My Four Years in Germany Part 22

It requires no violent change to bring about this establishment of parliamentary government, and, if the members of the Reichstag should be elected from districts fairly const.i.tuted, the world would then be dealing with a liberalised Germany, and a Germany which has become liberalised without any violent change in the form of its government.

Of course, coincident with this parliamentary reform, the vicious circle system of voting in Prussia must end.

This change to a government by a responsible ministry can be accomplished under the const.i.tution of the German Empire by a mere majority vote of the Reichstag and a vote in the Bundesrat, in which less than fourteen votes are against the proposed change in the const.i.tution. This means that the consent of the Emperor as Prussian King must be obtained, and that of a number of the rulers of the German States.

In the reasonable liberalisation of Germany, if it comes, Theodor Wolff and his father-in-law, Mosse, will play leading parts.

The great newspaper, the _Tageblatt_, which Mosse owns and Wolff edits, has throughout the war been a beacon light at once of reason and of patriotism. And other great newspapers will take the same enlightened course.

I am truly sorry for Georg Bernhard, the talented editor of the _Vossiche_Zeitung_, who, a Liberal and a Jew, wears the livery of Junkerdom, I am sure to his great distaste.

After I left Germany the _Vossiche_Zeitung_ made the most ridiculous charges against me, such as that I issued American pa.s.sports to British subjects. The newspaper might as well have solemnly charged that I sent notes to the Foreign Office in sealed envelopes. Having charge of British interests, I could not issue British pa.s.sports to British citizens allowed to leave Germany, but, according to universal custom in similar cases and the express consent of the Imperial Foreign Office, I gave these returning British, American pa.s.sports superstamped with the words "British subject." A mare's nest, truly!

The fall of von Bethmann-Hollweg was a triumph of kitchen intrigue and of Junkerism. I believe that he is a liberal at heart, that it was against his best judgment that the ruthless submarine war was resumed, the pledges of the _Suss.e.x_ Note broken and Germany involved in war with America. If he had resigned, rather than consent to the resumption of V-boat war, he would have stood out as a great Liberal rallying point and probably have returned to a more real power than he ever possessed. But half because of a desire to retain office, half because of a mistaken loyalty to the Emperor, he remained in office at the sacrifice of his opinions; and when he laid down that office no t.i.tle of Prince or even of Count waited him as a parting gift.

In his retirement he will read the lines of Schiller--a favourite quotation in Germany--"Der Mohr hat seine Schuldigkeit gethan, der Mohr kann gehen." "The Moor has done his work, the Moor can go." And in his old age he will exclaim, as Shakespeare makes the great Chancellor of Henry the Eighth exclaim, "Oh Cromwell, Cromwell! Had I but served my G.o.d with half the zeal I served my King, He would not, in mine age, have left me naked to mine enemies." But this G.o.d is not the private War G.o.d of the Prussians with whom they believe they have a gentlemen's working agreement, but the G.o.d of Christianity, of humanity and of all mankind.

It would have been easier for Germany to make peace with von Bethmann-Hollweg at the helm. The whole world knows him and honours him for his honesty.

Helfferich remained as Vice-Chancellor and Minister of the Interior: a powerful, and agile intellect, a man, I am sure, opposed to militarism. Reasonable in his views, one can sit at the council table with him and arrive at compromises and results, but his intense patriotism and surpa.s.sing ability make him an opponent to be feared.

Kuhlmann has the Foreign Office. Far more wily than Zimmermann, he will continue to strive to embroil us with j.a.pan and Mexico, but he will not be caught. Second in command in London, he reported then that England would enter the war. The rumours scattered broadcast, as he took office, to the effect that he was opposed to ruthless V-boat war were but evidences of a more skilful hand in a campaign to predispose the world in his favour and, therefore, to a.s.sist him in any negotiations he might have on the carpet.

Beware of the wily Kuhlmann!

Baiting the Chancellor is the favourite sport of German political life. No sooner does the Kaiser name a Chancellor than hundreds of little politicians, Reichstag members, editors, reporters and female intriguers try to drive him from office. When von Bethmann-Hollweg showed an inclination towards Liberalism, and advocated a juster electoral system for Prussia, the Junkers, the military and the upholders of the caste system joined their forces to those of the usual intriguers; and it was only a question of time until the Chancellor's official head fell in the basket.

His successor is a Prussian bureaucrat. No further description is necessary.

Of course no nation will permit itself to be reformed from without.

The position of the world in arms with reference to Germany is simply this. It is impossible to make peace with Germany as at present const.i.tuted, because that peace will be but a truce, a short breathing s.p.a.ce before the German military autocrats again send the sons of Germany to death in the trenches for the advancement of the System and the personal glory and advantage of stuffy old generals and prancing princes.

The world does not believe that a free Germany will needlessly make war, believe in war for war's sake or take up the profession of arms as a national industry.

The choice lies with the German people. And how admirably has our great President shown that people that we war not with them but with the autocracy which has led them into the shambles of dishonour.

CHAPTER XIX

THE GERMAN PEOPLE IN WAR

With the declaration of war the ultimate power in Germany was transferred from the civil to the military authorities.

