UNDER ORDERS FROM BERLIN
He had been selected in his youth for secret work because of an aptness which he early displayed. He had been trained especially for the work which he undertook in other countries under direction of the German General Staff and for the tasks that devolved upon him in America both before and after the war. As a young officer he was sent out from Germany, travelling as a civilian, making special studies of the sentiment of the people, the topography of the country, and getting in touch with other secret workers. One of the countries which he studied with remarkable care was Ireland. He tramped and rode every foot of the land and knew it thoroughly. He displayed something of the knowledge he had acquired when riding in Central Park, one day after the war started, he stopped to chat with an acquaintance who had bought a mare. Waxing enthusiastic over the animal he quickly showed his acquaintance with Ireland by giving the breed of the mare and telling exactly the counties in Ireland where that breed could be found.
How well he disguised himself in those various expeditions when he rode horseback simply as a sightseer, is indicated by his horsemanship. Though he was trained in a riding school at Hanover, where ostensibly they teach the French method, nevertheless in Central Park, where many a morning he could be observed, he displayed perfect English form. They say that when one learns the French style, one invariably clings to it above all others. Naturally, a horseman travelling through Ireland revealing every characteristic of the French school would attract attention.
As the military attaché of the German Embassy, Captain von Papen was under orders, not of Count von Bernstorff, but of the military head in Germany. Appointed personally by the Kaiser as the representative of the German Army in America and Mexico, he had the commission that falls to every military attaché of a foreign government, namely, to make a study of the army of the nation to which he is accredited.
Captain von Papen, always striving for praise and preferment from the Kaiser, was a most enthusiastic gatherer of military information. Knowing that no phase of military activity throughout the world escapes the watchful eye of the Chief Spy or the German General Staff, von Papen was always on the alert for any invention, new method of warfare, or germ of an idea that might be developed into an important advantage for Germany; just as the War Staff got their suggestion for the modern trench warfare from the Indians and later from the Civil War. For instance, shortly before the great war started, Captain von Papen, addressed as “Royal Prussian Captain on the General Staff of the Army,” was directed by R. von Wild, of the Ministry of War’s office, to proceed to Mexico and there investigate the attacks on railroad trains by means of mines and explosives. He made a thorough investigation and though he reported: “I consider it out of the question that explosions prepared in this way would have to be reckoned with in a European war,” he nevertheless sought to utilize that method in blowing up tunnels and railroads in Canada.