I accuse! = (J'accuse!)

Preface

J 'Accuse J a work recently published anon3nTiously in Lausanne, has deservedly attracted much attention on the Continent on account of the independent standpoint of the author, the penetration shown in his analysis of the critical events of last year, and the vigour and clarity which characterise his presentation of the case.

The German edition is prefaced by the following note : —

"The book 'T Accuse, written by a German patriot, and entrusted to me, is herewith presented to the public.

"I regard this work as an act which can only confer a blessing on the German people and on humanity, and I accordingly assume responsibility for its publication.

"Dr. Anton Suter.

"Lausanne, April 20th, 191 5."

A further note is added in the following terms : —

''Having regard to the situation arising from the war and the conditions of the censorship, certain passages in the manuscript have for the present been omitted. These passages are indicated by blank spaces."

In the present translation the censored passages have been indicated in the same way.

The very few explanatory footnotes added in the course of translation are indicated by square brackets.

I /lesire to express my indebtedness to Mr. T. Lindsay for his assistance in the work of revision and correction of proofs.

CONTENTS I

PAGE

Can the Victory of Germany and Austria be expected? — The economic position of belligerent countries — The political and military position of the belligerent countries — The situation in France — Partie Remise — The question of guilt 11—34

II

£)ur Imperialists: Bernhardi and Co. — Have we been attacked or were we going to be attacked? — The head of the War Party — The Imperial War — The place in the sun — The chosen people — Germany's brilliant development — Increase of population and the colonies — Our true colonies — ^What advantage has France drawn from her colonies? — The Germans abroad: France, England, America — The place in the sun for us, the place in the shadow for the others — The fear of Germany — Diplomatic success of the Triple Alliance — Austria's Balkan policy — The Crown Prince and the war party — The policy of encirclement — England and Germany: The first Hague Conference — Between the first and second Hague Conferences: The English Liberal Government — Second Hague Conference: England and Germany — English proposals for a political understanding and for a naval agreement with Germany — What are we fighting for? — The freedom which they mean — The end of peace: Security? — Did France mean to attack us? — Did Russia mean to attack us? — The Triple Entente a defensive alliance — Giolitti's revelations — The change of front in Berlin; the war party . 26 — 141 idii

III Pagb

A. Austria

> . . 146

B. Germany

. 170

C. England

. 245

D. Russia

. 289

E. France

. 295

F. Appendix:

The Austrian Red Book .

. 315

IV THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DEED

How beautiful to die for the Fatherland! — Prestige — Proletarians of all countries, massacre each other! — Political morality — Moral politics — Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi — Dreams of world power — Who will pay the cost of the war? — Quoiisque tandem? . . 353 — 385

V

What should peace bring us? — The system of armed peace — A covenant 01 peace between free nations — Is this a Utopia? — The coercive force — What will peace bring us? — Should it happen otherwise — The twilight of the Gods

386—419

EPILOGUE 420—423

Speech delivered by Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, August

Speech delivered by Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, December

Circular note of Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, December 24th,

I ACCUSE!

{J'ACCUSEti

ACCUSE!

GERMANY AWAKE I

La vERixi; est en marche.

If there were in Prussian-Germany a system of ministerial responsibility, such as exists in all other countries with effective Parliamentary Government, and such as has been held out with many other fair promises to the Prussian people for more than sixty-four years, the Imperial Chancellor and President of the Prussian Council, Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, would have to be arraigned and

condemned.

