exposed in 1906. It will be remembered that for years back the
Emperor had been insisting on union between the various religious
creeds. This was perhaps due in part to a spirit of toleration,
but to a larger extent it was due to the fact that the Centre
party (Catholic) had for a number of years been in control. The
Reichstag of 1906 was dissolved, ostensibly over the government's
quarrel with the Centre party over the comparatively paltry sum of
$2,000,000 demanded for the Southwest African colony. In reality
the causes probably lay deeper. The late Reichstag had voted an
insufficient sum for the navy and was beginning to object to the
increasing taxes on the necessities of life. The Navy League was
demanding a doubling of the German fleet. The government seemed to
wish to undertake a more rapid policy of expansion. Mr. Barker
is authority for the statement that leaders of the imperialistic
agitation had gone so far as to recommend that if the Reichstag
did not vote the credits necessary for doubling the fleet, a _coup
d'état_ should be effected by the government and that it should
levy the taxes and govern in case of necessity against the will of
the Reichstag or without the Reichstag. The expansionist policy was
strongly advocated by the Colonial party and the Navy League and
was championed by the Chancellor. As the Social Democrats opposed
increases in taxation, they were likewise now specially under the
ban of official disapproval. There are usually about forty parties
in the Reichstag. The issue was, therefore, clearly drawn between
a policy of imperialism and a stronger insistence on world-policy,
on the one hand, and Social Democracy and the opposition on the
other. The Emperor and the Chancellor, particularly the latter,
threw themselves vigorously into the campaign, and in spite
of the support of the Centre party the Social Democrats lost
thirty-six representatives and their representation was reduced to
forty-three. Although the Social Democrats have to a certain point
supported the policy of commercial expansion, their defeat here may
be looked upon as the unconditioned triumph of imperialism.
On the night of February 5, when it was announced that the Social
Democrats had been defeated, a crowd gathered about the palace, and
when the Emperor returned at about midnight from the meeting of the
Electrical Society, where he had delivered an address, he stepped
out on his balcony and made the following speech to the crowd:
GENTLEMEN:
With my whole heart I thank you for the beautiful demonstration of
homage which you have shown me. It arises from the feeling that you are
proud to have done your duty toward the Fatherland; in the phrase of
our Chancellor, you are able to ride, and you will ride down everything
that opposes us if all conditions and creeds stand together in firm
union. Do not allow this hour of celebration to end like a passing
wave of patriotic enthusiasm, but stand firmly to the path on which
you have started. I close with the words of the great poet Kleist in
his "Prince von Homburg" when old Kottwitz speaks to the Great Elector
somewhat as follows: "What do we care for the rules according to which
the enemy fights if he is beaten in the fighting? We have now learned
the art of conquering him and are filled with the desire to practise it
further."[42]
[42] The exact passage runs as follows, though the lines are separated
in the play and do not occur in this order:
"What, I pray you, do you care for the rule
According to which the enemy fights, if only
He goes down before you with all his flags?
The rule that conquers him is the highest rule."
ACT V, SCENE 5.
THE NECESSITY OF FAITH
MÜNSTER, AUGUST 31, 1907
The following address of a general character, which represents the
Emperor's faith in God and in Germany, was delivered at a banquet
in the Westphalian Provincial Museum. It is somewhat similar in its
general attitude to the one delivered about a month later at the
unveiling of the national monument at Memel.
I wish to express to the representatives of the province whom I have
gathered about me to-day my warmest thanks for the way in which I have
everywhere been received in this beautiful country of Westphalia.
I would also like to repeat to you in the name of her Majesty, the
Empress and Queen, how disconsolate she is that it was unfortunately
not possible for her to celebrate the Westphalian days with you and to
come into personal contact with the Westphalian people.
