What Germany Thinks - Thomas F. A. Smith
"It increases the risk of foreign conflicts. At the same time it
brightens the prospects of success of those influential circles
which--impelled by an overpowering impulse to deeds, and inspired by a
diseased longing for prestige--press on from excitement to excitement,
from daring to daring, and from crisis to crisis."
This remarkable prophecy has been verified by history, but with its
realization, the party which made it has been converted to the side of
their former opponents. To-day the Social Democrats are just as hearty
in the desire to see Britain overthrown and British naval supremacy
smashed as is the Kaiser's Government.
No impartial thinker dare deny that the British fleet has been the
principal factor in preventing Europe's subjugation to German autocracy,
and the world to German militarism. Yet the so-called party of freedom
prays earnestly that this fleet may be destroyed. This represents the
tone of their daily Press, and the change of attitude has been proved to
be scientifically correct in various books published by their leaders
during the present year. One of these works will be quoted at
considerable length, because of its importance in showing what the
"pioneers of liberty" wish, may be the end of the "home of liberty." The
work bears the title, "German Social Democracy and the World War;"[90]
its author is a Socialist member of the Reichstag.
[Footnote 90: "Die deutsche Sozialdemokratie und der Weltkrieg," by Dr.
Paul Lensch, published by the Vorwaerts Publishing House. Berlin, 1915.]
In dealing with England he refers to their former admiration for this
country and proceeds to prove that it was wrong--wrong in the interests
of Germany, and the world. England's fight against Napoleon for European
freedom Dr. Lensch disposes of in a sentence: "Consumed by greed,
England took the long-yearned-for opportunity and fell upon her rival,
France" (p. 16).
He informs his readers that England and Russia are two beasts of prey.
England's disarmament proposals were only intended to secure her naval
supremacy, because Germany seemed to be escaping from the strangulation
cord which. England had drawn tight round her throat. Therefore three
problems present themselves to Dr. Lensch, which the war must solve:
(1.) Shall the German people continue to exist as an independent nation?
(2.) Shall the danger of Czarism continue to threaten West European
culture?
(3.) Shall Britain's naval supremacy be eternalized or overthrown,
seeing that Britain only allows other nations to develop, so far as they
are compatible with her national interests? (p. 15).
"England's oft-praised freedom is based upon the enslavement of the
world; the peoples now recognize that England's wealth, freedom, and
greatness are merely the corollary to their poverty, slavery and
wretchedness (p. 20).
"International Socialism has not the slightest interest in helping to
bolster up this supremacy (p. 22).
"When this monopoly is broken the English working classes will lose
their present privileged position. They will be reduced to the same
level as the workmen of other lands. Then Socialism will flourish in
England (p. 23).[91]
[Footnote 91: The author had fondly imagined that the British workman
stood foremost as the result of his own battles. In any case, it is to
be hoped that British Socialists will be grateful for "Genosse" Lensch's
prayers for their downfall.]
"No party stands to lose more by a British victory than Social
Democracy. The overthrow of England's world-position would clear the way
for the continuation of the world's progress on the right historical
lines, and its economic development (p. 25).
"In the present world war the interests of the internationalists are
bound up in a German victory. Hence a German victory would be a victory
for Marx's internationalism, and only then, would the hearts and heads
of English workmen be open to the intellectual schooling of the
Socialistic idea (p. 27).
"As early as the eighties in the last century, Friedrich Engels proved
that the ruin of England's industrial monopoly had begun. What the
scientist had foretold, became evident to all eyes two decades later.
The social system of the greatest, world-ruling industrial State was
shaken to its foundations. International Socialists had every reason to
welcome this peaceful downfall of England's world power" (pp. 21-22).
"Marx once wrote that war is like a locomotive in the history of the
world. May this war have that effect and under full steam lead to a
finish the work which peaceful development had already commenced,
_i.e._, the downfall of English supremacy. If the war hastens and
concludes this process, then the sacrifices in blood and treasure will
not have been in vain. A great stumbling-block to human progress and
especially to the proletarian fight for freedom will have been hurled
out of the way" (pp. 27-8).
Having failed during a peaceful fight of over forty years, to hurl
German autocracy and militarism out of the world, these hot-headed
pioneers of liberty (Kaiserdom?) wish to destroy the very State which
was their place of refuge when German "liberty" overwhelmed them with
its kindly attentions.
