THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM--THE GERMAN SOUL
The older I grow the more it seems to me that all men are alike
and that they have been alike at all periods of history, capable
of the same development and differing only because of environment.
I do not believe, for example, that any mystery is concealed
behind the faces of the peoples of the East. Once I asked
Soughimoura, my colleague in Berlin, Ambassador of Japan, whether
the Japanese were as much subject to nerves as western peoples.
He answered in the affirmative but said they were taught from
infancy to control their nerves. I asked him how, and he said the
principle of the system was deep abdominal breathing with a slow
release of the breath as soon as nervousness came on. Japanese
wrestlers practised this, he added, and when a man took deep
breaths it was almost impossible to throw him.
Of course, social life and customs change with climate. But
education is the most powerful factor of all. The Aztecs of
Mexico offered human sacrifices, but the letter of the Aztec
mother to her daughter, giving advice and counsel, mentioned by
Prescott in his history, might have been written by a New
England mother to-day. Somewhere in the world is a savage eating
human flesh, persuaded that in so doing he is acting in
accordance with the tenets of his religion.
These are the extremes.
But the German or rather the Prussian, has been moulded into the
extraordinary person that he is to-day by a slow process of
education extending through several generations. At Marienburg,
on the Baltic shore of Germany, stands the ancient castle of the
Teutonic Knights recently restored by the German Kaiser. The
Knights at one time conquered and occupied much of the territory
that is now modern Prussia. A military religious order, they
attracted adventurers from all lands and their descendants
constitute many of the noble families of Prussia. It is this
tradition of conquest for gain that still animates the ruling
class of Prussia and therefore all Germany.
Later through the middle ages and as the central power of the
Emperor grew weaker and weaker, what is to-day Germany became a
nest of dukedoms and principalities. Before the French Revolution
these numbered hundreds. After the Thirty Years' War which
ravaged Germany from 1615 to 1645 extreme poverty was often
conspicuous at these petty courts. War was an industry and the
poor German peasants were frequently bartered as slaves to the
war-god, as the Hessians were sold by their ruler to the British
in our War of the Revolution. The Germans were then the
mercenaries of Europe, savages skilled in war, without mercy
towards the towns unfortunate enough to be given to their
pillage. There is no more horrible event in all history than that
of the sack of Rome by the German mercenaries in the year 1527.
Under General George von Frundsberg, who joined forces with the
recreant constable Bourbon of France and the Spaniards, these
lawless Germans invaded the fertile plains of Italy and took Rome
by assault.
The most awful outrages were perpetrated. Prelates were tortured
after being paraded through the streets of the Eternal City,
dressed in their sacred pontificals and mounted on donkeys.
Altars were defiled, sacred images broken, vestments and services
and works of art taken from the plundered churches and sacred
relics insulted, broken and scattered. For nine months the orgy
continued, the inhabitants being tortured by these German
soldiers in their effort to find hidden treasure. In fact
conditions in Belgium to-day had their counterpart centuries ago
in the treatment of Roman Catholic Priests and the people of
Rome.
The great change in the feeling of the country towards Prussia
since the latter's conquest of the rest of Germany in 1866, is
still exemplified by one quotation from Goethe. He said, "The
Prussian was born a brute and civilisation will make him
ferocious." We all have seen how prophetic was this sentence.
Skilled in chemistry, in science, well educated, made rich by
manufacturing and foreign commerce, the Prussians of to-day have
shown themselves far more bloody, far more cruel than the German
lansquenet of the middle ages who sold himself, his two handed
sword, his military experience and his long lance to the highest
bidder.
Tacitus tells of how the ancient Germans when drawn up in battle
array used to sing a sort of war song to terrify their enemies.
It was Goethe incidentally who remarked "Amerika, du hast es
besser." (America, you are better off.) The poet who died in 1832
foresaw, indeed, the coming power of the free democracy across
the seas.
It was interesting to note the psychological development of the
Germans during the war. For the very short time while war hung in
the balance there was a period almost of rejoicing, among the
singing crowds in the streets--a universal release of tension
after forty years' preparation for war.
