When the blockade of Germany began, no one believed that she could hold
out without supplies from the outside world; that in a short time her
people would be starving and that she would be out of raw material.
During the few months before the blockade was declared, Germany had
shipped into her ports as much cotton, copper, rubber and food as
was possible. After the blockade started much stuff was obtained from
Holland and Scandinavia. From the very first days of the war Germany
set to work to utilize all the material that she had on hand, and her
watchword to her people was "waste nothing."
[Illustration: _Collecting Cherry Stones for Making Oil._]
The first collection of material in Germany was a metal collection,
and it took place in the fall of 1915, just after I came to Berlin.
This collection extended all over Germany and took place in different
parts at different times. Every family received a printed notice of
the things that must be given up to the State. It was a long list, but
the main thing on it was the brass ovendoors. As nearly every room in
Germany has a stove with two of these doors about a foot wide and three
quarters of a foot high you can get some idea of how much material this
collection brought. Since this collection the doors have been replaced
by iron ones that are not nearly so pretty. All kinds of brass pots and
kettles were collected, but with special permits people were allowed to
keep their heirlooms. Everything was paid for by the weight, artistic
value counted for naught. Vacant stores were rented for storing this
collection and the people had to bring the things there.
In some cities the people willingly gave up the copper roofs of
their public buildings. Copper roofs have always been very popular
in Germany. In Berlin the roof of the palace, the cathedral and the
Reichstag building are of copper, and in Dresden the roofs of all the
royal buildings are of copper.
A friend of mine who is a Catholic went to church one Sunday just
before I left Berlin. Before the service opened and just as the priest
mounted the pulpit the church bells began to ring. When they had
stopped the priest announced that this was the last time the bells
would ever ring, for they were to be given to the metal collection. The
people began to cry as the priest went on, and before he had finished,
many were sobbing out loud. Even the men wept. My friend said that it
was the most impressive thing that she had ever witnessed.
In that first copper collection they got enough metal to last several
years, but if a second collection is necessary they can take the
brass door knobs which are very large and heavy. All the door knobs in
Germany are made of brass and this would make a vast amount of metal.
[Illustration: _Women Collecting Old Papers._]
In April, 1917, they took an inventory of all the aluminum in the
empire. People had to send in lists of what they had. The ware was
not collected but it was to be given up at any time the government
wanted it. The aluminum is to be used in making money. For a long
time they have had iron 5- and 10-pfennig pieces, and now they have
1-pfennig pieces made out of aluminum. In Leipsic and Dresden they
have 50-pfennig pieces made out of paper, and Berlin will soon have
them too. Before the iron money was made in the winter of 1915, small
change was very scarce. The store-keepers would rather you would not
buy than give you all their small change. At that time in Turkey also
small change was so scarce that the people stood in line by the hour
to get it. The reason for the scarcity in Germany is that the German
soldiers have carried it away to the conquered lands where German money
is used as well as native money. In Germany we used, and they still
use, postage stamps for small change, but this is very unsatisfactory
as they get very dirty in the handling.
[Illustration: _Women Collecting Old Papers._]
The collection of old paper never ceases in Germany. All over Berlin
they have places where this paper is accumulated and sold, and women
work all day bringing it in. Every kind of old paper is bought, books,
magazines and newspapers. Everything must be brought in flat, and a
good price is paid for it.
Another collection that is always going on is the fruit stone
collection. They collect cherry stones, peach stones, plum stones,
and apple and pear seeds. These collections take place in the public
schools and all over Berlin you see pretty posters, "Send the stones to
the schoolhouse with your children." The seeds are used for making fat
and oil.
Everybody wondered what they were going to do when they advertised that
fourteen marks would be paid for every load of common thistles. But
the thistles are being made into cloth. Hair is also made into cloth.
Coffee grounds are also collected, but it has not been decided how they
shall be used.
