protest against the continuance of the _Passzwang_, a rule which
made it impossible to leave Alsace-Lorraine except under very
special circumstances and on receiving a pass from the imperial
agent. The rule was particularly obnoxious, and the strictness with
which it had been enforced was much resented, even by subjects
favorably disposed to the empire. It was, however, merely one
of many grievances. Since the time of the Franco-Prussian War,
Alsace-Lorraine had been governed like a conquered province--by
a governor appointed by, and responsible to, the Emperor alone.
Up to this time the policy had been one of repression, save for
a very brief period. It is possible that the Emperor might have
been inclined to give them some relief had it not been for the
unfortunate result of the visit of his mother to Paris. After a
visit in London, the Empress Frederick, in February, 1891 (it
is supposed on the advice of her son), visited Paris and, while
there, was to ask certain of the French artists to exhibit at
the Berlin exhibition. It had evidently been assumed that the
time had come for a _rapprochement_. The Empress descended at
the German embassy very quietly and had received promises from
several artists, when her presence in Paris became known to the
League of French Patriots and to the germanophobe Déroulède, who
immediately started a violent agitation and demonstrations against
Germany. The artists withdrew their promises under the pressure
of outraged patriotic opinion, and the situation became so tense
that the Empress was forced to depart very hastily in a manner
that suggested flight. The incident tended to make bad feeling
on both sides and reacted unfavorably upon the attitude of the
empire toward the former French provinces. The difficulties of
circulation were increased, and the regulations about passes were
made particularly trying. These difficulties were removed in 1899,
but the provinces continued to protest, as they were not given
equal rights with the other German states and have not enjoyed them
up to the present. In May, 1911, a new so-called constitution was
given to Alsace-Lorraine. The executive power is exercised by the
Emperor in the name of the empire; the province has three votes
in the Bundesrat, which are so restricted that they give very
little satisfaction to Alsace-Lorraine and are so far under the
control of Prussia that they give considerable dissatisfaction to
other German states. The Emperor appoints officials, including the
_Statthalter_, or governor, and the delegates are instructed by the
_Statthalter_ and must vote according to instructions. The votes
do not count in any vote concerning the imperial Constitution.
There was much protest because the new constitution did not grant
the provinces sufficient independence. The previous Provincial
Assembly (_Landesausschuss_) had been summarily closed on the
9th of May, 1911. Affairs were but little improved under the new
arrangement, and the Emperor came to Strasburg in great anger, May
13, 1912, and made the following threatening address: "If this
keeps up I shall knock your constitution to bits. Up to the present
you have known me from my good side, but you can perhaps learn to
know me from the other side also. If things do not change, we will
make of Alsace-Lorraine a Prussian province." This speech of the
Emperor's is not printed officially, but it was made the subject
of an interpellation in the Reichstag on May 17, 1912, and the
burgomaster of Strasburg admitted that the sense of the imperial
utterance was properly given. With regard to Alsace-Lorraine, the
Emperor has tried both kindness and severity. The Zabern incident
proved that in neither of these policies had he succeeded in
winning either the love or the subjection of the inhabitants.
The following is the estimate of Dr. H. A. Gibbons on the situation
in Alsace-Lorraine immediately before the outbreak of the European
War:
"One could easily fill many pages with illustrations of senseless
persecutions, most of them of the pettiest character, but some more
serious in nature, which Alsace and Lorraine have had to endure
since the granting of the constitution. Newspapers, illustrated
journals, clubs, and organizations of all kinds have been annoyed
constantly by police interference. Their editors, artists, and
managers have been brought frequently into court. Zislin and Hansi,
celebrated caricaturists, have found themselves provoked to bolder
and bolder defiances by successive condemnations and have endured
imprisonment as well as fines. Hansi was sentenced to a year's
imprisonment by the High Court of Leipsic only a month before
the present war broke out and chose exile rather than a Prussian
fortress.
"The greatest effort during the past few years has been made in the
schools to influence the minds of the growing generation against
the '_souvenir de France_,' and to impress upon the Alsacians what
good fortune had come to them to be born German citizens.
