La gravedad del tiempo en que vivimos no escapará a ninguno de ustedes … . El mundo entero se pregunta sobre la posibilidad de una guerra. Yo creo, que ningún gobierno asumirá la carga de desencadenar el incendio. Los gobiernos poderosos son una garantía de paz. Pero las pasiones populares, la ambición de los jefes…

The previous speaker directed the bulk of his remarks not against our bill to sbusidize steamships but against our colonial policy in general. He forces me therefore to digress from this bill more than I intended and to discuss the colonial question, which he has placed in the foreground…. The previous speaker made his wish…

Los esfuerzos decisivos comenzaron realmente sólo a partir del año 1881, con el mensaje imperial en el que S.M. Guillermo I dijo: «Ya en febrero de este año hemos manifestado nuestra convicción de que la curación del malestar social no puede ser realizada exclusivamente a través de la represión de los excesos de los socialdemócratas,…

[Bismarck protests against assertions by the left liberal Reichstag delegate, Eugen Richter, and the Social Democrat, August Bebel, that he had cultivated ties with the leaders of social democracy early in his career.] I was rather surprised, as I read this in my rural retreat, that Representative Richter only pays attention to the external label…

I AM 1 glad that no motion has been introduced to cancel this item. Notwithstanding all that has come and gone, it would be inexpedient to suspend diplomatic relations with the pope. In the first place, the diplomatic representative whose Wary I recommend you to grant is a public servant whose intercession may every now…

I took it as assured that war with France would necessarily have to be waged on the road to our further national development, for our development at home as well as the extension beyond the Main, and that we must keep this eventuality in sight in all our domestic as well as in our foreign…

If we transport ourselves back a year—or more exactly, ten months—then we can say to ourselves that Germany was united in its love of peace; there was hardly any German who did not desire peace with France, as long as it could be maintained with honor. Those morbid exceptions, who perhaps wanted war in the…

The more honestly the royal government desires peace, the more its members feel obliged to refrain from any discussion of past criticisms…. Remember the lesson from foreign affairs, that peace can hardly ever be concluded if one demands as a precondition that one of the parties confess: “Now I see that I acted unjustly.” We…

The Conflict is viewed too tragically, and presented too tragically in the press; the regime does not seek war. If the crisis can be ended with honor, the regime will gladly do so. The great independence of the individual makes it difficult in Prussia to rule under the Constitution. In France it is otherwise; there,…

After the election of last fall we could hope that the ministry, supported by the progressive consciousness of the people, would adopt a more emphatic policy in keeping with the needs of our fatherland, a policy of maintaining our place of honor among the nations of Europe. We can no longer hope this. It is…