It is of course
true that the State implies physical might.
true that the State implies physical might.
Treitschke - 1914 - His Doctrine of German Destiny
The ridicule heaped on it in previous
decades has now been shown to be unwarranted.
It was the custom abroad to look down on the
Prussian territorial system (Landwehr) and on the
Prussian boy army. -Things are very different
now. We know now that moral factors in war-
fare weigh more heavily than technical excellence ;
and it is further evident that the ever-increasing
technical experience of life in barracks brings
with it a corresponding brutalization of the moral
instincts. The old sergeants of France were in
no way superior to the German troops, as the
French had expected. We may say with truth
that the problem of giving a military education
to the strength of the nation and of making full
use of the trained Army was first seriously dealt
with in Germany. Our Army constitutes a pecu-
liar and necessary continuation of the scholastic
system. For many people it would be impossible
to devise a better means of education. For such
persons, living as they do in a period in which
mental restraint is lacking, the drill and enforced
cleanliness, and strict military discipline are in-
dispensable from every point of view. Carry le
prophesied that the Prussian conception of uni-
versal military service would go the round of the
globe. Since 1866 and 1870, when the organiza-
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? 148 Treitschke
tion of the Prussian Army stood its trial so bril-
liantly, nearly all the other great Powers of the
Continent have sought to imitate its methods.
But imitation abroad is not as easy as was
supposed because the Prussian Army is really a
nation in arms, and the peculiarities and refine-
ments of the national character are naturally
exemplified in it. Above all, a system of this
kind cannot be established unless the nation pos-
sesses a certain degree of political freedom, is
satisfied with the existing regime, and can count
on social freedom in the Government. A natural
respect for superior education is also necessary, for
without it the institution of the One-year Volun-
teers would be unthinkable. This system has
been introduced simply in order to make it econo-
mically and morally possible for young men belong-
ing to the educated classes to serve in the ranks.
In France this voluntary system has proved a
failure because an external equality between
different classes of men has been insisted upon.
In Germany we could hardly do without it. Quite
apart from the fact that our supply of professional
officers is not nearly large enough in the event of
war, the educated young men who in the One-year
Voluntary Service transforms into territorial
reserve officers, and who stand in many ways in
a closer relationship to the people than the pro-
fessional officers, form a natural link between the
latter and the rank and file of the Army.
The heavy burden of universal military service
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? The Army 149
can be lightened in a certain measure by decentrali-
zation, which usually enables a man to serve in
his native province. Our Provincial Army Corps
have, on the whole, quite justified their existence.
They should remain the rule; and as a wholesome
counterweight we have, in the Guard, a corps
which includes men from all parts of the country,
and forms a crack regiment, one of whose functions
it is to spur on the rest of the Army. The rigid
centralization of France makes the existence of
Provincial Army Corps such as ours an impossibil-
ity. The natives of Normandy and of the Pyre-
nees there stand side by side in the same regiment.
In Germany, on the other hand, common national-
ity is rightly looked upon as a strong cement which
will ensure the solidarity of separate bodies of
troops. This universal military service, if it is
to preserve the existence of the State, must
naturally presuppose unity in the nation as a
whole. One or two isolated little provinces,
peopled by foreign races, do not greatly affect the
question, and a few simple precautions will do
away with any threatened danger from those
quarters. In Austria things are more serious,
because there the officers in the Reserve are the
weak point of the army. They are good Czechs,
good Germans, and good Magyars, but not good
Austrians; and this flaw may some day bring
about disastrous consequences.
In all these matters of military organization
we were until quite lately the leader of the other
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? 150 Treitschke
nations. During the last few years the neighbour-
ing States have made such strenuous efforts to
obtain military power that we have been obliged
to go further this time in imitation of other
nations. The furthest limits to this onward move-
ment are improved by nature of things, and the
enormous physical strength of the Germanic race
will see to it that we have a perpetual advantage
in this respect over the less faithful nations.
The French have nearly reached the utmost limits
of their capacity; the Germans possess, in this
respect, far wider elbow-room.
I will ask you once more to observe the nature
of the influence exercised on warfare by these new
methods in military affairs. The general tend-
ency of this system is towards peace. A nation
in arms is not as easily drawn away from its social
occupations to take part in a frivolous war as a
Conscript Army would be. Wars will become
rarer and of shorter duration, although more
bloody. Desire to return home will drive the
Army to advance. The temper of the Prussian
soldiers in the summer of 1866, expressed in the
words, "Let us press on towards the Danube, so
that we may get home again soon," should be
looked upon as the normal temper of a courageous
and, at the same time, peace-loving National Army.
There can be no difficulty, to-day, in understand-
ing the bold spirit in warfare which seeks, above
all, to plunge a dagger into the heart of the enemy.
It may be said that nothing is absolutely impossible
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? The Army 151
to a National Army of this kind when the nation
can look back over a glorious past. The experi-
ences of our last two wars, especially in the Battles
of Koniggratz and Mars La Tour, have proved
this to be true. We saw, at the Battle of Sadowa,
that fourteen Prussian battalions could stand
against something like forty- two Austrian ones;
and the Franco-Prussian War furnished us with
numerous instances of decisive battles in which we
fought facing our own frontiers, so that if we had
lost we should have been driven back into the
interior of the enemy 's country. In the case of
a modern national army, the duty of sparing men
is entirely swallowed up in the higher duty of
annihilating the enemy. The fear of desertion
need not be entertained; the Army can be billeted
wherever it is.
The famous saying of Montecucoli, cited even
by Frederick the Great, belongs to a period now
entirely past. Montecucoli had said that in order
to wage war a nation must have money, and
money, and yet more money. It is true that a
great deal of money is needed for the preparations
involved by war; but when fighting has once begun,
the conqueror can do without ready money. He
can simply fall back on the resources of the occu-
pied territory, and may even abstain from paying
his troops for the moment. Once, when Bliicher
imposed a huge war contribution on the French
in order to feed his hungry soldiers, the King sent
an order forbidding him to embitter the French
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? 152 Treitschke
too much, and promising that the soldiers' pay
should be procured in Prussia. Bliicher replied,
"Your Majesty's Army is not 1 a mercenary army.
