To call such research institutes into being as soon as possible seems to me a sacred duty of the present, and I hold it as my task, as father of my country, to bespeak the general interest for this undertaking. This high aim requires great expense and can be accomplished only if all circles interested in the progress of the sciences and in the welfare of the Fatherland are ready to co-operate in this significant task and to make sacrifices for it. I should like, therefore, to-day to lay upon the conscience and place before the eyes of every one the new aim with the impressive warning: “Tua res agitur.” I hope and firmly trust that this work will succeed; indeed, although the plans have been disclosed only to a limited circle, from various parts of the country I have already received enthusiastic expressions of support and very considerable means; between nine and ten million [marks] have been placed at my disposal. I feel the need of expressing here in this place my warmest thanks to these unselfish donors.

But to secure lasting support for this undertaking, it is my wish, under my protection and my name, to found a society which shall set for itself the task of erecting and maintaining institutions for research. To this society I will gladly turn over the money given me for that purpose. To see to it that the institutions so founded shall not lack help from the state will be the care of my reign.[45]

[45] On the Emperor’s initiative, the Emperor William Society for the furthering of the sciences was founded. It has already called into being two scientific institutes, the Emperor William Institute for Chemistry and the Emperor William Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrical Chemistry. They were dedicated by the Emperor, October 23, 1912.

So may to-day be not only an occasion of jubilation for the University of Berlin, but may it also signify a further step in the development of German spiritual life!

And still one wish more I give to the university on its way into a new century. May she, in loyal remembrance of the time of her founding, preserve her Prussian-German character! Learning is, indeed, the common property of the whole cultural world, and her acquisitions to-day halt at no boundaries. And yet—as every nation must preserve its own manner of life if it would emphasize its independent existence and its value for the whole—may the alma mater Berolinensis remain forever conscious that she is a German university. As formerly, so may she be for all time the seat of German manners and of German art! And may every one who has the honor to investigate, to teach, and to study within her walls devote himself to his task, filled with the sense for truth and for thoroughness with the earnestness and the love for all work which Goethe prized as the ornament of our people.

May the university further exercise her splendid privilege of fostering true knowledge, which, as Humboldt has so well said, comes from man’s inner being to be planted again in his inner being, which creates and reshapes character. Let her do this with that noble freedom which sets laws unto itself and with that sense of exaltation which comes from being the administrator of a treasure which belongs to the whole of humanity. “Communis hominum thesaurus situs est in magnis veritatibus.”[46] But all truth is God’s, and His spirit rests upon every work which is grounded in and strives toward the truth. May this spirit of truth live also in you students; may it be found in all the workings of my dear institution of learning! Then will her age be like her youth; she shall remain a city upon the hill, to which the peoples make pilgrimage, and an ornament and treasure of the Fatherland.

[46] This phrase is taken from Leibnitz’s dedication of the Miscellanea Berolinensia to King Frederick I.

[THE EMPEROR IN BRUSSELS]

October 27, 1910

The Emperor and Empress, accompanied by the Princess Victoria Luise, came to Brussels in order to repay the visit which the King and Queen of Belgium had made to Potsdam in May, 1910. At the time of the visit of King Albert to Berlin the Emperor did not take part in the festivities, as he was suffering from a wound in the hand. The honors were done by the Crown Prince. The Emperor’s speech at the banquet at the Royal Palace in Brussels calls for no comment.