Meanwhile, at the wish of the chancellor, Wirth, Rathenau had re-entered the Cabinet, this time as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Genoa negotiations did not, unfortunately, lead to a united European work of reconstruction. But separate negotiations be tween British and French representatives took place with Russia to the exclusion of Germany. Rathenau, fearing that German interests would suffer, accepted on April 16, 1922 at Rapallo the Treaty of Peace and Friendship offered by the Russians, cancelling all reciprocal demands which had accrued from the War.
The climax of his endeavour to replace blind hatred by reason was shown in his great speech in Genoa on May 19, 1922, which ended with the cry of Petrarch: "Pace—Pace—Pace!" The ques tion of the alleged War guilt of Germany was one that Rathenau had greatly at heart. He furthered the publication of the pre-War documents.
The effects of the inflation of the currency on the impoverished middle classes caused him the greatest anxiety, and he secured many relief measures. Yet he fully realized that German industry, when inflation ceased, would be faced with extraordinary dangers; but that the development of reparation payment in kind and the treaty with Russia would at least ensure some work for industry in the impending hard times of recovery.
Rathenau, however, was not to see the fulfilment of his plans. On his usual morning drive from his house to the Foreign Office on June 24, 1922 he fell a victim to the bullets and hand-grenades of misguided young Germans, who by this deed robbed their country, not only of a great philosopher and industrialist, but of one of their most fervent patriots and of the best Foreign Minister of that time.
In philosophy Rathenau was an idealist. Adopting the evolu tionary theories of Leibniz and Darwin, he saw the development of man's purpose in three stages—first, prehistoric man wholly guided by instinct, then historical man led by intellect and con scious purpose, and lastly the man of the future whose fulfilment will be in the kingdom of the soul. "The soul is no weapon," says
Rathenau. It thus stands in contrast to the whole spiritual world of instinct and purpose resulting from the struggle of life. In the social world, whilst believing in an aristocracy of the mind, he realized that democracy was necessary to consolidate the crumbling foundations of the society of his day. A capitalist by birth and training, he held without repudiating his creed, that in countries like Germany, carrying the burden of a dense population, "Consumption, like all enormous activities, is not an individual but a communal affair"; "The equalization of property and income is prescribed both by ethics and by economics"; "The extant sources of wealth are : monopolies in the widest sense, speculation and inheritance"; "The restriction of the right of inheritance, in conjunction with the equalization of popular education at a higher level, will throw down the barriers which now separate the economic classes of society, and will put an end to the heredi tary enslavement of the lower classes." Rathenau's collected works (5 vol.) were published in 1925. The following were not included and appeared separately : Die Neue Wirt schaft (1918) ; An Deutschlands Jugend (1918) ; Zeitliches (19'8); Nach der Flut (1919) ; Der Kaiser (1919) ; Der Neue Staat (1919) (Eng. trans. The New Society) ; Krit. der dreifachen Revolution (1919) Die neue Gesellschaft (1919) ; Autonome Wirtschaft (1919); Was wird werden? (192o) ; Demokr. Entwicklung (192o) ; Albert Kollmann (1921) ; Reden (1924) ; Briefe (1926) ; H. Kessler, Walther Rathenau, sein Leben and sein Werk (1928, English trans. Walther Rathenau, 1929) The Rathenau Stiftung (Berlin), founded after his death, collects all bibliographical material. (F. Si.)