Heinrich von Treitschke

Heinrich Gotthard von Treitschke (15 September 1834 – 28 April 1896) was a German historian, political writer and National Liberal member of the Reichstag during the time of the German Empire. He was an outspoken nationalist, who favored German colonialism and opposed the British Empire. He also opposed Catholics, Poles and socialists inside Germany.

The enlargement of Prussian power is little by little becoming a demand of justice.

Quotes

• Among the workers there is spreading a theory of the absolute blessedness of peace, which is a scandal to the intelligence and moral energy of our age; a hotch-potch of phrases, so clear that everybody reposts them, and so miserable that every man who is a man throws them overboard at once when the majesty of war arises in bodily form before the people.
  • Historische und Politische Aufsatze, 1865, Vol. I, p. 782, quoted in Joseph McCabe, Treitschke and the Great War (London: T.F. Unwin, 1914), p. 175.

• The conquest of lands beyond the Atlantic is now the first aim of the European fleets. For, as the aim of human civilisation is the aristocracy of the white race over the whole globe, the importance of any nation will in the end be determined by the share it has in the domination of the transatlantic world. Hence the Fleet becomes more and more important in our time. [...] We must and will have our share in the control of the globe by the white race.
  • Historische und Politische Aufsatze, 1865, quoted in Joseph McCabe, Treitschke and the Great War (London: T.F. Unwin, 1914), pp. 218-219.

• The enlargement of Prussian power is little by little becoming a demand of justice.
  • Statement (1869), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 39.

• Martial force is the basis of all political virtues; in the rich treasure of Germany's glories the Prussian military glory is a jewel as precious, as loyally acquired as the masterpieces of our poets and our thinkers; the sacred character of the allegiance to the flag is a witness to the moral force of our people. Therefore let our Liberalism return to those ancient German convictions.
  • Statement (1869), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 59.

• All treaties between nations are valid only with the reservation clause: rebus sic stantibus. They do not pledge a State for ever.
  • Statement (1869), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 83.

• ...One thing alone can drive us, against our will, beyond these modest desires. If the next French attack against the German Empire found the Dutch among the enemy faction, at that exact moment Holland, by her senseless mistrust, would herself be precipitated into her ruin. Then, and only then, would it be necessary to attempt to put an end once and for all to the millenary struggle over the ruins of ancient Lotharingia, and once more to compel the countries of the Lower Rhine perforce to rejoin the great people whom they abandoned long ago. Holland holds in her hands the means of averting, by a just and fearless policy, these interminable conflagrations. The majestic progress of German affairs, the unity of our Empire from the North Sea to Lake Constance, the complete organisation of this unity are not to be impeded by the outcries of small peoples who cannot forget the splendour of past days.
  • Statement (1869), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 257.

Those who preach the nonsense of eternal peace do not understand Aryan national life.

• Our military organisation remains a glorious manifestation of German political idealism; without admitting the fact, all our neighbours regret that they have not been able, some because of the inadequacy of their culture, others because of their extreme individualism, to imitate these institutions with complete success.
  • Statement (1871), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 59.

• Those who preach the nonsense of eternal peace do not understand Aryan national life.
  • Politik, 4th ed., 1918, Vol. i, p. 74, quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 93.

• War is elevating, because the individual disappears before the great conception of the state…. What a perversion of morality to wish to abolish heroism among men!
  • Politics, Volume I, p. 74.

• God will see to it that war always recurs as a drastic medicine for the human race.
  • Politics, Volume I, p. 76.

• A thousand touching traits testify to the sacred power of the love which a righteous war awakes in noble nations.
  • German History, Volume I, p. 482.