The kaiser's speeches, forming a character portrait of Emperor William II

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THE

KAISER'S SPEECHES

II

His interesting relations with the French statesman, Jules Simon — A graphic portrait — Failure of the Empress Frederick's visit to Paris — Telegrams and letters of condolence — The Kaiser and the Dreyfus affair — The incident of the Iphigenie — Kaiser's magnanimous speech on the battle-field of St. Privat — His toast to his French guest, General Bonnal, and to the French army.

When Kaiser William II. came to reign, France had not yet disentangled herself from the turbulent and dangerous political disorder precipitated by the Boulangist party. The importance of Boulanger and the movement which took its name from him lay solely in his urging on a war of revenge, and in the acutely Germanophobe state of mind in France brought on by him and his aides and allies, threatening to produce at any moment an explosion of such violence as to render subsequent peaceable adjustment very difficult, if not impossible.

When the then Tirard cabinet finally resolved, on March 26, 1888, to deprive Boulanger, on the plea of having disobeyed orders, of his command of the 13th Army Corps, it left Boulanger, but lately elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, the more free to continue his agitation and his ramified activity looking to a revision of the French constitution. These machinations on the part of the Boulangist party were prone to threaten, if successful, the peace of the world.

The storm, however, blew over, and the consistently pacific attitude which the Kaiser and his government at that critical time preserved assisted the process of internal readjustment in France, at least indirectly.

In 1889 France had her great jubilee of the French Revolution, and this centenary celebration had its most conspicuous illustration in the universal exposition held at Paris that year. Germany had refused, while the old emperor, William I.,- was still alive, to attend the exposition. This attitude of Germany, while probably wise and appropriate under the given circumstances, had, nevertheless, considerably piqued the French. On May 6th the exposition was opened. Shortly before that, the League of Patriots, under Deroulede, whose principal object was the keeping alive of the revanche idea, had joined hands with Boulanger. But their joy was short-lived. Boulanger, when the government made up its mind to indict him, fled, first to Brussels, and next to London. The alliance which the French government had so ardently desired formally to conclude with Russia had now to be indefinitely postponed, at least until the inchoate internal conditions in the republic, which at that particular juncture seemed destined soon to go under, had again found their sound and natural level. The French government had first to furnish the Czar with proof that it was both willing and able to create anew order out of chaos. With that object in view it finally took the bull by the horns, and placed not only Boulanger but the whole League of Patriots under accusation, alleging as reason their dangerous tendencies, calculated to undermine the welfare and security of the state. Boulanger, Dillon, and Rochefort were sentenced, in contumaciam, to deportation. The manifesto which Boulanger published soon after had no very palpable effect in France. And when the great and profitable exposition closed, President Carnot, as well as Premier Tirard, were able to make addresses breathing peace and good-will. A dangerous reef, threatening at the very outset of William II.'s reign to involve him in war and possible shipwreck, had been removed from view. In the succeeding year, 1890, the Kaiser convened in Berlin an international conference for the protection and safety of the laboring classes. One of the French delegates was the noted political leader and writer Jules Simon. He, who had been treated with particular distinction and tact by the Kaiser, gained a very high opinion of the latter. It was probably due to Simon that the French journal Le Parisien about this time said in an editorial article :

"Kaiser William has made a speech at the opening of the Reichstag which, as regards the preservation of universal peace, was of undeniable quieting effect. In it he stated emphatically his purpose to launch the imperial policy more and more into the paths which lead to a study, amelioration and possible final solution of the social question.

"The physiognomy of the young sovereign accentuates itself from day to day with greater distinctness. Certainly he has remained above all a soldier, for, in enumerating the reforms aimed at by him, he concludes with threatening disturbers of the peace, just as he is creating new regiments all the time, so as to secure, in his own way, the peace of Europe.

"Nevertheless, it seems that the grandson of William the Conqueror means to conquer, first of all, the working-man. He clearly sees the requirements of the times, and he loyally acknowledges his duty to do all in his power in order to improve the lot of those who are born to toil and suffering.

