,university of ,georgia47               
,,the ,,new ,,society                   
,,by                     ,,walther      
,,rathenau                 ,,authorized 
,,translation ,,by                      
,,arthur ,,windham                      
,,new ,,york                ,,harcourt1 
,,brace ,,and ,,company                 
#aiba     ,,preface   ,walther          
,rathenau1 author of ,die neue          
,gesellschaft and other studies of      
economic and social conditions in modern
 ,germany1 was born in #ahfg4 ,his      
father1 ,emil ,rathenau1 was one of the 
most distinguished figures in the great 
era of ,german industrial development1  
and his son was brought up in the       
atmosphere of hard work1 of enterprise1 
and of public affairs4 ,after his school
 days at a ,gymnasium1 or classical     
school1 he studied mathematics1 physics 
and chemistry at the ,universities of   
,berlin and of ,strassburg1 taking his  
degree at the age of twenty-two4        
,certain discoveries made by him in     

chemistry and electrolysis led to the   
establishment of independent            
manufacturing works1 which he controlled
 with success1 and eventually to his    
connexion with the world-famous         
,a4,e4,g4--,allgemeine                  
,electrizittsgesellschaft--at the head  
of which he now stands4 ,during the war 
he scored a very remarkable and         
exceptional success as controller of the
 organization for the supply of raw     
materials4 ,he is thus not merely a     
scholar and thinker1 but one who has    
lived and more than held his own in the 
thick of commercial and industrial life1
 and who knows by actual experience the 
subject-matter with which he deals4     
,the present study1 with its wide       
outlook and its resolute determination  
to see facts as they are1 should have   
much value for all students of          
latter-day politics and economics in    
,europe2 for though ,rathenau is mainly 
concerned with conditions in his own    
land the same conditions affect all     

countries to a greater or less degree1  
and he deals with general principles of 
human psychology and of economic law    
which prevail everywhere in the world4  
,it is not too much to say that ,the    
,new ,society constitutes a landmark in 
the history of economic and social      
thought1 and contains matter for        
discussion1 for sifting1 for experiment 
and for propaganda which should occupy  
serious thinkers and reformers for many 
a day to come4 ,his suggestions and     
conclusions may not be all accepted1 or 
all acceptable1 but few will deny that  
they constitute a distinct advance in   
the effort to bring serious and         
disinterested thought to the solution of
 our social problems1 and in this       
conviction we offer the present complete
 and authorized translation to ,english 
readers4     ,,the ,,new ,,society   ,i 
,is there any sign or criterion by which
 we can tell that a human society has   
been completely socialized8  ,there is  
one and one only3 it is when no one can 

have an income without working for it4  
,that is the sign of ,socialism2 but it 
is not the goal4 ,in itself it is not   
decisive4 ,if every one had enough to   
live on1 it would not matter for what he
 received money or goods1 or even       
whether he got them for nothing4 ,and   
relics of the system of income which is 
not worked for will always remain--for  
instance1 provision for old age4  ,the  
goal is not any kind of division of     
income or allotment of property4 ,nor is
 it equality1 reduction of toil1 or     
increase of the enjoyment of life4 ,it  
is the abolition of the proletarian     
condition2 abolition of the lifelong    
hereditary serfage1 the nameless        
hereditary servitude1 of one of the two 
peoples who are called by the same name2
 the annulment of the hereditary twofold
 stratification of society1 the         
abolition of the scandalous enslavement 
of brother by brother1 of that ,western 
abuse which is the basis of our         
civilization as slavery was of the      

antique1 and which vitiates all our     
deeds1 all our creations1 all our joys4 
,nor is even this the final goal--no    
economy1 no society can talk of a final 
goal--the only full and final object of 
all endeavour upon earth is the         
development of the human soul4 ,a final 
goal1 however1 points out the direction1
 though not the path1 of politics4  ,the
 political object which ,i have         
described as the abolition of the       
proletarian condition may1 as ,i have   
shown in ,things that are to ,come1#a be
 closely approached by a suitable policy
 in regard to property and education2   
above all1 by a limitation of the right 
of inheritance4 ,of socialization in the
 strict sense there is1 for this        
purpose1 no need4 ,yet a far-reaching   
policy of socialization--and ,i do not  
here refer to a mere mechanical         
nationalization of the means of         
production but to a radical economic and
 social resettlement--is necessary and  
urgent1 because it awakens and trains   

responsibilities1 and because it        
withdraws from the sluggish hands of the
 governing classes the determination of 
time and of method1 and places it in the
 hands that have a better title1 those  
of the whole commonalty1 which1 at      
present1 stands helpless through sheer  
democracy4 ,for only in the hands of a  
political people does democracy mean the
 rule of the people2 in those of an     
untrained and unpolitical people it     
becomes merely an affair of debating    
societies and philistine chatter at the 
inn ordinary4 ,the symbol of ,german    
bourgeois democracy is the tavern2      
thence enlightenment is spread and there
 judgments are formed2 it is the meeting
 place of political associations1 the   
forum of their orators1 the             
polling-booth for elections4  ,but the  
sign that this far-reaching             
socialization has been actually carried 
out is the cessation of all income      
without work4 ,i say the sign1 but not  
the sole postulate2 for we must         

postulate a complete and genuine        
democratization of the ,state and public
 economy1 and a system of education     
equally accessible to all3 only then can
 we say that the monopoly of class and  
culture has been smashed4 ,but the      
cessation of the workless income will   
show the downfall of the last of        
class-monopolies1 that of the           
,plutocracy4  ,it is not very easy to   
imagine what society will be like when  
these objects have been realised1 at    
least if we are thinking not of a brief 
period like the present ,russian rgime1 
or a passing phase as in ,hungary1 but  
an enduring and stationary condition4 ,a
 dictatorial oligarchy1 like that of the
 ,bolshevists1 does not come into       
consideration here1 and the well-meaning
 ,utopias of social romances crumble to 
nothing4 ,they rest1 one and all1 on the
 blissfully ignorant assumption of a    
state of popular well-being exaggerated 
tenfold beyond all possibility4  ,the   
knowledge of the sort of social         

condition towards which at present we   
,germans1 and then ,europe1 and finally 
the other nations are tending in this   
vertical ,migration of the ,peoples1    
will not only decide for each of us his 
attitude towards the great social       
question1 but our whole political       
position as well4 ,it is quite in       
keeping with ,german traditions that in 
fixing our aims and forming our resolves
 we should be guided not by positive but
 by negative impulses--not by the effort
 to get something but to get away from  
it4 ,to this effort1 which is really a  
flight1 we give the positive name of    
,socialism1 without troubling ourselves 
in the least how things will look--not  
in the sense of popular watchwords but  
in actual fact--when we have got what we
 are seeking4  ,this is not merely a    
case of lack of imagination2 it is that 
we ,germans have1 properly speaking1 no 
understanding of political tendencies4  
,we are more or less educated in        
business1 in science1 in thought1 but in

 politics we are about on the same level
 as the ,east ,slavonic peasantry4 ,at  
best we know--and even that not         
always--what oppresses1 vexes and       
tortures us2 we know our grievances1 and
 think we have conceived an aim when we 
simply turn them upside down4 ,such     
processes of thought as the police are  
to blame1 the war-conditions are to     
blame1 the ,prussians are to blame1 the 
,jews are to blame1 the ,english are to 
blame1 the priests are to blame1 the    
capitalists are to blame--all these we  
quite understand4 ,just as with the     
,slavs1 if our good-nature and two      
centuries of the love of order did not  
forbid it1 our primitive political      
instincts would find expression in a    
pogrom in the shape of a peasant-war1 of
 a religious war1 of witch-trials1 or   
,jew-baiting4 ,our blatant patriotism   
bore the plainest signs of such a       
temper2 half nationalism1 half          
aggression against some bugbear or      
other2 never a proud calm1 an earnest   

self-dedication1 a struggle for a       
political ideal4  ,we have now a        
,republic in ,germany3 no one seriously 
desired it4 ,we have at last established
 ,parliamentarianism3 no one wanted it4 
,we have set up a kind of ,socialism3 no
 one believed in it4 ,we used to say3   
,the people will live and die for their 
princes2 our last drop of blood for the 
,hohenzollerns--no one denied it4 ,the  
people mean to be ruled by their        
hereditary lords2 they will go through  
fire for their officers2 rather death   
than yield a foot of ,german soil to the
 foe4 ,was all this a delusion8 ,by no  
means2 it was sincere enough1 only it   
did not go deep4 ,it was the kind of    
sincerity which depends on not knowing  
enough of the alternative possibilities4
  ,when the alternatives revealed       
themselves as possible and actual1 then 
we all turned republican1 even to the   
cottagers in ,pomerania4 ,when the      
military strike had broken down         
discipline1 the officers were           

mishandled2 when the war was lost1 the  
fleet disgraced1 and the homeland       
defiled1 then we began to play and      
dance4  ,but was this frivolity8 ,not at
 all2 it was a childish want of         
political imagination4 ,the ,poles1 a   
people not remotely comparable to the   
,german in depth of soul and the        
capacity for training talent1 have for a
 century cherished no other thought than
 that of national unity1 while we       
passively resign our territories4 ,no   
,englishman or ,japanese or ,american   
will ever understand us when we tell him
 that this military discipline of ours1 
this war-lust1 did not represent a      
passion for dominion and aggression1 but
 was merely the docility of a childish  
people which wants nothing1 and can     
imagine nothing1 but that things should 
go on as they happen1 at the moment1 to 
be4  ,we ,germans know but little of the
 laws which govern the formation of     
national character4 ,the capacity of a  
people for profundity is not profundity1

 either of the individual or of the     
community4 ,it may express itself in the
 masses as mere plasticity and softness 
of spirit4 ,the capacity for collective 
sagacity and strength of will demands   
from the individual merely a dry        
intelligence in human affairs1 and      
egoism4 ,it would be too much to say    
that our political weakness may be      
merely the expression of spiritual      
power1 for the latter has not proved an 
obstacle to success in business4        
,indolence and belief in authority have 
their share in it4  ,but have we not    
been the classic land of social         
democracy1 and have we not become that  
of ,radicalism8 ,well1 we have been1    
indeed1 and are1 with our submissiveness
 to authority and our capacity for      
discipline1 the classic land of         
organized grumbling2 and the classic    
land1 too1 of anti-semitism which       
deprived us of the very forces we stood 
most in need of--productive scepticism  
and the imagination for concrete things4

 ,organized grumbling is not the same   
thing as political creation4 ,a         
,socialism and ,radicalism poorer in    
ideas than the post-,marxian ,german    
,socialism has never existed4 ,half of  
it was merely clerical work1 and the    
other half was agitators' ,utopianism of
 the cheapest variety4  ,nothing was    
more significant than the fact that the 
mighty event of the ,german ,revolution 
was not the result of affection but of  
disaffection4 ,it is not we who         
liberated ourselves1 it was the enemy2  
it was our destruction that set us free4
 ,on the day before we asked for the    
armistice1 perhaps even on the day      
before the flight of the ,kaiser1 a     
plbiscite would have yielded an         
overwhelming majority for the monarchy  
and against ,socialism4 ,what ,i so     
often said before the war came true3 ,he
 who trains his children with the rod   
learns only through the rod4  ,and      
to-day1 when everything is seething and 
fermenting--no thanks to ,socialism for 

that--all intellectual work has to be   
done outside of the ranks of            
social-democracy1 which stumbles along  
on its two crutches of ,socialization   
and ,soviets4#b ,orthodox ,socialism is 
still a case of the lesser evil1 what   
the ,french call a pis aller4 ,things   
are so bad that any change must be for  
the better4 ,what is to make them better
 we are told in the socialist catechism2
 but how it is to do so1 how and what   
anything is to become1 this1 the only   
question that matters1 is regarded as   
irrelevant4 ,it is answered by some     
halting and insincere stammer about     
surplus value which is to make everybody
 well off--and which would yield all    
round1 as ,i have elsewhere shown1 just 
twenty-five marks a head4 ,fifteen      
millions of grown men are pressing      
forward into a ,promised ,land revealed 
through the fog of political assemblies 
and in the thunder of parrot-phrases--a 
land from which no one will ever bring  
back a bunch of grapes4  ,if one would  

interrogate not the agitators1 but their
 hearers1 and find out what they        
instinctively conceive this land to look
 like1 we should get the answer1 timid  
and nave but at the same time the       
deepest and shrewdest that it is        
possible to give--that it is a land     
where there are no longer any rich4  ,a 
most true and truthful reply6 ,and yet a
 profound error silently lurks in it4   
,you imagine1 do you not1 that in a land
 where there are no more rich people    
there will also be no more poor8 ,why1  
of course not6 ,how can there be poor   
people when there are no more rich8 ,and
 yet there will be4 ,in the land where  
there are no more rich there will be    
only poor1 only very poor1 people4      
,whoever does not know this and is a    
,socialist1 that man is merely one of   
the herd or he is a dupe4 ,he who knows 
it and conceals it is a deceiver4 ,he   
who knows it1 and in spite of that1 nay1
 on account of that1 is a ,socialist1 is
 a man of the future4  ,though the crowd

 be satisfied with some dim feeling that
 this1 anyhow1 is the tendency of the   
times and that with this stream one must
 swim2 though the more thoughtful       
contemplate the evils of the time and   
decide to put up with the pis aller2 the
 responsible thinker is under the       
obligation of investigating the land    
into which the people are being led4 ,we
 must know what it looks like1 where    
there are no rich people and where no   
one can have an income without working  
for it1 we must understand what we call 
the new society so as to be able to     
shape it aright4  ,,footnotes3          
,footnote #a3 ,von ,kommenden ,dingen1  
by ,walther ,rathenau4 ,berlin4 ,s4     
,fischer4  ,footnote #b3 ,workers' and  
,soldiers' ,councils4     ,,ii   ,the   
question is not very urgent4  ,as surely
 as the hundred years' course of the    
social ,world-,revolution cannot be     
arrested1 so surely can we prophesy that
 the process cannot maintain all along  
the line the rapid movement of its      

beginning4 ,the victorious and the      
defeated countries will have to work out
 to the end the changes and interchanges
 of their various phases1 for in the    
historical developments which we witness
 to-day1 we find mingled together the   
phenomena of organic growth and of      
disease2 already we see that the        
,socialism of the healthy nations is    
different from that of the sick ones4   
,it is in vain that those who are sick  
with the ,bolshevist disease dream that 
they can infect the world4  ,the small  
daily and yearly movements in our realm 
of ,central ,europe cannot be determined
 beforehand1 because they depend upon   
small1 accidental1 local1 and external  
forces4 ,the great and necessary issues 
of events can be predicted1 but it would
 be folly to discuss their accidental   
flux and reflux4 ,when an unguarded     
house is filled with explosives from the
 cellar to the roof1 then we know that  
it will one day be blown up2 but whether
 this will happen on a ,sunday or a     

,monday1 in the morning or in the       
evening1 or whether the left door post  
will be left standing or no1 it would be
 idle to inquire4  ,from the historical 
point of view it is of no consequence   
whether ,radicalism may make an inroad  
here and there1 or whether here and     
there the forces of reaction and        
restoration may collect themselves for a
 transitory triumph4 ,the great movement
 of history1 as we always find when a   
catastrophe has worked itself out1 grows
 slower1 and this retardation in itself 
looks like reaction4 ,we1 who are not   
accustomed to catastrophes1 and who did 
not produce this first one1 but rather  
suffered it1 we1 who easily get sea-sick
 after every rapid movement--think1 for 
instance1 of the former ,reichstag--we  
shall certainly experience1 as the first
 deep wave of the ,revolution sinks into
 us1 an aristocratic1 dynastic1 and     
plutocratic ,romanticism1 a yearning for
 the colour and glitter of the time of  
glory1 a revolt against the spiritless1 

mechanical philanthrophy of unemployed  
orators of about fourth-form standard   
intellectually2 against the monotonous  
and insincere tirades of paid agitators 
and their restless disciples2 against   
laziness2 ignorance1 greed1 and         
exaggeration masquerading as popular    
scientific economy2 and against the     
brutal and extortionate upthrust from   
below4 ,and so we shall arrive at the   
reverse kind of folly1 an admiration and
 bad imitation of foreign pride and     
pomp1 an arrogant individualism and a   
hardening of our human feeling4 ,the    
intellectual war profiteers1 who are all
 for radicalism to-day1 will soon be    
wearing cornflowers#c in their          
button-holes4  ,for the third time we   
shall see an illustration of the nave   
shamelessness of the turn-coat4 ,the    
spiritual process of conversion is worth
 noticing2 ,paul was converted to be a  
converter4 ,but the scurrying of the    
intellectual speculator from the        
position which has failed into the      

position which has won1 with the full   
intention of scurrying back again if    
necessary1 and always with the claim to 
instruct other people1 is an expression 
of the alarming fact that life has      
become not an affair of inward          
conviction1 but of getting the right    
tip4  ,the turn-coat movement began when
 a shortsighted crowd1 incapable of     
judgment1 and with their minds clouded  
with a few cheap phrases1 expected from 
a quick and victorious war the          
strengthening of all the elements of    
,force1 and feared to be left stranded4 
,even the most threadbare kind of       
liberalism appeared to be compromising1 
they clamoured for shining armour4 ,the 
most wretched victims in soul and body1 
who were obliged to flee forwards       
because they could not flee in any other
 direction1 were called heroes1 and the 
manliest word in our language1 a word of
 which only the freest and the greatest 
are worthy1 was degraded4 ,one who has  
experienced the hate and fury of the    

turn-coats who poured contempt upon     
every word against the war and the great
 days1 is unable to understand how a    
whole people can throw its errors       
overboard without shame and sorrow--or  
he understands it only too well4 ,at    
this day we are being mocked and        
preached at by the turn-coats of the    
second transformation1 and to-morrow we 
shall be smiled at by those of the      
third4  ,but it does not matter4 ,the   
moving forces of our epoch do not come  
from business offices nor from the      
street1 the rostrum1 the pulpit1 or the 
professorial chair4 ,the noisy rush of  
yesterday1 to-day and to-morrow is only 
the furious motion of the outermost     
circle1 the centre moves upon its way1  
quietly as the stars4  ,we have in our  
survey to leap over several periods of  
forward and backward movement and we    
shall earn the thanks of none of them4  
,what is too conservative for one will  
be too revolutionary for another1 and   
the sthete will scornfully tell us that 

we have no fibre4 ,when we show that    
what awaits us is no fools' paradise1   
but the danger of a temporary reverse of
 humanity and culture1 then the facile  
,utopianist will shout us down with his 
two parrot-phrases1#d and when we1 out  
of a sense of duty1 of harmony with the 
course of the world and confidence in   
justice at the soul of things1 tread the
 path of danger1 precipitous though it  
be1 then we shall be scorned by all the 
worshippers of ,force and despisers of  
mankind4  ,but we for our part shall not
 pander either to the force-worshippers 
or to the masses4 ,we serve no powers   
that be4 ,our love goes out to the      
,people2 but the ,people are not a crowd
 at a meeting1 nor a sum-total of       
interests1 nor are they the newspapers  
or debating-clubs4 ,the ,people are the 
waking or sleeping1 the leaking1 frozen1
 choked1 or gushing well of the ,german 
spirit4 ,it is with that spirit1 in the 
present and in the future1 as it runs   
its course into the sea of humanity1    

that we have here to do4  ,,footnotes3  
,footnote #c3 ,the emblem of the        
,hohenzollerns4  ,footnote #d3 ,the     
reference1 apparently1 is to the        
argument that any change must be for the
 better1 and to the reliance on surplus 
value4 ,see pp4 #ac1 #ad4     ,,iii     
,the criterion which we have indicated  
for the socialized society of the future
 is a material one4 ,but is the         
spiritual condition of an epoch to be   
determined by material arrangements8 ,is
 this not a confession of faith in      
materialism8  ,we are speaking of a     
criterion1 not of a prime moving force4 
,i have no desire1 however1 to avoid    
going into the material1 or rather we   
should say mechanical1 interpretation of
 history4 ,i have done it more than once
 in my larger works1 and for the sake of
 coherence ,i may repeat it in outline  
here4  ,the laws which determine        
individual destinies are reproduced in  
the history of collective movements4 ,a 
man's career is not prescribed by his   

bodily form1 his expression1 or his     
environment2 but there is in these      
things a certain connexion and          
parallelism1 for the same laws which    
determine the course of his intellectual
 and spiritual life reflect themselves  
in bodily and practical shape4 ,every   
instant of our experience1 all          
circumstances in which we find          
ourselves1 every limb that we grow1     
every accident that happens to us1 is an
 expression or product of our character4
 ,we are indeed subject to human        
limitations2 we are not at liberty to   
live under water or in another planet2  
but within these wide boundaries each of
 us can shape his own life4 ,to observe 
a man1 his work1 his fate1 his body and 
expression1 his connexions and his      
marriage1 his belongings and his        
associations1 is to know the man4  ,from
 this point of view all social1 economic
 and political schemes become futile1   
for if man is so sovereign a being there
 is no need to look after him4 ,but     

these schemes re-acquire a relative     
importance when we consider the average 
level of man's will-power1 as we meet it
 in human experience--a power which1 as 
a rule1 shows itself unable to make head
 against a certain maximum of pressure  
from external circumstances4 ,and again1
 these schemes are really a part of the 
expression of human will1 for through   
them collective humanity battles with   
its surroundings1 its contemporary      
world1 and freely shapes its own        
destinies4  ,the inner laws of the      
community harmonize with those of the   
individuals who compose it4 ,the fact   
that certain national traits of will and
 character are conditioned or even      
enforced by poverty or wealth1 soil and 
climate1 an inland or maritime position1
 tends to obscure the fact that these   
external conditions are not really laid 
on the people but have been willed by   
themselves4 ,a people wills to have a   
nomadic life1 or wills to have a        
sea-coast1 or wills agriculture1 or war2

 and has the power1 if its will be      
strong enough1 to obtain its desire1 or 
failing that to break up and perish4 ,it
 is the same will and character which   
decides for well-being and culture1 or  
indolence and dependence1 or labour and 
spiritual development4 ,the ,venetians  
did not have architecture and painting  
bestowed upon them because they happened
 to have become rich1 nor the ,english  
sea-power because they happened to live 
on an island3 no1 the ,venetians willed 
freedom1 power and art1 and the         
,anglo-,saxons willed the sea4  ,there  
is a grain of truth in the popular      
political belief that war embodies a    
judgment of ,god4 ,at any rate character
 is judged by it2 not indeed in the     
sense of popular politics1 that one can 
hold out in a hopeless position1 but    
because all the history that went before
 the war1 the capacity or incapacity of 
politics and leadership is a question of
 character--and with us it was a        
question of indolence1 of political     

apathy1 of class-rule1 philistinish     
conceit and greed of gain4 ,nowhere was 
this conception of the judgment of ,god 
so blasphemously exaggerated as with us 
,germans1 when the lord of our armed    
hosts1 at the demand of the barracks    
greedy for power1 of the tavern-benches1
 the state-bureaus and the debating     
societies was summoned1 and charged with
 the duty1 forsooth1 of chastising      
,england--,england1 which they only knew
 out of newspaper reports6 ,to-day this 
exaggeration is being paid for in       
humiliation1 for ,god did not prove     
controllable1 and ,his nave blasphemers 
must silently and with grinding teeth   
admit that their foes are in the right  
when they1 in their turn1 appeal to the 
same judgment to justify1 without limit1
 everything they desire to do4  ,after  
these brief observations on the         
psycho-physical complex1 ,spirit and    
,destiny1 we hope we shall not be       
misunderstood when for the sake of      
brevity we speak as if the spirit of the

