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Militarism and Democracy in Germany 247
spokesman, and the Reichstag hardly
questioned; the Socialists, foreshadowing
their present desertion of their peace principles,
acquiesced by a cowardly approval
or dodged by a refusal to vote. For the
first time after this vote the tax-gatherer
knocked at German doors, not to take a
share of the income, but some of the citizens'
capital, and no one protested. To
question the General Staff would be like
questioning the Deity, a fact which explains
why, the General Staff having declared
that it was essential to invade Belgium,
nobody in all Germany doubts that
decision. One may start controversies
over sacred theology in the Kaiser's domains,
but not one as to the all-embracing
wisdom of the General Staff, for on that
there have never been two opinions since
1866 up to the time of this writing. When
the deadly forty-two-centimetre guns were
planned, the Grosser Generalstab asked the
Reichstag for a large appropriation and
obtained it without disclosing in any degree
the purposes for which it was asked.
It was enough that the war minister declared
the Generalstab must have it for a
purpose too secret and too important to
be intrusted to the Reichstag committee
on army estimates or to any but the inner
ring of the army.
But to hold their positions men like these
must be vigorous physically and mentally,
agreeable to the General Staff, and absolute
upholders of the existing military traditions
and order.
By this we do not mean that each general
must be a follower of Bernhardi.
Many of the German generals probably
never saw his book nor even heard of it.
But they must subscribe fervently to the
overbearing pretensions of the military
clique, to the autocratic attitude of the
army toward the civilian and the nation.
They must carry themselves as members
of an exalted caste whose adoration of
their uniform borders on pagan worship.
Take the case of Colonel von Reuter, who
commanded the Ninety-ninth Infantry,
stationed at Zabern, in Alsace, and was
acquitted in January of last year (1914)
of the charges of illegal assumption of
the executive power, illegal imprisonment
of civilians, and the invasion of private
houses in order to make arrests. This
was at the time when his young officers,
whom one could hardly accuse of being
democratic in spirit, were sabring or persecuting
the civilians, who were driven
almost to revolt by the overbearing arrogance
of the military. Colonel von Reuter
himself openly and aggressively stated on
his trial that if matters had gone any further
he would have turned his machineguns,
which stood ready in the courtyard
of the barracks, on the populace.
"Blood may flow," he had threatened at
the crucial moment, "for we are protecting
the prestige and the honor of the
whole army and the gravely shaken au­
It is that inner ring which settles the
fate of an officer after he has reached colonel's
rank. Let one be overslaughed and
he resigns at once. Let him blunder in
the manoeuvres and his "papers" go forward
promptly; the General Staff sees to
that. Physical efficiency is insisted upon
as well as mental. An officer may be as
thority of the government." " I was convinced
that our government was allowing
dissipated as he pleases, but he must be
on hand with a clear head for the fiveo'clock
spring and summer march-out of
its reins to drag on the ground," he told
the court, and so, in the name of autocracy,
he assured the public prosecutor that
his regiment. His habits and customs
may be deserving of all sorts of censure,
"jurisprudence ends here," and declared
but if he studies diligently, passes his examinations
well, has good efficiency re­
martial law.
ports, and is altogether ein schneidiger A court of high officers sustained Colonel
von Reuter and his subordinates on
Offizier his superiors will say nothing.
There is no age limit as in our army, as is the ground that a decree issued by the
evidenced by the prevalence of men approaching
seventy in high positions to-day. the military the right to intervene, with­
King of Prussia in 1820—not a law—gave
Thus, Generals von Kluck, von Hausen, out waiting for a request from civil authority,
if they deemed the time had come
and von Bulow are sixty-eight; Generals
von Moltke and von Emmich, the latter to act. More than that, the army expressly
upheld the arrogant acts of the
the capturer of Liege, are sixty-six; and
General von Hindenburg is sixty-seven. officers, for whom the judge-advocate