My Four Years in Germany

My Four Years in Germany

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Title: My Four Years in Germany
Author: James W. Gerard
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7238] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 30,
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YEARS IN GERMANY ***

Produced by Robert J. Hall

[Illustration: AN INVITATION TO ATTEND THE OPENING OF
THE ROYAL ACADEMY.]
[Illustration: AN INVITATION TO A COURT BALL.]
[Illustration: SAFE CONDUCT FOR AMBASSADOR GERARD
AND HIS FAMILY, UNDER THE SIGNATURE OF SECRETARY
ZIMMERMANN, FEBRUARY, 5, 1917.]
[Illustration: AMBASSADOR GERARD SAYING GOOD-BYE TO
THE AMERICANS LEAVING ON A SPECIAL TRAIN, AUGUST,
1914.]

MY FOUR YEARS IN GERMANY
BY JAMES W. GERARD
LATE AMBASSADOR TO THE GERMAN IMPERIAL COURT

TO MY SMALL BUT TACTFUL FAMILY OF ONE
MY WIFE

FOREWORD
I am writing what should have been the last chapter of this book as a
foreword because I want to bring home to our people the gravity of the
situation; because I want to tell them that the military and naval power
of the German Empire is unbroken; that of the twelve million men
whom the Kaiser has called to the colours but one million, five hundred
thousand have been killed, five hundred thousand permanently disabled,
not more than five hundred thousand are prisoners of war, and about
five hundred thousand constitute the number of wounded or those on

the sick list of each day, leaving at all times about nine million
effectives under arms.
I state these figures because Americans do not grasp either the
magnitude or the importance of this war. Perhaps the statement that
over five million prisoners of war are held in the various countries will
bring home to Americans the enormous mass of men engaged.
There have been no great losses in the German navy, and any losses of
ships have been compensated for by the building of new ones. The nine
million men, and more, for at least four hundred thousand come of
military age in Germany every year, because of their experience in two
and a half years of war are better and more efficient soldiers than at the
time when they were called to the colours. Their officers know far more
of the science of this war and the men themselves now have the skill
and bearing of veterans.
Nor should anyone believe that Germany will break under starvation or
make peace because of revolution.
The German nation is not one which makes revolutions. There will be
scattered riots in Germany, but no simultaneous rising of the whole
people. The officers of the army are all of one class, and of a class
devoted to the ideals of autocracy. A revolution of the army is
impossible; and at home there are only the boys and old men easily
kept in subjection by the police.
There is far greater danger of the starvation of our Allies than of the
starvation of the Germans. Every available inch of ground in Germany
is cultivated, and cultivated by the aid of the old men, the boys and the
women, and the two million prisoners of war.
The arable lands of Northern France and of Roumania are being
cultivated by the German army with an efficiency never before known
in these countries, and most of that food will be added to the food
supplies of Germany. Certainly the people suffer; but still more
certainly this war will not be ended because of the starvation of
Germany.
Although thinking Germans know that if they do not win the war the
financial day of reckoning will come, nevertheless, owing to the clever
financial handling of the country by the government and the great
banks, there is at present no financial distress in Germany; and