JULI 14
JULY 14

Author(s): Emil Ludwig
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Keywords: World War I; the origins of Word-War I; the European Concert;
Summary/Abstract: All of Europe is to blame for the war: research in all countries has shown that. Germany's sole guilt and Germany's innocence are fairy tales for children on both sides of the Rhine. Which country wanted the war? Let us ask another question: which circles in all countries wanted, facilitated or started the war? If, instead of a horizontal section through Europe, you cut a vertical section through the classes, you can see that the total guilt lay in the cabinets, the total innocence on the streets of Europe. For nowhere did the man at the machine, in the workshop, at the plow have any desire or interest in breaking the peace, everywhere the lower classes feared war and fought it until the day before last. The cabinets, on the other hand, the staffs working with them and interested parties: ministers, generals, admirals, war suppliers, editors were driven forward by ambition and fear, by incompetence and greed for profit, and drove the masses on. The less control a government had to fear, the heavier its historical responsibility. That is why Vienna and Petersburg are most heavily burdened with guilt, which cannot be calculated as a percentage; Berlin and Paris follow them as seconds at very different distances; London follows a lot further away. (the author)

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