Alfred von Waldersee quotes

Bismarck is the king's last mistress because only such a creature could have such power over an old man. (Alfred von Waldersee)
How rare it is for a woman to support her husband aright in his position in the world, and for husband and wife to work together in complete harmony! During these last seven years Marie has won esteem and affection from high and low alike by her friendly bearing, her sincerity of character and her beneficence; spiritually she has exercised a stronger influence than have the clergy over many ladies and women.
Alfred von Waldersee
What he is most lacking in are fixed aims and the faculty of persisting in the line he has taken up.
Alfred von Waldersee
Never before has a ruler been so beloved by his own people, so highly esteemed by the whole world.
Alfred von Waldersee
I say we have the duty to take advantage of every favorable opportunity that presents itself and bring about a war with France. Militarily speaking, we are definitely at anadvantage thanks to the new repeating rifle, and in other ways too. But if we do not make use of such opportunities, then politics has to provide us with better ones, although I see no prospect of this.
Alfred von Waldersee
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.
Alfred von Waldersee
Prince Wilhelm has taken up an attitude strongly against England, a quite natural reaction for the most part against the efforts of his mother to make Anglomaniacs of her children.
Alfred von Waldersee
Prince Wilhelm seems to have a good deal of his grandfather about him. If his parents have aimed at training him to be a constitutional monarch ready to bow to the rule of a parliamentary majority they have failed.
Alfred von Waldersee
In the cavalry sons of industrialists who have got rich quickly are pushing their way in and are ruining its simple customs.
Alfred von Waldersee
The Jewish question will always remain a difficult one. In this case also the State should not take up the role of prosecutor and should not tolerate attacks by Christians upon the Jews; but it should not give the Jews the kind of protection they demand in their newspapers. It would be the most effective way of combatting Jewish doctrine for Christians to worship the Golden Calf less and to become simpler in their habits and in their desires. We should not forget that many Christians are as bad as the Jews in their covetousness and that they despoil as pitilessly anyone who falls into their hands.
Alfred von Waldersee
People are telling me that I am regarded by the Chancellor (and indeed in wider circles) as the leader of the so-called War Party, and by no means favorably, as the Chancellor is most anxious to avoid war. I shall soon begin myself to believe that I am a thoroughly bad man! What will be brought up against me next? (Alfred von Waldersee)
Prince William is very keen on the idea of war and regrets that things seem now to look more pacific.
Alfred von Waldersee
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.
Alfred von Waldersee
The Social Democrats ... perhaps their view of the Kaiser is the truest.
Alfred von Waldersee
"Democrat" is among officers simply a term denoting a bad lot.
Alfred von Waldersee
How I despise the liberal gang that has captured the Chamber! They are prisoners of their own verbose unrealism, and are setting the country back further from year to year.
Alfred von Waldersee
A good many men will be killed, however, as long as no man can prove to me that a man can die more than once, I am not inclined to regard death for the individual as a misfortune.
Alfred von Waldersee
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.
Alfred von Waldersee
Too many people are under the influence of the Jews.
Alfred von Waldersee
All the Progressive people with their supporters, the entire Judenschaft and most foreign countries, that is to say, taken together are formidable foes ... In view of the colossal influence which the Jews wiled by virtue of their wealth, through which they have secured the services of Christians in influential positions, even though they themselves are few in number, they are by far the most dangerous of our enemies.
Alfred von Waldersee
The ghost of socialism is beginning to show a very earnest face ... the Zentrum is a gang of hypocritical blackguards without a Fatherland, intent on the collapse of Germany and the destruction of Prussia. (Alfred von Waldersee)
Germany is the foundation for the mainstay for the whole of Europe, but if we become weak, the entire old world will fall apart.
Alfred von Waldersee
We have far too many enemies, the French, the Slavs, above all the Catholics, and then the entire little rabble of the dispossessed, with their supporters.
Alfred von Waldersee
Everywhere the masses are on the move, everywhere there is rebellion against authority, the negation of all religion, the generation of hatred and envy against those with wealth. We are probably facing major catastrophes.
Alfred von Waldersee
I pray to God that I may not have to live through what I see coming.
Alfred von Waldersee