WANGENHEIM TELLS THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR HOW THE KAISER STARTED THE WAR
But there was one quarter in which this transaction produced no
appreciable gloom. That was the German Embassy. This great “success”
fairly intoxicated the impressionable Wangenheim, and other happenings
now aroused his _furor Teutonicus_ to a fever-heat. The _Goeben_ and the
_Breslau_ arrived almost at the same time that the Germans captured
Liège, Namur, and other Belgian towns. And now followed the German sweep
into France and the apparently triumphant rush to Paris. In all these
happenings Wangenheim, like the militant Prussian that he was, saw the
fulfilment of a forty years’ dream. We were all still living in the
summer Embassies along the Bosphorus. Germany had a sumptuous palace,
with elaborate buildings and a beautiful park, which the Sultan had
personally presented to the Kaiser’s Government, yet for some reason
Wangenheim did not seem to enjoy his headquarters during these summer
days. A little guard-house stood directly in front of his Embassy, on
the street, within twenty feet of the rushing Bosphorus, and in front of
this was a stone bench. This bench was properly a resting-place for the
guard, but Wangenheim seemed to have a strong liking for it. I shall
always keep in my mind the figure of this German diplomat, in those
exciting days before the Marne, sitting out on this little bench, now
and then jumping up for a stroll back and forth in front of his house.
Everybody passing from Constantinople to the northern suburbs had to
pass this road, and even the Russian and French diplomats frequently
went by, stiffly ignoring, of course, the triumphant ambassadorial
figure on his stone bench. I sometimes think that Wangenheim sat there
for the express purpose of puffing his cigar smoke in their direction.
It all reminded me of the scene in Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell, where Tell
sits in the mountain-pass, with his bow and arrow at his side, waiting
for his intended victim, Gessler, to go by:
“Here through this deep defile he needs must pass;
There leads no other road to Kussnacht.”
Wangenheim would also buttonhole his friends, or those whom he regarded
as his friends, and have his little jollifications over German
victories. I noticed that he stationed himself there only when the
German armies were winning; if news came of a reverse, Wangenheim was
utterly invisible. This led me to remark that he reminded me of a toy
weather-prophet, which is always outside the box when the weather is
fine but which retires within when storms are gathering. Wangenheim
appreciated my little joke as keenly as the rest of the diplomatic set.
In those early days, however, the weather for the German Ambassador was
distinctly favourable. The good fortune of the German armies so excited
him that he was sometimes led into indiscretions, and his exuberance one
day caused him to tell me certain facts which, I think, will always have
great historical value. He disclosed precisely how and when Germany had
precipitated this war. To-day his revelation of this secret looks like a
most monstrous indiscretion, but we must remember Wangenheim’s state of
mind at the time. The whole world then believed that Paris was doomed,
and Wangenheim reflected this attitude in his frequent declarations that
the war would be over in two or three months. The whole German
enterprise was evidently progressing according to programme.
I have already mentioned that the German Ambassador left for Berlin soon
after the assassination of the Grand Duke, and he now revealed the cause
of his sudden disappearance. The Kaiser, he told me, had summoned him to
Berlin for an Imperial Conference. This meeting took place at Potsdam on
July 5th. The Kaiser presided and nearly all the important Ambassadors
attended. Wangenheim himself was summoned to give assurance about Turkey
and enlighten his associates generally on the situation in
Constantinople, which was then regarded as almost the pivotal point in
the impending war. In telling me who attended this conference Wangenheim
used no names, though he specifically said that among them were--the
facts are so important that I quote his exact words in the German which
he used--“_die Haüpte des Generalstabs und der Marine_” (the heads of
the General Staff and of the Navy), by which I have assumed that he
meant von Moltke and Von Tirpitz. The great bankers, railroad directors,
and the captains of German industry, all of whom were as necessary to
German war preparations as the army itself, also attended.
Wangenheim now told me that the Kaiser solemnly put the question to each
man in turn: “Are you ready for war?” All replied “Yes,” except the
financiers. They said that they must have two weeks to sell their
foreign securities and to make loans. At that time few people had
looked upon the Serajevo tragedy as something that was likely to cause
war. This Conference, Wangenheim told me, took all precautions that no
such suspicion should be aroused. It decided to give the bankers time to
readjust their finances for the coming war, and then the several members
went quietly back to their work or started on vacations. The Kaiser went
to Norway on his yacht, von Bethmann-Hollweg left for a rest, and
Wangenheim returned to Constantinople.
In telling me about this Conference Wangenheim, of course, admitted that
Germany had precipitated the war. I think that he was rather proud of
the whole performance; proud that Germany had gone about the matter in
so methodical and far-seeing a way, and especially proud that he himself
had been invited to participate in so momentous a gathering. I have
often wondered why he revealed to me so important a secret, and I think
that perhaps the real reason was his excessive vanity--his desire to
show me how close he stood to the inner counsels of his Emperor and the
part that he had played in bringing on this conflict. Whatever the
motive, this indiscretion certainly had the effect of showing me who
were really the guilty parties in this monstrous crime. The several
Blue, Red, and Yellow Books which flooded Europe during the few months
following the outbreak, and the hundreds of documents which were issued
by German propaganda attempting to establish Germany’s innocence, have
never made the slightest impression on me. For my conclusions as to the
responsibility are not based on suspicions or belief or the study of
circumstantial data. I do not have to reason or argue about the matter.
