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  [Illustration: _From a photograph by Brown and Dawson_
    WILLIAM II
    GERMAN EMPEROR
    From a photograph taken since the beginning of the war of 1914]




  THE GERMAN EMPEROR
  AS SHOWN
  IN HIS PUBLIC UTTERANCES

  BY

  CHRISTIAN GAUSS
  PROFESSOR Of MODERN LANGUAGES, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY


  NEW YORK
  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
  1915


  COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  Published February, 1915




PREFACE


Unlike his grandfather, who shielded himself behind his Chancellor,
the present Emperor has always insisted upon making himself the
storm-centre of the debates in his Reichstag and among his people.
He has played with many, if not all, of his cards upon the table. In
accordance with this policy he has gone through his country from end
to end and into foreign lands, everywhere announcing his policies and
his views on every possible subject of interest or controversy. Up to
1905 he had made upward of five hundred and seventy speeches, and since
that time has made almost as many more. It was manifestly impossible
to give all of these speeches, and it was also thought unfair to give
merely extracts which might fail to represent the spirit of the entire
pronouncement. They are all printed, therefore, in the completest
form available. Particular speeches have often been reported to the
press in widely differing versions. In all cases only those speeches
are here presented which have received official or semiofficial
sanction. The text followed for pronouncements made before 1913,
with the one exception of the _Daily Telegraph_ interview, October
29, 1908, has always been that of the recognized and standard edition
in four volumes, edited by J. Penzler and published in the Reclam
_Universal-Bibliothek_. Now and then only portions of certain addresses
appear to have been reported, and on a few occasions parts of speeches
are given directly and other parts are merely summarized. In all such
cases the speech is translated from the form sanctioned in the official
version. In no case has any change been made. Where significant
differences exist in the versions of addresses as given officially and
unofficially, the official version is in every instance printed first.
It has been the aim to present faithfully the language and spirit of
the speaker, and his phraseology and emphasis have been reproduced as
closely as was at all consistent with fair English usage. The speeches
have been chosen to represent in due proportion his many interests,
and range therefore from agriculture and art to Biblical criticism,
national and international politics.

The Emperor has, of course, not given titles to his speeches, and
the headings have been assigned by the compiler. It has been his
aim to explain the circumstances under which each address was
delivered and to make plain the references to events embodied therein.
Questions which have had a continuous interest, or which have had
some lasting effect on Germany's policy, such as the attitude toward
Alsace-Lorraine, the Social Democratic party, the retirement of
Bismarck, the development of the navy, the Morocco question, have
been treated at greater length on the first fitting occasion. For
the introductions, therefore, the compiler assumes responsibility.
In preparing them he has had recourse to many incidental sources
of information, and in many cases the true inwardness of certain
situations is still as much a matter of controversy as the causes
of the present war. For his facts generally, he has followed where
possible, besides such incidental and contemporary sources, Bruno
Gebhardt's "Handbuch der Deutschen Geschichte" (1913), the "Cambridge
Modern History--The Latest Age," volume XII (1910), and the volumes of
the "Statesman's Yearbook." In addition, for information concerning
the internal development of Germany he has consulted and drawn
upon the literature of this subject which has appeared in the last
decade, but is more particularly indebted to Doctor Paul Liman's
"Der Kaiser," Dawson's "The Evolution of Modern Germany," Barker's
"Modern Germany," Price Collier's "Germany and the Germans," Forbes's
"William of Germany," Gibbons's "The New Map of Europe," and the
"_Reichsgesetzblatt_."

As the Emperor has spoken upon almost every phase of German political
life, with the editorial introductions which aim to set forth briefly
the occasion and causes of each address, it is hoped that altogether
the volume will offer a fairly accurate picture of the trend of German
affairs for the last twenty-five years.

For help in the preparation of this volume, the writer is much indebted
to his wife, whose assistance has amounted to collaboration.

  PRINCETON, N. J.
    _December 20, 1914_.




CONTENTS


                                                            PAGE

    PREFACE                                                  v


    I

    THE HOHENZOLLERN TRADITION                               1


    II

    PRELIMINARIES                                           25
      June 15, 1888--October 30, 1889.

    The First Official Act of the Emperor                   25
      Schloss Friedrichskron, June 15, 1888.

    To My People                                            28
      Potsdam, June 18, 1888.

    First Declaration of Policy                             31
      Berlin, June 25, 1888.

    Opening of the Reichstag                                39
      November 22, 1888.

    The Emperor and the Striking Miners                     45
      May 14, 1889.

    Visit of the King of Italy                              47
      Berlin, May 22, 1889.

    The English Fleet and the German Army                   48
      Sandown Bay, August 5, 1889.

    The English Army                                        49
      Aldershot, August 7, 1889.

    The Czar at Berlin                                      50
      Berlin, October 11, 1889.

