Still as ignorant regarding the whereabouts of the Main Headquarters
as when we left Berlin, we set out from Treves in the morning of the
18th of September, recrossed the Moselle, and cast a glance up at the
heights from which on August 4th Frenchmen in mufti were heliographing
to the airships, who wanted to know how the German mobilization was
getting on. At the flying station we stopped a moment to have a look at
the _Taubes_ in their canvas sheds....
Now we begin to look about. Yes, it is obvious that the Main
Headquarters are still at Luxemburg. Sentries at the entrances to all
hotels, soldiers everywhere, officers rushing past in motor-cars. In a
market-place large tents have been put up for horses, and round them
walk the sentries smoking their pipes; in another open space there are
rows of motor-cars laden with petrol and oil in cylinders.
We must observe becoming military precision in our search and
consequently make at once for the house where the Great General Staff
has taken up its quarters, and which in ordinary times is a Luxemburg
school. Von Krum gets down and soon returns with the intimation that
we must report ourselves to a Lieutenant-Colonel Hahnke. He sent us
off to the Chief of the General Staff, His Excellency von Moltke, who
with his charming Swedish Countess has just sat down to dinner at the
_Kölnischer Hof_, where they reside. The Countess was on a short visit
to Luxemburg in the service of the Red Cross. Here I felt almost as if
I were at home, for I had many times been a guest in their hospitable
home in Berlin. As calm as if he had been on manoeuvers, the Chief lit
his cigar and made detailed enquiries about my plans and wishes. I
said I wanted to go to the front and see as much as I might be allowed
to, mentioning that it was my intention subsequently to describe what
I had seen of the war with my own eyes. If possible I wanted to get an
impression of a modern battle, and hoped also to get an opportunity of
visiting the occupied parts of Belgium.
The Chief thought for a moment. Permission to visit the front had
already been granted to me by the Emperor, and it only remained to
decide which would be the best place for me to begin my observations.
The army of the German Crown Prince was the nearest, only a couple of
hours away. The Chief would arrange everything for my journey, and I
was shortly to receive details of the programme. "Of course, there can
be no question of safety in the fighting zone," he said, "it is not far
away. If you listen you can hear the thunder of guns from Verdun."...
It would take too long to describe all the interesting acquaintances I
made in Luxemburg and to introduce to the reader all the eminent men
with whom I spoke during the two days I spent in this little town.
Suffice it to mention the Imperial Chancellor von Bethmann Holweg, the
Foreign Minister von Jagow, the War Minister Lieutenant-General von
Falkenhayn, and the Chief of the Imperial Volunteer Automobile Corps
the young Prince Waldemar, son of Prince Henry.
The Main Headquarters are the head or rather the brain of the army
in the field, where all plans are made and from which all orders are
issued. It is an incredibly complicated apparatus with an organization
of which every detail has been prepared in advance. When an apparatus
of this kind is installed in a small town like Luxemburg, all hotels,
schools, barracks, Government offices, as well as a number of private
houses, have to be requisitioned for billets. The invaded country
has no alternative but to resign itself to its fate. But nothing is
taken promiscuously, everything will be made good after the war. The
War Ministry is housed in an hotel, the General Staff--as already
mentioned--in a school, the officers of the automobile corps, in a
private house, and so on. The Commander-in-Chief, von Moltke, resided
at the _Kölnischer Hof_, the Imperial Chancellor and the Foreign
Minister in an exceptionally elegant private house, whilst the
Emperor's personal staff and suite were stopping at the _Hotel Staar_,
where a room was also placed at my disposal....