 new order were determined by its       
material construction1 while in reality 
it incorporates itself therein4 ,the    
structure is the easier to survey1 and  
we therefore make it the starting-point 
of our discussion4     ,,iv   ,all      
civilisations known to us have sprung   
from peoples which were numerous1       
wealthy and divided into two social     
strata4 ,they reached their climax at   
the moment when the two strata began to 
melt into one4  ,it is not enough1      
therefore1 that a people should be      
numerous and wealthy2 it must1 with all 
its wealth and its power1 contain a     
large proportion of poor and even       
oppressed and enslaved subjects4 ,if it 
has not got these1 it must master and   
make use of other foreign cultures as a 
substitute4 ,that is what ,rome did2 it 
is what ,america is doing4  ,it is      
terrible1 but comprehensible4 ,for up to
 this point the unconscious processes of
 ,nature1 the law of mutual strife1 has 
prevailed4 ,so far1 collective          

organizations have been beasts of prey2 
only now are they about to cross the    
boundaries of the human order4          
,comprehensible and explicable4 ,for all
 creations of culture hold together2 one
 cannot pursue the cheaper varieties    
while renouncing the more costly4 ,there
 is no cheap culture4 ,in their totality
 they demand outlay1 the most tremendous
 outlay known to history1 the only      
outlay by which human toil is           
recompensed1 over and above the supply  
of absolute necessaries4  ,the creations
 of civilisation1 like all things living
 and dead1 follow on each other--plants1
 men1 beasts and utensils have their    
sequence generation after generation4   
,men must paint and look at pictures for
 ten thousand years before a new picture
 comes into existence4 ,our poetry and  
our research are the fruit of thousands 
of years4 ,this is no disparagement to  
genius in work and thought1 genius is at
 once new1 ancient and eternal1 even as 
the blossom is a new thing on the old   

stem1 and belongs to an eternal type4   
,when we hear that a native in ,central 
,africa or ,new ,zealand has produced an
 oil-painting we know that somehow or   
other he must have got to ,paris4 ,when 
a ,european artist writes or paints in  
,tahiti1 what he produces is not a work 
of ,tahitian culture4 ,when civilisation
 has withered away on some sterilized   
soil1 it can only be revived by new soil
 and foreign seed4  ,the continuity of  
culture1 even in civilized times1 can   
only1 however1 be maintained by constant
 outlay1 just as in arid districts a    
luxuriant vegetation needs continuous   
irrigation4 ,the flood of ,oriental     
wealth had to pour itself into ,italy in
 order to bring forth the bloom of      
,renaissance art4 ,thousands of         
patricians1 hundreds of temporal and    
spiritual princes1 had to found and to  
adorn temples and palaces1 gardens1     
monuments1 pageants1 games and household
 goods in order that art and science1   
schooling1 mastership1 discipleship and 

tradition might grow up4 ,the worship of
 foreign culture which characterized    
,germany in the seventeenth and half of 
the eighteenth centuries only meant that
 our soil was grown too poor to yield a 
crop of its own4 ,the culture of the    
,middle ,ages remained international    
only so long as the population of       
,europe was too sparse and the          
opportunities of work too scanty to     
occupy local energies2 even in the      
thinly populated1 ,homeric middle-ages  
of ,greece1 the builder and the poet    
were not settled in one place1 they were
 wandering artists4 ,if to-day the      
,republic of ,guatemala or ,honduras    
should want a senate-house or a         
railway-station they will probably send 
to ,london or ,paris for an architect4  
,even technique in handicraft and       
industry1 that typical art of           
civilization1 cannot dispense with a    
great and continuous outlay on training1
 commissioning and marketing in order to
 maintain itself4 ,although it has not  

happened yet1 there is no reason why a  
,serb or a ,slovak should not make some 
important discovery if he has been      
trained at a ,european ,university and  
learnt the technical tradition4 ,that   
will not1 however1 give rise to an      
independent and enduring ,serbian or    
,slovakian technique1 even though the   
costliest ,universities and laboratories
 should be established in the country   
and foreign teachers called to teach in 
them4 ,after all that1 one must have a  
market in the country itself2 expert    
purchasers1 manufacturers1 middle-men1 a
 trained army of engineers1 craftsmen1  
masters1 workmen and a foreign market as
 well--in short1 the technical          
atmosphere--in order to keep up the     
standard of manufacture and production4 
,a poor country cannot turn out products
 of high value for a rich one2 it has   
not had the education arising from      
demand4 ,in products relating to sport  
and to comfort1 for instance1 ,england  
was a model1 but in ,france these       

products were ridiculously misunderstood
 and imitated with silly adornments1    
while on the other hand ,french products
 of luxury and art-industry were sought 
for by all countries4 ,german wares were
 considered to be cheap and nasty1 until
 the land grew rich1 and brought about  
the co-operation of its forces of       
science and technique1 production and   
marketing1 auxiliary industries and     
remote profits1 finance and commerce1   
education and training1 judgment and    
criticism1 habits of life and a sense of
 comparative values4  ,but human forces 
need the same nurture1 the same outlay  
and the same high training1 as          
institutions and material products4     
,delicate work demands sensitive hands  
and a sheltered way of life2 discovery  
and invention demand leisure and        
freedom2 taste demands training and     
tradition1 scientific thinking and      
artistic conception demand an           
environment with an unbroken continuity 
of cultivation1 thought and             

intelligence4 ,a dying civilisation can 
live for a while on the existing humus  
of culture1 on the existing atmosphere  
of thought1 but to create anew these    
elements of life is beyond its powers4  
,do not let us deceive ourselves1 but   
look the facts in the face6 ,all these  
excellent ,canadians1 with or without an
 academic degree1 who innocently pride  
themselves on a proletarian absence of  
prejudice1 are adoptive children of a   
plutocratic and aristocratic            
cultivation4 ,it is all the same even if
 they lay aside their stiff collars and 
eye-glasses2 their every word and       
argument1 their forms of thought1 their 
range of knowledge1 their strongly      
emphasized intellectuality and taste for
 art and science1 their whole handiwork 
and industry1 are an inheritance from   
what they supposed they had cast off and
 a tribute to what they pretend to      
despise4 ,genuine radicalism is only to 
be respected when it understands the    
connexion of things and is not afraid of

 consequences4 ,it must understand--and 
,i shall make it clear--that its rapid  
advance will kill culture2 and the      
proper conclusion is that it ought to   
despise culture1 not to sponge on it4   
,the early ,christians abolished all the
 heathen rubbish and abominations1 the  
early ,radicals would have hurried1 in  
the first instance1 to pick out the     
plums4  ,culture and civilization1 as we
 see1 demand a continuous and enormous  
outlay2 an outlay in leisure1 an outlay 
in working power1 an outlay in wealth4  
,they need patronage and a market1 they 
need the school1 they need models1      
tradition1 comparison1 judgment1        
intelligence1 cultivation1 disposition1 
the right kind of nursery--an           
atmosphere4 ,one who stands outside it  
can serve it1 often more powerfully with
 his virgin strength than one who is    
accustomed to it--but he must be carried
 along and animated by the breath of the
 same atmosphere4 ,culture and          
civilization require a rich soil4  ,but 

the richness of the soil is not         
sufficient2 culture must be based upon1 
and increased by1 contrast4 ,wealth must
 have at its disposal great numbers of  
men who are poor and dependent4 ,how    
otherwise shall the outlay of culture be
 met8 ,one man must have many at his    
disposal2 but how can he1 if they are   
all his equals8 ,the outlay will be     
large1 but it must be feasible2 how can 
it1 if the labour of thousands is not   
cheap8 ,the few1 the exalted1 must      
develop power and splendour1 they must  
offer types for imitation3 how can they 
do that without a retinue1 without      
spectators1 without the herd8 ,a land of
 well-being1 that is to say1 of equally 
distributed well-being1 remains petty   
and provincial4 ,when a ,state and its  
authorities1 councils of solid and      
thrifty members of societies for this or
 that1 take over the office of a ,mcenas
 or a ,medici1 with their proposals1    
their calculations1 their objections1   
their control1 then we get things that  

look like war-memorials1 waiting-rooms1 
newspaper-kiosks and drinking-saloons4  
,it was not always so8 ,no2 but even in 
the most penurious times it was kings   
who were the patrons4  ,but if culture  
is such a poison-flower1 if it          
flourishes only in the swamp of poverty 
and under the sun of riches1 it must and
 ought to be destroyed4 ,our sentiment  
will no longer endure the happiness and 
brilliance of the few growing out of the
 misery of the many2 the days of the    
senses are over1 and the day of         
conscience is beginning to dawn4  ,and  
now a timid and troubled puritanism     
makes itself heard3 ,is there no middle 
way8 ,will not half-measures suffice8   
,no1 it will not do2 let this be said   
once for all as plainly as possible1 you
 champions of the supply of bare        
necessities who talk about daily bread  
and want to butter it with the noblest  
pleasures of art4 ,it will not do6  ,no1
 half-measures will not do1 nor         
quarter-measures4 ,they might1 if the   

whole world1 the sick1 the healthy and  
the bloated all together were of the    
same mind as ourselves4 ,in ,moscow it  
is said that people are expecting the   
world-revolution every hour1 but the    
world declines to oblige4 ,therefore1 if
 culture and civilization are to remain 
what they were1 is there nothing for it 
but with one wrench to tear the poisoned
 garment from our body8 ,or--is there   
then an or8 ,let us see4 ,we have a long
 way before us4 ,first of all we must   
know how rich or how poor we and the    
world are going to be1 on the day when  
there will be no income without working 
for it and no rich people any more4  ,if
 our economic system made us            
self-supporting we might arrange matters
 on the model of the ,boer ,republic    
which had all it needed1 and now and    
then traded a load of ostrich feathers  
for coffee and hymn books4 ,but we1     
alas6 in order to find nourishment for  
twenty millions#e have to export blood  
and brains4 ,and if1 in order to buy    

phosphates1 we offer cotton stockings   
and night-caps as the highest products  
of our artistic energies1 and declare   
that they are all the soundest          
hand-work--for in our daily bread       
economy we shall have long forgotten how
 to work such devil's tools as the      
modern knitting-machine--then people    
will reply to us3 in the first place we 
don't want night-caps1 and if we did we 
can supply them for one-tenth of the    
cost2 and our cotton goods will be sent 
back to us as unsaleable4  ,a           
world-trade1 even of modest dimensions1 
can only be carried on upon the basis of
 high technical accomplishment1 but this
 height of accomplishment cannot be     
attained on the basis of any penny-wise 
economy4 ,whoever wills the part must   
also will the whole1 but to this whole  
belongs not merely the conception of a  
technique1 but of a civilization1 and   
indeed of a culture4 ,one might as well 
demand of a music-hall orchestra which  
plays ragtime all the year round that   

once in the year1 and once only1 on     
,good ,friday1 it should pull itself    
together to give an adequate performance
 of the ,passion ,music of ,bach4       
,,footnotes3  ,footnote #e3 ,by this    
figure the author seems to be referring 
to the population of the impoverished   
,germany of the future if the course of 
,socialism proceeds on wrong lines4     
,v   ,for some decades ,germany will be 
one of the poorest of countries4 ,how   
poor she will be does not depend on     
herself alone1 but on the power and the 
will for mischief of others--who hate   
us4  ,however1 poverty and wealth are   
relative terms2 ,germans are still      
richer on the average than their        
forefathers2 richer than the ,romans or 
,greeks4 ,the standard of well-being is 
set by the best-off of the competitors1 
for he it is who determines the current 
standard of technique and industry1 the 
methods of production1 the minimum of   
labour and skill4 ,we cannot1 as we have
 already seen1 keep aloof from          

world-competition1 for ,germany needs   
cheap goods4 ,we must therefore try to  
keep step so far as we can4  ,even if we
 shut our eyes and take no more account 
of our debt to foreign lands than we do 
of the war-tribute1 we must admit that  
the average standard of well-being in   
,america far surpasses the ,german4     
,goods are not so dear as with us1 and  
the wages of the skilled worker amounts 
to between seven and ten dollars a      
day--more than #ajj marks in our money2 
and many artisans drive to their        
workshops in their own automobiles4     
,if1 now1 we ask our ,radicals how they 
envisage the problem of competition with
 such a country1 which in one generation
 will be twenty-or thirty-fold as rich  
as we are1 they will blurt out a few    
sentences in which we shall catch the   
word ,soviet system1 surplus value1#f   
world revolution4 ,but in truth the     
question will never occur to them--it is
 not ventilated at public meetings4     
,among themselves they talk1 albeit     

without much conviction1 about surplus  
value--which has nothing whatever to do 
with the present question1 and in regard
 to which it has been proved to them    
often enough that so far as it can be   
made use of at all1 it only means about 
a pound of butter extra per head of the 
population4  ,the economic superiority  
of the ,western powers1 however1 goes on
 growing1 inasmuch as to all appearance 
they are getting to work seriously to   
establish the new economy 7which we have
 buried7 in the form of ,state          
,socialism4 ,a healthy1 or what is      
to-day the same thing1 a victorious     
economy1 does not leap over any of its  
stages2 it will work gradually through  
the apparently longer1 but constant1    
movement from ,capitalism to ,state     
,socialism and thence to full           
,socialism2 while we1 it seems1 want to 
take a shortcut1 and to miss out the    
intervening stage4 ,and we lose so much 
time and energy in restless fluctuations
 forward and backward1 hither and       

thither1 that this leap in advance may  
fall short4  ,if anything could be more 
stupid and calamitous than the war      
itself it was the time when it broke    
out4 ,there was one thing which the big 
capitalism of the world was formed to   
supply1 which it was able to supply1    
and1 in fact1 was supplying3 the thing  
which not only justified capitalism1 but
 showed it to be an absolutely necessary
 stage in the development of a denser   
population4 ,this was the enrichment of 
the peoples1 the rapid1 and even        
anticipatory restoration of equilibrium 
between the growing population and the  
indispensable increase in the means of  
production2 in other words1 general     
well-being4 ,the unbroken progress of   
,america1 and the almost unbroken       
progress of ,england will demonstrate   
that in one1 or at most two1 generations
 the power of work and the output of    
mechanism would have risen to such a    
pitch that we could have done anything  
we liked in the direction of lightening 

human labour and reconciling social     
antagonisms4  ,alas1 it was in vain6    
,the rapid advance to prosperity of the 
people of ,central ,europe1 who had been
 accustomed to thrift and economy1 went 
to their heads2 they fell victims to the
 poison of capitalism and of mechanism2 
they were unable1 like ,america in its  
youthful strength1 to make their new    
circumstances deepen their sense of     
responsibility2 in their greedy desire  
to store as much as possible of the     
heavenly manna in their private barns   
they abandoned their destinies to a     
superannuated1 outworn feudal class and 
to aspiring magnates of the bourgeoisie2
 they would not be taught by political  
catastrophes1 and at last1 in the       
catastrophe of the war1 they lost at    
once their imaginary hopes1 their       
traditional power and the economic basis
 of their existence4  ,those who are now
 pursuing a policy of desperation are   
unconsciously building their hopes on   
the breakdown which brought them to the 

top3 they are avowedly making the       
hoped-for revolution in the ,west the   
central point of their system4 ,if the  
,west holds out1 they will be false     
prophets2 but it will not only hold out1
 it will in the beginning at all events1
 witness a great and passionate uprising
 of imperialistic and capitalistic      
tendencies4 ,if there is any one who did
 not understand that a policy based on  
hopes of other peoples' bankruptcy is   
the most flimsy and frivolous of all    
policies1 he might well have learned it 
from the war4  ,germany must forge her  
own destinies for herself1 without      
side-glances at the good or ill fortune 
of others4 ,had time only been given us 
to pass naturally from the stage of a   
prolonged and corrupted childhood into  
that of a manly responsibility1 our     
ultimate recovery would be assured4 ,but
 we have to accomplish in months what   
ought to be the evolution of decades2   
our national training has left us       
without convictions1 we have no eye for 

the true boundaries of rights1 claims   
and responsibilities1 and we hesitate as
 to how far we must or ought to go4     
,unprepared1 weakened1 impoverished and 
sick1 we are required1 at the most      
unlucky moment1 to work out a new and   
unprecedented order of life4 ,before    
even the educated classes are capable of
 forming a judgment on the question1 the
 most incapable masses of the rawest    
youth1 of the lowest classes of society1
 are let loose1 and sit upon the        
judgment-seat4  ,it is not only that we 
have been rich and have become very     
poor1 but we were always politically    
immature1 and are so still4 ,if the     
order of ,society is to be that of      
root-and-branch ,socialism1 it will mean
 the proletarian condition for all of   
us1 and for a long time to come4 ,there 
is no use in flattering ourselves and   
painting the future better than it is2  
the truth must be spoken with all       
plainness4 ,if we work hard1 and under  
capable guidance1 each of us will at    

most have an effective income of #ejj   
marks in pre-war values1 or1 say1 #bjjj 
marks for the family4 ,this average will
 be higher if we proceed on the         
principles of the ,new ,economy1#g but  
again will be reduced by the necessity  
for allowing extra pay for work of      
higher value4 ,if to-day the average    
income available is markedly higher than
 the above1 the reason is that we are   
living on our capital2 we are living on 
the products of work which ought to be  
reserved for the maintenance and renewal
 of the means of production2 in other   
words we are exhausting the soil and    
slaughtering our stock4 ,we are also    
consuming what foreign countries give us
 on credit2 in other words1 we are      
living on borrowed money4  ,it is       
childish lying and deception to act on  
the tacit assumption that thoroughgoing 
,socialism means something like a       
garden-city idyll1 with play-houses1    
open-air theatres1 excursions1          
picturesque raiment and fire-side art4  

,this in itself quite decent ideal of   
the average architect1 art-craftsman and
 art-reformer if expressed in dry       
figures would1 at the lowest estimate as
 they say1 demand about fivefold the    
capacity for production attainable by   
the utmost exertions and with a ten     
hours' day before the war--before the   
downfall of our economy and our         
exploitation by the enemy4  ,to place   
one-third of our working-class in       
decent1 freehold dwellings would alone1 
if the material and means of production 
sufficed1 require the whole             
working-capacity of the country for two 
years4 ,even after the last             
manufacturer's villa-residence1 the last
 palace-hotel1 have long been turned    
into tenements1 the solution of the most
 urgent part of the housing-question    
will still be an affair of decades4 ,for
 the sake of the last remnant of our    
self-respect we must finally tear       
asunder that web of economic falsehood1 
woven out of ignorance1 mental lethargy1

 concealment and illusion1 which has    
taken the place of the political4 ,let  
us see any one attempt to prove that    
,germany can carry on1 ,i do not say a  
well-off1 but even a petty tradesman's  
kind of existence1 unless our means of  
production can by some stroke of magic  
be multiplied tenfold--on paper it can  
be done with ease--or unless the        
production value 7not turnover71 which  
an adult working-man can with the utmost
 exertion bring into being in the course
 of a year does not many times exceed   
the average value of #bjjj marks4  ,no  
doubt the young folk of our big cities  
promise themselves a merry time for six 
weeks when they have got power1 the     
shops1 the wardrobes and the            
wine-cellars into their hands4 ,for the 
leaders1 it may last a little longer    
than for the rank-and-file4 ,and then1  
for those of the former who have any    
sense of honesty1 will come a question  
of conscience1 which may be delayed by  
printing paper-money1 but cannot be     

solved by any appeal to the people4  ,if
 ,bolshevism were the contrary to what  
it is--if it were a success1 a thing not
 absolutely impossible in a             
peasant-,state1 we might understand the 
self-assurance of those who1 in         
opposition to our forecast1 expect      
everything from the will of the people1 
the ,soviet system and the inspirations 
of the future4 ,we do understand it in  
the case of the drawing-room communists1
 and the profiteer-extremists who are   
out not for the cause1 but for power1   
and perhaps only for material objects4  
,i know that by these observations ,i am
 favouring the cause of those sorry     
dignitaries of a day1 the ,majority     
,socialists1 but ,i cannot help that4   
,the truth is not false because it      
favours one party1 nor is falsehood     
truth because it harms the other4 ,the  
,socialism now in power is doing the    
right thing1 although it is doing it out
 of ignorance and helplessness--it is   
waiting1 and getting steam up4 ,it is   

better to do the right thing out of     
error than to do the wrong thing out of 
wisdom4 ,out of error3 for besides      
omitting to do what ought not to be done
 it also omits the things it ought to   
do--among others1 the introduction of   
the ,new ,economy4#h ,it is like mankind
 before the ,fall2 it does not know good
 from evil1 what is useful and what is  
noxious1 what can be done and what      
cannot4 ,well--let it take its time2 it 
shall have time enough4  ,this time must
 be turned to good account4 ,when we    
have come to the end of these           
observations we shall understand what a 
huge task lies between us and the       
realization of the new social order4 ,in
 this case the longest way round is the 
shortest way home4 ,and even if ,germany
 should choose the mountain road with   
its broad loops and windings1 we shall  
stray often enough1 and go backward now 
and then2 while if1 in impatient revolt1
 we try to climb straight up1 we shall  
slip down lower than where we started4  

