Prof. WILHELM DOERPFELD, Berlin.
FRIEDRICH VON DUHN, Professor of Archaeology, Heidelberg.
Prof. PAUL EHRLICH, Frankfort on the Main.
ALBERT EHRHARD, Professor of Roman Catholic Theology, Strassburg.
KARL ENGLER, Professor of Chemistry, Karlsruhe.
GERHARD ESSER, Professor of Roman Catholic Theology, Bonn.
RUDOLF EUCKEN, Professor of Philosophy, Jena.
HERBERT EULENBERG, Kaiserswerth.
HEINRICH FINKE, Professor of History, Freiburg.
EMIL FISCHER, Professor of Chemistry, Berlin.
WILHELM FOERSTER, Professor of Astronomy, Berlin.
LUDWIG FULDA, Berlin.
EDUARD VON GEBHARDT, Dusseldorf.
J.J. DE GROOT, Professor of Ethnography, Berlin.
FRITZ HABER, Professor of Chemistry, Berlin.
ERNST HAECKEL, Professor of Zoology, Jena.
MAX HALBE, Munich.
Prof. ADOLF VON HARNACK, General Director of the Royal Library, Berlin.
GERHART HAUPTMANN, Agnetendorf.
KARL, HAUPTMANN, Schreiberhau.
GUSTAV HELLMANN, Professor of Meteorology, Berlin.
WILHELM HERRMANN, Professor of Protestant Theology, Marburg.
ANDREAS HEUSLER, Professor of Northern Philology, Berlin.
ADOLF VON HILDEBRAND, Munich.
LUDWIG HOFFMANN, City Architect. Berlin.
ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK, Berlin.
LEOPOLD GRAF KALCKREUTH, President of the German Confederation of
Artists, Eddelsen.
ARTHUR KAMPF, Berlin.
FRITZ AUG. VON KAULBACH, Munich.
THEODOR KIPP, Professor of Jurisprudence, Berlin.
FELIX KLEIN, Professor of Mathematics, Goettingen.
MAX KLINGER, Leipsic.
ALOIS KNOEPFLER, Professor of History of Art, Munich.
ANTON KOCH, Professor of Roman Catholic Theology, Münster.
PAUL LABAND, Professor of Jurisprudence, Strassburg.
KARL LEMPRECHT, Professor of History, Leipsic.
PHILIPP LENARD, Professor of Physics, Heidelberg.
MAX LENZ, Professor of History, Hamburg.
MAX LIEBERMANN, Berlin.
FRANZ VON LISZT, Professor of Jurisprudence, Berlin.
LUDWIG MANZEL, President of the Academy of Arts, Berlin.
JOSEF MAUSBACH, Professor of Roman Catholic Theology, Münster.
GEORG VON MAYR, Professor of Political Sciences, Munich.
SEBASTIAN MERKLE, Professor of Roman Catholic Theology, Wurzburg.
EDUARD MEYER, Professor of History, Berlin.
HEINRICH MORF, Professor of Roman Philology, Berlin.
FRIEDRICH NAUMANN, Berlin.
ALBERT NEISSER, Professor of Medicine, Breslau.
WALTER NERNST, Professor of Physics, Berlin.
WILHELM OSTWALD, Professor of Chemistry, Leipsic.
BRUNO PAUL, Director of School for Applied Arts, Berlin.
MAX PLANCK, Professor of Physics, Berlin.
ALBERT PLEHN, Professor of Medicine, Berlin.
GEORG REICKE, Berlin.
Prof. MAX REINHARDT, Director of the German Theatre, Berlin.
ALOIS RIEHL, Professor of Philosophy, Berlin.
KARL ROBERT, Professor of Archaeology, Halle.
WILHELM ROENTGEN, Professor of Physics, Munich.
MAX RUBNER, Professor of Medicine, Berlin.
FRITZ SCHAPER, Berlin.
