When I read all this inflated stuff in the papers--written by
men guiltily conscious of being very safe in their offices at
home--to the effect that every soldier is a hero, I feel
positively disgusted. Heroism is far too rare to form a basis
for a national army. What is needed to make and keep that a
coherent whole is that men must respect their leaders and fear
them more than the enemy, and that leaders must be
conscientious, true to their duty, well informed, resourceful
and self-controlled. Thank God, there is plenty of the good old
discipline yet. But these fine fellows come along, concoct a
mess of New Year reflections and Centenary speeches and boldly
declaim about the German spirit that is to heal mankind. They
pick up all the filth of the foreign Press and fling it back
with threefold interest. It is just because I am so passionately
devoted to all that the noblest Germans have done for the
civilisation of the world that I do not desire to see us
burdened with a task we cannot accomplish.

If Germany's contribution to the world's civilisation is the
highest we can strive for, we must seek afresh to live in peace
and concord with the other nations. Then we shall cease calling
every Englishman a hypocrite and every Frenchman empty-headed,
quite apart from the daily proofs we get of their military
ability. Oh, my dear friends, believe me, the man on the spot
who sees and experiences all this, does not talk so complacently
of death and sacrifice and victory, as those who, far from the
front, ring the bells, make fine speeches and write the papers.
He resigns himself to the bitter necessity of suffering and
death when the hour comes, and he knows and sees how many, too
many sacrifices have already been made, knows it is time, high
time that all this devastation ceased, not only on our side, but
on the other side, too.

It is just in seeing all this suffering that we feel a new bond
of sympathy (and you, my dear ones, would feel just the same,
yes, I know, you feel it already) uniting us with the enemy.

If, as I hardly dare to hope, I return from this murderous war,
it will be one of my most welcome duties to steep my mind in the
culture of those that now oppose us. I mean to build up on a
broader basis the aim and purpose of my life, namely, historical
an