Even if I am not permitted to take money from a
hostile country, we will not be an unnecessary
burden to our mother country. " It is a well-
known fact that Napoleon began the campaign of
1806 with a war chest of forty thousand francs,
and in 1813 we were, ourselves, in a far worse
plight. We had, at the beginning, only two
thousand thalers (about six thousand marks) in
cash; but the first thing we did was to turn the
pecuniary resources of the Saxons into ready
money, and so we went on.
A certain self-reliance on the part of under-
commanders has become a necessity in the enor-
mous National Army of the present day. General
Manteuffel once told me that on the misty morning
of the Battle of Noisseville, he was only able to
give quite general directions ; for the rest, he relied
entirely on the initiative and sense of responsibility
of his generals. The final stages in the develop-
ment of war on the principle of universal service
have not yet been reached, and the world has not,
as yet, beheld a war between two national armies.
During the first half of the last great war, we
witnessed a meeting between a really national
army and a conscript army, and later, an impro-
vised Militia. The spectacle of the encounter
between two perfectly trained national armies,
which we have yet to see, will certainly be a
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? The Army 153
gigantic one. The world will then witness enor-
mous losses, and enormous results. And, if we
consider the multitude of new technical devices
produced in these modern times, we must realize
that future wars will give rise to far more astound-
ing revelations than any during the Franco-
Prussian War.
The new means of transport are especially
important in modern warfare. A State cannot
have too many railways for military purposes.
An immediate occupation of an enemy's country
is especially important in modern warfare, for it
puts an effective stop to all recruiting. One of
Napoleon Ill's most serious mistakes in 1870
was, that he failed to occupy at least a portion of
the left bank of the Rhine. We could not, at the
outset, have prevented him from doing so, and
this fact is openly stated in the introduction to the
work composed by the general staff, which Moltke
no doubt wrote himself. We should, by that
means, have lost two army corps from our field
army.
It is certain, then, that the more railways lead
to the frontier, the better. But I must here repeat
that everything has its natural limits. It is true
that an extensive railway system facilitates the
collection of an army on the frontier the moment
war is declared; but during the war its use is far
more restricted. It is quite easy for a scouting
party to make a railway impracticable for a long
time. The working capacity of a railway is also
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? 154 Treitschke
limited, and it can only transport a given number
of men and guns in each day. Our general staff
has calculated that an army of 60,000 men can
cover thirty miles as quickly on foot as by train.
It is often more useful for the troops to spend this
time in marching. It thus follows that railway
transport is only an advantage when the distances
to be covered are great, and even then the advant-
age is sometimes doubtful. If a line of advance
is to be kept secret, the troops must march. This
is proved by Bourbaki's unsuccessful expedition
against Southern Alsace. He collected his army
in trains, and tried to bring it up in that way as
far as the Vosges. All officers are of opinion that
if the troops had gone on foot, the German out-
posts of the small detachments, on the western
spurs of the Vosges, would not have observed
them soon enough. As it was, our Uhlan patrols
on the heights were able to report a noticeable
activity on the railway lines in the valley, and
General Werder thus had time to draw in his men,
and cause them to take up a defensive position.
The old truth that very much depends on the
marching capacity of an efficient body of infantry,
still holds good in modern warfare.
Our ideas regarding the importance of the fort-
ress have, on the other hand, undergone a complete
change. The time has long vanished when every
town was a fortress, and a long campaign in a
hostile country usually ended by taking the form
of siege-warfare. To-day, the question is even
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? The Army 155
being asked, "Are fortresses any longer of practical
use? " The Germans answer this question far
more sensibly than the French. France sur-
rounded herself with a tremendous rampart of
fortresses, reaching from Sedan to Belfort, and
thus believed herself shut off from Germany as
by a Chinese wall. But in so long a line there
must somewhere be a weak spot, which the Ger-
mans will certainly end by rinding. There is,
however, an even more important consideration.
Walls cannot defend themselves, and if they are
to be effectually defended, the great fortresses
need a huge garrison, which is thus lost to the
field army. The Germans are of opinion that
small-barrier forts are necessary, and may be useful
even to-day. A little mountain fortress of this
kind, situated on a defile can, under certain cir-
cumstances, cut the enemy off from using a
whole system of roads.
The Saxon fortress of Konigstein, for instance,
is not impregnable, but a siege of the place might
drag on indefinitely. It was from this fortress
that a successful attempt was made in 1866 to
destroy the important railway from Dresden to
Prague, so that the Prussians were unable to use
it for a fortnight. The railway could not be
repaired, because the batteries of the fortress
commanded the line. The advance of the Prus-
sians into Bohemia was thus made very difficult.
The fortress of Bitsch, in the Vosges, plays a very
similar part. Little mountain strongholds will
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? 156 Treitschke
thus continue to be of service for some time to
come.
On the other hand, it is necessary to maintain
the large strongholds known as army fortresses,
in order to have places of refuge for a whole army,
and especially so that one may there shelter and
replenish a beaten army. Strassburg and Metz
exist for this purpose. All our officers agree,
however, that we must not have too many fort-
resses of this type. Many deny that they have
any use at all, for decisive actions in war are
always fought in the open field, and any military
system which lessens our forces in the field presents
very serious drawbacks. A fortress of this kind
needs a large garrison even when no enemy is
in the neighbourhood. We are always brought
back to the fact that national armies, which are
so full of moral energy, must be looked upon as
pre-eminently capable of assuming a vigorous
offensive.
I will conclude by pointing out, very briefly,
that the fleet has begun to assume a far more
important position not, in the first place, as an
essential factor in a European war, for no one
believes now that a war between great Powers
could be decided by a naval battle but as a pro-
tection for the merchant navy and the colonies.
The task of ruling countries on the other side of
the Atlantic will, from henceforth, be the chief
duty of European fleets. For, since the object
of human culture must be to assert the supremacy
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? The Army 157
of the white races on the entire globe, the import-
ance of a people will finally depend on the share
it takes in the rule of the transatlantic world. It
is on this account that the importance of the fleet
has so largely increased during our own day.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW
IS there really such a thing as international law?
Certainly there are two common theories of
international relations, each contradictory to the
other, each quite untenable. One, the so-called
naturalistic theory, dates from Machiavelli. It
is based on the notion that the State is merely
might personified, that it has the right to do any-
thing that is profitable to it. On this view the
State cannot fetter itself by international law; its
relations with other States depend simply on the
respective strength which it and they possess.
This theory leads to an absurdity.
