Germany, The Next Republic? by Carl W. Ackerman

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One day in Paris I met Admiral LeCaze, the Minister of Marine, in his
office in the Admiralty. He discussed the submarine warfare from every
angle. He said the Germans, when they figured upon so many tons of
shipping and of supplies destroyed by submarines, failed to take into
consideration the fact that over 100 ships were arriving daily at
French ports and that over 5,000,000 tons of goods were being brought
into France monthly.

When I explained to him what it appeared to me would be the object of
the German ruthless campaign he said:

"Germany cannot win the war by her submarine campaign or by any other
weapon. That side will win which holds out one week, one day or one
hour longer than the other."

And this Admiral, who, dressed in civilian clothes, looked more like a
New York financier than a naval officer, leaned forward in his chair,
looked straight at me and concluded the interview by saying:

"The Allies will win."

CHAPTER X

THE OUTLAWED NATION

During the Somme battles several of the American correspondents in Berlin
were invited to go to the front near Peronne and were asked to luncheon
by the Bavarian General von Kirchhoff, who was in command against the
French. When the correspondents reached his headquarters in a little
war-worn French village they were informed that the Kaiser had just
summoned the general to decorate him with the high German military order,
the Pour le Merite. Luncheon was postponed until the general returned.
The correspondents watched him motor to the chateau where they were and
were surprised to see tears in his eyes as he stepped out of the
automobile and received the cordial greetings and congratulations of his
staff. Von Kirchhoff, in a brief impromptu speech, paid a high tribute
to the German troops which were holding the French and said the
decoration was not his but his troops'. And in a broken voice he
remarked that these soldiers were sacrificing their lives for the
Fatherland, but were called "Huns and Barbarians" for doing it. There
was another long pause and the general broke down, cried and had to leave
his staff and guests.

These indictments of the Allies were more terrible to him than the war
itself.

General von Kirchhoff in this respect is typical of Germany. Most
Germans, practically every German I knew, could not understand why the
Allies did not respect their enemies as the Germans said they respected
the Allies.

A few weeks later, in November, when I was on the Somme with another
group of correspondents, I was asked by nearly every officer I met why it
was that Germany was so hated throughout the world. It was a question I
could not easily answer without, perhaps, hurting the feelings of the men
who wanted to know, or insulting them, which as a guest I did not desire
to do.

A few days later on the train from Cambrai to Berlin I was asked by a
group of officers to explain why the people in the United States,
especially, were so bitter. To get the discussion under way the Captain
from the General Staff who had acted as our escort presented his
indictment of American neutrality and asked me to reply.

This feeling, this desire to know why Germany was regarded as an outlawed
nation, was not present in Germany early in 1915 when I arrived. In
February, 1915, people were confident. They were satisfied with the
progress of the war. They knew the Allies hated them and they returned
the hate and did not care. But between February, 1915, and November,
1916, a great change took place. On my first trip to the front in April,
1915, I heard of no officers or men shedding tears because the Allies
hated them.

When I sailed from New York two years ago it seemed to me that sentiment
in the United States was about equally divided; that most people favoured
neutrality, even a majority of those who supported the Entente. The
feeling of sympathy which so many thousands of Americans had for Germany
I could, at that time, readily understand, because I myself was
sympathetic. I felt that Germany had not had a fighting chance with
public opinion in the United States.

[Illustration: AN ADVERTISEMENT IN THE BERLIN "DEUTSCHE TAGES-ZEITUNG"
FOR THE BOOK--"PRESIDENT BLUFF" MEANING PRESIDENT WILSON]

I could not believe that all the charges against Germany applied to the
German people. Although it was difficult to understand what Germany had
done in Belgium, although it was evident and admitted by the Chancellor
that Germany violated the neutrality of that country, I could not believe
that a nation, which before the war had such a high standing in science
and commerce, could have plotted or desired such a tremendous war as
swept Europe in 1914.