Still we cannot be too grateful to Dr. Lensch for his lucid statement.
It is an effective reply to Germany's sympathizers in this country, and
if British workmen should ever see these lines, it will interest them to
know that German Socialists are anxious to pull them down a little, in
the belief that if British workmen are cut short in their luxuries they
will become better Socialists and Internationalists.
Dr. Lensch has only one step more to take, and he will certainly gain
the highest German order--_pour le merite_. The famous Communist
manifesto of Marx and Engels concludes with the words: "Proletarians of
all lands, unite!" It is much to be desired that Dr. Lensch should amend
this by adding to Marx's phrase a few words, so that the amended form
would run:
"Proletarians of all lands, unite to sing 'Deutschland, Deutschland,
ueber alles.'" By this simple means the learned doctor would condense the
entire teachings of his book into a single sentence.
"The position to-day is that the interests of freedom and democracy are
utterly at variance with a French victory (p. 42).
"Greater Prussia was founded by the war of 1866, while the 1870 struggle
established a Little Germany. Through the present war Great Germany will
be created" (p. 46).
On another page this Socialist-Chauvinist proclaims that "the freedom of
the oppressed must be the work of the oppressed themselves," which is a
principle that the I.L.P. and U.D.C., etc., would do well to note. "The
peculiarity of our situation is to be found in the fact that
extraordinarily advanced ideals have penetrated into our unripe
conditions."[92]
[Footnote 92: Louis Bamberger in an essay on German Social Democracy in
the _Deutsche Rundschau_, vol. 14, p. 243.]
It is to these "unripe conditions" that Lensch, Liebknecht, David,
Hildenbrand and the remaining leaders of German Social Democracy should
give their undivided attention. Last year the Berlin Government
published a record of crimes committed in Germany. It is the most awful
record of any nation in the world, and the above gentlemen would do well
to study Volume 267 of the _Vierteljahrshefte_. There were hundreds of
thousands of brutal crimes committed in Germany by German proletarians
during the year 1912.
For half a century Marx, Lassalle, Bebel, Liebknecht and their
successors have been busily engaged in intellectualizing Germany's
proletarians; now it is advisable for the Socialist party to begin the
work of humanizing them. Their efforts to internationalize the world
have resulted in a hopeless _debacle_; let them now begin the task of
humanizing Germany. They have all evidently forgotten the German
proverb: _Kehr vor deiner eignen Tuer!_ (Sweep first before your own
door.)
CHAPTER VII
"NECESSITY KNOWS NO LAW"
On August 2nd, 1914, Belgium announced her neutrality in the European
war; France had already declared her intention to respect Belgian
neutrality at all costs. On the other hand we have Bethmann-Hollweg's
word that he knew French armies were standing ready to strike at Germany
through Belgium. This statement he has never supported by any proof, nor
even mentioned his authority for the same.[93] In view of the facts that
no military preparations had been made on the Franco-Belgian frontier,
and that the German armies first came into contact with French forces
long after the fall of Liege, we are compelled to declare the German
Chancellor's statement to be a pure invention.
[Footnote 93: So-called "evidence" has been given by Richard Grasshoff
in his book "Belgien's Schuld" ("Belgium's Guilt"), pp. 14-20. Grasshoff
quotes the sworn statements of a German corporal who resided in
Boitsfort, near Brussels. The corporal states that he saw two French and
one English officer in Brussels on July 26th, and eight French soldiers
on July 29th.
The statements of three French soldiers, prisoners of war in Germany,
are also cited; these men maintain that they entered Belgium on the 31st
of July and the 2nd of August.
With regard to this "evidence," we must note that Grasshoff is a German
official, the corporal a German spy, and that the Frenchmen have made
these statements in a prisoners' camp, a place where they were exposed
to the temptation of German gold and the influence of Teutonic bullying.
Lastly, the Berlin General Staff has recorded that the German armies
first came in touch with French troops on August 19th, near Namur.]
Moreover Germany's excuse for invading Belgium is given in the title of
this chapter. Had Germany possessed any proof that French officers in
disguise were organizing preparations in Belgium, or that French airmen
had crossed the latter's territories in order to drop bombs by Wesel,
etc., then Bethmann-Hollweg would have had no reason to admit in the
Reichstag that his country was committing a breach of international law.
