Latest news with #WilhelmII
New European
20-05-2025
- General
- New European
Germansplaining: The House of Hohenzollern, a dynasty fit for a Netflix drama
This near-century-long dispute could be a Netflix series featuring imperial palaces, royal corpses, Spanish snuff, a Prussian prince, the Nazis and commies, and a few plot twists. Some conflicts last for ever. One has just been wrapped up after only 99 years: German authorities and the noble House of Hohenzollern have buried the hatchet, though not in each other, which is progress. Previously on Hohenzollern Unrestored: from the 18th century, the dynasty supplied Prussia with monarchs, and from 1871 it also provided the new Reich with a few Kaisers. That all came to a screeching halt when the Weimar Republic was declared, and Wilhelm II flounced off into exile in the Netherlands. Family assets were confiscated. A 1926 law settled who got what, but legal ambiguities remained. They wrangled through the Third Reich, then through the GDR, and even persisted in reunified Germany, long after Prussia itself had been officially dissolved by the allies in 1947. Prussia, which had made up two-thirds of German territory before the war, remained a historical problem area. At last, this month the federal culture secretary and Prinz Georg Friedrich von Preussen, great-great-grandson of the last emperor Wilhelm II, announced an agreement. The saga, it seems, has a finale. Georg Friedrich had inherited the legal headache in 1994, aged just 18, when he became head of the once-royal house. By that point, the family had spent decades trying to claw back property and compensation. They even asked the GDR for the right to reside in Potsdam's Cecilienhof Palace (as if the Berlin Wall was just a garden fence). And communist-in-chief Erich Honecker offered 'His Imperial Highness' a proper burial for the Prussian kings Frederick William I and his son, Frederick II 'The Great', at Schloss Sanssouci. The royal coffins had been taken from Potsdam in 1943, stored in a potash mine in Thuringia, then transferred to Marburg in Hesse (West Germany) and finally to Hechingen near Stuttgart, to the ancestral castle of the Hohenzollern. For the corpses, considering the bumpy journey, RIP must have stood for 'rest in one piece'. In the end, it was chancellor Helmut Kohl (and not Honecker) who attended the final burial of 'Old Fritz', aka Friedrich II, on the terrace of Sanssouci Palace. The public authorities refused to pay compensation for Hohenzollern palaces expropriated under Soviet rule – as this is legally denied to anyone who 'significantly aided and abetted' the Nazis. And, well, Kaiser Wilhelm II's oldest son, another Wilhelm, wasn't exactly resistance material. To bolster their claim, the Hohenzollern family commissioned an expert report from Cambridge historian Christopher Clark. According to Clark, Wilhelm Jr had expressed admiration for Hitler and the Nazis. The ex-crown prince was, however, too insignificant to have 'significantly supported' them. 'As if!', thought the Bundesrepublik, and provided two counter-experts. Both added incriminating facts to Clark's list, emphasizing Wilhelm's enthusiasm for Italian fascism and his PR for the regime. A fourth historian – Team Prussia again – came up with the creative twist that supporting the Nazis may have just been a ruse to restore the monarchy. A draw. And in 2023, the Hohenzollern finally dropped the lawsuits and returned to negotiations, focusing on movable goods – 27,000 of them, to be precise – including memorabilia, furniture, textiles, paintings, library and archive collections, some of considerable value and historical significance. Most have been in public museums in Berlin and Brandenburg. And thanks to the new deal, the majority will stay there. Highlights include a Lucas Cranach the Elder portrait of Joachim I of Brandenburg, baroque ivory furniture and the table service for the Breslau City Palace, acquired by Frederick II in 1750. A newly created non-profit, Hohenzollern Art Foundation, will oversee the collection. The family gets three board seats, but the public sector has a majority say. Some disputed pieces are returned to Hohenzollern property, however, including seven tabatiers – fancy tobacco tins Frederick the Great used for Spanish snuff. One of them, legend has it, saved his life in the seven years' war by deflecting an enemy bullet. Two tabatiers will remain in museums on permanent loan, but the other five may soon appear at auctions. So if you've got a few million pounds lying around and a taste for fancy antiques, you're in luck.