Next came the busy period of mobilisation and then, as the German
armies swept through Belgium and France, stronghold and fortress
falling before them, there came a period of intense exaltation, a
period when the most reasonable Germans, the light of success and
conquest in their eyes, declared German Kultur would now be
imposed on the whole world.
The battle of the Marne ended this period of rejoicing and,
through the winter of 1914-1915, when it became apparent that
Germany would not win by a sudden assault, the temper of the
people began to change to an attitude of depression.
It has been at all times the policy of the German autocracy to
keep the people of Germany from amusing themselves. I know of no
class in Germany which really enjoys life. The Counts and Junkers
have their country estates. Life on these estates, which are
administered solely for profit, is not like country life in
England or America. The houses are plain and, for the most part,
without the conveniences of bath rooms and heating to which we
are accustomed in America. Very few automobiles are owned in
Germany. There are practically no small country houses or
bungalows, although at a few of the sea places rich Jews have
villas.
The wealthy merchant takes his vacation in summer at Carlsbad or
Kissingen or in some other resort where his physical constitution,
disorganised by over-eating and over-drinking, can be regulated
somewhat. Many Germans take their families to Switzerland where
the German of all ages with knapsack and Alpine stick is a
familiar sight.
Earnestness is the watchword. For should the people once get a
taste of pleasure they might decide that the earth offered fairer
possibilities than life in the barracks or the admiring
contemplation of fat and complacent grand dukes and princes.
Much of this sycophancy is due to the poverty of the educated
classes. Salaries paid to officials are ridiculously small. The
German workingmen both in wages and living are on a lower scale
than those of other western nations with the possible exception
of Russia, Italy and the Balkan States. The professional and
business classes earn very little. The reason for the superiority
of the German in the chemical industry is because a chemist, a
graduate of the university, can be hired for less than the salary
of an American chauffeur.
And this earnestness of life was insisted upon even to a greater
degree by the autocracy with the opening of war. The playing of
dance music brought a visit from the police. The theatres at
first were closed but later opened. Only plays of a serious or
patriotic nature were originally permitted. Dancing was tabooed,
but in the winter of 1915-16 Reinhardt was allowed to produce a
ballet of a severely classical nature and at the opera performances
the ponderous ballet girls were permitted to cavort as usual.
I saw no signs of any great religious revival, no greater
attendance at the churches. Perhaps this was because I was in the
Protestant part of Germany where the church is under the direct
control of the government and where the people feel that in
attending church they are only attending an extra drill, a drill
where they will be told of the glories of the autocracy and the
necessity of obedience. In fact, religion may be said to have
failed in Germany and many state-paid preachers launched sermons
of hate from their state-owned pulpits.
Always fond of the drama and opera I was a constant attendant at
theatres in Berlin. The best known manager in Berlin is
Reinhardt, who has under his control the Deutsches Theatre with
its annex, the Kammerspiel and also the People's Theatre on the
Bülow Platz. I made the acquaintance of Mr. Reinhardt and his
charming wife who takes part in many of his productions. I dined
with them in their picturesque house on the Kupfer Graben. In the
Deutsches Theatre the great revolving stage makes change of scene
easy so that Reinhardt is enabled to present Shakespeare, a great
favourite in Germany, in a most picturesque manner. He manages to
lend even to the most solemn tragedy little touches that add
greatly to the interest and keep the attention fixed.
For instance in his production of "Macbeth," when Lady Macbeth
comes in, in the sleep-walking scene, rubbing her hands and
saying, "What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" the actress
taking this part in Berlin gave a very distinct and loud snore
between every three or four words: thus most effectively
reminding the audience that she was asleep.
As the war continued the taste of the Germans turned to sombre,
tragical and almost sinister plays. Only a death on the stage
seemed to bring a ray of animation to the stolid bovine faces of
the audience. In my last winter in Berlin the hit of the season
was "Erdgeist," a play by Wedekind, whose "Spring's Awakening,"
given in New York in the spring of 1917, horrified and disgusted
the most hardened Broadway theatregoers. The principal female
rôle was played by a Servian actress, Maria Orska--very much on
the type of Nazimova. In this play, presented to crowded
audiences, only one of the four acts was without a death.
