Berlin, January 1, 1900
The military New Year’s celebration took place near the armory, and the standards of the entire Berlin garrison were for this purpose brought from the Royal Palace. The Empress and her younger children watched the celebration from the windows of the armory.
The first day of the new century sees our army, that is our people under arms, gathered about its standards and kneeling before the Lord of Hosts. And, indeed, if any one has particular cause for bowing down to-day before God it is our army.
A glance at our flags will explain the reason, for they embody our history. At the beginning of the last century what was the position of our army? The glorious army of Frederick the Great had become ossified and was interested only in petty and insignificant details; it was led by generals feeble with age and no longer capable of conducting active campaigns; its corps of officers had lost the habit of invigorating labor; through a life of luxury and comfort and foolish exaltation of self it had fallen asleep upon its laurels. In one word, the army was not only no longer capable of carrying out its task, but had forgotten it.
The punishment of Heaven was grievous, for it was suddenly visited upon our entire people. Cast down into the dust, Frederick’s glory vanished, and the army’s standards were broken. In the seven long years of grievous slavery God taught our people to take thought, and under the pressure of the foot of an insolent conqueror developed the idea of universal military service, the idea that the greatest honor lies in dedicating our services in arms and in sacrificing our blood and our possessions for the Fatherland. My great-grandfather gave the idea form and life, and new laurels crowned the newly established army and her recent flags.
But the idea of universal military service reached its full significance only under our great departed Emperor. In spite of opposition and lack of comprehension he quietly went to work at the reorganization, and at the re-establishment of our army. Victorious campaigns, nevertheless, gave his work an altogether unexpected sanction. His spirit filled the ranks of his army, even as his trust in God carried them on to unheard-of victories. With this, his own creation, he brought the Germanic peoples together again and gave us the German unity for which we had prayed. We owe it to him that, thanks to this honor, the German Empire commands respect again and takes up its appointed place in the council of the nations.
It is for you, gentlemen, to cherish and exemplify in the new century the old qualities through which our forefathers gave greatness to the army. This means that you must make few demands in daily life,[28] that you must practise simplicity and give yourselves up unconditionally to the royal service, that you must in ceaseless labor offer all the powers of body and soul to the building up and development of our troops, and, just as my grandfather labored for his land forces, so, undeterred, I shall carry through to its completion the work of reorganizing my navy in order that it may stand justified at the side of my army and that through it the German Empire may also be in a position to win outwardly the place which she has not yet attained.
[28] “To the Americans the pay of the German troops, officers and men, is ludicrously small. It is evident that men do not undertake to fit themselves to be officers, and do not struggle through frequent and severe examinations to remain officers, for the pay they receive. A lieutenant receives for the first three years $300 a year, from the fourth to the sixth year $425, from the seventh to the ninth year $550, and after the twelfth year $600 a year. A captain receives from the first to the fourth year $850, from the fifth to the eighth year $1,150, and the ninth year and after $1,275 a year. Of one hundred officers who join, only an average of eight ever attain to the command of a regiment. In Bavaria and Würtemberg promotion is quicker by from one to three years than in Prussia. In Prussia promotion to Oberleutnant averages 10 years, to captain or Rittmeister 15 years, to major 25 years, to colonel 33 years, and to general 37 years. It would not be altogether inhuman if these gentlemen occasionally drank a toast to war and pestilence.”—Price Collier, “Germany and the Germans.”
When both are united I hope to be in a position, firmly trusting in the leadership of God, to carry into effect the saying of Frederick William I: “If one wishes to decide anything in the world, it cannot be done with the pen unless the pen is supported by the force of the sword.”