POLITICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL
My commission read, "Ambassador to Germany."
It is characteristic of our deep ignorance of all foreign affairs
that I was appointed Ambassador to a place which does not exist.
Politically, there is no such place as "Germany." There are the
twenty-five States, Prussia, Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, etc.,
which make up the "German Empire," but there is no such political
entity as "Germany."
These twenty-five States have votes in the Bundesrat, a body
which may be said to correspond remotely to our United States
Senate. But each State has a different number of votes. Prussia
has seventeen, Bavaria six, Württemberg and Saxony four each,
Baden and Hesse three each, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Brunswick
two each, and the rest one each. Prussia controls Brunswick.
The Reichstag, or Imperial Parliament, corresponds to our House
of Representatives. The members are elected by manhood suffrage of
those over twenty-five. But in practice the Reichstag is nothing
but a debating society because of the preponderating power of the
Bundesrat, or upper chamber. At the head of the ministry is the
Chancellor, appointed by the Emperor; and the other Ministers, such
as Colonies, Interior, Education, Justice and Foreign Affairs,
are but underlings of the Chancellor and appointed by him. The
Chancellor is not responsible to the Reichstag, as Bethmann-Hollweg
clearly stated at the time of the Zabern affair, but only to the
Emperor.
It is true that an innovation properly belonging only to a
parliamentary government was introduced some seven years ago,
viz., that the ministers must answer questions (as in Great Britain)
put them by the members of the Reichstag. But there the likeness
to a parliamentary government begins and ends.
The members of the Bundesrat are named by the Princes of the
twenty-five States making up the German Empire. Prussia, which
has seventeen votes, may name seventeen members of the Bundesrat
or one member, who, however, when he votes casts seventeen votes.
The votes of a State must always be cast as a unit. In the usual
procedure bills are prepared and adopted in the Bundesrat and
then sent to the Reichstag whence, if passed, they return to the
Bundesrat where the final approval must take place. Therefore,
in practice, the Bundesrat makes the laws with the assent of
the Reichstag. The members of the Bundesrat have the right to
appear and make speeches in the Reichstag. The fundamental
constitution of the German Empire is not changed, as with us, by
a separate body but is changed in the same way that an ordinary
law is passed; except that if there are fourteen votes against
the proposed change in the Bundesrat the proposition is defeated,
and, further, the constitution cannot be changed with respect
to rights expressly granted by it to anyone of the twenty-five
States without the assent of that State.
In order to pass a law a majority vote in the Bundesrat and Reichstag
is sufficient if there is a quorum present, and a quorum is a
majority of the members elected in the Reichstag: in the Bundesrat
the quorum consists of such members as are present at a regularly
called meeting, providing the Chancellor or the Vice-Chancellor
attends.
The boundaries of the districts sending members to the Reichstag
have not been changed since 1872, while, in the meantime, a great
shifting of population, as well as great increase of population
has taken place. And because of this, the Reichstag to-day does
not represent the people of Germany in the sense intended by the
framers of the Imperial Constitution.
Much of the legislation that affects the everyday life of a German
emanates from the parliaments of Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony,
etc., as with us in our State Legislatures. The purely legislative
power of the ministers and Bundesrat is, however, large. These
German States have constitutions of some sort. The Grand Duchies
of Mecklenburg have no constitution whatever. It is understood
that the people themselves do not want one, on financial grounds,
fearing that many expenses now borne by the Grand Duke out of
his large private income, would be saddled on the people. The
other States have Constitutions varying in form. In Prussia there
are a House of Lords and a House of Deputies. The members of
the latter are elected by a system of circle votes, by which
the vote of one rich man voting in circle number one counts as
much as thousands voting in circle number three. It is the
recognition by Bethmann-Hollweg that this vicious system must
be changed that brought down on him the wrath of the Prussian
country squires, who for so long have ruled the German Empire,
filling places, civil and military, with their children and
relatives.
In considering Germany, the immense influence of the military
party must not be left out of account; and, with the developments
of the navy, that branch of the service also claimed a share in
guiding the policy of the Government.
The administrative, executive and judicial officers of Prussia
are not elected. The country is governed and judged by men who
enter this branch of the government service exactly as others
enter the army or navy. These are gradually promoted through
the various grades. This applies to judges, clerks of courts,
district attorneys and the officials who govern the political
divisions of Prussia, for Prussia is divided into circles,
presidencies and provinces. For instance, a young man may enter
the government service as assistant to the clerk of some court.
He may then become district attorney in a small town, then clerk
of a larger court, possibly attached to the police presidency
of a large city; he may then become a minor judge, etc., until
finally he becomes a judge of one of the higher courts or an
over-president of a province. Practically the only elective officers
who have any power are members of the Reichstag and the Prussian
Legislature, and there, as I have shown, the power is very small.
