Mein Kampf
With Italy this was the case from the outset anyway. If people in Germany had only studied history and national psychology a bit more clear-sightedly, they could never for a moment have believed that the Quirinal and the Vienna Hofburg would ever fight in a common front. Italy would have turned into a volcano before any government would have dared send a single Italian upon the battlefield, for the fanatically hated Hapsburg State, except as an enemy. More than once in Vienna I saw flare up the passionate contempt and bottomless hatred with which the Italian was “devoted” to the Austrian State. The sins of the House of Hapsburg against Italian freedom and independence through the centuries were too great to be forgotten, even if there had been any such inclination. But there was no inclination—either among the people or on the part of the Italian government.
In living together with Austria, therefore, Italy had but two possibilities: alliance and war. By choosing the first, she was able to prepare at leisure for the second.
The German alliance policy was both senseless, and dangerous, particularly since Austria’s relations with Russia came ever closer to armed conflict. Here was a classic example showing complete lack of any large and sound line of thought.
Why did they conclude an alliance at all? Only to assure the future of Germany better than Germany could have done if thrown wholly on her own resources. But the future of Germany was nothing more or less than the question of making possible the preservation of the German people’s existence.
But then the question could be only this: What shape must the life of the German nation take in the predictable future, and how can we assure the necessary basis and security for this development within the general limits of the European balance of power?
On clear consideration of the prerequisites for German statesmanship’s activity in foreign politics, we necessarily come to the following conclusion:
The yearly increase in Germany’s population is almost 900,000
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