suggestion of an English alliance; “whatever pains may be taken, I
will never lend myself to an alliance with England. I am not like
so many German princes, to be gained for money.” Of the Landgrave
of Hesse, he said: “Do not attribute his education to me. Were he
a graduate of my school he would never have sold his subjects to
the English as they drive cattle to the shambles. He a preceptor of
sovereigns? The sordid passion for gain is the only motive of his
vile procedure.”
Foerster, in “Friederich der Grosse” (1871, viii) quotes the great
King as follows: “This subject leads me to speak of princes who
conduct a dishonorable traffic in the blood of their people. Their
troops belong to the highest bidder. It is a sort of auction at
which those paying the highest subsidies lead the soldiers of these
unworthy rulers to the shambles. Such princes ought to blush at their
baseness in selling the lives of people whom, as fathers of their
countries, they ought to protect. These little tyrants should hear
the opinion of mankind, which is one of contempt for the misuse of
their power.”
=The “Fourteen Points.”=--On January 8, 1917, less than sixty days
before we found ourselves in a state of war with Germany, President
Wilson presented to Congress the following fourteen specific
considerations as necessary to world peace:
1. Open covenants of peace without private international
understandings.
2. Absolute freedom of the seas in peace or war, except as they may
be closed by international action.
3. Removal of all economic barriers and establishment of equality of
trade conditions among nations consenting to peace and associating
themselves for its maintenance.
4. Guarantees for the reduction of national armaments at the lowest
point consistent with domestic safety.
5. Impartial adjustment of all colonial claims based upon the
principle that the peoples concerned shall have equal weight with the
interest of the government.
6. Evacuation of all Russian territory and opportunity for Russia’s
political development.
7. Evacuation of Belgium without any attempt to limit her sovereignty.
8. All French territory to be freed and restored, and France must
have righted the wrong done in the taking of Alsace-Lorraine.
9. Readjustment of Italy’s frontiers along clearly recognizable lines
of nationality.
10. Freest opportunity for the autonomous development of the peoples
of Austria-Hungary.
11. Evacuation of Rumania, Servia and Montenegro, with access to
the sea for Servia, and international guarantees of economic and
political independence and territorial integrity of the Balkan States.
12. Secure sovereignty for Turkey’s portion of the Ottoman Empire,
but with other nationalities under Turkey’s rule assured security of
life and opportunity for autonomous development, with the Dardanelles
permanently opened to all nations.
13. Establishment of an independent Polish State, including
territories inhabited by indisputably Polish population, with free
access to the sea and political and economic independence and
territorial integrity guaranteed by international covenant.
14. General association of nations under specific covenants for
mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity
to large and small states alike.
This was the programme laid down for the attainment of peace and was
accepted by both sides, the Allied powers as well as Germany and
Austria-Hungary.
The total disregard of the Fourteen Points in the peace treaty proved
a grievous disappointment to the majority of the thinking people
of America. In the final analysis of the work of the Paris peace
conference it was found that we had achieved not a single point of
our programme, except as to the last provision, from which evolved
the so-called League of Nations, subsequently defeated in the Senate.
Instead of “open covenants openly arrived at,” the treaty was made
in secret conference; we did not gain the freedom of the seas,
but helped Great Britain to strengthen her command of the seas by
eliminating her greatest rival; we witnessed no removal of economic
barriers--not even among the Allies, as the President himself
recommended an American tariff on dyes; disarmament was decreed for
Germany and Austria only; self-determination of small nations became
a dead letter at once as to Ireland, German Austria, the German
Tyrol, Danzig, Egypt, India, the Boers, Korea, Persia, and numerous
others, especially where the question involved the self-determination
of Germans; Hungary’s borders were at once invaded by Rumania, Serbia
and Czecho-Slovakia; Russia was not permitted to determine her own
fate, as Kolchak was formally recognized and supported by the powers;
Belgium remains a vassal of England and France; in addition to
righting the wrong of 1871 by the recession of Alsace-Lorraine, the
Saar Valley was taken away from Germany and a plebiscite was ordered
in Schleswig, Silesia, and German-Poland under the guns of the
Entente; Italy’s borders were not readjusted along national lines,
for the Brenner Pass, the Voralsberg, parts of Dalmatia and a lease
on Fiume provided; the autonomous development of Austria-Hungary
was interpreted to mean that the German-speaking part of Austria
was forbidden to unite with Germany; the independence of the Balkan
States was made subject to the invisible government of the Big Four;
autonomy for Turkish vassal states and the internationalization of
the Dardanelles was construed to mean that these States should become
mandatories of the Allies and the strait to be under Allied control;
Polish freedom celebrated its advent with Jewish pogroms, while the
League of Nations became a league of victors, in which Japan was
bribed to enter by the cession to her of the Shantung peninsula.
