Face to Face with Kaiserism Part 17

The apartments of Berlin are designed for outward show for which the Berliners have a weakness. They have great reception and dining-rooms called "representation rooms," but very little comfort or s.p.a.ce in the sleeping quarters.

It is impossible to think of dropping in suddenly on a Berliner for a meal. The dinners are always for as many people as the rooms will hold and are served by a caterer.

Only two very distinguished guests may be invited. The host and hostess sit opposite each other at the sides of the table, with the guests tapering off in rank to right and left of them, the ends of the tables being filled up with aides and secretaries.

When a great man is invited his aide or secretary must be asked also. These come usually without their wives.

After dinner men and women leave the table together and smoke in the other rooms of the house, going from group to group. And, although perhaps ten kinds of wine are served during dinner, as soon as the guests leave the dining-room, servants make their appearance with trays of gla.s.ses of light and dark beer and continue to offer beer during the remainder of the evening.

The Germans talk much of food and spend a greater part of their income on food than any other nation. They take much interest in table furnishings, china, etc., and invariably turn over the plates to see the marks on the under side.

Whipped cream is an essential to many German dishes, and in the season a Berliner will commit any crime to obtain some plover's eggs.

The weiss bier of Berlin, served in wide goblets, is rather going out of fashion. It often is drunk mixed with raspberry juice.

The restaurants of Berlin are not gay, like those of Paris. There is, however, a rather rough night life created for foreign consumption. I did not take in any of these night restaurants and dancing cabarets, warned by the case of an Amba.s.sador from ---- who was reproved by von Jagow for visiting the "Palais de Danse."

In peace time few automobiles are to be seen on the Berlin streets. There are many millionaires in the city, but the old habits of German thrift persist.

The modern architecture of Germany is repulsive. The man who builds a new house seems to want to get something resembling as nearly as possible a family vault. Ihne, court architect and Imperial favourite, has produced, however, some beautiful buildings, notably the new library in Berlin.

Munich pretends to be more of a centre of art and music than Berlin. Artists have their headquarters there, but the disciples of the awful "art nouveau" and kindred "arts" have produced many horrors in striving for new effects.

The opera in Munich is better than in Berlin. One of the Bavarian Princes plays a fiddle in the orchestra in the Royal Opera House.

The Berlin hospitals are better than ours, except for the caste system which prevails even there, and there are first, second and third cla.s.s wards.

The underground road is built at about the same depth as the New York subway. There are two cla.s.ses, second and third; there are no guards on the trains, only the motorman in the first car. The pa.s.sengers open the side doors themselves and these are shut either by pa.s.sengers or station guards. Accidents are rare, all showing the innate discipline of the people. The charge is by distance. You buy a ticket for five or eight stations and give up the ticket as you go out of the station. If you have travelled farther than the distance called for by your ticket you must make the additional payment. This requires that each ticket be inspected separately when taken up.

The tramways have different routes. These routes are shown by signs and by numbers displayed on the car. Women motormen in the war period caused many accidents.

For those Germans who cannot afford to ride or shoot, walking is the princ.i.p.al recreation. There are a few golf courses in the German Empire, mostly patronised by foreigners and American dentists.

Military training is always in view and the use of the knapsack on walking tours is universal, even school children carry their books to school in knapsacks and so become accustomed, at an early age, to carry this part of the soldier's burden.

Occasionally, in summer, bands of girls or boys are to be seen on walking tours. In addition to the usual knapsack, they carry guitars or mandolins. These young people are known as "Wander vogel" (wandering birds), and sing as they walk. But they don't sing very loud. They might break some regulation.

Outside of the large cities and even in the cities vacant lots are occupied by "arbour colonies" (lauben colonie)--tiny little houses of wood erected by city workingmen and surrounded by little gardens of vegetables and flowers. Here the city workman spends Sunday and often the twilight hours and the night in summer time. Of course, these are possible only in a country where the workingman is in a distinct social cla.s.s and where he is compelled to be content with the amus.e.m.e.nts and occupations of that cla.s.s alone.

There is no baseball or subst.i.tute for it--the clerks get their diversion in a country excursion or at the free bath on the Wann or Muggel Lake.

These "free baths," so-called, are stretches of sandy lake sh.o.r.e where the populace resort in hot weather, undressing with the indifference of animals on the beach, men and women all mixed together, the men wearing only little bathing trunks and the women scanty one-piece bathing suits. There is a bathing tent where two cents is charged for the privilege of undressing, but most prefer the open beach. Few swim or go in the water, but the majority lie about the beach, often sleeping in affectionate embrace, all without exciting any comment or ridicule.