Under such circumstances Belgian neutrality would no longer have
existed; the Chancellor, instead of "necessity," could have pleaded
justification and the world could scarcely have withheld its approval.
In the early hours of August 4th the Germans crossed the Belgian
frontier, although the _Cologne Gazette_ had published a notice three
days before announcing that Germany had no intention whatever of taking
the step, and that no German troops were near the frontier.
General von Emmich immediately issued this proclamation in French: "To
my great regret German troops have been compelled to enter Belgian
territory. They are acting under the compulsion of unavoidable
necessity, for French officers in disguise have already violated Belgian
neutrality by trying to reach Germany, via Belgium, in motor-cars.[94]
[Footnote 94: One wonders what military purpose these officers had in
view. They would have been inevitably arrested at the German frontier.
The fable was made public by Wolff's Agency, and has been ridiculed even
by the German Press, _vide_ pp. 96-7.]
"Belgians! it is my most ardent desire that it may yet be possible to
avoid a struggle between two peoples which up till now, have been
friends, formerly even allies. Remember the glorious days of La Belle
Alliance, when German arms helped to found the independence and future
of your Fatherland.
"Now we must have a free way. The destruction of tunnels, bridges and
railways will be considered hostile actions. Belgians! you have to
choose. The German army does not intend to fight against you, but seeks
a free path against the enemy who wishes to attack us. That is all we
desire.
"Herewith I give the Belgian people an official pledge that they will
not have to suffer under the terrors of war; that we will pay ready
money for all necessaries which we may have to requisition; that our
soldiers will show themselves the best friends of a nation for which we
have the highest esteem and ardent affection. It depends upon your
prudence and your patriotism whether your land shall be spared the
horrors of war." (Appeared in the _Cologne Gazette_, August 6th.)
A Dresden paper of the same date contains an illuminating statement. "We
have just received official information that the German General Staff
had been informed by an absolutely reliable source that the French
intended to march through the valley of the Meuse into Belgium. The
execution of this plan had already commenced, therefore France was by no
means prepared to respect Belgian neutrality."
"For years past the King of Belgium has conspired with England behind
the backs of his ministers, to damage German interests. His telegram to
the King of England was a trick planned long ago. These facts will soon
be supplemented by a large number of documentary proofs; from this the
necessity has arisen to direct Germany's advance through Belgium
irrespective of neutrality considerations."[95]
[Footnote 95: _Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten_, August 9th.]
Here we have the first clumsy attempts to prove that Belgian neutrality
did not exist. These after-thoughts have grown during the past year into
no inconsiderable literature. Probably the two motives which have
inspired Germany--official and unofficial--to print many volumes on
Belgian neutrality have been the indignation aroused in neutral
countries and the fact that a complete German victory was not obtained
in three months of war.
German newspapers again betray the plot against Belgium, and a search
through their files reveals in the clearest manner possible how Wolff's
Bureau was again the source of a widespread campaign to prove that
Germany was right, and simultaneously to lash public opinion into hatred
for the Belgian "barbarians and beasts."
In the first few days of August the Press was filled with reports
concerning the murder and ill treatment of Germans in Belgium, before
any act of war had taken place. No doubt a justified fear for the
mighty, brutal neighbour existed in the popular imagination, and fear
may be the father of ill-considered deeds. Nevertheless, there is no
proof that mob law prevailed in Belgium, as it did in Germany. Moreover,
the latter country outlawed herself when she proclaimed the law of
necessity. In the light of this consideration the German outcry that the
Belgians were breaking both the laws of humanity and international
jurisprudence lacks sincerity and remains unconvincing.
A country which announces her intention to ignore existing laws and
"hack a way through at all costs," should surely be the last to declaim
on the alleged offences against the laws of war by a small, weak,
unprepared neighbour. If these considerations are insufficient, there
remains the fact that Germany herself began war against unarmed Belgian
civilians.
During the night following the unsuccessful _coup de main_ against
Liege, a Zeppelin attacked the town and dropped bombs. "On Thursday,
August 6th, at 3.30 a.m. Z6 returned from an air-cruise over Belgium.
