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 very roots of the German soul, and embraced the fundamental tenets of the German intellect, the movement met with immediate and tremendously popular response. In fact its program was so popular with the Germans that within ten years after its inception its malignant dogma was already spread throughout the entire world.

In 1886 a Dr. Karl Peters convened a General German Congress in Berlin during the course of which all German national associations therein represented were merged into one group, a so-called German League.13 Its program at first was vague and indefinite, and so much strife grew to exist among the various groups composing the League, that its dissolution seemed imminent until 1891 when Professor Ernst Hasse, a deputy in the Reichstag from Leipzig, became its president and took its management into his own hands.

The first step of Professor Hasse was to broadcast a widespread plea for help, appealing, as he said, "to the traditions of the German soul." His appeal met with such a favorable response that the League grew by leaps and bounds until it was not long before it was able to publish and —38—