Modern Germany; its rise, growth, downfall and future

Preface

The Sixth Edition of Modern Germany is, as the title-page states, " entirely re-written and very greatly enlarged." It is in reality a new book. Hence the question arose whether it should appear under its old title or under a new one.

The first five editions were mainly devoted to pointing out the probability and danger of a German attack upon civilisation, and to analysing the sources of the strength of Imperial Germany and the elements of its weakness. The attack, of which I had warned the nations in general, and England in particular, in numerous books and articles ever since 1900, took place at the exact moment which I had indicated in 1907 (see p. 447 of this work), and it ended as I had often foretold (see, for instance, pp. 447 to 450), in Germany's defeat and downfall, in revolution, and in the disappearance of the HohenzoUern dynasty. A new Germany is arising. Owing to the march of events readers are no longer interested in the aims and ambitions and the foreign and domestic policy of defunct Imperial Germany. They wish to understand the causes of Germany's meteoric rise, of its wonderful political and economic success and of its downfall, and to form an idea as to the future of New Germany and of the German race. To analyse and describe these is the purpose of this book. Therefore, it had to be re-written throughout.

There was a considerable demand for a new edition of Modern Germany both in England and in the United States. As portions of the fifth edition have been embodied in the present volume, it seemed only fair to intending purchasers to indicate that fact by preserving the old title for what is practically a new book. Of course, very drastic changes had to be made to bring it up to date. Large portions contained in the fifth edition, which are no longer of vi PREFACE

interest except to historians, have been omitted, and the new situation created by the War has been considered from every point of view. The portions of the old text used have been compressed to the utmost. Thus the present issue gives in the most concise form all the information of permanent interest and value which was contained in the previous one, and considerably more than a hundred pages of additional matter. Seven chapters are entirely new.

In its present form Modern Oermany is a companion volume to The Foundations of Germany — A Documentary Account Revealing the Secret of her Strength, Wealth, and Efficiency, the second and very greatly enlarged edition of which appeared in the autumn of 1918. The two books are designed to supplement one another, and may almost be considered the first and second volumes of a single work. Both should be equally useful to students of Grerman affairs.

Modern Germany has had a most gratifying success in England and abroad. It has been used as a text-book at some of the leading American Universities, and has even been translated into Japanese and Mahratti. I hope that the present issue will meet with as kind a reception as its five predecessors.

The bulk of this volume has previously appeared in the Nineteenth Century and After, the Fortnightly Review, the Contemporary Review, and the National Review. However, the chapters are not merely reprints of articles, some of which are now more or less out of date. The original essays have in many cases suppUed only the framework of the various chapters, and they have been organically connected. I would very cordially thank the editors of the periodicals mentioned for allowing me to reprint part or the whole of my contributions.

For the convenience of readers the chapters of this book are briefly summarised in the Introduction.

J. Ellis Barker.

LOXDON,

Jamuxry 1919.

Contents

PAQB

Preface "^

OEUPTBR

Introduction

States are usually created by the collaboration of the many. Most democracies owe their rise to the people of whom they are composed. Modern Germany, Prusso- Grermany, was an exception to the general rule. Like some ancient feudal estate, it was the creation of a single family, of the HohenzoUerns.

The HohenzoUerns were, as is pointed out in the second chapter, a family of adventurers, of daring and thriving Suabian robber-knights who obtained in the beginning of the fifteenth century the poor, neglected, lawless, and almost valueless district of Brandenburg from the Eong-Emperor in return for services rendered. They established in that savage country on the outskirts of the Empire a small State which flourished greatly, and which grew, by successful violence and trickery, into a kingdom and an empire. Thus a family of feudal robber-knights, possessed of a robber-knight morality and following a robber-knight policy, created in the wilds a robber State which they treated as if the land and the people dwelling therein were their personal possession.

Nominally Prusso-Germany was a federation of independent self-governing States. Germany and the States of which it was composed possessed indeed all the paraphernalia of constitutional, popular, and democratic government. However, in reality Germany was merely an enlarged Prussia. The King of Prussia could with more truth proclaim Vitat c'est moi than Louis XIV. or Napoleon I.