Mayors and City Councillors are elected in Prussia, but have
little power; and are elected by the vicious system of circle
voting.
Time and again during the course of the Great War when I made
some complaint or request affecting the interests of one of the
various nations I represented, I was met in the Foreign Office
by the statement, "We can do nothing with the military. Please
read Bismarck's memoirs and you will see what difficulty he had
with the military." Undoubtedly, owing to the fact that the
Chancellor seldom took strong ground, the influence which both
the army and navy claimed in dictating the policy of the Empire
was greatly increased.
Roughly speaking there are three great political divisions or
parties in the German Reichstag. To the right of the presiding
officer sit the Conservatives. Most of these are members from the
Prussian Junker or squire class. They are strong for the rights
of the crown and against any extension of the suffrage in Prussia
or anywhere else. They form probably the most important body of
conservatives now existing in any country in the world. Their
leader, Heydebrand, is known as the uncrowned king of Prussia. On
the left side the Social Democrats sit. As they evidently oppose
the kingship and favour a republic, no Social Democratic member
has ever been called into the government. They represent the great
industrial populations of Germany. Roughly, they constitute about
one-third of the Reichstag, and would sit there in greater numbers
if Germany were again redistricted so that proper representation
were given to the cities, to which there has been a great rush
of population since the time when the Reichstag districts were
originally constituted.
In the centre, and holding the balance of power, sit the members
of the Centrum or Catholic body. Among them are many priests. It
is noteworthy that in this war Roman Catholic opinion in neutral
countries, like Spain, inclines to the side of Germany; while
in Germany, to protect their religious liberties, the Catholic
population vote as Catholics to send Catholic members to the
Reichstag, and these sit and vote as Catholics alone.
Germans high in rank in the government often told me that no part
of conquered Poland would ever be incorporated in Prussia or the
Empire, because it was not desirable to add to the Roman Catholic
population; that they had troubles enough with the Catholics now
in Germany and had no desire to add to their numbers. This, and
the desire to lure the Poles into the creation of a national
army which could be utilised by the German machine, were the
reasons for the creation by Germany (with the assent of Austria)
of the new country of Poland.
This Catholic party is the result in Germany of the
_Kulturkampf_ or War for Civilisation, as it was called by
Bismarck, a contest dating from 1870 between the State in Germany
and the Roman Catholic Church.
Prussia has always been the centre of Protestantism in Germany,
although there are many Roman Catholics in the Rhine Provinces
of Prussia, and in that part of Prussia inhabited principally
by Poles, originally part of the Kingdom of Poland.
Baden and Bavaria, the two principal South German States, and
others are Catholic. In 1870, on the withdrawal of the French
garrison from Rome, the Temporal Power of the Pope ended, and
Bismarck, though appealed to by Catholics, took no interest in the
defence of the Papacy. The conflict between the Roman Catholics
and the Government in Germany was precipitated by the promulgation
by the Vatican Council, in 1870, of the Dogma of the Infallibility
of the Pope.
A certain number of German pastors and bishops refused to subscribe
to the new dogma. In the conflict that ensued these pastors and
bishops were backed by the government. The religious orders were
suppressed, civil marriage made compulsory and the State assumed
new powers not only in the appointment but even in the education
of the Catholic priests. The Jesuits were expelled from Germany
in 1872. These measures, generally known as the May Laws, because
passed in May, 1873, 1874 and 1875, led to the creation and
strengthening of the Centrum or Catholic party. For a long period
many churches were vacant in Prussia. Finally, owing to the growth
of the Centrum, Bismarck gave in. The May Laws were rescinded
in 1886 and the religious orders, the Jesuits excepted, were
permitted to return in 1887. Civil marriage, however, remained
obligatory in Prussia.
Ever since the _Kulturkampf_ the Centrum has held the balance
of power in Germany, acting sometimes with the Conservatives
and sometimes with the Social Democrats.
In addition to these three great parties, there are minor parties
and groups which sometimes act with one party and sometimes with
another, the National Liberals, for example, and the Progressives.
Since the war certain members of the National Liberal party were
most bitter in assailing President Wilson and the United States.
In the demand for ruthless submarine war they acted with the
Conservatives. There are also Polish, Hanoverian, Danish and
Alsatian members of the Reichstag.
There are three great race questions in Germany. First of all,
that of Alsace-Lorraine. It is unnecessary to go at length into
this well-known question. In the chapter on the affair at Zabern,
something will be seen of the attitude of the troops toward the
civil population. At the outbreak of the war several of the deputies,
sitting in the Reichstag as members from Alsace-Lorraine, crossed
the frontier and joined the French army.