“Germany has accepted President Wilson’s fourteen points,” said Dr.
Mathias Erzberger, “but so have the Allies.”
That President Wilson fully recognized his responsibility and that of
his European associates under the Fourteen Points is shown by his own
statement. On December 2, 1918, he said in addressing Congress:
“=The Allied Governments have accepted the bases of peace which I
outlined to the Congress on the 8th of January last, as the Central
Empires also have=, and very reasonably desire my personal counsel in
their interpretation and application, and it is highly desirable that
I should give it =in order that the sincere desire of our government
to contribute without selfish aims of any kind to settlements that
will be of common benefit to all the nations concerned may be fully
manifest=.”
In an interview printed in the Paris “Temps” of March 25, 1919, Count
Bernstorff, former Ambassador to the United States, said:
“The armistice of November 11 was signed when all the Powers
interested had accepted the program of peace proposed by President
Wilson. Germany is determined to keep to this agreement, which
history will regard, in a way, as the conclusion of a preliminary
peace. She herself is ready to submit to the conditions arising from
it, and she expects all the interested Powers to do the same.”
The President’s reversal was diplomatically covered under various
specious pretexts by the staff of English journalists at the peace
conference. Sir J. Foster Frazer put it this way: “Mr. Wilson has
broadened in vision since he came to Paris. He has abandoned his
purely national point of view.”
The same writer discoursed entertainingly of the methods pursued in
the conference. “Except at intervals,” he wrote, “the conferences
are not in public, that is when a certain number of journalists are
permitted to be present. The great things are debated in private,
and at these private conversations in M. Pichon’s room at the French
Foreign Office, the full representation of the five powers is not
in attendance.... The full conferences of the seventy delegates
will have but little option but to acquiesce with the conclusion of
the ten.... It is a perfectly open secret that the three men who
are ‘running the show’ are M. Clemenceau, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lloyd
George.”
The noble writer frankly admits that the conferences revolved around
the secret treaties among the Allies instead of the Fourteen Points.
He reports:
“We already know there were three secret treaties made
during the war and to all of which Great Britain was a
party; (1) conceding to Italy the Dalmatian coast in return
for her help, (2) the concession of the former German
islands in the North Pacific to Japan, (3) the promise of
Damascus to the King of Hedjaz.”
Again he says: “Japan is in possession of the Marshall and Caroline
groups of islands in the Pacific, and has a document signed by both
France and Britain that she shall retain them.”
So much for “open covenants openly arrived at,” though they do not
cover all the secret pacts which determined the conditions of peace.
Only once Mr. Wilson rose to the importance of his mission, when
he declared that Fiume must go to the Jugo-Slav Republic. His
announcement was soon followed by an invasion of Fiume under
d’Annunzio, the Italian poet-patriot, with the apparent secret
connivance of our associates in the war.
At the peace conference, when it was Germany’s turn to be heard, it
was decided that the interests of all concerned were best served by
precluding any discussion, and the German delegates, with revolution
and starvation in their back, and with arms wrested from their hands
by a promise, were left no alternative but to affix their signatures
to the most violent peace treaty ever consummated. The commission,
headed by Brockdorf-Rantzau and Scheidemann, resigned rather than
sign, and a new delegation was named, which signed the treaty without
being given an opportunity to discuss it. In the streets the German
delegates were stoned.
