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Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918
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Historical SummaryDr. Alfred von Wegerer, having served Germany as an officer during the World War, became a leading figure in the movement to destroy the so-called "War Guilt Thesis" upon the return of peace. In 1923 he founded and until 1937 he edited a scholarly monthly review devoted chiefly to research in the causes of the war (Die Kriegsschuldfrage, after 1928 called Berliner Monatshefte).
World History 9.
The View of a German Nationalist Writer, May 28, 191912
People and government have, during the most recent days, unambiguously made clear that we cannot sign the document which our enemies call a peace. One thing is certain, that any government which, by its signature, would confer upon this work of the devil (Satansstück) the halo of right, would, sooner or later, be driven out.
Has this peace come as a surprise to us? Sorry to say, we must answer yes.—No one had believed in such cunning madness. We all dreamed more or less of a peace by agreement and justice, read diligently and in good faith what the false prophet across the big pond promised us and all the world, and now we see how Old England and the revenge-filled chauvinist Clemenceau, continuously goaded by Foch, have pieced together a preventive peace reminiscent of the days of yore. There is not the faintest trace of any understanding of the times, of any foresight (Weitblick) into the future of the history of the peoples. A grey, bureaucrat’s treaty (Bureaufriede), put together by small, narrow-minded politicians of hate and force. A few years will suffice to wash away all this wicked bungling. . . .
The cardinal points underlying the political stand to be taken are simple and natural: internal unity, a model constitution attuned to the life of the individual as well as that of the whole people, greatest increase of economic power, maintenance of the natural defensive strength and creation of a general ethic, upholding and drawing closer of Ger-mandom outside the present or prospective national boundaries, winning of strong, natural allies.
For the immediate future our concern perforce will be merely to foster the internal unity and hammer away at the conscience of the world through notes, protests, standing protests, and communications of all sorts, until the charlatans at the head of the misled enemy nations are flung away and the field of right once more becomes free for the establishment of a true peoples’ peace. Here it is necessary to inaugurate a grand propaganda which will place in the shadow everything that has hitherto been attempted. Film, pen, printer’s ink, and brush must restlessly labor toward the goal, day and night, guided by the ablest spirits in the nation.
But for the immediate future even all this is of little help. Should the Entente invade us, then nothing is left but to remain cold-blooded, offer passive resistance wherever possible, and show contempt and pride. Even now the government must prepare the people for this eventuality and publish rules of conduct so that there may then be but a single grasp of the situation among the entire nation, including the female sex.
12 A. von Wegerer, Im Kampf gegen die Kriegsschuldlüge. Ausgewählte Aufsätze, Quaderverlag G. m. b. H., Berlin, 1936, pp. 1–2. Reprint of his article on "Politische Zeitgedanken" in Der Tag (Berlin), May 28, 1919, No. 243. Reprinted by permission of the Quaderverlag.
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Chicago: "The View of a German Nationalist Writer, May 28, 1919," Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918 in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan (Chicage: Lippincott, 1951), 42–43. Original Sources, accessed April 25, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DBFCM3LYUE9KBRU.
MLA: . "The View of a German Nationalist Writer, May 28, 1919." Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, edited by Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan, Chicage, Lippincott, 1951, pp. 42–43. Original Sources. 25 Apr. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DBFCM3LYUE9KBRU.
Harvard: , 'The View of a German Nationalist Writer, May 28, 1919' in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918. cited in 1951, Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. , Lippincott, Chicage, pp.42–43. Original Sources, retrieved 25 April 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DBFCM3LYUE9KBRU.
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