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- The Guardian
Sailing across the Baltic: an idyllic voyage from Germany to Denmark
A south-westerly wind blew us to Ærø. This little Baltic island (pronounced Air-rue) in Denmark's South Funen archipelago is home to some 6,000 fortunate residents who enjoy free bus services, shallow swimming beaches and picture-perfect villages. The 54 sq mile island has a history of building sailing ships and there is an excellent maritime museum, so it seemed appropriate to arrive on a historic wooden sailing boat, Peggy, a Bristol pilot cutter built in 1903. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. 'We're going to Ærø without a plane,' quipped one crew member as we set the sails on leaving the German Baltic port of Kiel. Our overland journey from the UK had started with a 12-hour train trip from London to Cuxhaven, a German port on the North Sea; a short taxi ride to Cuxhaven marina; an overnight stay on Peggy in the marina; and then a two-day transit of the Kiel canal, the busiest in the world by number of vessels, with some 35,000 ships transiting annually. Sails furled, Peggy puttered along at about six miles an hour with 150 metre-long container ships overtaking and looming toward us. The 61-mile (99km) canal, which saves some 500 miles on the route between Germany's North Sea and the Baltic ports, was opened in 1895 when it was called the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal. The Germans now know it as the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal but internationally it is called the Kiel canal after the Baltic port where construction began. Kaiser Wilhelm II introduced a tax on sparkling wine to help fund its operation. The canal is mostly delightfully rural, edged by reeds. Beyond the banks and canalside cycle paths, a backdrop of trees bordered the waterway on both sides. An overnight stop at a junction with the River Eider navigation, on the Gieselau canal, was even more bucolic. Starlings flew in to roost and perform their evening murmurations, shape-shifting from sailing boat to love heart. The sun set behind trees while we ate dinner on deck. In the morning, we swam in the river, edged with waterlilies, before continuing to Kiel, the canal becoming less rural as we neared its eastern terminus. The next day, we sailed away from our overnight anchorage in Kiel Fjord, with the pale cream sails full of wind, Peggy looking resplendent in the afternoon sun. Only the captains, Peggy's owners John Potter and Rachel Haynes, really knew what they were doing. The rest of us, their four willing crew, pulled ropes when asked or made cups of tea or gripped the tiller tightly. We kept course by heading for a landmark or following the compass or the route on a digital chart. Peggy may be old but she has modern navigation systems. The waves sloshed and slapped against the hull, the sails and boom creaked, and we sped along at seven knots. Sun lit our way though grumpy clouds loomed in the distance. Sailing is to balance on the knife-edge of the weather, harnessing the wind that, with one wrong push of the tiller, could swing the heavy boom and spell disaster. Skies to which you pay scant attention on land except perhaps to wonder 'should we take a brolly?' seem full of weight out at sea. That dark bruise of cloud ahead might be rife with squalls. But the weather gods were kind, the wind a constant south-westerly blowing us on our way. There were plenty of sailing boats out in the fjord leaning into the 25 knots of wind but once we were on our way on the 37-mile crossing, we only saw a few other vessels, one of which was similarly from the history books with russet sails and a mizzen mast. Three hours later, Ærø island appeared on the horizon, seemingly edged with tall sandy beaches. Closer to, it became clear that these were actually fields ripe for harvest. Six hours after leaving Kiel, the passage into the harbour at Marstal was marked with red and green buoys distinctively topped with supersize bottle brushes. They looked jolly and festive, and already Ærø felt special. We tied up in the harbour next to a seafood restaurant. Our waiter was a young man with a fish tattooed on the inside of his forearm. 'It's a trout,' he said. 'It's a reminder of the day my dad and I went fishing and I caught five but he only caught one.' The friendly staff and meal of lobster bisque, plaice and prawns, along with a rite-of-passage story, seemed a fitting celebration of our arrival by sailing boat. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion We were in the village of Marstal, which has the island's main harbour, today mostly used by yachts. The maritime museum spreads across several historic buildings nearby. There are rooms full of model boats and photographs and paintings of tall ships that were built here. For children there are ship playgrounds, including one where the captain's bridge appears to heave in a stormy sea. Another room is an art gallery of oil paintings by 19th-century naval artist JEC Rasmussen who was born in Ærø, depicting both the joys and horrors of life at sea: sailors caught in a tempest, taking an axe to their broken mast to stop things getting worse. We boarded the free community bus to the village of Ærøskøbing where, in the pedestrianised centre there are cosy, colourful centuries-old houses. Mullioned windows display wooden boats and porcelain dogs while hollyhocks grow between cobbles outside decoratively carved doors. We visited the whisky distillery and its courtyard cafe before heading for a swim at Vesterstrand beach where a jetty led out over eelgrass to a sand-bottomed, clear sea watched over by two dozen beach cabins of all shapes and colours. People arrived on bicycles for their daily swim. In the maritime museum, a volunteer, Lotte, had told us that many islanders, like her, are retirees. As well as swimming and sailing, 'singing in choirs is a popular pastime', she said. Ærø seemed heavenly and even more so without a plane. Paul Miles was a guest of Rachel Haynes and John Potter, owners of Peggy. For more information about Bristol pilot cutters, visit Travel back from Kiel was provided by which has fares between London and Cuxhaven or Kiel from £101 one-way. Venturesail Holidays offers similar trips with berths on historic sailing boats worldwide including transits of the Kiel canal and sailing in the western Baltic visiting Ærø and other islands