ADOLF VON SCHLATTER, Professor of Protestant Theology, Tubingen.
AUGUST SCHMIDLIN, Professor of Sacred History, Münster.
GUSTAV VON SCHMOLLER, Professor of National Economy, Berlin.
FRANZ VON STUCK, Munich.
REINHOLD SEEBERG, Professor of Protestant Theology, Berlin.
MARTIN SPAHN, Professor of History, Strassburg.
HERMANN SUDERMANN, Berlin.
HANS THOMA, Karlsruhe.
WILHELM TRUEBNER, Karlsruhe.
KARL VOLLMOELLER, Stuttgart.
RICHARD VOTZ, Berchtesgaden.
KARL VOTZLER, Professor of Roman Philology, Munich.
SIEGFRIED WAGNER, Baireuth.
WILHELM WALDEYER, Professor of Anatomy, Berlin.
AUGUST VON WASSERMANN, Professor of Medicine, Berlin.
FELIX VON WEINGARTNER.
THEODOR WIEGAND, Museum Director, Berlin.
WILHELM WIEN, Professor of Physics, Wurzburg.
ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOELLEN-DORFF, Professor of Philology, Berlin.
RICHARD WILLSTAETTER, Professor of Chemistry, Berlin.
WILHELM WINDELBAND, Professor of Philosophy, Heidelberg.
WILHELM WUNDT, Professor of Philosophy, Leipsic,
*Appeal of the German Universities*
The campaign of systematic lies and slander which has been carried on
against the German people and empire for years has since the outbreak of
the war surpassed everything with which one might have credited even the
most unscrupulous press. To repudiate any charges raised against our
Kaiser and his Government rests with the authorities in question. They
have done so, and their defense is substantiated by striking proofs. He
who wants to know the truth can learn it, and we trust that truth will
prevail. But if we are to look on, when our enemies, guided by envy and
malice, are shameless enough to charge our army and with it our whole
nation with barbarous atrocities and senseless vandalism, and when their
statements appear to be believed, to a certain extent, among neutrals
and in places which, at other times, were well disposed toward us; if we
are quietly to look on when all this happens, we, the appointed trustees
of culture and education in our Fatherland, feel in duty bound to break
the reserve which our calling and position impose on us with a strong
expression of protest. Hence we now appeal to the learned bodies with
whom we hitherto worked in common in the interests of the highest ideals
of the human race and with whom, even at this time, when hatred and
passion rule the world and confuse the minds of men, we hope to remain
of the same mind, in the same service of truth. We appeal to them in the
confident belief that our voice will find hearing, and that the
expression of our honest indignation will meet with credence. Moreover,
we appeal to the love of truth and to the sense of justice of the many
thousands all over the world who, being welcome guests in our
educational institutions, have taken part in the inheritance of German
culture, and who thus have had an opportunity of watching and
appreciating the German people in peaceful labor, their industry and
uprightness, their sense of order and discipline, their reverence for
intellectual work of every kind, and their profound love for sciences
and arts. All of you who know that our army is no mercenary host but
embraces the entire nation from first to last, that it is led by the
country's best sons, and that, at this very hour, thousands from our
midst, teachers as well as students, are shedding their life's blood as
officers and soldiers on the battlefields of Russia and France; you who
have seen and heard for yourselves in what spirit and with what success
our youths are treated and taught, and that nothing is stamped upon
their minds more deeply than reverence and admiration for artistic,
scientific and technical creations of the human mind, no matter what
country and nation brought them forth; we call upon you who know all
this as witnesses, whether it can be true what our enemies report that
the German Army is a horde of barbarians and a band of incendiaries who
take pleasure in leveling defenseless cities to the ground and in
destroying venerable monuments of history and art. If you wish to pay
honor to the cause of truth you will be as firmly convinced as we are
that German troops, wherever they had to do destructive work, could only
have done so in the bitterness of defensive warfare. But we appeal to
all those whom the slanderous reports of our enemies reach and who are
not yet altogether blinded by passion, in the name of truth and justice,
to shut their ears to such insults to the German people, and not allow
themselves to be prejudiced by those who prove ever anew that they hope
to be victorious by the instrumentality of lies. Now, if in this fearful
war, in which our nation is compelled to fight not only for its power,
but for its very existence and its entire civilization, the work of
destruction should be greater than in former wars, and if many a
precious achievement of culture falls to ruin, the responsibility for
all this entirely rests with those who were not content with letting
loose this ruthless war, nay, who did not even shrink from pressing
murderous weapons upon a peaceful population for them to fall
surreptitiously upon our troops who trusted in the observance of the
military usages of all civilized peoples. They alone are the guilty
authors of everything which happens here. Upon their heads the verdict
of history will fall for the lasting injury which culture suffers.
