HATE
On my way from Berlin to America, in February, 1917, at a dinner
in Paris, I met the celebrated Italian historian, Ferrero. In a
conversation with him after dinner, I reminded him of the fact
that both he and a Frenchman, named Huret, who had written on
America, had stated in their books that the thing which struck
them most in the study of the American people was the absence
of hate.
Ferrero recalled this and in the discussion which followed and
in which the French novelist, Marcel Prevost, took part, all
agreed that there was more hate in Europe than in America; first,
because the peoples of Europe were confined in small space and,
secondly, because the European, whatever his rank or station,
lacked the opportunities for advancement and consequently the
eagerness to press on ahead, and that fixing of the thought on
the future, instead of the past, which formed part of the American
character.
In a few hours in Europe it is possible to travel in an automobile
across countries where the people differ violently from the countries
surrounding them, not only in language, customs and costumes,
but also in methods of thought and physical appearance.
The day I left Berlin I went to see Herr von Gwinner, head of
the Deutsche Bank, with reference to a charitable fund which
had been collected for widows and orphans in Germany. In our
talk, von Gwinner said that Europeans envied America because we
seemed to be able to assimilate all those people who, as soon
as they landed on our shores, sought to forget their old race
hatreds and endeavoured, as speedily as possible, to adopt American
clothes, language and thought. I told him I thought it was because
in our country we did not try to force anyone; that there was
nothing to prevent a Pole speaking Polish and wearing Polish
dress, if he chose; that the only weapon we used against those
who desired to uphold the customs of Europe was that of ridicule;
and that it was the repressive measures such as, for example,
the repressive action taken by Prussia against the Poles and
the Danes, the Alsatians and the Lorrainers, that had aroused
a combative instinct in these peoples and made them cling to
every vestige of their former nationality.
At first, with the coming of war, the concentrated hate of the
German people seemed to be turned upon the Russians. Even Liebknecht,
when he called upon me in order to show that he had not been
shot, as reported in America, spoke of the perils of Czarismus
and the hatred of the German people for the Russians. But later,
and directed by the master hand of the governing class, all the
hatred of the Germans was concentrated upon England.
The cartoon in _Punch_ representing a Prussian family having
its morning "Hate" was, in some aspects, not at all exaggerated.
Hate in Germany is cultivated as a noble passion, and, during the
war, divines and generals vied with each other in its praise.
Early in 1917, the Prussian General in command at Limburg made a
speech in which he extolled the advantages of hate and said that
there was nothing like getting up in the morning after having
passed a night in thought and dreams of hate.
[Illustration: THIS PAGE FROM THE SCURRILOUS PUBLICATION OF MARTEN
AND HIS COLLEAGUES SHOWS THE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WREATH AND THE
CRAPE-DRAPED AMERICAN FLAG.]
The phrase "Gott strafe England" seemed to be all over Germany.
It was printed on stamps to be affixed to the back of letters
like our Red Cross stamps. I even found my German body servant
in the Embassy affixing these stamps to the back of all letters,
official and otherwise, that were sent out. He was stopped when
discovered. Paper money was stamped with the words: "Gott strafe
England," "und America" being often added as the war progressed
and America refused to change the rules of the game and stop
the shipment of supplies to the Allies.
Everyone is familiar with Lissauer's "Hymn of Hate." It is not
extraordinary that one man in a country at war should produce a
composition of this kind; but it is extraordinary as showing the
state of mind of the whole country, that the Emperor should have
given him the high order of the Red Eagle of the Second Class as
a reward for having composed this extraordinary document.
Undoubtedly at first the British prisoners of war were treated
very roughly and were starved and beaten by their guards on the
way from the front to the concentration camps. Officers, objects
usually considered more than sacred in Germany, even when wounded
were subjected to brutal treatment and in the majority of their
prisons were treated more like convicts than officers and gentlemen.
As the Germans gradually awoke to the fact that President Wilson
was not afraid of the German vote and that the export of supplies
from America would not be stopped, this stream of hate was turned
on America. There was a belief in Germany that President Wilson
was opposed by a majority of people of the United States, that
he did not represent the real sentiment of America, and that the
sentiment there was favourable to Germany.
Unfortunately many Americans in Germany encouraged the German
people and the German Government in this belief. Americans used
to travel about, giving lectures and making speeches attacking
their own country and their own President, and the newspapers
published many letters of similar import from Americans resident
in Germany.
