What I Saw in Berlin and Other European Capitals During Wartime

by Piermarini

My informant said that the Germans would probably make their first appearance on the British coast very soon and that afterwards a regular programme of raids, both by sea and by air, was to be carried out.

I am sorry I was not in Berlin when the news of the bombardment of Scarborough was served out to the good Berlin people. The papers will no doubt have magnified its effects to cheer up the population, which seems to need it badly.

Most people there seem very keen on bringing the war to English territory, and if this was not done before it was only because it was feared that such a raid would act as a tonic on recruiting, or even give the last blow to England's traditional form of voluntary recruiting.

Now, however, the desire to attack British shores has become more and more pronounced, as the continuously increasing figures of Lord Kitchener's Army, regularly sent to Germany by her informers, have dispelled the illusion that the mass of British people were indifferent to the war.

Though ignorant people seemed to believe in a probable German invasion of one or another part of England, in military circles in Germany it is realised that it is absolutely impossible, and the raids which will take place on the British coast are only meant to plunge the population into panic and to force the British Government to keep troops in England instead of sending them to the Continent.

The feelings of the capital are very complex; disillusion caused by the campaign in France lasting so long without any apparent progress, sorrow for the enormous number of lives lost, hate for every nation on earth save Turkey, and especially for Great Britain.

At first everybody was absolutely certain that the German Army would take all things by storm, that its superiority was sufficient to smash any resistance in a few weeks. Now, however, the Berlin people are beginning to realise that they have been deceived in this respect.

I don't mean to say that Berlin's people, at least the people in the street, realise that things are going badly nor that they are giving up hope—that would not be true. They still believe in a final victory for Germany, but they don't seem to be as certain as they were before. They are getting rather tired of the length of the war.

I can confirm everything that has been written about the hate of England. England is called the "jealous, cowardly country," and all sorts of insulting names, unjustified either by historical or political precedents. What is absolutely certain is that Russia and France are not hated half as much as the English are.

Curiously enough, this hate, which is very moderate in the military class, and not too strong among commercial and industrial people, who have always considered Great Britain as one of their best customers and who are longing to start trading with her again when the war is over, reaches the highest possible degree of violence amongst the upper classes, the sedentary men of the laboratories, the "Professoren," pride and, in former times, amusement of Germany herself.