548
DOCS.
530,
531
MAY 1918
Now
let
me give
you my
cordial
regards,
and write
me
that
you
are
kindly
taking
into
consideration
my suggestion
of
coming
here:
You
would
delight
all of
us
here
with
it,
but
especially my
wife
and
me.
Yours,
D.
Hilbert
P. S.
My
wife
sends
you
word
that
she has
a
great many good preserves
left
over
from
the
piglet. By
the
way,
I
have not
yet
received
separately
from
you your
last
notices from
the
Physik. Zeitschrift
and
the Berliner
Berichte.[9]
D. H.
531.
From Ernst Troeltsch
Charlottenburg, Berlin,
1 May
1918
Highly
esteemed
Colleague,
I
would
like
to
respond very candidly
to
your
first
and,
to
me, very moving
letter.[1]
Grave
problems
are
connected with
the
matter.
If it
is
intended
to
con-
sole
and unite the
few
who
are
not
shattered
by
the
war
and who believe in
the
community
of
the
intelligentsia,
thus
dispensing
with
any political
intervention
and
influence,
it
is
possible.
The
war
has
grown beyond
the
dimensions of
other
wars
and threatens the
very
roots of European
civilization.
Anyone
who
has
his
beloved
fatherland
in mind
will
be
entitled
and inclined
to
maintain and
profess
his
loyalty
to
this fatherland. But
one
must
then
know
that
it
is
a
platonic
profes-
sion and
that
the
facts
are
not
changed.
These facts
are
running
their
course
and
cannot be
restrained and
overcome
by
reason
anymore.
As
things
have
developed
now,
for
us
Germans it
is
really
a
matter of not
allowing
ourselves
simply
to be
crushed
by
the
Anglo-Saxons
and of
doing
all
we can
to
save
ourselves from
this
grave
danger.[2]
An
appeal to
reason
does
not
save us,
because
everywhere
reason
is
powerless;
we
must
unfortunately
fight
the
matter
out,
allow
the
havoc to
take
its
course,
and
save
our own
skins in
the
midst of
the
horrendous
perils.
For
I
still
see
the
war as
extremely dangerous
for
us.
A
declaration, if
it
were possible
for
me,
would have to
express
both
of
these
ideas.
However,
I
doubt whether
this
conforms with
your
intention and
purpose.
Then
I
doubt
whether
you
could win
anyone
over
from
the
enemy
camp.
The
plan’s
effectiveness
is just
as
questionable
to
me,
though.
As
you know,
I
have
made resolute statements
so
frequently,
at
one
time in
an
article in
the
Frankfurter
Zeitung specifically
attacking
hatred
among
nations,[3]
that
my
position
is
known.
But
on
the other
hand, I
am
too
much
of
a
realist not to
sense
the
imprecision
of
the whirlwind and
the
predicament resulting
for
us
out of it.
That
is
why simple