My Four Years in Germany

By Gerard, James W.

Book Id: WPLBN0000633480
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.8 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	My Four Years in Germany
Author:	Gerard, James W.
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Writing.
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection, Blackmask Online Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Blackmask Online


Citation APA MLA Chicago W. Gerar, B. J. (n.d.). My Four Years in Germany. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.us/

Description
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.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: My Four Years in Germany, 1 -- James W. Gerard, 1 -- FOREWORD, 2 -- Chapter I. MY FIRST YEAR IN GERMANY, 3 -- Chapter II. POLITICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL, 10 -- Chapter III. DIPLOMATIC WORK OF FIRST WINTER IN BERLIN, 16 -- Chapter IV. MILITARISM IN GERMANY AND THE ZABERN AFFAIR, 21 -- Chapter V. PSYCHOLOGY AND CAUSES WHICH PREPARED THE NATION FOR -- WAR, 26 -- Chapter VI. AT KIEL JUST BEFORE THE WAR, 29 -- Chapter VII. THE SYSTEM, 31 -- Chapter VIII. THE DAYS BEFORE THE WAR, 37 -- Chapter IX. THE AMERICANS AT THE OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES, 41 -- Chapter X. PRISONERS OF WAR, 45 -- Chapter XI. FIRST DAYS OF THE WAR: POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC, 58 -- Chapter XII. DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATIONS, 65 -- Chapter XIII. MAINLY COMMERCIAL, 79 -- Chapter XIV. WORK FOR THE GERMANS, 86 -- Chapter XV. WAR CHARITIES, 87 -- Chapter XVI. HATE, 92 -- Chapter XVII. DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATIONS (Continued), 97 -- Chapter XVIII. LIBERALS AND REASONABLE MEN, 118 -- Chapter XIX. THE GERMAN PEOPLE IN WAR, 122 -- Chapter XX. LAST, 131