"Among the boys, the influence of this teaching has been such
that over twenty-two thousand fled from home during the period of
1900-13 to enlist in the Foreign Legion of the French Army. The
campaign of the German newspapers in Alsace-Lorraine and, in fact,
throughout Germany was redoubled in 1911. Parents were warned of
the horrible treatment accorded to the poor boys who were misguided
enough to throw away their citizenship and go to be killed in
Africa under the French flag. The result of this campaign was that
the Foreign Legion received a larger number of Alsacians in 1912
than had enlisted during a single year since 1871!
"Among the girls, the German educational system flattered itself
that it could completely change the sentiments of a child,
especially in the boarding-schools. Last year the Empress of
Germany visited a girls' school near Metz which is one of the best
German schools in the _Reichsland_. As she was leaving she told
the children that she wanted to give them something. What did they
want? The answer was not sweets or cake but that they might be
taught a _little_ French!
"The former French provinces have been flooded with garrisons
and have been treated just as they were forty years ago. The
insufferable spirit of militarism and the arrogance of the
Prussian officers in Alsacian towns have served to turn against
the empire many thousands whom another policy might have won; for
it must be remembered that by no means _all_ the inhabitants of
the _Reichsland_ have been by birth and by home training French
sympathizers. Instead of crushing out the '_souvenir de France_,'
the Prussian civil and military officials have caused it to be born
in many a soul which was by nature German.
"The Prussian has never understood how to win the confidence of
others. There has been no Rome in his political vision. As for
conceptions of toleration, of kindness, and of love, they are
non-existent in Prussian officialdom."
It gives me great satisfaction that the committee of the provinces
has turned to me in an important question concerning the interests of
Alsace-Lorraine. I see in this fact a valuable proof of the increasing
understanding which my good-will and my interest in the development of
your home country has begotten in the minds of its representatives.
I am also pleased to accept this assurance that the people of
Alsace-Lorraine, satisfied for the time being with the existing
political relations, spurn every interference by foreign elements and
look to the empire alone for the protection of their interests.
While I offer you my thanks for this expression of loyal sentiment, I
regret that for the present I cannot fulfil your wishes. I must confine
myself in this matter to expressing the hope that in a not too distant
future our relations may make possible the alleviation of conditions on
the western boundary. This hope will be the sooner realized the more
the people of Alsace-Lorraine are convinced of the inviolability of the
union which binds them to Germany and the more decidedly they exhibit
their resolution to remain forever faithful and immovable in their
loyalty to me and to the empire.
SWEARING IN THE RECRUITS
POTSDAM, NOVEMBER 23, 1891
Every year the Emperor is present at the swearing in of the
recruits to the guard and to the navy. He has made innumerable
speeches on such occasions. The present somewhat striking
pronouncement was delivered at a time when his feeling toward the
Socialists, who had been guilty of no particular outrage, still
ran very high. Tolstoi saw in it the worst excesses of militarism
and issued shortly after the following criticism of the Emperor's
attitude:
"This man expresses what all wise men know but carefully conceal.
He says frankly that men who serve in the army serve him and his
advantage and must be prepared for his advantage to kill their
brothers and fathers.
"He expresses frankly, and with the coarsest of words, all the
horror of the crime for which the men who enter into military
service are prepared, all that abyss of degradation which they
reach when they promise obedience. Like a bold hypnotizer, he
tests the degree of the hypnotized man's sleep: he puts the glowing
iron to his body, the body sizzles and smokes, but the hypnotized
man does not awake.
"This miserable, ill man, who has lost his mind from the exercise
of power, with these words offends everything which can be holy for
a man of our time, and men--Christians, liberals, cultured men of
our time, all of them are not only not provoked by this insult but
do not even notice it."
It is possible that such criticism and the resentment aroused in
the minds of the law-abiding Socialists led him later to tone down
his utterances, though on one subsequent occasion, again with the
Socialists in mind, he made a somewhat similar address (March 28,
1901).