"With us the successor of Frederick III. has been greatly distrusted. At his accession there were many who believed that war would come because of diplomatic jugglery, or because of frontier disputes magnified for the purpose. Next we have smiled at his feverish activity, his odes to the stars, his ceaseless parades, his innumerable hunting excursions, his rescripts regulating the most trivial things.

"We must abandon the scoffing mood. Kaiser William II.

has the will to do the right and the good. He works hard, and he understands exceedingly well conditions with which sovereigns as a rule do not trouble themselves.

"This is no reason why we should love him (there is too much spilt blood between him and France), but it is a reason why we should no longer speak of him with self-sufficiency. Only by taking ourselves the lead in all reforms, only by continuing ourselves to be the benefactors of mankind, only by breaking ourselves the old, worn-out moulds, and making steadily towards progress in all great things, may our country successfully grapple with the new methods inaugurated by our foes."

Under his own signature Jules Simon published in the Revue de Paris, in 1894 (in its August issue), a portrait sketch of Kaiser William. Some excerpts from it are of interest. He says:

"... For a long time I have been asked to give a portrait of William II., but I am resolved not to draw one. I have not the time to do justice to it. . . . He who would draw such a portrait would have to study thoroughly every phase of the history of Europe since the death of Kaiser Frederick, for nothing has happened since then in which William II. has not had a hand. The author would also have to make himself acquainted with all the mazes of diplomacy and with the life of the courts, and to do this down to the very smallest details. For that is one of the peculiar and characteristic traits of the young Kaiser's mind, that it embraces at one and the same time the biggest as well as the most trivial matters. He knows in advance what is contained in the reports of his chancellor and of his courtiers. His biographer would also have to possess intimate acquaintance with the life of those great contemporaries who have had dealings with William II., above all, of the life of Prince Bismarck, who in a certain sense has been the sharer of imperial power, and that of Count Moltke, whose life was as glorious and not quite so stormy as Bismarck's.

"... I have been told that I have seen and conversed with him. True. But that I have done jointly with all those diplomats who have spent some time in Berlin. One cannot judge a man like this one in half an hour, nor even in two hours.

" . . . It is necessary to create a third category for William II. He talks much because he thinks much, and he confides to you his thoughts, even withotit knowing you, because he means to let the whole world know his thoughts.

"... The congress which I attended took place in the halls of the chancellor's palace — i. c, at Bismarck's, whose position at that time, though it was just before his retirement, did not appear to be shaken. The Kaiser did not come to the opening of our sessions, and never put in an appearance at the congress. But we were invited to a great court reception, to a concert given in honor of the Prince of Wales, and to a banquet which the Kaiser gave us. These monarchical ceremonies were an interesting spectacle for me, who was not brought up on the lap of duchesses, and also for my French colleagues, who had not even known the Emperor Napoleon III. personally.

"... The whole crowd pressed towards a wide entrance at the moment when the majesties were announced. The Emperor and the Empress saluted right and left, and chatted for a moment with guests of distinction. The Kaiser accosted me in an amiable manner, saying a few pleasant words, and the Empress did the same, which, I am told, is a favor seldom shown on her part. The court marshal then begged me to take my seat at the table on the right hand of the Kaiser. . . .

' ' I thus found myself at table between the Kaiser and a lady — -I believe a lady-in-waiting, or the chief marechale. The Empress sat on the left of the Kaiser, and she had on her left the Bishop of Breslau, my colleague, and the vice-president of the congress, he who since has become his Eminence Cardinal Prince-Bishop Kopp. Count Moltke sat opposite the Kaiser, and hence directly facing me. The Kaiser chatted with me during the whole of the dinner. My memory is not exact enough to say what he told me on that particular day, or on one of the succeeding ones. But I recall at least the substance of the principal conversations I had with him. On that particular day on which he, standing on the steps of the throne, received the whole court, there was, of course, no conversation with him, and this applies also to the great concert which took place in the White Hall of the royal castle. But the Kaiser has created another kind of court of which he told me himself, and which is envied as intensely as was the Marly court of Louis XIV. The Kaiser receives every week, on a certain night, twenty of his friends — no more. I quote his own words:

"'I receive twenty friends, no more — officers, professors.