The province of Westphalia offers an attractive picture of a state in
which it has been proved possible to reconcile historical, religious,
and industrial differences through love and loyalty for a common
Fatherland. The province is made up of several districts, of which
many have for a long time belonged to the crown of Prussia, while
many others have been but recently acquired. They, however, vie with
one another in their loyalty to our house. As I make no difference
between old and new districts, so I also make no difference between
the adherents to the Catholic and the Protestant creeds. Let them both
stand upon the foundation of Christianity and they are both bound to
be true citizens and obedient subjects. All the children of my country
stand equally near to my heart, which is devoted to the Fatherland. In
its industrial relations the province also offers a highly edifying
example. It shows that the great branches of industry do not need to
harm each other and that the welfare of the one works for the good of
the others also. The farmer diligently cultivates his red Westphalian
soil, holding fast to the traditions which have come down to him
from ages past; a sturdy character, with unyielding energy and lofty
purpose, of loyal nature, a firm foundation for our state. Therefore,
the protection of agriculture lies especially near my thoughts. Your
citizen brings his cities ever nearer to perfection; there are works
for the benefit of the public--museums and collections, hospitals and
churches. And deep in your mountains lie hidden the treasures which,
mined by the diligent hands of the brave mountain people, give to
industry the opportunity to develop itself--that industry, the pride of
the nation, wonderful in its progress, the envy of all the world. May
it be permitted to gather together further treasures for our national
wealth and to increase abroad the good reputation of the thoroughness
and excellence of German work.
In this connection I am mindful also of those laborers who, in these
vast industrial undertakings, tend the great blast-furnaces and of
those who, far from the daylight, accomplish their work with steady
hands in the leads of the mines. Consideration for them, for their
prosperity and their welfare I have taken over as a precious heritage
from my late grandfather, and it is my wish and my will, in the
province of such social regulations, to hold fast to the principles
laid down in the memorable message of Emperor William the Great.
The lovely picture of unity which the province of Westphalia presents
to the observer I would gladly see made general over our entire
Fatherland. I believe that for such a unity of all our citizens, of
all our conditions, only one means is possible, and that is religion.
Not, indeed, understood in the sense of strict theological doctrine,
but in the broader sense, practical for daily life. I must here go back
to my own experience. In the long period of my reign--it is now the
twentieth year since I came to the throne--I have had to do with many
men and I have had to endure much from them; many times unconsciously,
and unfortunately many times consciously, they have hurt me grievously.
And if at such moments I have been in danger of losing my temper and
thoughts of revenge have arisen, I have asked myself what were the
means best fitted to temper anger and increase moderation. The only
one which I have found is to say to myself: "All men are like you,
and, although they do you harm, they bear a soul born in the realms
of light above, to which we all wish to return, and through their
souls they have a part of the Creator within them." Whoever thinks
in this way will judge his fellow men mildly. If this idea of mutual
forbearance could only be spread among the German people, then the
first condition for a complete unity would be established. This can
only be accomplished if we tend toward one central ideal--the person of
our Redeemer, the Man who called us brothers, who lived as an example
for all of us--the most personal of all personalities. He still wanders
among the people, and we are all conscious of Him in our hearts. In
looking up to Him our people must find their union, and they must build
firmly upon His words, concerning which He Himself has said: "Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." If they
do that, then they will succeed. To such co-operation I should like
to-day to invite especially the men of Westphalia. For, as I have
before explained, in their province they have understood how to present
that charming spectacle of differences reconciled. They will also
understand me first and best. In this spirit let old and new districts,
citizens, farmers, and laborers hold together and unitedly work
together through loyalty and love for the Fatherland. Then the German
people will be the rock of granite upon which our Lord God can build
and complete his work of culture in the world. Then will the words of
the poet be fulfilled when he says: "In contact with German life, the
world will grow well again." To whosoever is ready to offer me his
hand on this I shall be most grateful and I will accept it joyfully,
no matter who or of what condition he may be. I believed that I would
be most quickly understood by the Westphalians, and therefore I have
turned to them.
I now raise my glass with the wish that God's blessing may rest upon
the red Westphalian earth and upon all its people, that I may be
permitted still longer to maintain peace in order that they may follow
their calling undisturbed. God bless Westphalia! The province of
Westphalia--Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!