September, 1914.
UNIVERSITIES.
Tuebingen, Berlin, Bonn, Breslau, Erlangen, Frankfurt, Freiburg,
Giessen, Goettingen, Greifswald, Halle, Heidelberg, Jena, Kiel,
Königsberg, Leipzig, Marburg, Muenchen, Münster, Rostock, Strassburg,
Wuerzburg.
*Reply to the German Professors*
*By British Scholars.*
We see with regret the names of many German professors and men of
science, whom we regard with respect and, in some cases, with personal
friendship, appended to a denunciation of Great Britain so utterly
baseless that we can hardly believe that it expresses their spontaneous
or considered opinion. We do not question for a moment their personal
sincerity when they express their horror of war and their zeal for "the
achievements of culture." Yet we are bound to point out that a very
different view of war, and of national aggrandizement based on the
threat of war, has been advocated by such influential writers as
Nietzsche, von Treitschke, von Bülow, and von Bernhardi, and has
received widespread support from the press and from public opinion in
Germany. This has not occurred, and in our judgment would scarcely be
possible, in any other civilized country. We must also remark that it is
German armies alone which have, at the present time, deliberately
destroyed or bombarded such monuments of human culture as the Library at
Louvain and the Cathedrals at Rheims and Malines.
*The Diplomatic Papers.*
No doubt it is hard for human beings to weigh justly their country's
quarrels; perhaps particularly hard for Germans, who have been reared in
an atmosphere of devotion to their Kaiser and his army; who are feeling
acutely at the present hour, and who live under a Government which, we
believe, does not allow them to know the truth. Yet it is the duty of
learned men to make sure of their facts. The German "White Book"
contains only some scanty and carefully explained selections from the
diplomatic correspondence which preceded this war. And we venture to
hope that our German colleagues will sooner or later do their best to
get access to the full correspondence, and will form therefrom an
independent judgment.
They will then see that, from the issue of the Austrian note to Servia
onward, Great Britain, whom they accuse of causing this war, strove
incessantly for peace, Her successive proposals were supported by
France, Russia, and Italy, but, unfortunately, not by the one power
which could by a single word at Vienna have made peace certain. Germany,
in her own official defense--incomplete as that document is--does not
pretend that she strove for peace; she only strove for "the localization
of the conflict." She claimed that Austria should be left free to
"chastise" Servia in whatever way she chose. At most she proposed that
Austria should not annex a portion of Servian territory--a futile
provision, since the execution of Austria's demand would have made the
whole of Servia subject to her will.
Great Britain, like the rest of Europe, recognized that, whatever just
grounds of complaint Austria may have had, the unprecedented terms of
her note to Servia constituted a challenge to Russia and a provocation
to war. The Austrian Emperor in his proclamation admitted that war was
likely to ensue. The German "White Book" states in so many words: "We
were perfectly aware that a possible warlike attitude of Austria-Hungary
against Servia might bring Russia upon the field and therefore involve
us in war. * * * We could not, however, * * * advise our ally to take a
yielding attitude not compatible with his dignity." The German
Government admits having known the tenor of the Austrian note
beforehand, when it was concealed from all the other powers; admits
backing it up after it was issued; admits that it knew the note was
likely to precipitate war; and admits that, whatever professions it made
to the other powers, in private it did not advise Austria to abate one
jot of her demands. This, to our minds, is tantamount to admitting that
Germany has, together with her unfortunate ally, deliberately provoked
the present war.