One of the most active of these was a man named Maurice Somborn,
a German American, who represented in Germany an American business
house. He made it a practice to go about in Berlin and other
cities and stand up in cafes and beer halls in order to make
addresses attacking the President and the United States. So bold
did he become that he even, in the presence of a number of people
in my room, one day said that he would like to hang Secretary
Bryan as high as Haman and President Wilson one foot higher.
The American newspapers stated that I called a servant and had
him thrown out of the Embassy. This statement is not entirely
true: I selfishly kept that pleasure for myself.
The case of Somborn gave me an idea and I cabled to the Department
of State asking authority to take up the passports of all Americans
who abused their own country on the ground that they had violated
the right, by their abuse, to the protection of a passport. The
Department of State sustained my view and, by my direction, the
consul in Dresden took up the passports of a singer named Rains
and a gentleman of leisure named Recknagel who had united in
addressing a letter to the Dresden newspapers abusing the President.
It was sometime before I got Somborn's passport and I later on
received from him the apologies of a broken and contrite man
and obtained permission from Washington to issue him a passport
in order to enable him to return to America.
Of course, these vilifiers of their own country were loud in their
denunciations of me, but the prospect of losing the protection of
their passports kept many of these men from open and treasonable
denunciation of their own country.
The Government actually encouraged the formation of societies which
had for their very object the scattering of literature attacking
the President and the United States. The most conspicuous of these
organisations was the so-called League of Truth. Permanently
connected with it was an American dentist who had been in jail
in America and who had been expelled from Dresden by the police
authorities there. The secretary was a German woman who posed as
an American, and had been on the stage as a snake dancer. The
principal organiser was a German named Marten who had won the
favour of the German authorities by writing a book on Belgium
denying that any atrocities had taken place there. Marten secured
subscriptions from many Germans and Americans resident in Germany,
opened headquarters in rooms on the Potsdamerstrasse and engaged
in the business of sending out pamphlets and leaflets attacking
America. One of his principal supporters was a man named Stoddard
who had made a fortune by giving travel lectures in America and
who had retired to his handsome villa, in Meran, in Austria.
Stoddard issued a pamphlet entitled, "What shall we do with Wilson?"
and some atrocious attempts at verse, all of which were sent
broadcast by the League of Truth.
This was done with the express permission of the German authorities
because during the war no societies or associations of any kind
could meet, be formed or act without the express permission and
superintendence of both the military and police authorities.
Anyone who has lived in Germany knows that it would be impossible
even in peace times to hang a sign or a wreath on a public statue
without the permission of the local authorities; and yet on the
Emperor's birthday, January twenty-seventh, 1916, this League
of Truth was permitted to place an enormous wreath, over four
feet high, on the statue of Frederick the Great, with an American
flag draped in mourning attached, and a silk banner on which was
printed in large letters of gold, "Wilson and his press are not
America." The League of Truth then had a photograph taken of this
wreath which was sent all over Germany, again, of course, with
the permission of the authorities. The wreath and attachments,
in spite of frequent protests on my part to Zimmermann and von
Jagow, remained in this conspicuous position until the sixth of
May, 1916. After the receipt of the _Sussex_ Note, I again
called von Jagow's attention to the presence of this wreath,
and I told him that if this continuing insult to our flag and
President was not taken away that I would go the next day with
a cinematograph operator and take it away myself. The next day
the wreath had disappeared.
This League, in circulars, occasionally attacked me, and in a
circular which they distributed shortly after my return to Germany
at the end of December, 1916, it was stated, "What do you think
of the American Ambassador? When he came to Germany after his
trip to America he brought a French woman with him." And the
worst of this statement was that it was true. But the League,
of course, did not state that my wife came with me bringing her
French maid by the express permission of the German Foreign Office.
I have had occasion many times to wonder at the curious twists
of the German mind, but I have never been able to understand on
what possible theory the German Government permitted and even
encouraged the existence of this League of Truth. Certainly the
actions of the League, headed by a snake dancer and a dentist,
would not terrorise the American Congress, President Wilson or me
into falling in with all the views of the German Government, and
if the German Government was desirous of either the President's
friendship or mine why was this gang of good-for-nothings allowed
to insult indiscriminately their country, their President and
their Ambassador?
One of the friends of Marten, head of this League, was (------)
(---------), a man who at the time he was an officer of the National
Guard of the State of New York, accepted a large sum of money
"for expenses" from Bernstorff. Of course, in any country abroad
acceptance by an officer of money from a foreign Ambassador could
not be explained and could have only one result--a blank wall and
firing party for the receiver of foreign pay. Perhaps we have
grown so indulgent, so soft and so forgetful of the obligations
which officers owe to their flag and country that on (---------)'s
return from Germany he will be able to go on a triumphant lecture
tour through the United States.