,let us never forget how mysteriously   
our social and political immaturity     
seems to be bound up with our once lofty
 and even now remarkable intellectuality
 and morality4#i ,we have not won our   
liberties1 they have fallen into our    
laps2 it was by the general breakdown1  
by a strike1 by a flight1 that ,germany 
and her former rulers have parted       
company4 ,these liberties1 social and   
political1 are not rooted in the soil1  
they can hardly be said to be prized    
among the treasures of life1 it is not  
their ideal1 but their material side    
which attracts us4 ,those who used to   
shout ,hurrah6 now cry ,all power to the
 ,soviets6 and the day will come when   
they will again shout ,hurrah6 ,then we 
shall witness a real sundering of our   
different visions of the world1 visions 
now buried under a mass of interests and
 speculations4  ,in any case1 whether   
the change is to be catastrophic or     
evolutionary1 the journey will be a long
 one1 and every attempt to hurry it will

 only prolong it further2 it will throw 
us back for years1 or it may be decades4
 ,above all things1 we must know whither
 we are going4 ,in order to adapt       
ourselves to a new form of society we   
must know what it may look like1 what it
 ought to look like1 and what it will   
look like4 ,we shall find that ,germany 
is not going to be landed in an earthly 
,paradise1 but in a world of toil1 and  
one which for a long period will be a   
world of poverty1 of a penurious        
civilization and of a deeply-endangered 
culture4 ,the unproved1 parrot-phrases  
of a cheap ,utopianism will grow        
dumb--those phrases which offer us      
entrance into the usual ,garden of ,eden
 with its square-cut1 machine-made      
culture and gaudy1 standardized         
enjoyments--phrases which assure us that
 when we have introduced the six-hours' 
working day and abolished private       
property1 the cinema horrors will be    
replaced by classical concerts1 the     
gin-shops by popular reading-rooms1 the 

gaming-hells by edifying lectures1      
highway robberies by gymnastic          
exercises1 detective novels by          
,gottfried ,keller1 bazaar-trifles and  
comic vulgarities by works of refined   
handicraft2 and that out of boxing      
contests1 racecourse betting1 bomb      
exercises1 and profiteering in butter1  
we shall see the rise of an era of      
humility and philanthropy4  ,in the     
,promised ,land as we conceive it1 the  
classes which are now the bearers of    
,german culture will lose almost        
everything1 while the gain of the       
proletariat will be scarcely visible4   
,and yet for the sake of this scarcely  
visible gain we must tread the stony    
path that lies before us4 ,willingly and
 joyfully shall we tread it2 for out of 
this1 at first1 dubious conquest of     
equal rights for all men will grow the  
might of justice1 of human dignity1 of  
human solidarity and unity4  ,that is   
truly work for a century1 and yet for   
that very reason the hard path will lead

 to its reward4 ,we must learn to know  
it1 and to understand that it is a path 
of sacrifice4 ,we must not accept the   
invitation of fools to a ,christmas     
party--fools who will make the welkin   
ring with their outcries when they find 
out their self-deception4 ,let us tread 
our path of suffering with a pride which
 disdains to be consoled by illusions4  
,,footnotes3  ,footnote #f3 ,by         
surplus-value 7,mehrwert7 the author    
means all that is produced above and    
beyond the bare necessities of life4    
,footnote #g3 ,die ,neue ,wirtschaft1 by
 ,walther ,rathenau 7,s4 ,fischer74 ,in 
this brief study1 ,rathenau urges 7#a7  
the unification and standardization of  
the whole of ,german industry and       
commerce in one great ,trust1 working   
under a ,state charter1 and armed with  
very extensive powers2 and 7#b7 a great 
intensification of the application of   
science and mechanism to production4    
,footnote #h3 ,see p4 #cg1 note4        
,footnote #i3 ,morality1 ,sittlichkeit1 

a word of broader meaning than morality1
 for it comprehends not only matters of 
ethical right and wrong1 but the general
 temper and habit of mind of a people as
 expressed in social life4     ,,vi     
,in order to throw some light into the  
obscurity of that social dreamland which
 no one seriously discusses because no  
one honestly believes in it1 let us1 as 
it were1 cut out and examine a section  
from the fully socialized ,germany of   
the future4 ,let us suppose that certain
 economic and social conditions have    
lasted for a generation or so1 and have 
therefore become more or less           
stabilized4 ,at a normal rate of        
progress this state of things should be 
reached about the end of this century4  
,to begin with1 let us make two very    
optimistic assumptions--first1 that     
technical progress in ,germany shall    
have developed to a point at which we   
are no longer impossibly outclassed and 
distanced by foreign nations1 and1      
secondly1 that by a timely and          

far-reaching reform of education and    
culture 7the lowest cost of which must  
be set down at about three milliards of 
marks7 the complete breakdown of        
civilisation may be averted4 ,this      
reform is one which must be taken in    
hand very early1 for after the event its
 adoption is improbable4 ,a third1 less 
optimistic but on that account more     
probable assumption may be added to     
this--namely1 that the ,western         
countries shall have progressed towards 
,socialism more steadily and therefore  
more slowly1 and that at the period of  
our comparison ,america shall find      
itself at the stage of                  
,state-,socialism1 not of full          
socialization4 ,we know that in making  
this assumption we are smoothing the way
 for attack to our professional         
opponents1 uncritical and               
self-interested1 who with one blast of  
the fanfare of world-revolution can     
scatter our further observations to the 
winds4  ,full ,socialism is             

characterized1 as we have seen1 by the  
abolition of all incomes that are not   
worked for1 and the fact that there are 
no more rich4 ,but this criterion must  
be limited in its application1 for it   
can never be fully realized4  ,according
 to the theory and the laws every one   
must hold some appointment and be paid  
for his work1 or for not working4 ,what 
he is paid1 however1 he can at will     
utilize1 or waste1 or hoard up1 or give1
 or gamble away1 or destroy4 ,he cannot 
invest it1 or get interest on it or turn
 into capital1 because these private    
undertakings or means of production will
 no longer exist4  ,now each of these   
assumptions is so shaky that not only   
must trifling divergences and           
shortcomings be winked at1 but the      
meshes of the system are so wide that   
only a rough approximation to the ideal 
is possible4  ,it is true that every one
 can be made to hold some appointment   
and be paid for some minimum of work1   
but no one can be prevented from        

devoting his leisure hours to some work 
of rare quality and turning it into     
value for his own purposes4 ,he can make
 himself useful by subsidiary employment
 of an artistic1 scientific or technical
 character1 by rendering services or    
assistance of various kinds1 by         
advising1 or entertaining1 or acting as 
a guide to strangers1 or going on       
employment abroad1 and no law can       
prevent him from turning his services   
into income even if he was merely paid  
in kind4 ,gaming and betting will       
flourish and many will grow rich by     
them4 ,a man who has lost his money and 
who has exhausted his rights to an      
advance from the public institutions for
 that object will have recourse to      
lenders who will supply him with bread  
and meat and clothes1 and who will make 
money by it4 ,similarly with people who 
are tempted to make acquisitions beyond 
their standard remuneration4 ,on every  
side we shall see private stores of     
goods of all kinds1 which will take the 

place of property as formerly           
understood4  ,there will be an enormous 
temptation to smuggling and profiteering
 which will reach a height far          
surpassing all scandals of the war and  
revolution periods4 ,foreigners and     
their agents1 who look after the export 
trade from ,government to ,government1  
will help hoarders and savers to turn   
their goods to account4 ,suppose        
citizens are attacked because their     
senseless expenditure is a mockery of   
their legal remuneration1 they will say3
 ,i got this from friends--that ,i got  
by exchange--this came from abroad--my  
relatives in ,america sent me that4     
,law1 control1 terrorism1 are effective 
just so long as there is not a blade of 
grass in the land--once remove the fear 
of hunger and they are useless4 ,great  
properties will arise1 drawing interest 
both abroad and at home1 and they will  
grow by evasions and bribery4 ,the      
profiteer1 the true child of the great  
days1 will not perish from the land1 on 

the contrary1 he will grow tougher the  
more he is persecuted1 he will be the   
rich man of the future1 and he will form
 a constant political danger if he and  
his fellows combine4  ,so long as we    
have not acquired an entirely new       
mentality1 one which detaches men from  
possessions1 which points them towards  
the ,law1 which binds the passions1 and 
sharpens the conscience1 so long will   
the principle of ,no rich people and no 
workless income have to be contracted   
into the formula1 ,there ought to be    
none4  ,without this profound alteration
 of mentality1 even the legally         
prescribed incomes will exhibit quite   
grotesque variations1 and will adapt    
themselves to the rarity-value of       
special gifts1 to indispensable         
qualities1 to favouritism1 with a       
crudity quite unknown to-day4 ,a        
scarcity of ,ministers1 a ,professor's  
nourishment1 and soldiers' supplies1    
will then as now be met according to the
 law of supply and demand4 ,consider    

what ten years' practice in the war for 
wages and strike-management1 with the   
public in it as partisans1 will bring   
with it in the way of favouritisms1     
celebrities1 and indispensabilities4    
,popular jockeys1 successful surgeons1  
managers of sports' clubs1 tenors1      
demimondaines1 farce-writers and        
champion athletes could1 even to-day1 if
 they were class-conscious and joined   
together to exploit their opportunities1
 demand any income they liked4 ,even as 
a matter of practical political economy1
 the cinema-star 7or whatever may       
succeed her7 will be able to prescribe  
to the ,government what amount of       
adornments1 drawn from ,nature or ,art1 
are necessary for her calling1 and what 
standard of life she must maintain in   
order to keep herself in the proper     
mood4  ,organizers1 popular leaders1    
authors and artists will announce and   
enforce their demands to the full limit 
of their rarity-value4 ,at a            
considerable distance below these come  

the acquired and more or less           
transferable powers and talents4 ,the   
,russians for the first few months      
believed in a three-fold order of       
allowances1 rising within a limit of    
about one to two4 ,if the ideas now     
prevailing have not undergone a radical 
change1 then we may1 in the society of  
the future1 look for divergences of     
income in the limit of one to a         
thousand4  ,therefore the principle that
 there shall be no more rich people must
 again be substantially limited4 ,we    
must say1 ,there will be people         
receiving extraordinary incomes in kind 
to which must be added the claims to    
personal service which these favoured   
persons will lay down as conditions of  
their work4  ,in its external1          
arithmetical structure1 the fabric of   
life and its requirements in the new    
order will resemble that of to-day far  
more closely than most of us imagine--on
 the other hand1 the inward and personal
 constitution of man will be far more   

different4 ,already we can observe the  
direction of the movement4              
,extravagance and luxury will continue  
to exist1 and those who practise it will
 be1 as they are to-day1 and more than  
to-day1 the profiteers1 the lucky ones1 
and the adventurers4 ,excessive wealth  
will be more repulsive than it is now2  
whether it will be less valued depends  
upon the state of public ethics1 a topic
 which we shall have to consider later4 
,it is probable that in defiance of all 
legislation wealth will turn itself into
 expenditure and enjoyment more rapidly 
and more recklessly than to-day4  ,but  
the relics of middle-class well-being   
will by that time have been consumed2   
the families which for generations have 
visibly incorporated the ,german spirit 
will less than others contrive to secure
 special advantages by profiteering and 
evading the laws2 as soon as their      
modest possessions are taxed away or    
consumed they will melt into the general
 mass of needy people who will form the 

economic average of the future4  ,the   
luxury which will exhibit itself in     
streets and houses will have a dubious  
air2 every one will know that there is  
something wrong with it1 people will spy
 and denounce1 and find to their disgust
 that nothing can be proved2 the        
well-off will be partly despised1 partly
 envied2 the question how to suppress   
evasions of the law will take up a good 
half of all public discussions1 just as 
that of capitalism does now4 ,the       
hateful sight of others' prosperity     
cannot1 even at home1 not to mention    
foreign countries1 be withdrawn from the
 eyes of the needy masses2 capitalism   
will have merely acquired another name  
and other representatives4  ,the fact   
that the average of more or less        
cultivated and responsible folk are     
plunged in poverty will not be accepted 
as the consequence of an unalterable    
natural law1 nor as a case of personal  
misfortune2 it will be set down to bad  
government1 and the rising revolutionary

 forces of the fifth1 sixth and seventh 
classes will nourish the prevailing     
discontent in favour of a new revolt4   
,for the greater uniformity of the      
average way of life and its general     
neediness will not in itself abolish the
 division of classes4 ,i have already   
often enough pointed out that no        
mechanical arrangements can avail us    
here4  ,at first there will be three1 or
 more probably four classes who1 in     
spite of poverty1 will not dissolve in  
the masses1 and who1 through their      
coherence and their intellectual        
heritage are by no means without power4 
,the ,bolshevist plan of simply killing 
them out will not be possible in        
,germany1 they are relatively too       
numerous2 persecution will weld them    
closer together1 and their traditional  
experiences1 habits of mind1 and        
capacity1 will make it necessary to have
 recourse to them and employ them again 
and again4  ,the first of these classes 
is that of the feudal nobility4 ,their  

ancient names cannot be rooted out of   
the history of ,germany1 and even in    
their poverty the bearers of these names
 will be respected--all the more if1 as 
we may certainly assume1 they maintain  
the effects of their bodily discipline1 
and the visible tradition of certain    
forms of life and thought4 ,they will be
 strengthened by their mutual           
association1 their relationship with    
foreign nobility will give them         
important functions in diplomacy2 these 
are two elements which they have in     
common with ,catholicism and ,judaism4  
,they will retain their inclination and 
aptitude for the calling of arms and for
 administration2 their reactionary      
sentiments will lead now to success1 now
 to failure1 and by both the inner      
coherence of the class will be          
fortified4 ,finally1 the inevitable     
reversion to an appreciation of the     
romantic values of life will make a     
connexion with names of ancient lineage 
desirable to the leading classes1 and   

especially to the aristocracy of        
officialism4  ,this aristocracy of      
officialism forms the second of the new 
strata which will come to light4 ,the   
first office-bearers of the new era1 be 
their achievements great or small1 are  
not to be forgotten4 ,their descendants 
are respected as the bearers of         
well-known names2 in their families the 
practice of politics1 the knowledge of  
persons and connexions are perpetuated2 
fathers1 in their lifetime1 look after  
the interests of sons and daughters and 
launch them on the same path4 ,from     
these1 and from the first stratum1 the  
representatives of ,germany in foreign  
lands are chosen1 and in this way a     
certain familiarity with international  
life and society will be maintained4    
,they will have the provision necessary 
for their position abroad1 and will also
 find ways and means to keep up a higher
 standard of life at home4 ,persons in  
possession of irregular means of        
well-being will offer a great deal to   

establish connexions with these circles1
 which control so many levers in the    
machine of ,state4  ,the third group    
consists of the descendants of what was 
once the leading class in culture and in
 economics4 ,here we find a spirit      
similar to that of the refugees1 migrs  
and ,huguenots of the past4 ,the lower  
they sink in external power1 the more   
tenaciously they hold to their memories4
 ,every family knows every other and    
cherishes the lustre of its name1 a     
lustre augmented by legendary           
recollections1 all the more when the    
achievements of their class are         
ostentatiously ignored in the new social
 order4 ,people spare and save to the   
last extremity in order to preserve and 
hand down some heirloom--a musical      
instrument1 a library1 a manuscript1 a  
picture or two4 ,a puritanical thrift is
 exercised in order1 as far as possible1
 to maintain education1 culture and     
intellectuality on the old level2 to    
this class culture1 refinement of life  

as an end in itself1 the practice of    
religion1 classical music1 and artistic 
feeling will fly for refuge4 ,no other  
class understands this one2 it holds    
itself aloof1 it looks different from   
the rest in its occupations1 its habits1
 its garb and its forms of life4 ,it    
supplies the new order with its         
scholars1 its clergy1 its higher        
teaching power1 its representatives of  
the most disinterested and intellectual 
callings4 ,like the monasteries of the  
,middle ,ages1 it forms an island of the
 past4 ,its influence rises and falls   
periodically1 according to the current  
ideas of the time1 but its position is  
assured by its voluntary sacrifices1 by 
its knowledge and by the purity of its  
motives4  ,a fourth inexpugnable and    
influential stratum will in all         
probability be formed by the            
middle-class landowners and the         
substantial peasants4 ,even though the  
socialization of the land should be     
radically carried through--which is not 

likely to be the case--it will remain on
 paper4 ,a class of what may be called  
,state-tenants1 estate-managers1 or     
leaders of co-operative organizations   
will very much resemble a landowning    
class4 ,its traditional experience and  
the ties that bind it to the soil make  
it a closed and well-defined body1      
self-conscious and masterful through the
 importance of its calling1 its         
indispensability and its individualism4 
,it suffers no dictation as regards its 
manner of life4 ,here we shall see the  
conservative traditions of the country  
strongly mustered for defence1 incapable
 of being eliminated as a political     
force1 and forming a counterpoise to the
 radical democracy of the towns4        
,everywhere we find a state of strain   
and of cleavage4 ,the single-stratum    
condition of society cannot be reached  
without a profound inward change2       
politics are still stirred and shaken by
 conflicts1 and society by the strife of
 classes4 ,a very different picture from

 the promised ,utopian ,paradise of a   
common feeding-ground for lions and     
sheep6  ,we are all aggrieved by the    
illegal opulence of the profiteers1 but 
we are all liable to the infection4 ,the
 feudalistic ,fronde awaits its         
opportunity4 ,the aristocracy of office 
endeavours to monopolize the            
,state-machine4 ,the migrs of culture   
find themselves looked askance at1 on   
suspicion of intellectual arrogance1 and
 they insist that the country cannot get
 on without them4 ,the agriculturalists 
are feared1 when they show a tendency to
 revolt against the towns4 ,the ruling  
class1 that is to say the more or less  
educated masses of the city-democracy1  
looks in impatient discontent for the   
state of general well-being which       
refuses to be realized1 lays the blame  
alternately on the four powerful strata 
and on the profiteers1 and fights now   
this group now that1 for better         
conditions of living4  ,but the         
conditions of living do not             

improve--they get worse4 ,the level of  
the nation's output has been sinking    
from the first day of the ,revolution   
onwards4 ,the absolute productivity of  
work1 the relative efficacy and the     
quality of the product1 have all        
deteriorated4 ,with a smaller turnover  
we have witnessed a falling-off in the  
excellence of the goods1 in             
research-work1 and in finish4           
,industrial plant has been worked to    
death and has not yet recovered4        
,auxiliary industries1 accessories and  
raw materials have fallen back4         
,high-quality workmanship has suffered  
from defective schooling1 youthful      
indiscipline and the loss of manual     
dexterity4 ,the new social order has    
lost a generation of leaders in         
technique1 scholarship and economics4   
,universities1 with all institutions of 
research and education1 have suffered   
from this blank4 ,technical leadership  
is gone1 and the deterioration in       
quality has reacted detrimentally on    

output4 ,we can now turn out nothing    
except what is cheap and easy1 and what 
can be produced without traditional     
skill of hand1 without serious          
calculation and research4 ,for all      
innovations1 all work of superior       
quality1 ,germany is dependent on the   
foreigner4 ,the atmosphere of technique 
has vanished1 and the stamp of cheap    
hireling labour is on the whole output  
of the country4  ,in the weeks of the   
,revolution street orators used to tell 
us that five hundred ,russian professors
 had signed a statement that the level  
of culture had never been so high as    
under ,bolshevism4 ,and ,berlin believed
 them6 ,to educate ,russia it would     
take1 to begin with1 a million          
elementary schools with a yearly budget 
of several dozen milliards of roubles1  
and a corresponding number of higher    
schools and universities3 if every      
educated ,russian for the next twenty   
years were to become a teacher1 there   
would not be enough of them--not to     

speak of the requirements of transport1 
of raw materials and of agriculture4    
,the fabric of a civilization and a     
culture cannot be annihilated at one    
blow1 nor can it grow up save in decades
 and centuries4 ,the maintenance of the 
structure demands unceasing toil and    
unbroken tradition2 the breach that has 
been made in it in ,germany can only be 
healed by the application in manifold   
forms of work1 intellect and will2 and  
this hope we cannot entertain4#aj  ,but 
we have not yet done with the question  
of social strata and inward cleavage4   
,revolutionary threats are causing      
strife every day4 ,revolution against   
revolution--how is this possible8 ,we   
are not speaking of a reactionary       
revolution but of the activist4  ,in an 
earlier work ,i discussed the theory of 
continuous revolution4#aa ,behind every 
successful revolutionary movement there 
stands another1 representing one        
negation more than its predecessor4     
,behind the revolt of the aristocracy   

stood that of the bourgeoisie1 behind   
that of the bourgeoisie stood           
,socialism4 ,behind the now ruling      
fourth class#ab rises the fifth1 and a  
sixth is coming into sight4 ,if a ninth 
should represent pure ,anarchism1 we may
 see an eleventh proclaiming a          
dictatorship1 and a twelfth standing for
 absolute monarchy4  ,to-day the        
,majority ,socialists are in power1 that
 is to say the ,right section of the    
fourth class4 ,this is composed of the  
older1 trained and work-willing ,trade  
,unionists1 who are amazed at the       
,revolution1 who do not regard it as    
quite legitimate1 but who are determined
 to defend the status quo in so far as a
 certain degree of self-determination   
and elbow-room in the material          
conditions of life still remain to them4
  ,the ,left section consists of youths 
and of persons disgusted with           
militarism1 ignorant of affairs but     
cherishing a certain independence of    
judgment2 still ready for work but      

equally so for politics4 ,to these1 as a
 forward party1 the doctrinaire         
theorists have allied themselves4 ,the  
designation of the party ,the           
,independents is characteristic2 its    
goal1 ,all power to the ,soviets1 is a  
catchword from ,russia4  ,a fifth class 
is now emerging--the work-shy4 ,the     
others call them the tramp-proletariat1 
the disgruntled1 the declassed1 who set 
their hopes on disorder4 ,their goal is 
still undetermined--their favourite     
expression is bloodhound1 when those in 
power1 or ,government troops1 are       
referred to4  ,then comes the sixth     
class1 still partly identified with the 
,left of the fourth and embryonically   
attached to the fifth4 ,these are the   
indomitable loafers and shirkers1       
physically and mentally unsound1 aliens 
in the social order1 excluded by their  
sufferings1 their punishments1 their    
vices and passions2 self-excluded1      
repudiators of law and morality1 born of
 the cruelty of the city1 pitiable      

beings1 not so much cast out of society 
as cast up against it1 as a living      
reproach to its mechanical organization4
 ,if these ever come into the light in  
politics1 they will demand a kind of    
syndicalistic communism4  ,that is as   
far as we can see at present into the as
 yet unopened germs of continuous       
revolutionary movement4 ,in these are   
contained the infinite series of all    
principles that can conceivably be      
supported2 and it would be wholly false 
to see in this series merely so many    
successive steps in moral degeneration1 
even though the earlier stages should   
proceed on a flat denial of ethical     
principles4 ,later on will come revivals
 and restorations1 political1 ethical   
and religious1 and each time we shall   
see the rising stratum attaching to     
itself strays and converts1 above all1  
the disappointed and ambitious1 from    
those that went before4  ,but the number
 of revolutions will grow till we lose  
count of them1 and each1 however        

strenuously it may profess its horror of
 bloodshed1 will have only one hope and 
possibility3 that of defending itself by
 armed force against its successor4 ,the
 game is a grotesquely dishonest one1   
because every aspirant movement will    
cast against its forerunner the charge  
of ruling by bloodshed1 while it itself 
is already preparing its armed forces   
for the conflict4  ,it is therefore     
wholly vain to hope that an advanced    
social organization implies stability1  
that a brotherhood mechanically decreed 
will exclude further revolutions1 and   
will establish eternally an empire of   
righteousness and justice according to  
any preconceived pattern4  ,the fiercest
 hatred will prevail amongst those who  
are most closely associated--for        
instance1 between handworkers and       
brainworkers1 between leaders and       
followers2 and this hate will be all the
 more inappeasable when it is open to   
every one to rise in the world1 and none
 can cherish the excuse that he is the  

victim of a social system of            
overwhelming power4 ,to-day this hatred 
is masked by the general                
class-hatred--hatred of the monopolists 
of culture1 of position and of capital4 
,at the bottom of it1 however1 lies even
 to-day the more universal hatred of the
 defeated for the victor1 and when those
 three monopolies have fallen1 it will  
emerge in its original ,cain-like form4 
,it cannot be appeased by any mechanical
 device4 ,human inequality can never be 
abolished1 human accomplishment and work
 will always vary1 and the human passion
 for success will always assert itself4 
,we have discussed the material         
foundation and the stratification of the
 ,german people when full socialization 
has been realized4 ,let us now forecast 
the manner of their existence4  ,the    
future community is poor2 the individual
 is poor4 ,the average standard of      
well-being corresponds1 at best1 to what
 in peace-time one would expect from an 
income of #cjjj marks4#ac ,but the      

requirements of the population are not  
medivally simplified--they could not be1
 in view of the density of the          
population and the complexity of        
industrial and professional  vocations4 
,they are manifold and diverse1 and they
 are moreover intensified by the        
spectacle of extravagance offered by the
 profiteering class and the licence of  
social life4 ,the traditional           
garden-city idyll of architects and     
art-craftsmen is a ,utopia about as much
 like reality as the pastoral           
,arcadianism of ,marie ,antoinette4     
,all things of common use are           
standardized into typical forms4 ,it    
must not be supposed1 however1 that they
 are based on pure designs and models4  
,the taste of the artist will clash with
 that of the crowd1 and since the former
 has no authority to back him he will   
have to compromise4 ,the compromise1    
however1 consists in cheap imitation of 
foreign models1 for in foreign countries
 art-industry will exist1 and no        

legislation can prevent its products    
from finding their way 7in reproductions
 or actual examples7 into ,germany and  
being admired there4 ,our half or wholly
 imitative products are turned out as   
cheaply as possible1 in                 
substitute-materials1 and are made as   
well or as ill as the relics of our     
craftsmanship permit1 or as our existing
 machinery for the purpose is capable   
of4 ,cheapness and ease of manufacture  
are the principles aimed at1 for even   
with narrow means no one will want to do
 without certain things2 fashions still 
prevail1 and will have to be satisfied  
with things that do not last1 but can be
 constantly changed4  ,how far will a   
new system of education tend to simplify
 the needs of men and women and to      
purify their taste8 ,probably very      
little1 for good models will be lacking1
 poverty is not fastidious1 and the     
taste of the populace is the sovereign  
arbiter4 ,but on this taste it depends  
whether vulgar ornaments and gewgaws1   

frivolities and bazaar-horrors1 are to  
satisfy the desires of the soul4        
,objects of earlier art and industry    
have been alienated through need of     
money or destroyed by negligence4 ,here 
and there one may find an old cup or an 
engraving1 as we do to-day in plundered 
territories1 but these things are       
disconnected specimens2 all they can do 
is occasionally to interest an artist4  
,whoever wants to procure some object or
 to get something done which has not    
been standardized in the common range of
 approved requirements must gain it by a
 tedious course of pinching and saving4 
,personal possessions in the way of     
books1 musical instruments1 works of    
art1 as well as travel outside the      
prescribed routes are rarities2 a tree  
of one's own1 a horse of one's own are  
legendary things4  ,thus luxury in its  
better aspect has gone to ruin quicker  
than in the bad4 ,all outlay devoted to 
culture1 to beauty1 to invigoration has 
dried up2 all that survives is what     