It is of course
true that the State implies physical might. But if
a State be that and nothing else, if it pay no heed
to reason or to conscience, it will never maintain
itself in a proper condition of safety. Even na-
turalistic thinkers allow that it is a function of
the State to preserve internal order; that it cannot
do if it refuses to obey any law in its relations with
other States. Its deliberate contempt for good
faith, loyalty, and treaty agreements in external
relations would raise a crowd of enemies, and pre-
vent it from fulfilling its purpose the embodi-
ment of physical force. Even Machiavelli's ideal,
Caesar Borgia, ultimately fell into the pit which he
158
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? International Law 159
had digged for others. For the end and object
of the State's existence is not physical might; it
embodies might only in order that it may protect
and develop the nobler aspects of mankind. Thus
the doctrine of pure might is a vain doctrine; it
is immoral because it cannot justify its own
existence.
Directly contrary to this view of the State, is
another an equally false view. This is the
"moral" conception due to German liberalism.
The State is here regarded as a good little boy,
to be washed, brushed, and sent to school ; he must
have his ears pulled, to keep him good, and in
return he is to be thankful, just-minded, and
Heaven knows what else. This German doctri-
naire theory has done as much harm to our political
thinking as to other forms of German life. All
our political sins can be traced back to the notion
natural enough in a learned nation that the
pronouncement of some scientific truth is ade-
quate to turn the world's course into a new channel.
That notion underlies the German spirit of sci-
entific research; it also underlies our tendency to
all manner of practical blunders. The doctri-
naire exponent of international law fondly imagines
that he need only emit a few aphorisms and that
the nations of the world will forthwith, as reason-
able men, accept them. We forget that stupidity
and passion matter, and have always mattered
in history. Who, after all, can fail to see the
growth of national passions during the nineteenth
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? 160 Treitschke
century? And whence do individuals Rotteck,
Bluntschli, Heffter, and others say to States per-
emptorily, "Thou shalt"? No single man stands
high enough to impose his doctrines on all States ;
he must be ready to see his theories crossed or
crushed by actual life. The delusion that there
can be such a thing as hypothetical law is at the
root of these errors. Positive law is the only law
that has real existence. Until the general public
has grown convinced of the truth and righteous-
ness of various legal principles, the function of
learned men is really limited to preparing the way.
Were we to pursue the abstract conception of the
State to its logical conclusion, we should find
ourselves demanding a supreme authority with
world-wide power. The authority would be such
as that claimed by the Papal See, an authority
not of this world, represented by the Vicegerent
of Christ and ruling in the name of God. That is
the sort of authority which we do not want on
earth; our beautiful world should be a world of
liberty. Nevertheless it is only ultramontane
thinkers who have consistently worked out to its
logical issue the weak and sentimental view of
international law which we at this moment are
considering. That logical issue has been rightly
stated in the great "Codex" of the Jesuits; accord-
ing to it, the world is, as it were, an ethnarchy in
which the nations form an ideal community, while
the Pope, as ethnarch, wields over them a coercive
power, keeping each State within bounds by spiri-
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? International Law 161
tual warnings and ghostly power. That is the one
practical conclusion deducible from the premise
that the State is a body liable to external coercion.
No system of international law can, merely be-
cause it has a scientific basis, restrain a sovereign
State.
So then these two extreme views are both un-
workable in practice. Let us see if we can, in their
place, set up a theory of international law based
on historical foundations. First and before all,
we must recognize clearly that we must not over-
weight our human nature with demands which
our weakness cannot meet. That mistake is
responsible for the perversion of many an idealist
into a disillusioned fanatic. The man who de-
claims that might and the mailed fist alone decide
the rivalry of nations is often a soured fanatic
who in his youth smoked away at the pipe of
peace, discovered that that was too good, for this
poor world, rushed off to the other extreme, and
now declares that the basis of all things is brutality
and cynicism. No doubt, all great political think-
ers show a touch of cynical contempt for mankind,
and when this contempt is not too deep, it has
its justification. But it is only the man who does
not ask the impossible from human nature who
can really awaken the finer energies which, despite
all frailties and brutish instincts, lie dormant in
man.
With this in mind, we must set to work histori-
cally and consider the State as it actually is. It
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? 1 62 Treitschke
is physical force ; but it is also an institution aiming
at the betterment of mankind. In so far as it is
physical force, it has a natural tendency to grab
as many possessions as may seem to it desirable.
But every State will nevertheless show of its own
accord a real regard for neighbouring States.
Prudent calculation and a mutual recognition of
advantages will gradually foster an ever-growing
sense of justice; there will arise the consciousness
that each State is bound up with the common life
of the States around it and that, willingly or un-
willingly, it must come to terms with them as a
body of States. This consideration is prompted
not by any sort of philanthropy but by a literal
sense of the benefits of reciprocal action. What
I may call the formal part of international law,
such as the rules which assure the inviolability
of ambassadors and which regulate the ceremonial
of embassies, was developed and fixed at an early
date in history. In modern Europe, the laws
about embassies are definite and well determined.
It may even be asserted that the formal side of
international law is more firmly established and
more seldom broken than the laws which govern
the internal life of each single State. Still, the
existence of international law is precarious; it is
a lex imperfecta, because there is no higher power
to control States as a whole. All depends on the
sense of reciprocity between nations, and here,
in default (as already said) of a supreme authority,
learning and public opinion may play a great part.
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? International Law 163
The jurist Savigny declared that international
law is perpetually in the making. He did not
mean, of course, that it has no real validity. For
this law which is daily growing is obviously of
practical use at every turn. There can be no
doubt that the development of modern interna-
tional law owes a very special debt to Christianity,
which extends beyond the limits of single States
towards cosmopolitanism in the noblest sense of
that term; our ancestors, therefore, were both
reasonable and logical when they for a while
omitted the Porte from among the nations bound
by international law. They could not admit the
Porte so long as it was dominated exclusively by
Mahometan standards of morals. More recently,
Christianity has spread in the Balkans, Mahom-
etanism has somewhat decreased there, and the
Porte has been brought into the circle of nations
subject to international law.
As States grow from small to large and from
weakness to independence they necessarily wish
to preserve peace, simply to ensure their safety
and to guard the treasures of civilization entrusted
to them. Hence grows up a general agreement to
obey international law, yielding an orderly associa-
tion of States, a political system. But this at
once presupposes a more or less approximately
level balance of power among the nations concerned.