Thus was realized the golden promise held out in the speech Mr.
Wilson made on the very day that Congress met to declare war:
“=We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no
feeling toward them but one of sympathy and friendship.= It
was not upon their impulse that their government acted in
entering the war. It was not with their previous knowledge
or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars used to
be determined upon in the old unhappy days when people were
nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked
and waged in the interests of dynasties or of little groups
of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow
men as pawns and tools.”
When Germany, in 1871, had France prostrate at her feet, the French
people were represented at the peace conference by their statesmen,
just as France was represented at the Peace of Vienna after the fall
of Napoleon in 1815. Mr. Wilson had said peace must not be determined
as it was in the Congress of Vienna. Sir Foster Frazer furnishes the
answer. In 1871 the terms of peace were arranged by Bismarck on one
side and a full delegation of French statesmen on the other. Bismarck
relented so far as to release back to France the great fortress
of Belfort, claiming only the recession of Alsace-Lorraine and a
war indemnity of five billion francs. So far from seeking to crush
France, everything possible on the German side was done to enable her
to recover from the war, and no sooner had Paris surrendered, than
trainloads of foodstuffs were rushed into the city by the Germans to
feed the starving population.
The European allies had first starved Germany, with a loss of
1,000,000 souls by famine, then severed portions of her territory
whose possession antedated the American Revolution, on the ground
of Mr. Wilson’s point in behalf of the self-determination of small
nations, and on top of all left the country in helpless vassalage to
her enemies, under a war indemnity that staggers humanity. Erzberger
cried out in despair:
“I appeal to the conscience of America by reminding her of the
American famine conditions in the years 1862-65. At that time it was
Germany who sprang to America’s aid, and steadied her, sending her
not only money, but clothes, shoes and machinery as well, thus making
it possible for the United States to recuperate economically.
“Today, after half a century, the situation is reversed. Germany
needs American wheat, fats, meats, gasoline, cotton and copper.
“Germany’s credit is low. If America today stood by Germany as
Germany stood by America fifty years ago, she could furnish us
foodstuffs and raw materials against German credits and thus help us
to work ourselves out of debt--and, besides, make money in doing so.
“The German people cannot live on the promises they are getting.”
=Fritchie, Barbara.=--Immortalized by Whittier in a patriotic poem
bearing her name, in which her defense of the Union flag during the
Civil War is celebrated, came of an old German family which settled
in Pennsylvania in colonial times, and her own life spanned the two
great crises in the history of her country, the founding of the
republic and the struggle for the preservation of the Union. She was
born in Lancaster, Pa., December 3, 1766. Her maiden name was Hauser.
=First Germans in Virginia.=--Jamestown, Va., the cradle of
Anglo-Saxon America, is the place where the Germans are met with
for the first time. The earliest incidents on record are cases of
imported contract laborers. Those sent to Virginia in 1608 were
skilled workmen, glass-blowers. Capt. John Smith (“John Smith, the
Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, the Summer Isles,”
London, 1624, p. 94), characterizing his men, gives the following
account of them: “labourers ... that neuer did know what a dayes
work was: except the Dutch-men (Germans) and Poles, and some dozen
others.” In 1620 four millwrights from Hamburg were sent to the
same settlement to erect saw mills. (“The Records of the Virginia
Company,” ed. S. M. Kingsbury, Washington, 1906, I, pp. 368, 372,
428.) In England timber was still sawed by hand. (Edward Eggleston,
“The Beginners of a Nation,” New York, 1896, p. 82.) The Germans who
settled in the Cavalier colony in large numbers about the middle
of the seventeenth century seem to have been attracted chiefly by
the profitable tobacco business. The most highly educated citizen
of Northampton county in 1657 was probably Dr. George Nicholas
Hacke, a native of Cologne. (Philip Alexander Brue, “Social Life in
Virginia in the Seventeenth Century,” Richmond, Va., 1907, p. 260.)
Thomas Harmanson, founder of one of the most prominent Eastern Shore
families, a native of Brandenburg, was naturalized October 24, 1634,
by an act of the Assembly. (William and Mary College Quarterly, ed.