There was published in Berlin in English a rather ridiculous
paper called the _Continental Times_, owned by an Austrian
Jewess who had been married to an Englishman. The Foreign Office,
after the outbreak of the war, practically took over this sheet by
buying monthly many thousand copies. News coloured hysterically
to favour the Central Empires was printed in this paper, which
was headed "A Paper for Americans," under the editorship of an
Englishman of decent family named Stanhope, who, of course, in
consequence did not have to inhabit the prison camp of Ruhleben.
(--------) was a contributor to this newspaper, and scurrilous
articles attacking President Wilson appeared. Finally (---------)
wrote a lying article for this paper in which he charged that
Conger of the Associated Press had learned of Sir Roger Casement's
proposed expedition; that Conger told me; that I cabled the news to
Washington to the State Department; and that a member of President
Wilson's Cabinet then gave the information to the British Ambassador.
Later in a wireless which the Foreign Office permitted (---------)
to send Senator O'Gorman of New York, (---------) varied his
lie and charged that I had sent the information direct to Great
Britain.
_The Continental Times_ was distributed in the prison camps
and after (---------)'s article I said to von Jagow, "I have
had enough of this nonsense which is supported by the Foreign
Office and if articles of the nature of (---------)'s appear
again I shall make a public statement that the prisoners of war
in Germany are subjected to a cruel and unusual punishment by
having the lying _Continental Times_ placed in their hands,
a paper which purports to be published for Americans but which
is supported by the Foreign Office, owned by an Austrian and
edited by a renegade Englishman!"
This _Continental Times_ business again caused one to wonder
at the German psychology which seems to think that the best way
to make friends is to attack them. The author of "The Gentle
Art of Making Enemies" must have attended a German school.
An Ambassador is supposed to be protected but not even when I
filed affidavits in the Foreign Office, in 1916, made by the
ex-secretary of the "League of Truth" and by a man who was constantly
with Marten and the dentist, that Marten had threatened to shoot
me, did the Foreign Office dare or wish to do anything against
this ridiculous League. These affidavits were corroborated by
a respectable restaurant keeper in Berlin and his assistants
who testified that Marten with several ferocious looking German
officers had come to his restaurant "looking" for me. I never
took any precaution against these lunatics whom I knew to be
a bunch of cowardly swindlers.
Marten and his friends were also engaged in a propaganda against
the Jews.
The activities of Marten were caused by the fact that he made
money out of his propaganda; as numerous fool Germans and traitorous
Americans contributed to his war chest, and by the fact that
his work was so favourably received by the military that this
husky coward was excused from all military service.
It seemed, too, as if the Government was anxious to cultivate
the hate against America. Long before American ammunition was
delivered in any quantity to England and long before any at all
was delivered to France, not only did the Government influence
newspapers and official gazettes, but the official _Communiqués_
alleged that quantities of American ammunition were being used
on the West front.
The Government seemed to think that if it could stir up enough
hate against America in Germany on this ammunition question the
Americans would become terrorised and stop the shipment.
The Government allowed medals to be struck in honour of each
little general who conquered a town--"von Emmich, conqueror of
Liege," etc., a pernicious practice as each general and princeling
wanted to continue the war until he could get his face on a
medal--even if no one bought it. But the climax was reached when
medals celebrating the sinking of the _Lusitania_ were sold
throughout Germany. Even if the sinking of the _Lusitania_
had been justified only one who has lived in Germany since the
war can understand the disgustingly bad taste which can gloat
over the death of women and babies.
I can recall now but two writers in all Germany who dared to say
a good word for America. One of these, Regierungsrat Paul Krause,
son-in-law of Field Marshal Von der Goltz, wrote an article in
January, 1917, in the _Lokal Anzeiger_ pointing out the
American side of the question of this munition shipment; and
that bold and fearless speaker and writer, Maximilian Harden,
dared to make a defence of the American standpoint. The principal
article in one of the issues of his paper, _Die Zukunft_,
was headed "If I were Wilson." After some copies had been sold
the issue was confiscated by the police, whether at the instance
of the military or at the instance of the Chancellor, I do not
know. Everyone had the impression in Berlin that this confiscation
was by order of General von Kessel, the War Governor of the Mark
of Brandenburg.
