also the recruiting-ground for the German Imperialist idea.
Instead of combating subversive forces, German Imperialism adopted the
far more skilful expedient of enlisting them in its service.

It was thus that in Germany Freemasonry became a powerful aid to
Prussian aggrandizement. From 1840 onwards the word of command to all
the lodges went out from Berlin,[783] and in the revolution of 1848 the
Freemasons of Germany showed themselves the most ardent supporters of
German unity under the aegis of Prussia. Later, Bismarck with superb
ingenuity enlisted not only Freemasons and members of secret societies
but Socialists and democrats in the same cause. Lassalle and Marx
contributed powerfully to the cause of pan-Germanism. Dammer, who
succeeded Lassalle as head of the Socialist party, instructed his
successor Fritsche that "in the meetings which took place in Saxony,
whilst putting forward Socialist claims, they must not fail to demand
the unity of Germany under the domination of Prussia. Fritsche was
personally to render an account to Bismarck of the results obtained at
these meetings."[784]

Even as far afield as Italy, Bismarck succeeded in imposing the policy
of German autocracy on men who were ostensibly marching in the vanguard
of "liberty." "I believe in the unity of Germany," Mazzini wrote to
Bismarck in 1867, "and I desire it as I desire that of my own country. I
abhor the empire and supremacy that France arrogates to herself over
Europe."[785]

Before 1870 Freemasonry everywhere on the Continent helped the cause of
Germany. "The Occult Power preached pacifism and humanitarianism in
France by means of French Freemasonry whilst it preached patriotism in
Germany by means of German Freemasonry."[786] So although throughout
the nineteenth century the rulers of Germany permitted the dissemination
of ideas antagonistic to religion, until by the dawn of the following
century the very idea of God was rooted out of the minds of many German
children, the Imperial Government was careful that nothing should be
allowed to weaken patriotism. Indeed, the Pan-German obsession into
which German patriotism became transformed under the influence of such
men as Treitschke and Bernhardi was, no less than revolutionary
Socialism, fortified by irreligion because founded on the law of force
and the absence of all moral scruple. It is thus not "militarism" in the
accepted sense that has rendered Germany a menace to the world, but the
M