adversary with lesser numbers? In discipline. What is discipline?
Single-hearted co-operation, single-hearted obedience. That our ancient
forebears already clung to this ideal a single example will show: On
one occasion they were marching to war against the Romans. They had
climbed over the mountain and found themselves suddenly face to face
with the huge masses of the army. Then they realized what a difficult
moment was before them. They first prayed, giving God the glory, and
then, bound together with chains, side by side, they fell upon the
enemies and conquered them. To-day we no longer need the actual chains;
we have a powerful religion and our oath. Remain true to it, and think
of it, whether you are within the country or without. Hold your colors
high, the black, white, and red which here stand before you, and think
of your oath, think of your Emperor.
CHRISTENING OF A CRUISER
KIEL, MARCH 26, 1895
The Emperor, as will be plain, took much satisfaction in the
development of his navy and was to make innumerable addresses on
these occasions. The present is a fair type of a number of the
shorter speeches. Very soon they were to become occasions in which
he was to broach the idea of the greater navy. The present address
will serve to illustrate the spirit he was hoping to instil into
this branch of the service.
As a testimony to the industry of the Fatherland, after the diligent
labors of the imperial dockyards, this vessel now stands before us
ready to be given over to its element. Thou shalt now be enrolled in
the German navy. Thou shalt serve in the protection of the Fatherland
to bring defiance and annihilation to the enemy. The names of the
ships which belong to the same class are taken from the old Germanic
sagas. Therefore thou also shalt hark back to the ancient time of our
ancestors, to the powerful divinity who was worshipped and feared by
all our German seafaring forefathers and whose mighty realm stretched
from the north even unto the south pole, in whose province the northern
battles were fought, and whence death and destruction were brought
into the land of the enemy. Thou shalt bear the name of this great and
mighty god. Mayst thou prove thyself worthy of it! So do I christen
thee with the name of _Ægir_.
VISIT TO BISMARCK
FRIEDRICHSRUH, MARCH 26, 1895
Historians of modern Germany have discussed and explained in
various ways the causes of the retirement of Bismarck, the "Iron
Chancellor." From the moment he became "Minister President and
Minister of Foreign Affairs," in 1862, his hand was the hand that
guided German policy, and his was the genius that presided over
and shaped the unification of Germany and the building of the
empire. It has been truly said that the biography of Bismarck is
the history of German union. He had been born in Brandenburg and
spent his life in the service of the Prussian Kings. It was he who
in the dark days preceding the victories of the sixties had given
William I heart and had prevented him from giving up his task. It
was, therefore, a great shock to the German world to learn that,
two years after the accession of William II, the great founder of
German unity had been forced into retirement. There had been rumors
of previous disagreements. The German Chancellor is responsible
not to the Reichstag but solely to the Emperor; he takes the
responsibility of shaping the imperial policy. It was said that
Bismarck resented certain interference with his authority in his
own cabinet. It is certain that he looked with disfavor on the
Emperor's policy with regard to labor legislation. With regard to
the attitude toward Russia there was likewise disagreement, and
Bismarck opposed the Emperor's visit to Constantinople. But aside
from these questions of policy, there were deep psychological
incompatibilities. Crabbed age and romantic youth could not live
together. Furthermore, the Emperor wished to take the credit for
initiating and carrying through his own policies. He was not
content to be a shadow king. Bismarck, after nearly forty years of
service, was not willing to be a puppet chancellor. He insisted
on the form of cabinet government decreed in 1852. The Emperor's
disposition of mind may be gathered from the following extracts
from a speech delivered shortly before Bismarck's retirement, and
it should be remembered that at this time Bismarck was far from
being an enthusiastic supporter of certain measures then taking
shape in the mind of William II. On the 5th of March, 1890, the
Emperor announced to the Brandenburgers: "All those who wish to
help me in this work I bid heartily welcome, whoever they may be;
but all those (whoever they may be) who oppose me in this work I
shall smash to pieces" (_zerschmettern_). Bismarck was forced to
offer his resignation two weeks later. Besides his ducal title, he
was given the honorary title of general of cavalry, with the rank
of field-marshal. Because of his opposition, he was treated in the
following years with extreme coolness and occasionally as an enemy.
