From a speech given at the German Day of Nobility in Breslau on 16 May 1924.*
"The revolution destroyed almost everything that was a prerequisite for successful politics. Above all, this includes the social and political structure of the nobility as an organic stratum within the nation. Every large country has domestic and foreign policy tasks to fulfill, which require the existence of a unified class that thinks, feels, and acts in a unified manner, without which a consistent solution to these tasks cannot be guaranteed. Where this layer is lacking, high politics very soon becomes entirely dependent on the presence of very talented individual personalities. In Germany, this superstructure has been shaken to the core by the revolution—it is probably the most disastrous result of the upheaval. If the revolution dissolved the army, it can be rebuilt; a lost position of power can be reconquered; but the body of a people wounded from within is very difficult to heal, even if the shattering of society has not led to the dissolution of its leading stratum." [p. 67]
"If we look at the world situation today, which since the World War has been driving towards final decisions with increasing speed, we recognize that of all the peoples, the one whose leading class has superior capabilities will ultimately win the race. Whether the army has been destroyed, whether the economy has been shattered, whether foreign possessions have been lost or fallen away, all this is of secondary importance to the question of whether the leader, the backbone of the nation, has remained capable. If the Romans were ultimately able to cope with all their opponents and the Imperium Romanum was a Roman one, they owed it neither to the intelligence in the forum nor to the mere training of their legions, but to the class of old families who, even after Cannae and after the civil wars of Marius and Sulla, upheld the political tradition and were superior to the Carthaginians and Greeks in terms of foresight." [pp.69-70]
"Although the “soil of the homeland” is the basis of a healthy folkdom and especially of a healthy nobility, it must not be the horizon of political considerations." [p. 70]
* Reprinted from Pessimism: Political Essays by Oswald Spengler, Imperium Press, 2024]