When I arrived in Berlin on March 17, 1915, and met German officials and
people for the first time, I was impressed by their sincerity, their
honesty and their belief that the Government did not cause the war and
was fighting to defend the nation. At the theatre I saw performances of
Shakespeare, which were among the best I had ever seen. I marvelled at
the wonderful modern hospitals and at the efficiency and organisation of
the Government. I marvelled at the expert ways in which prison camps
were administered. I was surprised to find railroad trains clean and
punctual. It seemed to me as if Germany was a nation which had reached
the height of perfection and that it was honestly and conscientiously
defending itself against the group of powers which desired its
destruction.

For over a year I entered enthusiastically into the work of interpreting
and presenting this Germany to the American people. At this time there
was practically no food problem. German banks and business men were
preparing for and expecting peace. The Government was already making
plans for after the war when soldiers would return from the front. A
Reichstag Committee had been appointed to study Germany's possible peace
time labour needs and to make arrangements for solving them.

But in the fall of 1915 the changes began. The _Lusitania_ had been
destroyed in May and almost immediately the hate campaign against America
was started. I saw the tendency to attack and belittle the United States
grow not only in the army, in the navy and in the press, but among the
people. I saw that Germany was growing to deeply resent anything the
United States Government said against what the German Government did.
When this anti-American campaign was launched I observed a tendency on
the part of the Foreign Office to censor more strictly the telegrams
which the correspondents desired to send to the American newspapers.
Previously, the Foreign Office had been extremely frank and cordial and
permitted correspondents to send what they observed and heard, as long as
the despatches did not contain information which would aid the Allies in
their military or economic attacks on Germany. As the hate articles
appeared in the newspapers the correspondents were not only prohibited
from sending them, but they were criticised by the Foreign Office for
writing anything which might cause the American people to be angered at
Germany. One day I made a translation of a bitter article in the _B. Z.
am Mittag_ and submitted it to the Foreign Office censor. He asked why I
paid so much attention to articles in this newspaper which he termed a
"Kaese-blatt"--literally "a cheese paper." He said it had no influence
in Germany; that no one cared what it said. This newspaper, however, was
the only noon-day edition in Berlin and was published by the largest
newspaper publishing house in Germany, Ullstein & Co. At his request I
withdrew the telegram and forgot the incident. Within a few days,
however, Count zu Reventlow, in the _Deutsche Tageszeitung_, and Georg
Bernhard, in the _Vossische Zeitung_, wrote sharp attacks on President
Wilson. But I could not telegraph these.

Previous to the fall of 1915 not only the German Government but the
German people were charitable to the opinions of neutrals, especially
those who happened to be in Germany for business or professional reasons,
but, as the anti-American campaign and the cry that America was not
neutral by permitting supplies to be shipped to the Allies became more
extensive, the public became less charitable. Previously a neutral in
Germany could be either pro-German, pro-Ally or neutral. Now, however,
it was impossible to be neutral, especially if one were an American,
because the very statement that one was an American carried with it the
implication that one was anti-German. The American colony itself became
divided. There was the pro-American group and the pro-German government
group. The former was centred at the American Embassy. The latter was
inspired by the German-Americans who had lived in Germany most of their
lives and by other sympathetic Americans who came from the United States.
Meanwhile there were printed in German newspapers many leading articles
and interviews from the American press attacking President Wilson, and
any one sympathising with the President, even Ambassador Gerard, became
automatically "Deutschfeidlich."

