remain
neutral in European war-that is to say, can be
respected as neutral any longer than may appear
Sessed Of the best advantages for attack
The German writer, G. Traub makes the fol-
lowing lnlmitable comment on the above:
Thus Arndt has, as far back so years
ago, given absolutiOn for this sO-called breach
OF neutrality. having foreseen that it Is here
question of higher necessities, and that Belgium
hersef that half French country" cannot pos
sibly remain neutral
THE second German prophet is the well-knOwn
pnlologist and theolOgian, P de Lagarde. Already
IN 1874 he expressed the view that Bismarck's
creation of the German empire was only an cpl
Sode on the way to the formation of the Great Mid
ole European state. He calls the German empire
Little Germany Even at that time Lagarde. as a
herman has lately put it, formulated the national
demands which the Germans, mot with unblush-
ing arrogance, but realizing the inherent neces-
SHY of the case' must consider as the tnd1spen-
SABLE foundation for the German peoples cooper
auon in the history of mankind. These demands
are extensions of frontier both towards the East
and the West
The greatest and most popular Of all the new
German prophets u.s. however, the poet Emanuei
Nebel, whose centenary has recently been cele-
grated (born 1915, died 1884). It is he VINO mas
gwen the classic expression to the new German
nope of Germanys victorious march through the
world. This has been achieved in the lines to
which I have already referred, and which are
quoted times without number in the newest Ger
man war literature:
Und mag deutschen Wesen
Einmal noch die Welt geneSen!
The world may yet again be healed by German
tSm! The hope here expressed has become GER
,alnty for modern Germany, and the Germans see
II thls the moral basis for all their demands. he
says:
Germany had set her mind upon building ner
,ouse IN peace but then came her hereditary 1oe'
puned up with venom and envy. The Dlood SO
r1inlnally shed shall be upon him and his Drood'
we 20 not dream Of an easy victory; this war IS
y world Judgment, and strong is the spirit OF mes
w. he who once the stronghold of our fatners
that!
God who went before US in the flame OF nre'
tow grant our people strength for the last VIC
~ S, strength to root out the dark seed OF lies,