L. G. Tyler. Williamsburg. Va., I, 1892, p. 192.) Johann Sigismund
Cluverius, owner of a considerable estate in York County, was
ostensibly also of German birth. (From “The First Germans in North
America and the German Element of New Netherlands,” by Carl Lohr, G.
E. Stechert & Co., New York, 1912.)
=First German Newspapers.=--The oldest German newspaper in the U.
S., the weekly “Republikaner,” at Allentown, Pa., ceased publication
December 21, 1915, after an existence of 150 years. Another old paper
in the German language, the “Reading Adler” ceased in 1913, after
continuous publication since November 29, 1796.
=German Americans in Art, Science and Literature.=--An analysis
of a comparatively recent edition of “Who’s Who in America” shows
a list of 385 German-born persons in the United States who have
achieved fame in art, science and literature, against a total of
424 English-born persons so distinguished, a remarkable bit of
evidence, considering that the former were initially handicapped by
the necessity of having to learn a new language in their struggle for
recognition. Nor does this list include a number of Germans credited
to Austro-Hungary by reason of their birth.
Dating back to the early decades of 1600 down to the present day,
the German element has produced a formidable literature, ranging
from travel descriptions to political works, like Schurz’s “Life of
Henry Clay,” von Holst’s important work on American constitutional
government, George von Bosse’s comprehensive volume on the German
element, A. B. Faust’s “The German Element in the United States,”
Seidensticker’s and Kapp’s books on the early settlements of
Pennsylvania and New York, and further including scientific books
by eminent authorities, original explorations, discussions of the
fauna and zoology of certain regions, novels and contributions to the
poetry of America in both languages.
One of the most active minds in political circles was Carl Nordhoff,
who came to the United States with his father in 1835 at the age of
five, and in his later years represented the New York “Herald” as its
Washington correspondent through numerous sessions of Congress. At
the age of nineteen he enlisted in the United States Navy, visited
many parts of the world during his term of three years’ service,
and after publishing some books about the sea, he worked for many
years for Harper Brothers in a literary capacity and for ten years
was employed in the editorial department of the New York “Evening
Post.” In the interval he published several books, notably his
popular “Politics for Young Americans” and then acted as Washington
correspondent of the New York “Herald.” His chief literary work was
published in 1876 as the result of a six months tour of the South,
“The Cotton States,” in which he exposed the Republican misrule in
the South.
While Steinmetz, Mergenthaler and Berliner rank high among American
inventors, Herman George Scheffauer, George Sylvester Viereck and
Herman Hagedorn are among the foremost poets of the present day, to
cite those writing in the English language, without taking account
of a generation of German-writing poets of the distinguished lineage
of Conrad Kretz and Konrad Nies. Theodore Dreiser is one of the
best-known novelists. Bret Harte had a strong German strain in his
blood; Bayard Taylor had a German mother; the second name in Oliver
Wendell Holmes indicates German relationship; Joaquin Miller was of
German extraction; Owen Wister owns to German antecedance, while one
of America’s greatest actors, Edwin Forrest, was the son of a German
mother, and Mary Anderson is likewise credited with this racial
admixture; Maude Powell, the famous violinist, had a German mother to
whom she attributed her genius for music.
The greatest American historical painter is still Emanuel Leutze,
whose “Washington Crossing the Delaware” and “Westward the Star of
Empire” are among the most cherished art possessions of the American
people. Save Remington, none has pictured the stirring life of the
frontier as Charles Schreyvogel, notably in his painting, “My Bunky,”
while a host of others, like Albert Bierstadt, Carl Marr, Carl Wimar,
Toby Rosenthal, Henry Mosler, Henry Twachtman, F. Dielman, Robert
Blum and Gari Melchers, have permanently taken their place in the
gallery of famous artists. A. Nahl was selected to perpetuate in
historic paintings the frontier days of California, and his works may
be seen in the capitol at Sacramento and in the Crocker Art Gallery
of that city.
