Alfred von Waldersee Quotes

Your Majesty may entertain the idea of partitioning China, but let it not be forgotten that ... it is still full of inexhaustible vitality. China has not completely lost its martial spirit, as may now be seen in the 'Boxer Movement'. Neither Japan nor any country in Europe or America is intellectually or militarily equipped to rule one quarter of mankind. Therefore it is actually an ill-advised policy to try dismemberment.

I am not a politician. Once and for all, I beg you not to believe the absurdities which malicious people seem to be publishing about me. I am contented with my military calling and have no higher ambition than to do credit to the post with which my sovereign has entrusted me.

I said to the Kaiser: "In spite of all this the Chancellor will not send in his resignation; he clings too firmly to office, hoping that if he can remain on he will again get the upper hand. In view of the whole intolerable situation, it would be best to force the Chancellor to resign–and as soon as possible–if he did not do so of his own accord."

[The Jews] are mostly fellows with no homeland, who have no interest in anything but making money, and who – wonder of wonders – mostly support the Progressives, and often even vote for Socialists at elections.

The Social Democrats ... perhaps their view of the Kaiser is the truest.

Germany is the foundation for the mainstay for the whole of Europe, but if we become weak, the entire old world will fall apart.

Too many people are under the influence of the Jews.

The Kaiser can be very friendly in his manner but he is utterly lacking in genuine goodwill. For this reason he will win no lasting affection.

The Kaiser ... is not the right man to lead the Fatherland out of the many perils which threaten it.

What he is most lacking in are fixed aims and the faculty of persisting in the line he has taken up.

I see a future for us only in a Great War in which we lastingly cripple an opponent, France or Russia. Unless there should be a great war, the only way out of our dilemma will be through internal commotion, preferably revolutions in France or Russia.

When the chancellor imagines I have the inclination to become his successor, he is mistaken tremendously. Right now, I wish that he continue holding his office and that he sees for himself how poorly he has operated recently. I consider anyone who wants to accept the succession to be very bold. When one or another successor has broken his neck, perhaps there is room for discussion.

Either we are tremendously clever or the French strategists dreadful bunglers.

Unfortunately I must state the fact that the rank and file will not return better men than they were when they started. They have seen too much of ruthlessness, brutality, robbery, executions etc., and have come into contact with altogether too many bad characters in the foreign contingents.

There can be no doubt as to the measureless shamelessness of the English in combating our really modest colonial efforts.