RECRUITS TO THE REGIMENT OF MY GUARD:
You are brought together here from all parts of the empire to fulfil
your military duty, and in this holy place have just sworn fealty to
your Emperor to your last breath. You are still too young to understand
all this. You will, however, little by little, be made familiar with
its significance. Do not imagine it too difficult, and trust in God;
occasionally also say the Lord's Prayer--that has frequently given many
a warrior fresh courage.
Children of my guard, to-day you have become incorporated into my
army; you now stand under my command and have the privilege of
wearing my uniform. Wear it honorably. Think of the famous history of
your Fatherland; remember that the German army must be armed against
the internal as well as the external foe. More and more unbelief and
discontent raise their heads in the Fatherland, and it may come to
pass that you will have to shoot down or stab your own relatives and
brothers. Then seal your loyalty with your heart's blood! And now go to
your homes and fulfil your duties.
--(According to the _Breslauer Lokalanzeiger_ of December 8.)
According to the _Neisser Zeitung_, the second paragraph ran as
follows:
Recruits! You have now before the consecrated servant of the Lord
and before His altar, sworn fealty to me. You are still too young to
understand the true meaning of what has just been said; but be diligent
now and follow the directions and instructions given you. You have
sworn loyalty to me; that means, children of my guard, that you are
now my soldiers, you have given yourselves up to me, body and soul;
there is for you but one enemy, and that is my enemy. In view of the
present Socialistic agitations it may come to pass that I shall command
you to shoot your own relatives, brothers, yes, parents--which God
forbid--but even then you must follow my command without a murmur.
Entirely similar, but shorter, is a clipping from the Berlin paper
_Das Volk_, according to the account of one who heard the speech.
You have sworn to me the oath of loyalty; that means, from now on you
know only one command, and that is my most high command; you have only
one enemy, and that is my enemy! And so I may sometime--which God
forbid--have to bid you to shoot upon your own relatives, yes, brothers
and parents--then remember your oath!
THE EMPEROR'S FIRST ARMY BILL
BERLIN, JULY 4, 1893
The opposition between the Reichstag and the government reached
a climax when the session which opened in 1886 was dissolved in
January, 1887, because it refused to vote for the bill fixing
the army status for the ensuing seven years. The next Reichstag,
elected in February, voted the bill. In spite of the fact that
the new arrangement was to have been effective until March, 1894,
as early as the session of 1890 changes were introduced which
fixed the peace footing at 468,983 men, exclusive of the one-year
volunteers. In November, 1892, a new army bill was presented,
to run for six years, fixing the peace footing at 492,068. All
infantrymen were to serve two years. In the debates of 1887 it
was announced that Russia was an ally of Germany. The failure to
renew the neutrality agreement with that power and the growing
_rapprochement_ between France and Russia seems to have been most
in the Emperor's mind in calling for an increase. The increased
appropriation of 1887 was covered by a tax on spirits, sugar, and
grain. The new increase was to be met by indirect taxes, mostly on
beer and brandy. When the Reichstag refused to vote the bill as it
stood, it was dissolved and a new one called. The new Reichstag,
which is here addressed, accepted the bill on July 15. As much of
the opposition had been due to the fear of the less-favored classes
that the increased cost would fall heavily on them through indirect
taxes, the Chancellor assured the representatives (as the Emperor
here indicates) that there would be no tax on beer or brandy nor
any other necessities of life.
Since you have been called to work in common with the confederated
governments, it is my desire at the beginning of your deliberations to
greet you and bid you welcome.
The draft of the bill concerning the peace footing of the German army,
through which a strengthening of our available force would have been
achieved, was presented to the last Reichstag. To my great regret the
project did not meet with the approval of the representatives of the
people. The conviction, unanimously shared by my corulers, that in
the face of the development of the military arrangements of the other
powers this government could no longer put off such a shaping of its
military status as should guarantee its safety and its future led to
the decision to dissolve the Reichstag and, by the calling of new
representatives to attain the end recognized as necessary. Since the
proposal of this law the political situation of Europe has undergone no
change. To my great satisfaction, the relations of the empire to the
foreign states are altogether and everywhere friendly and free from
any cloud. The organized military force of Germany, however, compares
still more unfavorably with that of our neighbors than it did last
year. Since her geographical position and her historical development
impose upon Germany the duty of taking thought for a proportionately
large standing army, the further development of our defensive strength,
therefore, with regard to the progress of other countries becomes a
pressing necessity. In order to satisfy the duties constitutionally
laid upon me, it seemed to me incontrovertible that I should exercise
every existing means at my command toward the restoration of a
sufficient and effective defense of the honor of the Fatherland.
