My Four Years in Germany | Page 3

likely to happen
in our future relations with that country.

CONTENTS
FOREWORD. I MY FIRST YEAR IN GERMANY. II POLITICAL
AND GEOGRAPHICAL. III DIPLOMATIC WORK OF FIRST
WINTER IN BERLIN. IV MILITARISM IN GERMANY AND THE
ZABERN AFFAIR. V PSYCHOLOGY AND CAUSES WHICH
PREPARED THE NATION FOR WAR. VI AT KIEL JUST BEFORE

THE WAR. VII THE SYSTEM. VIII THE DAYS BEFORE THE
WAR. IX THE AMERICANS AT THE OUTBREAK OF
HOSTILITIES. X PRISONERS OF WAR. XI FIRST DAYS OF THE
WAR: POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC. XII DIPLOMATIC
NEGOTIATIONS. XIII MAINLY COMMERCIAL. XIV WORK FOR
THE GERMANS. XV WAR CHARITIES. XVI HATE. XVII
DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATIONS. (Continued). XVIII LIBERALS
AND REASONABLE MEN. XIX THE GERMAN PEOPLE IN WAR.
XX LAST.

ILLUSTRATIONS
AMBASSADOR GERARD SAYING GOOD-BYE TO THE
AMERICANS LEAVING ON A SPECIAL TRAIN, AUGUST, 1914.
AMBASSADOR GERARD ON HIS WAY TO PRESENT HIS
LETTERS OF CREDENCE TO THE EMPEROR. THE HOUSE
RENTED FOR USE AS EMBASSY. A SALON IN THE EMBASSY.
THE BALL-ROOM OF THE EMBASSY. PROGRAMME OF THE
MUSIC AFTER DINNER AT THE ROYAL PALACE. THE ROYAL
PALACE AT POTSDAM. DEMONSTRATION OF SYMPATHY
FOR THE AMERICANS AT THE TOWN HALL, AUGUST, 1914.
RACING YACHTS AT KIEL. THE KAISER'S YACHT,
"HOHENZOLLERN". AMBASSADOR GERARD ON HIS WAY TO
HIS SHOOTING PRESERVE. A KEEPER AND BEATERS ON THE
SHOOTING PRESERVE. CROWDS IN FRONT OF THE EMBASSY,
AUGUST, 1914. OUTSIDE THE EMBASSY IN THE EARLY DAYS
OF THE WAR. AT WORK IN THE EMBASSY BALL-ROOM,
AUGUST, 1914. AMBASSADOR GERARD AND HIS STAFF.
COVER OF THE RUHLEBEN MONTHLY. SPECIMEN PAGE OF
DRAWINGS FROM THE RUHLEBEN MONTHLY. ALLEGED
DUM-DUM BULLETS. THE "LUSITANIA" MEDAL. PAGE FROM
"FOR LIGHT AND TRUTH". AMBASSADOR GERARD AND
PARTY IN SEDAN. IN FRONT OF THE COTTAGE AT
BAZEILLES. FOOD ALLOTMENT POSTER FROM THE
CHARLEVILLE DISTRICT. FAC-SIMILE REPRODUCTION OF
THE KAISER'S PERSONAL TELEGRAM TO PRESIDENT
WILSON. FAC-SIMILE OF SECRETARY OF STATE'S REQUEST
TO AMBASSADOR GERARD TO CALL IN ORDER TO RECEIVE

SUBMARINE ANNOUNCEMENT. THE REMODELLED DRAFT
OF THE TREATY OF 1799. INSTRUCTIONS SENT TO THE
GERMAN PRESS ON WRITING UP A ZEPPELIN RAID.
PETITION CIRCULATED FOR SIGNATURE AMONG
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. PAGE FROM LISSAUER'S
PAMPHLET SHOWING "HYMN OF HATE". INSTRUCTIONS
REGULATING APPEARANCE AT COURT. A BERLIN EXTRA.


CHAPTER I
MY FIRST YEAR IN GERMANY
The second day out on the Imperator, headed for a summer's vacation,
a loud knocking woke me at seven A. M. The radio, handed in from a
friend in New York, told me of my appointment as Ambassador to
Germany.
Many friends were on the ship. Henry Morgenthau, later Ambassador
to Turkey, Colonel George Harvey, Adolph Ochs and Louis Wiley of
the _New_YorkTimes, Clarence Mackay, and others.
The Imperator is a marvellous ship of fifty-four thousand tons or more,
and at times it is hard to believe that one is on the sea. In addition to the
regular dining saloon, there is a grill room and Ritz restaurant with its
palm garden, and, of course, an Hungarian Band. There are also a
gymnasium and swimming pool, and, nightly, in the enormous
ballroom dances are given, the women dressing in their best just as they
do on shore.
Colonel Harvey and Clarence Mackay gave me a dinner of twenty-four
covers, something of a record at sea. For long afterwards in Germany, I
saw everywhere pictures of the Imperator including one of the tables
set for this dinner. These were sent out over Germany as a sort of
propaganda to induce the Germans to patronise their own ships and
indulge in ocean travel. I wish that the propaganda had been earlier and

more successful, because it is by travel that peoples learn to know each
other, and consequently to abstain from war.
On the night of the usual ship concert, Henry Morgenthau translated a
little speech for me into German, which I managed to get through after
painfully learning it by heart. Now that I have a better knowledge of
German, a cold sweat breaks out when I think of the awful German
accent with which I delivered that address.
A flying trip to Berlin early in August to look into the house question
followed, and then I returned to the United States.
In September I went to Washington to be "instructed," talked with the
President and Secretary, and sat at the feet of the Assistant Secretary of
State, Alvey A. Adee, the revered Sage of the Department of State.
On September ninth, 1913, having resigned as Justice of the Supreme
Court of the State of New York, I sailed for Germany, stopping on the
way in London in order to make the acquaintance of Ambassador Page,
certain wise people in Washington having expressed the belief that a
personal acquaintance of our Ambassadors made it easier for them to
work together.
Two cares assail a newly appointed Ambassador. He must first