stimulates1 what depraves and befouls2  
frivolities1 substitutes and swindles4  
,what we have arrived at is not the     
four-square simplicity of the           
peasant-homestead1 but a ramshackle city
 suburb4 ,to some of us it is not easy1 
and to many it is not agreeable to      
picture to themselves the aspect of a   
thoroughly proletarianized country1 and 
the difficulty lies in the fact that the
 popular mind has1 as it were by        
universal agreement1 resolved to        
conceive the future on a basis of       
domestic prosperity about tenfold as    
great as it can possibly be4 ,the       
leaders and office-holders of the       
proletariat have an easy task in        
convincing themselves and others that   
what they approve and are struggling for
 is the so-called middle-class existence
 with all the refinement and claims of  
historic culture4 ,tacitly1 as a matter 
of course1 they accept what plutocracy  
has to give them1 and imagine that the  
loans they take up from the civilization

 and culture of the past can be redeemed
 from the social gains of the future4   
,the stages at which a nation arrives   
year by year1 can be estimated by its   
building4 ,in the new order1 little is  
being built4 ,apart from certain        
perfunctory garden-cities1 which are    
being erected for the principle of the  
thing1 to meet the needs of a few       
thousand favoured households1 and which 
perhaps will never be finished1 we will 
for decades have to content ourselves   
with new subdivisions and exploitation  
of the old buildings2 old palaces packed
 to the roof with families1 will stand  
in the midst of vegetable gardens and   
will alternate with empty warehouses in 
the midst of decayed cities4 ,in the    
streets of the suburbs the avenues of   
trees will be felled1 and in the cities 
grass will grow through the cracks of   
the pavement4  ,for a long time it used 
to be believed that the passion of the  
landscape painters of the seventeenth   
century for introducing ruins with      

hovels nestling among them arose from a 
feeling for romance4 ,this is not       
so--they only painted what they saw     
around them after the ravages of the    
,thirty ,years' ,war4 ,it must not be   
supposed1 however1 that the forecast in 
these pages is based on the consequences
 of the war2 these no doubt must darken 
our picture of the future2 but the      
shadows1 which ,i have put in as        
sparingly as ,i could1 are essentially  
the expression of a greatly reduced     
economic efficiency1 combined with the  
uniformity produced by the general      
proletarianization of life with the     
absence of any correcting factor in     
individual effort of a rational         
character and of the influence of higher
 types4  ,a brighter trait in the       
material conditions of life will be     
formed by effort of a collective        
character1 such as even the most        
penurious community may be able to      
undertake4 ,the more severely the       
domestic household has to pinch1 and the

 more unattractive it thereby becomes1  
the more completely will life be forced 
into publicity4 ,private claims and     
aspirations1 which cannot be satisfied1 
will be turned over to the public4 ,men 
will gather in the streets and places of
 public resort1 and have more mutual    
intercourse than before1 since every    
transaction of life1 even the most      
insignificant1 will have to be a subject
 of discussion1 agreement and           
understanding4 ,in all the arrangements 
of social life1 e4g4 for news1          
communications1 supplies1 discussion and
 entertainment1 and demands will be made
 and complied with for greater          
convenience and comprehensiveness1 for  
popular sthetics and popular            
representation4 ,in these arrangements  
and in these alone ,art will have to    
find its functions and its home4 ,public
 buildings1 gardens1 sanatoriums1 means 
of transit and exhibitions will be      
established at great cost4 ,all the     
demands of the spirit and of the senses 

will seek their satisfaction in public4 
,there will be no lack of popular       
performances1 excursions1 tours and     
conducted visits to collections2 of     
clubs1 libraries1 athletic meetings and 
displays4 ,the aspect of this tendency  
from the point of view of culture and   
ethics we have still to consider2 in its
 social aspect 7apart from the fact that
 it causes a vacuum in the home and     
forces young people to the surface of   
life1 and in spite of its mechanical    
effect7 it will act as a comforting     
reminiscence of the civic commonalty and
 solidarity of medival times4  ,in      
considering the spiritual and cultural  
life of a fully socialized society1 we  
have to start with the assumption that  
any one man's opinion and decision are  
as good as another's4 ,authority1 even  
in matters of the highest intellectual  
or spiritual character1 only exists in  
so far as it is established1            
acknowledged and confirmed either by    
direct action of the people's will1 or  

indirectly through their                
representatives4 ,every one's education 
and way of life are much the same2 there
 are no secrecies1 no vague authority   
attaching to special vocations2 no one  
permits himself to feel impressed by any
 person or thing4 ,every one votes1     
whether it be for an office1 a memorial1
 a law1 or a drama1 or does it through  
delegates or the delegates of delegates4
 ,every one is determined to know the   
how and where and why of                
everything--just as to-day in           
,america--and demands a plausible reason
 for it4 ,the reply1 ,this is a matter  
you don't understand1 is impossible4    
,everything is referred to one's own    
conscience1 one's own intelligence1     
one's own taste1 and no one admits any  
innate or acquired superiority in       
others4 ,in debate1 the boundaries      
between the ideal and the practicable   
are obliterated2 for on the one hand    
every one is too much preoccupied with  
material needs1 and on the other1 too   

confident1 too unaccustomed to submit   
himself to what in former days was      
called a deeper insight1 too loosely    
brought up to let himself be taught4 ,we
 never1 therefore1 hear such judgments  
as3 ,this1 although it is difficult1 is 
a book to be read2 this drama ought to  
have been produced although it is not   
sensational2 ,i don't myself care for   
this memorial1 but it must remain       
because a great artist made it2 this is 
a necessary branch of study1 although it
 has no practical application2 ,i will  
vote for this man on account of his     
character and ability1 although he has  
made no election-promises4 ,on the other
 hand1 the following kind of argument   
will have weight3 ,this historic        
building must be demolished1 for it     
interferes with traffic2 this collection
 must be sold1 for we need money2 we    
need no chair of philosophy1 but we do  
need one for cinema-technique2 these    
ornamental grounds are the very place   
for a merry-go-round2 tragedies are     

depressing1 they must not be performed  
in the ,state theatres4 ,let us recall  
certain oversea legislation--carried    
out1 be it noted in countries still     
swayed by the traditional influence of  
culture--and these examples will not    
seem exaggerated4  ,where there is no   
appeal to authority1 where none need    
fear disapproval or ridicule1 where     
convenience is prized and thrift rules  
supreme1 there thought and decision will
 be short-breathed1 and will never look 
beyond the needs of the day4 ,who will  
then care for far-off deductions1 for   
wide arcs of thought8 ,calculation comes
 to the front1 everything unpractical is
 despised2 opinions are formed by       
discussion1 everyday reading and        
propaganda4 ,men demand proofs1 success1
 visible returns4 ,the fewer the aims1  
the stronger will be their attraction4  
,people are tolerant1 for they are used 
to hearing the most varied opinions1 and
 all opinions have followers1 from the  
water-cure to ,toism2 but the only      

opinion of any influence is that whose  
followers are many4  ,public opinion    
settles everything4 ,the champions of   
absolute values have to accommodate     
themselves to the law of competition4   
,religious teaching has to seek the     
favour of the times by the same methods 
as a new system of physical culture4 ,a 
work of art must compete for votes4     
,only by popularity-hunting can anything
 come to life2 there will be no doing   
without much talking4 ,as in the later  
days of ,greece1 rhetoric and dialectic 
are the most powerful of the arts4  ,and
 since manual labour cherishes silently 
or openly a bitter grudge against       
intellectual labour1 the latter has to  
protect itself by a pretence of sturdy  
simplicity2 when two teachers are       
competing for the head-mastership of a  
classical school each tries to prove    
that he has the hornier hand4  ,most    
things in this new order are decided by 
weight of numbers4 ,advertisement and   
propaganda are banished from socialized 

industry and commerce2 instead1 they    
compete in the service of personal and  
ideal aims--in elections1 theatres1     
systems of medicine1 superstitions1     
arts1 appointments1 professorships1     
churches4  ,art has for the third time  
changed its master--after the princes1  
,mcenas1 the middle-class market2 after 
,mcenas1 the plebs1 and export trade4   
,whether by means of representation     
through gilds1 by compulsion1 by        
patronage1 or by favour1 ,art has become
 dependent2 it must explain1 exhort1    
contend2 it can no longer rest proudly  
on itself4 ,it must aim at getting a    
majority on its side1 and this it can   
only do by sensationalism4 ,like all    
other features of intellectual life1 it 
must march with the times4 ,like all    
technique1 research1 learning and       
handicraft it suffers through the loss1 
for several generations1 of tradition   
and hereditary skill1 but together with 
this drop there is also a drop in the   
character of the demand2 quality has    

given way to actuality4#ad  ,certain    
reactions based on practical experience 
are  not excluded2 the constant         
comparison with the past and with       
foreign countries will show the value of
 the cultivation of a science1 of an art
 which has no fixed prepossessions and  
serves no immediate aims4 ,measures are 
taken1 though without much conviction1  
by free ,academies or the like1 to win  
back something of this2 but the         
atmosphere is not favourable to such    
attempts1 and an artificial and sterile 
discipline is all that can result4  ,the
 general tone is that of an excitable1  
loquacious generation1 bent on          
actualities and matters of practical    
calculation1 fonder of debate than of   
work1 not impressed by any authority1   
prizing success1 watching all that goes 
on abroad1 taking refuge in public from 
the sordidness of private life1 and     
passionately hostile to all superiority4
 ,through the constant secession of     
elements to which this tone is          

antipathetic a kind of natural selection
 is constantly taking place1 and the    
political defencelessness of the        
transition period favours disintegrating
 tendencies of foreign origin4 ,the     
carving away of ancient ,german         
territories works in the same direction4
 ,apart from the varying influence of   
the four strata already referred to1 the
 general tone will be set by the        
half-,slavonic lower classes of ,middle 
and ,north ,germany1 who have brought   
about and who control the existing      
conditions1 and by the other elements   
which have been assimilated to these4   
,in place of ,german culture and ,german
 intellectuality we have a state of     
things of which a foretaste already     
exists in parts of ,america and of      
,eastern ,europe4 ,the fully socialized 
order1 repelling all tutelage through   
those strata which possess a special    
tradition1 outlook and mentality1 has   
created its own form of civilization4   
,,footnotes3  ,footnote #aj3 ,rathenau  

means that it cannot be entertained     
except on the hypothesis of the profound
 inward change1 which is to be discussed
 later on4  ,footnote #aa3 ,kritik der  
dreifachen ,revolution4 ,s4 ,fischer4   
,footnote #ab3 ,the classes referred to 
are 7#a7 the old aristocracy1 7#b7 the  
aristocracy of officialism1 7#c7 that of
 traditional middle-class culture2 7#d7 
the mass of what is called ,socialism4  
,footnote #ac3 #aej in pre-war values4  
,by thrift1 by co-operation1 and by the 
cheapness of the public services        
generally1 a surprisingly high standard 
of life could be maintained on this kind
 of income in pre-war ,germany4         
,footnote #ad3 ,aktualitt2 as1 for      
instance1 reference to current topics4  
,,vii   ,thoughtful and competent judges
 to whom ,i have submitted the foregoing
 section of my work have said to me3    
,this is ,hell4 ,that is perhaps going  
too far1 since those who will live in   
that generation and who have themselves 
helped it into being will have become   

more or less adapted to their           
circumstances4  ,a large part of the    
proletariat of to-day will certainly not
 be daunted by the prospect1 but will   
regard it as a distinct improvement on  
their present situation4 ,that is the   
terrible fact1 a fact for which we are  
responsible and for which we must atone1
 with what ruin to ,german culture      
remains to be seen4  ,who1 in this ,age 
of ,mechanism1 who on the side of the   
bourgeoisie1 who of our statesmen1 our  
professors1 our captains of industry1   
above all who of our clergy1 has pitied 
the lot of the working-man8 ,the        
statesmen1 for peace' sake1 worked out  
the ,insurance ,laws2 the professors1   
with their emphatic dislike to the world
 of finance and their unemphasized      
devotion to the monopoly of their own   
stipends1 preached a doctrinaire        
socialism2 the clergy lauded the        
divinely-appointed principle of         
subordination2 the great industrialists1
 wallowing in their own greed for power1

 money1 favour1 titles and connexions1  
scolded the workers for wanting         
anything4 ,the silent subjugation of our
 brothers was assured through the laws  
of inheritance1 our leaders put the     
socialistic legislation in fetters1     
freedom of combination was thwarted1    
electoral reform in ,prussia was        
scornfully denied1 demands for better   
conditions of living1 conditions which  
to-day we think ridiculously low1 were  
suppressed by force4 ,and all the time1 
the cost of a single year of war1 a tiny
 fraction of the war-reparations1 would 
have sufficed to banish want for ever   
from the land4 ,at last the millions of 
the defenceless and disappointed were   
driven into that war of the dynasties   
and the bourgeois1 which was unloosed by
 the folly of years1 the dazzlement of  
weeks1 the helplessness of hours4  ,if  
the state of things ,i have foreseen is 
hell1 then we have earned hell4 ,and it 
ill becomes us to wrap ourselves in the 
superiority of our culture1 to rebuke   

the masses for their want of intellect1 
their want of character1 their greed1   
and to keep insisting on the            
unchangeability of human character1 on  
the virtues of rulership and leadership1
 on the spiritual unselfishness and     
intellectual priesthood of the classes  
born to freedom4 ,where was this        
heaven-nurtured priestly virtue sleeping
 when ,wrong straddled the land and the 
great crime was wrought8 ,it was        
composing feeble anthologies and pompous
 theories1 cooking its culture-soup1    
confusing1 with true professorial want  
of instinct1 #aiac with #ahacae--;and   
putting itself at the disposition of the
 ,press ,bureau4 ,that was the hour in  
which to fight for the supremacy of the 
spirit4 ,now romance comes1 as it always
 does1 too late4  ,what is romance in   
history8 ,it is sterility4 ,it is       
incapacity to imagine1 still less to    
shape1 the yet unknown4 ,it is an       
inordinate capacity for flinging oneself
 with feminine adaptability into        

anything that is historically presented 
and accomplished--from ,michael ,angelo 
to working samplers4 ,fearing the ugly  
present and the anxious future1 the     
romantic takes refuge with the dear good
 dead people1 and spins out further what
 it has learned from them4 ,but every   
big man was a shaper of his own time1 a 
respecter of antiquity and conscious of 
his inheritance as a grown and capable  
man may be2 not a youth in sheltered    
tutelage1 but a master of the living    
world1 and a herald of the future4      
,modernity is foolish1 but              
antiquarianism is rubbish2 life in its  
vigour is neither new nor antique1 but  
young4  ,true it is indeed that we love 
the old1 many-coloured1 concrete1       
pre-mechanistic world2 we cannot take an
 antique thing in our hands or read an  
antique word without feeling its        
enchantment4 ,it is a joy to the heart1 
and one prohibited to no man1 to dream  
at times romantic dreams1 to live in the
 past1 and to forget1 as we do it1 that 

this very dreaming1 this  very life1    
owes its charm to the fact that we are  
of another age4 ,it is a magic like that
 of childhood--but to want to go back to
 it is not only childish1 but a         
deliberate fraud and self-deception4 ,we
 should realize1 as ,i have shown years 
ago1 that the difference of our age from
 that age is the ever-present fact of   
the density of our population4 ,any one 
who wants to go back1 really wants that 
forty million ,germans should die1 while
 he survives4 ,it is ignorant1 it is    
insincere1 to put on a frown of offended
 virtue and to say3 ,for shame1 what are
 you thronging into the towns for8 ,go  
back to the land2 plough1 spin1 weave1  
ply the blacksmith's hammer1 as did our 
forefathers1 who were the proper sort of
 people4 ,and leave the people like us1 
who think and write poetry and brood and
 dream for you1 a house embowered in    
vines--there will be room enough for    
that6--,ah1 you thinkers and brooders1  
what would you say if men answered you3 

,no6 ,go yourself and spin in a factory1
 for you have shown clearly enough that 
your thinking and brooding are futile4  
,all your fine phrases amount to nothing
 but the one dread monosyllable--,die6  
,are you so wicked as that1 and know it8
 or so stupid1 and know it not8         
,thought is the most responsible of all 
functions4 ,he who thinks for others    
must look after them1 and if they live  
he may not slay them4 ,it is therefore a
 mischievous piece of romantic folly to 
point us to the past4 ,we must all pass 
through the dark gateway1 and the sage  
has no right to growl3 ,leave me out--,i
 am the salt of the earth6 ,the first   
thing we have to do is to save humanity2
 not a selected pair in the ,ark but the
 whole race1 criminals and harlots1     
fools1 beggars and cripples4 ,we        
ourselves have cast down ,authority1 and
 there will be a crush1 and many things 
will look very different from what the  
sages would wish and what the romantics 
dream4 ,and if it is going to be hell   

for people like you and me1 we must only
 accept it in the name of justice1 and  
think of ,dante's terrible inscription3 
,i was made by the ,might of ,god1 by   
the supreme ,wisdom and by the primal   
,love4#af  ,but is it hell8 ,that       
depends on ourselves4  ,,footnotes3     
,footnote #ae3 ,in #aiac all ,germany   
was celebrating with great pomp and     
warlike display the centenary of the    
liberation of the country from          
,napoleon1 and also paying a huge       
property tax for the coming war4        
,footnote #af3  ,fecemi la divina       
,potestate ,la somma ,sapienza e il     
primo ,amore4  ,this is part of the     
inscription over the gates of ,hell in  
the ,inferno1 ,canto ,,iii4     ,,viii  
,our description of the future order of 
society was tacitly based on the        
assumption that our mentality1 our      
ethics1 our spiritual outlook1 would    
remain as they are at present4  ,this   
assumption is a probable one1 but it is 
not irrevocably certain4 ,what we have  

endeavoured to demonstrate is simply the
 obvious fact--the fact which our once  
so rigid but1 since ,november1 #aiah1   
uprooted and flaccid intellectualism has
 forgotten--that our salvation is not to
 be found in any kind of mechanical     
apparatus or institutions4 ,institutions
 do not mean evolution4 ,if institutions
 run too far ahead of evolution there   
will be reaction4 ,when evolution runs  
too far1 there is revolution4  ,at this 
point both groups of our opponents will 
start up against us4  ,the ,radicals    
cry3 ,ha6 only give us food1 give all   
power to the ,soviets1 let us have      
free-thought lectures1 and mentality1   
insight1 experience and culture will    
come of themselves4  ,the ,reactionaries
 smile3 ,ho6 this man has never learned 
that there is no such thing as          
evolution2 that human character never   
changes4  ,i shall not answer either of 
these4 ,they know1 both of them1 that   
they are saying what is not true4       
,something of unprecedented greatness   

can and must take place2 something that 
in the life of a people corresponds to  
the awakening of manhood in the         
individual4  ,in every conscious        
existence there comes a moment when the 
living being is no longer determined but
 begins to determine himself2 when he   
takes over responsibility from the      
surrounding ,powers1 in order to        
shoulder it for himself2 when he no     
longer accepts the forces that guide    
him1 but creates them2 when he no longer
 receives but freely chooses the values1
 ideals1 aims and authorities whose     
validity he will admit2 when he begets  
out of his own being the relations with 
the divine which he means to serve4 ,for
 the ,german people this moment1 this   
opportunity1 has now arrived--or is for 
ever lost4  ,we have made a clear sweep 
of all authorities4 ,the inherited      
influences which we accepted            
unconsciously have dropped away from    
us--persons1 classes1 dogmas4 ,the      
persons are done with for the present4  

,the classes1 even though they may still
 keep up the struggle1 are broken to    
pieces together with all the best that  
they contained3 mentality1 sense of     
honour1 devotion1 training1 tradition4  
,we can never reanimate them and never  
supply their place4 ,ideas and dogmas   
have long ago lost their cogency2 the   
power they wielded through police and   
school1 the power which we tried to prop
 up by a blasphemous degradation of     
religion and by developing the church as
 a kind of factory1 is gone1 and it     
would be a piece of mechanical          
presumption to suppose that we can breed
 them again for the sake of the objects 
they fulfilled4 ,if we live and thrive1 
ideas and faiths will grow up of        
themselves4  ,we must of our own free   
choice lay upon ourselves a certain     
life-potency or faculty which we shall  
freely obey1 and which shall be so broad
 and so buoyant that thought and        
creation can grow out of it4 ,a deed    
without precedent only in its voluntary1

 conscious self-determination3 for other
 peoples in earlier days also accepted  
these faculties1 not indeed out of      
conscious choice1 but from the hands of 
prophets1 rulers and classes4 ,thus     
theocracy was laid upon ,israel2 the    
caste-system on the ,indians2 the idea  
of the city on the ,greeks2 empire on   
the ,romans2 the ,church on the ,middle 
,ages2 commerce1 plutocracy1 colonial   
dominion1 on the modern world2          
militarism on ,germany4 ,for these      
imposed forces men lived and died2 they 
had only a mythical conception of where 
they came from1 and they believed and   
some still believe them to be           
everlasting4  ,a thunder-stroke of      
destiny has at once stripped us bare and
 has opened our eyes4 ,the tremendous   
choice is before us4 ,are we to reject  
it1 and1 blinded anew1 to resign        
ourselves to the casual and mechanical  
laws of action and reaction1 of needs   
and interests1 and the competition of   
forces8 ,are we to recover ourselves1   

and enter into the intellectual arena of
 the nations1 to begin a new and        
enduring life with no other guiding     
thought than that of self-preservation  
and the division of property8 ,in the   
harbour of the nations is our ship to   
drift aimlessly while every other knows 
its course1 whether to a near or distant
 port8 ,is that penurious ,paradise     
which we have described1 the goal of    
,germany's hopes and struggles8         
,compared with us1 the ,french movement 
of the eighteenth century had an easy   
task4 ,all it had to do was to deny and 
demolish4 ,when it had cleared away the 
wreckage of feudalism1 at once a strong 
new class1 the bourgeoisie1 sprang up   
from the soil1 more vigorous than its   
aristocratic forerunner1 and it was able
 to take care of itself4 ,and the       
bourgeoisie was also a class of defined 
boundaries1 and already trained for its 
task2 it had long ago taken over ,french
 culture1 it alone had for a century    
been the champion of ,french ideas1 it  

had acquired enthusiasm for the nation1 
for freedom1 for militarism and for     
money2 the aspirations for equality and 
fraternity were not indeed fulfilled1   
but the first mechanized and plutocratic
 state of the ,continent came into      
being4  ,germany1 as we have seen1 is   
not in the same position4 ,when we are  
stripped we find no new stratum of      
culture growing up below the surface2   
society is simply dissolved1 and in its 
place we find the masses1 of which the  
most hopeful thing we can say is that   
they are an ordered body4 ,tradition has
 been torn in two4 ,no--we have to build
 from the foundations up4 ,but whether  
we shall build according to the changing
 needs of the seasons1 according to the 
casual balance of forces1 or according  
to an idea and a symbol--that is the    
question6  ,our current ,socialism has  
no qualms about bringing new nations to 
birth with the aid of a few simple      
apparatus and radical eliminations2 it  
believes that the right spirit will soon

 enter in if only institutions are      
provided for it4 ,it would be too severe
 to describe this way of thinking solely
 as contempt for or want of             
understanding of a spiritual mission4   
,socialism in its prevailing form arises
 indeed simply from material or         
so-called scientific conceptions 7as if 
there could be a science of ideal aims  
and values73 but it has1 though only as 
a secondary object1 annexed to itself   
the values of a spiritual faith--the    
latter are1 as the language of the      
market has it1 thrown in4 ,we have seen 
to what the material domination of      
institutions and apparatus is leading   
us4 ,to national dignity1 or to any     
mission for humanity1 it does not lead4 
,what is unprecedented in our problem is
 not1 as we have said1 that a people    
should beget out of itself its own idea 
and mission4 ,from the ,jewish theocracy
 to the ,french rationalism1 from the   
,chinese ancestor-worship to the        
pioneer-freedom of ,america1 all the    