The German ambassador at Vienna was instructed from Berlin, on
the occasion of the marriage of Bismarck's son, not to accept an
invitation to the wedding. Foreign ambassadors were informed that
for the Emperor there were two Bismarcks: the former responsible
servant and the present irresponsible subject. The honors given him
were not generally honors due a great ex-chancellor, but honors
due a military officer. "Living," said Bismarck, "they give me the
honors of the dead." On this, his eightieth birthday, the Reichstag
voted down the proposal that they send him their congratulations.
The Emperor, with an exclusively military suite, however, paid him
this visit and presented him with a sword engraved with his arms
and with the arms of the conquered provinces, Alsace-Lorraine. In
all probability, Bismarck felt the lack of mention of his services
as Chancellor; his entirely diplomatic reply printed below would
seem to indicate this.
YOUR HIGHNESS:
Our whole Fatherland decks itself out to celebrate your birthday.
This day belongs to the army. Its first duty is to do honor to its
comrades, to its old officers, whose efficiency made it possible for
it to carry through the mighty deeds which found their reward in the
crowning of a regenerated Fatherland.
The military host which stands gathered here is a symbol of the whole
army, especially this regiment which has the honor of calling your
Highness its commander, and especially that standard which reminds us
of the fame of Brandenburg and Prussia, which dates from the time of
the Great Elector and is consecrated by the blood shed at Mars-la-Tour.
Your Highness will see in spirit, behind this gathering of troops, the
collected army of the entire German race in battle array to celebrate
this day with us.
In sight of this host, I come now to present to your Highness my gift.
I could find no better token than a sword, this noblest weapon of the
Germans; a symbol of that instrument which your Highness with my late
grandfather helped to shape, to sharpen, and also to wield; the symbol
of that great, powerful period of building whose mortar was blood and
iron; that weapon which is never dismayed and which, when necessary,
in the hands of kings and princes will defend against internal foes
that unity of the Fatherland which it had once conquered from the
foes without. May your Highness be good enough to notice the linking
of your arms with those of Alsace-Lorraine here engraved and feel
again all that history which found its conclusion in the events of
twenty-five years ago!
But we comrades call out: His Highness, Prince Bismarck, Duke of
Lauenburg--Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!
Bismarck replied with more pith:
Your Majesty will allow me to lay my humblest thanks at your feet. My
military position with regard to your Majesty does not permit me to
further express my feelings to your Majesty. I thank your Majesty.
OPENING OF THE EMPEROR WILLIAM CANAL
KIEL, JUNE 21, 1895
In furthering Germany's economic and industrial development, the
building of canals has served an important function in reducing
the cost of transportation and in making possible competition with
other nations. Although the Emperor William Canal was an idea of
Bismarck's, his name is not here mentioned. Emperor William II
has taken a very lively interest in this development of inland
waterways and has rendered a great service to the industrial
development of his country in this regard.
In memory of Emperor William the Great, I baptize the canal "Emperor
William Canal."
The Emperor then accompanied his three hammer strokes with the
following words: "In the name of the Triune God, to the honor of
Emperor William, to the blessing of Germany, and to the welfare of
the people!"
He proposed this toast at the banquet:
I behold with pleasure and with pride this brilliant and festive
gathering, and in the name of my honored colleagues I bid you all, the
guests of the empire, most heartily welcome. We wish to express our
inmost thanks for the interest you have taken in the completion of a
work which, begun in peace and accomplished in peace, is to-day given
over to general trade.
It is not only in our own day that the idea first existed of joining
the North and Baltic Seas by a great canal; far back in the Middle Ages
we find drafts and plans for the working out of this undertaking. In
the past century the Eider Canal was built, which, while it affords a
wonderful example of the ability of that day, still, as it was intended
only for the passage of the smaller craft, could not satisfy the
increased demands of the present day. It remained for the newly founded
German Empire to find a satisfactory solution for this great problem.
