These "Reminiscences" also acquaint Americans with many other plans to
organize the German-Americans in the United States preparatory to the
day when Canada and the United States should become German colonies.
Silly as all this seems to Americans it was very serious to von
Holleben, von Bopp, the recently convicted German consul, Münsterberg,
Boy-Ed, von Papen and Bernstorff. In discussing the certainty of war
with England, the author states that Germany is absolutely ready for
such an event as war in America, since this is necessary. He quotes
von Schleinitz as answering: "I know all this and I know more. I have
spoken with officers in high positions in Berlin, and I have heard
surprising things. Germany reckons very strongly upon the support of
Germans living in the western states. We looked at one another. WE
KNEW."
Little did the people of the United States realize that in 1907, buried
in the German language, there was being sold in Germany a volume of
reminiscences by a counsellor of legation at the German Embassy in
Washington, containing these sentences: "Professor Münsterberg had
created a widely spread organization of espionage in the United States.
Münsterberg had been sent to America by direct command of the Emperor,
in order to mislead the public of the United States with regard to
Germany's true policy towards America. He receives five thousand
dollars from Harvard and five thousand dollars from the Berlin foreign
office." Then follows high praise for Münsterberg in view of the fact
that he was sent to the United States as a lecturer, as a camouflage
device to conceal the real fact that he was the new head of the German
spy system in America. Beyond all doubt he was almost the only one that
succeeded in making his camouflage work of lecturing so successful as
to overshadow the more important fact that he was the organizer of the
most efficient system of espionage that the Kaiser has ever had.[3]
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY OF MILITARISM HAS DEBAUCHED GERMANY'S UNIVERSITY
PROFESSORS
Consider how strangely the Pan-German scheme has degraded Germany's
university professors. The glory of every great city and land is its
scholars, with their love of truth, and their stainless lives. We have
had our civilization at the hands of men who loved the truth supremely,
pursued the truth eternally, and cherished the truth above their fear
of hell or hope of heaven. The world has its liberty, its science and
its law at the hands of the heroes who preferred the truth above life.
Concerning the patriots, the reformers and the statesmen, we can only
say they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were crucified in
Jerusalem, poisoned in Athens, tortured in Ephesus, exiled in Florence,
burned at the stake in Oxford, assassinated in London. But the iron
autocracy and militarism of Germany made cowards of her university
men. An address has been issued to the civilized world, signed by
ninety-odd German professors. They receive their salaries from State
endowments. Any hour the Kaiser or the Chancellor can cut off their
income. When the indignation of the civilized world flamed out against
Germany because of the rape of Belgium, the German Government asked
these professors to sign a document, and so degraded were these men
through the German philosophy of militarism and autocracy, that they
obeyed--losing their souls to save their salary. And consider what they
signed!