cultured peoples have brought this      
creative act to pass1 although in       
formative epochs leading classes and    
leading men have born the responsibility
 and made it easy for their countrymen  
to become aware of their own unconscious
 spirit1 and through this awareness and 
consciousness to isolate and intensify  
it4  ,what is unprecedented is just     
this3 that the process should take place
 as a deliberate act of will1 in        
democratic freedom1 without pressure and
 compulsion of authority1 in the        
consciousness of its necessity1 on our  
own responsibility4 ,germany is not at  
present growing leaders and prophets1 we
 are not in a formative stage1 all      
authority has been scattered to the     
winds4 ,it is true that we have one     
stratum of society which is capable of  
understanding the meaning of the task1  
but it is deeply cloven1 the hatreds and
 interests of its parties make them more
 each other's enemies than the people's4
  ,and yet it is this very class--not as

 possessor of means but as possessor of 
the tradition1 which is capable1 which  
is indispensable1 and which is summoned 
to take in hand the transformation of   
the ,german spirit1 to free it from the 
bonds of mechanism1 of capitalism1 of   
militarism1 and to lead it to its true  
destinies4 ,it cannot do this for itself
 alone1 amid the blind bitterness of the
 war of classes2 it cannot do it as a   
sovran leader relying on its deeper     
insight1 for its and every other        
prestige has gone by the board2 it can  
only do it by the way of service and    
sacrifice--it can only do it if the     
service and the sacrifice are approved  
and accepted4  ,the masses will not     
understand this sacrifice of service2   
but the more responsible of their       
leaders will4 ,not to-day1 indeed1 nor  
to-morrow2 but on the day when          
experience has shown them that ,i am    
telling the truth4 ,at first they will  
do as in ,russia2 when want becomes     
acute1 they will seek to buy experience 

and tradition at a high price from      
individuals4 ,but mentality and spirit  
cannot be bought--only labour and       
dexterity4 ,then gradually men will come
 to understand that the highest things  
are not marketable commodities1 they are
 only given away4 ,and at last the      
responsible leaders1 those who rule in  
order to serve1 will separate themselves
 from those of the ,cataline type1 who  
serve in order to rule4  ,so long has   
the narrow1 parsonical1 cynical contempt
 for the understanding of the lower     
classes prevailed--through our fault--a 
reversal to blind worship of the masses1
 of the immature and the unsuccessful1  
is not inexcusable4 ,we are here to love
 mankind--all mankind1 the outcast as   
well as the weak--every man and all men4
 ,but the masses are not quite the same 
thing as mankind4 ,the masses who       
congregate in the streets and at public 
meetings are not communities consisting 
of whole men1 but assemblages in which  
each man takes a part and is present1   

indeed1 with his whole body1 but by no  
means with his whole being4 ,the masses 
are absent-minded2 and presence of mind 
only comes to them when through the lips
 of some true prophet the ,spirit       
descends upon them4 ,but when that      
happens1 they take no decisions2 they do
 not get beside themselves2 rather1 they
 sink into themselves4 ,before the      
distortions of a mob orator1 with his   
extravagant promises1 the masses become 
merely a driven crowd eager for gain1   
not human souls4 ,they are the concave  
reflector of passions and greeds that   
rage in the focal point of the speaker's
 rostrum2 they return in concentrated   
form the rays that dazzle them4 ,he who 
puts the masses in the judgment-seat1   
who looks for counsel and decision at   
their hands1 has neither reverence nor  
love for man4 ,sooner or later the truth
 of this will be realized by all        
honourable men among their leaders4     
,the day is also far when the upper     
classes will come to their senses4 ,they

 have never understood what the world   
is1 nor what ,germany is1 nor what has  
happened to themselves4 ,they see houses
 and fields1 streets and trees very much
 as they were2 they think1 if they only 
play the game a little craftily at the  
beginning1 everything will remain as it 
used to be1 and they will come out all  
right in the end4 ,it is just as when   
some merchant goes bankrupt for a       
million2 for the first fortnight the    
servants wait at table as usual and the 
family eat off silver plate2 the ruin is
 still on paper4 ,but in a year's time  
everything is dispersed to the winds1   
and men have changed along with their   
utensils4 ,when one sees for what       
trivialities people are fighting to-day 
one begins to understand how callously  
and shamelessly they gave up a thousand 
times over that which they had sworn to 
defend with the last drop of their      
blood2 then none of them know what has  
really happened4 ,in a few years' time  
they will know2 and then they will fight

 no more for things that no longer      
exist2 they will be meditating a general
 sacrifice to save what can still be    
saved1 and what is worth saving4        
,,ix   ,germany is a land without power1
 without poise1 with its prosperity     
shattered1 its authorities and its      
external aims annihilated1 its intellect
 and its ethics at a low ebb4 ,in such a
 condition1 if we wish to understand the
 only kind of life-faculty which can    
save us from intellectual and spiritual 
death1 give us force and inspiration to 
shape for ourselves and for the world   
the new social order of freedom1        
spirituality#ag and justice1 and in the 
true sense to save us1 we must look     
ourselves and the ,german character in  
the face--this unknown1 problematic     
character1 which for a century in       
contradiction to its own inmost being1  
has been flattering and lulling itself  
with hackneyed and complacent phrases   
and unproved judgments4 ,for we can     
undertake nothing and claim nothing     

which has not its prototype in our own  
soul and is not founded in our own past1
 our own traditions4  ,there is no      
people1 not even the ,french1 which in  
recent decades has administered to      
itself and digested so much praise as we
 have4 ,we never  discussed ourselves   
but at once the stereotyped toasts      
began4 ,the more ,german culture        
declined1 the more disgusting became our
 babble about it4  ,the persons through 
whose mouths we let ourselves be lauded 
were school-teachers without comparative
 knowledge1 professional                
banquet-orators1 nationalists who       
praised in the service of some          
interested hatred1 and scholars with    
appointments who were simply            
commissioned to demonstrate that the    
,hohenzollern system was the last word  
of creation4 ,no one dreamed of         
distinguishing this glorification of the
 ,german people from the apotheosis of  
the dynasties--to which we had vowed our
 heart's blood--and the profound        

insincerity of these declamations was   
shown by the indifference with which the
 dynasties1 the main feature in the     
programme1 were afterwards got rid of1  
and the affair of the heart's blood     
shelved4  ,we know the stereotyped      
phrases4 ,german faith1 ,french knavery4
 ,the world is to find healing in the   
,german soul4 ,we are the heroes--the   
others are hucksters4#ah ,to be ,german 
means to do a thing for its own sake4   
,we are a race of thinkers and poets4   
,we have ,culture1 the others merely    
,civilization4#ai ,we alone are         
free--the others are merely             
undisciplined 7or1 as the case may be1  
enslaved74 ,all this we owe to the      
favour of ,god and our education under  
the 7here fill in ,prussian1 ,bavarian  
or ,saxon7 reigning ,house1 which all   
the world envies us4 ,clearly therefore 
we are destined for world-dominion2 we  
have only to fall-to4  ,in one of these 
phrases1 about doing things for their   
own sake1#bj there is truth4 ,all the   

more was it for us in particular a vice 
and a sign of degradation to let        
ourselves be dazzled by the shadowless  
transparency-picture of glorification   
that was offered to us4 ,there were     
interests concealed in the game1 and    
much lack of moral fibre1 all of which  
we passed over in silence2 it was out of
 place in our festal oratory4  ,it would
 be an equal or even a greater vice1    
only reversed1 if we were now to despair
 of ourselves4 ,moderation was what we  
needed then2 what we need now is        
vigorous and conscious self-possession4 
,to-day it is no easy and attractive    
business to bring our strong qualities  
to the surface2 it implies an amount of 
conviction which it is hard to attain1  
and self-depreciation means a pitiful   
faint-heartedness4 ,but all sham goods  
offered by babblers1 by selfish         
interests1 prophets of hate and         
commercial travellers must go overboard4
  ,we have never been a race of thinkers
 and poets1 any more than the ,jews were

 a race of prophets1 the  ,french and   
,dutch a race of painters1 or ,knigsberg
 a city of ,pure ,reason4#ba ,the old   
,german upper classes have1 in three    
well-defined epochs1 had force enough to
 throw up individuals of mighty         
endowments for music1 poetry and        
philosophy2 the former lower-classes1   
whose blood runs in nine-tenths of our  
present population1 have scarcely       
contributed anything to these glories4  
,they have in recent years shown        
themselves thoroughly industrious1      
plastic1 apt for discipline1            
order-loving1 intelligent1 practical1   
honourable1 trustworthy1 warm-hearted1  
prudent and helpful1 and adapted beyond 
all expectation to the mechanization of 
life and industry2 of their power to    
produce talent we know little1 except   
perhaps in the domain of research and   
technique1 which are less a test of     
creative energy than of applied         
knowledge and methodical assiduity4     
,the important question as to what      

relations exist between the number1     
quality and greatness of individual     
endowments and genius on the one side1  
and the character of a people on the    
other1 is still unexplored and very     
obscure1 although we possess a science  
which calls itself by the quite         
unjustified name of national psychology4
  ,while on one side we have rarely made
 any serious study of national          
characteristics1 but have confused them 
with achievements of culture and habits 
of life that mostly proceeded from a    
thin upper stratum alone1 on the other  
we have as a rule tacitly set down      
individual endowment 7with a strong     
emphasis on our own7 as illustrations of
 national character4 ,in this respect1  
too1 we showed that laxity in proving   
what we wanted to prove which abounds   
everywhere from the point where         
calculation with things weighable and   
measurable leaves off1 and judgment     
begins4 ,we think it an established     
fact--in accordance with just this      

arbitrary test of genius--that genius   
belongs par excellence to the so-called 
blonde blue-eyed races of the earth4    
,the fact that among the score or two of
 geniuses of all ages who have been     
determining forces in the world it is   
hardly possible to find a single example
 of this blue-blonde race1 but they can 
be proved to have been almost all dark1 
did not affect the question4 ,on the    
other hand the ,english1 whose influence
 on culture has been surpassed by none1 
had their genius-forming power1 in which
 they are actually deficient1 seriously 
over-estimated4 ,it was the reverse with
 the ,jews4 ,the fact that in spite of  
their small numbers they have produced  
more of world-moving genius than all    
other nations put together1 and that    
from them has proceeded the whole       
transcendental ethics of the ,western   
world1 has not prevented their being    
pronounced wholly incapable of creative 
endowment4  ,we shall put aside all this
 rubbish and for the present decline to 

go into theoretic questions4 ,great     
individual endowments are related to    
national character--to the character of 
the mind1 not that of the will1 which   
must be considered apart--as the blossom
 to the plant or the crystal to the     
mother-solution2 to determine the one   
from the other needs something more than
 a mechanical generalization4 ,there is 
no such thing as a race of thinkers and 
poets4 ,this1 however1 we can say3 that 
a people which begets great musicians1  
poets and philosophers is one which     
devotes itself to moods and to visions1 
while another1 as for instance the      
,latin group1 which creates forms and   
standards1 is one that at the cost of   
mood and vision1 incarnates its sense of
 will4  ,devotion1 receptivity1 the     
feeling for ,nature1 comprehension1 the 
passion for truth1 meditative depth1    
spiritual love1 are the fairest gifts   
that can be granted to any people1 and  
to us they have been granted4 ,but they 
exclude other gifts1 which stand to-day 

in high repute1 and which we affect in  
vain4 ,they exclude the capacity for    
shaping forms and standards1 the        
aptitude for rule1 if not even for      
self-government2 in any case the        
qualities which go to the creation of   
nationalities and civilizations4  ,it is
 no mere accident that in not one of the
 hundredfold provinces of life1 from art
 to military organization1 from         
,state-craft to jointstock-companies1   
from saintliness to table-utensils1 have
 we ,germans discovered a single        
essential and enduring form4 ,and again1
 there is scarcely one of these forms   
which we have not filled with a richer  
and more living content than those who  
first discovered it4  ,for whoever bears
 the ,all within himself can be         
satisfied with no form2 he finds in     
himself at once vision and reality1     
thesis and antithesis4 ,he seeks for a  
synthesis1 but all form is one-sided4   
,he conceives1 chooses1 comprehends1    
fulfils1 breaks in pieces and throws    

away4 ,he remains a unity in constant   
change1 like the year as it proceeds day
 by day1 hour by hour1 and no two of    
them alike4 ,he does not force          
things--out of respect for creation4    
,but he who makes forms must use force4 
,he makes himself the standard and      
comprehends himself only4 ,everything   
else1 everything that is extra-normal1  
unconformable1 unintelligible and not   
understood remains for him something    
alien1 trivial1 inferior1 or negligible4
 ,the maker of forms can rule1 even by  
compulsion1 without being a tyrant1 for 
he is convinced of the value of what he 
brings and knows no doubts4 ,he is      
ruthless1 yet only up to a certain      
limit1 which is determined by his sense 
of the inferiority of the other4 ,the   
man who rejects forms1 however1 cannot  
rule2 the very penetration into the     
domain of another seems to him a wrong  
to his own1 the basis of which is       
recognition and allowance4 ,if he is    
forced to penetrate1 he loses all       

balance1 for in wrong-doing he          
understands no gradations4 ,similarly he
 is incapable of civilizing1 for he     
cannot take forms seriously2 he violates
 them himself--how can he impose them   
upon others8 ,in his inmost soul he is  
nave1 for creation is seething in him2  
but in execution he is conscious1       
critical1 eclectic and methodical1 in   
order that he may be completely master  
of the one-sided element into which he  
has forced himself4 ,the man of forms1  
however1 is1 in his soul1 rigid and     
conscious1 but in action nave1 because  
he does not know the meaning of doubt4  
,forms grow up like natural products in 
the course of centuries4 ,they assume   
the existence of uniformity in          
individuals1 fathers reproduced in sons 
with scarcely a variation4 ,egypt1      
,rome1 and that modern land of          
antiquity1 ,france1 are examples4 ,for  
generations ,france has been content    
with three architectural styles1 which  
are really one and the same style4 ,the 

changes in the language are hardly      
perceptible4 ,the principal domestic    
utensils are almost the same as they    
were a hundred years ago1 fashion is    
merely a vibration4 ,foreign living     
languages are little studied1 their     
spirit is not understood1 the           
pronunciation remains ,french4 ,foreign 
countries are looked on as a kind of    
menagerie2 everything is measured by the
 native standard4 ,every one is a judge 
of everything1 for he holds fast to the 
norm4 ,within the norm the ,french are  
keenly sensitive1 their feeling for     
relations is very sure2 the slightest   
deviation is observed4 ,to doubt the    
validity of the norm is out of question2
 one might as well criticize the sun and
 moon as the style of ,louis ,quatorze4 
,the final judgment of the ,british in  
the affairs of life is this is ,english1
 that is not ,english4 ,foreign lands   
are a subject of geographical and       
ethnological study4 ,the whole mighty   
will of a nation is here concentrated in

 the form of civilizing political       
energy4 ,every private inclination is a 
fad1 and even fads have their fixed     
forms4 ,an offence against table-manners
 is banned like an attack on the        
,church4 ,nature is mastered with       
consideration and intelligence1 whether 
the problem is the breeding of sheep or 
the ruling of ,india4  ,the assurance1  
self-command and art of ruling which    
spring from forms are lacking in        
,germany4 ,our strongest spirits are    
formless2 they are eclectic or titanic1 
whether they despise forms or choose    
forms or burst forms4 ,we have three    
homes between which we hover--,germany1 
the earth1 and heaven4 ,we comprehend   
and honour everything--every land1 every
 man1 every art and every language2 and 
we are fertilized by what is foreign2 on
 the lower level we enjoy it and imitate
 it1 on the higher it spurs us to       
creation4 ,we are docile1 and do not    
hate what rules and determines us1 only 
what contracts us and makes us          

one-sided2 an autocratic government may 
be tolerated1 even venerated1 if it     
knows how to be national and popular and
 does not interfere with our elbow-room4
  ,we have already touched on the       
volitional character#bb of the ,german  
people1 a character which has been      
gravely altered by the subsidence of the
 ancient upper stratum of society1 and  
by long privations and miseries4 ,the   
,germans of ,tacitus were a             
freedom-loving  and turbulent people2 of
 this not a trace is left4 ,any one who 
did not recognize under the autocracy   
that we care little for                 
self-determination and                  
self-responsibility may do so under the 
revolution1 which merely arises out of  
an alteration in external conditions4   
,we are not even yet a nation1 but an   
association of interests and            
oppositions2 a ,german ,irredenta1 as it
 has been and unfortunately will be     
shown1 is an impossible conception4 ,and
 since we are not a nation and represent

 no national idea1 but only an          
association of households1 it follows   
that our influence abroad can only be   
commercial1 and not civilizing or       
propagandist4  ,from this side we are   
able to understand the ,german history  
of the past two centuries4 ,prussia1 an 
extra-,german ,power1 grown up in       
colonized territory1 organized itself   
into a bureaucratic1 feudal and military
 ,state4 ,it succeeded in mastering half
 ,germany and in loosely linking up the 
remainder4 ,by rigid organization1 by   
its federated ,princes and by the       
strongest army in the world1 it supplied
 the place of the national character and
 will which were wanting4 ,mechanism was
 pressed into the service1 and bore the 
colossus into a period of blooming      
prosperity4 ,the system looked like a   
nation2 in reality it was an autocratic 
association of economic interests       
bristling with arms4 ,it was incapable  
of developing national forces and ideas1
 not even in relation to its settlers in

 other lands2 it was confined to        
commercial competition2 weak alliances  
were relied on to secure the position   
externally2 self-government was not     
granted1 because the military           
organization was the pivot of the whole 
system2 the drill-sergeant tone at home 
had its counterpart in the brusqueness  
of our foreign policy2 enmities grew and
 organized themselves1 and the          
catastrophe came4  ,for character of    
will we had substituted discipline4 ,but
 discipline is not nationality2 it is an
 external instrument1 and when it breaks
 it leaves--nothing4 ,now since the     
,prussian system which called itself by 
the medival title of the ,german ,empire
 was1 in spite of the professors1 no    
popular1 national fabric1 but a         
dynastic1 military and compulsory       
association1 with a constitutional      
faade1 the interested nationalist       
elements took on the repulsive and      
dishonourable forms that we all know4   
,the most deeply interested parties1    

cool and conscious of their strength1   
the ,prussian representatives of the    
military and official nobility1 avoided 
all declamation and only interfered when
 their interests were endangered4 ,the  
greater industrialists sold themselves4 
,a higher stratum of the middle-classes 
composed of certain circles of higher   
teachers and subaltern officials took   
the business seriously1 and in order to 
escape from their drab existence created
 that atmosphere of hatred of           
,socialists1 telegrams of homage1 and   
megalomania1 which made us              
intellectually and morally impossible   
before the world4 ,instead of the       
,germany of thought and spirit one saw  
suddenly a brutal1 stupid community of  
interested persons1 greedy for power1   
who gave themselves out as that ,germany
 whose very opposite they were2 who1    
unable to point to any achievements1 any
 thought of their own1 prided themselves
 on an imaginary race-unity which their 
very appearance contradicted2 who had no

 ideas beyond rancour2 the slaverings of
 league-oratory and subordination1 and  
who with these properties1 which they   
were pleased to call ,kultur1 undertook 
to bring blessing to the world4  ,it was
 no wonder2 for our slavonicized        
association of interests1 bent on       
subordination and on gain1 does not     
produce ideas2 its possessions were     
power1 mechanism and money2 whoever was 
impressed by these things believed they 
must impress others too1 and so the     
conclusion was arrived at that all the  
great spirits of the past had lived only
 to make this triple combination        
supreme4 ,wagner had formed the bridge  
between the old ,germany and the        
new--armoured cruisers and giant guns   
appeared as a free development from     
,kant and ,hegel1 and the word ,kultur1 
a word which ,germany ought to prohibit 
by law for thirty years to come1 masked 
the confusion of thought4  ,to discover 
now1 after our downfall1 that ,germany  
ought never to have carried on a        

continental let alone a world policy1   
would be a pitiful example of esprit    
d'escalier4 ,it is true that it was our 
right1 and even our duty1 by our        
intellect1 our ethics and our greatness1
 to carry it on2 but the weakness of our
 character on the side of ,will was the 
cause of its failure4 ,bismarck1 a born 
realist in politics1 grown up in the    
,prussian tradition1 trained in the     
diplomatic tradition by ,gortschakov1   
made the calamitous choice4 ,he made us 
safe for certain decades2 but it was    
only an intuitive policy in the manner  
of ,stein#bc that could have saved us   
for centuries4  ,in the midst of        
self-administered and self-determining  
nations the ,german people1 from lack of
 self-consciousness1 indolence of will  
and innate servility remained under a   
patriarchal system of government1 a     
minor under tutelage of                 
divinely-appointed dynasties and ruling 
classes4 ,in the childish movement of   
the educated bourgeoisie of #ahdh       