It was my immortal grandfather, his Majesty, Emperor William the
Great, who, thoroughly appreciating the significance of the canal for
increasing the national welfare and strengthening our defense, devoted
his unflagging interest to the plan for the building of an effective
waterway between the North and the Baltic Seas and for overcoming the
many obstacles which stood in the way of its accomplishment. Joyfully
and confidently the affiliated rulers of the empire, as well as the
Reichstag, followed the imperial initiative, and for eight years the
work was industriously carried on which, as it approached completion,
aroused in ever-increasing measure the public interest. What technic on
the basis of its great development has been able to accomplish, what
was possible through pride and joy in the work, what finally could be
done in promoting the welfare of the numberless workers engaged in the
task, in accordance with the principles of the humane social politics
of the empire, has been accomplished in this undertaking. Therefore the
Fatherland dare rejoice with me and my noble colleagues in the success
of this enterprise.
However, we have worked not only for our own interests. In accordance
with the great cultural mission of the German people, we open the locks
of the canal to the peaceful trading of the nations with each other,
and it will give us great satisfaction if its increasing use shall
prove not only that the intentions by which we were led are understood
but that they are becoming fruitful in increasing the welfare of the
people.
The interest in our celebration on the part of the powers whose
representatives we see among us, and whose magnificent ships we have
to-day admired, I greet with greater joy the more I have the right to
see in it the complete justification of our efforts directed toward
the righteous maintenance of peace. Germany will also place the work
inaugurated to-day in the service of peace and will consider herself
fortunate if the Emperor William Canal strengthens and promotes in this
service for all time our friendly relations with the other powers.
I empty my glass to the friendly sovereigns and powers. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Hurrah!
IV
THE BEGINNING OF WORLD POLITICS
JUNE 16, 1896--MARCH 22, 1905
THE BEGINNING OF WORLD POLITICS
BERLIN, JUNE 16, 1896
It is difficult to fix any definite date at which any new movement
in politics may be said to have begun. Toward the close of the
year 1894 there appear unmistakable signs of a new dispensation.
In this year Caprivi, Bismarck's successor as Chancellor, retired
in favor of Prince Hohenlohe. The latter appears in his new office
for the first time in the session of the Reichstag which opened
December 5, 1894. In that session the insufficient protection of
Germans residing in foreign lands was repeatedly insisted upon, and
the colonizing spirit and the agitation for a very considerable
increase in the navy began to make themselves felt. The building
of three new cruisers was authorized, but the plan to erect a
dry dock at Kiel was rejected. The year 1895 was to be crowded
with festivals celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversaries of
the victories of the Franco-Prussian War, and there resulted a
consequent impetus to what might be called nascent imperialism.
This was further stimulated by outward events. In 1895 France,
Germany, and Russia intervened between Japan and China, then at
war. In 1897 Germany seized and then leased Kiaochow from China
for ninety-nine years and intervened in the war between Greece and
Turkey on behalf of the Turks. She began, therefore, to take a more
prominent part in world politics and definitely entered upon her
policy of expansion. The German people felt that this was rendered
necessary by the fact that Germany had become a great industrial
and exporting nation, whose interests demanded insistence on the
"open-door" policy. Her rapidly increasing population (the annual
increase was between 800,000 and 900,000) also, we are told, made
necessary the creation of new colonies to take care of surplus
population and to provide sustenance for those at home who were
being drawn off into industrial pursuits.
It should be remembered in this connection, however, that
emigration from Germany is very far from being on the increase. It
has diminished astonishingly since 1880. In the decade from 1880
to 1890 the annual emigration averaged about 135,000, and in 1881
it reached its highest point, 220,000. In the decade from 1900 to
1910 it never in any one year ran over 37,000 and averaged about
27,000--in other words, it had declined, in spite of the increase
in population and in the number of colonies, to one fifth of its
former proportions. The figures have only a relative significance.