At five o'clock on the afternoon of Friday, and immediately after the declaration of a State of War, the Guard of the Grenadier Regiment Kaiser Alexander, under the command of a Lieutenant with four drummers, took its place before the monument of Frederick the Great in the middle of the Unter den Linden. The drummers sounded a ruffle on their drums and the Lieutenant read an order beginning with the words "By all highest order: A State of War is proclaimed in Berlin and in the Province of Brandenburg."

This order was signed by General von Kessel as Over-Commander of the Mark of Brandenburg; and stated that the complete power was transferred to him; that the civil officials might remain in office, but must obey the orders and regulations of the Over-Commander; that house-searchings and arrests by officials thereto empowered could take place at any time; that strangers who could not show good reason for remaining in Berlin, had twenty-four hours in which to leave; that the sale of weapons, powder and explosives to civilians was forbidden; and that civilians were forbidden to carry weapons without permission of the proper authorities.

The same transfer of authority took place in each army corps--_Bezirk_, or province or district in Germany; and in each army corps district or province the commanding general took over the ultimate power. In Berlin it was necessary to create a new officer, the Over-Commander of the Mark, because two army corps, the third and the army corps of the guards, had their head-quarters in Berlin. These army corps commanders were not at all bashful about the use of the power thus transferred to them. Some of them even prescribed the length of the dresses to be worn by the women; and many women, having followed the German sport custom of wearing knickerbockers in the winter sports resorts of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Generalkommando, or Headquarters for Bavaria issued in January, 1917, the following order: "The appearance of many women in Garmisch-Partenkirchen has excited lively anger and indignation in the population there.

This bitterness is directed particularly against certain women, frequently of ripe age, who do not engage in sports, but nevertheless show themselves in public continually clad in knickerbockers. It has even happened that women so dressed have visited churches during the service. Such behaviour is a cruelty to the earnest minds of the mountain population and, in consequence, there are often many disagreeable occurrences in the streets. Officials, priests and private citizens have turned to the Generalkommando with the request for help; and the Generalkommando has, therefore, empowered the district officials in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to take energetic measures against this misconduct; if necessary with the aid of the police."

I spent two days at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in February, 1916.

Some of the German girls looked very well in their "knickers,"

but I agree with the Generalkommando that the appearance of some of the older women was "cruelty" not only to the "earnest mountain population" but to any observer.

These corps commanders are apparently responsible direct to the Emperor; and therefore much of the difficulty that I had concerning the treatment of prisoners was due to this system, as each corps commander considered himself supreme in his own district not only over the civil and military population but over the prison camps within his jurisdiction.

On the fourth of August, 1914, a number of laws were pa.s.sed, which had been evidently prepared long in advance, making various changes made necessary by war, such as alteration of the Coinage Law, the Bank Law, and the Law of Maximum Prices. Laws as to the high prices were made from time to time. For instance, the law of the twenty-eighth of October, 1914, provided in detail the maximum prices for rye in different parts of Germany. The maximum price at wholesale per German ton of native rye must not exceed 220 marks in Berlin, 236 marks in Cologne, 209 marks in Koenigsberg, 228 marks in Hamburg, 235 marks in Frankfort a/M.

The maximum price for the German ton of native wheat was set at forty marks per ton higher than the above rates for rye. This maximum price was made with reference to deliveries without sacks and for cash payments.

The law as to the maximum prices applied to all objects of daily necessity, not only to food and fodder but to oil, coal and wood.

Of course, these maximum prices were changed from time to time, but I think I can safely state that at no time in the war, while I was in Berlin, were the simple foods more expensive than in New York.

The so-called "war bread," the staple food of the population, which was made soon after the commencement of the war, was composed partially of rye and potato flour. It was not at all unpalatable, especially when toasted; and when it was seen that the war would not be as short as the Germans had expected, the bread cards were issued. That is, every Monday morning each person was given a card which had annexed to it a number of little perforated sections about the size of a quarter of a postage stamp, each marked with twenty-five, fifty or one hundred. The total of these figures const.i.tuted the allowance of each person in grammes per week. The person desiring to buy bread either at a baker's or in a restaurant must turn in these little stamped sections for an amount equivalent to the weight of bread purchased. Each baker was given a certain amount of meal at the commencement of each week, and he had to account for this meal at the end of the week by turning in its equivalent in bread cards.

As food became scarce, the card system was applied to meat, potatoes, milk, sugar, b.u.t.ter and soap. Green vegetables and fruits were exempt from the card system, as were for a long time chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and game. Because of these exemptions the rich usually managed to live well, although the price of a goose rose to ridiculous heights. There was, of course, much underground traffic in cards and sales of illicit or smuggled b.u.t.ter, etc.

The police were very stern in their enforcement of the law and the manager of one of the largest hotels in Berlin was taken to prison because he had made the servants give him their allowance of b.u.t.ter, which he in turn sold to the rich guests of the hotel.