There will, therefore, be laid before you without delay a new bill
concerning the peace footing of the army. In it the wishes which
were strongly expressed during the discussion of the former bill are
taken account of, and, in accordance with this, demands made upon the
personal capacity and upon the people's ability to pay taxes have, in
so far as this could be done without endangering the end sought, been
lessened.
The interest of the realm demands, especially in looking forward to the
impending expiration of the seven-year arrangement next spring, that
the bill should be decided upon with all possible despatch, in order
that this year's recruiting can be undertaken on the new basis. A delay
in carrying out this proposal would be felt for more than twenty years,
to the detriment of our defensive strength.
To make it possible for you to give your undivided attention to the
discussion of the bill, the confederated governments will refrain from
burdening the session with other important matters.
I and my honored corulers are still of the opinion that the means
necessary for the reorganization of our military equipment can be
raised properly, and without overburdening the people, in the manner
brought forward last autumn in the draft of the proposed taxation
bill. Nevertheless, the question of making good the deficit is still
the object of continued discussions. I expect that a proposal will be
set before you by the beginning of the next winter session in which is
expressed, even more strongly than in the former bill, the principle
that the providing of the necessary means must be carried out with the
utmost regard for the individual's ability to pay and with as little
draft as possible upon our power of levying taxes. Until the expiration
of the present official year the contributions from the various states
may be drawn upon to cover the excess.
Honored Sirs, we have succeeded in the difficult task of welding the
German race into a strong union. The nation honors those who have given
their possessions and their blood for this work and who have brought
the Fatherland to political and industrial prosperity--a prosperity
which is the pride and the pleasure of their contemporaries and which,
if they build in the same spirit as their fathers, will guarantee to
the generations to come the greatness and the happiness of the empire.
To protect the glorious acquisitions with which God has blessed us in
our struggle for independence is our most sacred duty. We can, however,
only fulfil such a duty toward the Fatherland by making ourselves
sufficiently strong in military power to defend ourselves, so that we
may remain a reliable guarantor of the peace of Europe. I trust that
your patriotic, self-sacrificing assistance in the pursuance of this
aim will not fail me and my honored corulers.
The Emperor followed the formal address from the throne with the
following:
And now, gentlemen, go forth. May our ancient God look down upon you
and bestow upon you His blessing to the end that you may bring to
successful issue an honorable work for the welfare of our Fatherland!
Amen.
ARRIVAL IN METZ
METZ, SEPTEMBER 3, 1893
On the 3d of September the Emperor, accompanied by the Crown Prince
of Italy, paid a visit to Metz. To Burgomaster Halm's speech of
welcome the Emperor replied as follows:
It is with a heart deeply stirred that I enter the city of Metz, and if
I could not come last year, as I wished,[7] I see, nevertheless, that
the reason for my remaining away has been rightly understood.
[7] The Emperor came to Metz ordinarily to review the Eighth and
Sixteenth Army Corps. Because of the cholera scare, the imperial
manoeuvres had not taken place in the previous year, 1892. The
Emperor, who was anxious to conciliate his subjects, had taken up a
domain in Urville.
I rejoice to see the monument to my late grandfather at length finished
and to be able to allow my troops to pass before it. Metz and my army
corps are a corner-stone in the military might of Germany, destined to
protect the peace of Germany--yes, of all Europe--and it is my firm
purpose to maintain this peace.