    On Board an English Flag-Ship                           51
      The Piraeus, October 30, 1889.


    III

    AFTER BISMARCK                                          53
    May 6, 1890--June 21, 1895.

    Opening of the Reichstag                                53
      Berlin, May 6, 1890.

    Review of the Ninth Army Corps                          60
      Flensburg, September 4, 1890.

    Accidents with Agricultural Machinery                   62
      Berlin, November 11, 1890.

    Alsace-Lorraine                                         66
      Berlin, March 14, 1891.

    Swearing in the Recruits                                72
      Potsdam, November 23, 1891.

    The Emperor's First Army Bill                           75
      Berlin, July 4, 1893.

    Arrival in Metz                                         80
      Metz, September 3, 1893.

    Dedication of Flags                                     81
      Berlin, October 18, 1894.

    Navy Recruits                                           84
      Kiel, December 3, 1894.

    Christening of a Cruiser                                86
      Kiel, March 26, 1895.

    Visit to Bismarck                                       87
      Friedrichsruh, March 26, 1895.

    Opening of the Emperor William Canal                    91
      Kiel, June 21, 1895.


    IV

    THE BEGINNING OF WORLD POLITICS                         95
    June 16, 1896--March 22, 1905.

    The Beginning of World Politics                         95
      Berlin, June 16, 1896.

    To the Recruits for the Navy                           103
      Wilhelmshaven, February 21, 1896.

    A Toast to the Russian Emperor and Empress             104
      St. Petersburg, August 8, 1897.

    The Army Tradition                                     106
      Coblentz, August 30, 1897.

    Toast to the Italian King and Queen                    109
      Homburg, September 4, 1897.

    Address at a Dedication of Flags                       111
      Berlin, October 18, 1897.

    On Administering the Oath to the Recruits              113
      Berlin, November 18, 1897.

    The Chinese Situation and the Mailed Fist              116
      December 15, 1897.

    Address to the Regiments of the Body-Guard             121
      Potsdam, June 16, 1898.

    On the Death of Prince Bismarck                        123
      Friedrichsruh, August 2, 1898.

    "Our Future Lies Upon the Water"                       126
      Stettin, September 23, 1898.

    The Journey to the Holy Land                           127
      Bethlehem, October 30, 1898.

    Dedication of the Church of Our Redeemer               132
      Jerusalem, October 31, 1898.

    By Divine Right                                        135
      Brandenburg, February 3, 1899.

    The Hague Conference                                   141
      Wiesbaden, May 18, 1899.

    The Housing of Laborers                                143
      Early June, 1899.

    French Heroism at St. Privat                           143
      The Battle-field of St. Privat, August 18, 1899.


    V

    THE GREATER NAVY                                       147

    "Bitterly We Need a Powerful German Fleet"             150
      Hamburg, October 18, 1899.

    On the Threshold of the New Century                    154
      Berlin, January 1, 1900.

    New Boundary Posts                                     157
      Berlin, February 13, 1900.

    Seaports and Cannon                                    159
      Luebeck, June 16, 1900.

    The Ocean Knocks at Our Door                           160
      Kiel, July 3, 1900.

    Open the Way for Culture                               163
      Bremen, July 27, 1900.

    Civis Romanus Sum                                      167
      Imperial Limes Museum, Saalburg, October 11, 1900.

    Cabinet Order to the Prussian Army                     169
      January, 1901.

    Dedication of the Barracks of the Alexander Regiment   171
      March 28, 1901.

    To the Students at Bonn                                174
      April 24, 1901.

    A Place in the Sun                                     180
      Hamburg, June 18, 1901.

    The Great Elector                                      184
      Kiel, June 20, 1901.

    Entrance of Prince Eitel Friedrich into the Army       189
      July 7, 1901.

    True Art                                               191
      Berlin, December 18, 1901.

    Monument to General von Rosenberg                      201
      April 20, 1902.

    The Old Order Changeth                                 203
      Aix, June 19, 1902.

    Alfred Krupp and the Socialists                        209
      November 26, 1902.

    The Working Man Once More                              213
      Breslau, December 5, 1902.

    Scholarship and Religion                               216
      Berlin, February 15, 1903.

    Frederick the Great and His Army                       225
      Doeberitz, May 29, 1903.

    The Future of Germany                                  227
      Hamburg, June 20, 1903.

    The Reasons for Japan's Victory                        232
      March 9, 1905.

    The Salt of the Earth                                  233
      Bremen, March 22, 1905.


    VI

    ON THE EVE OF MOROCCO                                  240
    March 31, 1905--November 12, 1906.

    The Morocco Question                                   240
      Tangier, March 31, 1905.

    The Great Ally                                         242
      September 8, 1906.

    Optimism and Literature                                247
      Muenich, November 12, 1906.