It might be allowed in his favour, as an extenuating circumstance, that he was not the driving force of the war, but that he was driven to it — driven from above and from below. But a Minister, who yields himself as the tool of those who instigate war, who covers those who are irresponsible with his responsibility, who accepts the despicable task of representing to his nation and to all the world as a war of defence the

offensive war which was prepared long in advance, who by this falsehood unchains the most fearful disaster which has ever fallen upon our globe, and which is inflicting on his Fatherland, whether victorious or defeated, wounds which will be incurable for generations to come; who delivers over to death and to mutilation

II hundreds of thousands of his countrymen in the flower of their age, annihilates at a stroke the arduous labour of half a century, suddenly wrenches asunder the bonds of culture between civilised nations, and transforms prosperous regions of Europe into ruinous wastes — such a man must bear the punishment which is due to his crime.,

In gathering together in the following pages the various points in the indictment which reveal the exclusive guilt of Germany and her ally, Austria-Hungary, in provoking the universal war, I am well aware of the fact that I will expose myself to the disapproving criticism of a large section of the Gennan public, which proclaims it to be a patriotic duty to shut one's eyes to the truth, or if the truth be recognised, to conceal it in silence for the duration of the war.

Only by bearing in mind these two points of view is it possible to understand the present frame of mind of such a highly intelligent people as the German nation. The "State of War" (Kriegssustand) , proclaimed on the 31st July, which placed the intellectual life of Germany under the supervision of Generals, and which even

GERMANY AWAKE? IS

today, after more than six months have elapsed, carefully keeps watch on the frontiers lest there should penetrate into the country so much as a suggestion of the intellectual life or of the views of foreign countries which might disturb the unity of Germany, or of foreign information or evidence which might illumine the German people — this "state of war" has produced the result that nine-tenths of the whole German people have blindly followed the dexterously coined phrases about the "state of defence which is forced upon us," about "the struggle for our freedom and culture against aggression and oppression." "The French and the Russians have already pressed over our frontiers"; "The Fatherland is in danger" ; "They mean to humiliate us" ; "In the midst of peace the enemy falls upon us"; "The existence of our Empire is at stake"; "We are called upon to defend our holiest possessions, our Fatherland, our very hearths against an unscrupulous attack" ; "We are fighting for the fruits of our works of peace, for the inheritance of a great past and for our future," These and similar phrases (all taken from official documents) have been used with the conscious intention of deceiving the German people, of inflaming its patriotism, and of inspiring it to unutterable' and incalculable sacrifices in wealth and in life.

"The few, who here have aught of Truth divined, Yet foolishly revealed their inner heart, Who showed the mob their feeling and their mind — The cross, the stake have always been their part." ^

The few who, after the first days of intoxication, gradually returned to their senses, and who were able

to procure foreign documents and representations behind the backs of the military censors, and by careful study and comparison of these slowly arrived at the truth, — these had to shut the truth within them, since it was and is considered unpatriotic to give expression to it, since every utterance in word or in writing would be suppressed by the military authorities, and the offender would expose himself to the risk of punishment.

It is to escape this fate that those who know the facts have kept, and still keep, silence. Those, however, who do not know the truth, or do not wish to know it, cry out all the more loudly, and as a work of illumination scatter broadcast the foolish products of their minds throughout the world, where no one believes them, even if they were to repeat the German lies a million times. iWhat are we to say when Germans of the highest eminence, from Bode to Dehmel,^ from Haeckel to Hauptmann,^ from Liszt to Sudermann, from Laband to Liebermann,^ (in all nearly a hundred of them), distribute in foreign countries an appeal, which immediately after the opening words contains the following sentence : —

"Germany on the other hand made every effort to avoid war. The incontestable evidence in support of this fact

^ Decorated on the Emperor's birthday 191S, Fourth Class of the Red Eagle.

^ Wilhelm von Bode, General Director of the Royal Museum, Berlin, a leading authority on art, Richard Dehmel a distinguished poet, Ernst Haeckel, the celebrated Professor of Zoology at Jena; Gerhardt Hauptmann, perhaps the most eminent of contemporary poets; Franz von Liszt, Professor of Jurisprudence at Berlin, a leading criminologist; Hermann Sudermann, the novelist; Paul Laband, Professor of Jurisprudence at Strassburg; Max Liebermann, a distinguished painter.

are open to all the world, . . . Only when the overwhelming forces of the enemy, who had long been lying in ambush on our frontiers, fell into our country from three sides (!), only then did the German people rise like one man."

