Germany Awake!
(Newspaper Advertisement), June 24, 1890:
The diplomacy of the English works swiftly and secretly. What they created burst in the
face of the astonished world on June 18th like a bomb---the German-English African Treaty.
With one stroke of the pen---the hope of a great German colonial empire was ruined! Shall
this treaty really be? No, no and again no! The German people must arise as one and
declare that this treaty is unacceptable! . . .The treaty with England harms our interests
and wounds our honor; this time it dares not become a reality! We are ready at the
call of our Kaiser to step into the ranks and allow ourselves dumbly and obediently to be
led against the enemy's shots, but we may also demand in exchange that the reward come to
us which is worth the sacrifice, and this reward is: that we shall be a conquering people
which takes its portion of the world itself! Deutschland wach auf!
Letter of Dr. Hugenberg, August 1, 1890
There are also still larger territories---one need only think of Central Sudan, the
natural hinterland of the Cameroons, the fate of which has not as yet been settled by any
treaty. He who seizes these territories quickest and holds fast the most tenaciously will
possess them. Does not everything, and especially the slowness with which the
German government moves to assert itself in colonial affairs, point to the fact that our
fatherland, be it from one side or the other, will not be spared a new war if it wishes
only to maintain the position which it won in 1870? The official memoir which has just
appeared concerning the motives of the Anglo-German treaty, leaves no doubt but that a
certain indifference to colonial expansion exists in official places. In a tone of
contempt it has been said that "the period of hissing the flag and shooting at the
treaty must now be ended!" Similar reverses can be prevented in the future only if
foreign countries deal with a sensitive German nationalism!
Policies of the Pan-German League, 1898:
2. Laying of a cable from Kiachow [China] to Port Arthur [Dairen, in Manchuria], with
connection with the Russian-Siberian cable.
3. Strengthening of the German foothold in Kiaochow.
4. German coaling and cable stations in the Red Sea, the West Indies, and near
Singapore.
5. Complete possession of Samoa.
6. More subsidized German steamship lines to Kiaochow and Korea.
7. Understanding with France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands about the
laying of an independent cable from West Africa through the Congo to German East Africa,
Madagascar, Batavia, and Tongkin to Kiaochow.
8. Development of harbor of Swakopmund [in German Southwest Africa] and
railroads to Windhoek [the capital of the territory].
9. Securing of concessions for commerce and industry in Asia Minor. . .
22. Increase in the number of German consulates in the Levant, Far East, South
Africa, Central & South America. . .
Source:
From: Mildred S. Wertheimer, ed., The Pan-German League, (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1923), pp. 31-34, 106-108.
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton
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