re: #631 Aceofwhat?

Heh. We of part Germanic descent have very little of value to add to the subject of ‘conquest’…/

Christianity — and that is its greatest merit — has somewhat
mitigated that brutal German love of war, but it could not destroy
it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the
frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage
of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once
more burst into flame. … The old stone gods will then rise from
long ruins and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes,
and Thor will leap to life with his giant hammer and smash the
Gothic cathedrals. … Do not smile at my advice — the advice of
a dreamer who warns you against Kantians, Fichteans, and
philosophers of nature. Do not smile at the visionary who
anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has
taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning
precedes thunder. German thunder … comes rolling somewhat
slowly, but .. its crash … will be unlike anything before in the
history of the world. … At that uproar the eagles of the air
will drop dead, and lions in farthest Africa will draw in their
tails and slink away. … A play will be performed in Germany
which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll.
— Heinrich Heine, early 19th Century