The airship took a conspicuous part in the attack on Liege, and was able
to intervene in a markedly successful manner. Our first bomb was dropped
from a height of 1,800 feet, but failed to explode. The ship then sank
to 900 feet above the city, and a non-commissioned officer dropped
twelve more bombs, all of which exploded, setting the city ablaze in
several places."[96]
[Footnote 96: German official report in the _Berliner Tageblatt_, August
10th.]
An Austrian who was in the town afterwards described the attack in the
_Grazer Tagespost_. According to this witness it was already daylight
when the airship appeared, and the effect of the bombs was truly awful.
In view of the circumstance that it was already light, Germany cannot
put forward the defence that the bombs were intended for the twelve
forts which surround Liege at a distance of some miles.
This is the earliest official record of an attack upon civilians--and it
came from the German side! The crew of Z6 were the recipients of a
tremendous ovation on their return, while the news of this dastardly
murder was received with jubilation throughout the German Empire. In
Luneville fifteen civilians were killed by airship bombs two days
earlier; shortly afterwards followed the attack by airship on civilians
in Antwerp.
The author has before him about one hundred different newspaper reports,
alleging the most awful barbarism on the part of the Belgians. Among the
numerous statements that Germans were murdered, only two names are
mentioned, and both these men are alive to-day; the one is Herr Weber,
proprietor of an hotel in Antwerp.
"We have now received full details of the murder of the German, Weber.
He had fled from his pursuers and hidden himself in a cellar. As the
raging mob could not find him they burnt sulphur in the house, which
caused Weber to break into a violent fit of coughing. This betrayed his
hiding-place; he was dragged out and murdered."[97]
[Footnote 97: _Hamburger Fremdenblatt_, August 12th, and simultaneously
in many other journals. On the following day the _Vorwaerts_ announced
that Herr Weber had returned to Germany in the company of their own
correspondent.]
"The German pork-butcher, Deckel, who had a large business in Brussels,
was attacked in his house by a crowd of Belgian beasts because he had
refused to hang a Belgian flag before his shop; with axes and hatchets
the mob cut off his head and hewed his corpse in pieces."[98]
[Footnote 98: _Koelnische Volkszeitung_, August 10th.]
A few days later the _Berliner Tageblatt_ informed its readers that Herr
Deckel was residing in Rotterdam, and had suffered no harm whatever.
Readers who are acquainted with the official record of brutal crimes
committed year by year in Germany and the haughty contempt for civilian
rights which the whole German army has consistently shown in the
Fatherland, during the orderly times of peace, will require little
imagination to conceive that this same army would show still less
consideration for civilians in a country which they were wrongfully
invading.
The German Press during the last thirty years, as well as many books
published in the Fatherland, contains ample proof of German brutality at
home, and above all, of the legal brutality of German non-commissioned
and commissioned officers. How can Germany expect the world to believe,
that these same men, were transformed into decent human beings by the
mere act of stepping over the Belgian frontier?
Granted that vulgar elements of the Belgian population did transgress,
there still remains incontrovertible evidence that almost unheard-of
kindness was shown to the invading army, and that Germans had displayed
brutal insolence to Belgians before a state of war had been declared.
Nearly every single letter from soldiers, published in German papers,
records the fact that in the villages through which they passed they
were given water, wine and food, while payment was in many cases
refused.
It is part of Germany's policy to blacken Belgium's character in order
to justify her own ruthlessness--naturally Wolff's Agency was one of the
principal tools to that end.
"Much as we condemn the excesses of the Belgians, still we must not
wreak vengeance on the whole nation as a section of our Press demands.
Have not harmless and defenceless foreigners been terribly ill-treated
in Germany without distinction of sex? Have not shops and restaurants
been demolished in hundreds, wherever a French word was to be met? And
the rage of the German masses has found an outlet not only against
foreigners, but against good German patriots and even German
officers."[99]
[Footnote 99: _Leipziger Volkszeitung_, August 12th. This journal as
well as the _Fraenkische Tagespost_ names Wolff's Agency as their
authority in more than one issue.]
The same journal on the preceding day deplored that "we ourselves are
not free from guilt." It recounts how German reservists, when leaving
Antwerp and Brussels, had sung their national songs in a loud,
provocative manner, and taunted the bystanders with such remarks as: "In
three days we shall be here again!"