And with such robber-stories as these about the enemy lurking in ambush — one thinks involuntarily of Lederstrumpf and Ali Baba — they dare to humbug such highly educated, cultured nations as, for instance, the Italians (among whom even a street-porter has to-day a better knowledge of the historical truth about the war than a Harnack has among us), among a people whose Government, with the approval of the whole country, declared that the war was an offensive war on the part of Germany and Austria, and rightly and of necessity so declared unless it wished to charge itself with faithlessness and the breach of its own word.

It is to these men a self-evident fact that we are the leading culture-people of the world, and consequently (such is the logic of these gentlemen!) we are called upon to impose our culture forcibly on the other inferior races and even on neutrals by means of bombs and grenades, by fire and devastation. Such is the mission which Providence has pointed out to us, as it called upon the Crusaders to fight against the Crescent (which now we have gained as an ally in the struggle against Christian nations), and as it instigated the Catholics in the Thirty Years' War to cast out of the Protestants by fire and sword their new- won faith. In the view of our leading spirits, in place of the wars of religion there has suddenly arisen since the ist August, 1914, a culturewar, in which the nations are fighting for the equal privileges or the supremacy of the various "hostile cultures." Has ever a greater madness than this been conceived? In 1870 when France was defeated and crushed.

did we suppress, did we so much as touch, the culture of that country? Did the foreign domination of Napoleon wipe out even a trace of our German spiritual culture, which just then had reached an incomparable height? When the Romans conquered Greece did they at the same time overthrow Greek culture? Precisely the opposite took place. The captor was made captive. The mind of Greece, the art of Greece, subdued Rome. And we find the same thing in the history of Christianity. In the end was it not the small province of Galilee that imposed its spirit on the world-empire of Rome? How indeed is it possible for anyone to speak of the present struggle as a struggle of cultures when what we really have before us is merely a struggle of anticultures, of barbarisms, against each other, — a struggle which from day to day becomes more bitter, more cruel, and more murderous, — a struggle in which all the principles of international law and of humanity are more and more forgotten, if indeed it is still possible to speak of humanity in face of this inhuman massacre? What has all this got to do with culture? Do we intend in any way to suppress the culture of England and France, of Russia and Belgium? Do we mean to renounce Shakespeare, Darwin, Newton, and Spencer, Tolstoy and Dostoiewsky, Voltaire, Rousseau, Zola, Goncourt, Rubens, Van Eyck, Meunier, and Maeterlinck, or do we mean to rid the world of their achievements? With what right, then, do we impute to the others intentions against us which we do not have against them, and to which we could not give effect even if we entertained them? If we had not read it daily in print, we would not have believed that the intellectuals of Germany could have persuaded themselves and the German people that Gennan culture is in danger, and that it must be defended with Zeppelins and with 42-centimetre artillery. The "neurosis of war" has indeed become epidemic.

like St. Vitus's dance or flagellantism in the Middle Ages, As the Dervishes in the East for hours at a time utter the same formulae of prayer and go through the same contortions with their arms and legs and their bodies until at last they fall down foaming at the mouth and overpowered, so now we have seen the learned men of Germany repeating for months past the same patriotic litanies, the same unproved assertions (assertions indeed of which the contrary is proved) ; at all times reaching upwards with their arms and their legs and indeed their whole body, until in their opinion they and their people surpass all other nations of the earth, and if they do not become like to God, they at least become the chosen people of God. They overpower themselves with their own phrases, until they foam at the mouth from sheer patriotism and fall down in adoration of themselves. . . . But they will in time awake from their stupefaction, and the wild intoxication will be followed by the terrible discomfort of returning sobriety.

The purpose of this book is to hasten this awakening. This / regard as a patriotic duty; for the longer the intoxication lasts, the worse will be the consequences for the German people, and the process of awakening will be more difficult and more terrible. It is only a better knowledge of the origins and objects of this war, a recognition of the guilt and responsibility for this war, that can bring about a change for the better.