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Germany ends 100-year legal dispute over imperial art treasures
Thousands of cultural treasures from Germany's former Hohenzollern imperial family will remain on permanent display in museums in Berlin and Brandenburg, the country's new Culture Commssioner Wolfram Weimer announced on Monday. After a dispute lasting almost 100 years, the descendants of the last German emperor have reached a landmark agreement with the federal government and with states of Berlin and Brandenburg, he added. "This agreement is a tremendous success for Germany as a cultural location and for the art-loving public," Weimer said in Berlin. "For a hundred years, there has been ongoing uncertainty about objects that are central to the art and collection history of Prussia and thus to German history as a whole." The treasures include a portrait of Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg by painter Lucas Cranach the Elder and a table service for the Breslau City Palace acquired by Emperor Frederick II in 1750. According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, the agreement covers a total of 27,000 items. Ownership rights and claims have been disputed since 1926. With the proclamation of the Weimar Republic and the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II, the monarchy in Germany came to an end in 1918. The Hohenzollern family's assets were confiscated. In 1926, a contract was signed between the then state of Prussia and the Hohenzollerns to settle who owned what. Nevertheless, ambiguity over ownership and restitution claims persisted for decades. The House of Hohenzollern – currently headed by Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, great-great-grandson of the last German emperor, Wilhelm II – had asserted claims to thousands of works of art that are now in museums. The prince had been negotiating with federal and state authorities since 2014, seeking the return of thousands of artworks and financial compensation for expropriated palaces and property. Litigation stalled talks for several years, but in 2023, the lawsuits were resloved, clearing the way for fresh negotiations in autumn 2024. The objects will remain physically housed in their current locations, including the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG), the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), and the German Historical Museum (DHM) in Berlin. Public access to the artworks will continue.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
When the Telegraph met Kaiser Bill – and he made foreign relations 10 times worse
This article is published as part of The Telegraph's Greatest Interviews series, which revisits the most significant, informative and entertaining conversations with notable figures over our 170 year history. The below interview is introduced by Christopher Howse. It appears as it was originally published. The Telegraph's interview with Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1908 put the cat among the international pigeons in the lead-up to the First World War. It caused as much ill-feeling against him in Germany as in Britain, by revealing his opinions. He said that a majority of Germans were unfriendly to England, and suggested that Germany's naval build-up was directed against Japan. His claim that he had been on Britain's side in the Boer war seemed to many incredible. The interview appeared opposite a leading article emphasising its historic status. Declared to be the record of a conversation with a 'representative Englishman', it had come from Colonel Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley, at whose castle the German Emperor had stayed in 1907. Meaning to improve Anglo-German relations, the professional soldier made notes of their conversations, which the Kaiser agreed could be published in The Daily Telegraph. After the hostile reaction, the Kaiser was filled with angry regret. – Christopher Howse We have received the following communication from a source of such unimpeachable authority that we can without hesitation commend the obvious message which it conveys to the attention of the public. Discretion is the first and last quality requisite in a diplomatist, and should still be observed by those who, like myself, have long passed from public into private life. Yet moments sometimes occur in the history of nations when a calculated indiscretion proves of the highest public service, and it is for that reason that I have decided to make known the substance of a lengthy conversation which it was my recent privilege to have with his Majesty the German Emperor. I do so in the hope that it may help to remove that obstinate misconception of the character of the Kaiser's feelings towards England which, I fear, is deeply rooted in the ordinary Englishman's breast. It is the Emperor's sincere wish that it should be eradicated. He has given repeated proofs of his desire by word and