"Speaking of Prussians--"Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
History
"Speaking of Prussians--"
Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
National characteristics, German; World War, 1914-1918
In further support of the point which I have been striving to make I
mean to take the liberty here of adding a few more extracts from the
first American edition of _Hurrah and Hallelujah_, in each instance
giving credit to the original German author of the same.
For instance, the Reverend Doctor Vorwerk, who appears to specialise in
prayers, begins one invocation with this sentence, which is especially
interesting in that the good pastor couples the Cherubim, the Seraphim,
and--guess what?--the Zeppelins in the same breath:
"Thou Who dwellest high above Cherubim, Seraphim and Zeppelins;
Thou Who art enthroned as a God of Thunder in the midst of
lightning from the clouds, and lightning from sword and cannon,
send thunder, lightning, hail and tempest hurtling upon our enemy;
bestow upon us his banners; hurl him down into the dark burial
pits!"
Another poet, Franz Philippi by name, in a widely circulated work called
_World-Germany_, delivers himself in part as follows:
"Formerly German thought was shut up in her corner; but now the
world shall have its coat cut according to German measure and, as
far as our swords flash and German blood flows, the circle of the
earth shall come under the tutelage of German activity."
Herr J. Suze, a prose writer, says with the emphasis of profound
conviction:
"The Germans are first before the Throne of God--Thou couldst not
place the golden crown of victory in purer hands."
On November 13, 1914, according to Doctor Bang, a German theological
professor preached an address which the _Berliner Lokal Anzeiger_
reproduced, with favourable editorial comment. Here is a typical
paragraph from this sermon:
"The deepest and most thought-inspiring result of the war is 'the
German God.' Not the national God such as the lower nations
worship, but 'Our God,' Who is not ashamed of belonging to us, the
peculiar acquirement of our heart."
The Reverend H. Francke is a pastor in the city of Liegnitz. From his
pulpit he delivered a series of so-called war sermons, which afterward,
at the request of the members of his flock, were printed in a book, the
cover of which was ornamented with the Iron Cross. And we find the
Reverend Francke adding his voice to the chorus thus:
"Germany is precisely--who would venture to deny it?--the
representative of the highest morality, of the purest humanity, of
the most chastened Christianity."
The Reverend Walter Lehmann, pastor at the town of Hamberge, in
Holstein, went a trifle further. When he got out his book of war sermons
he published it under the title _About the German God_; and therein,
among other things, he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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