Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

THE UPROOTED AND DISINHERITED 311foundest question that a military leader can ask himself; and Seecktgave the answer by again asking: 'If warlike settlements arc inevitable,must whole nations forever fall upon one another? The soldier must askhimself whether these giant armies can still be led in the sense ofdecisive strategy and whether every war between these masses is notdoomed to paralysis.'A German general doubting the sense of war! It had taken a terribledefeat to teach him, but in any case he had learned. In 1928, whenSeeckt wrote, it had long become glaringly clear that the victory hadneither strengthened nor enriched the victors — aside perhaps from thesmall nations; victorious France had actually been defeated by a loss ofblood that could not be made good, and was weaker than before. Foryears the victor world had inwardly forgotten about its victory. Hitler,by contrast, sought unceasingly to refresh his people's memory of thedefeat; sought to convince the German masses, living happily and atpeace, of the necessity, nay the beauty, of war: 'Struggle is the father ofall things, as with the individual, also with the fate of nations. Only thestronger can raise himself above the weaker by struggle, and everyonewho succumbs in this ever-changing struggle, has gotten his due fromnature.'A remarkable dialogue between the former private and the formergeneral. Hitler regarded his speeches partly as answers to the articleswhich Seeckt published at the same time. The general admitted that hedid not believe in eternal peace; especially when he thought of the greatwars in which 'a people sets out to devour another with a better, easierlife.' Also he saw no reliable protection against 'the wars that arise fromgreat spiritual movements.' But this type of war between people andpeople, though perhaps as inevitable as a natural cataclysm, had at allevents shown its questionable nature in the World War; and it wascertain that the mere contest of arms 'between army and army' could beavoided. Here Seeckt saw 'a possibility of reducing the probability ofwar.' It must, as he put it, be possible to take the road at whosebeginning stands the sign, 'To eternal peace, distance unknown,' andreach at least a little village with a sign over its tavern door saying,Limitation of armaments.'