“To say I desire war is absurd. I only wish one thing: that our enemies renounce completely the idea of attacking us. I know too well what war is and am convinced that it is my duty as an honest man to wish that it be used only as a last resort, as much in the interests of my Fatherland as in the interests of the entire world.”

Waldersee, quoted in the Le Petit Parisien newspaper, c. 1888

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Alfred von Waldersee 37
Prussian Field Marshal 1832–1904

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