,bismarck saw only the helpless and     
,utopian1 but not the symbolic side1    
which ,marx might have shown him4 ,his  
practical spirit judged with a smile    
that a handful of peasantry and         
grenadiers would suffice to bring to    
reason this dynastically-minded people4 
,it was only too true2 although the bulk
 of this people had not for thirty years
 been formed by the peasant class1 and  
although he himself had learned how to  
make use of the power of the modern     
industrial ,state in peasant disguise4  
,and so he refused to allow his         
countrymen to come of age2 broke1 with  
the superiority of genius1 and with the 
weapons of success and authority1 the   
incompetent forces that resisted him2   
created1 by  the magical mechanism of   
his ,constitution1 the ,german ,empire  
as a mere continuation of the ,prussian 
bureaucratic ,state reinforced1 by the  
self-glorifying dynasties1 with the     
whole volume of the still existing and  
justly appreciated habit of obedience2  

and annihilated for a generation every  
aspiration for freedom by branding it   
with the stain of moral and social      
depravity4 ,our political worthlessness 
and immaturity came to its climax in the
 race of office-climbers in #ahhj1 which
 in #aijj gave place to the battle-fleet
 patriotism of the great capitalists4   
,a self-administered and a              
self-determining nation--such as the    
nations of the world1 except ourselves1 
,austria and ,russia1 were1 on the      
whole1 at the turn of the century--would
 have been able to carry on a sound and 
steadfast policy in economics and public
 affairs1 and to enjoy the confidence of
 the world1 as little begrudged as      
,america4 ,on the other hand1 a         
dangerous warship1 armed upon an        
unexampled scale1 given to backward     
movements and commanded by an           
uncontrollable sovran dilettante1 could 
only expect sooner or later to be       
expelled from the harbour of the        
nations4 ,history is apt to overdo it1  

especially when corruption has gone on  
too long2 with every year that passed   
the doom became more certain2 instead of
 being expelled1 we were annihilated4   
,that four years of hunger1 a lost war  
and a military revolt at last set us    
free1 does not betoken any change of    
character2 and when to-day a servile and
 facile ,press lauds our wretched and   
idealess ,constitution as the finest in 
the world1 that gives us no assurance of
 its power to endure4 ,understanding is 
no substitute for character1 but it is  
at any rate a step towards the goal2 and
 if it is once understood that other    
measures are possible1 and if1 out of   
this period1 certain writings and       
thoughts shall survive--and survive they
 will--then at any rate we may still be 
weak1 but we shall be no longer blind4  
,it might be possible at the outset of  
our journey towards strength of will    
that we should grope our way            
slowly--very slowly--back to the old    
problems of power4 ,it does not matter  

if we do4 ,before we get there1 the     
world will be changed1 and will be      
pregnant with new thoughts4 ,let us     
fulfil the duties for which ,germany was
 made what it is4 ,let us go in quest of
 the idea and the faculty that are laid 
upon us2 let us do this in order to     
live1 to recover our health1 to shape   
ourselves anew1 to remain a ,people1 to 
become a ,nation1 to create a future and
 to serve the world4  ,,footnotes3      
,footnote #ag3 ,geistigkeit4 ,this is a 
difficult word to translate4 ,it        
sometimes means merely intellectuality1 
sometimes in addition 7as here7 all that
 is implied in the phrase1 ,ye know not 
what manner of spirit 7,greek3 oiou     
pneumatos7 ye are of4  ,footnote #ah3   
,referring to ,werner ,sombart's        
war-book1 ,hndler und ,helden4          
,footnote #ai3 ,cf4 ,thomas ,mann's     
remarkable book on the real significance
 of the war3 ,betrachtungen eines       
,unpolitischen 7#aiah74  ,footnote #bj3 
,sachlichkeit4 ,rathenau seems to have  

in mind the ,german feeling for         
disinterested study and research as     
illustrated1 for instance1 by the fact  
that when the ,german ,government heard 
of the genius of ,einstein they brought 
him to ,berlin with a salary of nearly  
#ajjj a year and no duties except to    
think4 ,modern bigotry has expelled him4
  ,footnote #ba3 ,where ,kant lived and 
taught1 and published his ,kritik der   
reinen ,vernunft4  ,footnote #bb3 ,as   
opposed to the inward1 intellectual and 
spiritual character4  ,footnote #bc3    
,stein was the chief leader of ,prussia 
from the ,frederician into the modern   
era4 ,his ministry of reform by which a 
peasant-proprietary was established1 and
 municipal institutions created1 lasted 
only from ,september #ahjg to ,november 
#ahjh4     ,x   ,on balance it seems    
that the endowments of the ,german      
people work out as follows3--  ,high    
qualities of intellect and heart4       
,ethics and mentality normal4           
,originative will-power and independent 

activity1 weak4  ,we give our devotion  
freely1 and the heart rules in action4  
,our feelings are genuine and powerful4 
,we have courage and endurance4 ,led by 
sentiment rather than by inspiration4   
,we create no forms1 are self-forgetful1
 seek no responsibility1 obey rather    
than rule4 ,in obedience we know no     
limit1 and never question what is       
imposed upon us4  ,of its own accord the
 ,german people would never have adopted
 an ideal of force4 ,it was imposed on  
us by the idolaters of the great        
war-machine and those who gained by it2 
even ,bismarck did not share it4  ,we   
are not competent to form an ideal of   
civilization1 for the sense of unity1   
will to leadership1 and formative energy
 are lacking to us4 ,we have no         
political mission for the arrangement of
 other people's affairs1 for we cannot  
arrange our own2 we do not lead a full  
life1 and are politically unripe4  ,we  
are endowed as no other people is for a 
mission of the spirit4 ,such a mission  

was ours till a century ago2 we         
renounced it1 because through political 
slackness of will-power we fell out of  
step2 we did not keep pace with the     
other nations in internal political     
development1 and1 instead1 devoted      
ourselves to the most far-reaching      
developments of mechanism and to their  
counterpart in bids for power4 ,it was  
,faust1 lured away from his true path1  
cast off by the ,earth-,spirit1 astray  
among witches1 brawlers and alchemists4 
,but the ,faust-soul of ,germany is not 
dead4 ,of all peoples on the earth we   
alone have never ceased to struggle with
 ourselves4 ,and not with ourselves     
alone1 but with our dmon1 our ,god4 ,we 
still hear within ourselves the ,all1 we
 still expand in every breath of        
creation4 ,we understand the language of
 things1 of men and of peoples4 ,we     
measure everything by itself1 not by us2
 we do not seek our own will1 but the   
truth4 ,we are all alike and yet all    
different2 each of us is a wanderer1 a  

brooder1 a seeker4 ,things of the spirit
 are taken seriously with us2 we do not 
make them serve our lives1 we serve them
 with ours4  ,and you dare to say this1 
in the face of all the brutalizing and  
bemiring that we experience--the        
profiteering and gormandizing1 the      
abject submissiveness1 the shameless    
desertions1 the apathy1 the insincerity1
 the heartlessness and mindlessness of  
our day8  ,yes1 ,i dare to say it1 for  
,i believe it and ,i know it4 ,the soul 
of the ,german people lies still in the 
convulsions and hallucinations of its   
slow recovery4 ,it is recovery not alone
 from the war1 but from something worse1
 its hundred-years' alienation from     
itself4 ,the much-ridiculed choice of   
our old romantic unheraldic colours1    
black1 red and gold1 instead of the     
bodiless and soulless colours under     
which we waged the war1#bd was1 among   
the whirling follies of the time1 a     
faint symbolic movement of our better   
mind4 ,we must reunite ourselves with   

the days before we ceased to be ,germans
 and became ,berliners4  ,what we need  
is ,spirit4 ,the whole world needs it1  
no more and no less than we do1 but will
 never create it4 ,history knows why it 
decided for ,versailles and the ,hall of
 ,mirrors4 ,not mechanism alone1 with   
its retinue of nationalism and          
imperialism1 is now again and for the   
last time to be glorified2 no1 the whole
 ,franco-,british policy of acquisition 
mounts up even to the throne of the     
,sun-king1 and it is seriously believed 
that it will govern the destinies of the
 world for centuries to come4 ,an       
inconceivable1 and1 in its monstrous    
irony1 unsurpassable drama1 which is put
 forward as the introduction to the     
great era4 ,the bourgeois conscience of 
the ,west  has no inkling of what it    
means4 ,to this conscience1 the war was 
a huge violation of decency1 contrived  
by bandits2 its victory is the final    
triumph of a capitalist1 rationalistic  
civilization2 the torch lit in the ,east

 means murder and incendiarism1 and the 
upward migration of the people from the 
depths is to it invisible4  ,no2 it is  
not here that the spirit of the future  
is being formed4 ,one may discover      
further ingenious devices1              
lightning-conductors to mitigate the    
stroke2 but gently or violently a       
natural force will have its way1 and the
 new earth which it is preparing needs  
new seed4  ,that we have been given the 
faculty to shape a new spirit does not  
imply that we are at liberty to choose  
whether we shall do it or not4 ,even if 
it were not for our life's sake--even if
 it were against our life--still we must
 obey4 ,but it is for our life's sake1  
as we have seen1 and as it is indeed    
obvious1 for every organism can live    
only by fulfilling the purpose of its   
being4  ,and now we have got to a very  
dangerous place--a place where the usual
 moral peroration lies in wait for      
us--that ,german peroration which       
announces universal redemption1 and     

immediately1 on that lofty note1 closes 
the discussion4 ,fatherland1 ,morality1 
,humanity1 ,labour1 ,courage1           
,confidence--we all know how it goes1   
the writer has written something fine1  
the reader has read something fine2     
emotion on both sides1 little conviction
 on either4  ,it appears1 then1 that ,i 
have just been writing something        
extremely suspect4 ,has the reader      
followed me through five-and-thirty of  
these difficult folios in order to      
arrive in the end at that very everyday 
term1 ,spirit8#be ,is there any term in 
commoner use1 and what are we to think  
about it8 ,softly--there is worse to    
come6 ,the next word is still more      
dubious1 philistinishly so1 in fact--the
 word ,culture4#bf ,i cannot help it--we
 must pass on by way of these everyday  
conceptions4 ,we must get through the   
crowd1 where hack-phrases elbow us4 ,any
 journey you may take1 though it were to
 ,tibet1 must begin at the ,berlin      
,central ,railway ,station4 ,what is    

wrong with these popular phrases is not 
that they start from an everyday        
conception1 but that they remain content
 with it1 and do not think it out to the
 end4  ,our task1 therefore1 stated in  
the most general terms1 is to make      
actually spiritual a people which is    
capable of spirituality4 ,and since     
spirituality cannot be propped up by any
 external thrust1 by sermons1 newspaper 
articles1 leagues1 or propaganda1 but   
must be associated with life and        
developed out of life1 so the organic   
process and the condition of life to    
which it leads is called ,culture4  ,it 
is only with deep reluctance and after  
long search that ,i have written down   
this beautiful word1 a word now worn    
almost beyond recognition4 ,can we find 
our way back to its application and     
significance8 ,even when it is not drawn
 out with a futile prefix#bg one can    
hardly detect its pure meaning by reason
 of the many overtones4 ,the school1 if 
possible the university1 some ,french   

and ,english1 the rules about ,i and    
,me1 visiting-cards1 shirt-cuffs1       
foreign phrases1 top-hats1              
table-manners3 these are some of the    
overtones that make themselves heard    
when we talk of a cultured man1 or      
rather as they have it a cultured       
gentleman4 ,a hundred years ago1 as the 
word implies1 we understood by culture  
the unfolding and the full possession of
 innate bodily1 spiritual and moral     
forces4 ,in this sense ,goethe showed us
 the two fraternal figures formed after 
his own image3 ,faust the richer1 and   
the poorer ,wilhelm ,meister1 striving  
for culture4  ,the ideal which hovers   
before us is not one of education1 not  
even one of knowledge1 although both    
education and knowledge enter into it2  
it is an ideal of the ,will4 ,it will   
not be easy to convey the breadth and   
the boundless range which we are to     
attach to this conception4 ,that it is  
not an airy figment is clear from the   
fact that for centuries the ,greeks1    

with full consciousness1 adopted as     
their highest law 7though directed to a 
somewhat different end7 that impulse of 
the will which they called              
,kalokagathia4#bh  ,from one who has    
introduced the conception of mechanism  
into ,german thought1 who has rescued   
the conception of the soul from the     
hands of the psychologists and brought  
it back to its primal meaning1 who has  
written so much about soulless          
intellectualism1 and has put forward the
 empire of the soul as the goal of      
humanity1 it is not to be expected that 
he should preach any mechanical kind of 
culture1 or indeed any that it is       
possible to acquire by learning4  ,how  
culture is to be produced we shall see2 
the first thing necessary is that it    
should be willed4  ,willed it must be1  
in a sense and with a strength of       
purpose and a force of appreciation of  
which we to-day1 when the ages of faith1
 of the ,reformation1 of the ,german    
classics1 and the wars of liberation1   

lie so far behind us1 have no idea at   
all4  ,when the current conception of   
intellectual culture so much prized in  
family1 society and business life1 and  
tricked out with criticisms of style1   
with historical data and incidents of   
travel is justly ridiculed1 then the    
will to complete cultivation of the     
body1 the intellect and the soul of the 
people must be so strong that all       
questions of convenience1 of enjoyment1 
of prestige and of material interests   
must sink far into the background4 ,this
 word must sound so that all who hear it
 can look in each other's eyes with a   
full mutual understanding and without   
the slightest sense of ambiguity2 just  
as they do in ,japan when the name of   
the common head of all families1 the    
,mikado1 is named4 ,there must be one   
thing in ,germany and it must be this   
thing1 which is altogether out of reach 
of the yawning1 blinking and grinning   
scepticism of the coffee-house1 and of  
the belching and growling of the tavern4

 ,any man who puts this thing aside in  
favour of his class-ideas1 or his       
speculations in lard1 or his dividends1 
or the demands of his ,union1 must      
understand that he is doing something as
 offensive as if he went out in public  
without washing himself4  ,the          
conception of ,culture as our true and  
unique faculty must be so profoundly    
grasped that in public life and         
legislation it must have the first word 
and the last4 ,though we become as poor 
as church-mice we must stake our last   
penny on this1 and tune up our education
 and instruction1 our models and        
outlook1 our motives and claims1 our    
achievement and our atmosphere1 to so   
high a point that any one coming into   
,germany shall feel that he is entering 
into a new age4  ,society must be       
penetrated by this conception4 ,those   
classes which already possess something 
resembling it--such as training1        
education1 experience1 tradition1       
outlook1 good breeding--must pour out   

with both hands what they have to       
dispense2 not in the way of endowments1 
conventicles1 lectures and patronizing  
visits1 but in quiet1 self-sacrificing1 
personal service4  ,all this1 of course1
 cannot be done without the free        
response of the other side4 ,the devoted
 attempts which have been made1         
especially in ,england1 and for some    
years with us too1 to win this response 
by long and unselfish solicitation were 
destined to remain merely the mission of
 individual lives1 for they were not    
supported by the will of the community  
as a whole2 it rather ran counter to    
them4 ,a ,peace of ,god must be         
proclaimed1 not as between the ,haves   
and the ,have-nots1 not between the     
proletariat and the capitalists1 not    
between the so-called cultured classes  
and the uncultured1 but between those   
who are ready for a mutual exchange of  
experience1 a give-and-take of their    
tradition on both sides4 ,not an        
exchange on business principles1 such as

 propaganda in satisfaction of demands1 
or curiosity on one side for a new      
pastime on the other1 but a covenant4   
,this1 however1 is only practicable if  
the class-war1 as an end in itself1 is  
put a stop to4  ,the great change itself
 cannot be come by so cheaply2 it       
demands other assumptions1 of which we  
shall have something to say later4 ,but 
the attitude and temper1 the recognition
 of the task1 could not be better       
introduced than through the mutual      
service of the two social strata4  ,we  
have still at our disposal1 handed on   
from the past1 certain organized methods
 of investigation and administration4   
,we now need chairs and institutes of   
research1 not for the trivial business  
of popular enlightenment and lectures1  
but for the study and investigation of  
the needs of national culture1 the idea 
which must now take the place of        
national defence4 ,we shall have need of
 central authorities1 not1 like the late
 ,ministries of ,culture skimping the   

scanty endowment of the ,board ,schools1
 but doing the work of ,german          
education1 progress1 and interchange of 
labour4#bi  ,,footnotes3  ,footnote #bd3
 ,black1 red and gold were originally   
the colours of a students' ,corps in    
,frankfort4 ,they were adopted as the   
colours of the abortive ,german         
,federation of #ahdh1 apparently under a
 mistaken idea that they represented the
 colours of the ancient ,germanic       
,empire4 ,the colours of the ,empire of 
#ahgj were the ,prussian black and      
white1 with the addition of red4        
,footnote #be3 ,geist4  ,footnote #bf3  
,bildung4 ,it is as difficult in        
,english as it is in ,german to render  
in one word exactly what the author is  
thinking of4 ,in its literal sense      
,bildung implies a shaping and formative
 action4  ,footnote #bg3 ,ausbildung4   
,footnote #bh3 ,a harmony of character1 
compounded of beauty and goodness4      
,footnote #bi3 ,arbeitsausgleich4 ,the  
meaning of this will be apparent later4 

,,xi   ,some decades ago the conscience 
of middle-class society in ,england was 
stirred4 ,the result was ,toynbee ,hall 
and the ,settlements-movement1 which    
afterwards found praiseworthy           
counterparts in ,germany4 ,society had  
begun to understand the wrong which it  
had done to its brothers1 the           
proletariat1 whom it had robbed of mind1
 and offered them instead               
soul-destroying1 mechanical labour4     
,then choice spirits arose who dedicated
 their whole lives to the service of    
their brothers4 ,this great and noble   
work did much to soften pain and hatred1
 and here and there many a soul was     
saved by it2 but it could not act as it 
was intended to act1 because it could   
not become what it imagined itself to   
be4  ,it ought to have been1 and        
believed itself to be1 a simple and     
obvious piece of love-service1 a pure   
interchange of spiritual possessions    
between class and class1 no             
condescending pity or educative mission4

 ,it was a noble and a splendid error2  
the movement retained the form of       
sacrifice and benefaction4 ,on both     
sides social feeling was indifferent to 
it1 or even hostile4 ,what one hand     
gave1 a thousand others took back2 what 
one hand received1 a thousand others    
rejected4 ,the collective conscience of 
a class had never been stirred1 it was  
merely that the conscience of certain   
members of upper-class society had sent 
out envoys2 it had not moved as a body4 
,individuals were ready to sacrifice    
themselves1 but the conditions of labour
 remained unchanged4  ,so long as a     
general wrong is allowed to stand1 it   
gives the lie to every individual       
effort4 ,the wrong becomes even more    
bitter because it loses its             
unconsciousness--men know it for wrong1 
and do not amend it4 ,for this reason a 
second movement of importance1 that of  
the ,people's ,high ,schools1 which has 
created in ,denmark the most advanced   
peasant-class in existence1 can achieve 

no social reform in lands cloven by     
proletarianism4 ,if in addition to this 
the ,high ,school movement should depart
 from its original conception1 that of a
 temporary community of life between the
 teachers and the taught1 and should1   
instead of this1 resolve itself into a  
lecture-institution1 then the danger    
arises that what is offered will be     
disconnected matter1 intended for       
entertainment1 and without any basis of 
real knowledge1 something commonly      
called half-culture which is worse than 
unculture1 and is more properly         
described as misculture4  ,no work of   
the charitable type can bring about the 
reconciliation of classes or be a       
substitute for popular education4 ,the  
reconciliation of classes1 however1 even
 if it were attainable1 is by no means  
our goal1 but rather the abolition of   
classes1 and our ultimate object is not 
popular education but popular culture4  
,we do not intend to give with one hand 
and take back with the other1 we shall  

not condemn a brother-people to dullness
 and quicken a few chosen individuals2  
no1 we mean to go to the root of the    
evil1 to break down the monopoly of     
culture1 and to create a new people1    
united and cultured throughout4  ,but   
the root of the trouble lies in the     
conditions of labour4 ,it is an idle    
dream to imagine that out of that       
soulless subdivision of labour which    
governs our mechanical methods of       
production1 the old handicrafts can ever
 be developed again4 ,short of some     
catastrophic depopulation which shall   
restore the medival relation between the
 area of the soil and the numbers that  
occupy it1 the subdivision of labour    
will have to stand1 and so long as it   
stands no man will complete his job from
 start to finish--he will only do a     
section of it2 at best1 and assuming the
 highest mechanical development1 it will
 be a work of supervision4 ,but mindless
 and soulless work no man can do with   
any joy4 ,the terrible fact about the   

mechanization of industry is that       
productive work1 the elementary         
condition of life1 the very form of     
existence1 which fills more than half of
 each man's waking day1 is by it made   
hated and hateful4 ,it degrades the     
industrious man1 thrilling with energy1 
into a work-shy slacker--for what else  
does it mean that all social conflicts  
culminate in the demand for a shortening
 of the hours of work8 ,for the peasant1
 the research-worker1 the artist1 the   
working day is never long enough2 for   
the artisan1 who calls himself par      
excellence a worker1 it can never be too
 short4  ,the advance of technical      
invention will make it possible in the  
end to transform all mechanical work    
into supervision4 ,but the process will 
be long and partial1 we cannot wait till
 it is completed1 especially as times   
will come when technical knowledge will 
stand still1 or even1 it may be1 go     
back4 ,any one who knows in his own     
flesh what mechanical work is like1 who 

knows the feeling of hanging with one's 
whole soul on the creeping movement of  
the minute-hand1 the horror that seizes 
him when a glance at the watch shows    
that the eternity which has passed has  
lasted only ten minutes1 who has had to 
measure the day's task by the sound of a
 bell1 who kills his lifetime1 hour     
after hour1 with the one longing that it
 might die more quickly--he knows how   
the shortening of the working day1      
whatever may be put in its place1 has   
become for the factory artisan a goal of
 existence4  ,but he knows something    
else as well4 ,he knows the deadliest of
 all wearinesses--the weariness of the  
soul4 ,not the rest when one breathes   
again after wholesome bodily exertion1  
not the need for relaxation and         
distraction after a great effort of     
intellect1 but an empty stupor of       
exhaustion1 like the revulsion after    
unnatural excess4 ,it is the shallowest 
kind of tea-table chatter to talk about 
good music1 edifying and instructive    

lectures1 a cheerful walk in ,god's free
 ,nature1 a quiet hour of reading by the
 lamp1 and so on1 as a remedy for this4 
,drink1 cards1 agitation1 the cinemas1  
and dissipation can alone flog up the   
mishandled nerves and muscles1 until    
they wilt again under the next day's    
toil4  ,the worker has no means of      
comparison4 ,he does not know what      
wholesome labour feels like4 ,he will   
never find his way back to work on the  
land1 for there he cannot get the       
counter-poisons which he thinks         
indispensable1 and he lacks the organic1
 ordering mind which mechanical         
employment has destroyed4 ,even if some 
did get back1 it would be in vain1 for  
though agriculture is hungering for     
thousands of hands it cannot absorb     
millions4 ,the worker has no means of   
comparison2 hence his bottomless        
contempt for intellectual work1 the     
results of which he recognizes1 but     
which1 in regard to the labour it costs1
 he puts on a level with the idling of  

the folk whom he sees strolling or      
driving about with their lapdogs in the 
fashionable streets4  ,the middle-class 
conscience1 and even that of the men of 
science1 turns away its face in shameful
 cowardice from the horror of mechanized
 labour4 ,apart from the well-meaning   
sthetes who live in rural elegance      
surrounded by all the appliances which  
mechanism can supply1 who wrinkle their 
brows when the electric light goes out1 
and who write pamphlets asking with     
pained surprise why people cannot return
 to the old land-work and handicraft1   
most of us take mechanical labour as an 
unalterable condition of life1 and      
merely congratulate ourselves that it is
 not we who have to do it4  ,the        
,utopianist agitators who knowingly or  
unknowingly suppress the essential truth
 that their world of equality will be a 
world of the bitterest poverty1 treat   
the situation just as lightly4 ,before  
them1 in the future ,state1 hovers the  
vision of some exceptional literary or  

political appointment4 ,the others may  
console themselves with the thought that
 in spite of a still deeper degree of   
poverty1 towards which they are sinking 
by their own inactivity1 the hell of    
mechanical work1 by no means abolished1 
will probably be a little reduced1 so   
far as regards the time they spend in   
it4 ,the notion that mechanical work    
will be made acceptable and reconciled  
with intellectual1 if only it is short  
enough and properly paid1 has never been
 thought out2 it is a still-born child  
of mental lethargy1 like all those      
visions of the future that are being    
held up to our eyes4 ,try notions like  
this on any other ill--toothache1 for   
instance6 ,all our rhetoric about       
mechanical work being no ill at all1 is 
ignorant or fraudulent1 and if nothing  
further be done than to reduce it to    
four hours1 all our social struggles    
will immediately be concentrated on     
bringing it down to two4 ,the goal of   
,socialism1 so far as it relates to this

 pons asinorum of shortening hours1 is  
simply the right to loaf4  ,let us look 
facts in the face4 ,mechanical work is  
an evil in itself1 and it is one which  
we never can get rid of by any          
conceivable economic or social          
transformation4 ,neither ,karl ,marx nor
 ,lenin has succeeded here1 and on this 
reef will be wrecked every future ,state
 that may be set up on the basis of     
current ,socialistic ideas4 ,in this    
point lies the central problem of       
,socialism2 undisturbed1 as was till    
lately that legendary conception of     
surplus-value1 and bedded1 like that    
conception1 in a rats'-nest of          
rhetorical phrases1 repeated from mouth 
to mouth and never tested by            
examination4  ,the bringing of ,mind    
into the masses1 the cultured ,state1#cj
 which is the only possible foundation  
of a society worthy of humanity1 must   
remain unattainable until everything    
conceivable has been thought out and    
done to alleviate the mischievous       

operation of this evil1 which dulls and 
stupefies the human spirit and which1 in
 itself1 is ineradicable4 ,no           
,soviet-policy1 no socialization1 no    
property-policy1 no popular education1  
nor any other of the catchwords which   
form ad nauseam the monotonous staple of
 our current discussion of affairs1 can 
go to the heart of the problem4 ,instead
 we must establish and put into practice
 the principle which ,i have called that
 of the ,interchange of ,labour1 and    
which ,i must now1 in broad outline1    
endeavour to explain4  ,the object of   
this principle is to bring mind into    
labour4 ,it demands--since mind cannot  
be brought into mechanical work beyond a
 certain degree fixed  by technical     
conditions--that the day's work as a    
whole shall have a share of it1 by means
 of the exchange and association of     
mental and mechanical employment4 ,until
 this principle shall have been carried 
into effect1 all true culture of the    
people remains impossible4 ,so long as  

there is no culture of the people1 so   
long must culture remain a monopoly of  
the classes1 and of escapes from the    
masses2 so long must society be wanting 
in equilibrium1 a union open to breach  
from every side1 and one which1 however 
highly its social institutions may be   
developed1 holds down the people to     
forced labour1 and destroys culture4    
,,footnotes3  ,footnote #cj3            
,bildungsstaat4     ,,xii   ,there is a 
way by which the day's work can be      
ennobled1 and even have mind brought    
into it1#ca on capitalistic lines4      
,before the ,war we were just about to  
enter on this path--,america is treading
 it now4 ,its fundamental condition is a
 huge increase in general well-being4   
,the daily wages of the ,american       
working-man have risen1 as we have      
already remarked1 to seven or even ten  
dollars1 corresponding to a purchasing  
power of over a hundred marks4 ,this    
amounts to so radical a removal of all  
restrictions in domestic economy that   

one can no longer speak of the          
proletarian condition as existing in the
 ,united ,states4 ,a man who drives to  
his work in his own automobile can      
satisfy all his reasonable needs in the 
way of recreation and of extending his  
education1 he looks at his sectional job
 7as has not seldom been the case in    
,america even in earlier days7 with a   
critical eye1 he forms his own judgment 
of its place in the whole1 he improves  
the processes1 and amuses himself by    
being both workman and engineer4        
7,consider in the light of this fact the
 value of the prophecy that ,america is 
standing on the brink of ,bolshevism67  
,in a country whose wealth at this      
moment--in consequence of war-profits   
and depreciation of money--is almost    
equal to that of the rest of the world  
put together1 the process of abolishing 
proletarianism can go forward on        
capitalistic lines4 ,but we ,germans1   
since it is decreed that we shall be    
among the poorest of the peoples1 and   

must begin afresh1 and live for the     
future--we shall renounce without envy  
the broad path of the old way of        
thought1 the way of riches1 in order to 
clear with hard work the new path on    
which1 one day1 all will have to follow 
us4 ,the way of ,culture is the way to  
which we are pointed1 and we have       
described ,interchange of ,labour as the
 fundamental condition which enables us 
to travel it4 ,it is now clear that the 
conception of popular culture is not1   
after all1 represented by any of the    
five-and-twenty idealizing catchwords   
with which we are wont to console       
ourselves in our elegiac orations1 but  
that by it is meant a clearly defined   
political procedure4  ,by the principle 
of ,interchange of ,labour it is        
required that every employee engaged in 
mechanical work can claim to do a       
portion of his day's work in            
intellectual employment2 and that every 
brainworker shall be obliged to devote a
 portion of his day to physical labour4 