As the submarine warfare became more and more a critical issue German
feeling towards the United States changed. I found that men who were
openly professing their friendship for the United States were secretly
doing everything within their power to intimidate America. The
Government began to feel as if the American factories which were
supplying the Allies were as much subject to attack as similar factories
in Allied countries. I recall one time learning at the American Embassy
that a man named Wulf von Igel had asked Ambassador Gerard for a safe
conduct, on the ground that he was going to the United States to try and
have condensed milk shipped to Germany for the children. Mr. Gerard
refused to ask Washington to grant this man a safe conduct. I did not
learn until several months afterwards that Herr von Igel had been asked
to go to the United States by Under Secretary of State Zimmermann for one
of two purposes, either he was to purchase a controlling interest in the
Du Pont Powder Mills no matter what that cost, or he was to stir up
dissatisfaction in Mexico. Zimmermann gave him a card of introduction to
Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador in Washington, and told him
that the German Embassy would supply him with all necessary funds.

Carrying out the German idea that it was right to harm or destroy
American property which was directly or indirectly aiding the Allies,
both Germany and Austria-Hungary published notices that their citizens in
the United States were not permitted to work in such factories. And
plots which Captains Boy-Ed and von Papen instigated here were done with
the approval and encouragement of the German Government. If any proof is
needed for this statement, in addition to that already published, it is
that both of these men upon their return to Germany were regarded as
heroes and given the most trusted positions. Captain Boy-Ed was placed
at the head of the Intelligence Department of the Navy and Captain von
Papen was assigned to the Headquarters of the General Commanding the
operations on the Somme.

As the food situation in Germany became worse the disposition of the
people changed still more. The Government had already pointed out in
numerous public statements that the United States was not neutral because
it overlooked the English blockade and thought only about the German
submarine war. So as food difficulties developed the people blamed the
United States and held President Wilson personally responsible for the
growing shortages within Germany. The people believed Mr. Wilson was
their greatest enemy and that he was the man most to be feared. How
strong this feeling was not only among the people but in Government
circles was to be shown later when Germany announced her submarine
campaign.

As was pointed out in a previous chapter while Germany was arguing
against shipments of war munitions from the United States she was herself
responsible for the preparations which Russia and Roumania had made
against her, but this proof of deception on the part of the Government
was never explained to the German people. Furthermore the people were
never told why the United States asked for the recall of Germany's two
attaches who were implicated in spy plots. Nothing was ever published in
the German newspapers about Herr von Igel. The newspapers always
published despatches which told of the destruction of ammunition
factories by plotters, but never about the charges against and arrests of
German reservists. Just as the German Government has never permitted the
people to know that it prepared for a war against nine nations, as the
document I saw in the Chief Telegraph Office shows, so has it not
explained to the people the real motives and the real arguments which
President Wilson presented in his many submarine notes. Whenever these
notes were published in the German newspapers the Government always
published an official explanation, or correspondents were inspired to
write the Government views, so the people could not think for themselves
or come to honest personal conclusions.

The effectiveness of Mr. Wilson's diplomacy against Germany was decreased
by some German-Americans, and the fact that the United States is to-day
at war with Germany is due to this blundering on the behalf of some of
those over-zealous citizens who, being so anxious to aid Germany, became
anti-Wilson and in the long run defeated what they set out to accomplish.
Had the German Government not been assured by some German-Americans that
they would never permit President Wilson to break diplomatic relations or
go to war, had these self-appointed envoys stayed away from Berlin, the
relations between the United States and Germany might to-day be different
than they are. Because if Germany at the outset of the submarine
negotiations had been given the impression by a united America that the
President spoke for the country, Germany would undoubtedly have given up
all hope of a ruthless submarine warfare.

I think President Wilson and Mr. Gerard realised that the activities of
the German-Americans here were not only interfering with the diplomatic
negotiations but that the German-Americans were acting against their own
best interests if they really desired peace with Germany.

