I regard every Social Democrat as an enemy of the Empire and Fatherland. - Wilhelm II

By God's grace our German stock has been able to produce mighty heroes of thought, from Boniface and Walter von der Vogelweide down to Goethe and Schiller, and they have become a light and blessing to all posterity. They worked for humanity at large, and yet they were strictly well-contained Germans, that is to say, personalities, men. We need such men to-day more than ever.

It is, of course, my first duty to do everything that is possible to preserve peace, this is only natural, considering what work The North German Lloyd is called upon to perform; for trade and commerce can only thrive and flourish when business can be conducted under sure care and protection.

I dream of an Empire and it is this: The newly-born German Empire must possess the confidence of everybody, must be considered everywhere as a quiet, honest and peaceful neighbour; and if some day in the future a German world-empire is spoken of, it must not be based on the conquests of the sword, but on the reciprocal confidences of nations united for an identical end.