deed. But, to speak frankly, his patience is sorely tried, now that he finds himself so continually misrepresented, and has so often experienced the mortification of finding that any momentary improvement of relations is followed by renewed outbursts of prejudice, and a prompt return to the old attitude of suspicion. As I have said, his Majesty honoured me with a long conversation, and spoke with impulsive and unusual frankness 'You English,' he said, 'are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation? What more can I do than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever been false to my word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them, but to those who misinterpret and distort them. That is a personal insult which I feel and resent. To be for ever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of friendship weighed and scrutinised with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time after time that I am a friend of England, and your Press – or, at least, a considerable section of it – bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand, and insinuates that the other holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will? 'I repeat,' continued his Majesty, 'that I am the friend of England, but you make things difficult for me. My task is not of the easiest. The prevailing sentiment among large sections of the middle and lower classes of my own people is not friendly to England. I am, therefore, so to speak, in a minority in my own land, but it is a minority of the best elements, just as it is in England with respect to Germany. That is another reason why I resent your refusal to accept my pledged word that I am the friend of England. I strive without ceasing to improve relations, and you retort that I am your arch-enemy. You make it very hard for me. Why is it?' Thereupon I ventured to remind his Majesty that not England alone, but the whole of Europe had viewed with disapproval the recent action of Germany in allowing the German Consul to return from Tangier to Fez, and in anticipating the joint action of France and Spain by suggesting to the Powers that the time had come for Europe to recognise Muley Hafid as the new Sultan of Morocco. His Majesty made a gesture of impatience. 'Yes,' he said, 'that is an excellent example of the way in which German action is misrepresented. First, then, as regards the journey of Dr. Vassel. The German Government, in sending Dr. Vassel back to his post at Fez, was only guided by the wish that he should look after the private interests of German subjects in that city, who cried for help and protection after the long absence of a Consular representative. And why not send him? Are those who charge Germany with having stolen a march on the other Powers aware that the French Consular representative had already been in Fez for several months when Dr. Vassel set out? Then, as to the recognition of Muley Hafid. The Press of Europe has complained with much acerbity that Germany ought not to have suggested his recognition until he had notified to Europe his full acceptance of the Act of Algeciras, as being binding upon him as Sultan of Morocco and. successor of his brother. My answer is that Muley Hafid notified the Powers to that effect weeks ago, before the decisive battle was fought. He sent, as far back as the middle of last July, an identical communication to the Governments of Germany, France, and Great Britain, containing an explicit acknowledgment that he was prepared to recognise all the obligations towards Europe which were incurred by Abdul Aziz during his Sultanate. The German Government interpreted that communication as a final and authoritative expression of Muley Hafid's intentions, and therefore they considered that there was no reason to wait until he had sent a second communication, before recognising him as the de facto Sultan of Morocco, who had succeeded to his brother's throne by right of victory in the field.' I suggested to his Majesty that an important and influential section of the German Press had placed a very different interpretation upon the action of the German Government, and, in fact, had given it their effusive approbation precisely because they saw in it a strong act instead of mere words, and a decisive indication that Germany was once more about to intervene in the shaping of events in Morocco. 'There are mischief-makers,' replied the Emperor, 'in both countries. I will not attempt to weigh their relative capacity for misrepresentation. But the facts are as I have stated. There has been nothing in Germany's recent action with regard to Morocco which runs contrary to the explicit declaration of my love of peace, which I made both at Guildhall and in my latest speech at Strassburg.' His Majesty then reverted to the subject uppermost in his mind – his proved friendship for England. 'I have referred,' he said, 'to the speeches in which I have done all that a Sovereign can to proclaim my goodwill. But, as actions speak louder than words; let me also refer to my acts. It is commonly believed in England that throughout the South African War, Germany was hostile to her. German opinion undoubtedly was hostile – bitterly hostile. The Press was hostile; private opinion was hostile. But what of official Germany? Let my critics ask themselves what brought to a sudden stop, and, indeed, to absolute collapse, the European tour of the Boer delegates who were striving to obtain European intervention? They were fêted in Holland; France gave them a rapturous welcome. They wished to come to Berlin, where the German people would have crowned them with flowers. But when they asked me to receive them – I refused. The agitation immediately died away, and the delegation returned empty-handed. Was that, I ask, the action of a secret enemy?' 