No one over six years of age at the time I left could get milk without a doctor's certificate. One result of this was that the children of the poor were surer of obtaining milk than before the war, as the women of the Frauendienst and social workers saw to it that each child had its share.

The third winter of the war, owing to a breakdown of means of transportation and want of laborers, coal became very scarce.

All public places, such as theatres, picture galleries, museums, and cinematograph shows, were closed in Munich for want of coal.

In Berlin the suffering was not as great but even the elephants from Hagenbeck's Show were pressed into service to draw the coal carts from the railway stations.

Light was economized. All the apartment houses (and all Berlin lives in apartment houses) were closed at nine o'clock. Stores were forbidden to illuminate their show windows and all theatres were closed at ten. Only every other street electric light was lit; of the three lights in each lamp, only one.

As more and more men were called to the front, women were employed in unusual work. The new underground road in Berlin is being built largely by woman labour. This is not so difficult a matter in Berlin as in New York, because Berlin is built upon a bed of sand and the difficulties of rock excavation do not exist.

Women are employed on the railroads, working with pickaxes on the road-bed. Women drive the great yellow post carts of Berlin.

There were women guards on the underground road, women conductors on the tramways and women even become motor men on the tramcars.

Banks, insurance companies and other large business inst.i.tutions were filled with women workers who invaded the sacred precincts of many military and governmental offices.

A curious development of the hate of all things foreign was the hunt led by the Police President of Berlin, von Jagow (a cousin of the Foreign Minister), for foreign words. Von Jagow and his fellow cranks decided that all words of foreign origin must be expunged from the German language. The t.i.tle of the Hotel Bristol on the Unter den Linden disappeared. The Hotel Westminster on the same street became Lindenhof. There is a large hotel called "The c.u.mberland," with a pastry department over which there was a sign, the French word, _Confisserie_. The management was compelled to take this sign down, but the hotel was allowed to retain the name of c.u.mberland, because the father-in-law of the Kaiser's only daughter is the Duke of c.u.mberland. The word "chauffeur" was eliminated, and there, were many discussions as to what should be subst.i.tuted. Many declared for Kraftwagenfuhrer or "power wagon driver."

But finally the word was Germanised as "Schauffoer." Prussians took down the sign, _Confektion_, but the climax came when the General in command of the town of Breslau wrote a confectioner telling him to stop the use of the word "_bonbon_" in selling his candy. The confectioner, with a sense of humour and a nerve unusual in Germany, wrote back to the General that he would gladly discontinue the use of the word "_bonbon_" when the General ceased to call himself "General," and called the attention of this high military authority to the fact that "General" was as much a French word as "_bonbon_."

Unusual means were adopted in order to get all the gold coins in the country into the Imperial Bank. There were signs in every surface and underground car which read, "Whoever keeps back a gold coin injures the Fatherland." And if a soldier presented to his superiors a twenty mark gold piece, he received in return twenty marks in paper money and two days leave of absence. In like manner a school boy who turned in ten marks in gold received ten marks in paper and was given a half holiday. Cinematograph shows gave these patrons who paid in gold an extra ticket, good for another day. An American woman residing at Berlin was awakened one morning at eight o'clock by two police detectives who told her that they had heard that she had some gold coins in her possession, and that if she did not turn them in for paper money they would wreck her apartment in their search for them. She, therefore, gave them the gold which I afterwards succeeded in getting the German Government to return to her. Later, the export of gold was forbidden, and even travellers arriving with gold were compelled to give it up in return for paper money.

While, of course, I cannot ascertain the exact amounts, I found, nevertheless, that great quant.i.ties of food and other supplies came into Germany from Holland and the Scandinavian countries, particularly from Sweden. Now that we are in the war we should take strong measures and cut off exports to these countries which export food, raw material, etc. to Germany. Sweden is particularly active in this traffic, but I understand that sulphur pyrites are sent from Norway, and sulphuric acid made therefrom is an absolute essential to the manufacture of munitions of war.

Potash, which is found as a mineral only in Germany and Austria, was used in exchange of commodities with Sweden and in this way much copper, lard, etc. reached Germany.

Early in the summer of 1915, the first demonstration took place in Berlin. About five hundred women collected in front of the Reichstag building. They were promptly suppressed by the police and no newspaper printed an account of the occurrence. These women were rather vague in their demands. They called von Buelow an old fat-head for his failure in Italy and complained that the whipped cream was not so good as before the war. There was some talk of high prices for food, and the women all said that they wanted their men back from the trenches.

Early summer brought also a number of cranks to Berlin. Miss Jane Addams and her fellow suffragists, after holding a convention in Holland, moved on Berlin. I succeeded in getting both the Chancellor and von Jagow to consent to receive them, a meeting to which they looked forward with unconcealed perturbation. However, one of them seems to have impressed Miss Addams, for, as I write this, I read in the papers that she is complaining that we should not have gone to war because we thereby risk hurting somebody's feelings.

On July twenty-seventh, 1915, I reported that I had learned that the Germans were picking out the Revolutionists and Liberals from the many Russian prisoners of war, furnishing them with money and false pa.s.sports and papers, and sending them back to Russia to stir up a revolution.