Perry: Clemenceau: French Demands for Security and Revenge

Main Idea: Clemenceau Claims That WWI was Germany’s Responsibility and criticizes Germany’s sense of superiority.

• Clemenceau claims that the Germans are responsible for the war
• He criticizes the phrase “Deutchland uber alles” which means “Germany above everything.”
• He mentions Bernhardi’s pamphlet Our Future which establishes that Germany considers itself “the greatest manifestation of human supremacy.”
• He talks of the German intellectuals who met to produce the manifesto of the ninety –three super-intellectuals of Germany
o He criticizes Germany for their burning of libraries
o Uses a very sarcastic tone to refer to the sense of superiority that these German intellectuals have over the rest of the world
o He claims that the manifesto is full of nothing but lies
• Manifesto of the ninety-three super-intellectuals of Germany
o He counters the stated idea that Germany believed it was not in the wrong for starting the war in neutral Belgium
o He criticizes the notion that the Keiser only wanted peace and calls it an unsupported lie
o He notes that in the writings of Ostwald, a German chemist, the famous French chemist Lavoisier was not even mentioned
• Clemenceau laughs about the idea that the crap about German supremacy and the superiority of the race coming from the top would have gotten a common man thrown into an insane asylum
• He notes the insane words spoken by Erzberger who felt that human rights was a secondary issue and that the destruction of the entire city of London would be more humane than the death of one German soldier
• He analyzes the ultimate framework of the old but childish German race to be the drunk men at the beer houses listening to calls for German supremacy and blindly repeating it everywhere they go while the women and children listen in fear