When some of the President's friends saw that the German people were
receiving such biased news from the United States and that Germany had no
opportunity of learning the real sentiment here, nor of sounding the
depth of American indignation over the _Lusitania_ they endeavoured to
get despatches from the United States to Germany to enlighten the people.
Mr. Roy W. Howard, President of the United Press, endeavoured several
times while I was in Berlin to get unadulterated American news in the
German newspapers, but the German Government was not overly anxious to
have such information published. It was too busy encouraging the
anti-American sentiment for the purpose of frightening the United States.
It was difficult, too, for the United Press to get the necessary
co-operation in the United States for this news service. After the
settlement of the _Sussex_ dispute the Democratic newspapers of Germany,
those which were supporting the Chancellor, were anxious to receive
reports from here, but the German Foreign Office would not encourage the
matter to the extent of using the wireless towers at Sayville and
Tuckerton as means of transmitting the news.

How zealously the Foreign Office censor guards what appears in the German
newspapers was shown about two weeks before diplomatic relations were
broken. When the announcement was wirelessed to the United States that
Germany had adopted the von Tirpitz blockade policy the United Press sent
me a number of daily bulletins telling what the American Press,
Congressmen and the Government were thinking and saying about the new
order. The first day these despatches reached me I sent them to several
of the leading newspapers only to be notified in less than an hour
afterward by the Foreign Office that I was to send no information to the
German newspapers without first sending it to the Foreign Office. Two
days after the blockade order was published I received a telegram from
Mr. Howard saying that diplomatic relations would be broken, and giving
me a summary of the press comment. I took this despatch to the Foreign
Office and asked permission to send it to the newspapers. It was
refused. Throughout this crisis which lasted until the 10th of February
the Foreign Office would not permit a single despatch coming direct from
America to be printed in the German newspapers. The Foreign Office
preferred to have the newspapers publish what came by way of England and
France so that the Government could always explain that only English and
French news could reach Germany because the United States was not
interested in seeing that Germany obtained first hand information.

While Germany was arguing that the United States was responsible for her
desperate situation, economically, and while President Wilson was being
blamed for not breaking the Allied blockade, the German Foreign Office
was doing everything within its power to prevent German goods from being
shipped to the United States. When, through the efforts of Ambassador
Gerard, numerous attempts were made to get German goods, including
medicines and dye-stuffs, to the United States, the German Government
replied that these could not leave the country unless an equal amount of
goods were sent to Germany. Then, when the State Department arranged for
an equal amount of American goods to be shipped in exchange the German
Foreign Office said all these goods would have to be shipped to and from
German ports. When the State Department listened to this demand and
American steamers were started on their way to Hamburg and Bremen the
German Navy was so busy sewing mines off these harbours to keep the
English fleet away that they failed to notify the American skippers where
the open channels were. As a result so many American ships were sunk
trying to bring goods into German harbours that it became unprofitable
for American shippers to try to accommodate Germany.

About this time, also, the German Government began its policy of
discouraging American business in Germany. Ambassador Gerard had had a
long wrangle with the Chancellor over a bill which was introduced in the
Reichstag shortly after the beginning of the war to purchase all foreign
oil properties "within the German Customs Union." The bill was examined
by Mr. Gerard, who, for a number of years, was a Supreme Court Judge of
New York. He discovered that the object of the bill was to put the
Standard Oil Company out of business by purchasing all of this company's
property except that located in Hamburg. This was the joker. Hamburg
was not in the German Customs Union and the bill provided for the
confiscation of all property not in this Union.

Mr. Gerard called upon the Chancellor and told him that the United States
Government could not permit such a bill to be passed without a vigorous
protest. The Chancellor asked Mr. Gerard whether President Wilson and
Secretary of State Bryan would ever protect such a corporation as the
Standard Oil Company was supposed to be. Mr. Gerard replied that the
very fact that these two officials were known in the public mind as
having no connection with this corporation would give them an opportunity
of defending its interests the same as the Government would defend the
interests of any other American. The Chancellor seemed surprised at this
statement and Mr. Gerard continued about as follows:

"You know that Germany has already been discriminating against the
Standard Oil Company. You know that the Prussian State Railways charge
this American corporation twice as much to ship oil from Hamburg to
Bremen as they charge the German oil interests to ship Roumanian oil from
the Austrian border to Berlin. Now don't you think that's enough?"