The HohenzoUern rulers, considering the country their property, administered it in accordance with ancient custom as if it were a huge estate. They directed absolutely, and as a rule in person, the army, the civil administration, the foreign and domestic policy of the State, industry, trade, and commerce, the Protestant and the Roman Catholic Churches, the schools, the universities, and the press. They not only controlled and directed all the activities of the State, but they moulded the character of the people and controlled the speech, thought, and action of the citizens from the cradle to the grave.

The character and welfare of a State so ruled and so constituted depend of course entirely upon the personality of its ruler, who, owing to his enormous power, is able to imprint his character upon the entire nation. During the reign of the moderate and well-balanced King-Emperor WiUiam I. Prusso-Germany behaved sanely and moderately, and the State grew great owing to the able direction of eminent experts, such as Bismarck, Moltke, and Roon, who were given the fullest scope. Under the personal rule of the vain, boastful, capricious, impetuous, conceited, and utterly incompetent William II., in whom were combined the vices of most of his ancestors, the character of State and nation changed completely, as is shown in Chapter III. Experts in the art of government and administration were replaced by applauding courtiers and by spineless sycophants. The complicated and delicate machinery of the State was thrown out of gear by the clumsy interference of its incompetent director. The character of the people was degraded by the Emperor's policy, teaching, and pernicious example. The whole nation became boastful, capricious, conceited, and utterly unscrupulous.

Soon after his advent the Emperor proclaimed that he would be his own Chancellor, that he would steer the young Empire over a new course, his own course. He dismissed Prince Bismarck, and Germany's foreign policy began to reflect the Emperor's rashness, incapacity, and utter untrustworthiness. By his constant interference, bluster, and threats, William II. completely transformed the character of Germany's policy and damaged irretrievably the political reputation of the State. Thus William II. destroyed Germany's predominance in Europe which Bismarck had created, and forced France, Russia, and England to combine in self-defence, as is shown in Chapter IV.

Prusso- Germany was, by its history and tradition, a robber State. It had grown great by successful aggression. According to the Hohenzollern tradition, the army was the bodyguard of the sovereign, and its strength and eflficiency were the principal interest of the ruler. Moltke resigned shortly after the advent of WilHam II. His successors, as those of Prince Bismarck, were chosen not for their ability, but for their subserviency. They were servile courtiers and flatterers of WiUiam II., not men of the highest qualifications possessed of a strong character. The Emperor became not only his own Chancellor and his own Minister of Foreign Affairs, but his own Minister of War and his own Chief of the Staff as well. His constant interference with military matters was as disastrous to Germany as was his interference ill foreign and domestic politics. Thus William II. destroyed not only the life-work of Bismarck, but that of Moltke and of Roon as well, as is shown in Chapter V.

William II. had often proclaimed that he would lead Germany towards a great and glorious future. Bismarck, after having made Germany supreme on the continent of Europe, desired his country to follow a moderate and peaceful policy. He attached particular value to good relations with England. William II. thirsted for glory. He completely lacked the sense of proportion. He wished to acquire the rule of the seas and the mastery of the world. He proclaimed in resounding sentences that Germany's future lay upon the water, and created a navy designed to humble England and the United States, as is shown in Chapters VI. and VII. He called into being a nation-wide agitation for the creation of a predominant fleet. The preamble of the Navy Law of 1900 proclaimed : " Germany requires a fleet of such strength that a war with the mightiest

Naval Power would involve risks threatening the supremacy of that Power." The entire governmental machine of Germany and the great semi-official apparatus were employed to promote the Emperor's naval ambition by preaching hostility to England, by preaching war with England. The whole tribe of Government servants, of Government nominees and of place-hunters, title-hunters, and decorationhimters, of generals and admirals, professors and schoolmasters, clergymen, lecturers, and journalists, was mobilised for this purpose. These men demanded in unmeasured and threatening language Germany's supremacy on the sea, the humihation of England and of the United States, and the establishment of a German world-empire dominating the universe. These demands were joyfully received and noisily supported by the masses of the people, who had been trained to obey implicitly and unquestioningly the directions received " from above."

Owing to the criminal foUy of William II. and of his pUable and characterless supporters in the various Government offices, Germany challenged and provoked England and the United States not only by her naval armaments and her naval agitation, but by her diplomacy as well. The fact that Germany was chiefly, one might almost say solely, responsible for the strained relations with England previous to the War may be seen from Chapter IX., which shows, exclusively by means of German evidence, where lay the guilt for the protracted and acute Anglo-German tension.

After the Franco-German War of 1870-71 Bismarck ensured Germany's security and peace by creating the Triple Alliance, and he made France impotent for a war of revenge by skilfully isolating it. William II. provoked in turn not only Russia, England, and the United States, but France as well, and he tried to humiliate that country by his intervention in Morocco in 1905 and 1911. The history of Germany's relations with France and the story of the very interesting and important Morocco crisis of 1911 are told in Chapters IX. and X.

Before the War German education was universally over-estimated. It was not sufficiently recognised abroad that the chief purpose of the German schools was not to elevate the character of the people, but to make them abjectly obedient tools in the hands of their ruler and of his government ; that they were designed to create not ability and individuality, but servility ; that much of the boasted training in the German educational establishments, even in the universities and technical schools, was totally misapplied. Mis-education has undoubtedly perverted the mind of the German nation. That has clearly been proved during the course of the War. Chapter XI., on " Education and Mis-Education in Germany," gives a critical appreciation of Grerman education, which is substantially reprinted from previous editions of this book. It was first published in the Contemporary Review in October 1906, and scandalised at the time many English educationalists who blindly admired the German educational system and wished to copy it in almost every particular.

Chapters XII. to XVIII. deal with Economic Germany. The German rulers, not the German people, created the State and the nation, and they created also Germany's economic success. The Grerman industries owe their rise and growth largely to the economic policy of the State, and particularly to skilfully-framed Protective Tariffs. The result of Protection, which was introduced by Prince Bismarck in 1879, is shoAvn in Chapter XII. — " The Fiscal Policy of Grermany and its Results."

Chapter XIII. describes at length the rural industries of Grermany and analyses the causes of their extraordinary prosperity.

Chapter XIV. deals with the railways and the railway policy of Germany. That chapter should be particularly interesting to those who wish the State to take over and manage the private railways. Germany has managed its State railways with considerable ability and success through its all-powerful and practically irresponsible bureaucracy. Whether England wiU be as successful in managing its railways as a State undertaking depends, of course, chiefly on the ability and the authority of those who will be called upon to direct them. Bureaucratic management of economic enterprises can be efficient only if it is carried on in a businesslike manner by the ablest experts, provided of course that these are not constantly hampered by partypolitical interference. The supremacy of bureaucratic routine, of " red-tape," of electoral influences, and the meddling of party politicians with the railways for partypolitical purposes would, of course, destroy their efficiency and their profit-earning capacity. Bureaucratic automata are as incapable of directing a great business undertaking successfully as are party politicians who are mainly interested in obtaining votes.

It is not generally known that Germany has a very highly-developed system of inland waterways, that before the War the tonnage of its inland fleet was twice as great as that u-of its merchant marine, that its greatest harbour was not ^Hamburg, but Ruhrort. Chapter XV. supplies full details as to Grermany's Waterways and Canals, which should be of particular interest to all who have the development of inland transport by water at heart.

In its economic policy Germany was guided not by its professors, but by its business men, not by abstract theories and principles, but by practical considerations. Hence it adapted its political means to the economic end in view. While it developed its gigantic manufacturing industries by means of fiscal protection, it created a prosperous shipbuilding and shipping industry with the help of Free Trade. However, it fostered its shipbuilding and shipping industries also by preferential railway tariffs granted by the State Railways and by various other means, as is shown in Chapter XVI.

In the chemical industry, and especially in the manufacture of dyes, Germany became predominant throughout the world not so much owing to the policy of Protection and to the high abihty of its chemists — the greatest chemical discoveries were made by EngUshmen and Frenchmen — but by State aid freely given for chemical research and for chemical tuition, and especially by organised research, by mass research, by team work, by the co-operation of an army of chemists for certain predetermined ends, as is described in Chapter XVII.

Chapter XVIII. sums up the results of Germany's economic policy. It gives a picture of the vast and rapid economic progress of the country, and furnishes full details of the extraordinary prosperity which the German classes and masses enjoyed up to 1914.

In Chapters XIX. and XX, the home-political position of Germany previous to the War is dealt with. The former chapter considers the rise, growth, and character of the Social Democratic Party, its organisation, its achievements, and its doctrines. The latter analyses the German parliamentary position previous to 1914, and shows incidentally that increasing difficulties in the field of domestic politics were a contributory cause to the World War. Prusso- Germany was ruled by the Emperor through a practically irresponsible military and bureaucratic administration, with the help of a subservient Conservative-governmental majority in the Reichstag. However, this majority of pro- Government deputies represented only a minority of the electorate. It misrepresented the people as a whole. The great bulk of the electorate was opposed to the Government and its policy. The growing numerical strength of the opposition parties in the country made the management of the Reichstag extremely and increasingly difficult for the Government and its Conservative and other pro-Government supporters in that assembly. It was feared by many that before long the Government would find it impossible to secure a docile and obedient Reichstag majority. Consequently many Conservative politicians and soldiers thought that the maintenance of the mihtary and autocratic form of government imperatively demanded the disfranchisement of the Liberal and Social Democratic masses by an alteration of the franchise, which could be brought about only by a Governmental coup d'etat. Many of the Emperor's staunchest adherents thought that such a step could comparatively easily be effected after a successful war. They believed that a great victory would so immensely enhance the prestige and authority of the Emperor and of his Government that the disfranchisement of the masses could safely be undertaken.

In Chapters XXI. to XXVIII. the Great War, its causes, and its consequences are considered. Chapter XXI. deals with the principal factors which led to its outbreak. The chapter following it describes the causes which estranged Italy from Germany and Austria- Hungary, and which impelled that country to abandon its partners in the Triple Alliance and to join the Entente group.

Chapter XXIII. depicts how the military ruled Germany before the War ; how ambitious and reckless military leaders, enjojdng the support of the Emperor, were allowed to destroy the authority of the civil administration and to make the German Foreign Office a subordinate branch of the General Staff ; how the soldiers managed and mismanaged Germany's foreign and domestic policy ; how they influenced, guided, and corrupted public opinion throughout the country ; how they caused an aggressive jingoism to permeate even the heart of the young children in the elementary schools ; how they warped and distorted the mind of the whole nation by preaching unceasingly a war of conquest and of spohation and by preparing the people for a great war of aggression. The famous Zabern incident is described in the same chapter.

Prusso-Germany has been made great by its army and has been ruined by it, as is shown in Chapter XXIV. Bismarck and Moltke had in collaboration laid down a plan of campaign in case of a war with France and Russia combined. According to that plan, Germany was to respect strictly Belgium's neutrality and France was to be induced to violate it. If that plan had been carried out, England would scarcely have intervened at the beginning of the struggle. It would probably have preserved its neutrality, and very Hkely it would have sided against France, had France invaded Belgium, as Bismarck had expected.

"Rverj^hing was to be done to tempt France to invade Germany through that country. Had Germany acted upon the wise Bismarck-Moltke plan of campaign, the Germans might have defeated their neighbours in the East and West and acquired absolute supremacy in Europe, However, to William II. or to those courtier-soldiers who succeeded the great Moltke this safe and sound plan seemed too obvious and too commonplace. They wished to dazzle the imagination of the world. They wished for a more spectacular, for a more overwhelming victory. Desiring to take Paris by a rush and to destroy or capture the whole of the French field armies by rapidly getting into their flank and rear, the military leaders resolved to invade France by way of Belgium. Thus they incurred at the outset the hostility of Great Britain. Not satisfied with having forced England into the ranks of their enemies, the military leaders of Grermany outraged and exasperated the conscience of the world by their barbarous and criminal warfare, and thus created a world coalition against Germany.

In Chapter XXV. the war aims of the German intellectuals are given in the form of a weighty petition signed by more than a thousand university professors, high military and civic dignitaries, leading business men, etc. Chapter XXVI. supplies representative extracts from statements in which Germany's domination of the world was demanded during the War.

Chapters XXVII. and XXVIII. treat at considerable length the future of Germany and of the German race. Germany may follow two courses. The country may either preserve its unity or become dissolved into its component parts. Both possibilities have to be considered.

If the country should remain united, it will be utterly ruined economically. In consequence of its defeat, it has lost in Alsace-Lorraine, in Poland, and in the Danish districts 7,000,000 wealth-creating citizens. In addition it has lost large stretches of agricultural territory, nearly one-half of its coal, the bulk of its iron ore, vast quantities of potash and of mineral oil, its Colonies, the bulk of its foreign trade.

of its foreign investments, of its shipping, etc. While Germany's wealth-creating resources and income have been very greatly diminished, the country's financial burdens have been hugely increased through the War debt and through the necessity of paying enormous indemnities to the victorious nations. Consequently, Germany is bound to remain poor for decades. As the people will find it diflScult to make a living in Germany, the birthrate should decUne. Millions of Germans will have to emigrate, and they may be able to obtain abroad only the lowest and meanest work, because of the hatred which they have aroused against themselves throughout the world. The Germans settled abroad and those Germans who will emigrate from their country in the future will hasten to become completely de-Germanised in order to lose the terrible stigma which the War has imprinted upon the whole people. In consequence of the huge emigration of people from Germany which must be expected, and in consequence of the complete absorption of the Germans abroad by the people around them, the German race may become stationary, if not retrogressive.

It seems extremely doubtful whether the Germans will succeed in preserving their political unity. Rightly considered, the Germans are not a single race, but are men belonging to several distinct and very different races who happen to speak the same language. There are fundamental differences between the various German races which have fought each other in the past, and which only lately have become united rather by force than by the natural course of things. The differences between the various German races, and especially between the Prussians and the non- Prussians, are so great that it seems extremely doubtful whether the Germans will be able to preserve their unity. Very likely the country will be dissolved into its component parts. Moreover, the German peoples may be troubled for a very long time by civil commotions, for men who have lived in abject, unreasoning servility for centuries cannot easily estabhsh democratic self-government. Successful democracies cannot be made. They grow up slowly and painfully. They require men of a democratic temper and a democratic frame of mind. The Great War may have destroyed not only the Hohenzollern dynasty and the German Empire, but may also have destroyed the greatness of the German race. WiUiam II., desiring to become the ruler of the universe, may have ruined not only himself and his family, his brother monarchs, his allies and his country, but even the future of his race.

Chapter II The Rise And Fall Of Prusso-germany ^

The world-empires which military conquest has created in the past have, as a rule, proved exceedingly short-lived. The gigantic dominions subdued and ruled by Alexander the Great, Julius Csesar and his successors, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, Attila, Jenghiz lOian, Tamerlane, the Abbasids, Soliman the Magnificent, Charles V., and Napoleon have rapidly declined and decayed, but never in the world's history has a vast military empire collapsed so suddenly and so utterly as that of William II. The Bolsheviks were Germany's tools and Germany's agents. Hence all Germans saw in Russia a German protectorate, a German possession, a German India. In the summer of 1918 the empire of WiUiam II. extended from Zeebrugge to Vladivostok and to the Behring Strait, and from the Arctic Circle to the gates of India. It comprised 350,000,000 inhabitants. The last of the Hohenzollern rulers held sway over an immense empire, the territory of which vastly exceeded the gigantic empires conquered by the Romans, by Charlemagne, and by Napoleon. Only the empires conquered by Attila and by Jenghiz KJian could be compared to the new German world-empire. The Germans thought that they had firmly estabUshed the power of their country over the larger part of Europe and of Asia. Their faith in the permanence of their domination may be seen from the fact that after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk they invested vast sums in Russia, and that, as late as the middle of September, Stock Exchange quotations in Berlin, which had steadily been rising, were

1 From the Fortnightly Review, December 1918. 12 still at their highest. In a few weeks the greatest military empire the world has ever seen tumbled down like a house of cards, and Germany itself became a prey to a revolution which may lead to the permanent dissolution of the State. Overnight Germany has been precipitated from the giddy height of domination over the two most populous continents to the bottomless pit of ruin, chaos, poverty, and despair. The powerful and apparently invincible Germany of yesterday, which seemed firmly established for all time, has fallen and may never rise again. Let us then inquire into the causes of its downfall, and let us endeavour to cast a glance into its future.

We can understand the historical events of the present only if we are guided by the knowledge of the past.

In 1915 an eminent German historian, Herr Otto Hintze, published a history of modern Germany, It was entitled The Hohenzollerns and their Achievements — Five Hundred Years of German History. The writer had chosen a most appropriate title for his book. Modern Germany, Prusso- Germany, was indeed not a national, but a purely dynastic State. It was the State of the Hohenzollerns. The HohenzoUern djmasty had firmly imprinted its character upon the German State and nation. In fact the dynasty was the State. Louis XIV. 's words, " L'etat c'est moi," was far more applicable to the realm of the Hohenzollerns than it was to that of Louis XIV. and of Napoleon I.

The Hohenzollerns were a family of daring and ambitious Suabian robber-knights who lived by plunder. They possessed the formidable castle of Zollern, perched high in the Suabian Alps, whence they descended and plundered the passing caravans of merchants and the townspeople round about. By ability, violence, and cunning they had succeeded in concentrating in their hands a considerable amount of territory, wealth, and power. Owing to their commanding position in the neighbourhood, they were made hereditary Burgraves, military governors, of the important city of Nuremberg. As Burgraves they had to defend the castle, the burg, of Nuremberg, and to protect the Emperor's interests. They were hereditary imperial officials, who had to keep order, defend the town and district, and look after its administration.

In the past Grermany had elected rulers. One Frederick VI., Burgrave of Nuremberg, a man of considerable gifts, rendered very valuable services to the Emperor Sigismond. By unscrupulously influencing the election, he secured for that monarch the crown of Germany. He assisted Sigismond with advice, with money, and with arms, and received as a reward the hereditary viceroyship of the turbulent Mark of Brandenburg, with the government of which the muchcoveted electoral dignity was connected. Thus, five centuries ago, Frederick VI. of Nuremberg became Frederick I. Margrave of Brandenburg and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

Brandenburg was at the time a wild district on the outskirts of Germany. The aboriginal inhabitants were Slavs. They were ruled, or rather exploited, by a number of reckless robber-knights, the Quitzows, Rochows, Puthtzs, and others, who plundered the country mercilessly and fllouted the Emperor. The modern Prussian Junkers are the direct descendants of these men. Margrave Frederick created order by the ruthless persecution of the evil-doers and made the robber-knights his servants. His successors increased the territory of Brandenburg and acquired, in addition, a considerable district situated outside the German Empire, the Dukedom of Prussia, which had been in the possession of the Teutonic Knights. These had settled among the Slavonic heathens and had governed the country with incredible barbarity.

The Hohenzollerns and the Teutonic Knights before them, acting like the Germans of the present in their African colonies, ruled the heathen Slavs under their sway with the greatest cruelty. They endeavoured to attract settlers from the civilised south and west of Germany to the raw and barbarous east by granting them the land of the natives which they confiscated. Many of the new settlers were impecunious robber-knights. Many were criminals who had fled from justice. These men formed henceforth part of the Brandenburg-Prussian aristocracy. The native inhabitants and the poorer German settlers as well became enslaved by a race of cruel, pitiless, and largely criminal, feudal taskmasters. Their entreaties and complaints were disregarded, and their revolts were suppressed with the utmost ferocity. In many districts the native Slavs were completely exterminated. Thus the pohcy of blood and iron became the traditional pohcy of the Hohenzollerns and of their supporters, and the native Prussians, who at one time had been a spirited people, became a nation of duU, dumb, and downtrodden serfs, who were ruled by homicidal fighting men whose will was law, whose argument was the sword, and who spent their Hves in gambhng, drinking, and robbing. Thus robber-knights with robber morals created in the wilderness of Eastern Europe a robber State. It flourished greatly. The growth of Brandenburg-Prussia- Germany may be visuaUsed from the following table :