The annual emigration from Belgium, for instance, which has little
more than one tenth the population of Germany, was considerably
higher, averaging 35,000 annually for the years from 1906 to 1910.
The annual emigration from the United Kingdom to places outside
of Europe in the same period was approximately 532,000 annually.
As, therefore, German emigration has in the last quarter century
steadily declined, it may be safely inferred that the problem of
finding colonies for her surplus population is not now, at least, a
more pressing one for Germany than it was twenty-five years ago.
A conscientious American student of contemporary politics has said
quite justly that "the most vital and burning problem in the world
to-day" is the problem of Germany's _Weltpolitik_. It is not the
purpose of this volume to enter into questions of controversy.
He who wishes, however, to understand Germany's position and
the Emperor's position toward the world to-day must consider
carefully not only the problem itself but some of its practical
implications. In one of his bursts of enthusiasm the Emperor will
tell us later[9] that this policy implies that no question in the
world--no question of international politics, in other words--is to
be decided without Germany. This would mean, strictly interpreted,
that no transfer or change of status in colonial possessions--Cuba
or the Philippines, for instance--no international canal, like
Panama, could be made without her sanction. And there are those in
Germany, like Doctor Liman, who believe that this doctrine should
have been more rigidly maintained than had hitherto been the case.
_A priori_, Germany is, of course, as much entitled to the right
to pursue such a policy as any other power. Ethically, however--if
ethics have any place in the discussion--it must be the result
which justifies such a policy: not the results merely to the nation
pursuing the policy but the results also to the nation or tribe at
whose expense the policy is pursued. In the utilitarian phrase, it
must redound to the greater good of the greater number.
[9] "Germany's greatness makes it impossible for her to do without
the ocean--but the ocean also proves that even in the distance,
and on its farther side, without Germany and the German Emperor
no great decision dare henceforth be taken." (July 3, 1900.)
A dispassionate consideration of Prussia's treatment of her
dependencies must convince any except the most partisan that her
efforts here have been far less successful than those of most other
nations, if they are not to be qualified as utter and absolute
failures. Chancellor Caprivi had said quite justly that the worst
blow an enemy could give him would be to force more territories in
Africa upon him. Nevertheless, Germany has since Caprivi's time
and at imminent risk of war acquired further African possessions.
The attempt to colonize Africa, begun, as we have seen, by the
Great Elector, was Germany's first venture in this field. Yet at no
time did the Germans seem to get on well with the blacks. In the
Emperor's speeches to the Reichstag he has spoken of his desire
to introduce Christian customs and Christian morality among the
negroes. Yet his attempts here were hardly successful. The Herreros
in Southwest Africa revolted and massacred German colonists,
sparing the Boers and English who had come before the German
occupation. Doctor Gibbons tells us that the suppression of this
rebellion took more than a year and cost Germany an appalling sum
of money and many lives. But it cost the natives more. Two thirds
of the nation of the Herreros were massacred, and, while only six
or seven thousand were in arms, the German official report states
that forty thousand were killed. The Germans confiscated all the
lands of the natives. In 1906, after twenty-one years of German
rule, there were in Southwest Africa sixteen thousand prisoners of
war out of a total native population of thirty-one thousand. All
the natives lived in concentration camps and were forced to work
for the government. It may be conceded that Germany's problem here
was a difficult one; it must also be recognized that her policy had
been neither of advantage to the natives nor to Germany herself.