According to the same authority German residents had insulted the
populace by displaying their national flag; and German employers had
been among the first to discharge employees of their own nationality,
without salary in lieu of notice, thus increasing the difficulties of
German residents in Belgium.
German official pronouncements are much more reticent in their judgment
on these allegations of Belgian cruelties. None the less the Berlin
Government must be held responsible for them being scattered throughout
the land. After Germany's official representative had returned from
Brussels to Berlin he made a statement to the Press. Considering that
von Below was in the Belgian capital at the time, his views are
instructive.
He expressed his great astonishment that such things should have
happened, and asserted that up till the very last minute he had been
treated with the greatest kindness and politeness. Neither he nor any of
his Legation Staff had experienced the slightest unpleasantness.
Further, von Below expressed the conviction that only single instances
of such excesses had occurred and these were a result of the quarrelsome
Walloon character. No village _fete_ passes off among them without such
outbreaks, accompanied by bloodshed.[100]
[Footnote 100: This may be true, but von Below could have said the same
with absolute truth of German village fairs, _Kirmesse_, etc.--Author.]
German papers of August 15th reported this official version, and four
days later a proclamation was issued by State Secretary Dr. Delbrueck,
calling upon all persons who had been ill-treated in Belgium to report
themselves, so that the "numerous" newspaper reports could be confirmed
or refuted. The result of the inquiry has never been published.
From a number of witnesses who testified whole-heartedly to Belgian
kindness, one will suffice. A lady reported her adventures in the
_Vorwaerts_ of September 6th, from which the following sentences have
been gleaned. "Even if it is true that Germans were subjected to
inconsideration and ill-treatment during their flight from Belgium,
still there are hundreds of Germans who, like myself, met with generous
sympathy and unstinted help.
"A Flemish servant refused her month's wages, saying that her employers
would need it on the journey. Many Germans were offered homes in Belgian
families till the war was over. My own landlord in Brussels placed an
empty flat at my disposal for German refugees. At parting he and his
wife were as deeply moved as we, and when I began to make excuses for
being unable to pay the rent, she at once prevented me from speaking
another word. My husband was provided with a hat which looked less
'German;' they filled our pockets with provisions for the journey, and
after his wife had embraced me and my child we left the house in
silence.
"German refugees whom I met afterwards, related hundreds of similar acts
of kindness. When such severe accusations are raised against the entire
Belgian people, justice demands this statement that Belgians in hundreds
of cases, uninfluenced by the prevailing bitterness, showed themselves
kindly, helpful and humane towards the Germans."
In the second month of the war two representatives of the Social
Democratic Party received special permission from the General Staff to
visit Belgium and the theatre of war in Northern France. Their report
has been issued by the Vorwaerts Publishing House.[101]
[Footnote 101: "Kriegsfahrten durch Belgien und Nordfrankreich"
("Journeys in War Time through Belgium, etc."), by Dr. Adolph Koester
and G. Noske.]
"Concerning the events and conditions in Belgium many false reports have
been spread abroad. That is especially the case in regard to the
terrible persecutions of Germans immediately before the outbreak of war.
The civil authorities (German) are now permitting full investigation in
those parts of Belgium occupied by our troops, and it is already obvious
that many exaggerations were circulated by German newspapers. Without
doubt beer-houses and business houses were wrecked, but the Tartar
stories which were reported in Germany and Belgium, Herr von Sandt,
Chief of the Civil Administration, puts down to hysterics, and the
desire of some people to make themselves important."[102]
[Footnote 102: Ibid., pp. 14-15.]
No correct judgment on the apportionment of right and wrong between the
Belgian civilians and the German army is possible without taking into
consideration the status of militarism in each of these countries before
the war. As far as Belgium is concerned, the army was looked upon as a
necessary evil. The Social Democratic doctrines imported from Germany
had obtained such a hold upon the people that the Belgian Government
experienced ever-increasing difficulty in getting supplies voted in the
House of Deputies, for defence purposes. Belgian Socialists
unfortunately played into the hands of the German Government by doing
their utmost to prevent money from being spent for the defence of their
country. Consciously or unconsciously, German Socialists have rendered
the Kaiser and his army inestimable service. Their propaganda against
armaments has borne fruit in Belgium, England and France, but did not
prevent a single German battleship from being built, nor a single
regiment from being added to the German army.