Germany of to-day

Preface

IN this little volume I have brought together a collection of facts that may easily be verified by anyone who has access to a public library. He who cares to do so may wholly overlook any expressions of opinion which I have permitted myself, and may confine his attention exclusively to the facts adduced. They have been sifted with much care and have been submitted to the criticism of experts. I believe them to be accurate.

I have not desired simply to add one more to the many excellent works which give to English readers general information about Germany. I have wished to present in brief outline a sketch which will give a just conception of the political and social constitution of the German nation and of the spirit with which it is penetrated. Owing to various reasons there is much misconception in this field among my countrymen.

PREFACE

United Germany is a young and vigorous nation. So is the United States of America. The better the two understand one another, the better for both. The more profitable will be their mutual relations in the time to come.

It is just that I should say that any sympathy which I feel for Germany has no other source than an intimate acquaintance extending over many years. I have no German blood in my veins. My family has been American as long as there has been an American nation.

May my little book be of service to Americans. George Stuart Fullerton.

Munich, June, 1915.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I The United States of Germany . i

II The Rights of the People in Germany 25

Chapter I The United States Of Germany

/^1 ERMANY is as much a nation as is the V-J United States of America. We must not allow ourselves to be misled by the associations of the word "Empire." The German Empire is a constitutional confederation of states inhabited by a homogeneous people, having the same blood, the same speech and much the same traditions. The Germans had a long experience of the disadvantages of disunion, and they have acute memories of bitter humiliations suffered when Germany was disunited and weak. They have now had an experience of more than forty years showing them the advantages of union, and all the states appreciate those advantages to the full.

I

The Unification of the Nation

It is now natural for us to think of our states as united in a confederation, but it is not so easy for us to think of kingdoms and principalities, whose kings and princes are by some conscientiously believed to hold their places by divine right, as giving up some of their rights as states to a federal government.

To comprehend the situation more sympathetically, we must go back to an earlier time in our own history. The old quarrel touching statesrights and federal control has been for us settled. We are a nation, and the states, although sovereign within certain limits, have finally renounced that complete sovereignty which would make a true union impossible. Once the American would have found it hard to understand what he now takes as a matter of course. Our Civil War was the great climax which finally made of us a nation.

The United States of Germany have developed a national consciousness in much the same way as the United States of America. The development has, however, been a more rapid one. It has become natural for Germans in all the states to think of themselves as Germans as we think of ourselves as Americans.

The rapidity of this development has been partly due to pressure from without. Had our United States been surrounded by powerful and jealous neighbors, they would have been compelled to attain to a closer union of feeling at an earlier period. Germany has been in such a position, and Germans have been compelled to lean upon Germans and to create for themselves a strong central government.

I have seen this unification of the Germans going on for thirty years. Those who do not know Germany well may be misled by superficial differences. Those who really know the country have been aware for years that Bavaria would no more think of breaking away from Prussia than Massachusetts would from New York. When it is suggested by men belonging to other nations, that a division of the German confederation would be desirable, and that the smaller states should be liberated from what is called the "Prussian yoke," Germans who hear such suggestions feel very much as we Americans should feel if outsiders talked of the desirability of the secession of some of the states within our Union. The United States of Germany have the same will to be one as the United States of America.

Even in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, so lately added to the German states, there has evinced itself in recent years rather a surprising sentiment in favor of the Empire. We must not allow ourselves to be misled by the outburst of popular feeling which has sometimes shown itself against the army, or rather against certain officers. Alsace and Lorraine are not yet German in feeling to the same extent as Bavaria or Wiirtemberg. Nevertheless, any ill-will which may be found against things German is not to be compared with the ill-will of a great part of Ireland against England. The fact is surprising, but I believe it to be a fact.

The imperial province has shared in the economic advantages of a union with the Empire and feels that it has, on the whole, been well governed. In my opinion, the German government has underrated the strength of the bonds which hold the province to the Empire. The towns in Alsace and Lorraine elect their own mayors, but the election must be approved by the representative of the imperial government. In recent times a number of those elected have not been approved by the imperial government, as they were suspected of being not sufficiently pro- German in feeling. Nevertheless, at the outbreak of the war of 19 14 some of these very men were among the first to volunteer as soldiers in the defense of the Empire.