The public believes that we meet in order to hold a species of secret council of state. It is supposed that we occupy ourselves with politics. On the contrary! We simply meet for relaxation, and to drink and gossip. We talk about art, about literature.'

"The Kaiser honored me with an invitation to one of these informal meetings. ... It was dusk, the hall not too well lit, and the light of waning day struggled with that of the candles. The whole furniture consisted of a number of stools around a large table covered with green cloth. I fancied I was in an antechamber, when suddenly one of the officers detached himself from a group near by and approached me, asking whether I had been pleased with my visit to Sans Souci. I immediately recognized the Kaiser. I had, indeed, been to Sans Souci that morning in one of the court coaches, offered me in the most amiable way. He wanted to know exactly what impression Sans Souci had made on me. I told him that Voltaire's room, arranged in somewhat forced taste, had not pleased me. He at once spoke of the rooms of Frederick the Great.

'"I have seen them,' I said, ' and I have also found his desk, but not his flute.'

"Laughingly he answered that I should at least see the score of the flute concerts, of which he was getting out an edition, and on which much care was being expended. He said he was going to send me a copy of it. Nobody could have made a present in a more amiable manner. The book was, indeed, sent me some time after in Paris by the German Embassy there.

"We seated ourselves around the green table, and, as on the day of the banquet, I was told to sit next to the Kaiser. Then the smoking and drinking began. This time I had a long conversation with the Kaiser. The meeting lasted till long after midnight. Before reporting about this conversation I must speak of the Kaiser's French.

"He does speak French.

"'Fluently?'

"Very fluently.

"'Correctly?'

"Very correctly.

"'Does he speak it with an accent?'

"Entirely without an accent. The one of us two who spoke the purest French was he. For I have in my language a little, perhaps very little, of the Breton accent, and the Kaiser speaks like a Parisian. He asked me what I thought of his pronunciation.

"'You speak,' I said, 'like a Parisian.'

" 'That is not astonishing,' he replied. ' I have a friend (he uses this term by preference when mentioning his servants) who was my tutor for ten years and who still remains with me. He is a Frenchman and a purist. Have you ever heard me use an incorrect expression?'

(" I am not only member of the Academy, but also member of the commission for the publication of our great French dictionary.)

"'Only once,' I answered.

"I saw that the Kaiser was astonished.

"'And when was that?' he asked.

" ' It was when your Majesty said to me, " We meet to drink and gossip," using the term godailler.'

"'But godailler is a good French word,' said the Kaiser. 'You will find it in the dictionary of the Academy.'

" ' It is in the dictionary. But it is used neither in the Academy nor in the drawing-rooms of the Academy.'

"'I shall make a note of that. And that was the only time?'

"'I swear to your Majesty, you are, like your teacher, a purist.'

"This little matter seemed to amuse him hugely. In the further course of our conversation I noticed that he possessed an extraordinarily intimate acquaintance with our principal writers. Since I know how he manages to keep constantly au courant of all the details of state and army affairs, and since I saw how crowded and intense his life is, I could not understand how he still found time to read French novels. He assured me also that he enjoyed family life, and that he was never happier than when dining at home, alone with his family, like a plain Berlin citizen. His wife, he said, was in the habit of reading a chapter from a novel before retiring.' This must surely be true, because he told me so, although such a universality is scarcely credible. But his is a mind which is never

• But whatever may have been true in 1890 in this respect, nowadays the Kaiser, except during his Northland summer trips on board his yacht, hardly ever reads a novel, and relatively but few books of any kind. Those he does read treat, with rare exceptions, of serious topics — naval, military, political, economic, etc. — Ed.

in repose, never loses a minute's time, and grasps everything with amazing rapidity.