Another favourite during war-time, played at Reinhardt's
theatre, was "Maria Magdalena." The characters were the father,
mother, son and daughter of a German family in a small town and
two young men in love with the daughter. In the first act the
police arrest the son for theft, giving the mother such a shock
that she dies of apoplexy on the stage. In the second act, the
two lovers have a duel and one is killed. In the third act, the
surviving lover commits suicide, and, in the fourth act, the
daughter jumps down the well. The curtain descends leaving only
the old man and the cat alive and the impression is given that if
the curtain were ten seconds later either the cat would get the
old man or the old man would get the cat!
The mysterious play of Peer Gynt was given in two theatres during
each winter of the war. All of Ibsen's dramas played to crowded
houses. Reinhardt, during the last winter I was in Berlin,
produced Strindberg's "Ghost Sonata," in quite a wonderful way.
The play was horrible and grewsome enough, but as produced by
him, it gave a strong man nightmare for days afterwards.
The German soul, indeed, seems to turn not towards light and gay
and graceful things, but towards bloodshed and grewsomeness,
ghosts and mystery--effect doubtless of the long, dark, bitter
nights and gray days that overshadow these northern lands.
I think the only time I lost my temper in Germany was when a
seemingly reasonable and polite gentleman from the Foreign Office
sitting by my desk one day, in 1916, remarked how splendid it
was that Germany had nearly two million prisoners of war and that
these would go back to their homes imbued with an intense
admiration of German Kultur.
I said that I believed that the two million prisoners of war who
had been insulted and underfed and beaten and forced to work as
slaves in factories and mines and on farms would go back to their
homes with such a hatred of all things German that it would not
be safe for Germans to travel in countries from which these
prisoners came, that other nations had their own Kultur with
which they were perfectly satisfied and which they did not wish
to change for any made-in-Germany brand!
Certain Germans have prated much of German "Kultur," have boasted
of imposing this "Kultur" on the world by force of arms. What is
this German "Kultur"? A certain efficiency of government obtained
by keeping the majority of the people out of all voice in
governmental affairs, a certain low cost of manufactured products
or of carrying charges in the shipping trades made possible by
enslaving the workmen who toil long hours for small wages--a
certain superiority in chemical production because trained
chemists, willing to work at one semi-mechanical task, can be
hired for less than a Fifth Avenue butler is paid in America, and
a certain pre-eminence in military affairs reached by subjecting
the mass of the people to the brutal, boorish, non-commissioned
officers and the galling yoke of a militaristic system.
Subtract the German Jews and in the lines of real culture there
would be little of the real thing left in Germany. Gutmann,
Bleichroeder, von Swabach, Friedlander-Fuld, Rathenau, Simon,
Warburg in finance; Borchardt and others in surgery, and almost
the whole medical profession; the Meyers, the Ehrlichs,
Bamberger, Hugo Schiff, Newburger, Bertheim, Paul Jacobson, in
chemistry and research; Mendelssohn, and others, in music;
Harden, Theodor Wolf, Georg Bernhard and Professor Stein in
journalism.
But why continue--about the only men not Jews prominent in the
intellectual, artistic, financial, or commercial life of Germany
are the pastors of the Lutheran Churches. And the Jews have won
their way to the front in almost a generation. Still refused
commissions in the standing army (except for about 114 since the
war), still compelled to renounce their religion before being
eligible for nobility or a court function, still practically
excluded from university professorships, considered socially
inferior, the Jews of Germany until a few years ago lived under
disabilities that had survived from the Middle Ages. They were
not allowed to bear Christian names. The marriages of Jews and
Christians were forbidden. Jews could not own houses and lands.
They were not permitted to engage in agriculture and could not
become members of the guilds or unions of handicraftsmen. When a
Jew travelled he was compelled to pay a tax in each province
through which he passed. Jews attending the fair at Frankfort on
the Oder were compelled to pay a head tax, and were admitted to
Leipzig and Dresden on condition that they might be expelled at
any time. Berlin Jews were compelled to buy annually a certain
quantity of porcelain, derisively called "Jew's porcelain" from
the Royal manufactory and to sell it abroad. When a Jew married
he had to get permission and an annual impost was paid on each
member of the family, while only one son could remain at home,
and the others were forced to seek their fortune abroad. The Jews
could worship in their own way, in some states, provided they
used only two small rooms and made no noise.
