It should be remembered in this connection, however, that emigration from Germany is very far from being on the increase. It has diminished astonishingly since 1880. In the decade from 1880 to 1890 the annual emigration averaged about 135,000, and in 1881 it reached its highest point, 220,000. In the decade from 1900 to 1910 it never in any one year ran over 37,000 and averaged about 27,000—in other words, it had declined, in spite of the increase in population and in the number of colonies, to one fifth of its former proportions. The figures have only a relative significance. The annual emigration from Belgium, for instance, which has little more than one tenth the population of Germany, was considerably higher, averaging 35,000 annually for the years from 1906 to 1910. The annual emigration from the United Kingdom to places outside of Europe in the same period was approximately 532,000 annually. As, therefore, German emigration has in the last quarter century steadily declined, it may be safely inferred that the problem of finding colonies for her surplus population is not now, at least, a more pressing one for Germany than it was twenty-five years ago.
A conscientious American student of contemporary politics has said quite justly that “the most vital and burning problem in the world to-day” is the problem of Germany’s Weltpolitik. It is not the purpose of this volume to enter into questions of controversy. He who wishes, however, to understand Germany’s position and the Emperor’s position toward the world to-day must consider carefully not only the problem itself but some of its practical implications. In one of his bursts of enthusiasm the Emperor will tell us later[9] that this policy implies that no question in the world—no question of international politics, in other words—is to be decided without Germany. This would mean, strictly interpreted, that no transfer or change of status in colonial possessions—Cuba or the Philippines, for instance—no international canal, like Panama, could be made without her sanction. And there are those in Germany, like Doctor Liman, who believe that this doctrine should have been more rigidly maintained than had hitherto been the case. A priori, Germany is, of course, as much entitled to the right to pursue such a policy as any other power. Ethically, however—if ethics have any place in the discussion—it must be the result which justifies such a policy: not the results merely to the nation pursuing the policy but the results also to the nation or tribe at whose expense the policy is pursued. In the utilitarian phrase, it must redound to the greater good of the greater number.
[9] “Germany’s greatness makes it impossible for her to do without the ocean—but the ocean also proves that even in the distance, and on its farther side, without Germany and the German Emperor no great decision dare henceforth be taken.” (July 3, 1900.)
A dispassionate consideration of Prussia’s treatment of her dependencies must convince any except the most partisan that her efforts here have been far less successful than those of most other nations, if they are not to be qualified as utter and absolute failures. Chancellor Caprivi had said quite justly that the worst blow an enemy could give him would be to force more territories in Africa upon him. Nevertheless, Germany has since Caprivi’s time and at imminent risk of war acquired further African possessions. The attempt to colonize Africa, begun, as we have seen, by the Great Elector, was Germany’s first venture in this field. Yet at no time did the Germans seem to get on well with the blacks. In the Emperor’s speeches to the Reichstag he has spoken of his desire to introduce Christian customs and Christian morality among the negroes. Yet his attempts here were hardly successful. The Herreros in Southwest Africa revolted and massacred German colonists, sparing the Boers and English who had come before the German occupation. Doctor Gibbons tells us that the suppression of this rebellion took more than a year and cost Germany an appalling sum of money and many lives. But it cost the natives more. Two thirds of the nation of the Herreros were massacred, and, while only six or seven thousand were in arms, the German official report states that forty thousand were killed. The Germans confiscated all the lands of the natives. In 1906, after twenty-one years of German rule, there were in Southwest Africa sixteen thousand prisoners of war out of a total native population of thirty-one thousand. All the natives lived in concentration camps and were forced to work for the government. It may be conceded that Germany’s problem here was a difficult one; it must also be recognized that her policy had been neither of advantage to the natives nor to Germany herself.