I met Harden before the war and occasionally conversed with him
thereafter. Once in a while he gave a lecture in the great hall
of the Philharmonic, always filling the hall to overflowing.
In his lectures, which, of course, were carefully passed on by
the police, he said nothing startling. His newspaper is a weekly
publication; a little book about seven inches by four and a half,
but wielding an influence not at all commensurate with its size.
The liberal papers, like the largest paper of Berlin, the
_Tageblatt_, edited by Theodor Wolff, while not violently
against America, were not favourable. But the articles in the
Conservative papers and even some of the organs of the Catholic
Party invariably breathed hatred against everything American.
In the Reichstag, America and President Wilson were often attacked
and never defended. On May thirtieth, 1916, in the course of a
debate on the censorship, Strasemann, of the National Liberal
Party and of the branch of that party with Conservative leanings,
violently opposed President Wilson and said that he was not wanted
as a peacemaker.
Government, newspapers and politicians all united in opposing
America.
I believe that to-day all the bitterness of the hate formerly
concentrated on Great Britain has now been concentrated on the
United States. The German-Americans are hated worse than the
native Americans. They have deeply disappointed the Germans:
first, because although German-Americans contributed enormously
towards German war charities the fact of this contribution was
not known to the recipients in Germany. Money sent to the German
Red Cross from America was acknowledged by the Red Cross; but no
publicity was given in Germany to the fact that any of the money
given was from German-Americans. Secondly, the German-Americans
did not go, as they might have done, to Germany, through neutral
countries, with American passports, and enter the German army;
and, thirdly, the most bitter disappointment of all, the
German-Americans have not yet risked their property and their
necks, their children's future and their own tranquillity, by
taking arms against the government of America in the interest
of the Hohenzollerns.
For years, a clever propaganda had been carried on in America
to make all Germans there feel that they were Germans of one
united nation, to make those who had come from Hesse and Bavaria,
or Saxony and Württemberg, forget that as late as 1866 these
countries had been overrun and conquered by Prussian militarism.
When Prince Henry, the Kaiser's brother, visited America, he
spent most of his time with German-Americans and German-American
societies in order to assist this propaganda.
Even in peace time, the German-American who returns to the village
in which he lived as a boy and who walks down the village street
exploiting himself and his property, does not help good relations
between the two countries. Envy is the mother of hate and the
envied and returned German-American receives only a lip welcome
in the village of his ancestors.
Caricatures of Uncle Sam, and of President Wilson were published
in all German papers. A caricature representing our President
releasing the dove of peace with one hand while he poured out
munitions for the Allies with the other was the least unpleasant.
As I have said, from the tenth of August, 1914, to the twenty-fifth
of September, 1915, the Emperor continually refused to receive
me on the ground that he would not receive the Ambassador of a
country which furnished munitions to the enemies of Germany; and
we were thoroughly black-listed by all the German royalties. I did
not see one, however humble, after the outbreak of the war, with
the exception of Prince Max of Baden, who had to do with prisoners
of war in Germany and in other countries. On one occasion I sent
one of my secretaries to the palace of Princess August Wilhelm,
wife of one of the Kaiser's sons, with a contribution of money
for her hospital, she having announced that she would personally
receive contributions on that day. She took the money from the
secretary and spoke bitterly against America on account of the
shipment of arms.
Even some boxes of cigarettes we sent another royalty at the front
at Christmas time, 1914, were not acknowledged.
Dr. Jacobs, who was the correspondent in Berlin of _Musical America_,
and who remained there until about the twenty-sixth of April, 1917,
was called on about the sixteenth of April, 1917, to the Kommandantur
and subjected to a cross-examination. During this cross-examination
he was asked if he knew about the "League of Truth," and why he
did not join that organisation. Whether it was a result of his
non-joining or not, I do not know, but during the remainder of his
stay in Berlin he was compelled to report twice a day to the police
and was not allowed to leave his house after eight o'clock in the
evening. The question, however, put to him shows the direct interest
that the German authorities took in the existence of this malodorous
organisation.
It appears in some of the circulars issued by the League of Truth
that I was accused of giving American passports to Englishmen
in order to enable them to leave the country.
After I left Germany there was an interpellation in the Reichstag
about this, and Zimmermann was asked about the charge which he
said he had investigated and found untrue.
In another chapter I have spoken of the subject of the selling
of arms and supplies by America to the Allies. No German ever
forgets this. The question of legality or treaties never enters
his mind: he only knows that American supplies and munitions
killed his brother, son or father. It is a hate we must meet for
long years.