ENGLISH JOURNALISTS
LONDON, NOVEMBER 16, 1907
In November and December, 1907, the Emperor paid a visit to
England. On this occasion the degree of Doctor of Civil Law was
conferred upon him by Oxford University. Ever since the Morocco
incident, in 1905, the feeling between the two countries had been
somewhat strained and newspapers on both sides of the channel had
helped to foment discontent. To a group of English journalists who
had visited Germany during the summer the Emperor gave an audience
and addressed them as follows:
GENTLEMEN:
I greatly appreciate your greeting. It gives me pleasure to think that
your visit to Germany during the past summer has been so fruitful and
that you are satisfied with the welcome accorded you by my countrymen.
The power which you possess is great and extremely beneficial when it
is used as a means for strengthening the feeling of friendship among
the peoples. Your address shows that this task lies near to your
hearts. I thank you, therefore, for your appearance here to-day. I
rejoice to have seen you and hope that you will exert your influence
to foster between our two nations the friendly feelings which are so
necessary to the peace of Europe. We belong to the same race and have
the same religion. These are bonds which should be strong enough to
preserve harmony and friendship between us.
ALSACE-LORRAINE
STRASBURG, AUGUST 30, 1908
The Emperor delivered the following address at a banquet after the
imperial manoeuvres in Alsace-Lorraine. The general situation in
Alsace-Lorraine has been discussed in connection with the address
to the delegates of the _Landesausschuss_ on March 14, 1891.
I bid you, gentlemen, heartily welcome and express to you the warmest
thanks of the Empress and myself for the beautiful reception through
which, here as in Metz, the people of Alsace-Lorraine have given
so telling an expression of their love and loyalty. My heart also
bids me thank you once more for the restoration of the old castle of
Hohkönigsburg, especially the people of Lorraine for their patriotic
attitude and the donation of the charming Lorraine Room in the castle.
For more than thirty-seven years you have now been able to follow
your different callings in peace, and beautiful Alsace-Lorraine,
keeping pace with the unexpected development of the German Empire,
has in this time blossomed forth most joyously. As inhabitants of
this border-land, you naturally have the greatest interest in the
further maintenance of peace, and I rejoice to be able to express to
you my innermost conviction that the peace of Europe is in no danger.
It rests upon too firm a foundation to be easily disturbed through
instigations and slanders aroused in certain quarters by jealousy and
envy. A solid security of the first rank is afforded by the consciences
of the princes and statesmen of Europe who know themselves responsible
to God and feel for the life and prosperity of the people intrusted to
their charge. On the other hand, it is the wish and will of the people
themselves to make themselves useful in the further development of
the magnificent acquisitions of their progressive civilization and to
measure their strength in peaceful competition. And, finally, peace
will be secured and protected also through our forces on water and
on land--through the German people in arms! Proud of the unequalled
discipline and love of honor of her armies, Germany is determined,
without threatening others, to carry these to still greater heights and
so to expand as to further her own interests without either favoring
or doing harm to any one. With God's help and under the protection of
the German eagle, you can therefore follow still further your peaceful
callings and garner the fruits of your industry. May the blessing of
God rest upon your work at all times! Long life to the German province
Alsace-Lorraine!
THE "DAILY TELEGRAPH" INTERVIEW
OCTOBER 28, 1908
Perhaps the most startling incident in the Emperor's reign and the
most extraordinary evidence of what may be called his "personal
diplomacy" policy was brought out by the publication of an
interview in the _Daily Telegraph_ of London. German sympathies
before and during the Boer War had been strongly pro-Boer. On the
third of January, 1896, the Emperor had telegraphed to President
Krüger: "I beg to express to you my sincere congratulations that,
without help from foreign powers, you have succeeded with your
own people and by your own strength in driving out the armed
bands which attempted to disturb the peace of your country and in
re-establishing order and in defending the independence of your
people from attacks from outside."
