The documents found in Dr. Bertling's possession, and the method of securing them, brought forth a sharp editorial from Bernard Ridder of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, then one of the stanch members of the foreign language press engaged in defending Germany. Dr. Bertling remained unmolested in the United States until April, 1918, when he was arrested as an enemy alien in Lexington, Mass., and interned. Dr. Bernhardt Dernburg, to quote the words of a German associate, "had some propaganda and wrote some articles for the newspapers" ... and was "certainly in connection with the German Government," gave Adolph Pavenstedt $15,000 in early October, 1914. To this Pavenstedt added $5,000, and on October 12 paid the sum of $20,000 to the Staats-Zeitung, to tide the newspaper over a rough financial period. "I expected," said Pavenstedt," that if the business were bankrupt it would be lost to the Ridders, who have always followed a very good course for the German interests here."
Photographs of checks signed by Adolf Pavenstedt
Soon after the war began George Sylvester Viereck brought out his publication, The Fatherland, a moderately clever attempt to appeal to intelligent readers in Germany's behalf. On July 1, 1915, the publication having stumbled along a rocky financial path—for no publication distributed gratis can make money—Dr. Albert wrote Viereck:
"Your account for the $1,500—bonus, after deducting the $250 received, for the month of June, 1915, has been received. I hope in the course of the next week to be able to make payment. In the meantime, I request the proposal of a suitable person who can ascertain accurately and prove the financial condition of your paper. From the moment when we guarantee you a regular advance, I must
"1. Have a new statement of the condition of your paper.
"2. Practise a control over the financial management.
"In addition to this we must have an understanding regarding the course in politics which you will pursue, which we have not asked heretofore. Perhaps you will be kind enough to talk the matter over on the basis of this letter, with Mr. Fuehr." Fuehr's office was across the hall from Viereck.
Viereck had assembled about him among others a staff of contributors which included Dr. Dernburg, Frank Koester, Rudolph Kronau, J. Bernard Rethey, a writer who affects the nom de plume of "Oliver Ames," Edmund von Mach (whose brother is an official of some prominence in Germany), and Ram Chandra (the editor of a revolutionary Hindu newspaper published in California). Viereck, in his paper, forecasted the sinking of the Lusitania and later gloated over it as well as over the murder of Edith Cavell. His father is the Berlin correspondent of his paper. They are both "naturalized" citizens of the United States. One of his contributors, as late as 1918, wrote for Viereck a peculiarly suspicious essay on his conversion to Americanism, setting forth in exhaustive detail the pro-German convictions which he had previously held, and the justification for them, and winding up with a pallid renunciation of them, the document as a whole intended ostensibly to stimulate patriotism, while in reality it would have rekindled the dying German apology. The pernicious Viereck, whose mental stature may be judged by the fact that he treasured a violet from the grave of Oscar Wilde, sought to interest the Embassy in his merits as a publisher of German books, and was supported, as pro-German volumes were issued from the Jackson Press which he controlled. He suggested, too, to Dr. Albert names of American publishing houses as excellent media for bringing out propaganda books on account of their obvious innocence of German sympathies.