German Images of the Self and the Other

6
More than in any other genre, the discourse of war is where the image
of the alien Other (‘Fremdbild’) becomes an image of the enemy Other
(‘Feindbild’), the image of the Self is turned into that of a victim-hero,
and his aggressive deeds are justified as acts of self-defence. In German
war discourse, the Self is constructed as a peace-loving and responsible
actor who has done everything in his power to avert war. The characteristics of the genre of the ‘Kriegsbotschaft’ [justification or missive of war]
identified by Martin Wengeler, and detailed in Chapter 1, are especially
useful as analytical guides and as complements to a discourse historical
analysis (DHA) of German war discourse. Wengeler’s eight ‘Features’ of
the war message single out the following central discourse strategies:
• Self-justification and self-invention of the narrator (or the group he
represents) as a peace-loving individual who has tried everything
possible to persuade against military intervention;
• The expression of confidence in a future victory (‘Ausdruck der
Siegesgewissheit’);
• Appeals for internal solidarity (‘Solidaritätsappell nach innen’)
(Wengeler 2005a, pp. 216f.)
The texts examined in this chapter show a connection with what has
been termed the ‘spirit of 1914’ (in German often called the ‘Ideen von
1914’ ). This spirit combined optimism and desire for national unity
with a belief that the First World War would alleviate political and social
tensions in Germany, thus benefitting the nation as a whole. These texts
share the general theme of the necessity for self-defence against enemy
Others, not merely defence of the physical self but the spiritual selves of
the national community and the individual. At no point are Germans
169
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Discourse in War-Time
170
German Images of the Self and the Other
asked to accept responsibility for the war, although many of the texts
contain accusations that certain political factions have been blind to
the signs of impending doom and that the nation as a whole has been
guilty of apathy. The enemy — that is, the alliance of Russia, France and
England — is portrayed as the sole aggressor, and the chief aim of most
war-time propaganda, as shown below, is to justify Germany’s actions.
Because of its affinity with the ‘spirit of 1914’, Paul Rohrbach’s monograph Bismarck und wir (1915b), with which he marked the centenary
of Bismarck’s birth, will be analysed first in this section, even though it
was composed after the essays which appeared in the same year in Zum
Weltvolk hindurch! (Section 6.2). The purpose of the former is to encourage Germans to take inspiration from an heroic image which Rohrbach
constructs of Bismarck as a means of perpetuating old-style Germanness
and promoting a new optimistic spirit.
In the foreword, Rohrbach addresses all Germans who possess the
courage to join him in his reflections (with the ‘Mut des Mitdenkens’)
to face up to disturbing or ‘dangerous’ facts (‘an gefährlichen Tatsachen
nicht vorbei, sondern ins Gesicht zu sehen’). He praises what he calls
Bismarckian Tatsachensinn [sense of reality, recognition of the facts]
and calls upon his compatriots to show Bismarckian fearlessness
(‘Bismarcksche(r) Furchtlosigkeit’). Bismarck, Rohrbach reminds his
readers, believed in the courage of the German nation: ‘sie fürchte
Gott, sonst nichts in der Welt’ [she fears God, but nothing else on earth;
Rohrbach’s emphasis]. Rohrbach takes the anniversary of Bismarck’s
birth to remind fellow Germans they are, at this point in history, united
in war, as they were one hundred years ago (‘das nach hundert Jahren
wieder das ganze Volk im Waffenschall geeint hat’). He promises that
he will speak in this book as a German to Germans, ‘als Deutscher zu
Deutschen’, thus reinforcing the wir of the title and echoing the sentiment expressed in Zum Welvolk hindurch!, in which the narrative voice
is, in the main, a wir.
The German Selbstbild which Rohrbach paints in Bismarck und wir is
of a people whose politicians have made mistakes and who need to be
reminded of their Germanic legacy through reference to Bismarck; the
Fremdbild is of France, Russia and England, each of whom has a different
but ill-founded reason for their animosity towards Germany. The image
of the English is most severe and is of a brutal, envious and greedy
enemy Other which is well on its way to enslaving the world for its own
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6.1 The ‘Bismarck effect’
Discourse in War-Time 171
(...) beim Geiste Bismarcks uns Klarheit holen für das Begreifen der
ungeheuren Gegenwart, in der wir stehen, und Verständnis für die
Aufgabe, das Fahrzeug unseres nationalen Staats durch die Wogen
hindurchzusteuern, die sich ihm entgegentürmen. [(...) to seek
illumination in Bismarck’s spirit so that we might understand the
gravity of our present situation and appreciate the responsibility of
steering the ship of our nation state through the waves that rise up
against it.] (Rohrbach 1915b, p. 7)
The ship of state mentioned here has a major goal and duty, namely
to delay the colonizing endeavours of Germany’s enemies until it is
allowed an equal role on the world stage. Furthermore, while in his earlier colonial discourse, such as Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt (1912),
Rohrbach had stressed Germany’s desire for a peaceful colonial ascendancy, he sees that it has now been forced into war.
Rohrbach explains that Bismarck was the epitome of the conservative
revolutionary (‘konservative(n) Revolutionär im großen Stil’) and, like
Martin Luther, a ‘Revolutionär des Tatsachensinns’ [revolutionary with
a sense of reality] (ibid., p. 7). Both Bismarck and Luther were able to
perform great deeds — one in the realm of souls, the other in the realm
of political ideals — due to the natural force that propelled their sense
of reality (‘die mit Naturgewalt daherfahrende Macht dieses Sinnes für
Realitäten’) (ibid., p. 9). An early practitioner of realpolitik, Bismarck
understood the moral imperative for political struggle and, if necessary,
war with other nations (Rohrbach 1915b, p. 93; compare also WV,
p. 42, quoted below) He possessed qualities such as matchless steadfastness (‘unvergleichliche Festigkeit’) and autocratic self-assuredness
(‘autokratisches Selbstgefühl’), and he had a devastatingly ruthless
attitude towards his opponents (‘zerschmetternde Rücksichtslosigkeit
gegen seine Gegner’) (ibid., p. 19). Not only was Bismarck the architect of the German Reich, he also embodied ‘die alte germanische
Auffassung von Mannentreue’ [the old Germanic notion of male loyalty]
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exploitative ends. The Russian threat is due to its growing population
and the French are intent on revenge for past perceived wrongs on
Germany’s part. Germans must recollect the strength of mind and
spirit that were Bismarck’s driving force (‘die treibenden Kräfte und
die Elemente seelischer Stärke, die in ihm wirksam waren’, Rohrbach
1915b, p. 7) if they are to appreciate the danger in which their nation
finds itself. The spirit of Bismarck must now illuminate the way forward
for the German nation:
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