The German people had, therefore, assumed that the Emperor shared
their friendliness toward the Boers and that the government was
observing a policy of neutrality at least. When they learned
that his General Staff had been called upon, and that he had
prepared a plan of campaign against the Boers, a universal shout
of protest was raised. The publication of this interview, which
was designed to conciliate England, had a contrary effect upon
Holland, and the feeling that their ruler was held down by no
sense of responsibility was borne in forcibly upon the people.
The matter was made the subject of innumerable controversies,
debates in the Reichstag, and investigations. It was originally
announced that the interview had been given to an English diplomat
who had retired to private life. It was discovered that such was
not the case. It had been granted to an English journalist who
had written certain flattering articles about the Emperor. As for
the text, it was admitted that it was substantially authentic; it
had been shown to and had practically received the _visé_ of the
German Foreign Office. The Emperor's Chancellor, however, had not
seen the interview and under the storm of criticism offered his
resignation. This the Emperor did not accept, and the Chancellor
attempted to defend the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Emperor
withdrew and for a time, like Achilles, pondered in his tent. Even
the Chancellor had to admit the Emperor's indiscretion and to
inform his sovereign that it would be impossible to carry out any
consistent foreign policy if the Emperor did not observe a proper
reserve in his public and private utterances.
Any number of projects were presented in the November debates
of the Reichstag for changing the Constitution, to bring
about co-operation between the Reichstag and the Emperor in
the appointment and dismissal of Chancellors and declarations
of war, and for introducing a law to bring about ministerial
responsibility. Nothing came of these, however, and we shall see
from the Königsberg speech (August 25, 1910) that the chastening
which the Emperor had received on this occasion had no particularly
lasting effect. Although both the interview and the telegram are
undoubtedly authentic (the interview was published in official
government organs in Germany, like the _Norddeutsche Allgemeine
Zeitung_, and by the Wolff Bureau), they are not included in any
official collection of the Emperor's utterances, and Penzler, of
course, does not print them with the speeches. The interview as
here given is taken from the account of the London _Times_, of
October 29, 1908.
The Emperor, who is stated to have spoken with "impulsive and unusual
frankness," began by declaring that "Englishmen, in giving the rein
to suspicions unworthy of a great nation," were "mad as March hares."
"What more can I do," he asked, "than I have done? I declared with all
the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that my heart is
set upon peace and that it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the
best of terms with England.
"My task is not of the easiest. The prevailing sentiment among large
sections of the middle and lower classes of my own people is not
friendly to England. I am, therefore, so to speak, in a minority in my
own land, but it is a minority of the best elements, just as it is in
England with respect to Germany. That is another reason why I resent
your refusal to accept my pledged word that I am the friend of England."
The writer reminded his Majesty that "not England alone, but the whole
of Europe, had viewed with disapproval the recent action of Germany in
allowing the German consul to return from Tangier to Fez." His Majesty
replied, "with a gesture of impatience," that German subjects in Fez
were "crying for help and protection."
"And why not send him? Are those who charge Germany with having
stolen a march on the other powers aware that the French consular
representative had already been in Fez for several months when Doctor
Vassel set out?"
The Emperor then reverted to "the subject uppermost in his mind--his
proved friendship for England." It was commonly believed in England, he
said, that during the South African War Germany had been consistently
hostile to her. German opinion, he admitted, was hostile--"bitterly
hostile"; but not so official Germany. In fact, while other European
peoples had received and fêted the Boer delegates who came to solicit
European intervention, he alone had refused to receive them at Berlin,
"where the German people would have crowned them with flowers." His
Majesty continued:
"Again, when the struggle was at its height, the German Government
was invited by the governments of France and Russia to join with them
in calling upon England to put an end to the war. The moment had
come, they said, not only to save the Boer republics, but also to
humiliate England to the dust. What was my reply? I said that so far
from Germany joining in any concerted European action to put pressure
upon England and bring about her downfall, Germany would always keep
aloof from politics that could bring her into complications with a sea
power like England. Posterity will one day read the exact terms of the
telegram--now in the archives of Windsor Castle--in which I informed
the sovereign of England of the answer I had returned to the powers
which then sought to compass her fall. Englishmen who now insult me by
doubting my word should know what were my actions in the hour of their
adversity."