The notion of a balance of power in Europe was
at the first accepted in a purely mechanical sense.
But it contains the germ of a perfectly true political
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? 1 64 Treitschke
conception. We must not picture it under the
image of a trutina gentium, a weighing machine
of nations, with both sides of the balance equi-
poised. It is enough to premise that in any
ordered political system no State should be suffi-
ciently strong to be able to act as it pleases with
impunity. In this connexion we may note the
superiority of present-day Europe over the im-
mature system of States in America. There,
the United States can do as they please, and it is
only because the relations of the United States
with the republics of South America are still
rather slight that the latter have as yet suffered
little direct interference from their northern
neighbour.
The Russian diplomat, Gortshakof, once said,
and said with truth, that neither the nations who
fear attack nor those who deem themselves strong
enough to be able to attack whom they will, will
ever hasten the completion of international law.
Actual examples will convince us of the correctness
of this acute remark. In countries like Belgium
and Holland, which have most unfortunately
for the proper growth of international law long
been the chief centres of its study, there has sprung
up a sentimental conception of it, begotten no
doubt by unceasing fear of attack from outside.
These countries have fallen into the custom of
addressing to the conqueror demands in the name
of humanity which contradict the power of the
State, and are unnatural and unreasonable. The
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? International Law 165
treaties of peace signed at Nymwegen and Ryswick
in 1678-9 and 1697 show that then Holland was
looked on as the diplomatic cockpit of Europe,
where all questions of high politics might be fought
out. Later on, this doubtful honour passed to
Switzerland. Nowadays, few people reflect how
ridiculous it is that Belgium should pose as the
home of international law. Just as it is true that
that law rests on a basis of practical fact, so true
is it that a State which is in an abnormal position
will inevitably form an abnormal and perverted
conception of it. Belgium is neutral. And yet
men think that it can give birth to a healthy
system of international law. I will ask you to
remember this when you are confronted with the
voluminous literature which Belgian scholars
have produced on this subject.
Again, there is one country which believes itself
in a position to attack when it will, and which is
therefore a home of barbarism in all matters of
international law. Thanks to England, marine
international law is still, in time of war, nothing
better than a system of privileged piracy. We see,
therefore, that as international law rests wholly
on reciprocity, it is vain to ask nations to listen
to empty commonplaces about humanity. Theory
must here be nailed down to practice; real reci-
procity and a real balance of power are inseparable.
If we would further define the sphere of inter-
national law, we must bear well in mind that it
must never trespass on the existence of the State.
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? i66 Treitschke
Demands which drive a State towards suicide are
necessarily unreasonable; each State must retain
its internal sovereignty amid the general commu-
nity of States ; the preservation of that sovereignty
is its highest duty even in its dealings with its
neighbours. The only principles of international
conduct which are seldom broken and may claim
to be fixed are those which do not touch this
sovereignty, those namely which concern the
formal and ceremonial rules mentioned above.
To lay a finger on the honour of a State is to
contest its existence. Even to reproach a State
with a too touchy sense of honour is to misread
the true moral laws of politics. That State which
will not be untrue to itself must possess an acute
sense of honour. It is no violet to flower unseen.
Its strength should be shown signally in the light
of open day, and it dare not allow that strength
to be questioned even indirectly. If its flag be
insulted, it must ask satisfaction; if that satis-
faction be not forthcoming, it must declare war,
however trifling the occasion may seem.
It follows that all the limitations which States
lay on themselves in treaties are merely voluntary;
all treaties are concluded with a mental reservation
rebus sic stantibus so long as circumstances
remain unchanged. No State exists, no State
ever will exist, which is willing to observe the
terms of any peace for ever; no State can pledge
itself to the unlimited observance of treaties, for
that would limit its sovereign power. No treaty
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? International Law 167
can hold good when the conditions under which it
was signed have wholly changed. This doctrine
has been declared inhuman; in reality it will be
found the height of humanity. Until the State
has realized that its engagements have but limited
duration, it will never exercise due skill in treaty-
making. We cannot treat history as if we were
judges in a civil court of law. If we did that, we
should have to say that Prussia, having signed the
treaty of Tilsit, in 1807, ought not to have attacked
Napoleon in 1813. But that treaty, like all others,
was concluded rebus sic stantibus, and, thank God,
things had completely changed in the six years.
A whole nation found itself in a state to escape
from intolerable thraldom.
Never disregard the free moral life of the nation
as a whole. No State in the wide world can ven-
ture to relinquish the "ego" of its sovereignty.
If conditions have been imposed on it which cripple
it or which it cannot observe, the nation honours
itself in breaking them. It is one of the most
admirable facts in history that a nation can recover
from material loss far sooner than from the slight-
est insult to its honour. The loss of a province
may be accepted as inevitable; the endurance of
what we deem to be servitude is an unending
insult to a noble-hearted nation. Napoleon, by
stationing his troops on Prussian soil, stirred up
fierce hatred in the veins even of the most patient.
When a State has been wounded in its honour the
breach of a treaty is but a matter of time. Eng-
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? 1 68 Treitschke
land and France had to admit this in 1870. In
their arrogant pride at the end of the Crimean
War, they had compelled their exhausted enemy
to agree to remove all her warships from the
Black Sea. Russia seized the opportunity offered
by the Franco-Prussian War to break the agree-
ment, and she was fully within her rights.
If a State finds that any of its existing treaties
have ceased to express the relative strength of
itself and the other treaty State, and if it cannot
induce the latter to a friendly cancelment of the
treaty, then has come the moment for the " legal
proceedings" customary between nations, that
is, for war. And in such circumstances war is de-
clared in the full consciousness that the nation is
doing its duty. Personal greed plays no part in
such an act. Those who declare war then say to
themselves, "Our treaty-obligation has failed to
correspond with our relative strength at this
moment; we cannot come to friendly terms; we
turn to the great assize of the nations. " The
justice of a war depends wholly on the conscious-
ness of its moral necessity. And since there
neither can be nor ought to be any external coer-
cive power controlling the great personages of a
State, and since history must ever remain in a
state of change, war is in itself justifiable ; it is an
ordinance of God. No doubt, a State may err
as to the necessity of applying this means of
coercion. Niebuhr spoke truly, when he said
that war can establish no right which did not
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? International Law . 169
previously exist.
decades has now been shown to be unwarranted.
