Page:Germany Must Perish!.djvu/45

 with the tortuous idea of a German unity founded by the sword. Feeling that the best method, in his day, of spreading such a belief was through teaching, he turned eagerly to that profession. His continual insistence on spreading Prussianism and its doctrine of the "mailed-fist rule" finally enabled him to settle in Berlin where he became established as a popular historian and publicist.

Treitschke was a war-monger and a "might makes right" advocate of the first rank. Possessing a natural gift of eloquence he held his students spellbound during his lectures on "conquer at all costs" for, according to his interpretation of Germany's development and history, it had to pursue such a course in order to spread itself beyond its boundaries. At first he set Europe as the area of Germany's "Lebenstraum" but, after the success of the German army in 1870 he enlarged and expanded upon his original declaration by stating that the world was Germany's to conquer and dominate; that through foisting war upon the world the German nation was destined to become the "super-state" of the universe, and to hold its people in thraldom. These teachings so appealed to the German —40—