ABSTRACT
When we emerged from the war, boundless longing filled the world. There was to be an end of the madness of bloodshed and the drunkenness which proceeded from it and the frenzy of force. … Never had the spirit a greater chance, so it seemed, to assume the conduct of public affairs. The world was to be more just, more tolerant, better, more humane. In the highly civilized countries of Central Europe especially, in Germany, in Czechoslovakia, in Austria and Poland this, at least, was to be the fruit of the endless suffering. If the colossal sacrifice of blood could not be paid for with a radical transformation of society, as in the case of Russia, at least we were to finish with the epoch of force and henceforth reckon upon goodwill.