Can the Victory of Germany and Austria Be Expected?

the economic position of belligerent countries

To-day it is no longer permissible to imagine the possibility of the victory of the Allied Empires. The financial and military superiority of the countries allied against them is so great that they cannot be counterbalanced by military efficiency on the part of Germany, nor even by the greatest sacrifices in life and well-being. No declamatory statements about "holding out till the last breath," no false and dazzling promises about the economic resisting power of Germany can in any way alter this fact. The balance of gold in the imperial bank is no proof that the economical position is still tolerable ; for indeed nearly all the gold in circulation has flowed to the bank, and the notes for the hundred and fifty million pound sterling issued by the loan fund have been covered not by gold but by unrealisable goods and effects. Manufactures find employment only in so far as they are engaged for the internal needs of the country and for military purposes. The money required for the supply of military stores is, however, raised from the German taxpayer, and as it represents an unproductive investment it must be entered in the books as a pure loss. One class at least has nothing to complain of; I mean the agrarian class. It is they who have sounded the call to the battle, who have stirred up war, the imperialists and the chauvinists, whom the German people have to thank for this hideous war. From their ranks come the colonels and the generals, the Bernhardis and the Frobeniuses, who prescribe to the German Empire its historical mission, "world-power or downfall," and who announce to it its "hour of destiny." These are the men who possess the ear of the highest in the country, and who instil into them the poison of their selfish ideas. These are the men who at the same time are making the best profit out of the war. They and their comrades must of course also bleed, but what they lose in blood flows back to them in gold, gold in the form of gold-lace and in glittering coins. They are also making a career for themselves, and the more officers fall, so much the better for the younger men. They are, too, succeeding in business more brilliantly than they could ever have done in time of peace. The prices of their produce, grain, potatoes, and cattle, would have risen immeasurably if the Government had not in the end seen the necessity of fixing maximum prices. But even these maximum prices are already enormously above the prices ever paid in times of peace.^

The workmen and the middle classes however perish and decay. The longer the war lasts, the more surely will German trade, the German system of finance and German manufactures, be deprived of their connections with foreign countries. The seas of the world are open to our enemies, England and France, as well as to neutral States, and it would be a surprising fact if they did not gradually usurp our place in markets abroad. The exports and imports of Italy and of Holland must necessarily show an upward tendency after Germany is ruled out of account. The longer the war lasts, the more successful will be the efforts of England to drive our trade out of America, Asia, and Africa, and in any case decades will pass before we again reach the position we occupied before the war. And while the economic life of Germany is thus advancing to a stage at which it will slowly bleed to death, this process can only

* Bread has meanwhile become constantly scarcer, and the monopoly of grain and the distribution of bread by the State has already been introduced.

W I ACCUSE!

be accelerated by the necessity of producing the enormous stores of materials required for the maintenance of our armies of millions, and for the conduct of the war. It has been estimated by an expert that the cost of maintenance per man per day may be reckoned at lo marks, and this estimate takes no account of the wear and tear of materials, the ammunition used up (a single shot from our 42-centimetre guns is said to cost thousands of marks), or the loss of all kinds of instruments of war. If we maintain five million soldiers under arms, the war will cost us in ready money paid out of our pockets two and a half million pounds sterling a day; it will cost monthly 75 million pounds, it will cost in a 3^ear 900 million pounds sterling. If we include in our estimate the sums indicated above, for ordinary wear and tear, for material used up or lost, it will be impossible to estimate the yearly cost of the war at anything less than 1,250 million pounds sterling, that is to say 250 millions more than the sum-total of the debts of the German Empire and of the individual States in 1912.

