Abstract

A Teutonic Vision of Belgium

A certain Dr. Karl Buchheim has discovered the true ends of Providence in causing the war to drag on far beyond Teutonic calculation. "We Germans," he writes, "are a people with very little talent for practical politics, and the long period of consideration which this protracted war-time is granting us, that we may make it perfectly clear to ourselves what we are fighting for, is therefore not without its educational value." And so Buchheim has set himself up as the providential pedagogue who is to enlighten his politically backward compatriots on the subject of Germany's future policy with regard to Flanders. Since the "Reichskanzler" has refused to define the limits of Germany's ambitions, Germans can do no better than listen to the message of Buchheim. The Belgium of before the war must not be restored is the leit-motif of the Pan-German prelude to the approaching European concert.