'Again, when the struggle was at its height, the German Government was invited by the Governments of France and Russia to join with them in calling upon England to put an end to the war. The moment had come, they said, not only to save the Boer Republics, but also to humiliate England to the dust. What my reply? I said that so far from Germany joining in any concerted European action to put pressure upon England and bring about her downfall, Germany would always keep aloof from politics that could bring her into complications with a Sea Power like England. Posterity will one day read the exact terms of the telegram – now in the archives of Windsor Castle – in which I informed the Sovereign of England of the answer I had returned to the Powers which then sought to compass her fall. Englishmen who now insult me by doubting my word should know what were my actions in the hour of their adversity.' 'Nor was that all. Just at the time of your Black Week, in the December of 1899, when disasters followed one another in rapid succession, I received a letter from Queen Victoria, my revered grandmother, written in sorrow and affliction, and bearing manifest traces of the anxieties which were preying upon her mind and health. I at once returned a sympathetic reply. Nay, I did more. I bade one of my officers procure for me as exact an account as he could obtain of the number of combatants in South Africa on both sides, and of the actual position of the opposing forces. With the figures before me, I worked out what I considered to be the best plan of campaign under the circumstances, and submitted it to my General Staff for their criticism. Then I despatched it to England, and that document, likewise, is among the State papers at Windsor Castle, awaiting the serenely impartial verdict of history. And, as a matter of curious coincidence, let me add that the plan which I formulated ran very much on the same lines as that which was actually adopted by Lord Roberts, and carried by him into successful operation. Was that, I repeat, the act of one who wished England ill? Let Englishmen be just and say!' 'But, you will say, what of the German navy? Surely, that is a menace to England! Against whom but England are my squadrons being prepared? If England is not in the minds of those Germans who are bent on creating a powerful fleet, why is Germany asked to consent to such new and heavy burdens of taxation? My answer is clear: Germany is a young and growing Empire. She has a world-wide commerce, which is rapidly expanding, and to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic Germans refuses to assign any bounds. Germany must have a powerful fleet to protect that commerce, and her manifold interests in even the most distant seas. She expects those interests to go on growing, and she must be able to champion them manfully in any quarter of the globe. Germany looks ahead. Her horizons stretch far away. She must be prepared for any eventualities in the Far East. Who can foresee what may take place in the Pacific in the days to come, days not so distant as some believe, but days, at any rate, for which all European Powers with Far Eastern interests ought steadily to prepare? Look at the accomplished rise of Japan; think of the possible national awakening of China; and then judge of the vast problems of the Pacific. Only those Powers which have great navies will be listened to with respect, when the future of the Pacific comes to be solved; and if for that reason only Germany must have a powerful fleet. It may even be that England herself will be glad that Germany has a fleet when they speak together on the same side in the great debates of the future.' Such was the purport of the Emperor's conversation. He spoke with all that earnestness which marks his manner when speaking on deeply-pondered subjects. I would ask my fellow-countrymen who value the cause of peace to weigh what I have written, and to revise, if necessary, their estimate of the Kaiser and his friendship for England by his Majesty's own words. If they had enjoyed the privilege, which was mine, of hearing them spoken, they would doubt no longer either his Majesty's firm desire to live on the best of terms with England or his growing impatience at the persistent mistrust with which his offer of friendship is too often received. 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Telegraph
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The interview that changed Germany: Kaiser Wilhelm and ‘The Telegraph affair'
This article is published as part of The Telegraph's Greatest Interviews series, which revisits the most significant, informative and entertaining conversations with notable figures over our 170 year history. The below interview is introduced by Christopher Howse. It appears as it was originally published. The Telegraph 's interview with Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1908 put the cat among the international pigeons in the lead-up to the First World War. It caused as much ill-feeling against him in Germany as in Britain, by revealing his opinions. He said that a majority of Germans were unfriendly to England, and suggested that Germany's naval build-up was directed against Japan. His claim that he had been on Britain's side in the Boer war seemed to many incredible. The interview appeared opposite a leading article emphasising its historic status. Declared to be the record of a conversation with a 'representative Englishman', it had come from Colonel Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley, at whose castle the German Emperor