It was the custom abroad to look down on the
Prussian territorial system (Landwehr) and on the
Prussian boy army. -Things are very different
now. We know now that moral factors in war-
fare weigh more heavily than technical excellence ;
and it is further evident that the ever-increasing
technical experience of life in barracks brings
with it a corresponding brutalization of the moral
instincts. The old sergeants of France were in
no way superior to the German troops, as the
French had expected. We may say with truth
that the problem of giving a military education
to the strength of the nation and of making full
use of the trained Army was first seriously dealt
with in Germany. Our Army constitutes a pecu-
liar and necessary continuation of the scholastic
system. For many people it would be impossible
to devise a better means of education. For such
persons, living as they do in a period in which
mental restraint is lacking, the drill and enforced
cleanliness, and strict military discipline are in-
dispensable from every point of view. Carry le
prophesied that the Prussian conception of uni-
versal military service would go the round of the
globe. Since 1866 and 1870, when the organiza-
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? 148 Treitschke
tion of the Prussian Army stood its trial so bril-
liantly, nearly all the other great Powers of the
Continent have sought to imitate its methods.
But imitation abroad is not as easy as was
supposed because the Prussian Army is really a
nation in arms, and the peculiarities and refine-
ments of the national character are naturally
exemplified in it. Above all, a system of this
kind cannot be established unless the nation pos-
sesses a certain degree of political freedom, is
satisfied with the existing regime, and can count
on social freedom in the Government. A natural
respect for superior education is also necessary, for
without it the institution of the One-year Volun-
teers would be unthinkable. This system has
been introduced simply in order to make it econo-
mically and morally possible for young men belong-
ing to the educated classes to serve in the ranks.
In France this voluntary system has proved a
failure because an external equality between
different classes of men has been insisted upon.
In Germany we could hardly do without it. Quite
apart from the fact that our supply of professional
officers is not nearly large enough in the event of
war, the educated young men who in the One-year
Voluntary Service transforms into territorial
reserve officers, and who stand in many ways in
a closer relationship to the people than the pro-
fessional officers, form a natural link between the
latter and the rank and file of the Army.
The heavy burden of universal military service
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? The Army 149
can be lightened in a certain measure by decentrali-
zation, which usually enables a man to serve in
his native province. Our Provincial Army Corps
have, on the whole, quite justified their existence.
They should remain the rule; and as a wholesome
counterweight we have, in the Guard, a corps
which includes men from all parts of the country,
and forms a crack regiment, one of whose functions
it is to spur on the rest of the Army. The rigid
centralization of France makes the existence of
Provincial Army Corps such as ours an impossibil-
ity. The natives of Normandy and of the Pyre-
nees there stand side by side in the same regiment.
In Germany, on the other hand, common national-
ity is rightly looked upon as a strong cement which
will ensure the solidarity of separate bodies of
troops. This universal military service, if it is
to preserve the existence of the State, must
naturally presuppose unity in the nation as a
whole. One or two isolated little provinces,
peopled by foreign races, do not greatly affect the
question, and a few simple precautions will do
away with any threatened danger from those
quarters. In Austria things are more serious,
because there the officers in the Reserve are the
weak point of the army. They are good Czechs,
good Germans, and good Magyars, but not good
Austrians; and this flaw may some day bring
about disastrous consequences.
In all these matters of military organization
we were until quite lately the leader of the other
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? 150 Treitschke
nations. During the last few years the neighbour-
ing States have made such strenuous efforts to
obtain military power that we have been obliged
to go further this time in imitation of other
nations. The furthest limits to this onward move-
ment are improved by nature of things, and the
enormous physical strength of the Germanic race
will see to it that we have a perpetual advantage
in this respect over the less faithful nations.
The French have nearly reached the utmost limits
of their capacity; the Germans possess, in this
respect, far wider elbow-room.
I will ask you once more to observe the nature
of the influence exercised on warfare by these new
methods in military affairs. The general tend-
ency of this system is towards peace. A nation
in arms is not as easily drawn away from its social
occupations to take part in a frivolous war as a
Conscript Army would be. Wars will become
rarer and of shorter duration, although more
bloody. Desire to return home will drive the
Army to advance. The temper of the Prussian
soldiers in the summer of 1866, expressed in the
words, "Let us press on towards the Danube, so
that we may get home again soon," should be
looked upon as the normal temper of a courageous
and, at the same time, peace-loving National Army.
There can be no difficulty, to-day, in understand-
ing the bold spirit in warfare which seeks, above
all, to plunge a dagger into the heart of the enemy.
It may be said that nothing is absolutely impossible
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? The Army 151
to a National Army of this kind when the nation
can look back over a glorious past. The experi-
ences of our last two wars, especially in the Battles
of Koniggratz and Mars La Tour, have proved
this to be true. We saw, at the Battle of Sadowa,
that fourteen Prussian battalions could stand
against something like forty- two Austrian ones;
and the Franco-Prussian War furnished us with
numerous instances of decisive battles in which we
fought facing our own frontiers, so that if we had
lost we should have been driven back into the
interior of the enemy 's country. In the case of
a modern national army, the duty of sparing men
is entirely swallowed up in the higher duty of
annihilating the enemy. The fear of desertion
need not be entertained; the Army can be billeted
wherever it is.
The famous saying of Montecucoli, cited even
by Frederick the Great, belongs to a period now
entirely past. Montecucoli had said that in order
to wage war a nation must have money, and
money, and yet more money. It is true that a
great deal of money is needed for the preparations
involved by war; but when fighting has once begun,
the conqueror can do without ready money. He
can simply fall back on the resources of the occu-
pied territory, and may even abstain from paying
his troops for the moment. Once, when Bliicher
imposed a huge war contribution on the French
in order to feed his hungry soldiers, the King sent
an order forbidding him to embitter the French
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? 152 Treitschke
too much, and promising that the soldiers' pay
should be procured in Prussia. Bliicher replied,
"Your Majesty's Army is not 1 a mercenary army.
Even if I am not permitted to take money from a
hostile country, we will not be an unnecessary
burden to our mother country. " It is a well-
known fact that Napoleon began the campaign of
1806 with a war chest of forty thousand francs,
and in 1813 we were, ourselves, in a far worse
plight. We had, at the beginning, only two
thousand thalers (about six thousand marks) in
cash; but the first thing we did was to turn the
pecuniary resources of the Saxons into ready
money, and so we went on.