In other cases, where the problem would seem to have been simpler, the results have likewise been disastrous. It is not our purpose to give the reasons but to state the facts. After one hundred and twenty-five years of incorporation into Prussia the Poles of East Prussia have in large part not been amalgamated and are still the victims of discriminatory legislation. In judging such a policy it is not merely a question as to whether Alsace-Lorraine, for instance, did or did not once belong to Germany. Morally it is difficult to concede to any nation the right to govern any population which it makes permanently unhappy. After forty-four years the problem of Alsace-Lorraine seemed to be very little nearer a solution than it was at its inception. It is a mistake to believe that the discontent was due principally to the fact that the inhabitants must transfer their allegiance from France to Germany. The discontent was due to the empire’s refusal to give the population rights and status compatible with their self-respect as enlightened subjects of a twentieth-century government. Men of German as well as of French descent, and even German emigrants who were induced to settle in the province since 1870, took part in the opposition. In a recent haphazard list of the “real leaders” of Alsace-Lorraine, we find the following six names: Wetterlé, Preiss, Blumenthal, Weber, Bucher, and Theodor. Of these the last five, at least, are wholly or in part of German descent. Yet the most serious demonstration in Metz since its annexation took place in June, 1910. On July 25 of that same year, for the first time since the University of Strasburg had been re-established by the Germans, a professor was hissed out of his lecture-room; and, as we have seen, in spite of an energetic propaganda by German newspapers, in 1912 more Alsacians enlisted in the French Foreign Legion than in any single year since 1871. The situation in that province has been already discussed in connection with the Emperor’s speech of March 14, 1891. Quite evidently, the problem there was hardly on the way to successful solution in August, 1914. Of course, Germany’s success in colonizing is not the only question to be considered with regard to her Weltpolitik. It is, however, an essential factor.
As will be evident from subsequent addresses, it was the Emperor who everywhere gave the initial impulse. Whether or not he involved himself in contradictions here, the student must decide. To certain of his subjects he appeared to be doing so, and it was for this reason that one of his hostile critics, Doctor Liman, tells us in bitterness that German politics of the last twenty years is “a fantastic mixture of tearful longing for peace and an inflated desire for prestige.” (“Der Kaiser,” p. 317.) The present empire had been proclaimed on the 18th of January, 1871, and the anniversary marked the crowning celebration of the year. In his speech the Emperor announces that “The German Empire has become a world-empire.” This may be said to provide the key to his subsequent policy and to mark the dawning of a new era. The address was delivered at a dinner held in the Royal Palace.
The present day, like the entire year in all its festivities, is a day of grateful retrospect. It is a continued high festival of gratitude for and in commemoration of the great departed Emperor. A blessing rests upon the present day, and over it hovers the spirit of him who lies in Charlottenburg,[10] and of him who sleeps in the Friedenskirche.[11] What our fathers had hoped and what German youth in her dreams had sung and desired it was granted to them, the two Emperors, to achieve; working with the princes, it was granted to them to reconquer and re-establish the German Empire. We are privileged gratefully to enjoy its advantages; we have a right to rejoice on the present day. Nevertheless, it is our earnest duty to maintain what the great lords have won for us. The German Empire has become a world-empire. Everywhere in distant quarters of the earth thousands of our countrymen are living. German guardians, German science, German industry are going across the sea. The value of what Germany has upon the seas amounts to thousands of millions. It is your earnest duty, gentlemen, to help to bind this greater German Empire firmly to our ancestral home. The vow which I made you to-day can become truth only if you are animated by a united patriotic spirit and grant me your fullest support. It is my wish that, standing in closest union, you help me to do my duty not only to my countrymen in a narrower sense but also to the many thousands of countrymen in foreign lands. This means that I may be able to protect them if I must. It is with this wish, and deeply conscious of the injunction which is issued to us all—“What you have inherited from your fathers, conquer it in order that you may possess it”—that I raise my glass to our beloved German Fatherland and call out: Long live the German Empire!—once again, may it live!—and a third time, long live the Empire!
[10] Emperor William I.
[11] Emperor Frederick III.