When the clocks are changed in the summer, it saves a great amount of
gas, and since the first of January, 1917, all the stores must close
at 7 o'clock instead of 8. All electric light advertisements are
prohibited, and all theaters and public places close earlier.
In the city of Hanover, on account of the scarcity of water, the
water is shut off from the bath rooms, and no one can take a bath. In
Copenhagen there is also a scarcity of water, and when I was there the
water all over the city was shut off between two and four o'clock in
the afternoon.
This coming winter people will be urged in every way to save coal, and
if possible to heat only one or two rooms. They have plenty of coal but
no way of delivering it, and last winter people had to go down to the
freight yards and fetch the coal themselves. I often saw fine-looking
ladies wheeling coal in baby carriages. Baby carriages are used for
hauling everything, and they are very practical.
In every way paper is being saved, especially wrapping paper. Every
woman has her bun bag, and when she goes to the bakery shop to buy buns
she takes it with her. I have seen men buying buns in stores, and they
nearly always have their own paper bag with them. Bread is just wrapped
in the middle of the loaf, and if you don't take your own bag with you
for eggs, you will have to carry them home in your hand.
In the markets nothing is wrapped. Every German woman has what she
calls her _Tasche_. It is a black bag with handles and it is used in
preference to a basket. Everything that is bought in the market is put
into this bag unwrapped. If you buy anything that is too large to put
into the bag you have to carry it home in your hand unwrapped. Rhubarb
is carried in this way. Meat is first wrapped in a thin piece of wax
paper and then in a newspaper. Wherever it is possible, newspapers are
used for wrappings. We were never fussy about carrying a newspaper
bundle in Germany, we were glad we got the newspaper. One night a
friend of mine, an American girl, came to stay all night with me, and
as we had only two quilts, she had to bring her own quilt with her. She
had no paper big enough to wrap the quilt, so she just carried it in
her hand. The people on the street car and on the street did not even
stare, they merely thought that she was a good German woman who was
sparing of paper for the Vaterland.
[Illustration: _Collecting Old Automobile Tires._]
In the department stores they do not use string on small packages,
and on large packages they tie the string only one way around. If the
purchase is a very small object like a spool of thread or a paper of
pins, it is wrapped in the bill. Many people carry their own wrapping
paper with them and it is always wise to carry a piece of string. None
of the department stores will deliver anything that costs less than
five marks, and notices are posted everywhere asking people to carry
their purchases home with them. Only one store, Borchardt's grocery
store, still wraps up things as nicely as in days of peace, and when
you buy anything there you are sure that the package will not come open
on the street. Now they have invented a new kind of string made out of
wood. It is very strong but hard to tie.
Since the very beginning of the war no one in Germany has been allowed
to run his own automobile on account of the scarcity of rubber tires
and gasoline. All the automobiles displayed in the store windows have
tires made of cement. This is just done to make them look better. All
the tires have been taken over by the military authorities. No one is
allowed to ride a bicycle with rubber tires without a permit. They have
invented two kinds of tires for substitutes. One kind is made of little
disks of leather joined in the middle, and the other kind is made of
coiled wire. Both these tires are advertised, and the advertisements
read: "Don't worry, ride your bicycle in war time. Get a leather disk
tire; then you don't need a permit."
For everything that is scarce in Germany they have a substitute and in
this line German ingenuity seems to have no end. They have a substitute
for milk called _Milfix_. It is a white powder, and when mixed with
water it looks like milk. It can be used in coffee or for cooking. The
funny part about _Milfix_ was that when it first came out everybody
scorned it, but all of a sudden there was hardly any real milk to be
had, and _Milfix_ was put on the _Lebensmittel_ food card, and one
could only buy a small quantity of it. Then everybody was just wild to
get a little bit of the precious stuff.
