DOC.
8
MANIFESTO TO THE EUROPEANS 29
conditions
slipped
into
an
unstable
and
plasticized
state
should rather
be
used to
create
an
organic European
whole. The
technological
and intellectual conditions for
this
are
extant.
It need not be deliberated herein
by
which
manner
this
(new) ordering
in
Europe
is
possible.
We want
merely
to
emphasize very fundamentally
that
we are
firmly
convinced that the time has
come
where
Europe
must
act
as one
in
order
to protect
her
soil,
her
inhabitants,
and
her culture.
To this
end,
it
seems
first
of
all
to be
a
necessity
that all those who have
a
place
in their hearts for
European
culture and
civilization,
in other
words,
those who
can
be called
in Goethe's
prescient
words
"good Europeans," come together.
For
we
must
not,
after
all,
give up
the
hope
that their raised and collective
voices-even
beneath
the din
of
arms-will
not resound
unheard, especially,
if
among
these
"good
Europeans
of
tomorrow," we
find all those who
enjoy
esteem and
authority among
their
educated
peers.
But
it is
necessary
that the
Europeans
first
come together,
and
if-as
we
hope-enough Europeans
in
Europe can
be
found,
that it is to
say, people
to whom
Europe
is not
merely a
geographical
concept,
but
rather,
a
dear affair
of
the
heart,
then
we
shall
try
to call
together
such
a
union
of
Europeans. Thereupon,
such
a
union
shall
speak
and decide.
To this end
we only
want to
urge
and
appeal;
and
if
you
feel
as we
do,
if
you
are likemindedly
determined to
provide
the
European
will the
farthest-reaching
possible
resonance,
then
we
ask
you
to
please
send
your (supporting) signature
to
us.
Additional
notes
by
translator
{1}
One
may
surmise
that in
1914
all
European
nations understood "world
civilization"
as
"western civilization."
{2}
The German
original
is here
syntactically faulty
and
not
clear.