A certain self-reliance on the part of under-
commanders has become a necessity in the enor-
mous National Army of the present day. General
Manteuffel once told me that on the misty morning
of the Battle of Noisseville, he was only able to
give quite general directions ; for the rest, he relied
entirely on the initiative and sense of responsibility
of his generals. The final stages in the develop-
ment of war on the principle of universal service
have not yet been reached, and the world has not,
as yet, beheld a war between two national armies.
During the first half of the last great war, we
witnessed a meeting between a really national
army and a conscript army, and later, an impro-
vised Militia. The spectacle of the encounter
between two perfectly trained national armies,
which we have yet to see, will certainly be a
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? The Army 153
gigantic one. The world will then witness enor-
mous losses, and enormous results. And, if we
consider the multitude of new technical devices
produced in these modern times, we must realize
that future wars will give rise to far more astound-
ing revelations than any during the Franco-
Prussian War.
The new means of transport are especially
important in modern warfare. A State cannot
have too many railways for military purposes.
An immediate occupation of an enemy's country
is especially important in modern warfare, for it
puts an effective stop to all recruiting. One of
Napoleon Ill's most serious mistakes in 1870
was, that he failed to occupy at least a portion of
the left bank of the Rhine. We could not, at the
outset, have prevented him from doing so, and
this fact is openly stated in the introduction to the
work composed by the general staff, which Moltke
no doubt wrote himself. We should, by that
means, have lost two army corps from our field
army.
It is certain, then, that the more railways lead
to the frontier, the better. But I must here repeat
that everything has its natural limits. It is true
that an extensive railway system facilitates the
collection of an army on the frontier the moment
war is declared; but during the war its use is far
more restricted. It is quite easy for a scouting
party to make a railway impracticable for a long
time. The working capacity of a railway is also
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? 154 Treitschke
limited, and it can only transport a given number
of men and guns in each day. Our general staff
has calculated that an army of 60,000 men can
cover thirty miles as quickly on foot as by train.
It is often more useful for the troops to spend this
time in marching. It thus follows that railway
transport is only an advantage when the distances
to be covered are great, and even then the advant-
age is sometimes doubtful. If a line of advance
is to be kept secret, the troops must march. This
is proved by Bourbaki's unsuccessful expedition
against Southern Alsace. He collected his army
in trains, and tried to bring it up in that way as
far as the Vosges. All officers are of opinion that
if the troops had gone on foot, the German out-
posts of the small detachments, on the western
spurs of the Vosges, would not have observed
them soon enough. As it was, our Uhlan patrols
on the heights were able to report a noticeable
activity on the railway lines in the valley, and
General Werder thus had time to draw in his men,
and cause them to take up a defensive position.
The old truth that very much depends on the
marching capacity of an efficient body of infantry,
still holds good in modern warfare.
Our ideas regarding the importance of the fort-
ress have, on the other hand, undergone a complete
change. The time has long vanished when every
town was a fortress, and a long campaign in a
hostile country usually ended by taking the form
of siege-warfare. To-day, the question is even
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? The Army 155
being asked, "Are fortresses any longer of practical
use? " The Germans answer this question far
more sensibly than the French. France sur-
rounded herself with a tremendous rampart of
fortresses, reaching from Sedan to Belfort, and
thus believed herself shut off from Germany as
by a Chinese wall. But in so long a line there
must somewhere be a weak spot, which the Ger-
mans will certainly end by rinding. There is,
however, an even more important consideration.
Walls cannot defend themselves, and if they are
to be effectually defended, the great fortresses
need a huge garrison, which is thus lost to the
field army. The Germans are of opinion that
small-barrier forts are necessary, and may be useful
even to-day. A little mountain fortress of this
kind, situated on a defile can, under certain cir-
cumstances, cut the enemy off from using a
whole system of roads.
The Saxon fortress of Konigstein, for instance,
is not impregnable, but a siege of the place might
drag on indefinitely. It was from this fortress
that a successful attempt was made in 1866 to
destroy the important railway from Dresden to
Prague, so that the Prussians were unable to use
it for a fortnight. The railway could not be
repaired, because the batteries of the fortress
commanded the line. The advance of the Prus-
sians into Bohemia was thus made very difficult.
The fortress of Bitsch, in the Vosges, plays a very
similar part. Little mountain strongholds will
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? 156 Treitschke
thus continue to be of service for some time to
come.
On the other hand, it is necessary to maintain
the large strongholds known as army fortresses,
in order to have places of refuge for a whole army,
and especially so that one may there shelter and
replenish a beaten army. Strassburg and Metz
exist for this purpose. All our officers agree,
however, that we must not have too many fort-
resses of this type. Many deny that they have
any use at all, for decisive actions in war are
always fought in the open field, and any military
system which lessens our forces in the field presents
very serious drawbacks. A fortress of this kind
needs a large garrison even when no enemy is
in the neighbourhood. We are always brought
back to the fact that national armies, which are
so full of moral energy, must be looked upon as
pre-eminently capable of assuming a vigorous
offensive.
I will conclude by pointing out, very briefly,
that the fleet has begun to assume a far more
important position not, in the first place, as an
essential factor in a European war, for no one
believes now that a war between great Powers
could be decided by a naval battle but as a pro-
tection for the merchant navy and the colonies.
The task of ruling countries on the other side of
the Atlantic will, from henceforth, be the chief
duty of European fleets. For, since the object
of human culture must be to assert the supremacy
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? The Army 157
of the white races on the entire globe, the import-
ance of a people will finally depend on the share
it takes in the rule of the transatlantic world. It
is on this account that the importance of the fleet
has so largely increased during our own day.
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? INTERNATIONAL LAW
IS there really such a thing as international law?
Certainly there are two common theories of
international relations, each contradictory to the
other, each quite untenable. One, the so-called
naturalistic theory, dates from Machiavelli. It
is based on the notion that the State is merely
might personified, that it has the right to do any-
thing that is profitable to it. On this view the
State cannot fetter itself by international law; its
relations with other States depend simply on the
respective strength which it and they possess.
This theory leads to an absurdity.
