Germany declared war on France. To Germans it came, said the Crown Prince, as the “military solution” of the ever-increasing tension, the end of the nightmare of encirclement. “It is a joy to be alive,” rejoiced a German paper on that day in a special edition headlined “The Blessing of Arms.” Germans, it said, were “exulting with happiness.… We have wished so much for this hour.… The sword which has been forced into our hand will not be sheathed until our aims are won and our territory extended as far as necessity demands.”