"I was fishing for some expression from him about our modern writers, and he did make such a one, without being much pressed. Instantly he showed sympathy and antipathy, both of a passionate kind. His admiration was for Ohnet, about whom he spoke in a few amiable phrases, turned with the skill and acumen of a professional critic. His antipathy was for Zola, and, I must confess, it was very violent. I made an attempt to defend my famous compatriot, and said that he was an incomparable teller of stories and a very keen observer.

"'I know very well,' said the Kaiser, 'that he has great merits. But he does not owe his success to them, but rather to the immoral and indecent things with which he poisons his writings. And yet he it is whom France at present prefers to all her other writers. He it is who is accorded enthusiastic acclaim, and that gives us in other countries the right to pass a severe verdict on the state of your morals.'

" I was suffering acutely at this moment, all the more as the Kaiser made this remark without bad intention and without prejudice.

"'I hear,' continued the Kaiser, 'that a new book by him is soon to appear. You will see that that, too, will be greedily devoured, and that your whole literature will disappear before this news.'

"I took the liberty to remark that Zola is read, too, in Berlin.

"'Not with pleasure,' said the Kaiser, 'and more from curiosity. His readers here are but thinly distributed. But in your country he will be in the hands of everybody.'

' ' I should have liked to obtain from the Kaiser some expression of political import, but did not like to force the conversation into that channel. However, I made several attempts in that direction, with all the diplomatic skill I could muster, and put on a very innocent face the while. But the Kaiser has an indescribable manner of overhearing at certain moments certain words. Nevertheless, I succeeded in prodding him into two expressions, both of which I rejoiced to hear, although they are not at all original. We spoke about the war, and the Kaiser said :

"'Since my accession I have thought a great deal, and I have come to the conclusion that for a man situated as I am it is worth a great deal more to do good to mankind than to inspire them with fear.'

"And as I then touched on the question of a possible future war between the two countries, and added that the people of France were for the far larger part inclined to peace, the Kaiser said, with amazing impartiality:

'"I declare to you that your army has made splendid progress. It has worked well; it is ready for war. If your army should — which I sincerely hope will never be the case — face our own army on the field of battle, nobody could foresee the end of the struggle. And, therefore, I hold him a criminal and a fool who should undertake to urge these two nations into a war against each other. . . .'

"I trust that in this brief recital my memory has not been inexact. I have purposely been incomplete in it; but I hope for that very reason I have spoken the truth. And I believe that these few lines will be accepted as well as an expression of our gratitude for the reception which the Kaiser gave us. ..."

However, politically Germany and France were not ripe at that time for a closer understanding. The Kaiser, though, was of opinion that on the neutral field of art a gradual reconciliation might be effected between the two countries. It was with this purpose in view that he induced his mother, the Empress Frederick, when she, in February, 1891, went to England on a visit to Queen Victoria, to take her way via Paris. She was to try and interest French artists in participating in the International Art Exposition in Berlin. It was the first time since the war of 1870-71 that a member of the German imperial family found itself in Paris. The Empress Frederick, accompanied by her daughter. Princess Margaret, arrived in Paris and put up at the German Embassy with Count Munster.

The public at first was silent, though deferential. A number of the leading French politicians and government officials called and inscribed their names in the lists of the German Embassy. The larger part of the

French press welcomed the Empress Frederick very amiably. Le Parisien said :

"The people, with their common-sense, show good-natured curiosity, although no real sympathy, for the German Empress, since she it was who merely tolerated, not provoked, the war."

Le Gaulois, usually rabidly anti-German, praised the Empress Frederick for her exalted womanly virtues and for her fairness in adjudging France.

Le Temps pointed out that the Empress Frederick had repeatedly expressed the sentiment that "the fine arts and their culture will bring about the approximation of nations," and its welcoming article concluded with the words:

' ' Perhaps we shall now see the first step in such a policy of reconciliation, and the arrival of the Empress-mother will be the first link in such a rapprochement."

