Full of pride and unshakable confidence, we look to them and to our
Austro-Hungarian comrades in arms, who are firmly united to us, to fight
great battles with brilliant bravery.
Our most recent ally in battle who has been obliged to join us is the
Ottoman Empire, which knows well that with the destruction of the German
Empire it, too, would lose its national right to control its own
destiny. As our enemies have formed a powerful coalition against us,
they will, I hope, find that the arm of our brave allies reaches the
weak spots in their world position.
On Aug. 4 the Reichstag expressed the firm resolution of the whole
people to undertake the war which had been forced upon them and to
defend their independence to the utmost.
Since then great deeds have been accomplished. The incomparable
gallantry of our troops has carried the war into the enemy's country.
There we still stand firm and can regard the future with every
confidence, but the enemy's resistance is not broken.
We are not yet at the end of our sacrifices. The nation will continue to
support those sacrifices with the same heroism as hitherto, for we must
and will fight to a successful end our defensive war for right and
freedom. We will then remember how our defenseless compatriots in
hostile countries were maltreated in a manner which is a disgrace to all
civilization. The world must learn that no one can hurt a hair on the
head of a German subject with impunity.
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