Hiram Powers’ name is one of the most familiar in the art history
of America, but few are aware that the sculptor’s instructor was
Friedrich Eckstein, who went to Cincinnati in 1825 and opened an
academy where Powers obtained the training that enabled him to create
his masterwork, “The Greek Slave.” In fact, one of the most enduring
influences exercised by the German element has at all times been as
teachers and instructors.
American musical history would have had an entirely different aspect
had it not been for the pioneer work of Theodore Thomas in carrying
the cult of classic music into the remotest corners of the land under
all kinds of physical discouragements, and had it not been for the
numerous brilliant conductors who passed various periods in America
to give it the best products of their genius, but particular credit
is due to the host of individual Germans who scattered throughout
the country and became part of town and village life as tireless
instructors in music and art. Their influence was similar to that
of the countless thousands of skilled chemists and mechanics who
contributed so vastly to the development of our industries.
The number of distinguished architects, sculptors and engineers
is legion, though a few can be named here, famous architects
like Johannes Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz, the architects of the
Congressional Library in Washington, and other public buildings;
Alfred Ch. H. C. Vioch, Ernest Helffenstein, G. L. Heins, Otto
Eidlitz and Carl Link. Famous sculptors: Karl Bitter, Joseph Sibbel,
Charles Niehaus, Albert Weinmann, Albert Jaegers, F. W. Ruckstuhl,
Otto Schweitzer and Prof. Bruno Schmitz, the designer of the
Indianapolis monument.
The great engineers and bridge builders of America are Johann August
Roebling and Gustav Lindenthal. The former built the first suspension
bridge over Niagara Falls, the Brooklyn bridge and Ohio River
suspension bridge, and was the first manufacturer of bridge cables;
Lindenthal constructed the new railway bridge across Hellgate from
Manhattan to Long Island, said to be the most perfect piece of bridge
construction in the United States.
Famous among novelists, whose works were translated into all
languages, was Charles Sealsfield (Karl Postel) who wrote equally
well in both languages, writing in English “Tokeah, or The White
Rose,” and several other works. Friedrich Gerstaecker and Otto
Ruppius lived many years in the United States and wrote novels of
American life which were translated into English, French and Spanish.
A female writer of considerable repute was the wife of Professor
Robinson, known by her pen-name of “Talvj.” She was born in Halle,
Germany, and was a friend of Washington Irving, and, after publishing
“Ossian not Genuine,” a story of Captain John Smith and a work on
the colonization of New England, wrote in English “Heloise, or The
Unrevealed Secret,” “The Exiles” and “Woodhill.”
Such names are selected at random out of hundreds, like that of
Julius Reinhold Friedlander, of Berlin, who founded the first
institute for the blind in Philadelphia in 1834, subsequently taken
over by the State. He is called the father of the institutions
for the blind in America. Dr. Konstantin Hering was the father of
homeopathy in America. Friedrich List was one of the pioneers in
the advocacy of a protective tariff, writing in 1827 “Outlines of a
New System of Political Economy,” which attracted wide attention.
Philip Schaff soon after his arrival in 1844, attained fame in
miscellaneous and religious literature, writing in English “The
Principles of Protestantism,” “America, Its Political, Social and
Religious Character,” “Lectures on the Civil War in America,” etc.
Demetrius Augustin Gallitizin, better known as Father Schmidt,
founded the Catholic mission Loretto in Cambria County, Pennsylvania,
in 1798, and his life is commemorated by a statue. Johann N. Neumann
wrote “The Ferns of the Alleghanies” and the “Rhododendrons of the
Pennsylvania and Virginia Mountains”--and so an almost endless
array of German names troop in review before our minds to show the
influence of this element on our literature and our institutions.
From no European source have we received a stronger accession of
intellectual currents than from Germany, and whether the field be
literature, art, science or music, among their foremost figures are
men with German names. They never belonged to the coolie class; they
were never identified with the various movements for the suppression
of rights, they have had fewer of their race figure in the crime
records and more in the ranks of those who stood for liberty,
education and progress than any others. Their literature would fill
a library, and as Professor Scott Nearing has shown, the American
people are a conquering race because they are composed of the
descendants of conquerors, the English and Germans.