This conciliatory attitude of the Paris press was in consonance with the previous reports sent Kaiser William, and there was no doubt that the leading circles in France at that time felt well disposed. It is, therefore, unjust to the Kaiser to blame him for exposing his mother to the insults of an excitable and inconstant populace. He could not foresee the turn which affairs took a couple of days later.

On February i8th the Empress-mother had arrived in Paris, and on the 24th the entire Paris press was discussing the question, more or less dispassionately and rationally, whether the time had come to consider a rapprochement with Germany. By far the larger number of journals gave a verdict in favor of the idea.

This, however, did not at all suit the programme of the League of Patriots, under Deroulede, and the

Boulangists. The Boulangists convened a largely attended mass - meeting, in which the presence of the Empress Frederick was ventilated and the facts in the case were represented in such twisted and garbled shape as to make it appear that the arrival and sojourn of the Empress Frederick was an insult to France. It was so declared by the meeting.

This meeting was held on the 25th, and on the 26th demonstrations were begun, and all the French artists, who already had intimated their willingness to attend the Berlin exposition, retracted their half-promise. The excitement of the masses in Paris, artificially produced by Boulangist machinations, grew within a few hours so rapidly that it became necessary for the Empress Frederick to hurriedly leave Paris. Her departure, in fact, resembled a flight, and had to be managed with great precaution. Fortunately for peace and Franco-German relations, she was enabled to leave without any serious disturbance.

Thus it was that, owing to the intrigues of the League of Patriots and of the Boulangists, the Kaiser's design to effect a rapprochement between the two countries, hostile for a score of years, and which had been approved and even counselled beforehand by a large number of the leading personages in France, was frustrated. The Kaiser was offended. He replied to the demonstration of a number of Parisian political clubs by a decree which rendered once more communication between Alsace-Lorraine and France very difficult. In fact, the passport regulations on the frontier were made so stringent that for a time passenger traffic almost completely ceased.

This retaliatory measure increased- bitterness on the French side, and it led to an interpellation by the Boulangists in the Chamber of Deputies, on July 1 6th, as to the passport measures taken by Germany in Alsace-Lorraine. The French cabinet, however, refused to discuss this tickhsh subject. However, the Chamber was so wrought up at the time that it passed a resolution, 286 against 203 votes, to debate the interpellation, notwithstanding the government's refusal to answer it. The government, though, was able to muster sufficient votes to enforce adjournment for a day. And on reassembling on the day following the Chamber refused, by a vote of 319 to 3, to enter into a discussion of the interpellation.

Notwithstanding this incident, the year 1891 was not to close without bringing more favorable auspices for reconciliation with Germany. On October loth the governor - general of Alsace - Lorraine, Prince Hohenlohe,* was given a grand ovation in Strassburg, on his return from a trip to Berlin, the occasion being the rescinding of the decree relative to the enforcement of passport regulations in passing the frontier either way. This step, it was ascertained later on, was due to the initiative of the Kaiser, and the fact created a very good impression, not only in Germany and in the Reichslande,^ but in France as well.

A new proof of his conciliatory spirit was furnished by the Kaiser in his speech in Stettin, on December 14th, on the launching of the big iron-clad, the Weissenburg. He said in it:

" Thou shalt bear the name of that day which was portentous for our history, for on that day^ was laid the foundation-stone for the structure whose summit bears the imperial crown. The name will recall that

* Subsequently Chancellor of the Empire.

^ The official German designation for Alsace-Lorraine, meaning "lands belonging to the empire."

^ The battle of Weissenburg was the first serious engagement that took place at the outbreak of the Franco - German War.— Ed.

battle-field on which, for the first time, under the leadership of Crown - prince Frederick William, the united German armies won a victory over the knightly foe, and by this first victory for the German arms earned the possibility of further successes."

This single word "knightly" sufficed once more to give encouragement to the advocates of reconciliation in France.

