Interesting document from the archives

[Richard Hargreaves]

I came across the following talk by Oberst Joachim von Stülpnagel from February 1924 during research for my next book on the fall of France. It gives an interesting insight into the mentality of the General Staff which was seething to reinstate Germany's pre-war European position.
I've not translated the entire document (it's 20 pages long!) just the more pertinent bits:

Weary skeptics and miserable pacifists declare that starting a war with the weapons in the future is hopeless or criminal. They are right when they assert that since Versailles Germany has been disarmed and and that slogans and nationalist fantasies, even if they are of good intention, may become crimes against the own people, for they deceive many sections of the population about the true gravity of the question. We must never forget that we lost the World War and that the judgment of history will blame the leaders more than the mislead people. It is therefore natural that large sections of the populace are today still suspicious of a war against a powerful France... We officers have every reason to heed the war's great exhortation: a greater sense of political reality.
And yet - you would have to lose your faith in the meaning of history and underrate the awful experiences of the recent years if the majority of the German people fail to realise the fact that law is based upon power, and that it would go against all the laws of nature and experience if Versailles and the League of Nations were to ring in an age of eternal peace. In the collapse, the majority of the German people believed this ghost to atone for the sins against their history during five fateful years.
Today large sections of the populace are awakening, realising not merely that a nation without its own weapons in this age of sabre rattling is merely a pawn of another nation, but also that the diktat of Versailles was merely the end of one phase of the war which will be followed by a new phase of the war waged with the utmost ferocity, whose objective is the end of Germany, the destruction of its independent political, economic and cultural identity.
Either Germany capitulates for good - such a thought, God be praised, is already intolerable to every German today - or Germany once again tries to determine the issue of whether 100 million Germans must be the slaves of 40 million French by force of arms in a mighty uprising. "There is no nation in history," Spengler says rightly, "whose path has been more tragically laid out than ours. In the great wars, everyone fought for victory or defeat. We always fight for victory or destruction."...
The first task of our foreign policy is to win time for rearmament. That doesn't mean passive toleration, excuses, weak gestures and protests, rather the strongest intervention. It must keep its eyes fixed upon the firm objective of preparing for a war of liberation. This requires stalling France, our principal foe, and a sound policy of alliances. Classic examples are the politics of the Great Elector and Bismarck in the 1860s as weak states also pursued sound foreign policies without unshakable loyalty. We must be clear about the fact that today we are a defenceless nation - and are regarded as such. Today we cannot shape world politics any longer, we have been set back, perhaps set back centuries, and first of all we must want to become a continental European power. For that we need support and assistance. France is our mortal enemy. But England and Russia are nations which are not separated from us by insurmountable obstacles. The great historic differences between France and England present us with opportunities! We do not want to contemptuously follow England, but we must say to ourselves that without England's help a war against France is impossible...
What Germany can accomplish today is - nothing. We have seven divisions without heavy weapons, gas masks and airforces, we have ammunition for roughly one hour for these seven divisions. That is the true picture, which some people happily shut their eyes to...
The war forced upon us: today and for the foreseeable future, beginning a war is merely a heroic gesture. I am aware that it might be forced upon us, but I am also aware that it would only lead to our destruction. We must be clear that we have no aircraft, no heavy weapons, and the the light ammunition column cannot be filled even once with ammunition for the light artillery. I hope that this conditions will gradually improve. Given the Reich's financial crisis, even the best-willed government cannot make good the missed opportunities of the last five years overnight. If we cannot avoid the question of war, however, then this struggle must be waged following the guidelines outlined by me in the first phase of the war. The weaker the field army is, the greater the importance of the people's war assumes, as the last resort of a nation without arms is to defend itself against its oppressor. Nationalistic hatred stirred up to the extreme cannot shy away from any form of sabotage, murder and poisoning. The strength of the field army in this case depends upon the available reserves of men and munitions. Given current conditions, we can only consider committing seven plus three divisions, the seeds must be left for forming further formations. We cannot look upon our current powerless position too soberly when we have to bear responsibility for the use of German blood.
For that reason our cry must sound again and again: "Re-arm!"
We see Germany, our Fatherland, with its fruitful plains and wooded mountains, the silvery ribbons of its rivers, Germany, the country of poets and thinkers, the country with a varied, yet after the lows of [recent] developments still proud history. We remember its great commanders and statesmen and its great military feats until the end of the World War. Today this land is occupied by the enemy, vast areas are plundered by him. With our inner discontent, [we are] powerless under the fist of our traditional enemy.
Amid a whole host of thoughts and questions, confusing and depressing, the historical responsibility of liberation of our land looms in front of us, something which we have to prepare for and, God willing, will be called to carry out.
Still, the time for action has not yet come. We still need patience, but the realisation that a movement, which seizes the entire nation, takes time leads directly to this. We must strengthen the nation and lead it, because there is no other choice for us than to either go down or come through. Nothing momentous occurs in the world without passion. Today we often have to control our passionate hearts - I call that national discipline. It was no different for the men of the Wars of Independence and so I cannot conclude any better than with the words of Gneisenau from 1808: "A certain foreboding tells me that the day of the revenge will come - and that all our efforts should be directed to the possibility of this day arising." It is the greatest thing we can achieve: the freedom of the German people.

The source is Dirks, Carl & Janssen, Karl Heinz, Der Krieg der Generäle, Ullstein Verlag, München, 1999, pp.193-209; the original can be found in Nachlaß Stülpnagel, BA/MA, N 5/10