There has just come into my hands at this writing a copy of the radical-socialistic newspaper of Miilhausen, the official organ of its party. I notice that the radical-socialistic deputy to the Reichstag from Alsace vigorously maintains that a separation of Alsace and Lorraine from Germany would lead to industrial disaster there and to an injury to the working man.

It is not surprising that the smaller German states should hold with enthusiasm to the German confederation. Alone, they were of no significance, and were at great economic disadvantage. United, they are "constituent parts of a great nation and enjoy very great economic advantages.

In this connection, let me quote the words of Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons, the correspondent of the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, who visited Germany at the end of 19 14 to see for himself the actual conditions which prevailed there. He indicates, in his letter from Munich, that his sympathies and prejudices do not incline him to the German point of view. Nevertheless, in speaking of the smaller states, he writes: "As in Wurtemberg, so in Bavaria. Under Prussian hegemony, these people have known uninterrupted and unbounded prosperity. Aladdin's lamp has been before them for the rubbing during this past generation. They have had their outlet to the sea. They have enjoyed the benefit of the prestige and power of united Germany. Will they ever be content to go back again to the regime of the small inland kingdom? The Bavarians realize now, more than ever since the war started, the intention of the enemies of Germany and they feel that this struggle is far more a matter of life and death to them than to the Prussians, who have a sea-coast; I noticed this in their newspapers."

Every foreign war is apt to emphasize unity among a people and leads to a diminution of internal dissensions. But the unparalleled unanimity with which, not only all the German states, but also all classes of the populations within the states, some of them with apparently irreconcilable principles, joined in the great war, must have impressed everyone who was an impartial spectator of the occurrences of 19 14 and 191 5, as was I. A very strong national feeling was evinced; something akin to what we look for in America. Even confessional differences, proverbially the most bitter, were wholly dropped out of sight for the time being.

To be sure, one hears in Munich jests at the expense of the Berliner, and in North Germany some fun is made of the Bavarian or the Swabian. Such banter has, in my opinion, little more significance than has that of the New Yorker, who complains that one cannot sleep in Philadelphia, because of the noise that the sun makes beating on the roof, or the Philadelphian's remark, that he found nothing new in Chicago save the old families. There are differences between North Germans and South, but they are not greater than the differences between dwellers in New York and those in New Orleans; they have no political significance. The German nation is one, it has the will to be one, and there is no reason to think that it will again be divided.

The Federal Government and the States

The German confederation consists of twentytwo states, three free towns, and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. There are four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies and seven principalities. The old Hanseatic towns of Hamburg, Bremen and Liibeck have retained their ancient privileges, and they entered the union upon the same basis as the" states, their respective mayors representing them where the states are represented by their princes. These free towns are, in reality, small republics and enjoy a thoroughly republican form of government.

Alsace and Lorraine were added to Germany in

1 87 1 and stand in a somewhat different relation to the Empire than do the other states.

The Federal Government

The Federal or Imperial Government has just such rights as were freely granted to it by the states which entered into union to form it. Its powers are determined by the purposes it was intended to serve. The analogy between the situation in Germany and in our own country is by no means a remote one. There is a Federal Government with its two chambers and a Chief Executive, and there are the Local Governments which it represents and over which it exercises a limited control.

The "Bundesrat," or Federal Council of the Empire which corresponds somewhat to our Senate, represents the governments of the several states. The more important states have a larger representation than the smaller, but one by no means proportional to their population. Thus, Prussia has in the "Bundesrat" only seventeen votes out of fifty-eight. This is, to be sure, no measure of the influence of Prussia in the confederation, for not only does Prussia exercise an important influence upon the smaller states, but her representation in the "Bundesrat" enjoys a certain limited veto-right, which may be exercised to prevent innovations in legislation touching the army, the navy, duties and excises. The notion of especial rights and "reserved" rights is not foreign to the German confederation. Thus, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony enjoy, to a limited degree, the former; and Bavaria and Wiirtemberg the latter.

I suppose the German would scarcely be inclined to call the "Bundesrat" an "upper house." It is supposed to be the "bearer of the sovreignty" vested in the several states. And yet, to the critical eye of the American, its functions seem essentially those of an upper house, and it cannot legislate for the confederation without the cooperation of the lower house. For this reason, I shall speak of it as one of the federal chambers.