It is of course
true that the State implies physical might. But if
a State be that and nothing else, if it pay no heed
to reason or to conscience, it will never maintain
itself in a proper condition of safety. Even na-
turalistic thinkers allow that it is a function of
the State to preserve internal order; that it cannot
do if it refuses to obey any law in its relations with
other States. Its deliberate contempt for good
faith, loyalty, and treaty agreements in external
relations would raise a crowd of enemies, and pre-
vent it from fulfilling its purpose the embodi-
ment of physical force. Even Machiavelli's ideal,
Caesar Borgia, ultimately fell into the pit which he
158
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? International Law 159
had digged for others. For the end and object
of the State's existence is not physical might; it
embodies might only in order that it may protect
and develop the nobler aspects of mankind. Thus
the doctrine of pure might is a vain doctrine; it
is immoral because it cannot justify its own
existence.
Directly contrary to this view of the State, is
another an equally false view. This is the
"moral" conception due to German liberalism.
The State is here regarded as a good little boy,
to be washed, brushed, and sent to school ; he must
have his ears pulled, to keep him good, and in
return he is to be thankful, just-minded, and
Heaven knows what else. This German doctri-
naire theory has done as much harm to our political
thinking as to other forms of German life. All
our political sins can be traced back to the notion
natural enough in a learned nation that the
pronouncement of some scientific truth is ade-
quate to turn the world's course into a new channel.
That notion underlies the German spirit of sci-
entific research; it also underlies our tendency to
all manner of practical blunders. The doctri-
naire exponent of international law fondly imagines
that he need only emit a few aphorisms and that
the nations of the world will forthwith, as reason-
able men, accept them. We forget that stupidity
and passion matter, and have always mattered
in history. Who, after all, can fail to see the
growth of national passions during the nineteenth
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? 160 Treitschke
century? And whence do individuals Rotteck,
Bluntschli, Heffter, and others say to States per-
emptorily, "Thou shalt"? No single man stands
high enough to impose his doctrines on all States ;
he must be ready to see his theories crossed or
crushed by actual life. The delusion that there
can be such a thing as hypothetical law is at the
root of these errors. Positive law is the only law
that has real existence. Until the general public
has grown convinced of the truth and righteous-
ness of various legal principles, the function of
learned men is really limited to preparing the way.
Were we to pursue the abstract conception of the
State to its logical conclusion, we should find
ourselves demanding a supreme authority with
world-wide power. The authority would be such
as that claimed by the Papal See, an authority
not of this world, represented by the Vicegerent
of Christ and ruling in the name of God. That is
the sort of authority which we do not want on
earth; our beautiful world should be a world of
liberty. Nevertheless it is only ultramontane
thinkers who have consistently worked out to its
logical issue the weak and sentimental view of
international law which we at this moment are
considering. That logical issue has been rightly
stated in the great "Codex" of the Jesuits; accord-
ing to it, the world is, as it were, an ethnarchy in
which the nations form an ideal community, while
the Pope, as ethnarch, wields over them a coercive
power, keeping each State within bounds by spiri-
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? International Law 161
tual warnings and ghostly power. That is the one
practical conclusion deducible from the premise
that the State is a body liable to external coercion.
No system of international law can, merely be-
cause it has a scientific basis, restrain a sovereign
State.
So then these two extreme views are both un-
workable in practice. Let us see if we can, in their
place, set up a theory of international law based
on historical foundations. First and before all,
we must recognize clearly that we must not over-
weight our human nature with demands which
our weakness cannot meet. That mistake is
responsible for the perversion of many an idealist
into a disillusioned fanatic. The man who de-
claims that might and the mailed fist alone decide
the rivalry of nations is often a soured fanatic
who in his youth smoked away at the pipe of
peace, discovered that that was too good, for this
poor world, rushed off to the other extreme, and
now declares that the basis of all things is brutality
and cynicism. No doubt, all great political think-
ers show a touch of cynical contempt for mankind,
and when this contempt is not too deep, it has
its justification. But it is only the man who does
not ask the impossible from human nature who
can really awaken the finer energies which, despite
all frailties and brutish instincts, lie dormant in
man.
With this in mind, we must set to work histori-
cally and consider the State as it actually is. It
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? 1 62 Treitschke
is physical force ; but it is also an institution aiming
at the betterment of mankind. In so far as it is
physical force, it has a natural tendency to grab
as many possessions as may seem to it desirable.
But every State will nevertheless show of its own
accord a real regard for neighbouring States.
Prudent calculation and a mutual recognition of
advantages will gradually foster an ever-growing
sense of justice; there will arise the consciousness
that each State is bound up with the common life
of the States around it and that, willingly or un-
willingly, it must come to terms with them as a
body of States. This consideration is prompted
not by any sort of philanthropy but by a literal
sense of the benefits of reciprocal action. What
I may call the formal part of international law,
such as the rules which assure the inviolability
of ambassadors and which regulate the ceremonial
of embassies, was developed and fixed at an early
date in history. In modern Europe, the laws
about embassies are definite and well determined.
It may even be asserted that the formal side of
international law is more firmly established and
more seldom broken than the laws which govern
the internal life of each single State. Still, the
existence of international law is precarious; it is
a lex imperfecta, because there is no higher power
to control States as a whole. All depends on the
sense of reciprocity between nations, and here,
in default (as already said) of a supreme authority,
learning and public opinion may play a great part.
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? International Law 163
The jurist Savigny declared that international
law is perpetually in the making. He did not
mean, of course, that it has no real validity. For
this law which is daily growing is obviously of
practical use at every turn. There can be no
doubt that the development of modern interna-
tional law owes a very special debt to Christianity,
which extends beyond the limits of single States
towards cosmopolitanism in the noblest sense of
that term; our ancestors, therefore, were both
reasonable and logical when they for a while
omitted the Porte from among the nations bound
by international law. They could not admit the
Porte so long as it was dominated exclusively by
Mahometan standards of morals. More recently,
Christianity has spread in the Balkans, Mahom-
etanism has somewhat decreased there, and the
Porte has been brought into the circle of nations
subject to international law.
As States grow from small to large and from
weakness to independence they necessarily wish
to preserve peace, simply to ensure their safety
and to guard the treasures of civilization entrusted
to them. Hence grows up a general agreement to
obey international law, yielding an orderly associa-
tion of States, a political system. But this at
once presupposes a more or less approximately
level balance of power among the nations concerned.
