No. VI.
(_From Professor HERMANN MÜLLER, Ph.D., Private in the ----th Regiment
of Prussian Infantry._)
_Belgium._
YOUR MAJESTY,--I am one of your Majesty's most loyal and most faithfully
devoted subjects, and, if I now write to you, it is not because I doubt
for one moment that you are inspired in all your actions by a clearer
wisdom and a firmer grasp of facts than any that I can pretend to, but
because there are certain questions which obstinately press upon me to
such an extent that I must relieve my mind of them.
At the beginning I was a firm believer in the necessity of this war, and
in the perfect and not-to-be-shattered justice of our cause. I had read
all that there was to read: TREITSCHKE, NIETZSCHE, BERNHARDI, FROBENIUS
and a hundred others, from whose writings it can be most easily shown
that Germany alone among nations has the power and the will to expand
and to rule; that expansion and rule must be accomplished by war, which,
far from being a misfortune, is a noble object to be aimed at and not
avoided by statesmen; that all other nations are degenerate and must for
their own good be crushed by Germany; and that any nation which resists
Germany is through that very act an enemy of the human race. I also
believed that German culture is something different from and superior to
such culture (if it be worthy of the name) as is possessed by other
countries. All these beliefs I set out in my booklet entitled, "Der
Lorbeerkranz," which I humbly and with the most profound heart's
devotion dedicated to your august and glorious Majesty. Did you, I
wonder, deign to cast your Imperial eyes on this effort of my pen? How
well I remember obtaining my first copy of the book on the happy day
that saw its publication. It seemed printed in letters of gold, and,
filled with high yearnings and expectations, I took it home to my
beloved Anna. We read it aloud together, turn and turn about, with
laughter and applause and tears, for we saw therein the foundation of
fame.
So, at the war's beginning, I shouted with the rest for my KAISER and my
country, knowing that the war was just and that we should end by
annexing England's colonies, after destroying her armies and her ships,
and those of France and Russia into the bargain.
Well, that is already, as it seems to me, a thousand years ago, and I
must admit that at that time I did not consider it possible that I
myself with all my weight of learning as well as my regulation knapsack
should be marching about, or lying in a trench on the plains of
Flanders, divided by a few hundred yards from English soldiers, who have
in their hands rifles and bayonets, and know how to use them. In the
intervals of firing, as we lie there, a man has time to think, and it is
wonderful how clear his ideas become in such conditions. Some of us do
not think or think only what they are told. Poor simple fellows, they
still believe they are even now at the gates of Paris, and that
to-morrow is the day appointed for the entrance; whereas I know that,
having been close to Paris in a mad rush, our armies have since
retreated day after day.
But all this happened before I myself had to join the fight with the
older men. Now I know that the English and the French have much to say
for themselves, and, in any case, that it is plain nonsense--I beg Your
Majesty's pardon for using this word, but it is there and I will not
strike it out--it is plain nonsense to believe that the good God who has
made us all has had any interest in making our Germans out of better
clay than that which He has used for other men. I cannot even make an
exception in the case of your Imperial Majesty's own self. Thus do my
thoughts run in the trenches during this dreadful battle. What things
have I heard, what awful sights have I seen since I received my marching
orders! I think of Anna and of little Karl, and hope only that some day
I shall be far away from these scenes in a place where peace shall reign
and I can see them both again. But when will this be?
With most humble respect,