One point we freely admit. Germany would very likely have preferred not
to fight Great Britain at this moment. She would have preferred to
weaken and humiliate Russia; to make Servia a dependent of Austria; to
render France innocuous and Belgium subservient; and then, having
established an overwhelming advantage, to settle accounts with Great
Britain. Her grievance against us is that we did not allow her to do
this.
*Britain's Love of Peace.*
So deeply rooted is Great Britain's love of peace, so influential among
us are those who have labored through many difficult years to promote
good feeling between this country and Germany, that, in spite of our
ties of friendship with France, in spite of the manifest danger
threatening ourselves, there was still, up to the last moment, a strong
desire to preserve British neutrality, if it could be preserved without
dishonor. But Germany herself made this impossible.
Great Britain, together with France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, had
solemnly guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium. In the preservation of
this neutrality our deepest sentiments and our most vital interests are
alike involved. Its violation would not only shatter the independence of
Belgium itself: it would undermine the whole basis which renders
possible the neutrality of any State and the very existence of such
States as are much weaker than their neighbors. We acted in 1914 just as
we acted in 1870. We sought from both France and Germany assurances that
they would respect Belgian neutrality. In 1870 both powers assured us of
their good intentions, and both kept their promises. In 1914 France gave
immediately, on July 31, the required assurance; Germany refused to
answer. When, after this sinister silence, Germany proceeded to break
under our eyes the treaty which we and she had both signed, evidently
expecting Great Britain to be her timid accomplice, then even to the
most peace-loving Englishman hesitation became impossible. Belgium had
appealed to Great Britain to keep her word, and she kept it.
The German professors appear to think that Germany has in this matter
some considerable body of sympathizers in the universities of Great
Britain. They are gravely mistaken. Never within our lifetime has this
country been so united on any great political issue. We ourselves have a
real and deep admiration for German scholarship and science. We have
many ties with Germany, ties of comradeship, of respect, and of
affection. We grieve profoundly that, under the baleful influence of a
military system and its lawless dreams of conquest, she whom we once
honored now stands revealed as the common enemy of Europe and of all
peoples which respect the law of nations. We must carry on the war on
which we have entered. For us, as for Belgium, it is a war of defense,
waged for liberty and peace.
Sir CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, Regius Professor of Physics, Cambridge.
T.W. ALLEN, Reader in Greek, Oxford.
E. ARMSTRONG, Pro-Provost of Queen's College, Oxford.
E.V. ARNOLD, Professor of Latin, University College of North Wales.
Sir C.B. BALL, Regius Professor of Surgery, Dublin.
Sir THOMAS BARLOW, President of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
BERNARD BOSANQUET, formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy, St. Andrews.
A.C. BRADLEY, formerly Professor of Poetry, Oxford.
W.H. BRAGG, Cavendish Professor of Physics, Leeds.
Sir THOMAS BROCK, Membre d'honneur de la Société des Artistes Francais.
A.J. BROWN, Professor of Biology and Chemistry of Fermentation,
University of Birmingham.
JOHN BURNET, Professor of Greek, St. Andrews.
J.B. BURY, Regius Professor of Modern History, Cambridge.
Sir W.W. CHEYNE, Professor of Clinical Surgery, King's College, London,
President of the Royal College of Surgeons.
J. NORMAN COLLIE, Professor of Organic Chemistry and Director of the
Chemical Laboratories, University College, London.
F.C. CONYBEARE, Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford.
Sir HENRY CRAIK, M.P. for Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities.
