A New Video Documentary Reveals the Hidden Ideological and Scientific Roots of World War I

Evolution News and Views ^ | August 18, 2014 | News

[Heartlander]

A New Video Documentary Reveals the Hidden Ideological and Scientific Roots of World War I

Evolution News & Views August 18, 2014 5:55 AM | Permalink

This month marks the hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War. Between 1914 and 1918, the conflict took 16 million lives in brutal combat yet its causes remain strangely cloudy to most of us. One historian titled his recent book about the origins of the war The Sleepwalkers, as if nations and leaders stumbled into the global catastrophe almost by accident, unmotivated by any particular philosophy or ideology.

World War II is very different: Everyone understands what that was about, how starkly different worldviews, fueling hatred and greed for domination, tore Europe apart. In articulating a twisted vision of racial struggle, Hitler's Nazis could not be faulted for a lack of candor.

Now a new documentary film from Discovery Institute reveals the previously neglected ideological and scientific roots of the war that set the stage for the coming of Nazi Germany. The Biology of the Second Reich: Social Darwinism and the Origins of World War I debuts online today.

In just 14 minutes, viewers are introduced to the powerful currents of Darwinian racial theory that helped to drive German intellectual and military leaders in the years leading up to 1914.

Written and directed by Center for Science & Culture associate director John West, the video features the work of California State University historian Richard Weikart, author of the book From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (Palgrave Macmillan). Dr. Weikart's previous scholarship has revealed the role of evolutionary speculation that underlay Nazi racial theory.

Far less familiar, to the public and even to some historians, is the role that what was then mainstream biology played in driving Germany to war. Some of that country's leading figures regarded a war of annihilation as a necessary step in assuring the survival and thriving of the fittest race: their own.

The film acknowledges that the causes of the war were complex, and it doesn't claim that Darwinian biology was the only influence at work. It does show that Darwinism had an important impact in motivating German militarism.

Prominent American biologist Vernon Kellogg recounted his own disturbing conversations before the war with members of the German military elite. Previously a pacifist, Kellogg after learning what the world was up against, became a strong and influential advocate for countering the German threat.

The film amply documents the thinking of German scientists and politicians. It also recalls the genocide (1904-1907) perpetrated by Germany in its African colony, now Namibia, against the Herero people -- a dress rehearsal for the Holocaust. Here too, Darwinian racial considerations were prominent.

As Dr. Weikart points out, Charles Darwin was a Social Darwinist, but of course had he to lived to see these events, he would have been horrified by the unintended consequences of his ideas.

Not that there weren't hints even in his own lifetime. As early as 1870, German zoologist Gustav Jaeger observed that "the war of annihilation... is a natural law, without which the organic world... could not continue to exist at all." Darwin was aware of the irony that his theory and its amplifications in The Descent of Man were more eagerly embraced in Germany than in his own native country.

The Biology of the Second Reich uncovers a fascinating, neglected, and highly relevant story from the past -- not so very long ago, in fact. The film reminds us of the consequences that science, including "consensus" science, can have on culture, playing out in the theater of history, in war and peace, life and death. Watch it now.

[BroJoeK]

Sherman Logan: "Or, perhaps a little more accurately, they recognized they had alternatives, but the consequences of those alternatives were unacceptable."

Agreed.
In the years before 1914, there had been several international crises which could have, but did not, result in general war.
In each case, Kaiser Wilhelm stepped in to defuse the crisis and prevent war.

However, by summer 1914, with the assassination of his close friend, Archduke Ferdinand, the Kaiser was playing a more "sophisticated" game.
He pushed Austria-Hungary to invade Serbia, as a matter of Austria's revenge & self-preservation, after the Archduke's assassination.
What the Kaiser wanted was for Austria to avenge itself by taking Serbia quickly, then the Kaiser could step in, intervening with his cousin "Nicky" in Russia to prevent a larger war.

But the Kaiser's ploy was too sophisticated, and fell apart due to Austrian lethargy -- they refused to invade anything "quickly".
Instead, they waited until everyone came back from vacation (and Austrian crops harvested) before issuing the ultimatum to start war.
As a result, cousin "Nicky" had time to order partial mobilization in defense of his Serbian allies, and now the Kaiser was faced with "no good options" -- he couldn't back down without major loss of face for weak & vulnerable Austria.
And maybe by 1914 the old Kaiser was finally sick & tired of backing down to make peace.
His military experts told him there would never be a better time to make war against Russia, and so it began -- the invasion of France!

Here is the book I'm referencing:

[Sherman Logan]

What the Kaiser wanted was for Austria to avenge itself by taking Serbia quickly

Wouldn't have worked anyway. Austria wasn't competent enough militarily to take out Serbia, quickly or otherwise, without German and, as it turned out, eventually Bulgarian assistance.

Had Austria moved on the German timetable, the Serbs would have kicked their butts, just like they did when they finally moved.

[BroJoeK]

Sherman Logan: "Had Austria moved on the German timetable, the Serbs would have kicked their butts, just like they did when they finally moved."

Agreed, but apparently the German High Command thought much more highly of Austrian military prowess than events would later prove true.
How & why such Germans so misjudged Austria (or, more likely Serbia) is hard for us to imagine, but there it is...

[Sherman Logan]

Despite being utterly isolated from allies, and for much of the time being completely out of artillery ammo, the Serbs weren’t defeated till October of 1915. And then it took the Austrians, the Germans and the Bulgarians to do it.

During WWI, if I remember the numbers right, the Serbs lost >25% of the total population, and well over 50% of the military age men. This is far and away the greatest percentage loss of any country during that war, I believe.

[Sherman Logan]

Should be noted that the Hungarians were by this time full partners in the Dual Monarchy. After some centuries of oppression by the German Austrians, they finally got what amounted to independence, and promptly began treating their own minorities more harshly than the Austrians had treated them. And for that matter more harshly than the Austrians treated their own Slavic and other minorities.

[BroJoeK]

Thanks for that, always enjoy your posts.
I would add a snippet from my experience in Hungary 20 years ago, but we’re already pretty far afield from the thread’s topic — might be a good place to stop... ;-)

[1010RD]

They had the best chemical companies in the world because of their intellectual property right system. It was dynamic and prosperous. Obviously, that didn’t save them from their own politicians, or, more accurately, from themselves.