Friedrich Von Bernhardi

Friedrich von Bernhardi was a German General who took command of Germany's

Seventh Army corps in 1909. He was more popular however for his military writings, especially with books such as Ð''Germany and the next War'. Bernhardi's views and ideas were greatly shared and accepted by German nationalists as well as the German government. He believed that Germany was a great scientific, industrial and cultural force in the word, and it should be approved of more authority than what it has in Europe and the rest of the world.

In reading 4.1 Bernhardi stresses that war is an essential part of a development for any powerful country and without it there will be an unhealthy development. There wouldn't be any positive advancement in human race and therefore all real civilization. It is in real nature that there is a struggle for existence. Everything existent comes from a result of competing forces and the strong survives. Therefore, in the life of the human race, struggle is not something that has to be destructive but instead it is the life giving principle. "To supplant or to be supplanted is the essence of life,' says Goethe and the strong life gain the upper hand. This statement means that the struggle in life shows who is worthy of it, as in who is the strong one and the weaker ones should lose out. Struggle is derived from the need to live by man who brings down their actions to those of nature and they struggle for existence and for enjoyment.

Bernhardi's views of the nation are that it is set up from individuals and the state of communities. Factors that influence for struggle of the communities are the struggles for possessions, power and sovereignty, which primarily governs the relationships of one nation with another and the stronger nation, would end up with more authority and power. So as long as there are men with human feelings and aspirations, then that influences the state to keep going after more power which results in many conflicts between nations that eventually lead to war.

The natural law is the law of struggle. Everything such as all thoughts, institutions, inventions and the social system of man itself are a part of the intraocular struggle. This can be analyzed the same for a nations struggle for external development for societies and races, thus leading to war with other nations in the struggle for major developments and the achievement of more power. A.W. von Schlegel says that Ð''War is as necessary as the struggle of the elements in Nature.' It is part of nature in a way that it is necessary and without it there will be no real development because the weaker nations will not be eliminated.

Therefore, struggle is a universal law of nature and it is a natural form of existence because without struggle no man will achieve his desires and passions and in that case becoming non-existent. Ð''Man is a fighter', meaning that man is willing to accept self sacrifice for the good of the nation and struggle for the development of the state and his nation as a whole.

Nations are growing in numbers of population, so they need to expand their frontiers and obtain more land and territory in order to fit in their extra population. By obtaining this new territory, nations must have the power to take it over from others by the means of war. its not the possessor who has the right of how land should be divided up but it's the victorious nation at war that determines rightfully the boundaries of states.

Moreover, Bernhardi's writings also admit that wars are terrible, but necessary because they save the state from social stagnation. Unlike peace, war does more to arouse national life and brings the nation more united together and the will of its people becomes stronger, thus making the nation as a whole a greater power. This union of the individuals of a nation contains a liberating power that brings happy results to national life. For example, the War of liberation and the Franco-German War had negative thoughts at the beginning but they both led to permanent changes and brought about good things for their respective nations.

In the conclusion of reading 4.1, Bernhardi talks about Germany itself and stresses the point on why war is important for that nation. Germany is getting a vast increase in its population and therefore must act out and expand by taking military control over their weaker neighbors. This would lead to an enlargement of the Triple Alliance into a Central European Federation with Germany having the absolute power. Germany must widen its colonial territory so that it can accommodate its overflow of population. This has to be done so that all German people will stay united and not move into other parts of the world even if they have to stay united by taking over foreign countries through the means of war. An intensive colonial policy is an absolute necessity so that Germany does not lose out on production, exports and the diffusion of the German culture.

In the second and third readings there are completely different views on war and they do not agree with Bernhardi's views that war is necessary for the development of the nations.

The second reading 4.2, is about a German Soldiers view of the second battle of Ypres. In this battle, many of the German soldiers had been students, and the German losses were great as well as the losses of the British Force that was sent to this part of Belgium. There were three years of fighting; enduring great losses and deaths of soldiers and in the end Germany did not gain much from that battle because Ypres remained under British control. The total casualties for both countries exceeded 500,000 men. And for all these efforts they were only able to expand their boundaries for about 5 miles, resulting that the war was a great loss to both countries. The anonymous soldier who wrote this document also explains how the soldiers were feeling hungry, tired, and cold because of the really bad weather. A lot of their energy was taken away from them before they actually started the battle. They had to stay in the trenches during the stormy shivering nights and they were so cold that their teeth were chattering. He later explains about the various gunfights experienced in the battle and how there was a lot of people dieing with a lot of soldiers being scared to death.

The third reading (4.3) talks about Helena M. Swanwick's views and oppositions against war. Helena M. Swanwick was a British journalist serving for the newspaper Manchester Guardian. She was feminist