The interview ended here. And the bill was never brought up in the
Reichstag.

But this policy of the Government of intimidating and intriguing against
American interests was continued until diplomatic relations were broken.
In December, 1916, Adolph Barthmann, an American citizen, who owned the
largest shoe store in Berlin, desired to close his place of business and
go to the United States. It was impossible for him to get American shoes
because of the Allied blockade and he had decided to discontinue business
until peace was made.

Throughout the war it has been necessary for all Americans, as well as
all other neutrals, to obtain permission from the police before they
could leave. Barthmann went to Police Headquarters, and asked for
authority to go to the United States. He was informed that his passport
would have to be examined by the General Staff and that he could call for
it within eight days. At the appointed day Barthmann appeared at Police
Headquarters where he was informed by the Police Captain that upon orders
of the General Staff he would have to sign a paper and swear to the
statement that neither he nor the American firms he represented had sold,
or would sell, shoes to the Allies. Barthmann was told that this
statement would have to be sworn to by another American resident of
Berlin and that unless this was done he would not be permitted to return
to Germany after the war. Mr. Barthmann had to sign the document under
protest before his American passport was returned.

The facts in this as in the other instances which I have narrated, are in
the possession of the State Department at Washington.

When the German Government began to fear that the United States
might some day join the Allies if the submarine campaign was
renewed, it campaigned by threatening the United States with a
Russian-Japanese-German alliance after the war against England and the
United States. These threats were not disguised. Ambassador Gerard was
informed, indirectly and unofficially of course, by German financiers and
members of the Reichstag that Germany "would be forced" to make such an
alliance if the United States ever joined the Allies. As was shown later
by the instructions of Secretary of State Zimmermann to the German
Minister in Mexico City, Germany has not only not given up that idea, but
Germany now looks forward to Mexico as the fourth member of the league.

As Germany became more and more suspicious of Americans in Germany, who
were not openly pro-German, she made them suffer when they crossed the
German frontier to go to neutral countries. The German military
authorities, at border towns such as Warnemuende and Bentheim, took a
dislike to American women who were going to Holland or Denmark, and
especially to the wives of U. S. consular officials. One time when I was
going from Berlin to Copenhagen I learned from the husband of one of the
women examined at the border what the authorities had done to her. I saw
her before and after the ordeal and when I heard of what an atrocious
examination they had made I understood why she was in bed ten days
afterward and under the constant care of physicians. Knowing what German
military officers and German women detectives had done in some of the
invaded countries, one does not need to know the details of these
insults. It is sufficient to state that after the wives of several
American officials and other prominent American residents of Berlin had
been treated in this manner that the State Department wrote a vigorous
and defiant note to Germany stating that unless the practice was
immediately discontinued the United States would give up the oversight of
all German interests in Allied countries. The ultimatum had the desired
effect. The German Government replied that while the order of the
General Staff could not be changed it would be waived in practice.

No matter who the American is, who admired Germany, or, who respected
Germany, or, who sympathised with Germany as she was before, or, at the
beginning of the war, no American can support this Germany which I have
just described, against his own country. The Germany of 1913, which was
admired and respected by the scientific, educational and business world;
the Germany of 1913 which had no poor, which took better care of its
workmen than any nation in the world; the nation, which was considered in
the advance of all countries in dealing with economic and industrial
problems, no longer exists. The Germany which produced Bach, Beethoven,
Schiller, Goethe and other great musicians and poets has disappeared.
The musicians of to-day write hate songs. The poets of to-day pen hate
verses. The scientists of to-day plan diabolical instruments of death.
The educators teach suspicion of and disregard for everything which is
not German. Business men have sided with the Government in a ruthless
submarine warfare in order to destroy property throughout the world so
that every nation will have to begin at the bottom with Germany when the
war is over.

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