BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

the home of “that heterogenous but most distinctive race, to whom the Germans were and have
ever since been foreigners, whatever their share in a common ancestry.” 58
1896): 798.
British assertions of racial superiority produced other absurdities, such as the contention
that Frederick the Great owed his greatness to English genes, but they also exposed a firm belief
in the inherent moral ascendency of British racial character which accompanied an equally strong
distrust and dislike of Germany on many fronts. 59 Righteous indignation over German trade
practices, for example, stemmed from the contention that superior breeding and morals prevented
British tradesmen and merchants from producing and selling inferior goods, and thus from
competing effectively in foreign markets against cheaper German products. 60 In diplomatic
relations, an air of condescension and suspicion towards the German character accompanied the
assumption that a non-aggression pact with Germany would simply become a licence for German
bullying. 61 The hardening of racial attitudes during the Victorian era became an indispensable
58 Arthur Shadwell, “The German Colony in London” National Review 26 (February
59 W.H. Wilkins, “The First Queen of Prussia,” Nineteenth Century 49 (April 1901): 678.
Sophie Charlotte, sister to George I and maternal grandmother of Frederick the Great, married
Prussia’s Frederick I, who was described as deformed and “of anything but an amiable
reputation.” She, on the other hand, had English blood and possessed, “in no small degree, the
beauty, dignity, and personal charm characteristic of the race, which even the infusion of sluggish
German blood could not mar” (p. 667).
60 See Clavell Tripp, “German Versus English Trade in the East,” Nineteenth Century 43
(February 1898): 193-95. Perry, “Germany as an Object Lesson,” 525-37, warned against the
assumption of English superiority in trade.
61 Robert B. Mowatt, “Great Britain and Germany in the Early Twentieth Century,”
English Historical Review 46 (July 1931): 436-37. An example can be found in Francis de
Pressense, “The Dual and Triple Alliances and Great Britain,” Nineteenth Century, reprinted in
Living Age 216 (January-March 1898): 165.
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