If there is one talent which the Germans superlatively lack, it
is that of ruling over other peoples and inducing other people
to become part of their nation.
It is now a long time since portions of the Kingdom of Poland,
by various partitions of that kingdom, were incorporated with
Prussia, but the Polish question is more alive to-day than at
the time of the last partition.
The Poles are of a livelier race than the Germans, are Roman
Catholics and always retain their dream of a reconstituted and
independent Kingdom of Poland.
It is hard to conceive that Poland was at one time perhaps the
most powerful kingdom of Europe, with a population numbering
twenty millions and extending from the Baltic to the Carpathians
and the Black Sea, including in its territory the basins of the
Warta, Vistula, Dwina, Dnieper and Upper Dniester, and that it
had under its dominion besides Poles proper and the Baltic Slavs,
the Lithuanians, the White Russians and the Little Russians or
Ruthenians.
The Polish aristocracy was absolutely incapable of governing its
own country, which fell an easy prey to the intrigues of Frederick
the Great and the two Empresses, Maria Theresa of Austria and
Catherine of Russia. The last partition of Poland was in the
year 1795.
Posen, at one time one of the capitals of the old kingdom of
Poland, is the intellectual centre of that part of Poland which has
been incorporated into Prussia. For years Prussia has alternately
cajoled and oppressed the Poles, and has made every endeavour to
replace the Polish inhabitants with German colonists. A commission
has been established which buys estates from Poles and sells
them to Germans. This commission has the power of condemning
the lands of Poles, taking these lands from them by force,
compensating them at a rate determined by the commission and
settling Germans on the lands so seized. This commission has
its headquarters in Posen. The result has not been successful.
All the country side surrounding Posen and the city itself are
divided into two factions. By going to one hotel or the other
you announce that you are pro-German or pro-Polish. Poles will
not deal in shops kept by Germans or in shops unless the signs
are in Polish.
The sons of Germans who have settled in Poland under the protection
of the commission often marry Polish women. The invariable result
of these mixed marriages is that the children are Catholics and
Poles. Polish deputies voting as Poles sit in the Prussian
legislature and in the Reichstag, and if a portion of the old
Kingdom of Poland is made a separate country at the end of this
war, it will have the effect of making the Poles in Prussia more
restless and more aggressive than ever.
In order to win the sympathies of the Poles, the Emperor caused
a royal castle to be built within recent years in the city of
Posen, and appointed a popular Polish gentleman who had served
in the Prussian army and was attached to the Emperor, the Count
Hutten-Czapski, as its lord-warden. In this castle was a very
beautiful Byzantine chapel built from designs especially selected
by the Emperor. In January, 1914, we went with Allison Armour
and the Cassatts, Mrs. Wiltsee and Mrs. Whitehouse on a trip
to Posen to see this chapel.
Some of our German friends tried to play a joke on us by telling
us that the best hotel was the hotel patronised by the Poles. To
have gone there would have been to declare ourselves anti-German
and pro-Polish, but we were warned in time. The castle has a
large throne room and ball-room; in the hall is a stuffed aurochs
killed by the Emperor. The aurochs is a species of buffalo greatly
resembling those which used to roam our western prairies. The
breed has been preserved on certain great estates in eastern
Germany and in the hunting forests of the Czar in the neighbourhood
of Warsaw.
Some of the Poles told me that at the first attempt to give a
court ball in this new castle the Polish population in the streets
threw ink through the carriage windows on the dresses of the
ladies going to the ball and thus made it a failure. The chapel
of the castle is very beautiful and is a great credit to the
Emperor's taste as an architect.
While being shown through the Emperor's private apartments in
this castle, I noticed a saddle on a sort of elevated stool in
front of a desk. I asked the guide what this was for: he told
me that the Emperor, when working, always sits in a saddle.
In Posen, in a book-store, the proprietor brought out for me a
number of books caricaturing the German rule of Alsace-Lorraine.
It is curious that a community of interests should make a market
for these books in Polish Posen.
Although not so well advertised, the Polish question is as acute
as that of Alsace-Lorraine.
After its successful war in 1866 against Austria, Bavaria, Saxony,
Baden, Hanover, etc., Prussia became possessed of the two duchies
of Schleswig-Holstein, which are to the south of Denmark on the
Jutland Peninsula. Here, strangely enough, there is a Danish
question. A number of Danes inhabit these duchies and have been
irritated by the Prussian officials and officers into preserving
their national feeling intact ever since 1866. Galling restrictions
have been made, the very existence of which intensifies the hatred
and prevents the assimilation of these Danes. For instance, Amundsen,
the Arctic explorer, was forbidden to lecture in Danish in these
duchies during the winter of 1913-14, and there were regulations
enforced preventing more than a certain number of these Danish
people from assembling in a hotel, as well as regulations against
the employment of Danish servants.
