HOME LIFE AND "BRUTALITY" OF THE PEOPLE
The apartments of Berlin are designed for outward show for which
the Berliners have a weakness. They have great reception and
dining-rooms called "representation rooms," but very little
comfort or space in the sleeping quarters.
It is impossible to think of dropping in suddenly on a Berliner
for a meal. The dinners are always for as many people as the
rooms will hold and are served by a caterer.
Only two very distinguished guests may be invited. The host and
hostess sit opposite each other at the sides of the table, with
the guests tapering off in rank to right and left of them, the
ends of the tables being filled up with aides and secretaries.
When a great man is invited his aide or secretary must be asked
also. These come usually without their wives.
After dinner men and women leave the table together and smoke in
the other rooms of the house, going from group to group. And,
although perhaps ten kinds of wine are served during dinner, as
soon as the guests leave the dining-room, servants make their
appearance with trays of glasses of light and dark beer and
continue to offer beer during the remainder of the evening.
The Germans talk much of food and spend a greater part of their
income on food than any other nation. They take much interest in
table furnishings, china, etc., and invariably turn over the
plates to see the marks on the under side.
Whipped cream is an essential to many German dishes, and in the
season a Berliner will commit any crime to obtain some plover's
eggs.
The weiss bier of Berlin, served in wide goblets, is rather going
out of fashion. It often is drunk mixed with raspberry juice.
The restaurants of Berlin are not gay, like those of Paris. There
is, however, a rather rough night life created for foreign
consumption. I did not take in any of these night restaurants and
dancing cabarets, warned by the case of an Ambassador from ----
who was reproved by von Jagow for visiting the "Palais de Danse."
In peace time few automobiles are to be seen on the Berlin
streets. There are many millionaires in the city, but the old
habits of German thrift persist.
The modern architecture of Germany is repulsive. The man who
builds a new house seems to want to get something resembling as
nearly as possible a family vault. Ihne, court architect and
Imperial favourite, has produced, however, some beautiful
buildings, notably the new library in Berlin.
Munich pretends to be more of a centre of art and music than
Berlin. Artists have their headquarters there, but the disciples
of the awful "art nouveau" and kindred "arts" have produced many
horrors in striving for new effects.
The opera in Munich is better than in Berlin. One of the Bavarian
Princes plays a fiddle in the orchestra in the Royal Opera House.
The Berlin hospitals are better than ours, except for the caste
system which prevails even there, and there are first, second and
third class wards.
The underground road is built at about the same depth as the New
York subway. There are two classes, second and third; there are
no guards on the trains, only the motorman in the first car. The
passengers open the side doors themselves and these are shut
either by passengers or station guards. Accidents are rare, all
showing the innate discipline of the people. The charge is by
distance. You buy a ticket for five or eight stations and give up
the ticket as you go out of the station. If you have travelled
farther than the distance called for by your ticket you must make
the additional payment. This requires that each ticket be
inspected separately when taken up.
The tramways have different routes. These routes are shown by
signs and by numbers displayed on the car. Women motormen in the
war period caused many accidents.
For those Germans who cannot afford to ride or shoot, walking is
the principal recreation. There are a few golf courses in the
German Empire, mostly patronised by foreigners and American
dentists.
Military training is always in view and the use of the knapsack
on walking tours is universal, even school children carry their
books to school in knapsacks and so become accustomed, at an
early age, to carry this part of the soldier's burden.
Occasionally, in summer, bands of girls or boys are to be seen on
walking tours. In addition to the usual knapsack, they carry
guitars or mandolins. These young people are known as "Wander
vogel" (wandering birds), and sing as they walk. But they don't
sing very loud. They might break some regulation.
Outside of the large cities and even in the cities vacant lots
are occupied by "arbour colonies" (lauben colonie)--tiny little
houses of wood erected by city workingmen and surrounded by
little gardens of vegetables and flowers. Here the city workman
spends Sunday and often the twilight hours and the night in
summer time. Of course, these are possible only in a country
where the workingman is in a distinct social class and where he
is compelled to be content with the amusements and occupations of
that class alone.
There is no baseball or substitute for it--the clerks get their
diversion in a country excursion or at the free bath on the Wann
or Muggel Lake.
These "free baths," so-called, are stretches of sandy lake shore
where the populace resort in hot weather, undressing with the
indifference of animals on the beach, men and women all mixed
together, the men wearing only little bathing trunks and the
women scanty one-piece bathing suits. There is a bathing tent
where two cents is charged for the privilege of undressing, but
most prefer the open beach. Few swim or go in the water, but the
majority lie about the beach, often sleeping in affectionate
embrace, all without exciting any comment or ridicule.
