Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1919 — “Me—und Gott”; Why the Former Kaiser Called Upon His Gott in Vain [ARTICLE]

“Me—und Gott”; Why the Former Kaiser Called Upon His Gott in Vain

By HEREWARD CARRINGTON.

PL D.

While the ex-kaiser was insisting upon his partnership “Gott*mit uns,” “Me und Gott”—the German army was performing deeds of cruelty and barbarism which are unparalleled in history. And we know that these deeds were performed by the soldiery under strict orders from the high command. How are we to reconcile these two apparently irreconcilable factors? At first sight we seem to be in a madhouse, dealing with Insane persons. It may be objected that the kaiser was merely posing—that he was not sincere. His religious convictions, however, appear to be genuine. Me can only suppose that, believing in his divine right, he believed he could do no wrong; nothing mattered so long as Germany conquered. From fhis'viewpoint we can understand “terrorism/ The divine German right to subjugate the world explains it. This was the view of the kaiser and the German aristocracy, without a doubt; and we can at once see that from this standpoint a man might be at once deeply religious and extremely cruel. ’ But what kind of a God can this man have? Surely not a God of love; it seems rather a God of hate, an angry, wrathful*-and revengeful monarch, a partisan of war, strife and might. He is a medieval, anthropomorphic Deity, corresponding to the older Teutonic conception of Thor. In short, the Gott of this man Hohenzollern was the product of his own brain, of his own imagination. William II created a being, whom he worshiped and admired, which was a more or less counterpart of himself—more glorified. The God which.the kaiser worshiped, to whom he prayed, is absolutely different from the being worshiped by the allies — as different as light from darkness, love from hate, sympathy from destruction and fear. The kaiser’s Gott was, in fact, a typical God of hate—as opposed to the spirit of love, peace and justice.