Sir JAMES CRICHTON-BROWNE, Vice President and Treasurer, Royal
Institution.
Sir WILLIAM CROOKES, President of the Royal Society.
Sir FOSTER CUNLIFFE, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
Sir FRANCIS DARWIN, late Reader in Botany, Cambridge.
A.V. DICEY, Fellow of All Souls College and formerly Vinerian Professor
of English Law, Oxford.
Sir S. DILL, Hon. Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Sir JAMES DONALDSON, Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of
St. Andrews.
F.W. DYSON, Astronomer Royal.
Sir EDWARD ELGAR.
Sir ARTHUR EVANS, Extraordinary Professor of Prehistoric Archæology,
Oxford.
L.R. FARNELL, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.
C.H. FIRTH, Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford.
H.A.L. FISHER, Vice Chancellor of Sheffield University.
J.A. FLEMING, Professor of Electrical Engineering in the University of
London.
H.S. FOXWELL, Professor of Political Economy in the University of
London.
Sir EDWARD FRY, Ambassador Extraordinary and First British
Plenipotentiary to The Hague Peace Conference in 1907.
Sir ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, Past President of the Royal Society.
W.M. GELDART, Fellow of All Souls and Vinerian Professor of English Law,
Oxford.
Sir RICKMAN GODLEE, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery, University
College, London.
B.P. GRENFELL, late Professor of Papyrology, Oxford.
E.H. GRIFFITHS, Principal of the University College of South Wales and
Monmouthshire.
W.H. HADOW, Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle.
J.S. HALDANE, late Reader in Physiology, Oxford.
MARCUS HARTOG, Professor of Zoology in University College, Cork.
F.J. HAVERFIELD, Camden Professor of Ancient History, Oxford.
W.A. HERDMAN, Professor of Zoology at Liverpool, General Secretary of
the British Association.
Sir W.P. HERRINGHAM, Vice Chancellor of the University of London.
E.W. HOBSON, Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics, Cambridge.
D.G. HOGARTH, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Sir ALFRED HOPKINSON, late Vice Chancellor of Manchester University.
A.S. HUNT, Professor of Papyrology, Oxford.
HENRY JACKSON, Regius Professor of Greek, Cambridge.
Sir THOMAS G. JACKSON, R.A.
F.B. JEVONS, Professor of Philosophy, Durham.
H.H. JOACHIM, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.
J. JOLLY, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Dublin.
COURTNEY KENNY, Downing Professor of the Laws of England, Cambridge.
Sir F.G. KENYON, Director and Principal Librarian, British Museum.
HORACE LAMB, Professor of Mathematics, Manchester University.
J.N. LANGLEY, Professor of Physiology, Cambridge.
WALTER LEAF, Fellow of London University, President of the Hellenic
Society.
Sir SIDNEY LEE, Editor of the Dictionary of National Biography,
Professor of the English Language and Literature in the University of
London.
Sir OLIVER LODGE, Principal of Birmingham University.
Sir DONALD MACALISTER, Principal and Vice Chancellor, Glasgow.
R.W. MACAN, Master of University College, Oxford.
Sir WILLIAM MACEWEN, Professor of Surgery, Glasgow.
J.W. MACKAIL, formerly Professor of Poetry, Oxford.
Sir PATRICK MANSON.
R.R. MARETT, Reader in Social Anthropology, Oxford.
D.S. MARGOLIOUTH, Laudian Professor of Arabic, Oxford.
Sir H.A. MIERS, Principal of the University of London.
FREDERICK W. MOTT, Fullerian Professor of Physiology, Royal Institution.
LORD MOULTON OF BANK, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.
J.E.H. MURPHY, Professor of Irish, Dublin.
GILBERT MURRAY, Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford.
J.L. MYRES, Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, Oxford.
G.H.F. NUTTALL, Quick Professor of Biology, Cambridge.
Sir W. OSLER, Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford.
