Dr. Freiherr von der Goltz, Generalfeldmarschall, Berlin.
Von Gwinner, Direktor der Deutschen Bank, Berlin.
Prof. Dr. von Harnack, Berlin.
Fürst von Hatzfeldt, Herzog zu Trachenberg.
Dr. Heineken, Direktor des Norddeutschen Lloyds, Bremen.
Fürst Henckel von Donnersmarck.
Dr. Kaempf, Praesident des Reichstags, Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Eugen Kühnemann, Breslau.
Prof. Dr. Lamprecht, Leipsic.
Dr. Theodor Lewald, Direktor im Reichsamt des Innern, Berlin.
Franz von Mendelssohn, Praesident der Handelskammer, Berlin.
Fürst Münster-Derneburg, Mitglied des Herrenhauses.
Graf von Oppersdorff, Mitglied des Herrenhauses und des Reichstags,
Berlin.
Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner.
Dr. Walther Rathenau, Berlin.
Viktor Herzog von Ratibor.
Dr. Schmidt, Ministerialdirektor, Berlin.
Prof. Dr. von Schmoller, Berlin.
Graf von Schwerin-Löwitz, Praesident des Hauses der Abgeordneten.
Wilhelm von Siemens, Berlin.
Friedrich Fürst zu Solms-Baruth.
Max Warburg, Hamburg.
Siegfried Wagner, Baireuth.
* * * * *
Try to realize, every one of you, what we are going through! Only a few
weeks ago all of us were peacefully following our several vocations. The
peasant was gathering in this Summer's plentiful crop, the factory hand
was working with accustomed vigor. Not one human being among us dreamed
of war. We are a nation that wishes to lead a quiet and industrious
life. This need hardly be stated to you Americans. You, of all others,
know the temper of the German who lives within your gates. Our love of
peace is so strong that it is not regarded by us in the light of a
virtue, we simply know it to be an inborn and integral portion of
ourselves. Since the foundation of the German Empire in the year 1871,
we, living in the centre of Europe, have given an example of
tranquillity and peace, never once seeking to profit by any momentary
difficulties of our neighbors. Our commercial extension, our financial
rise in the world, is far removed from any love of adventure, it is the
fruit of painstaking and plodding labor.
We are not credited with this temper, because we are insufficiently
known. Our situation and our way of thinking are not easily grasped.
Every one is aware that we have produced great philosophers and poets,
we have preached the gospel of humanity with impassioned zeal. America
fully appreciates Goethe and Kant, looks upon them as cornerstones of
elevated culture. Do you really believe that we have changed our
natures, that our souls can be satisfied with military drill and servile
obedience? We are soldiers because we have to be soldiers, because
otherwise Germany and German civilization would be swept away from the
face of the earth. It has cost us long and weary struggles to attain our
independence, and we know full well that, in order to preserve it, we
must not content ourselves with building schools and factories, we must
look to our garrisons and forts. We and all our soldiers have remained,
however, the same lovers of music and lovers of exalted thought. We have
retained our old devotion to all peaceable sciences and arts; as all the
world knows, we work in the foremost rank of all those who strive to
advance the exchange of commodities, who further useful technical
knowledge. But we have been forced to become a nation of soldiers in
order to be free. And we are bound to follow our Kaiser, because he
symbolizes and represents the unity of our nation. Today, knowing no
distinction of party, no difference of opinion, we rally around him,
willing to shed the last drop of our blood. For though it takes a great
deal to rouse us Germans, when once aroused our feelings run deep and
strong. Every one is filled with this passion, with the soldier's ardor.
But when the waters of the deluge shall have subsided, gladly will we
return to the plow and to the anvil.
It deeply distresses us to see two highly civilized nations, England and
France, joining the onslaught of autocratic Russia. That this could
happen will remain one of the anomalies of history. It is not our fault;
we firmly believed in the desirability of the great nations working
together, we peaceably came to terms with France and England in sundry
difficult African questions. There was no cause for war between Western
Europe and us, no reason why Western Europe should feel itself
constrained to further the power of the Czar.
The Czar, as an individual, is most certainly not the instigator of the
unspeakable horrors that are now inundating Europe. But he bears before
God and posterity the responsibility of having allowed himself to be
terrorized by an unscrupulous military clique.