,there are1 of course1 fixed limits to  
the application of this principle1 on   
the one side in intellectual1 on the    
other in bodily incapacity1 as well as  
in those rare cases where it is         
recognized that the interrupted hours of
 intellectual work cannot be made good4 
,we would also establish a year of      
,labour-,service1 to be devoted by the  
whole youth of ,germany1 of both sexes1 
to bodily training and work4  ,the tests
 of capacity and of the claim to be     
reckoned as cultured is not to consist  
in examinations but in proof of work4   
,any one who can offer some show of     
claim can demand to be tested1 and1 if  
the result is favourable1 to receive    
further culture4 ,thus we shall be      
taking seriously the question of the    
ascent to higher grades1 which1 so long 
as it depends on a particular age1 or on
 school certificates1 must remain on    
paper4  ,let no one say that this       
testing system is a mere mechanical     
method1 that it degrades ,culture from  

its intellectual dignity1 and is        
equivalent to the ,chinese literary     
tests for office4 ,true culture is      
distinguished from mere sybaritic       
stheticism in that in some sense or     
other it makes for production4 ,where   
there is no talent for art or for       
creative thought1 then there remain to  
be developed the educational forces of  
judgment1 or a faculty for the conduct  
of life1 which must have their          
influence4  ,different categories of    
,culture will arise of themselves2 not  
ranks or castes or classes1 but grades  
of society1 each of which may be        
attained by any one4 ,no one must be    
able to say that any monopoly of culture
 has barred his way1 or that training   
and testing have been denied him4 ,if   
the culture be genuine it will never    
look down in intellectual arrogance on  
the stages below it2 if it have duties  
associated with it1 then he who has     
rejected the path of ascent1 or has     
failed in it1 cannot claim to fulfil    

those duties4 ,any one who has no       
faculty but that of a glib tongue will  
find in the multiplicity of callings    
some field for his activity2 but the    
rule of the talker1 backed by force or  
not1 will at any rate be spared us4  ,at
 this point we may hear a voice from the
 average heart of ,socialism exclaim3   
,how is this8 ,do you call that having  
no castes8 ,we have just begun to shake 
off the yoke of the capitalists and now 
are we expected to put the cultured in  
command8 ,this is pure reaction6        
,softly6 ,if this is a case of          
misunderstanding1 we shall clear it up4 
,if any scruples still remain1 we shall 
consider them further4  ,let us take the
 misunderstanding first4 ,it is         
apparently forgotten that capitalism    
ruled by hereditary power4 ,any one who 
belonged to that circle ruled along with
 it1 whether he were competent to rule  
or not4 ,but culture is not a heritable 
possession2 no one can win it save by   
virtue of a higher spirit and will4 ,he 

who has this spirit and this will1 can  
and will win it4 ,he who wins it is fit 
for higher responsibilities4 ,is the    
voice from the average heart answered8  
,no4 ,it replies3 ,heritable or not1    
what do we care8 ,we are out for        
equality4 ,distinctions in culture are a
 kind of aristocracy4  ,now1 good heart1
 you have revealed yourself4 ,what was  
the meaning of your everlasting talk    
about the ladder for the rise of        
capacity8 ,i shall tell you4 ,the       
capable man is to toil1 and to rise just
 so far as you permit him1 namely1 till 
you can possess yourselves of the fruits
 of his labour3 then he is to be thrust 
down1 and the loudest mouth is to rule4 
,you are not pleased with this          
interpretation8 ,neither am ,i1 so we   
are quits4  ,for of the folly of        
imagining a society of equals ,i do not 
intend to speak4 ,the average man1 who  
cannot understand equality of human     
dignity1 equality before ,god1 thinks   
nothing of demanding equality in        

externals1 equality in responsibility   
and vocation4 ,but this sham equality is
 the enemy of the true1 for it does not 
fit man's burden to his strength1 it    
creates overburdened1 misused natures1  
driving the one to scamped work and     
hypocrisy1 and the other to cynicism4   
,every accidental and inherited         
advantage must indeed be done away with4
 ,but if there is any one who1 among men
 equal in external conditions1 in duties
 and in claims1 demands that they should
 also be equal in mind1 in will and in  
heart--let him begin by altering        
,nature6  ,in remuneration also1 that is
 to say1 in the apportionment of        
conditions of work1 a mechanical        
equality would be tantamount to an      
unjust and intolerable inequality in the
 actual distribution or remission of    
work4 ,work of the highest class1       
creative and intellectual work--the most
 self-sacrificing that is known to man  
because it draws to itself and swallows 
up a man's whole life1 including his    

hours of leisure and recreation--this   
work demands extreme consideration1 in  
the form of solitude1 freedom from      
disturbance1 from trivial and           
distracting cares or occupations1 and   
contact with ,nature4 ,this kind of     
consideration is1 from the economic     
point of view1 an outlay which          
mechanical work does not require4 ,if   
mechanical and intellectual work are to 
be placed under the same specific       
conditions1 under which the highest     
standard of output is to be maintained  
and the producers are as far as possible
 to bear an equal burden1 then the scale
 of remuneration must be different4     
,starting from a subsistence minimum it 
must for intellectual work be graded two
 stages upward1 one for the output1#cb  
and one for the grade of culture        
implied4  ,women will also be subject to
 this system of grading whether they    
exercise any vocation outside their     
homes or not1 for society has a deep    
interest in the culture of its mothers1 

and in external incentives to culture   
women must share equally with men4  ,an 
intimate sense of association will grow 
up within each grade of culture4 ,this1 
however1 will not impair the general    
solidarity of the people1 since no      
hereditary family egoism can arise4     
,this sense of association1 renewed with
 elements that vary from generation to  
generation1 and corresponding very much 
to the relations between contemporary   
artists who spring from different       
classes or territories1 will dissolve   
the relics of the old hereditary        
sentiment and absorb into itself        
whatever traditional values the latter  
may possess4  ,between the separate     
grades there will not only be the       
connexion afforded by the living        
possibilities of free ascent from one to
 the other1 but the system of           
ever-renewed co-operation in            
rank-and-file at the same work will in  
itself promote culture1 tradition1 and  
the consciousness of union4 ,we need    

only recall the old gilds and military  
associations in order to realize what a 
high degree of manly civic consciousness
 can arise from the visible community of
 duty and achievement4 ,the mechanical  
worker will become the instructor of his
 temporary comrade and guest1 and the   
latter will in turn widen the other's   
outlook1 and emulate him in the         
development of the processes of         
production4 ,the manual worker will     
bring to the desk and the board-room his
 freedom from prepossessions and the    
practical experience of his calling2 he 
will learn how to deal with abstractions
 and general ideas2 he will gain a      
respect for intellectual work1 and will 
feel the impulse to win new knowledge   
and faculty1 or to make good what he has
 neglected4         99       99       99
       99       99  ,two objections     
remain to be considered and confuted4   
,first3 there are far more places to be 
filled in mechanical than in            
intellectual employment4 ,is it possible

 so to organize the interchange of work 
that every one who desires intellectual 
employment can find it8 ,the answer is3 
that1 whether we like it or not1 all    
work tends more and more to take on an  
administrative character4 ,just as in   
industry there is ever more talk and    
less production1 so our economic life is
 working itself out through thousands   
upon thousands of new organizations4    
,industrial ,councils1 ,councils of     
,workers1 ,gild-,councils1 are forming  
themselves in among the existing        
agencies of administration2 and the     
immediate consequence of this is a      
tremendous drop in production1 to be    
followed later by a more highly         
articulated and more remunerative system
 of work4 ,it is as if a marble statue  
came to life1 and then had to be        
internally equipped with bones1 muscles1
 veins and nerves4 ,or it resembles the 
transformation of a shabby piece of     
suburban building-ground3 it has to be  
dug up1 drained1 paved1 fenced2 and     

until traffic has poured into it1 it    
remains a comfortless and dismal waste4 
,but the administrative side of our     
future economic and national life       
demands the creation of so many posts of
 intellectual work that at present there
 is not the trained personnel to fill   
it4 ,if the ,year of ,labour-,service is
 introduced1 there will be still more   
defections and gaps to be filled4 ,the  
rush for intellectual work is more      
likely to be too small than too great4  
,let us come to the second objection4   
,will not confusion be worse confounded 
if there are many who have to fill two  
jobs1 if1 in these jobs constant        
exchanges are taking place1 if the      
periods of work are brief and subject to
 untimely interruptions1 if time and    
work are lost through never-ending      
rearrangement8  ,assuredly4 ,and any one
 who starts with the idea of the old    
high-strung work done1 as it were1 under
 military discipline1 any one who       
cherishes the remotest idea that this   

system can ever return1 in spite of the 
fact that its clamps and springs have   
been dashed to pieces1 may well lament  
these unsettlements4 ,one who starts    
from the fluctuating conditions of our  
present-day1 make-believe labour will   
take organic unsettlements as part of   
the price to be paid1 if they only lead 
in the end to systematic production4    
,but one who weighs the fact that the   
make-believe life of our present economy
 has not even yet reached its final     
form1 will discern in every new         
transition-form1 however tedious1 the   
final redemption2 in so far1 at least1  
as any equilibrium is capable of being  
restored at all4  ,the essence of the   
interchange of labour will1 therefore1  
consist in this1 that while the         
distinction between physical and        
intellectual work will still exist1     
there will be no distinction between a  
physical and intellectual calling4      
,until advanced age may forbid1 it will 
be open to every man not merely to      

acquire some ornamental branches of     
knowledge but seriously and with both   
feet to take his footing in the opposite
 calling to his own4  ,the different    
callings will learn to know and respect 
each other1 and to understand their     
respective difficulties4 ,this applies  
particularly to those who call          
themselves the operative workers4  ,as  
soon as hereditary idleness has come to 
an end and loafing has been trampled    
out1 then many a one1 who now thinks    
that mental work is mere chattering1    
will learn through his novitiate at the 
desk1 that thinking hurts4 ,if he does  
not feel himself equal to this kneading 
and rummaging of the brain1 he will go  
back with relief to his workshop2 he    
will neither envy nor despise those who 
are operative workers with the brain1   
and will understand1 or at least        
unconsciously feel1 the oppositions in  
human nature and the differences in     
conditions of life1 and will know them  
to be just4 ,he cannot and must not keep

 himself wholly aloof from the elements 
of mental training2 his contact with    
brainworkers will not cease2 and thus   
his complete and passive resignation to 
the domination of ignorant rhetoric will
 lose its charm4  ,any man will be      
respected who contents himself with the 
lowest prescribed measure of culture1   
who modestly renounces further study1   
and goes back to manual work4 ,but there
 will be no excuse for those who know   
nothing and can do nothing1 but pretend 
to set everybody right2 for there will  
be no monopoly of culture to keep them  
down1 and all genuine faculty must come 
to the test of action4         99       
99       99       99       99  ,to-day  
there are three classes of social       
swindlers4 ,first1 those who live on the
 community without returning it any     
service4 ,these are the people who live 
idly on inherited money1 and the        
loafers4 ,against these social          
legislation must be framed4 ,secondly1  
those who deliberately practise ca'     

canny1 and therefore live on the surplus
 work of their fellows4 ,these are the  
champions of the principle3 ,every one  
according to his need1 no one according 
to his deed2 the saboteurs of labour4   
,against these the remedy lies in the   
spread of intelligence and a just system
 of remuneration4 ,thirdly1 there are   
those who simulate thought and          
brain-work while they have nothing to   
give but hack phrases uttered with a    
glib tongue4 ,against these worst of all
 swindlers1 these sinners against the   
,spirit1 the remedy is culture4  ,and   
this1 in the new ,order1 is open to     
every one1 young or old1 who can        
maintain his foothold in the exercise of
 intellect1 when the chance is offered  
him4 ,he who in his test-exercise       
reaches a normal standard of            
accomplishment can demand that he shall 
not be sent back to manual work1 but    
continue to be employed in the same     
occupation1 and be further cultivated in
 whatever direction he desires4 ,at     

every further stage of development a    
corresponding sphere of activity is to  
be opened to him1 up to the point at    
which the limits of his capacity come   
into sight4  ,let no one object that the
 rush for intellectual work will become 
uncontrollable4 ,would that it might6   
,for then the country would be so highly
 developed and its methods of work so   
perfected that there would be quite a   
new relation between the demand for     
head-work and for hand-work4 ,for a long
 time to come this rush will be far     
smaller than we imagine2 for the        
immediate future it will suffice if the 
rising forces are set free1 and the     
laggard are tranquillized4  ,but1 the   
,radicals will cry1 what an unsocial    
principle6 ,have we at last1 with       
difficulty1 brought it to the point that
 the accursed one-year examination#cc is
 abrogated1 and now are we again to be  
condemned according to this so-called   
standard of culture8  ,stay6 there is a 
fallacy here4 ,in our transition period 

which is still quite dominated by the   
monopoly of culture1 ,i have nothing to 
say against the abrogation of every     
educational test1 even though in a few  
years we shall feel the deeply          
depressing  effects which will arise    
from the domination of the uncultured4  
,but the transition period will come to 
an end4 ,then every one who likes will  
be able to learn and to execute1 and    
every one who is able will wish to do   
so4  ,but supposing one does not wish8  
,may not he be the very one who is most 
capable of achievement8 ,we don't want  
model pupils4  ,nor do ,i want model    
pupils4 ,the boy who has learnt nothing 
may make his trial as a man when culture
 is open to all4 ,but if1 as a man1 he  
does not care to rack his brains he will
 be thought none the less of2 he will   
merely be offered ordinary work         
according to his choice4  ,but those who
 wish to see responsibility and the     
destiny of the country placed in the    
hands of men who do not care to rack    

their brains1 must not entrench         
themselves behind social principles1 but
 plainly admit that they want for all   
time to establish the rule of demagogy  
and the vulgarization of intellect4 ,it 
is not for such a one to pass judgment  
on the mission of ,germany4  ,the way to
 the ,german mission1 to ,german        
culture1 which is to be no more a       
culture of the classes but of the       
people1 stands open to all by means of  
the ,interchange of ,labour4 ,the whole 
land is as it were a single ship's crew2
 the issues are the same for all4 ,the  
manual worker is no longer kept down by 
over-fatigue1 and the brainworker is no 
longer cut off from the rest of the     
people4  ,the manual worker no longer   
regards the territory of culture as a   
sort of inaccessible island1 but rather 
as a district which he can visit every  
day and in which he is quite at home4   
,every one in future will start even in 
school training1 and the degree to which
 his further culture may be carried will

 not be limited by want of money or of  
time1 or1 above all1 of opportunity4 ,he
 will continually have intercourse with 
men of culture1 and in that intercourse 
he will at once give and receive2 the   
habits of thought1 the methods and the  
range of intellectual work which are now
 only the heritage of a few will be his 
own2 and the twofold language of the    
country1 the language of conceptions and
 the language of things1 will for him be
 one4  ,there will be no permanent      
system of stratification2 the energies  
of the people1 rising and falling1 will 
be in constant movement and their       
elements will never lose touch4 ,there  
may be self-tormenting and unhappily    
constituted natures who will hate their 
own dispositions and the destiny they   
have shaped for themselves--these       
aberrations will never cease so long as 
men are men--but there will be no more  
hatred of class for class1 any more than
 there is in any voluntary association  
of artists or of athletes4  ,and since  

culture is to be at once the recognized 
social aim of the country and the       
personal goal and standard of each      
individual1 the struggle for possessions
 and enjoyments1 doubly restrained by   
public opinion and by deeper insight1   
will sink into the background4  ,but the
 spirit of the land will not resemble   
any that we know at present4 ,as in the 
,middle ,ages1 a spiritual power will   
rule1 but it will not be imposed from   
without or above1 it will be a creation 
from within4 ,the competition of all    
will be like that of the best in the    
time of the ,renaissance1 but it will   
not be a competition for conventional   
values but for the furthering of life4  
,the country will become1 as it was in  
former days1 a generous giver1 not1     
however1 from the lofty eminence of a   
class set apart1 but out of the whole   
strength of the people4  ,again1 for the
 first time1 the convinced and conscious
 will of a people will be seen to direct
 itself to a common and recognized goal4

 ,this is a fact of immeasurable        
significance1 it implies the exercise of
 forces which we only discern on the    
rare mountain-peaks of history1 and of  
which the last example was the ,french  
,revolution4  ,but those dangers of     
which we have spoken1 that hell of a    
mechanical socialism1 of institutions   
and arrangements without sentiment or   
spirit1 are done away with1 for         
production has ceased to be merely      
material and formal1 it has acquired    
absolute value and substance4 ,spirit is
 the only end that sanctifies all means2
 and it sanctifies not by justifying    
them but by purifying them4             
,,footnotes3  ,footnote #ca3            
,vergeistigt werden4 ,it is difficult to
 render this word in the sense in which 
,rathenau uses it2 'intellectualized'   
does not say enough1 and 'spiritualized'
 says a little too much4  ,footnote #cb3
 ,assuming that the highest output is   
reached in the particular instance which
 of course will not be the case with    

every worker whether in the mechanical  
or intellectual sphere4 ,the author     
appears to be referring to amount1 not  
quality1 of output1 as the latter would 
be covered by the second clause1        
relating to grade of culture            
7,bildungsstufe74  ,footnote #cc3       
,referring to the shortening of military
 service which used to be accorded to   
recruits of a certain educational       
standard4     ,,xiii   ,as the kinsfolk 
of a dying man comfort themselves in the
 death-chamber with every little droop  
in the curve of temperature1 although   
they know in their hearts that the hour 
has come1 so our critics flatter        
themselves with the idea that in the end
 all will come right1 if not by itself  
at least with trifling exertion4 ,but it
 is not so3 except by the greatest      
exertion nothing will come right4 ,our  
lake-city of economics and social order 
is ripe for collapse1 for the piles on  
which it is built are decayed4 ,it is   
true that it still stands1 and will be  

standing for an hour or so1 and life    
goes on in it very much as in the days  
when it was sound4 ,we can choose either
 to leave it alone1 and await the       
downfall of the city1 among whose ruins 
life will never bloom again1 or we can  
begin the underpinning of the tottering 
edifice1 a process which will last for  
decades1 which will allow no peace to   
any of us1 which will be toilsome and   
dangerous1 and will end almost          
imperceptibly1 when the ancient city has
 been transformed into the new4  ,let us
 have no doubt about it3 something      
tremendous and unprecedented has to be  
accomplished here4 ,does any thinking   
man believe that when the social order  
of the world has collapsed1 when a      
country of the importance of ,germany   
has lost the very basis of its          
existence1 when the development of      
centuries is broken off1 its faculties  
and its traditions emptied of value and 
repudiated--does any man really believe 
that by means of certain clauses in a   