I thank the city of Metz for its festive welcome, and I pray you
that my thanks be made known to the citizens through an official
announcement. If I have removed my headquarters to Urville it is
because as a landholder in Lorraine I could not do otherwise, since
my subjects in this province wish to have me there. In token of my
imperial favor I extend to the burgomaster a golden chain of office
which the burgomasters of Metz shall be entitled to wear from this time
forth. It gives me especial pleasure, however, to be able to bestow
this chain upon the present burgomaster.
DEDICATION OF FLAGS
BERLIN, OCTOBER 18, 1894
Through a reorganization of the army which was to be made effective
in the next legislative session, a large number of partial bodies
of troops were created which were later to be increased to bring
up the peace footing of the army from 538 whole and 173 half
battalions to 624 whole battalions. Every two of these constitute
a regiment and every two regiments a brigade. On the anniversary
of the battle of Leipzig the Emperor, in the presence of a large
number of princes, including the young King of Servia, turned
over flags to these troops. His statement that the only pillar
upon which the empire rested was the army was strongly resented
by many of his loyal subjects of the empire who happened to be
merely peaceful merchants or farmers or laborers. The Emperor was
doubtless provoked into making the statement from the fact that
some of his legislative policies had met with determined opposition
on the part of representatives of the people. This he has always
regarded as disloyalty and as boding disaster to the empire. Since
the army's tradition for loyalty to the imperial war lord renders
opposition here impossible, he saw in it the only salvation of the
state.
In order that they may serve as a shining symbol of glory for the
troops, we have had the blessing of Heaven called down upon the ensigns
which I have bestowed upon every fourth battalion of my regiments, and
I now turn them over to the regimental commanders and to the regiments
themselves. This inspiring day is one whose memories move the world
and which marks an epoch in our German history. I first salute the
mausoleum of him[8] whose birthday was once wont to fill the entire
German Fatherland with jubilation, the mausoleum of him to whom it was
granted to win glorious victories under the eyes of the great, heroic
Emperor, his father, and to cover the flags which were consecrated
in 1861 with glory. They were nailed to their staffs in the rooms
in which the history of Brandenburg and Prussia is immortalized in
paintings. The monuments of the rulers and of the generals who created
the glory of Prussia have looked down upon them. These flags have now
been brought before the monument of the Prussian King who focussed
the eyes of the world upon them in years of fierce conflict and whose
last breath was a wish of blessing for his army. In the year 1861,
when my grandfather undertook the reorganization of his arms, he was
misunderstood by many and attacked by even more; nevertheless, the
future gave him his splendid justification. Just as at that time, so
now, too, distrust and discord are rife among the people. The only
pillar on which the empire rested was the army. So is it to-day! The
flags which are assembled here are destined for entire bodies of
troops, and I hope that the half battalions to which they are to-day
delivered will soon stand as entire battalions in the army of the
Fatherland.
[8] Emperor Frederick III.
But you, gentlemen, now take over these ensigns and with them the
obligation of maintaining the tradition of devotion, of discipline
unto death, of unconditional obedience toward the war lord against
all inward and outward enemies. Even as heretofore, may the blessing
of the Most High rest upon our army, and may the watchful eyes of our
ancestors look down upon and protect Prussia's army and her flags! With
God for King and Fatherland!
NAVY RECRUITS
KIEL, DECEMBER 3, 1894
It is part of the Emperor's duty to administer the oath every
year to the recruits for the navy as well as to the recruits for
the guard. He is inclined to talk to them usually in very simple
language, as here, for instance. Indeed, though they are usually
twenty years of age, he often addresses them as the "children of my
guard."
The oath is holy, and holy is the place in which you swear it. The
altar and the crucifix bear witness to this; it means that we Germans
are Christians, that we at all times first give the glory to God in
every affair that we undertake, especially in the highest--that of
strengthening the defense of the Fatherland. You wear the uniform of
the Emperor; you are thereby preferred over other men, and take your
rank equally with your comrades of the army and navy; you receive
a special place and assume obligations. By many you will be envied
because of the uniform which you wear; hold it in honor, and do not
besmirch it; this you will accomplish best when you think of your
oath--you especially, you people of the sea, who so often have the
opportunity in your various journeyings upon the water to learn to know
the almighty power of God!