[DEDICATION OF THE BARRACKS OF THE ALEXANDER REGIMENT]
March 28, 1901
On the 6th of March the Emperor had been struck in the face by a piece of iron hurled at him by an irresponsible youth, Weiland, in the streets of Bremen. It was doubtless this incident coupled with the increasing strength of the Social Democrats that made him think of the possibility of an uprising and deliver the following address to the population of Berlin. The Social Democrats and many others resented his suggesting the possibility of turning the troops upon the citizens. We give first Penzler’s more or less official account of the speech as it appeared in the Kreuzzeitung. If the extract which we quote from Doctor Liman’s work “Der Kaiser” may be considered at all authentic, the speech seems to have been somewhat edited before publication.
Members of the Emperor Alexander Regiment:
To-day a new period in your history begins. May the spirit of the memories which you leave behind you in the old barracks live on in your new home. They are memories of beautiful days of peace and of fierce days of conflict. Like a firm bulwark, your new barracks stand in the neighborhood of the palace, which it is primarily your duty to be ever ready to defend. The Emperor Alexander Regiment is called upon in a sense to stand ready as body-guard by night and by day and, if necessary, to risk its life and its blood for the King and his house; and if ever again (the Emperor here called to mind the faithful bearing of the Alexander Regiment at the time of the revolts against the King in 1848) a time like this should reappear in this city, a time of uprising against the King, then I am convinced the Alexander Regiment will be able energetically to force back into bounds any impertinence and rebelliousness against its royal master.[32]
[32] This last sentence reads as follows in Doctor Liman’s work: “But if the city should ever again presume to rise up against its master then will the regiment repress with the bayonet the impertinence of the people toward their King.” Doctor Liman states that it was currently reported that this sentiment had been expressed in phrases which were even more objectionable to the citizens who were standing outside the circle of soldiers.
I hope that a brilliant and beautiful existence may be in store for the regiment in its new home, and that such an existence will be reserved for it in the future. May it cherish above all things its memories of its earlier leaders and its enduring relationships to them. These memories can only be fostered through courage, fidelity, and unconditional obedience. And if this old spirit lives on in the regiment then must its acts always win for it the satisfaction of its royal master.
(After the banquet in the officers’ mess the Emperor turned over to them a large painting of the Alexander Regiment on the evening of the battle of St. Privat. The official report gives the Emperor’s speech partly in his own words and partly in summary.)
He was convinced that the officers had brought the old spirit into their new quarters, and that they would continue to foster it. He, too, on his side, wished to contribute something to the decoration of their new home, and to this end had chosen an episode out of the victorious history of the regiment, and in doing so he wished to carry out a wish of the officers.
“In most of the pictures based upon the martial history of Prussia the Prussian troops are represented in victorious advance when, under their powerful shock, they are overthrowing the enemy. I thought it fitting for once to have the Prussian toughness and endurance on the defensive represented in the battle of a smaller body against an overwhelmingly superior force. The picture represents how a small number from the Alexander Regiment defended themselves with heroic spirit against an entire brigade and finally victoriously repulsed it. My grandfather expressed to the body-guard as a whole his gratitude for its brave conduct in the face of the enemy and for all its heroic deeds. I am firmly convinced that the officers of the Alexander Regiment will always be mindful of its task, seeing that it educates soldiers for the one moment when it is a question of sealing with their life-blood their fidelity toward King and Fatherland. This consciousness gives me the certainty that we shall conquer everywhere, even though we be surrounded by enemies on all sides; for there lives a powerful ally, the old, good God[33] in heaven, who, ever since the time of the Great Elector and of the great King, has always been on our side.”