had stayed in 1907. Meaning to improve Anglo-German relations, the professional soldier made notes of their conversations, which the Kaiser agreed could be published in The Daily Telegraph. After the hostile reaction, the Kaiser was filled with angry regret. – Christopher Howse We have received the following communication from a source of such unimpeachable authority that we can without hesitation commend the obvious message which it conveys to the attention of the public. Discretion is the first and last quality requisite in a diplomatist, and should still be observed by those who, like myself, have long passed from public into private life. Yet moments sometimes occur in the history of nations when a calculated indiscretion proves of the highest public service, and it is for that reason that I have decided to make known the substance of a lengthy conversation which it was my recent privilege to have with his Majesty the German Emperor. I do so in the hope that it may help to remove that obstinate misconception of the character of the Kaiser's feelings towards England which, I fear, is deeply rooted in the ordinary Englishman's breast. It is the Emperor's sincere wish that it should be eradicated. He has given repeated proofs of his desire by word and deed. But, to speak frankly, his patience is sorely tried, now that he finds himself so continually misrepresented, and has so often experienced the mortification of finding that any momentary improvement of relations is followed by renewed outbursts of prejudice, and a prompt return to the old attitude of suspicion. As I have said, his Majesty honoured me with a long conversation, and spoke with impulsive and unusual frankness 'You English,' he said, 'are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation? What more can I do than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever been false to my word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them, but to those who misinterpret and distort them. That is a personal insult which I feel and resent. To be for ever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of friendship weighed and scrutinised with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time after time that I am a friend of England, and your Press – or, at least, a considerable section of it – bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand, and insinuates that the other holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will? 'I repeat,' continued his Majesty, 'that I am the friend of England, but you make things difficult for me. My task as not of the easiest. The prevailing sentiment among large sections of the middle and lower classes of my own people is not friendly to England. I am, therefore, so to speak, in a minority in my own land, but it is a minority of the best elements, just as it is in England with respect to Germany. That is another reason why I resent your refusal to accept my pledged word that I am the friend of England. I strive without ceasing to improve relations, and you retort that I am your arch-enemy. You make it very hard for me. Why is it?' Thereupon I ventured to remind his Majesty that not England alone, but the whole of Europe had viewed with disapproval the recent action of Germany in allowing the German Consul to return from Tangier to Fez, and in anticipating the joint action of France and Spain by suggesting to the Powers that the time had come for Europe to recognise Muley Hafid as the new Sultan of Morocco. His Majesty made a gesture of impatience. 'Yes,' he said, 'that is an excellent example of the way in which German action is misrepresented. First, then, as regards the journey of Dr. Vassel. The German Government, in sending Dr. Yaesel back to his post at Fez, was only guided by the wish that he should look after the private interests of German subjects in that city, who cried for help and protection after the long absence of a Consular representative. And why not send him? Are those who charge Germany with having stolen a march on the other Powers aware that the French Consular representative had already been in Fez for several months when Dr. Vessel set out? Then, as to the recognition of Muley Hafid. The Press of Europe has complained with much acerbity that Germany ought not to have suggested his recognition until he had notified to Europe his full acceptance of the Act of Algeciras, as being binding upon him as Sultan of Morocco and. successor of his brother. My answer is that Muley Hafid notified the Powers to that effect weeks ago, before the decisive battle was fought. He sent, as far back as the middle of last July, an identical communication to the Governments of Germany, France, and Great Britain, containing an explicit acknowledgment that he was prepared to recognise all the obligations towards Europe which were incurred by Abdul Aziz during his Sultanate. The German Government interpreted that communication as a final and authoritative expression of Muley Hafid's intentions, and therefore they considered that there was no reason to wait until he had sent a second communication, before recognising him as the de facto Sultan of Morocco, who had succeeded to his brother's throne by right of victory in the field.' I suggested to his Majesty that an important and influential section of the German Press had placed a very different interpretation upon the action of the German Government, and, in fact, had given it their effusive approbation precisely because they saw in it a strong act instead of mere words, and a decisive indication that Germany was once more about to intervene in the shaping of events in Morocco. 