Sir ISAMBARD OWEN, Vice Chancellor of the University of Bristol.
Sir WALTER PARRATT, Professor of Music, Oxford.
Sir HUBERT PARRY, Director of Royal College of Music.
W.H. PERKIN, Waynflete Professor of Chemistry, Oxford.
W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE EDWARDS, Professor of Egyptology, University
College, London.
A.F. POLLARD, Professor of English History, London.
Sir F. POLLOCK, formerly Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence, Oxford.
EDWARD B. POULTON, Hope Professor of Zoology, Oxford.
Sir E.J. POYNTER, President of the Royal Academy of Arts.
Sir A. QUILLER-COUCH, King Edward VII. Professor of English Literature,
Cambridge.
Sir WALTER RALEIGH, Professor of English Literature, Oxford.
Sir W. RAMSAY, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, London.
Lord RAYLEIGH, Past President Royal Society, Nobel Laureate, Chancellor
of Cambridge University.
Lord REAY, First President British Academy.
JAMES REID, Professor of Ancient History, Cambridge.
WILLIAM RIDGEWAY, Disney Professor of Archaeology, Cambridge.
T.F. ROBERTS, Principal of the University College of Wales, Aberystwith.
J. HOLLAND ROSE, Reader in Modern History, Cambridge.
Sir RONALD ROSS, formerly Professor of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool,
Nobel Laureate.
M.E. SADLER, Vice Chancellor of Leeds.
W. SANDAY, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford.
Sir J.E. SANDYS, Public Orator, Cambridge.
Sir ERNEST SATOW, Second British Delegate to The Hague Peace Conference
in 1907.
A.H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford.
ARTHUR SCHUSTER, late Professor of Physics, Manchester.
D.H. SCOTT, Foreign Secretary, Royal Society.
C.S. SHERRINGTON, Waynflete Professor of Physiology, Oxford.
GEORGE ADAM SMITH, Principal and Vice Chancellor, Aberdeen.
G.C. MOORE SMITH, Professor of English Language and Literature,
Sheffield.
E.A. SONNENSCHEIN, Professor of Latin and Greek, Birmingham.
W.R. SORLEY, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge.
Sir C.V. STANFORD, Profesor of Music, Cambridge.
V.H. STANTON, Ely Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.
J. ARTHUR THOMSON, Regius Professor of Natural History, Aberdeen.
Sir J.J. THOMSON, Professor of Experimental Physics, Cambridge.
T.F. TOUT, Professor of Mediæval and Modern History, Manchester.
Sir W. TURNER, Principal and Vice Chancellor, Edinburgh.
Sir C. WALDSTEIN, late Reader in Classical Archæology and Slade
Professor of Fine Art, Cambridge.
Sir J. WOLFE-BARRY.
Sir ALMROTH WRIGHT, formerly Professor of Pathology, Netley.
C.T. HAGBERG WRIGHT, Librarian, London Library.
JOSEPH WRIGHT, Professor of Comparative Philology, Oxford.
*Concerning the German Professors*
*By Frederic Harrison.*
_To the Editor of the London Morning Post_:
Sir: I was not invited to join the reply of our distinguished scholars
and professors, perhaps because it is so many years since I was the
colleague of James Bryce as Professor of Jurisprudence to the Inns of
Court. And, indeed, I do not care to bandy recriminations with these
German defenders of the attack on civilization by the whole imperial,
military, and bureaucratic order. It seems to me waste of time and loss
of self-respect to notice these pedants.
The whole German press and the entire academic class seem to be banded
together as an official bureau in order to spread mendacious insults and
spiteful slanders. Not a word comes from them to excuse or deny the
defiance of public law and the mockery of public faith by the German
Emperor, his Ministers, and his armies. These professors seem to exult
in serving the new Attila--rather let us say the new Caligula, for
Attila at least was an open soldier and did not skulk under the Red
Cross behind barbed wire fences.