This superior nation was seen as surrounded and besieged by enemies.18 From the ninth to the twelfth century the Holy Roman Empire was powerful, with near hegemony over Europe. This power declined, for many reasons, including the rise of princes who created disunity. By the middle of the fifteenth century Germany had lost many territories, and its borders were constantly threatened. During the Thirty Years War (1618-48), Germany suffered tremendous devastation and a population loss of 35 percent, or seven and a half million people.19 The settlement that followed the war contributed to its continued division among many states and principalities. The perception of Germany as a “Land in the Middle,” threatened from all sides, was realistic. Much later, Napoleon’s conquest of Germany and reduction of parts of Germany to the status of satellites resulted in profound feelings of powerlessness.20 The idealization of the state that followed had to be a defense of a wounded societal self-concept.
Germans continued to have a sense of unfulfilled greatness and present unfairness. The German crown prince said in 1913: “It is only by relying on our good German sword that we can hope to conquer that place in the sun which rightly belongs to us, and which no one will yield to us voluntarily.” This suggests the idea of Lebensraum that became so important in Nazi ideology. Such feelings intensified the losses and humiliations that Germans endured during and after the First World War. German militarism and nationalism supported this sense of entitlement. Prussia, which dominated the newly united Germany late in the nineteenth and twentieth century, was a highly militaristic state in which the armed forces were greatly respected. The influence of the military pervaded most aspects of life. Nationalism, which had served to create a united German state, persisted.
German academics and intellectuals strongly supported nationalistic aims. During the shock and uproar created by Germany’s violation of Belgian neutrality in 1914, German intellectuals produced a Manifesto to the Civilized World, which denied Germany’s war guilt and proclaimed that it would have been suicide not to march through Belgium. They alleged that Allied rather than German war actions were contrary to international law and referred to the “shameful spectacle.. .of Russian hordes... allied with mongols and Negroes... unleashed against the white race.”21 The manifesto was signed by people like Röntgen, the discoverer of X rays, Max Reinhardt, the pioneer of the modern theater, Paul Ehrlich, the great biochemist, and Engelbert Humperdinck, the composer of the opera Hansel and Gretel. It concluded:
Were it not for German militarism, German culture would have been wiped off the face of the earth. That culture, for its own protection, led to militarism since Germany, like no other country, was ravaged by invasion for centuries. The German army and the German people today stand shoulder to shoulder, without regard to education, social position or partisan allegiance.
We cannot wrest from our enemies’ hand the venomous weapon of the lie. We can only cry out to the whole world that they bear false witness against us. To you who know us, who have hitherto stood with us in safeguarding mankind’s most precious heritage – to you we cry out: Have faith in us! Have faith in us when we say that we shall wage this fight to the very end as a civilized nation, a nation that holds the legacy of Goethe, Beethoven and Kant no less sacred than hearth and home.
In token whereof we pledge our names and our honor!22
A noted German pacifist, George Friedrich Nicolai, responded with a Manifesto to Europeans calling for a united, peaceful Europe. Only three others were willing to sign this document (one was Albert Einstein), and as a result it was not made public for several years. In 1915, 352 of Germany’s most distinguished professors signed a Declaration of Intellectuals saying that it would be reasonable and just for Germany to acquire Belgium, parts of France, the Ukraine, and other territories.23
It is hardly surprising, in light of this history, that university professors also rallied to the Nazis. Many proclaimed the greatness of Hitler and swore loyalty to him. Martin Heidegger, the great philosopher, proclaimed that Hitler and the German people were bound by fate and “guided by the inexorability of that spiritual mission that the destiny of the German people forcibly impresses upon its history.” The rush of converts to Nazism in the first days of Hitler’s rule included many university professors and intellectuals, who excelled in their efforts to “justify the new regime and establish its roots in Germany’s history and cultural tradition.” A highly distinguished political scientist, Carl Schmitt, devised theories to prove that all of Hitler’s actions were justified by a higher morality, which he called “the superiority of the existential situation over mere normality.”24
How different was all this from ordinary ethnocentrism? It was especially strong and included beliefs in the right to acquire others’ territory and to rule others. Moreover, it was systematized in concepts like volk. (This perhaps expresses a German proclivity, a desire for a world view, or Weltanschauung.) The elevated German self-concept was especially dangerous when combined with militarism, unfulfilled ambitions, insecurity, and vulnerability. It intensified and shaped reactions to life problems.
Respect for and obedience to authority
A certain degree of obedience to authority is required in all social systems. The view that respect for the state and obedience to authority have characterized Germany to an unusual degree is not a post-World War II phenomenon, a result of so many SS murderers and war criminals claiming that they