The members of the second chamber, the "Reichstag," which corresponds to our House of

Representatives, are elected by universal manhood suffrage. With us, a citizen of the United States naturally becomes a citizen of any one of the states in which he makes his domicile. The reverse is the case in Germany. He who is the citizen of any state in the German confederation is made thereby a citizen of the Empire and may vote for the nation's representatives in the "Reichstag." The vote is direct and is by secret ballot.

The importance of this national representation cannot be overestimated, for all laws for the regulation of the Empire must, in order to pass, receive the votes of an absolute majority both of the "Bundesrat" and of the "Reichstag."

The Federal Government is the supreme legislative authority in matters regarding the army and navy, the imperial finances, and German commerce. It controls the posts and telegraphs except within two of the states, which have retained certain rights in this regard, and it controls the railways, as far as they affect the national defenses. To federal legislation the

ii individual states must adjust themselves in a multitude of provinces affecting the rights and interests of German citizens. Thus, the Federal Government legislates touching naturalisation, domicile, navigation of rivers and canals, banking, patents and copyrights. It controls civil and criminal legislation and the rules of judical procedure. The colonies of the Empire stand under its authority.

Compared with our Congress

It can readily be seen that the powers of the federal chambers in Germany are rather closely analogous to those exercised by Congress in the United States of America.

Congress can lay and collect taxes and duties, borrow money on the credit of the United States, regulate foreign and internal commerce, fix the conditions of naturalisation, legislate regarding bankruptcy, money, weights and measures, the mails, copyrights and patents. It can provide for lower federal courts, declare war, and raise and support an army and navy. Moreover, it has organized the public domain into territories and has admitted new states into the Union, as it has deemed fit. The much discussed so-called "elastic clause" of the constitution, enabling Congress to make all laws necessary for carrying into execution the powers vested by the constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer of the government has enabled Congress to pass measures not contemplated when the constitution was promulgated. Such measures were the purchase of Louisiana and Alaska in 1803 an d 1867, and those which concern the dependencies acquired by the United States in quite recent times.

In short, the Congress of the United States is the supreme legislative body of a nation, and concerns itself with what regards the nation as a whole. The German chambers have precisely the same task, and their powers are determined by the end held in view. Both federal governments represent states which are, within certain limits, independent, and, within certain limits, stand under a higher authority.

The President and the Emperor

There is one striking difference between the position of the chief executive of the German nation and that of the President of the United States of America. The office of German Emperor is hereditary in the House of Hohenzollern, the reigning house of the kingdom of Prussia. This arrangement was effected by the mutual agreement among the states which formed the Union in 1871, and there are historical reasons, apart from the size and importance of Prussia as a state, which make the arrangement not unnatural.

But both the fact that the chief executive of the German nation is an emperor, inheriting his title, and the fact that the same individual is king of Prussia, and enjoys in that capacity various rights which have nothing to do with his rights and duties as Emperor, have caused in the United States a wide-spread misconception, even among well-informed people, as to the imperial office.

The truth is that the German Emperor is

H virtually the president of the confederation of the German States. It should be noticed that his official title is "German Emperor," not "Emperor of Germany." This title was given him to emphasize the fact that he is first among the German princes, and that his position is not identical with that of the German emperor of an earlier time. The states do not belong to him ; he belongs to them.

His powers as chief executive of the United States of Germany are analogous to those exercised by our President. Bills passed by the chambers must be signed by him before they become law. As king of Prussia he can exercise through the Prussian representation in the "Bundesrat," the limited veto-right upon legislation referred to above. Our President enjoys a more unrestricted right of veto, although measures may become law by being passed by a two-thirds majority of our Senate and House over his veto.

The Emperor can influence legislation indirectly by recommendations. So can our President. Here the advantage lies, rather, in my opinion, with our President, who was elected by, and presumably has the support of, one of our large political parties, and who is not hampered by a senate whose members represent states which may easily be made sensitive by what appears to them an undue increase in the imperial influence. If the Emperor is respected and liked — and there can be no question, in the minds of those who have known Germany well for the past twentyfive years, that the present Emperor is regarded in all parts of the Empire with increasing respect and affection — his indirect influence may be great. He has one advantage over even a popular president in the United States; his term of office is longer.

The Emperor may prorogue the "Reichstag" for a period not exceeding thirty days. He may, with the approval of the "Bundesrat," dissolve it, but then new elections must be ordered within sixty days and the new session must be opened within ninety days. Our President may call special sessions of Congress, and, in case the houses disagree with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he thinks proper, but not for a longer time than the day fixed for the assembling of the next session of Congress.