In 1893, after the adjustment of the Panama Canal scandal, the internal conditions of France began perceptibly to improve. The republic was not swamped, but, on the contrary, it was found that after the complete removal of Boulanger sounder life was infused into French parliamentarism.

On October i8th the German ambassador in Paris, Count Miinster, sent the following telegram to the widow of ex-President MacMahon:

" His Majesty the German Emperor, as soon as he had been informed of the sad loss which you have suffered, instructed me to depose a wreath upon the grave of the intrepid, noble-minded field-marshal, thus to testify to his deep sympathy. ..."

This courteous attention shown by the Kaiser made a great impression in France, and Jules Simon summoned enough courage to write in Le Figaro, a fortnight later, on the question of Alsace-Lorraine, in a manner which two years before would not have been tolerated. He wrote:

" How often have they told me in Germany: 'You have obstinately made up your minds not to sign the receipt. Resign yourselves at last to the thought that the two provinces are lost to you — which is an accomplished fact — and peace, real peace, will be at once established between the two countries'! I can well believe that. But the Prussians, who give us this advice, themselves did not act on it after Jena.

They know just as well as we do that honor does not permit us to follow it. We cannot supinely acquiesce in the conquest while our forcibly Germanized brothers stretch out their arms to us. It is not our duty to assume responsibilities for the future. But that which we may properly do, and what it is quite possible to do, is to postpone all ideas of war and revenge. And this we are now doing. Public opinion demands a truce for a long period, and the giving notice of its termination on short order, and on the basis of present territorial possessions. Public opinion is ready to prolong this truce until the end of the century, in the hope that peaceable toil will bring about a reposeful and conciliatory frame of mind. That at this moment is our role and our thought."

On June 24, 1894, the President of the French RepubHc, Carnot, while in Lyons, fell a victim to the dagger of the Italian assassin and anarchist, Caserio. The very first personage outside of France who expressed his sympathy at the horrible deed was the German Emperor. He telegraphed :

" To Madame Carnot, Paris, — Her Majesty the Empress and myself are most deeply grieved at receipt of the awful news from Lyons. Be assured, madame, that our full sympathy and all our thoughts are at this moment with you and your family. May God give you strength to withstand this terrible blow. Worthy of his great name, Monsieur Carnot died like a soldier on the field of honor.

"William L R."

This telegram from the German Emperor was greeted in the great majority of Paris papers with sincere approval. Casimir Perier succeeded to the presidency. The Kaiser shortly after resolved on another manifestation. Two French naval officers, sentenced as spies to terms of, respectively, six and four years confinement, and who had only served six months of their time in the fortress of Glatz, were pardoned by the Kaiser. This act of clemency was accompanied by the declaration that it was done to show sympathy with the French people at this their hour of profound grief. This courtly act of the Kaiser's deeply moved wide strata of the French nation. The major portion of the Paris press received his accompanying declaration with enthusiastic gratitude. The newly elected President, Perier, personally went to the German Embassy to render his thanks for the chivalrous act. Large numbers of leading French politicians followed his example. It is interesting to note that the German press, in its overwhelming portion, did not agree with the Kaiser in this matter, opining that this meant a too great friendliness of their ruler towards the French.

In his book Quatre Portraits, in 1896, Jules Simon said:

" I cannot help expressing the view that the attitude of the German Emperor towards France has, especially lately, met all my expectations and hopes. ... I regard Emperor William II. and Pope Leo XIII. as the two most interesting figures of our time. . . . The Kaiser, I sincerely believe, is one of the greatest hopes for the continuance of peace . I believe — I know — that he wishes peace. He does not feel hostile towards France ; he has studied her in every phase. He has shown, under peculiarly difficult circumstances, courtesy and friendliness. I no more than others have forgotten 1870, and have never for a moment lost sight of French hopes. But I put peace, so long as honor remains intact, above all other earthly boons, and I believe with the Kaiser that every hour of prolonged peace promotes peace itself."