Isabel V. Hull > Quotes

“One of the most tenacious myths of modern military history is that of German military omnicompetence. Even the staunchest critics prefer to believe that military disasters happen by design, rather than to imagine that structural dysfunction, or just plain mistakes, could have riddled the premier institution of the Kaiserreich. But that was precisely what was so embarrassing about the war in SWA: it displayed German military incompetence.”
― Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany

“the Herero war showed that most Germans were entirely ignorant of the most basic facts concerning the colony. It is more surprising that the General Staff overlooked all these factors as well.”
― Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany

“As Hannah Arendt has observed, “Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent.”
― Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany