"Through years of secret work, scientific and basic ground work was laid, in order to be ready again to work the German Armed Forces at the appointed hour, without loss of time or experience"
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“Secret work” is doing a lot of laundering here. Krupp frames rearmament not as a moral choice but as an operational necessity: groundwork, readiness, efficiency. The sentence reads like a project update, the language of factories and schedules smuggled into the realm of war. “Scientific and basic ground work” turns clandestine militarization into something almost hygienic, a matter of research and engineering rather than politics and violence. It’s the managerial voice insisting that history is just logistics.
The intent is also defensive. Krupp doesn’t brag about ideology; he claims professionalism. By emphasizing “without loss of time or experience,” he positions his enterprise as a national asset that simply preserved competence during an interruption. That interruption, of course, is the post-World War I settlement and the constraints of Versailles. The subtext is a grievance: Germany was temporarily prevented from being what it “needed” to be, so industry kept the flame alive in the shadows.
“Appointed hour” tips the hand. It implies inevitability and coordination - a moment anticipated in advance, when politics would catch up to preparations already in place. That phrasing shifts agency away from the speaker (“the hour” arrives) while hinting at insiders who know the timetable. In one sentence, Krupp normalizes secrecy, recasts militarism as continuity, and presents complicity as stewardship. It’s chilling precisely because it refuses to sound dramatic: a nation’s return to war described as avoiding downtime.
The intent is also defensive. Krupp doesn’t brag about ideology; he claims professionalism. By emphasizing “without loss of time or experience,” he positions his enterprise as a national asset that simply preserved competence during an interruption. That interruption, of course, is the post-World War I settlement and the constraints of Versailles. The subtext is a grievance: Germany was temporarily prevented from being what it “needed” to be, so industry kept the flame alive in the shadows.
“Appointed hour” tips the hand. It implies inevitability and coordination - a moment anticipated in advance, when politics would catch up to preparations already in place. That phrasing shifts agency away from the speaker (“the hour” arrives) while hinting at insiders who know the timetable. In one sentence, Krupp normalizes secrecy, recasts militarism as continuity, and presents complicity as stewardship. It’s chilling precisely because it refuses to sound dramatic: a nation’s return to war described as avoiding downtime.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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