of his mailed Kaiser: England crushed, France disarmed and Russia dismembered. His colleague Haeckel completes this joyous expose by dividing Belgium, the British Empire and the North of France—like Perrette of the fable before her pitcher broke. Unfortunately neither Haeckel nor Ostwald tell us if their plan for the establishment of this higher civilisation included the destruction of the Halle of Ypres, of the Library at Louvain, of the Cathedral of Reims. After all these conquests, divisions and devastations let us not overlook this wonderful sentence of which Ostwald certainly did not realise the sinister buffoonery—worthy of a Moliere—“You know that I am a pacifist.” However far the high priests of a cult may allow their emotion to carry them, their profession of faith still retains a certain diplomatic reserve which does not hamper their followers.
Thus the Kulturmenschen. But the zeal of their Levites must frequently disturb the serenity of Moses and Aaron—Haeckel and Ostwald—by its intemperate frankness. I do not know what they think of the article of Thomas Mann which appeared in the November number of the Neue Rundschau, “Thoughts in war time.” But I do know what certain French intellectuals will think of it. Germany could not offer them a more terrible weapon against herself.
In an access of delirious pride and exasperated fanaticism Mann employs his envenomed pen to justify the worst accusations that have been made against Germany. While an Ostwald endeavours to identify the cause of Kultur with that of civilisation, Mann proclaims—“They have nothing in common. The present war is that of Kultur (i.e. of Germany) against civilisation.” And pushing this outrageous boast of pride to the point of madness, he defines civilisation as Reason (Vernunft, Aufklaerung), Gentleness (Sittigung, Saenftigung), Spirit (Geist, Aufloesung), and Kultur as “a spiritual organisation of the world” which does not exclude “bloody savagery.” Kultur is “the sublimation of the demoniacal” (die Sublimierung des Daemonischen). It is “above morality, above reason, and above science.” While Ostwald and Haeckel see in militarism merely an arm or instrument of which Kultur makes use to secure victory, Thomas Mann affirms that Kultur and Militarism are brothers—their ideal is the same, their aim the same, their principle the same. Their enemy is peace, is spirit (Ja der Geist is zivil, ist buergerlich). He finally dares to inscribe on his own and his country’s banner the words, “Law is the friend of the weak; it would reduce the world to a level. War brings out strength.”
