The sincere words of friendship which your Majesty, in the name of her Majesty, the Queen, has just addressed to us, the Empress, my daughter, and me, as they sprang from warm hearts are welcomed by warm hearts. We remember with greatest pleasure the visit which your Majesties made to us last spring at Potsdam, and it was a welcome duty of gratitude to return it as soon as possible. The brilliant reception prepared for us by your Majesties and the Belgian people in this splendid capital has stirred us to the depths and inspires us to heartier thanks in that we see in it an expression of the close bond which unites not only our families but our peoples. It is with friendliest sympathy that I and all Germany follow the astounding results which have accrued to the untiring energy of the Belgian people in all departments of trade and industry, the crowning display of which we have seen in the brilliantly successful World Exposition of this year. Belgian commerce embraces the whole circle of the earth, and it is in the peaceful work of culture that Germans and Belgians everywhere meet. Their cultivation of the more spiritual arts fills us with similar wonder when we behold to what a conspicuous place the poets and artists of Belgium have attained. May the trustful and friendly feelings, to which in recent times the relations of our governments bore such pleasing evidence, be ever more closely preserved! From your Majesty’s reign may happiness and blessing stream forth upon your house and upon your people! It is with this wish, which comes from the very depths of my heart, that I propose long life to your Majesties, the King and Queen of the Belgians!
[ALCOHOL AND THE SCHOOLS]
Cassel, August 19, 1911
The Emperor had been a student at the Friedrichs Gymnasium in Cassel, and in 1875 his parents had presented a flag to the school, which had now to be replaced. In turning over the new flag to the first man in the upper class, the Emperor took occasion to give the students certain advice, particularly with regard to the use of alcoholic beverages. His attitude here marks a decided innovation in Germany, and if his address is compared with the one delivered at Bonn (April 24, 1901), it will be seen how keenly aware he is of the changing tendencies of the times.
I have decided to have a new flag woven for the upper class instead of the one which my parents bestowed when I was a student and which has fallen a victim to time. The high school has asked to have the old one back again; I will have it mended so that it may be hung. I wish you to remember, through it, that from your walls and your studies a German Emperor has gone forth.
You have been busy with the studies of antiquity. Do not lay too much stress upon the incidents of their political life; for these relations have so changed that they cannot be applied to the present. You may well rejoice in many of the great figures and characters of antiquity, but Greek culture has one special trait which no other nation has shown. The harmony which our own time so sadly lacks, the Greek people showed in art, in life, in their motions, in their dress, yes, even in their systems of philosophy, and in the handling of their problems. I especially advise you to read what Chamberlain so trenchantly says on this point in the Introduction to his “Foundations of the Nineteenth Century.”
And then, above all, strive to know the history of your Fatherland. Learn to know the misery of our people in the later years of the Middle Ages, in the struggles between church and state and between the princes, in the strife of creeds during the Thirty Years’ War, when our people were trodden down and brought into the service of foreign peoples and dynasties with whom its interests had nothing in common, until the final great downfall in the time of Napoleon. The year 1870 first brought us a united German state again. And if you enter upon a political career, keep your eye upon the field as a whole, and do not be disturbed by parties. For these shove their interests before those of the Fatherland and often draw a curtain between you and it. And if your political efforts threaten to bewilder you, I advise you to withdraw from them for a time—travel or go on a walking tour—and let Nature have her way. Then when you return you will have a clearer vision of the real relations. If at any time the waves overwhelm you, if the many phenomena of modern art and literature bewilder and depress you, you can always turn to these ideals of antiquity as a means of recovering your balance.
You are now ready to enter the university. Therefore I would like to give you one more counsel, which you must not take lightly, for it is to me a very serious matter. Alcohol is a great danger to our people, which, believe me, gives me great anxiety. I have led the government now during twenty-three years, and through the reports which pass through my hands I know how many crimes have been committed through alcohol. Direct your gaze for a moment to a neighboring land. The Americans are far ahead of us in this. At their universities there they do great things, as you may convince yourselves, since so many students come to us from there. There, at the reunions and at the great academic gatherings—for instance, at the inauguration of a president—no wine is seen on the whole table; and they get along very well without it. If you enter the university, steel your body through sport and through fencing—a thing I would blame in no one—or through rowing; but do not seek to make a record for yourself by seeing who can gulp down the greatest number of intoxicating drinks. Those are customs which come to us from another time. If you will take this attitude in the corps and societies, I shall be grateful to you. We have other tasks now than they had in former years and must strengthen our knowledge of national economy and finances. For it is worth Germany’s while to protect her position in the world, especially in the world market. Therefore we must all hold fast together.
I herewith turn the flag over to you. The primus omnium, so I understand, will carry it and will consider it an honor that he is the first one to do so.