The methods that Turkey had used to dispose of its Armenian population were no secret to the German political class. But most viewed the Turkish example with revulsion. Even diehard conservatives dismissed pan-German talk of enslaving the Belgian population and clearing the East as dangerous and impractical.18 During the debate over the peace resolution in July 1917 Erzberger announced to a cheering Reichstag that it would be far cheaper to provide insane-asylum beds for the pan-Germans than it would be to indulge their imperialist delusions.