I know. The conspiracy that has caused this greatest of human tragedies
was hatched by the Kaiser and his imperial crew at this Potsdam
Conference of July 5, 1914. One of the chief participants, flushed with
his triumph at the apparent success of the plot, told me the details
with his own mouth. Whenever I hear people arguing about the
responsibility for this war, or read the clumsy and lying excuses put
forth by Germany, I simply recall the burly figure of Wangenheim as he
appeared that August afternoon, puffing away at a huge black cigar, and
giving me his account of this historic meeting. Why waste any time
discussing the matter after that?
This Imperial Conference took place on July 5th and the Serbian
ultimatum was sent on July 22nd. That is just about the two weeks’
interval which the financiers had demanded to complete their plans. All
the great stock exchanges of the world show that the German bankers
profitably used this interval. Their records disclose that stocks were
being sold in large quantities and that prices declined rapidly. At that
time the markets were somewhat puzzled at this movement, but
Wangenheim’s explanation clears up any doubts that may still remain.
Germany was changing her securities into cash for war purposes. If
anyone wishes to verify Wangenheim I would suggest that he examine the
quotations of the New York stock market for these two historic weeks. He
will find that there were astonishing slumps in quotations, especially
on the stocks that had an international market. Between July 5th and
July 22nd Union Pacific dropped from 155½ to 127½, Baltimore and Ohio
from 91½ to 81, United States Steel from 61 to 50½, Canadian Pacific
from 194 to 185½, and Northern Pacific from 111⅜ to 108. At that time
the high protectionists were blaming the Simmons-Underwood Tariff Act as
responsible for this fall in values, while other critics of the
Administration attributed it to the Federal Reserve Act, which had not
yet gone into effect. How little the Wall Street brokers and the
financial experts realised that an Imperial Conference which had been
held in Potsdam, and presided over by the Kaiser, was the real force
that was then depressing the market!
Wangenheim not only gave me the details of this Potsdam Conference, but
he disclosed the same secret to the Marquis Garroni, the Italian
Ambassador at Constantinople. Italy was at that time technically
Germany’s ally.
The Austrian Ambassador, the Marquis Pallavicini, also practically
admitted that the Central Powers had precipitated the war. On August
18th, Francis Joseph’s birthday, I made the usual ambassadorial visit of
congratulation. Quite naturally the conversation turned upon the
Emperor, who had that day passed his eighty-fourth year. Pallavicini
spoke about him with the utmost pride and veneration. He told me how
keen-minded and clear-headed the aged Emperor was, how he had the most
complete understanding of international affairs, and how he gave
everything his personal supervision. To illustrate the Austrian Kaiser’s
grasp of public events, Pallavicini instanced the present war. The
previous May, Pallavicini had had an audience with Francis Joseph in
Vienna. At that time, Pallavicini now told me, the Emperor had said that
a European war was unavoidable. The Central Powers would not accept the
Treaty of Bucharest as a settlement of the Balkan question, and only a
general war, the Emperor had told Pallavicini, could ever settle that
problem. The Treaty of Bucharest, I may recall, was the settlement that
ended the second Balkan war.
This divided the European dominions of Turkey, excepting Constantinople
and a small piece of adjoining territory, among the Balkan nations,
chiefly Serbia and Greece. That treaty strengthened Serbia greatly; so
much did it increase Serbia’s resources, indeed, that Austria feared
that it had laid the beginning of a new European State that might grow
sufficiently strong to resist her own plans of aggrandisement. Austria
held a large Serbian population under her yoke in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and these Serbians desired, above everything else,
annexation to their own country. Moreover, the Pan-German plans in the
East necessitated the destruction of Serbia, the State which, so long as
it stood intact, blocked the Germanic road to the East. It had been the
Austro-German expectation that the Balkan war would destroy Serbia as a
nation--that Turkey would simply annihilate King Peter’s forces. This
was precisely what the Germanic plans demanded, and for this reason
Austria and Germany did nothing to prevent the Balkan wars. But the
result was exactly the reverse, for out of the conflict arose a stronger
Serbia than ever, standing firm like a breakwater against the Germanic
path.
Most historians agree that the Treaty of Bucharest made inevitable this
war. I have the Marquis Pallavicini’s evidence that this was likewise
the opinion of Francis Joseph himself. The audience at which the Emperor
made this statement was held in May, more than a month before the
assassination of the Grand Duke. Clearly, therefore, we have the
Austrian Emperor’s assurances that the war would have come irrespective
of the assassination at Serajevo. It is quite apparent that this crime
merely served as the convenient pretext for the war upon which the
Central Empires had already decided.