Ever since the weight of the crown has pressed upon him, he has been the
tool of others. He did not desire the brutalities in Finland, he did not
approve of the iniquities of the Jewish pogroms, but his hand was too
weak to stop the fury of the reactionary party. Why would he not permit
Austria to pacify her southern frontier? It was inconceivable that
Austria should calmly see her heir apparent murdered. How could she? All
the nationalities under her rule realized the impossibility of tamely
allowing Servia's only too evident and successful intrigues to be
carried on under her very eyes. The Austrians could not allow their
venerable and sorely stricken monarch to be wounded and insulted any
longer. This reasonable and honorable sentiment on the part of Austria
has caused Russia to put itself forward as the patron of Servia, as the
enemy of European thought and civilization.
Russia has an important mission to fulfill in its own country and in
Asia. It would do better in its own interest to leave the rest of the
world in peace. But the die is cast, and all nations must decide whether
they wish to further us by sentiments and by deeds, or the government of
the Czar. This is the real significance of this appalling struggle, all
the rest is immaterial. Russia's attitude alone has forced us to go to
war with France and with their great ally.
The German Nation is serious and conscientious. Never would a German
Government dare to contemplate a war for the sake of dynastic interest,
or for the sake of glory. This would be against the entire bent of our
character. Firmly believing in the justice of our cause, all parties,
the Conservatives and the Clericals, the Liberals and the Socialists,
have joined hands. All disputes are forgotten, one duty exists for all,
the duty of defending our country and vanquishing the enemy.
Will not this calm, self-reliant and unanimous readiness to sacrifice
all, to die or to win, appeal to other nations and force them to
understand our real character and the situation in which we are placed?
The war has severed us from the rest of the world, all our cable
communications are destroyed. But the winds will carry the mighty voice
of justice even across the ocean. We trust in God, we have confidence in
the judgment of right-minded men. And through the roar of battle, we
call to you all. Do not believe the mischievous lies that our enemies
are spreading about! We do not know if victory will be ours, the Lord
alone knows. We have not chosen our path, we must continue doing our
duty, even to the very end. We bear the misery of war, the death of our
sons, believing in Germany, believing in duty.
And we know that Germany cannot be wiped from the face of the earth.
* * * * *
[05]
"Athenwood," Newport, R.I.,
Sept. 17, 1914.
Today I have received from Germany a pamphlet entitled "Truth About
Germany, Facts About the War." The correctness and completeness of
its statements are vouched for by thirty-four persons, whose names
are recorded therein as members of an Honorary Committee. I know
personally seventeen of these thirty-four persons, and have known
them for years, some of them intimately. With six of them I have
labored as a colleague in university work. I have been introduced
into their homes, have broken bread at their tables and have
conversed with them long and often upon the problems of life and
culture. They are among the greatest thinkers, moralists and
philanthropists of the age. They are the salt of the earth! The
great theologian Harnack, the sound and accomplished political
scientist and economist von Schmoller, the distinguished
philologian von Wilamowitz, the well-known historian Lamprecht, the
profound statesman von Posadowsky, the brilliant diplomatist von
Bülow, the great financier von Gwinner, the great promoter of trade
and commerce Ballin, the great inventor Siemens, the brilliant
preacher of the Gospel Dryander, the indispensable Director in the
Ministry of Education Schmidt. Two of them are, in a sense, our own
countrywomen, the Baroness Speck von Sternburg and Frau
Staats-minister von Trott zu Solz. The latter is the granddaughter
of our own John Jay. I have known her, her mother and her
grandfather. No statement was ever issued which was vouched for by
more solid, intelligent, and conscientious people. Its correctness,
completeness and veracity cannot be doubted. As I read it the
emotions which it arouses make both speech and sight difficult. I
wish it might come into the hands of every man, woman, and child in
the United States.
(Signed) JOHN W. BURGESS,
Ex-Dean Faculties of Political Science, Philosophy, Pure Science
and Fine Arts, Columbia University; Roosevelt Professor of American
History and Institutions at Friedrich Wilhelms University, Berlin,
1906; Visiting American Professor at Austrian Universities,
1914-15.
Under the head of "An Anti-British Pamphlet," The London Times of Aug.
23, 1914, noted as follows:
The Vossischezeitung gives extracts from a brochure issued under
the auspices of a committee of such prominent Germans as Prince
Bülow, Herr Ballin, Dr. von Gwinner, and Field Marshal von der
Goltz, for the purpose of "opening the eyes" of the United States
regarding the causes of the present war. Copies of this pamphlet
are being given to all Americans returning home from Germany. One
chapter, headed "Neutrality by Grace of England," scoffs at the
idea of England today being the defender of neutral States and
declares that it was England who in 1911 was ready to land 160,000
men at Antwerp to help the French against the Germans.
As to who will ultimately win in the war, the pamphlet asks whether
it will be the striving nation, the young strength, or the old
peoples, France and England, with their flagging civilization in
alliance with Muscovite retrogression.
* * * * *