The Emperor is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy ; so is our President. The Emperor may declare a defensive war, but, without the assent of the "Bundesrat," he may not declare an offensive war. The funds necessary to carry on successfully any war can only be obtained by vote of the "Reichstag," or lower house, which votes the budget. In the making of treaties with foreign nations, the appointment of ambassadors, etc., the powers of the Emperor exceed those of the President. Like our President, the Emperor has a "cabinet," theoretically responsible only to himself. However, in actual practise, the Chancellor of the Empire, or Prime Minister, retires, if he cannot, in the long run, secure the cooperation of the parties in the "Reichstag." No member of our cabinet holds his office under this tacit understanding. On the other hand, our cabinet is supposed to support the policy of the President, which is supposed to be in harmony with that of a majority of our citizens, by whose votes the President was elected. Moreover, the members of our cabinet hold office for a definite term of years only, and those who are discontented with them can afford to wait until their places are vacated.

Federal Government in Germany and in America

It is clear that the Federal Government of the German states has many features in common with our own Federal Government. There is a similar emphasis upon the distinction between the legislative and the executive authorities. The governments of the states are represented in one house, and the people, as such, in the other. The Emperor, notwithstanding the title he bears and the fact that his office devolves upon him by heredity, has powers and duties which may well be compared in extent and nature to those of our Chief Executive.

It is of no little importance to insist upon this, and to call attention to the actual facts, for even the thoughtful among us are more or less influenced by forms of expression. To every American schoolboy the word "Emperor" suggests Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Charlemagne and Napoleon. It does not suggest the permanent presidency of a voluntary confederation of states, several of them republics, which have come together on the basis of a constitution carefully defining, in the common interest, the rights and duties of those who govern as well as of those who are governed. It would be unwise to push too far the analogy between the United States of America and the United States of Germany, but it is wise to look at the facts, and to avoid the tyranny of words. Of the wisdom of avoiding the tyranny of crude mistranslations of German words, I need hardly speak, for I write for men of intelligence.

The German States

The analogy between the constitutions of the individual German states which compose the confederation and the constitutions of our own States is not as close as that between the German

Federal Government and our own. The German Federal Government is something relatively new. It was freely made. It did not grow up as the result of a development extending over centuries and exposed to a multitude of historical accidents, although its fundamental principles have their roots in the past. On the other hand, the states which combined to form the Empire were not new communities, but had, either as units or in their constituent parts, long been in existence, and had enjoyed their own traditions.

When they came together, they did not try to remake themselves upon a common pattern. Their several constitutions are determined largely by tradition and are adjusted, on the whole, to the habits and ways of thinking of the people. I have said that kingdoms, grand-duchies, duchies, principalities and republics have entered into the union on relatively equal terms, retaining their local governments while acquiring federal rights. A Bavarian, taking up his residence in the republic of Hamburg, is entitled to the

suffrage, and may help in the election of his chosen candidate to the Reichstag; a native of the republic of Bremen may, under similar conditions, become a voter in Bavaria, Saxony or Prussia. But wherever he may have his domicile, the German must come under local rules and regulations.

The German states have their own representative assemblies. The six larger states have the two-chamber system. The free cities have their legislative bodies. There is much difference in the composition of the chambers in the several states, but, in general, it may be said, that the constitution of the typical German state is less democratic than that of the Empire. Heredity, the possession of land, the payment of taxes, even eminence in science or literature, may give one man an advantage over another in the share which he has in the government of his fellows. Between the constitution of the Free State of Hamburg and that of the City of London there is a striking similarity.

Here I may remark that I believe that, after the close of the present war, the constitutions of the several German states will undergo modifications bringing them more into harmony with the democratic elements in the imperial constitution. Thus, I regard it as not improbable that the suffrage in the individual states will take on somewhat the same liberal character as is shown in the elections for the "Reichstag." The loyalty of the people of Germany, and the great sacrifices willingly made by all classes, in the present crisis in the life of the nation, would thus meet with a fitting recompense.