Further, the justice of this calculation is more or less confirmed by the war-loans which so far have been asked and approved in the German Empire, amounting to 500 million pounds, to which the war contribution of 1913 amounting to 50 millions must be added. These war loans were intended to reach until somewhere about the end of the financial year, that is to say until about 31st March, 191 5, but doubtless they are not intended, and are not sufficient to provide for a complete current renewal of the material of the war which has been lost or used up. If we add the sums necessary for this purpose we will arrive more or less at the sum estimated above, as that required for the conduct of the war for a year, that is to say 1,250 million pounds sterling.

The countless millions of pounds which the war is costing and has already cost our economic life, surpasses all estimation. The Exchanges are closed. No one knows to-day what he possesses. In any case nearly all effects are as good as unrealisable ; and without the cunningly devised system of loan- funds, a system In essence supported on feet of clay, without the protective laws of the 4th August and all the other conceivable measures which were passed, Intended partly to stave off the malady and partly to conceal It, the collapse of our German economic life would within a short time become an accomplished fact.

At the same time England is abused in every key because she avails herself of the advantages conferred on her by her geographical and economical position, j Had we been In England's place would we have behaved otherwise? "A la guerre comme a la guerre." Everyone defends himself to the best of his ability, and If the English, apart from their land forces and their navy, can make use of their economic superiority to defeat us, i who has any right to reproach them with the fact?| Are we not speculating on the possibility of Mohammedan risings in English colonies, behind which we stand as spiritus rector? Are we not levying from the wretched and desolate Belgium, the prey of penury and soon to be the prey of famine, — a country which after all Is only defending its Independence and freedom (aj war of liberation in the true sense!) — ^are we not levying from this exhausted country and from Its wholly or partly devastated cities many hundreds of millions of marks as a so-called "war contribution"? From my own points of view the economic war which England is waging against us is far preferable to the warfare of blood which we have brought upon the world. The war of blood involves the loss both of human life and of economic values; the war of trade demands only eco-' nomic sacrifices, but spares that which in the end has the greater value, the life of men. In this It to a certain extent approaches the conditions of peace which exist between countries whose relations are not regulated by treaties of commerce ; in this case also we find economic struggle without loss of life. Here there is indeed opened to our vision a prospect of the form which struggles will assume in the future configuration of human society. It will no longer be a struggle with weapons , forged of steel and of iron, but a struggle of the nerves and of the brain, a more refined struggle between civilised men, who will become more and more removed from the brutal bodily struggle of wild beasts and of barbaric nations, among whom Europe to-day assumes the first place.

It is of course a feeble consolation that the other belligerent countries are also exhausting themselves. A country so economically undeveloped as Russia, whose exports and imports, in spite of her i8o million inhabitants, amounted in 19 12 only to 300 million pounds sterling, need scarcely be considered in such a comparison. The more developed the economic life of a coimtry is, the more extensive its trade and its industries, the more sensible is it to the effects of war. So far as England and France are concerned, these countries are in the first place much more wealthy than Germany, and in the second place, as we have already observed, after the disappearance of the few German commerce raiders all the seas of the world are open to them, so that they can export their produce and bring back again from foreign countries the necessary raw material, the means of subsistence and any other articles that may be required. It is at once foolish and pernicious when the German Press and the public opinion of Germany seek to deceive themselves and others on this point.

The credit of the countries at war with us, so far as France and England are concerned, has so far scarcely suffered in any way. In foreign countries French and English notes have maintained their rate of exchange almost unaltered, whereas German notes are constantly sinking in value. A loomark note can already be purchased abroad for 112 francs (instead of nominally 125 fr.), whereas English £1 notes cost at the same time ; 26 francs (instead of nominally 25 fr.). 1 The German 5 per cent, war-loan was issued at 97 ' per cent, whereas the English 3^ per cent, war-loan was issued at 95 per cent. If the wealth and credit of the German Empire were equal to that of England, the German 5 per cent, imperial loan would have been about 40 per cent, more valuable than the English 3j^ per cent, and instead of being issued at 97^ per cent, it could have been issued somewhere about 135 per cent. In this enormous difference there is clearly revealed the comparative economic strength and the power of resistance possessed by the two countries. No patriotic talk, no stifling of the truth, will help us here. Hard facts are the best arguments. The more we ignore the facts, the worse will it be for us. We do not succeed in throwing sand into the eyes of others, but in lying to ourselves, we lull ourselves in hopes impossible of fulfilment, we become ever more stiff-necked in the pursuit of the unholy struggle, and in the end we will accomplish our own destruction.

