The German Fatherland Party has as its goal the consolidation of all patriotic forces without respect to partisan loyalties. It comprises patriotic individuals and associations. It wishes to provide support and backing to a strong government, which knows how to interpret the signs of the times, not in weakly concessions at home and abroad, but in German resolve and an unshakeable belief in victory.
The German Fatherland Party does not wish to enter into rivalry with patriotically minded political parties. It wishes to work hand-in-hand with them in strengthening the will to victory and overcoming all difficulties that stand in the way. The German Fatherland Party is a party of unity. Accordingly, it does not propose to nominate its own candidates for parliament. It will dissolve on the day when peace is concluded.
We want no domestic strife! Amid domestic quarrels, we Germans too easily forget the war. The enemy forgets the war not for a moment! The Germans who are united in the German Fatherland Party pledge themselves to do everything in their power to suspend domestic antagonism until peace is concluded. An individual may stand as he will on domestic political issues, but decisions about them must await the end of the war. At that time our brave ones will have returned from the battlefield and can participate in the domestic building of the Empire. Now all that matters is victory!
We do not live, as our enemies falsely contend, under autocratic absolutism, but with the blessings of a constitutional state whose social benefits put all the democracies of the world to shame, and which has given the German people the strength to defy the immense superiority of its enemies. German freedom towers above so-called democracy and all its vaunted blessings, which English hypocrisy and a Wilson want to coax onto the German people, in order to destroy a Germany whose armed might cannot be conquered. We do not wish to do England’s business. We know that the existence and power of our nation in the world is at stake. The German people, unlike England, are not merely interested in business! England, the instigator and determined fomenter of this world conflagration, is in a desperate situation. We are the victors on land and sea. Hit in its most vital spot by submarine war, England places its hope in Germany dissatisfaction and disunity in this last hour. The time is not far off when its arrogance will be broken, if only we hold out and resist the deceptive temptations of peace!
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