The reproach that the Jew is not a producer, but is a mere
middleman, taking a profit as goods pass from hand to hand, is
handed down from the time when Jews were forbidden by law to
become producers and, therefore, were compelled to become traders
and middlemen, barred from the guilds and from engaging in the
cultivation of the soil.
* * * * *
The German newspaper in size is much smaller than ours. If you
take an ordinary American newspaper and fold it in half, the fold
appearing horizontally across the middle of the page and then
turn it so that the longer sides are upright, you get an idea of
the size. There are no editorials in German newspapers, but
articles, usually only one a day, on some political or scientific
subject, one contributed by a professor or some one else
supposedly not connected with the newspaper.
The editor of the German newspaper in his desire to poison and
colour the news to suit his own views does not rely upon an
editorial, but inserts little paragraphs and sentences in the
news columns. For instance, a note of President Wilson's might be
printed and after a paragraph of that, a statement something like
this will be inserted in parentheses. "This statement comes well
from the old hyprocrite whose country has been supplying arms and
ammunition to the enemies of Germany. The Editor." A few sentences
more or a paragraph of the note and another interlineation of this
kind. Small newspapers have a news service furnished free by the
government, thus enabling the latter to colour the news to suit
itself. It is characteristic of Germany and shows how void of
amusement the life of an average citizen is and how the country
is divided into castes, that there is no so-called society or
personal news in the columns of the daily newspaper.
You never see in a German newspaper accounts common even to our
small town newspapers, of how Mrs. Snooks gave a tea or how Mrs.
Jones, of Toledo, is visiting Mrs. Judge Bascom for Thanksgiving.
If a prince or duke comes to a German town a simple statement is
printed that he is staying at such and such a hotel.
German newspapers, as a rule, are very pronounced in their views,
either distinctly Conservative or Liberal or Socialist or Roman
Catholic. The _Berliner Tageblatt_ is nearest our idea of a great
independent, metropolitan, daily newspaper. Other newspapers
represent a class and many of them are owned by particular
interests such as the Krupps and other manufacturers or munition
makers.
There is little that is sensational in the German newspaper. I
remember on one occasion that two women murderers were beheaded
in accordance with German law. Imagine how such an occurrence
would have been "played up" in the American newspapers, with
pictures, perhaps, of the executioner and his sword, with
articles from poets and women's organisations, with appeals for
pardon and talk of brainstorms and the other hysterical
concomitants of murder trials in the United States. But in the
German newspapers a little paragraph, not exceeding ten lines,
simply related the fact that these two women, condemned for
murdering such and such a person, had been executed in the
strangely medieval manner--their heads cut off on the scaffold by
a public executioner.
The German newspapers in reporting police court and other
judicial proceedings often omit names and it is possible in
Berlin for a man to prosecute a blackmailer without having his
own name in print.
When a German victory was announced flags were displayed, but as
the war progressed so many victories announced turned out to be
nothing wonderful or decisive that little attention was paid to
the vain-glorious flaunting of German triumphs. Following an old
custom ten or fifteen trumpeters climbed the tower of Rathhaus or
City Hall and there quite characteristically blew to the four
quarters of Heaven; but again as these official and brazen
blowings were not always followed by the confirmation in fact,
trumpetings were gradually discontinued.
The Germans cleverly kept back the announcement of certain
successes in order to offset reverses. For instance, on a day
when it was necessary to tell the people of a German retreat the
newspapers would have great headlines across the front of the
first page announcing the sinking of a British cruiser (sunk,
perhaps, a month before) and then hidden in a corner would be a
minimised announcement of a German defeat.
To us in Germany there was at the time no battle of the Marne. So
gradually was the news of the retreat of the German forces broken
to the people that to-day the masses do not realise that the fate
of the world was settled at the Marne!