THE POLITICAL AND MILITARY POSITION" OF THE BELLIGERENT COUNTRIES

The political and military aspect of affairs is precisely similar to the economic aspect.

The whole of our Colonies, built up by the expenditure of many hundreds of millions of marks, and tended with something of a mother's love, have been lost. Austria has lost Galicia and part of Bukovina, and Hungary is in danger of being overrun by the Russians. On the other side, Belgium and the eastern corner of France are occupied by the Germans and a small part of eastern Poland is occupied by the allied German and Austrian forces. But we must not forget that French troops are still in Upper Alsace and that until a few days ago Russian troops were still in East Prussia.^

Thus we see that both sides have in their possession a number of objects of barter which at the end of the war should be mutually returned as is done in the case of prisoners. The longer the war lasts and the more extensive it becomes, the more other countries unite themselves to the belligerent parties, the more will the number of these objects of barter increase. While the Turks are pressing forward towards the Suez Canal, the English are making progress in Persia, Mesoptomia, and Arabia ; here also it may be presumed that territory will ,be seized on both sides, which on the conclusion of peace will have to be exchanged.

The world-war, notwithstanding the fearful daily impacts and loss of blood, is, as it were, being conducted in such a way that the opponents pass each other by, and it would be the best, because the most humane solution, if the impacts were to become constantly less, and, on the other hand, the possession of territory belonging to the other side were to become constantly more extensive. The result would be the same as now, only with less loss of blood. For from the military, just as little as from the economic, point of view no one can still entertain the illusion that the war may end with a victory of the allied empires.

To-day the possibility of such an issue must already be regarded as completely excluded. The battles in the

'■This book was completed in February, and cannot therefore take account of later events; these, however, cannot affect the final result of the war.

East are essentially no more than a defensive, unsuccessfully conducted so far as Austria is concerned, but hitherto maintained with success by Germany after the first blows fell. What does the occupation of Lodz, and even, so far as I am concerned, the conquest of Warsaw mean against such a colossus as the Russian Empire? Will Russia be defeated when we get possession of the half or the whole of Poland? It will be nothing but a new object of barter given into our hands, but will it mean the conquest of Russia? Not in the slightest.

And what about the situation in France ? What difficulties have we to overcome to gain possession of even the small north-western corner of Belgium! What unspeakable sacrifices does that involve ! How many thousands of poor, deluded, heroic soldiers have miserably perished in snow and in ice, in the trenches and in the canals, in mud and in mire, on their lips a last whisper of farewell to wife and child and mother, in their hearts a last thought of peace and home! And why? To gain possession of a few square metres of inundated and impoverished country with ruined towns and villages, and then on to the pursuit of the great illusion: on to Calais! on to England! All this reminds me of a picture by Spangenberg entitled "The Pursuit of Happiness," which thirty years ago was rightly the subject of much admiration in the Berlin Art Exhibition. A beautiful naked woman was represented hovering over a shining iridescent ball of glass before a troop of wild horsemen who, with gestures of passion, are seeking to reach the crown of laurels which she holds aloft in her right hand. She entices them on with her ensnaring eyes ; her golden yellow hair flutters in the wind, almost reaching the horsemen who are nearest to her. But the crown, the object of their passionate desires, ever eludes their longing grasp. An abyss yawns in front, crossed only by a narrow bridge, just broad enough to ensure a passage for the Ball of happiness and the goddess who hovers above it, but which means inevitable death for the warriors in pursuit. The first is already tottering into the chasm, the others will follow, and the vision of happiness dissolves, never to be seen again.