These were not the only proofs which his Majesty had given of sympathy
with the British cause:
"Just at the time of your Black Week, in the December of 1899, when
disasters followed one another in rapid succession, I received a letter
from Queen Victoria, my revered grandmother, written in sorrow and
affliction, and bearing manifest traces of the anxieties which were
preying upon her mind and health. I at once returned a sympathetic
reply. Nay, I did more. I bade one of my officers procure for me as
exact an account as he could obtain of the number of combatants in
South Africa on both sides, and of the actual position of the opposing
forces. With the figures before me, I worked out what I considered to
be the best plan of campaign under the circumstances, and submitted
it to my General Staff for their criticism. Then I despatched it to
England, and that document, likewise, is among the state papers at
Windsor Castle, awaiting the serenely impartial verdict of history.
And, as a matter of curious coincidence, let me add that the plan which
I formulated ran very much on the same lines as that which was actually
adopted by Lord Roberts and carried by him into successful operation."
In conclusion, his Majesty dwelt upon the importance to Germany of a
powerful fleet. Germany must be able to protect her growing commerce
and manifold interests "in even the most distant seas." "Germany,"
he went on, "looks ahead. She must be prepared for any eventualities
in the far East. Who can foresee what may take place in the Pacific
in the days to come?" Looking to the accomplished rise of Japan and
the possible national awakening of China, he urged that "only those
powers which have great navies will be listened to with respect when
the future of the Pacific comes to be solved," and that even England
herself may welcome the existence of a German fleet "when they speak
together on the same side in the great debates of the future."
THE EMPEROR AND COUNT ZEPPELIN
MANZELL, NOVEMBER 10, 1908
With Prince Fürstenberg the Emperor journeyed from Donaueschingen
to Manzell in order to be present at a flight of the dirigible
Z-1. Count Zeppelin received the Emperor and conducted him in a
motor-boat to the dirigible hangar. Prince Fürstenberg, Admiral
von Müller, and General von Plessen ascended with the count. The
Emperor did not make the flight. After the landing of the airship
he bestowed upon Count Zeppelin the order of the Black Eagle with
the following words:
In my name and in the name of our entire German people I heartily
congratulate your Excellency on this magnificent work which you have so
wonderfully displayed before me to-day. Our Fatherland can be proud to
possess such a son--the greatest German of the twentieth century--who
through his invention has brought us to a new point in the development
of the human race. It is not too much to say that we have to-day lived
through one of the greatest moments in the evolution of human culture.
I thank God, with all Germans, that he has considered our people worthy
to name you one of us. Might it be permitted to us all, as it has been
to you, to be able to say with pride in the evening of our life, that
we had been successful in serving our dear Fatherland so fruitfully!
As a token of my admiring recognition, which certainly all your guests
gathered here share with the entire German people, I bestow upon you
herewith my high Order of the Black Eagle. [Then followed the investing
by his Majesty and the head marshal, Prince Fürstenberg.] Now allow me,
my dear count, to bestow unofficially upon you the accolade! [Embraces
him three times.] His Excellency, Count Zeppelin, the Conqueror of the
Air--Hurrah!
REGATTA AT HAMBURG
HAMBURG, JUNE 22, 1909
The Emperor, as an enthusiastic yachtsman, has made it a point
to be present, as we have seen, at nearly all of the Hamburg
regattas. As he was this year to visit the Czar in the furtherance
of his "personal diplomacy," he had already been forced to decline
their invitation; but finding it possible to attend at the last
moment, he made all possible speed to arrive at Hamburg, where his
recently constructed yacht _Meteor_ was to make her first start.
The banquet, at which the Emperor spoke, took place on board the
Hamburg-American Liner _Deutschland_.