The civil truce between parties and religious confessions proclaimed by the Kaiser in August 1914 was severely eroded by the controversy over war aims that Karl Rathgen, Hermann Schumacher, and Max Sering played key roles in defining. Set in the context of the preceding chapters, annexationist war aims must be seen as a continuation of “World Policy” with liberal imperialist features. Meanwhile, Gustav Schmoller became embroiled in a public controversy sparked by the army’s “Jewish census,” lending anti-Semitic prejudice credibility and further eroding the civil truce. War aims would prove highly controversial, and along with the debate over the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, fueled the anti-government and anti-Kaiser populism that culminated in the formation of the Fatherland Party and the final gamble to secure a victory with annexations and war indemnities. After Germany’s defeat the war aims debate, the Jewish census, and the Fatherland Party would cast a long shadow. Along with the inherent contradictions of the Paris Peace, they turned a sizeable portion of the German public into intractable foes of their republic and the new world order.