The boy scout movement was taken up enthusiastically in Germany
with the cheerful support of the military caste, who look on the
activity as a welcome adjunct to military training. The boys
certainly are given a dose of real drill. On one occasion I saw a
boy company at drill march straight into the Havel river, no
command to halt having been given at the river bank!
The workingmen of Germany are more brutal than those of England,
France and America, but this is because of the low wages they
receive, and because they feel the weight of the caste system.
In a speech in December, 1917, I said that a revolution in
Germany would come after the war and that a fellow Ambassador in
Berlin had said to me that because of the great brutality of the
workingmen in Germany this uprising would make the French
Revolution look like a Methodist Sunday School picnic. A
newspaper reported me as saying this on my own authority and
added that I had said the Germans were the most "bestial" people
on earth.
I only want to be responsible for what I actually say. I did not
call the Germans "bestial," although unfortunately it is a fact
that many officers of the army and others have been guilty of a
brutality which has helped turn the face of the world from the
whole German people.
Not all the Germans are brutal. I received many letters revealing
evidence to the contrary.
Here is the protest of a German soldier, an eye-witness of the
slaughter of Russian soldiers in the Masurian lakes and swamps:
"It was frightful, heart-rending, as these masses
of human beings were driven to destruction. Above
the terrible thunder of the cannon could be heard
the heart-rending cries of the Russians: 'Oh,
Prussians! Oh, Prussians!' But there was no mercy.
Our Captain had ordered: 'The whole lot must die;
so rapid fire.'
"As I have heard, five men and one officer on our
side went mad from those heart-rending cries. But
most of my comrades and the officers joked as the
unarmed and helpless Russians shrieked for mercy
when they were being suffocated in the swamps and
shot down. The order was: 'Close up and at it
harder!'
"For days afterward those heart-rending yells
followed me, and I dare not think of them or I
shall go mad. There is no God, there is no
morality and no ethics any more. There are no
human beings any more, but only beasts. Down with
militarism!"
This was the experience of a Prussian soldier. At present
wounded; Berlin, October 22, 1914.
"If you are a truth-loving man, please receive
these lines, from a common Prussian soldier."
Here is the testimony of another German soldier on the East
front:
"Russian Poland, Dec. 18, 1914.
"In the name of Christianity I send you these
words. My conscience forces me as a Christian
German soldier to inform you of these lines.
"Wounded Russians are killed with the bayonet
according to orders, and Russians who have
surrendered are often shot down in masses
according to orders in spite of their
heart-rending prayers.
"In the hope that you, as the representative of a
Christian State, will protest against this, I sign
myself, '_A German Soldier and Christian._'
"I would give my name and regiment, but these
words could get me court-martialed for divulging
military secrets."
The following letter is from a soldier on the Western Front:
"To the American Government, Washington, U. S. A.:
"Englishmen who have surrendered are shot down in
small groups. With the French one is more
considerate. I ask whether men let themselves be
taken prisoner in order to be disarmed and shot
down afterward? Is that chivalry in battle?
"It is no longer a secret among the people; one
hears everywhere that few prisoners are taken;
they are shot down in small groups. They say
naïvely, 'We don't want any unnecessary mouths to
feed. Where there is no one to enter complaint,
there is no judge.' Is there, then, no power in
the world which can put an end to these murders
and rescue the victims? Where is Christianity?
Where is right? Might is right.
_"A Soldier and Man Who Is No Barbarian."_
The first two letters refer to the battle of the Masurian Lakes,
when the troops of Hindenburg, in checking the invading
Russians, indulged in a needless slaughter of prisoners.
I heard in Berlin of many cases of insanity of both German
officers and men who were driven insane by the scenes of
slaughter at this battle and especially by the great cry of
horror and despair uttered by the poor Russians as they were shot
down in cold blood or driven to a living death in the lakes and
marshes.
An American newspaper said this could not be true, asking why did
I not publish the letters in my first book. But my first book did
not contain all I have to relate, and the letters in question
were sent by me to the State Department early in the war, and
were not at hand on the publication of my other series.
But speaking of anonymous letters, shortly before I left Germany
I received a package containing a necklace of diamonds and pearls
with a letter, which, translated, reads as follows:
"The enclosed jewelry was found in the fully
destroyed house of Monsieur Guesnet of 36 Rue de
Bassano, Paris. It is requested that this jewelry,
which is his property, be returned to him."
The package was addressed to the Embassy of the United States. I
took it with me on leaving Germany and restored it to the family
of the owner in Paris. The Guesnet country house lay within the
German lines and the sending of the jewelry to me shows
conscience somewhere in the German army.