The notion of a balance of power in Europe was
at the first accepted in a purely mechanical sense.
But it contains the germ of a perfectly true political
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? 1 64 Treitschke
conception. We must not picture it under the
image of a trutina gentium, a weighing machine
of nations, with both sides of the balance equi-
poised. It is enough to premise that in any
ordered political system no State should be suffi-
ciently strong to be able to act as it pleases with
impunity. In this connexion we may note the
superiority of present-day Europe over the im-
mature system of States in America. There,
the United States can do as they please, and it is
only because the relations of the United States
with the republics of South America are still
rather slight that the latter have as yet suffered
little direct interference from their northern
neighbour.
The Russian diplomat, Gortshakof, once said,
and said with truth, that neither the nations who
fear attack nor those who deem themselves strong
enough to be able to attack whom they will, will
ever hasten the completion of international law.
Actual examples will convince us of the correctness
of this acute remark. In countries like Belgium
and Holland, which have most unfortunately
for the proper growth of international law long
been the chief centres of its study, there has sprung
up a sentimental conception of it, begotten no
doubt by unceasing fear of attack from outside.
These countries have fallen into the custom of
addressing to the conqueror demands in the name
of humanity which contradict the power of the
State, and are unnatural and unreasonable. The
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? International Law 165
treaties of peace signed at Nymwegen and Ryswick
in 1678-9 and 1697 show that then Holland was
looked on as the diplomatic cockpit of Europe,
where all questions of high politics might be fought
out. Later on, this doubtful honour passed to
Switzerland. Nowadays, few people reflect how
ridiculous it is that Belgium should pose as the
home of international law. Just as it is true that
that law rests on a basis of practical fact, so true
is it that a State which is in an abnormal position
will inevitably form an abnormal and perverted
conception of it. Belgium is neutral. And yet
men think that it can give birth to a healthy
system of international law. I will ask you to
remember this when you are confronted with the
voluminous literature which Belgian scholars
have produced on this subject.
Again, there is one country which believes itself
in a position to attack when it will, and which is
therefore a home of barbarism in all matters of
international law. Thanks to England, marine
international law is still, in time of war, nothing
better than a system of privileged piracy. We see,
therefore, that as international law rests wholly
on reciprocity, it is vain to ask nations to listen
to empty commonplaces about humanity. Theory
must here be nailed down to practice; real reci-
procity and a real balance of power are inseparable.
If we would further define the sphere of inter-
national law, we must bear well in mind that it
must never trespass on the existence of the State.
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? i66 Treitschke
Demands which drive a State towards suicide are
necessarily unreasonable; each State must retain
its internal sovereignty amid the general commu-
nity of States ; the preservation of that sovereignty
is its highest duty even in its dealings with its
neighbours. The only principles of international
conduct which are seldom broken and may claim
to be fixed are those which do not touch this
sovereignty, those namely which concern the
formal and ceremonial rules mentioned above.
To lay a finger on the honour of a State is to
contest its existence. Even to reproach a State
with a too touchy sense of honour is to misread
the true moral laws of politics. That State which
will not be untrue to itself must possess an acute
sense of honour. It is no violet to flower unseen.
Its strength should be shown signally in the light
of open day, and it dare not allow that strength
to be questioned even indirectly. If its flag be
insulted, it must ask satisfaction; if that satis-
faction be not forthcoming, it must declare war,
however trifling the occasion may seem.
It follows that all the limitations which States
lay on themselves in treaties are merely voluntary;
all treaties are concluded with a mental reservation
rebus sic stantibus so long as circumstances
remain unchanged. No State exists, no State
ever will exist, which is willing to observe the
terms of any peace for ever; no State can pledge
itself to the unlimited observance of treaties, for
that would limit its sovereign power. No treaty
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? International Law 167
can hold good when the conditions under which it
was signed have wholly changed. This doctrine
has been declared inhuman; in reality it will be
found the height of humanity. Until the State
has realized that its engagements have but limited
duration, it will never exercise due skill in treaty-
making. We cannot treat history as if we were
judges in a civil court of law. If we did that, we
should have to say that Prussia, having signed the
treaty of Tilsit, in 1807, ought not to have attacked
Napoleon in 1813. But that treaty, like all others,
was concluded rebus sic stantibus, and, thank God,
things had completely changed in the six years.
A whole nation found itself in a state to escape
from intolerable thraldom.
Never disregard the free moral life of the nation
as a whole. No State in the wide world can ven-
ture to relinquish the "ego" of its sovereignty.
If conditions have been imposed on it which cripple
it or which it cannot observe, the nation honours
itself in breaking them. It is one of the most
admirable facts in history that a nation can recover
from material loss far sooner than from the slight-
est insult to its honour. The loss of a province
may be accepted as inevitable; the endurance of
what we deem to be servitude is an unending
insult to a noble-hearted nation. Napoleon, by
stationing his troops on Prussian soil, stirred up
fierce hatred in the veins even of the most patient.
When a State has been wounded in its honour the
breach of a treaty is but a matter of time. Eng-
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? 1 68 Treitschke
land and France had to admit this in 1870. In
their arrogant pride at the end of the Crimean
War, they had compelled their exhausted enemy
to agree to remove all her warships from the
Black Sea. Russia seized the opportunity offered
by the Franco-Prussian War to break the agree-
ment, and she was fully within her rights.
If a State finds that any of its existing treaties
have ceased to express the relative strength of
itself and the other treaty State, and if it cannot
induce the latter to a friendly cancelment of the
treaty, then has come the moment for the " legal
proceedings" customary between nations, that
is, for war. And in such circumstances war is de-
clared in the full consciousness that the nation is
doing its duty. Personal greed plays no part in
such an act. Those who declare war then say to
themselves, "Our treaty-obligation has failed to
correspond with our relative strength at this
moment; we cannot come to friendly terms; we
turn to the great assize of the nations. " The
justice of a war depends wholly on the conscious-
ness of its moral necessity. And since there
neither can be nor ought to be any external coer-
cive power controlling the great personages of a
State, and since history must ever remain in a
state of change, war is in itself justifiable ; it is an
ordinance of God. No doubt, a State may err
as to the necessity of applying this means of
coercion. Niebuhr spoke truly, when he said
that war can establish no right which did not
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? International Law . 169
previously exist.