In other cases, where the problem would seem to have been simpler,
the results have likewise been disastrous. It is not our purpose
to give the reasons but to state the facts. After one hundred
and twenty-five years of incorporation into Prussia the Poles
of East Prussia have in large part not been amalgamated and are
still the victims of discriminatory legislation. In judging such a
policy it is not merely a question as to whether Alsace-Lorraine,
for instance, did or did not once belong to Germany. Morally it
is difficult to concede to any nation the right to govern any
population which it makes permanently unhappy. After forty-four
years the problem of Alsace-Lorraine seemed to be very little
nearer a solution than it was at its inception. It is a mistake
to believe that the discontent was due principally to the fact
that the inhabitants must transfer their allegiance from France to
Germany. The discontent was due to the empire's refusal to give the
population rights and status compatible with their self-respect
as enlightened subjects of a twentieth-century government. Men of
German as well as of French descent, and even German emigrants who
were induced to settle in the province since 1870, took part in the
opposition. In a recent haphazard list of the "real leaders" of
Alsace-Lorraine, we find the following six names: Wetterlé, Preiss,
Blumenthal, Weber, Bucher, and Theodor. Of these the last five,
at least, are wholly or in part of German descent. Yet the most
serious demonstration in Metz since its annexation took place in
June, 1910. On July 25 of that same year, for the first time since
the University of Strasburg had been re-established by the Germans,
a professor was hissed out of his lecture-room; and, as we have
seen, in spite of an energetic propaganda by German newspapers, in
1912 more Alsacians enlisted in the French Foreign Legion than in
any single year since 1871. The situation in that province has been
already discussed in connection with the Emperor's speech of March
14, 1891. Quite evidently, the problem there was hardly on the
way to successful solution in August, 1914. Of course, Germany's
success in colonizing is not the only question to be considered
with regard to her _Weltpolitik_. It is, however, an essential
factor.
As will be evident from subsequent addresses, it was the Emperor
who everywhere gave the initial impulse. Whether or not he involved
himself in contradictions here, the student must decide. To
certain of his subjects he appeared to be doing so, and it was
for this reason that one of his hostile critics, Doctor Liman,
tells us in bitterness that German politics of the last twenty
years is "a fantastic mixture of tearful longing for peace and
an inflated desire for prestige." ("Der Kaiser," p. 317.) The
present empire had been proclaimed on the 18th of January, 1871,
and the anniversary marked the crowning celebration of the year.
In his speech the Emperor announces that "The German Empire has
become a world-empire." This may be said to provide the key to his
subsequent policy and to mark the dawning of a new era. The address
was delivered at a dinner held in the Royal Palace.
The present day, like the entire year in all its festivities, is
a day of grateful retrospect. It is a continued high festival of
gratitude for and in commemoration of the great departed Emperor. A
blessing rests upon the present day, and over it hovers the spirit
of him who lies in Charlottenburg,[10] and of him who sleeps in the
Friedenskirche.[11] What our fathers had hoped and what German youth
in her dreams had sung and desired it was granted to them, the two
Emperors, to achieve; working with the princes, it was granted to them
to reconquer and re-establish the German Empire. We are privileged
gratefully to enjoy its advantages; we have a right to rejoice on
the present day. Nevertheless, it is our earnest duty to maintain
what the great lords have won for us. The German Empire has become a
world-empire. Everywhere in distant quarters of the earth thousands of
our countrymen are living. German guardians, German science, German
industry are going across the sea. The value of what Germany has upon
the seas amounts to thousands of millions. It is your earnest duty,
gentlemen, to help to bind this greater German Empire firmly to our
ancestral home. The vow which I made you to-day can become truth only
if you are animated by a united patriotic spirit and grant me your
fullest support. It is my wish that, standing in closest union, you
help me to do my duty not only to my countrymen in a narrower sense
but also to the many thousands of countrymen in foreign lands. This
means that I may be able to protect them if I must. It is with this
wish, and deeply conscious of the injunction which is issued to us
all--"What you have inherited from your fathers, conquer it in order
that you may possess it"--that I raise my glass to our beloved German
Fatherland and call out: Long live the German Empire!--once again, may
it live!--and a third time, long live the Empire!
[10] Emperor William I.
[11] Emperor Frederick III.
TO THE RECRUITS FOR THE NAVY
WILHELMSHAVEN, FEBRUARY 21, 1896
On the occasion of administering the oath to the naval recruits at
Wilhelmshaven the Emperor delivered the following address: