

E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive (https://archive.org)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the numerous original illustrations.
      See 46186-h.htm or 46186-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46186/46186-h/46186-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46186/46186-h.zip)


      Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive. See
      https://archive.org/details/cu31924027829666


Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).





  [Illustration: _Germany's Youngest Reserve._]


GERMANY IN WAR TIME

What an American Girl Saw and Heard

by

MARY ETHEL McAULEY







Chicago
The Open Court Publishing Company
1917

Copyright by
The Open Court Publishing Company
1917




     DEDICATION
     TO MY MOTHER
     WHO SHARED THE TRIALS OF
     TWO YEARS IN GERMANY
     WITH ME




PREFATORY NOTE.


This book is the product of two years spent in Germany during the great
war. It portrays what has been seen and heard by an American girl whose
primary interest was in art. She has tried to write without fear or
favor the simple truth as it appeared to her.




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


                                                             PAGE
  Getting into Germany in War Time                              1
  Soldiers of Berlin                                            7
  The Women Workers of Berlin                                  20
  German "Sparsamkeit"                                         35
  The Food in Germany                                          49
  What We Ate in Germany                                       62
  How Berlin is Amusing Itself in War Time                     69
  The Clothes Ticket                                           81
  My Typewriter                                                88
  Moving in Berlin                                             93
  What the Germans Read in War Time                            98
  Precautions Against Spies, etc.                             108
  Prisoners in Germany                                        115
  Verboten                                                    128
  The Mail in Germany                                         132
  The "Auslaenderei"                                          140
  War Charities                                               146
  What Germany is Doing for Her Human War Wrecks              159
  Will the Women of Germany Serve a Year in the Army?         173
  The Kaiserin and the Hohenzollern Princesses                184
  A Stroll Through Berlin                                     196
  A Trip Down the Harbor of Hamburg                           207
  The Krupp Works at Essen                                    218
  Munich in War Time                                          228
  From Berlin to Vienna in War Time                           242
  Vienna in War Time                                          256
  Soldiers of Vienna                                          267
  Women Warriors                                              279
  How Americans Were Treated in Germany                       286
  I Leave Germany July 1, 1917                                292




GETTING INTO GERMANY IN WAR TIME.


Now that America and Germany are at war, it is not possible for an
American to enter the German Empire. Americans can leave the country if
they wish, but once they are out they cannot go back in again.

Since the first year of the war there has been only one way of getting
into Germany through Denmark, and that is by way of Warnemuende. After
leaving Copenhagen you ride a long way on the train, and then the train
boards a ferry which takes you to a little island. At the end of this
island is the Danish frontier, where you are thoroughly searched to see
how much food you are trying to take into Germany. After this frontier
is passed you ride for a few hours on a boat which carries you right
up to Warnemuende, the German landing-place and the military customs of
Germany.

When I went to Germany in October, 1915, the regulations were not
very strict, travelers had only to show that they had a good reason
for going into the country, and they were searched--that was all. But
during the two years I was in Germany all this was changed. Now it
is very hard for even a neutral to enter Germany. Neutrals must first
have a vise from the German consul in Denmark. It takes four days to
get this vise, and you must have your picture taken in six different
poses. Also, you must have a legitimate reason for wanting to go into
the country, and if there is anything the least suspicious about you,
you are not granted a permit to enter.

Travelers entering Germany bring as much food with them as they can.
You are allowed to bring a moderate amount of tea, coffee, soap, canned
milk, etc.; nine pounds of butter and as much smoked meat as you can
carry. No fresh meat is allowed, and you must carry the meat yourself
as no porters are allowed around the docks. This is a spy precaution.

The butter and meat are bought in Copenhagen from a licensed firm where
it is sealed and the firm sends the package to the boat for you. You
must be careful not to break the seal before the German customs are
passed. The Danes are very strict about letting rubber goods out of
their country, and one little German girl I knew was so afraid that the
Danes would take her rubbers away from her, that she wore them on a hot
summer day.

The boat which takes passengers to and from Warnemuende is one day a
German boat and the next day a Danish boat. If you are lucky and make
the trip on the day the Danish boat is running, you get a wonderful
meal, and if you are unlucky and strike the German day, you get a poor
one. After getting off the boat, you get your first glimpse of the
German _Militaer_, the soldiers at the customs.

The travelers are divided into two classes--those going to Hamburg
and those going to Berlin. Then a soldier gets up on a box and asks
if there is any one in the crowd who has no passport. The day I came
through only one man stepped forward. I felt sorry for him, but he did
not look the least bit disheartened. An officer led him away. Strange
to say, four days later we were seated in a hotel in Berlin eating our
breakfast when this same little man came up and asked if we were not
from Pittsburg, and if we had not come over on the "Kristianiafjord."
When I said that we had, he remarked: "Well, I am from Pittsburg, too,
and I came over on the 'Kristianiafjord.'"

"But I did not see you among the passengers," I said.

"No," he answered, "I should say not. I was a bag of potatoes in the
hold. I am a reserve officer in the German army, and I was determined
to get back to fight. I came without a passport claiming to be a
Russian. It took me three days to get fixed up at Warnemuende because
I had no papers of any kind. The day I had everything straightened
out and was leaving for Berlin, a funny thing happened. I was walking
along the street with an officer when a crowd of Russian prisoners came
along. To my surprise one of the fellows yelled at me, 'Hello, Mister,
you'se here too?' And I knew that fellow. He had worked for my father
in America. As he was returning to Russia, he was taken prisoner by
the Germans. I had an awful time explaining