"Just as a child respects his father even when he perceives his weaknesses and faults, so a German will not despise the old Germany which was once a symbol of greatness to him"
About this Quote
Stresemann reaches for the most emotionally rigged analogy in politics: family. By casting the nation as a father and the citizen as a child, he smuggles obedience and loyalty into what might otherwise be a cold argument about institutions, treaties, and culpability. Fathers can be flawed, even disappointing, yet they remain owed respect. That framing narrows the acceptable range of response to Germanys recent failures: critique is permitted, contempt is taboo.
The timing matters. Stresemann is speaking from Weimar Germany, where humiliation after World War I, economic collapse, and political extremism were turning public memory into a weapon. The nationalist right wanted the old imperial Germany rehabilitated without admission of error; the left and liberal center were trying to build a new democratic legitimacy without severing the publics emotional attachment to the past. Stresemann, a pragmatic statesman associated with reconciliation and international reintegration, threads the needle: acknowledge weaknesses and faults, but insist that the symbolic capital of "old Germany" remains usable.
The subtext is a warning against the politics of disgust. Disgust is revolutionary fuel: once a past order is despised, anything built atop its ruins can be treated as illegitimate. Stresemann tries to preempt that spiral by converting history into inheritance rather than evidence. Its also a subtle bid for continuity: if the old Germany once meant greatness, then the new Germany can claim that lineage while choosing a different path. Respect becomes a stabilizer, and nostalgia a tool - carefully fenced off from vengeance.
The timing matters. Stresemann is speaking from Weimar Germany, where humiliation after World War I, economic collapse, and political extremism were turning public memory into a weapon. The nationalist right wanted the old imperial Germany rehabilitated without admission of error; the left and liberal center were trying to build a new democratic legitimacy without severing the publics emotional attachment to the past. Stresemann, a pragmatic statesman associated with reconciliation and international reintegration, threads the needle: acknowledge weaknesses and faults, but insist that the symbolic capital of "old Germany" remains usable.
The subtext is a warning against the politics of disgust. Disgust is revolutionary fuel: once a past order is despised, anything built atop its ruins can be treated as illegitimate. Stresemann tries to preempt that spiral by converting history into inheritance rather than evidence. Its also a subtle bid for continuity: if the old Germany once meant greatness, then the new Germany can claim that lineage while choosing a different path. Respect becomes a stabilizer, and nostalgia a tool - carefully fenced off from vengeance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nostalgia |
|---|
More Quotes by Gustav
Add to List
