Given the heady emotionalism in the post-war period it was natural that the rather

unprepossessing Kaiser should have been regarded as the culprit. However, even in the
1920s the pendulum swung away from trying to pin the blame upon Germany or the
Kaiser. The Second World War revived attempts to find some sort of congenital criminality
in Germany. The theories have taken two forms:
1 The nature ofGerman nationalism. Elements in German nationalism such as
racialism, aggressiveness and authoritarianism have been regarded as long-term
trends in the Germanic outlook which make the Germans the most likely
disturbers of European peace . This sort of 'dark nature' psychological theory is
obviously impossible to prove.
2 The 'drive towards the east'. In 1961,Fritz Fischer in his German Aims in the First
World War argued that Germany had deliberately sought territorial expansion, and
used war to achieve it. Fischer argued that these aims did not just appear during the
war as a result of military operations, but existed before 1914.He claimed that they
grew from not only the Kaiser's ambitions but also from the socioeconomic structure
and vested interests in Germany. According to Fischer, the objective of Germany in
both wars was the creation of an empire in eastern central Europe.