Then they have egg substitutes. Some brands of it are in powder form
and other brands are like yellow capsules. They are very good when
mixed with one real egg and make very good omelet. Then there is the
meat substitute. It comes in cans and is dark brown in color. It is
some kind of a prepared vegetable. It looks like chopped meat and it
is said to taste like meat. They have a hundred different varieties
of substitutes for coffee, and without any exception all brands of
_Kaffee-Ersatz_ are very bad.
The most unique thing on the market is the "butter stretcher." That is
what they call it. It is a white powder, and they guarantee that when
it is mixed with a quarter of a pound of real butter it will stretch it
to half a pound. We bought some of it but we never had the courage to
try it on a quarter of a pound of real butter; but many boarding-houses
used it.
Every day something new bobbed up on the market. One of the finest
things was _Butter-Brühe_ and _Schmalz-Brühe_. It came in cans the
half of which was either butter or lard and the other half was broth.
It was fixed this way so it did not come under the butter card or the
fat card. The cans weighed a half pound and sold for five marks. It was
foreign goods from either Holland or Denmark.
Last spring there appeared on the market great quantities of "Irish
stew" in cans. The Germans stood around it wondering. What was Irish
stew? None of them had the slightest idea. But finally they bought it,
for they said, if it was Irish it must be good. They have a substitute
for sausage made out of fish. It is awful stuff with a lingering taste
that lasts for days.
They have substitutes for leather, rubber, and for alcohol. They have
what they call a _spiritus_ tablet, and it can be used in lamps. It is
used by the soldiers in the field. As matches are very expensive they
have a small apparatus of two iron pieces that when snapped make a
light. As soap is very scarce in Germany hard-wood floors are cleaned
with tin shavings. The shavings are rubbed over the floors with the
feet, the workers wearing felt shoes.
[Illustration: _A Collection of Copper._]
All over Germany soap is used very sparingly. Clothes are put to soak
a week before wash day and each day they are boiled a little. This
plan saves all the hard rubbing, and when the clothes are taken out
of the water the dirt falls out of them. They don't use wash-boards in
Germany. Pasted everywhere in Berlin are posters which say, "Save the
soap." They say to shake the soap in hot water and never let it lie in
the water and always keep it in a dry place.
Most stores will sell only one spool of embroidery floss to one person
at a time. If you want a second spool you must go the next day. This
restriction is very hard on the German woman who loves to do fancy
work.
We saved everything. When we boiled potatoes we saved the water for
soup or gravy. It had more strength than clear water. We never ate eggs
out of fancy dishes with grooves in them, as too much of the egg stuck
in the grooves. We served everything from the cooking kettle right on
our plates, so that no grease would be wasted. Many restaurants also
did this, and what you ordered was brought in on the plate that you
ate from. A great many people used paper napkins for every day. This
saved the linen and the soap. We never threw out our coffee grounds but
cooked them over and over. We weren't used to strong coffee, and these
warmed-over grounds were much better than _Kaffee-Ersatz_.
Some people cooked rhubarb tops in the same way you cook spinach. It
makes a very good vegetable. We took the pea pods from the fresh peas
and scraped them and cooked them with the peas. These are really fine.
It is a well-known Polish dish. The first year we were in Berlin we
could get corn starch, and we used this for thickening food instead of
flour.
One of the funniest things was that you could not buy an orange unless
you bought a lemon. This worked two ways. The oranges were saved and
the storekeepers got rid of the lemons. I have never seen anything
like the quantity of lemons in Germany--millions of lemons everywhere.
Lemons, radishes and onions were three things that you could buy any
time without a card and without standing in line.
Since the war, hundreds of war cook books have been printed. They are
generally very practical and give excellent recipes for making cakes
without butter or eggs or even flour, using oatmeal instead. They tell
how to make soup out of plums, apples, pears, onions and fish. And they
contain menus with suggestions of things to have on the meatless days.
They save the puzzled housewife's brain much worry.
Last Christmas in Germany was known as the Christmas of a single
candle, and most of the Christmas trees had only one light on the top.
One has no idea of the tremendous sacrifices these people are making
for their country.