Major General Baron Waldemar von Neunteuffel took the floor (took it swiftly, virtually vaulting onto it: Münchhausen on the cannonball could not have been a defter equestrian). He said it was hard for him to say how happy he was to be here and see one of his oldest dreams come true: namely, to see the spirit of the future born from the rank and file (that is to say, from the community of all, with no distinction of merit or rank). Especially you, my dear Nagel, must understand how deeply moved I am. Congratulations with all my heart and soul for the excellent work you have done! What particularly impresses me is the unadulterated Hegelian spirit of this enterprise; after all, without this great Prussian philosopher, any future political formation will be built on sand.

So, many thanks to Professor Hertzog (and of course to you, my dear Nagel) for so to speak replanting the cross of the knightly order in the scorched earth and for gathering the liegemen around you in a truly chivalresque democratic way, inspiring them to lay the cornerstone of the new polis. Equality, fraternity, and liberty (in obeisance!) are, after all, ideals that have both led to the triumphs of the spirit of Western Civilization and endangered them when distorted; the most daring things are tied to the greatest perils; anyone who truly wishes to dance must dance on volcanoes; we are all forced to do so in the atomic age; anyone who is not a utopian today is not a realist but a defeatist. However, being a utopian does not mean seizing impracticable things from the clouds and designing them into a world of dreams; it means creating the ideal model for shaping and fashioning reality. This reality is at the door; needless to say, it is related to all tried-and-true ideals of Western Civilization. Christianity goes without saying, socialization too, in the widest sense, of course; the new political formation will presumably crystallize on a federal basis; the most important thing now is the economic reconstruction; I can tell you from a reliable source that the Allies have very specific ideas in this respect; in the long run, no one can afford a slum in the heart of Europe; there is still some resistance, but people will soon have to accept that we live in the era of large-scale organisms. Germany cannot be excluded from the European orchestra; we can thus on this point look forward to the future with hope and confidence; it would, to be sure, be dreadfully optimistic to assume that this means the launching of a long era of peace; we must realize, ladies and gentlemen, that the real conflict has not yet been fought to the end; Churchill’s far-reaching world-political view was not to allow the Russians to seize half of Europe, but his view was, alas, not shared by all powers; the American now confronts a fait accompli; the ultimate struggle will not keep us waiting for long; we Germans find ourselves in the both embarrassing and yet—for negotiations—advantageous position of being a buffer state with, one may say, the power to tip the scales; it is highly desirable that German politicians of the future remember this; I am, of course, not advocating a new German power politics; that would be lunacy, suicide; Europe must henceforth march together and strike together when it is time to strike again, God damn it. But let us very clearly visualize how this will take place: the first phase, of course, will be an atomic attack on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Here in Germany, it will presumably strike at our newly and better-built-up industrial center, the Rheinland, the Ruhr, and so on. You know, of course, that within twenty-four hours of the eruption of hostilities, by the latest, that area will be a radioactive wasteland. Now add a few more unimportant zones, for instance our beautiful Hamburg here with its hinterland, Hanover, et cetera: within the shortest possible time, the result will be total chaos and of course starvation; a situation that cannot possibly be dealt with by mere organization—different from the famine now, where the supply authorities do guarantee a certain survival minimum by means of food rationing. Well, plundering gangs and hordes will throng into the still-untouched areas, and naturally the local population will defend itself; refugees and survivors from nuclear-struck areas will be clubbed to death like stray dogs because of the feared danger of contagion and contamination: in short, a situation worse than the Thirty Years’ War. To prevent this from coming about, dear friends, we desperately require the establishment of an effectively powerful German force for maintaining order. It will naturally require utmost tact to wait for the psychologically proper moment when one can make such an institution palatable to the Germans, who have been disillusioned by any sort of military structure. But bear in mind, ladies and gentlemen, that this step will be necessary and unavoidable—