[p. 546]
In the course of the last war against France, at the moment when Germany threatened to fall into danger, a common will [for] the defence of Germany seemed rather to be forming. Almost all German states took part in it, but one cannot name any moment at which all would have co-operated at once21). In the greater part of it, on the contrary, the most powerful of them separated from it.
21) In the margin: even with actual participation there was no real unity.
The experience since the Peace of Westphalia, in which the old independence of the parts of Germany – but under wholly altered circumstances – was established and Germany thereby prevented from becoming a modern state and having a state power, has taught that the spirit of the time has completely changed since that time when each individual too acted for the whole only [from] his own free will and consent, and that even in the most urgent needs, with interests concerning all parts in the most pressing manner, no common and united co-operation is to be expected.
In the Peace of Westphalia this statelessness of Germany organised itself. Writers like Hippolytus a Lapide have expressed the inner character and tendency of the nation determinately. In the Peace of Westphalia Germany gave up fortifying itself as a secure state power, and abandoned itself to the good will of its members.
This trust, which laid the general welfare of Germany in the free will of the parts, one may, if one wishes, regard as the effect of a spirit of honesty, of which the German nation so much boasts. It sounds fine when on one side state power dissolves and surrenders [into] the hands of the individuals and on the other side it is demanded, and in the demand also expected, that these individuals co-operate freely. The German
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.