English Translation

8a Humanism. The self-destruction drive of the Bolshevik hordes originates from entirely different motives than the willingness of the German soldier to die. It has its root in the sense of the worthlessness of human life. One can therefore also call the fanatical resistance force and the stubborn will to attack Bolshevik troop parts not actually as bravery. A suicide who throws away his existence is not brave. The masculine virtue of bravery thrives only where life is regarded as the last and highest value, and where one consciously sacrifices one's existence to serve the life of the whole. This sacrifice still possesses something of its original religious consecration. Soldiers' death is a sacrifice to the godliness, to that mysterious source of life from which all the power that moves our world radiates. War is worship in the last possible form. Whoever does not feel it may have been a soldier, but never a warrior of work and birth. The war is an anthem to life, for death is the prerequisite of existence. In the extreme vicinity of death, life celebrates its highest triumphs; here it reaches a degree of purity and holiness that otherwise remains closed to mortals. In his dead, a people worships themselves. In the great army of the fallen the individual disappears with his virtues and faults — he is consecrated by the greatness of his sacrifice, which now prescribes the goal and direction of the living. No power on earth is as great as that of the dead in their graves. It is they who give the highest consecration to human communities, their flags and signs. All holiness on earth originates from the dead, for "an idea is worth as much as men are willing to die for them". The nearness of death alone can free man. The coward is the slave of himself, the brave one walks among the gods. He cannot shake anything, he has given himself to his destiny and made himself entirely his own the will of the Deity. He is able to experience the highest triumph of all humanity, which one may call heroism. The hero is close to the gods. In him, a combative community experiences its personification. He is its sign and symbol. All true religion is first of all hero worship, because the hero is Schirmer of life and enforcer of fate. In his deeds the will of the Deity manifests itself directly. Hans-HenningFestge Any Reidh that is divided into itself is crumbling. Thus, no kingdom is crumbled without its own division. The most courteous construction of a house and covenant of an empire is that they walk in one. PARACELSUS