Pan-Germanism, drawn from the writings of the professed propagandists, the second volume being devoted to plans regarding Europe and Asia Minor and the third to Africa, South America, the United States, and colonization generally. The fourth volume treats at great length of the historical, philosophical, and economic background upon which the Pan-Germanic structure depends for confirmation and verisimilitude.
Scarcely any series of selections could have been made to which some objections could not have been raised or some additions been deemed desirable and M. Andler's judgment on so many points is so careful and discriminating that one is loth to criticize. Still, the allotment of one-fifth of the second volume and a considerable part of the third to Harden and Die Zukunft, one-sixth of the third to Rohrbach, and a quarter of the fourth to H. S. Chamberlain and Langbehn, when the Kaiser, Secretary Zimmermann, von Reventlow, and Bernhardi are reduced to less than ten pages each, and Nietzsche, Gobineau, Mahan, and Seeley are not mentioned at all, will surprise both the erudite and the general reader.
Again, the main stress of these volumes is laid upon imperialistic ambitions which involve the rearrangement of the map of Europe and which presuppose military aggression and conquest. That this is good orthodox Pan-Germanism no one will gainsay; but the stress of the ante-bellum Pan-Germanist propaganda was devoted to other issues to which very secondary places are allotted in these volumes—the weaknesses of the position of Germany's rivals, their past aggressions against Germany and present pretensions to world dominion for themselves, Germany's consequent defensive needs to meet their subtle and insidious encroachments, and the necessity for the expansion of the German trade area to keep pace with the growth of population. These were the notions accepted most widely in Germany, while the imperialistic dreams were in many quarters regarded as dangerous and unsound before the war and still meet with strenuous opposition from important groups. The expository purpose of Professor Andler makes this objection of less weight but this change of emphasis somewhat lessens the value of these volumes as an historical presentation of Pan-Germanism as a movement. Others will feel that the pamphlets distributed gratis to the general public and the school-books memorized in the gymnasia rather than books published through the usual channels contain the material of most value for a study of the opinions of the masses and should have been accorded more extended treatment. Nevertheless, when all is said, these volumes remain a solid and important contribution to the reconstruction of the history of German diplomacy.