The Governments of the States

The constitutions of the several states have undergone changes in the past, and they will certainly undergo changes in the future. Nevertheless, there has been, and still is, much conservatism. This should not surprise the American, who voluntarily chooses to live under a federal constitution which, for a century and a quarter, has undergone practically no changes of moment, and in which it appears to be excessively difficult to introduce changes. When men are well off, they fear changes; when they

are miserable, they court them. Among my personal friends I count men of education and intelligence who belong to the Social-Democratic party and who stand for thorough-going reforms. Nevertheless, I am convinced that, were they sure that the sweeping changes, which they seem to advocate, might be made at once, they would oppose their introduction. Their inconsistency is only on the surface. They believe in reforms; they do not want revolution; the government under which they live is a very tolerable one and they know that they could easily get a worse.

The general principle on which self-government in Germany is based, has been characterised in a standard British work as: "Government by experts, checked by lay criticism and the power of the purse, and effective control by the central authorities." It is further added: "That this system works without friction is due to the German habit of discipline; that it is, on the whole, singularly effective, is a result of the peculiarly enlightened and progressive views of the German bureaucracy."

It would be a waste of time for any admirer of Germany to try to prove that the constitutions of the German states are like those of the states which compose our Union. It would be foolish for any opponent to maintain, that, because unlike them, they are intolerable to the populations which live under them. Governments have their histories. The test of a government is to be found in what it does, and may in the future be expected to do, for the governed. If its workings result in degradation and misery, in the reign of injustice and a pervasive feeling of insecurity, the government is bad, whatever its form. If it makes for enlightenment, if there is a general confidence in the administration of justice and the protection of the rights even of the weak, if the mass of the citizens are enabled to live happy lives and to develop freely their intellectual and moral powers, it should not hastily be condemned, even by those who, by education and by conviction, are led to prefer some other form of government.

Chapter II The Rights Of The People In Germany

THERE is rather a wide-spread belief in America, that the Germans, in their own home, cannot precisely be called a free people, and do not enjoy those rights of man to which every American thinks he has a claim. Now and then men of an oratorical turn describe the German as "groaning under the yoke of a Prussian militarism."

To be sure, those of us who travel in Germany see great apparent content, and find faces less anxious than those to which we are accustomed in New York. Those of us who live for a while in Germany and come into close contact with Germans discover that they are apt to regard with affection the princes of their several states and to have a kindly feeling towards their paternal government. Nevertheless, there is a tradition in some quarters outside of Germany that the Germans are groaning under a yoke of some kind, and dwellers in other lands have even gone so far as to suggest that it would be an act of disinterested benevolence to set them free by force.

That all Germans are contented no sensible man would maintain. But the average German does not appear to be more restlessly discontented than the average American, who is usually agitating for reforms of some sort, and the mass of the workers in Germany impress one as distinctly less restless and discontented than the corresponding classes in Great Britain. For this the elaborate social legislation of the last quarter of a century is in large measure responsible.

Certain it is that, notwithstanding the great yearly increase of the population, an increase approaching a million, and in spite of the problem of providing for those added to the population in a territory of limited size, emigration from Germany has fallen off extraordinarily. This is the more remarkable in view of the fact that the population is intelligent, well-informed and energetic, possesses the means to emigrate, can very easily go to America or elsewhere, and has numerous relatives and connections across the seas. There is still some emigration, of course, but the mass of the inhabitants, whatever they may complain of, appear to find life best worth living at home. The situation is very different from what it is in certain other countries in Europe, the emigration to the United States from Germany having been, in recent years, if the sizes of the populations concerned are taken into consideration, scarcely one-twentieth of what it has been from Ireland.

There are, however, certain reasons why the American might easily be misled into forming a somewhat erroneous opinion of the rights enjoyed by the German, and of the measure of his contentment with those rights.

There are differences between the political rights of the American and those of his Teutonic neighbor. The principle of hereditary right seems strange to the American, and it is foreign to his thought that men should be appointed, and not elected, to membership in any legislative body. Furthermore, the elaborate organization of the machinery of government, which obtains in Germany, and which results in an admirable order and discipline, keeps a man mindful of the fact that he is governed. This is distasteful to the American. The historical reasons for, and the practical significance of, the organization of society in the German states, do not at once make themselves apparent to our eyes. To do justice to them, we are compelled to familiarize ourselves with a rather new conception of rights and duties.

One thing, however, the American will learn, if his knowledge becomes more than superficial, and that is that no man is more conscious than is the German of the rights which he actually has under the law, nor is any man more ready to have recourse to the law to protect them. In the present chapter I shall deal briefly with German rights.