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Gustav Stresemann Quotes

1878–1929 Germany

Germany
Nobel laureates

Random Gustav Stresemann quote

16 quotes

If the monarchy should return, and we hope it will, then it must be called by the will of the people.

International indebtedness involves not only the usual slavery of debt, but the interest of the creditor nations in the debtor country.

Great Germany can only be created on a republican basis.

We regard the ultimate aim of our efforts as the establishment of a German popular monarchy.

Nearly the entire Reichstag, including the Social Democrats, agrees that we must not allow ourselves to be deprived of the weapon of the U-boat war.

The question of Belgium must not be detached from the complex of the Western questions as a whole. Belgium is a most valuable pledge in our hands.

Ah, gentlemen, if we had only been a little more dependent on this capital during the war, perhaps the world would have had different ideas as to how the war must end!

It is the policy of force which finally will always triumph. But when one has not got the force, one can also combat by the idea.

I am gladly willing to use my connections to the party and the government to assure for your Imperial Highness the permission to return to Germany.

The Government must not insist too much on the fact that Germany will integrally fulfil the conditions of the peace treaty. For all parties have been unanimous in considering that the treaty is unfulfillable.

Even General Ludendorff would know that on all occasions when an appeal is made to the people, an appeal that concerns the vital interests of this land, the "Socialist Marxists" feel and vote as Germans.

The restoration of German vitality is not guaranteed by the status quo ante. It will also be necessary to make territorial changes; don't let us hamper our statesmen with assertions to the effect that the German people do not want this.

We must become so strong and must so ruthlessly weaken our opponents that no enemy will ever dare to attack us again. To achieve this a modification of frontiers in the west as in the east is essential.

I hope that you will be in agreement with me when I beg you to do everything possible to prevent Hindenburg's retirement. We must under no circumstances bear the responsibility before the bar of history for having overthrown Hindenburg. I feel that even the abdication of the Kaiser would be easier to bear than the retirement of Hindenburg.

Let us celebrate Bismarck's memory by making the great idea of his life, devotion to the Fatherland, the guiding star of our own lives. Each of us in the place where he can do his best work. Each of us is responsible for helping the country rise again to that greatness for which Bismarck, who also knew an Olmuetz, prepared the way.

Napoleon once compared England with Carthage. Carthage sank down from her height. England also can sink and will sink. For on our side is the true right and on our side the might to strike the blow at her heart, if we understand how to exploit the hour.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Gustav Stresemann (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.