7 - A yet deeper understanding of the originality and Germanness of a people

Summary

In the foregoing addresses I have set forth, and demonstrated with reference to history, those characteristics which the Germans possess as an original people, and as one that has the right to call itself the people as such, in contradistinction to other tribes that have separated from it, just as the word ‘German’ in its proper signification denotes exactly that. It will serve our purpose to dwell for another hour on this theme and engage with the possible objection that, if these are peculiarly German qualities, then one is bound to admit that at present there is little that is truly German left among the Germans themselves. Since even we cannot deny this phenomenon, but rather think to acknowledge it and survey it in its individual parts, we shall begin with an explanation thereof.

The relation of the original people of the modern world to the progress of this world's culture is this, that the former is first stimulated by the incomplete and superficial efforts of foreign lands to undertake more profound creations and develop them from its own midst. Since the process from stimulation to creation undoubtedly takes time, it is clear that such a relation will bring about periods in which the original people must seem almost entirely fused with foreigners and identical to them, because it finds itself in the state of merely being stimulated and the intended creation has not yet burst forth.