Das Deutsche Volk und der Völkerbund.
The German People and the League of Nations.

Author(s): Hans Wehberg
Subject(s): Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Summary/Abstract: Germany turned to the idea of the League of Nations relatively late. Its attitude in the pre-war period, particularly at the Hague Peace Conferences, is too well known. that it requires some form of representation in this context. It can be said that, by and large, the government and the ruling classes were united in their reluctance to embrace pacifism. The outbreak of war, serious as its consequences were, did not change that. When the German Chancellor declared on November 9, 1916 that Germany was ready to lead a League of Nations, it was a grand gesture, not a confession from his innermost soul. The Canossa walk of the majority of the German people in this regard - sad as this confession is - only took place on the day when the German front began to waver before the onslaught of the enemy. Only then did people turn to the idea of law as the last resort. The Erzberger League of Nations draft and the League of Nations draft of the German Society for International Law were created, and the once ridiculed ideas of the League of Nations found greater recognition in the press for the first time.

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