'There are mischief-makers,' replied the Emperor, 'in both countries. I will not attempt to weigh their relative capacity for misrepresentation. But the facts are as I have stated. There has been nothing in Germany's recent action with regard to Morocco which runs contrary to the explicit declaration of my love of peace, which I made both at Guildhall and in my latest speech at Strassburg.' His Majesty then reverted to the subject uppermost in his mind – his proved friendship for England. 'I have referred,' he said, 'to the speeches in which I have done all that a Sovereign can to proclaim my goodwill. But, as actions speak louder than words; let me also refer to my acts. It is commonly believed in England that throughout the South African War, Germany was hostile to her. German opinion undoubtedly was hostile – bitterly hostile. The Press was hostile; private opinion was hostile. But what of official Germany? Let my critics ask themselves what brought to a sudden stop, and, indeed, to absolute collapse, the European tour of the Boer delegates who were striving to obtain European intervention? They were fêted in Holland; France gave them a rapturous welcome. They wished to come to Berlin, where the German people would have crowned them with flowers. But when they asked me to receive them – I refused. The agitation immediately died away, and the delegation returned empty-handed. Was that, I ask, the action of a secret enemy?' 'Again, when the struggle was at its height, the German Government was invited by the Governments of France and Russia to join with them in calling upon England to put an end to the war. The moment had come, they said, not only to save the Boer Republics, but also to humiliate England to the dust. What my reply? I said that so far from Germany joining in any concerted European action to put pressure upon England and bring about her downfall, Germany would always keep aloof from politics that could bring her into complications with a Sea Power like England. Posterity will one day read the exact terms of the telegram – now in the archives of Windsor Castle – in which I informed the Sovereign of England of the answer I had returned to the Powers which then sought to compass her fall. Englishmen who now insult me by doubting my word should know what were my actions in the hour of their adversity.' 'Nor was that all. Just at the time of your Black Week, in the December of 1899, when disasters followed one another in rapid succession, I received a letter from Queen Victoria, my revered grandmother, written in sorrow and affliction, and bearing manifest traces of the anxieties which were preying upon her mind and health. I at once returned a sympathetic reply. Nay, I did more. I bade one of my officers procure for me as exact an account as he could obtain of the number of combatants in South Africa on both sides, and of the actual position of the opposing forces. With the figures before me, I worked out what I considered to be the best plan of campaign under the circumstances, and submitted it to my General Staff for their criticism. Then I despatched it to England, and that document, likewise, is among the State papers at Windsor Castle, awaiting the serenely impartial verdict of history. And, as a matter of curious coincidence, let me add that the plan which I formulated ran very much on the same lines as that which was actually adopted by Lord Roberts, and carried by him into successful operation. Was that, I repeat, the act of one who wished England ill? Let Englishmen be just and say!' 'But, you will say, what of the German navy? Surely, that is a menace to England! Against whom but England are my squadrons being prepared? If England is not in the minds of those Germans who are bent on creating a powerful fleet, why is Germany asked to consent to such new and heavy burdens of taxation? My answer is clear: Germany is a young and growing Empire. She has a world-wide commerce, which is rapidly expanding, and to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic Germans refuses to assign any bounds. Germany must have a powerful fleet to protect that commerce, and her manifold interests in even the most distant seas. She expects those interests to go on growing, and she must be able to champion them manfully in any quarter of the globe. Germany looks ahead. Her horizons stretch far away. She must be prepared for any eventualities in the Far East. Who can foresee what may take place in the Pacific in the days to come, days not so distant as some believe, but days, at any rate, for which all European Powers with Far Eastern interests ought steadily to prepare? Look at the accomplished rise of Japan; think of the possible national awakening of China; and then judge of the vast problems of the Pacific. Only those Powers which have great navies will be listened to with respect, when the future of the Pacific comes to be solved; and if for that reason only Germany must have a powerful fleet. It may even be that England herself will be glad that Germany has a fleet when they speak together on the same side in the great debates of the future.' Such was the purport of the Emperor's conversation. He spoke with all that earnestness which marks his manner when speaking on deeply-pondered subjects. I would ask my fellow-countrymen who value the cause of peace to weigh what I have written, and to revise, if necessary, their estimate of the Kaiser and his friendship for England by his Majesty's own words. If they had enjoyed the privilege, which was mine, of hearing them spoken, they would doubt no longer either his Majesty's firm desire to live on the best of terms with England or his growing impatience at the persistent mistrust with which his offer of friendship is too often received.