The boy scout movement was taken up enthusiastically in Germany with the cheerful support of the military caste, who look on the activity as a welcome adjunct to military training. The boys certainly are given a dose of real drill. On one occasion I saw a boy company at drill march straight into the Havel river, no command to halt having been given at the river bank!

The workingmen of Germany are more brutal than those of England, France and America, but this is because of the low wages they receive, and because they feel the weight of the caste system.

In a speech in December, 1917, I said that a revolution in Germany would come after the war and that a fellow Amba.s.sador in Berlin had said to me that because of the great brutality of the workingmen in Germany this uprising would make the French Revolution look like a Methodist Sunday School picnic. A newspaper reported me as saying this on my own authority and added that I had said the Germans were the most "b.e.s.t.i.a.l" people on earth.

I only want to be responsible for what I actually say. I did not call the Germans "b.e.s.t.i.a.l," although unfortunately it is a fact that many officers of the army and others have been guilty of a brutality which has helped turn the face of the world from the whole German people.

Not all the Germans are brutal. I received many letters revealing evidence to the contrary.

Here is the protest of a German soldier, an eye-witness of the slaughter of Russian soldiers in the Masurian lakes and swamps:

"It was frightful, heart-rending, as these ma.s.ses of human beings were driven to destruction. Above the terrible thunder of the cannon could be heard the heart-rending cries of the Russians: 'Oh, Prussians! Oh, Prussians!' But there was no mercy.

Our Captain had ordered: 'The whole lot must die; so rapid fire.'

"As I have heard, five men and one officer on our side went mad from those heart-rending cries. But most of my comrades and the officers joked as the unarmed and helpless Russians shrieked for mercy when they were being suffocated in the swamps and shot down. The order was: 'Close up and at it harder!'

"For days afterward those heart-rending yells followed me, and I dare not think of them or I shall go mad. There is no G.o.d, there is no morality and no ethics any more. There are no human beings any more, but only beasts. Down with militarism!"

This was the experience of a Prussian soldier. At present wounded; Berlin, October 22, 1914.

"If you are a truth-loving man, please receive these lines, from a common Prussian soldier."

Here is the testimony of another German soldier on the East front:

"Russian Poland, Dec. 18, 1914.

"In the name of Christianity I send you these words. My conscience forces me as a Christian German soldier to inform you of these lines.

"Wounded Russians are killed with the bayonet according to orders, and Russians who have surrendered are often shot down in ma.s.ses according to orders in spite of their heart-rending prayers.

"In the hope that you, as the representative of a Christian State, will protest against this, I sign myself, '_A German Soldier and Christian._'

"I would give my name and regiment, but these words could get me court-martialed for divulging military secrets."

The following letter is from a soldier on the Western Front:

"To the American Government, Washington, U. S. A.:

"Englishmen who have surrendered are shot down in small groups. With the French one is more considerate. I ask whether men let themselves be taken prisoner in order to be disarmed and shot down afterward? Is that chivalry in battle?

"It is no longer a secret among the people; one hears everywhere that few prisoners are taken; they are shot down in small groups. They say navely, 'We don't want any unnecessary mouths to feed. Where there is no one to enter complaint, there is no judge.' Is there, then, no power in the world which can put an end to these murders and rescue the victims? Where is Christianity?

Where is right? Might is right.

_"A Soldier and Man Who Is No Barbarian."_

The first two letters refer to the battle of the Masurian Lakes, when the troops of Hindenburg, in checking the invading Russians, indulged in a needless slaughter of prisoners.

I heard in Berlin of many cases of insanity of both German officers and men who were driven insane by the scenes of slaughter at this battle and especially by the great cry of horror and despair uttered by the poor Russians as they were shot down in cold blood or driven to a living death in the lakes and marshes.

An American newspaper said this could not be true, asking why did I not publish the letters in my first book. But my first book did not contain all I have to relate, and the letters in question were sent by me to the State Department early in the war, and were not at hand on the publication of my other series.

But speaking of anonymous letters, shortly before I left Germany I received a package containing a necklace of diamonds and pearls with a letter, which, translated, reads as follows:

"The enclosed jewelry was found in the fully destroyed house of Monsieur Guesnet of 36 Rue de Ba.s.sano, Paris. It is requested that this jewelry, which is his property, be returned to him."