    Twenty-Five Years of Labor Legislation                 253
      November 17, 1896.


    VII

    THE CRISIS OF 1907                                     256
    February 5, 1907--October 18, 1911.

    Imperialism versus Social Democracy                    256
      Berlin, February 5, 1907.

    The Necessity of Faith                                 259
      Muenster, August 31, 1907.

    English Journalists                                    264
      London, November 16, 1907.

    Alsace-Lorraine                                        265
      Strasburg, August 30, 1908.

    The _Daily Telegraph_ Interview                        267
      October 28, 1908.

    The Emperor and Count Zeppelin                         273
      Manzell, November 10, 1908.

    Regatta at Hamburg                                     274
      Hamburg, June 22, 1909.

    Review of the Fourteenth Army Corps                    278
      Karlsruhe, September 11, 1909.

    Emperor by Divine Right                                279
      Koenigsberg, August 25, 1910.

    The Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of the
      University of Berlin                                 285
      Berlin, October 11, 1910.

    The Emperor in Brussels                                290
      October 27, 1910.

    Alcohol and the Schools                                292
      Cassel, August 19, 1911.

    International Competition                              295
      Hamburg, August 27, 1911.

    Imperial Glories                                       299
      Aix, October 18, 1911.


    VIII

    LAST MONTHS OF PEACE                                   303
    February 7, 1912--June 23, 1914.

    Opening of the Reichstag                               303
      Berlin, February 7, 1912.

    Brandenburg Once Again                                 307
      May 30, 1912.

    Hauling Down the Flag                                  313
      Hamburg, June 18, 1912.

    Accident to a Zeppelin                                 316
      Bonn, October 17, 1913.

    We Germans Fear God, Nothing Else                      318
      Hamburg, June 23, 1914.


    IX

    AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR                             323

    Forcing the Sword into His Hand                        323
      Berlin, July 31, 1914.

    An End of Parties                                      324
      Berlin, August 1, 1914.

    Opening of the Reichstag                               324
      Berlin, August 4, 1914.

    To the Army and Navy                                   327
      Berlin, August 6, 1914.

    Proclamation to the German People                      328
      Berlin, August 6, 1914.




ILLUSTRATIONS


  William II, German Emperor                       _Frontispiece_

                                                     FACING PAGE

  The Emperor in the Year of His Coronation, 1888
    (Age 29)                                              26

  "Our Future Lies upon the Water." The Emperor
    on Shipboard in the Autumn of 1898                   126

  The Emperor in 1900                                    168




I

THE HOHENZOLLERN TRADITION


Ernest Renan, the author of that once heretical "Life of Jesus," was
by temperament unenthusiastic and had further schooled himself to look
upon all human events with high unconcern. The great sceptic had been
born in 1823; he was therefore sixty-five at the time of the accession
of William II, and his declining health, in Horatian phrase, refused
to allow him to enter upon any long hope. In looking forward to his
inevitable end one thing, he said, afflicted him. He regretted only
that he was not to see, in its later and more decisive phases, the
unfolding of the multiform personality of the new German Emperor. To
him it was an intellectual puzzle, more intricate and more interesting
than any he had encountered in the many cycles of the history of the
Hebrews or in the complicated schisms of the church. In the early years
of his reign the youthful Emperor was regarded with much interest and
some concern by his contemporaries generally. He was the chameleon
among the royal figures of Europe. One day he receives the Czar at
Berlin and proclaims peace to the world. A few weeks later he visits
the Sultan at Constantinople, and shortly thereafter he announces to
his loyal Brandenburgers that he will lead them on to greater things.
What did he mean? Now he is a soldier, jesting with his officers; and,
with the rising of another sun, in workman's garb, with the axe upon
his shoulder, he goes forth as woodman or laborer on his own estates.
At home he was regarded as Benjamin Constant regarded Madame de Stael.
He was the "_bel orage_," the beautiful storm which had come upon
Europe in the dull and piping times of peace of the last decades of
the nineteenth century. He cleared the air of Continental politics
in the years of late Victorianism. He was a dilettante of dangerous
activities, as Renan had been of antiquated heresies and harmless,
outworn systems, and to him Fate seemed to have given the future as a
toy. Such, at least, was the view of the famous Portuguese poet Eca de
Queiroz, who cast his horoscope in 1891.

A quarter century of peace had removed much apprehension. After the
dismissal of Bismarck he had shaped his own policy and gone his own
way. To his great advisers he had seemed to say: "_Ote-toi que je
m'y mette._" Yet his career had ceased to disquiet, and the youthful
exuberance had given way to mature and conscientious labor. With
unshakable confidence in himself and with a determined application he
was making Germany the greatest state in Europe. To those who, unlike
Renan, did not have the misfortune to have been born too soon to be his
later contemporaries, the riddle _seemed_ to be solving itself to the
greater good of humanity. The Emperor