In 1866, after its successful war, Prussia wiped out the old
kingdom of Hanover and drove its king into exile in Austria.
To-day there is still a party of protest against this aggression.
The Kaiser believes, however, that the ghost of the claim of
the Kings of Hanover was laid when he married his only daughter
to the heir of the House of Hanover and gave the young pair the
vacant Duchy of Brunswick. That this young man will inherit the
great Guelph treasure was no drawback to the match in the eyes
of those in Berlin.
There is a hatred of Prussia in other parts of Germany, but coupled
with so much fear that it will never take practical shape. In
Bavaria, for example, even the comic newspapers have for years
ridiculed the Prussians and the House of Hohenzollern. The smashing
defeat by Prussia of Austria and the allied German States, Bavaria,
Saxony, Hesse, Hanover, etc., in 1866, and the growth of Prussianism
since then in all of these countries, keep the people from any
overt act. It is a question, perhaps, as to how these countries,
especially Bavaria, would act in case of the utter defeat of
Germany. But at present they must be counted on only as faithful
servants, in a military way, of the German Emperor.
Montesquieu, the author of the "Esprit des Lois," says, "All law
comes from the soil," and it has been claimed that residence in
the hot climate of the tropics in some measure changes Anglo-Saxon
character. It is, therefore, always well in judging national
character to know something of the physical characteristics and
climate of the country which a nation inhabits.
The heart of modern Germany is the great north central plain which
comprises practically all of the original kingdom of Prussia,
stretching northward from the Saxon and Hartz mountains to the
North and Baltic seas. It is from this dreary and infertile plain
that for many centuries conquering military races have poured
over Europe. The climate is not so cold in winter as that of
the northern part of the United States. There is much rain and
the winter skies are so dark that the absence of the sun must
have some effect upon the character of the people. The Saxons
inhabit a more mountainous country; Württemberg and Baden are
hilly; Bavaria is a land of beauty, diversified with lovely lakes
and mountains. The soft outlines of the vine-covered hills of
the Rhine Valley have long been the admiration of travellers.
The inhabitants of Prussia were originally not Germanic, but
rather Slavish in type; and, indeed, to-day in the forest of
the River Spree, on which Berlin is situated, and only about
fifty miles from that city, there still dwell descendants of
the original Wendish inhabitants of the country who speak the
Wendish language. The wet-nurses, whose picturesque dress is so
noticeable on the streets of Berlin, all come from this Wendish
colony, which has been preserved through the many wars that have
swept over this part of Germany because of the refuge afforded
in the swamps and forests of this district.
The inhabitants of the Rhine Valley drink wine instead of beer.
They are more lively in their disposition than the Prussians,
Saxons and Bavarians, who are of a heavy and phlegmatic nature.
The Bavarians are noted for their prowess as beer drinkers, and
it is not at all unusual for prosperous burghers of Munich to
dispose of thirty large glasses of beer in a day; hence the cures
which exist all over Germany and where the average German business
man spends part, at least, of his annual vacation.
In peace times the Germans are heavy eaters. As some one says,
"It is not true that the Germans eat all the time, but they eat
all the time except during seven periods of the day when they
take their meals." And it is a fact that prosperous merchants of
Berlin, before the war, had seven meals a day; first breakfast
at a comfortably early hour; second breakfast at about eleven, of
perhaps a glass of milk or perhaps a glass of beer and sandwiches;
a very heavy lunch of four or five courses with wine and beer;
coffee and cakes at three; tea and sandwiches or sandwiches and
beer at about five; a strong dinner with several kinds of wines
at about seven or seven-thirty; and a substantial supper before
going to bed.
The Germans are wonderful judges of wines, and, at any formal
dinner, use as many as eight varieties. The best wine is passed
in glasses on trays, and the guests are not expected, of course,
to take this wine unless they actually desire to drink it. I
know one American woman who was stopping at a Prince's castle
in Hungary and who, on the first night, allowed the butler to
fill her glasses with wine which she did not drink. The second
evening the butler passed her sternly by, and she was offered
no more wine during her stay in the castle.
Many of the doctors who were with me thought that the heavy eating
and large consumption of wine and beer had unfavourably affected the
German national character, and had made the people more aggressive
and irritable and consequently readier for war. The influence of diet
on national character should not be under-estimated. Meat-eating
nations have always ruled vegetarians.