,constitution a few confiscations1      
socializations and rises in wages1 a    
nation of sixty millions can be endowed 
with a new historical reason for        
existence8 ,why is not the negro        
republic of ,liberia ahead of all of us8
  ,our character is weak on the side of 
will1 and our former lords say that we  
are good for nothing except under strict
 discipline administered by dynasts and 
hereditary nobles4 ,if that is true1 it 
is all over with us2 unless some        
dictator shall take pity on us and give 
us a modest place among the nations with
 a great past and a small future4 ,if we
 are worthy of our name we must be born 
again of the ,spirit4 ,merely to        
conceive this is in itself an           
achievement for a people2 to carry it   
out1 to embody the conception in a new  
order of society1 is at once a test and 
an achievement4  ,our social ethics must
 take up a new position4                
,hitherto--stripping off the usual      
rhetorical phrases--it has taken its    

stand on two effective and really       
driving principles1 those of ,duty and  
of ,success2 two side-views of          
,individualism4 ,all else1 including    
love of one's neighbour1 sense of       
solidarity1 faith1 spiritual            
cultivation1 feeling for ,nature1 was   
7apart from a few lofty spirits7 merely 
subsidiary2 means to an end1 convention 
or falsehood4 ,there were few whose     
careers were not influenced by these    
estimates2 the majority of the upper    
classes was wholly under their dominion4
  ,the two goals of our wishes1 to have 
something and to be something1 were     
expressed by the whole outward aspect of
 society4 ,the great object was not to  
be counted as a ,tom1 ,dick or ,harry1  
one who had less1 or was less1 than     
others4 ,there were grades of being1    
grades of human being3 it was possible  
to be something1 to be much1 to be      
little1 or to be nothing at all4 ,from  
the white collar to the pearl necklace1 
from the good nursery to the saloon car1

 from the watch-ribbon to the           
sword-belt1 from the place at the       
ordinary to the title of ,excellency1   
everything was a proof of what one had1 
or was1 or believed oneself to be4 ,if  
one did not know a man one must not     
speak to him2 if one knew him1 one might
 borrow a hundred marks from him1 but   
one must not ask him for a penny4       
,whoever had wealth displayed it in     
order to be admired2 whoever had a      
social position displayed his           
unapproachability and the weight of his 
dignity1 as1 for instance1 when with an 
absent look and lost in the burden of   
his own existence he entered a          
dining-hall4 ,from inferiors one        
demanded a degrading attitude and forms 
of speech1 and presented to them a face 
of stone2 towards those in higher       
position one came to life and displayed 
an attentive civility4 ,it was--or shall
 we say is8--permissible to lavish in an
 hour the monthly income of a poor      
family4 ,one had it to spend and what   

business was it of theirs8 ,in the lower
 ranks there was much of genuine revolt 
against these abuses and also much envy 
and malice1 much open imitation1 and    
much of secret admiration4 ,every silly 
craze was cheapened in hideous          
imitations1 the suburb and the village  
made a display which in quality1 indeed1
 fell below the model1 but in quantity  
not at all4  ,it may be said that these 
were excrescences or city fashions2 that
 one must not generalize4 ,these are    
empty phrases4 ,to understand the spirit
 of a society it is not hermits that one
 must study4 ,and1 moreover1 let any one
 ask himself whether this society was   
really based on the idea of solidarity  
and human friendliness or upon          
unscrupulous personal interests and     
exploitation1 on shows and shams1 on the
 demand for service and the claim to    
command4 ,if anything can explain the   
eagerness with which we ,germans flung  
ourselves into a war whose origins we   
did not know and did not want to know1  

then besides the conscious objects1     
advantage1 rehabilitation1 and renown1  
we must also take into account the      
obscure impulse of the national         
conscience which in the midst of evil   
individualism and of personal and class 
egoism yearned for the sense of         
solidarity and fusion4  ,is it objected 
that all this lies deeply rooted in     
human nature1 that it has been there    
from time immemorial1 and it is         
impossible to alter it at one stroke8   
,pedantic drivel6 ,many things lie deep 
in human nature1 and it depends on which
 of these the will chooses to develop4  
,and who talked of altering things at   
one stroke8 ,our judgment of values is  
to be transformed1 and if human nature  
never changed1 much that now flaunts    
itself in the sunshine would be creeping
 in the shade4 ,this transformation of  
judgment is a matter of recognizing     
things for what they are4 ,when pomp1   
extravagance1 exclusiveness1 frivolity  
and fastness1 greed1 place-hunting and  

vulgar envy are looked on with the same 
eyes as aberrations in other provinces  
of life1 then we shall not indeed have  
abolished all vice1 but the atmosphere  
will be purified4 ,look at our sturdy   
,socialists of the ,november days#cd and
 proselytes of every description3 you   
can see that the acquisition of a new   
judgment of values may be the affair of 
an hour6 ,and for that reason one must  
not criticize them too closely--unless  
they try to make a profit out of their  
conversion4  ,all social judgments      
presuppose a system of recognized       
values4 ,the values of ,christian ethics
 have never penetrated deeply into the  
collective judgment of mankind2 even in 
the medival bloom of ,christian1 or     
rather of ecclesiastical1 culture the   
moral conceptions of ,christianity      
remained the possession of a few chosen 
spirits and communities2 society in     
general accepted the mythical element1  
did homage to the hierarchy1 and        
remained ethically pagan1 the upper     

classes being guided by a code of honour
 resting on the worship of courage4 ,the
 ,churches never made any serious effort
 to shape an ethical code2 they were    
preoccupied with the teaching of dogmas 
of faith which carried them ever farther
 and farther from the groundwork of the 
,gospels1 and they devoted whatever     
surplus energies they had to politics1  
and to accommodations with the ruling   
powers of the world4  ,the cult of      
courage imposed on and exercised by the 
ruling classes1 and symbolically imaged 
in their code of honour1 took an        
effective shape in the banning of       
cowardice and of cowardly crime4 ,so far
 as positive values go1 the ethics of   
nobility degenerated into smartness1 the
 claim for satisfaction and the         
exclusiveness of rank2 a ,prussian and  
,kantian abstraction1 the conception of 
duty1 a conception at bottom unproved   
and incapable of generating conviction1 
became a rule of life1 made effective by
 training and control4 ,the ruling      

powers and their controls have given    
way1 and their dry brittleness is       
revealed4  ,we have not succeeded in    
finding a substitute for social ethics  
in an idealized type of national        
character4 ,the imagination of the      
,western nations1 like those of         
antiquity1 has shaped ideal types which 
they believe or would wish themselves to
 resemble2 they know what they mean by  
esprit gaulois1 or ,english character1  
or ,american ,democracy1 while1 in      
accordance with the problematic         
character of our being1 we ,germans1    
except for the statuesque heroes of     
legendary times1 or certain historic but
 inimitable figures1 have conceived or  
poetically created no character of which
 we can say that it embodies the        
collective spirit of ,germany4  ,the    
super-ethical doctrine of the being1 the
 growth and the empire of the soul has  
been laid down by us1 but there are as  
yet few into whose consciousness it has 
penetrated2 the transformation of       

thought and feeling which must proceed  
from it will not lay hold of the masses 
directly1 but will filter continually   
from one social stratum to another4     
,the recognized values of social        
judgment6 ,it sounds so abstract1 so    
remote from practice1 that one might    
well believe we were landed again in the
 cloudland of festal oratory and the    
emotions of the leading article4 ,the   
voluntary recognition of an invisible   
authority6 ,and this after we have      
shattered the visible1 and are living in
 the midst of intellectual anarchy and  
moral ,nihilism6 ,and yet moral         
valuations1 simple1 binding1 and on the 
level of social judgment1 are near      
enough to be within our grasp4  ,are not
 all the four quarters of the world     
to-day talking about ,democracy8 ,have  
not we ourselves got tired of this word1
 forbidden till a year ago--tired1 even 
in circles where the modest word        
,liberal was never pronounced without a 
frown8 ,and what does ,democracy mean8  

,do we take it in the merely negative   
sense1 that one is no longer obliged to 
put up with things8 ,or in the meagre   
sense1 that responsibility goes by      
favour1 and that the majority must      
decide8 ,or the dubious sense1 that we  
are yearning to make our way through a  
sham ,socialism to the ,dollar          
,republic8  ,it is not the form of      
government1 it is the form of society1  
that determines the spirit of a land4   
,there is no democratic form of society1
 for democracy can be in league with    
capitalism1 with socialism1 or even with
 the class of clubs and castes4 ,the    
unspoken fundamental conception which   
gives significance and stability both to
 the forms of a democratic constitution 
and to those of an organic society is   
called ,solidarity--that is to say1     
cohesion and the sense of community4    
,solidarity means that each man does not
 come first in his own eyes1 but before 
,god and ,state and himself each man    
must stand and be answerable for all1   

and all for each4  ,in this sense of    
solidarity the dominion of the majority 
over the minority is not an object to be
 striven for but an evil to be avoided2 
the true object of a solid democracy is 
the dominion of a people over itself1   
not by reckoning up the relative        
strength of its various interests1 but  
by virtue of the spirit and of the will 
which it sets free4 ,in this sense of   
solidarity no society can be based on   
hereditary monopolies either of capital 
or of cultivation2 nor can it be        
delivered over to the terrorism of      
vocations and unions which1 under the   
leaderships of shouters1 claim the right
 whenever they please1 to strangle      
indispensable industries2 nor can it be 
based on demagogic flattery of excitable
 mobs4 ,every born man must from his    
cradle onwards have the same right to   
existence2 he must be sheltered and     
fostered as he grows up1 and be free to 
choose his lot4 ,every occupation must  
be open to him1 except that he must not 

encroach on the sphere of another man's 
liberty4 ,the standard of his activity  
is not to be fixed by birth or privilege
 or force or cunning or the glib tongue1
 but again1 by spirit and by will4      
,to-day1 while cultivation of the spirit
 is still a class-monopoly1 it cannot   
form any standard of creative capacity4 
,and yet it has been demonstrated that  
so powerful is the passion for culture  
in a spirit which is in any degree      
qualified for it1 that even to-day it is
 capable1 by self-education1 of         
surmounting some of the artificial      
barriers4 ,there was not1 to my         
knowledge1 any illiterate among the     
,prussian or ,german ,ministers of the  
new era1 and the one of them who excused
 his deficiencies of language with the  
class-monopoly of education was in the  
wrong1 for any man of normal capacity   
might in ten years' practice of popular 
oratory have learned the elements of    
syntax4  ,when access to the cultivation
 of the ,german spirit has become a     

common right of the whole people1       
,culture will become1 if not the sign at
 least the presupposition of creative   
activity4 ,the proof of capacity will   
then cease to be settled either between 
agitators and the masses1 or in the     
dimness of privileged chanceries1 but in
 the productive competition of men of   
high intellectual endowment4  ,society  
will not be divided by classes and      
castes1 it will not be graded according 
to pedigree or possessions1 it will not 
be ruled by separate interests2 by ideas
 or by the masses2 it will be an ordered
 body--ordered by spirit1 by will1 by   
service and responsibility4  ,any one   
who does not accept this self-created   
and self-renewing order1 and who at the 
same time rejects the old1 is simply    
working for the dominion of force and   
chance4 ,a society can no more remain   
permanently without order than the staff
 of a factory or the crew of a ship4    
,only instead of an organic order we may
 have an accidental and arbitrary1 an   

order of the personal type1 springing   
from the dexterity shown in some        
favourable moment1 maintaining itself by
 force1 and seeking to perpetuate itself
 in some form of hereditary oligarchy4  
,an order of the priestly and           
hierarchical type is no longer thinkable
 to-day1 nor can one of the peasant type
 come into question in a land of urban  
industry4 ,whoever wishes to see an     
organic self-determining and            
self-regenerating order of society1 has 
therefore to choose between the military
 order1 resting upon disciplined bodily 
capacity1 or the mercantile and         
capitalist order which rests upon       
business-sense and egoistic alertness1  
or the demagogic order which rests upon 
the rhetorical domination of the masses1
 and does not last long as it soon turns
 to violence and oligarchy1 or finally  
the order of culture1 resting upon      
spirit1 character1 and education4  ,this
 last is not merely the only suitable   
one for us and the only one which is    

worthy of our past2 it will also in time
 become the general order of society    
prevailing over all the world4 ,in the  
vision of this order we recognize the   
mission that ,prussia neglected1 though 
it lay within its grasp for a hundred   
years2 what it neglected and the rock on
 which it foundered4  ,the greatness of 
,prussian policy since #agac lay in its 
premonition and appreciation of the     
principle of mechanism even before it   
became common to all the world4         
,organization and improvement1 the war  
machine and money1 science1 practicality
 and conscientiousness--all this is     
clearly mechanization seen from the     
political side4  ,the early application 
of these principles was a stroke of     
genius far in advance of the then       
condition of the world4 ,seen from this 
standpoint1 all the rest of the         
continental world1 not yet mechanized1  
and burdened with the relics of         
medivalism1 ,csarism and clericalism1   
seemed torpid and lost in illusions3    

arbitrary1 inaccurate and slovenly4     
,with short interruptions this          
,prusso-central point of view was       
maintained until the middle of the      
,world-,war2 and not quite unjustly1 for
 ,prussia remained in every respect     
ahead of other powers in the department 
of mechanization4  ,for a hundred years 
the ,prussian principles had a monopoly 
of success2 elsewhere they were scarcely
 understood and much less imitated4     
,then came ,napoleon4  ,he took over the
 mechanistic principle and handled it as
 never a man had done before2 he became 
the mechanizer of the world4 ,at the    
same time he was something mightier than
 that3 he was the heir of the ,french   
idea of spiritual and popular liberty4  
,prussia fell1 and would have fallen1   
even if its mechanism had not grown     
rusty4 ,its leaders learnt their lessons
 from ,france and ,england1 they set on 
foot a liberation of the people by      
departmental authority and a liberation 
of the spirit by the people2 they put   

new life into the mechanism1 and they   
conquered with the help of ,england as  
we have lately seen ,france conquer with
 the help of ,america4  ,but here came a
 parting of the ways4 ,it was possible  
to pursue either the way of             
mechanization or that of the liberation 
of the spirit4 ,prussia did neither2 it 
stood still4 ,in the place of the       
liberation of the spirit came the       
reaction2 in the place of mechanization 
came the bureaucracy4 ,on the rest of   
the ,continent1 too1 the movement for   
political mechanization was stifled1 the
 force that stifled it being the        
uprising economic movement4  ,bismarck  
was aware of the untried forces that lay
 in the system of political             
mechanization4 ,the world1 as we looked 
at it from our ,prussian window1 seemed 
as loose and slovenly as ever1 and it   
was so4 ,once again1 with a mighty      
effort1 the ,prussian mechanism was     
revived and the movement of the         
bourgeoisie towards liberty and the life

 of the spirit was repressed4 ,this was 
called realism in politics1 and the     
estimate was a just one4 ,there was no  
progress to be made with professional   
,liberalism2 but with ,krupp and ,roon  
one organized victories4 ,as in         
,frederick's time the slovenly          
,continent had to give way1 ,prussia    
mounted to the climax of her fortunes1  
and won ,germany4  ,and again there was 
a parting of the ways2 but this time    
there was no one to stand for civic and 
spiritual freedom4 ,people believed they
 had all they wanted of it2 democracy   
was discredited and broken1 the         
professors were political realists1     
success followed the side of            
mechanization1 which was rightly        
supposed to be linked with the dynasty1 
and mechanization in the economic sphere
 drew to its side the hope of gain4     
,bismarck died in the midst of          
anxieties1 but to the end he had no     
scruples4 ,the two systems of           
mechanization were at their zenith1 and 

the other countries looked1 in political
 affairs1 as slovenly as ever4 ,one was 
wearing itself out in parliamentary     
conflicts1 another had no               
battle-cruisers1 another was lacking in 
cannon1 or in recruits1 or in railways1 
or in finances2 the trains never came in
 up to time1 everywhere one found public
 opinion or the ,press interfering in   
process of law or in the administration1
 everywhere there were scandals2 in     
,prussian ,germany alone was everything 
up to the mark4  ,only one thing was    
overlooked4 ,the mechanization of       
economics had become a common possession
 for everybody4 ,starting from this and 
with the methods and experiences        
attached to it1 it was possible also for
 other countries1 if necessary1 to      
mechanize their politics or1 as we say  
now1 to militarize them4 ,and this could
 be done with even more life and vigour 
than in ,prussia1 whose organization was
 there believed to be inimitable and    
where the principle of mechanism was1 as

 it were1 stored up in tins and in some 
places was obviously getting mouldy4 ,in
 the matter of ,freedom1 however1 the   
other peoples were ahead of us1 and to  
the political isolation of ,prussia     
spiritual isolation was now added4  ,in 
the encircling fog which prevailed on   
economic developments there was not a   
single statesman who recognized that    
,prussian principles had ceased to be a 
monopoly1 or an advantage1 not to       
mention a conception of genius4 ,this   
lack of perception was the political    
cause of the war4 ,instead of renewing  
ourselves inwardly through freedom and  
the spirit1 and carrying on a defensive 
policy as quietly1 discreetly1 and      
inconspicuously as possible1 we took to 
arming and hurrahing4 ,worse than any   
playing of false notes was the mistake  
we made in key and in tempo3 ,d major1  
,allegro1 ,marcia1 ,fortissimo1 with    
cymbals and trumpets6  ,to-day we have  
no longer a choice before us1 only a    
decision4 ,the period of mechanical     

,prussianization is over for us1 the    
period of the mechanical policy of      
,force is over for all the world1       
although the heliographs of ,versailles 
seem to reflect it high above the       
horizon4 ,it is not a capitalistic      
,peace of ,god as imagined by the       
international police which has now      
begun2 it is the social epoch4 ,in this 
epoch the people will live and will     
range themselves according to the       
strength of the ideas which they stand  
for4  ,it is not enough for us to become
 ,germans instead of ,prussians2 not    
even if1 as it were to be desired1 we   
should succeed in rescuing from the     
collapse of ,prussia her genuine virtues
 of practicality1 order and duty4 ,it is
 not enough to brew some soulless       
mixture out of the worn-out methods of  
the ,western bourgeoisie and the unripe 
attempts of ,eastern revolutionaries4   
,it is not enough--no1 it will lead us  
to destruction quicker than any one     
believes--to blunder along with the     

disgusting bickerings of interests and  
the complacent narrowness of            
officialism1 talking one day of the rate
 of exchange1 another of our debts1 and 
the next of the food question1 plugging 
one hole with the stopping of another   
and lying down at night with a sigh of  
relief3 ,well1 something's got done2 all
 will come right4  ,no1 unthinking      
creatures that you are2 nothing will    
come right until you drop your insincere
 chatter1 your haggling1 your agitating 
and compromising1 and begin to think4   
,here is a people that has lost the     
basis of its existence1 because1 in its 
blind faith in authority1 it staked that
 existence on prosperity and power2 and 
both are gone4 ,do you want to stake our
 existence1 on ships1 soldiers1 mines1  
trade-connexions1 which we no longer    
possess1 or upon the soil1 of which we  
have not enough1 or upon our broken will
 to work8 ,are we to be the labour-serfs
 and the serfage stud-farm of the world8
 ,only on ,thoughts and ,ideals can our 

existence be staked4 ,where is your     
thought8 ,where is the thought of       
,germany8  ,we can and must live only by
 becoming what we were designed to be1  
what we were about to be1 what we failed
 to become3 a people of the ,spirit1 the
 ,spirit among the peoples of mankind4  
,that is the thought of ,germany4  ,this
 thought is shaping the ,new            
,society--the society of the spirit and 
the cultivation of the spirit1 the only 
one which can hold its ground in the new
 epoch1 and which fulfils it4  ,this is 
why we have been endowed with a         
character whose will is weak in external
 things and strong in inward            
responsibility2 why depth and           
understanding1 practicality and         
uprightness1 many-sidedness and         
individuality1 power of work and        
invention1 imagination and aspiration   
have been bestowed upon us1 in order    
that we may fulfil these things4 ,for   
what do these qualities1 as a whole1    
betoken8 ,not the conqueror1 not the    

statesman1 not the worldling1 and not   
the man of business2 it is a narrow and 
trivial misuse of all faculty for us to 
pretend to represent these types among  
the nations4 ,they betoken the labourers
 of the spirit2 and far as we are from  
being a nation of thinkers and poets1 it
 is nevertheless our right and our high 
calling to be a thinking nation among   
the nations4  ,but on what1 you may ask 
with scorn1 is this thinking nation to  
live8 ,with all its wisdom1 will it not 
be reduced to beggary and starvation8   
,no--it will live4 ,that people which   
amid a century of world-revolution is   
able to form for itself a stable1       
well-balanced1 ordered and highly       
developed form of society will be one   
that works and produces4 ,all around    
there will be quarrelling and conflict1 
there will be little work and little    
production4 ,for the next decade the    
question will be1 not where is the      
demand but where is the supply8  ,the   
countries are laid waste1 as ,germany   

was after the ,thirty ,years' ,war2 only
 we do not as yet recognize it1 so long 
as the fever lasts we do not notice the 
decline4  ,production1 thought-out and  
penetrated with spirit1 on the part of a
 highly developed society1 and combined 
with labour-fellowship1 is more than    
valuable production or cheap production2
 it is something exemplary and          
essential4 ,and this applies not only to
 production itself but to the methods of
 production1 to the technique1 the      
schooling1 the organization1 the manner 
of thinking4  ,it is a petty thing to   
say that we were destroyed out of envy4 
,why did not envy destroy ,america and  
,england8 ,the world regarded us at once
 with admiration and with repulsion2    
with admiration for our systematic and  
laborious ways1 with repulsion for our  
tradesman-like obtrusiveness1 the       
brusque and dangerous character of our  
leadership and the ostentatious         
servility with which we endured it4 ,if 
it had been possible anywhere outside of

 our naked1 mercantile and national     
egoism to discover a ,german idea1 it   
would have been respected4  ,the ,german
 idea of cultivation of the spirit will 
win something for us which we have not  
known for a century1 and the scope of   
which we cannot yet measure2 people will
 freely appreciate us1 they will further
 us and follow us on our way4 ,we have  
no idea what it means for a people to   
have these sympathetic forces at its    
side1 as ,france had in its creation of 
forms1 ,england and ,america in         
civilization and democracy1 ,russia in  
,slavonic orthodoxy and the neutral     
,states in their internationalism4      
,there is no fear3 we shall live1 and   
more than live4 ,for the first time for 
centuries we shall again be conscious of
 a mission1 and around all our internal 
oppositions will be twined a bond which 
will be something more than a bond of   
interest4  ,the goal of the             
world-revolution upon which we have now 
entered means in its material aspect the

 melting of all strata of society into  
one4 ,in its transcendental aspect it   
means redemption3 redemption of the     
lower strata to freedom and to the      
spirit4 ,no one can redeem himself but  
every one can redeem another4 ,class for
 class1 man for man3 thus is a people   
redeemed4 ,yet in each case there must  
be readiness and in each there must be  
good-will4  ,,footnotes3  ,footnote #cd3
 #aiah1 when the revolution in ,germany 
broke out at ,kiel4                     
,,the ,,end                             
,,the ,,european ,,library              
,edited by ,j4 ,e4 ,,spingarn   ,this   
series is intended to introduce foreign 
authors whose works are not accessible  
in ,english1 and in general to keep     
,americans in touch with the            
intellectual and spiritual ferment of   
the continent of ,europe4 ,no attempt   
will be made to give what ,americans    
miscall the best books1 if by this is   
meant conformity to some high and       
illusory standard of past greatness2 any

 twentieth-century book which displays  
creative power or a new outlook or more 
than ordinary interest or charm will be 
eligible for inclusion4 ,nor will the   
attempt be made to select books that    
merely confirm ,american standards of   
taste or morals1 since the series is    
intended to serve as a mirror of        
,european culture and not as a glass    
through which it may be seen darkly4    
,fiction will predominate1 but belles   
lettres1 poetry1 philosophy1 social and 
economic discussion1 history1 biography1
 and other fields will be represented4  
,the first organized effort to bring    
into ,english a series      of the      
really significant figures in           
contemporary ,european                  
literature4444 ,an undertaking as       
creditable and as ambitious      as any 
of its kind on the other side of the    
,atlantic4--,new      ,york ,evening    
,post4  ,,the ,,world',s ,,illusion4 ,by
 ,j4 ,,wassermann4 ,translated by       
,ludwig ,lewisohn4 ,two volumes4        

7,second printing47  ,one of the most   
remarkable creative works of our time1  
revolving about the experiences of a man
 who sums up the wealth and culture of  
our age yet finds them wanting4 ,the    
first volume depicts the life of the    
upper classes of ,european society1 the 
second is a very ,inferno of the ,slums2
 and the whole mirrors1 with            
extraordinary insight1 the beauty and   
sorrow1 the power and weakness of our   
social and spiritual world4 ,a human    
comedy in the great sense1 which no     
modern can afford not to hear4--,h4 ,w4 
,boynton1 in the ,weekly ,review4       
,,people4 ,by ,,pierre ,,hamp4          
,translated by ,james ,whitall4 ,with an
 ,introduction by ,elizabeth ,shepley   
,sergeant4  ,introducing one of the most
 significant writers of ,france1 himself
 a working man1 who in these stories of 
the ,french underworld expresses the new
 self-consciousness of the worker's     
outlook4   ,,the ,,new ,,society4 ,by   
,,walter ,,rathenau4 ,translated by     

,arthur ,windham4  ,one of ,germany's   
most influential thinkers and men of    
action presents his vision of the new   
society emerging out of the ,war4       
,,decadence ,,and ,,other ,,essays ,,on 
,,the ,,culture ,,of ,,ideas4 ,by ,,remy
 ,,de ,,gourmont4 ,translated by        
,william ,aspenwall ,bradley4  ,the     
first authorized version of the critical
 work of one of the great aesthetic     
thinkers of ,france4                    
,,in ,,preparation  ,,the ,,patriot4 ,by
 ,,heinrich ,,mann4 ,translated by      
,ernest ,a4 ,boyd4  ,the career of a    
typical product of militarism1 in       
school1 university1 business1           
patriotism1 and love1 told with a biting
 incisiveness and irony4   ,,the        
,,reform ,,of ,,education4 ,by          
,,giovanni ,,gentile4 ,with an          
,introduction by ,,benedetto ,,croce4   
,translated by ,dino ,bigongiari4  ,a   
new interpretation of the meaning of    
education1 by one who shares with ,croce
 the leadership of ,italian thought     

to-day4   ,a ,,poet',s ,,loves3 ,,from  
,,the ,,unpublished ,,manuscripts ,,of  
,,victor ,,hugo4 ,by ,,louis ,,barthou4 
,translated by ,daniel ,crhange         
,rosenthal4  ,a striking1 not to say    
sensational1 revelation of the intimate 
private life of a great poet1 by an     
ex-,premier of ,france4                 
,,harcourt1 ,,brace ,,and ,,company     
,publishers         ,new ,york