But are they ready to have the Heer march into Russia again if the Bolsheviks against expectations rally Russia under the red flag
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I have this feeling that by the time the Germans realize how far the Reds have come, they'll have more pressing concerns on the home front -- it sounds like the "General Staff administration" isn't quite ready to loosen its grip on the government and the economy despite the war that justified its existence being over now, a whole generation of young men has been bled white, and the survivors are going to have a rough time reintegrating into civilian life after spending so much of their formative years in combat.
Holy crap I thought this was just gonna be WWI. Almost a century of blasting away pitiful revolutionaries? Sounds amazing.
I knew it would continue untill WWII, but now I'm just wondering who Germany's opponent will be in the Cold War
Be it Wilhelm II., Kronprinz, Hindenburg or Helfferich, they do not fully realize how much will be destroyed now, by shockwaves of their crushing victory. Just too much was destroyed to keep it all together easily.
I fully intend to finish it right to 1991 - although who knows how long it will take. To avoid hiatus, I'll focus on shorter pieces with not many pictures to keep the pace.
Who says there will be Cold War? Eternal War, more likely, with occasional armistice.
There can't be an eternal war if the entire planet is conquered
"Destroying an Empire to win a war is no victory. And ending a battle to save an Empire is no defeat."
Wilhelm Prinz von Preussen. 1922.
- Stress and Storm
When I rode for the last time down the front of my fine regiment and the farewell shouts of my Hussars rang in my ears, my heart became unspeakably heavy. It was as though a still small voice whispered that this was the farewell to a peaceful soldier's life which I was never again to know. What I was now to leave had all been so beautiful, so happy and so replete with honest labour.
The Duke of Brunswick Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, Prince of United Kingdom and 4th Duke of Cumberland, was not just another of German princes leading imperial divisions on British soil - accompanying his brother-in-law, Crown Prince Wilhelm, his presence was clearly orchestrated as a propaganda blow, since return of Hanovers leading foreign army contained powerful historical symbolism. His marriage to Wilhelm II.'s only daughter in 1913 reconciled the long-lasting hostility between Houses of Hanover and Hohenzollern and ensured his family's loyalty to the German Empire. The British throne, however, remained vacant for decades after abdication of George V. as the new government led by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald rather proclaimed 'British State' to prevent any German monarchist schemes - which didn't satisfied neither royalists or republicanists.
In foreign soil, sleeping their eternal sleep, now rest many too, too many of the bright and capable young comrades of my beloved and courageous regiment of Hussars whose uniform I was delighted and proud to wear throughout the war. Among them lies my cousin, Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, a particularly undaunted rider and soldier. My memory will be with them all in grateful sadness as long as I live.
What our people have accomplished in this war will only be properly valued by historians of a future date. But we will not flatter ourselves with any complaisant self-deception. The sacrifice of blood already made by the German people is enormous. I am quite aware that, if we were to drain our national energy in the same way as France,
the war might be continued for a very long time. But this is just what ought to be avoided.
We ought to consider that, after the war, Germany will need forces to enable her to fulfil her mission. I will not speak here of the financial situation because I am not in a position to form a competent opinion. In an economic sense, Germany has adapted herself to the circumstances of the war most admirably; but still, in this domain also there
should be the desire not to prolong the war unnecessarily, as that would cause too heavy a loss.
At that time the Social Democrats talked with great indignation about a deliberate gagging of the Press and of the public, when it was essential to guard for its one single task the army on whose fighting powers everything depended and to shield it from any deteriorating or disintegrating influences. As a matter of fact, nothing was done; the evil was permitted to continue its work of corrosion.
Determination to win and confidence of victory sufficient to last out the war and bring it to a happy issue could only be maintained in the nation or in the army if there stood at the head of affairs not merely vigorous and bold military leaders but also an equally capable Government.
The only Government that could be a sure guide to satisfactory peace was one that, by means of a wise home policy, had under complete control all the various elements, classes, members and parties of the entire people.
British prisoners of war carrying a wounded ones, guarded by German soldiers in streets of Bristol, 1918. Swift occupation of English cities met virtually no resistance from civilians, and prideful but starving poorest parts of population soon get used to street kitchen set up by German and American Red Cross. After the conclusion of hostilities, afterwards arrived also the ships of the American Relief Administration (ARA), led by it's director Herbert Hoover, spreading their activity to France and Ireland too. Rapprochement with United States was contemplated at that time in Berlin, ending abruptly with election of President Leonard Wood in 1920.
A man in whose heart the bright flame of the greater idea could never blaze up, was the Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. That many a leader of the extreme left never, in his heart of hearts, desired a complete German, victory, seems to have remained long hidden from the Chancellor's perception. At any rate, he did nothing to combat their efforts to undermine the confidence of the masses in the German cause.
Civil dictators, conscious of their path and with eyes fixed on fall of Germany, like Clemenceau and Lloyd George, were altogether wanting among us. The longer the war lasted, the more autocratic and severe became the government of the hostile countries. The munition workers at home were granted fabulous wages to keep them in a good temper.
The great and emancipating victories in the East were soon invested with almost mythical features; with these as a background, Hindenburg's personality became, for the nation and the army, a symbol of German victory. That unrevealed something which has its roots to a great extent in the judgment of the heart and the feelings, which creates the hero for the multitude and which never appeared in such men as Falkenhayn or Ludendorff, soon fashioned a halo about Hindenburg and made him the ideal leader in the eyes of the Germans.
Owing to the nature of my tasks and duties, I came much more into contact with General Ludendorff than with the Field-Marshal General. I can conscientiously say that I always felt a strong sense of being in the presence of a personality of steely energy and keenly sharpened intellect, of a Prussian leader of the traditional glorious type in the best sense of the term.
The Duke of Brunswick Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, Prince of United Kingdom and 4th Duke of Cumberland, was not just another of German princes leading imperial divisions on British soil - accompanying his brother-in-law, Crown Prince Wilhelm, his presence was clearly orchestrated as a propaganda blow, since return of Hanovers leading foreign army contained powerful historical symbolism. His marriage to Wilhelm II.'s only daughter in 1913 reconciled the long-lasting hostility between Houses of Hanover and Hohenzollern and ensured his family's loyalty to the German Empire. The British throne, however, remained vacant for decades after abdication of George V. as the new government led by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald rather proclaimed 'British State' to prevent any German monarchist schemes - which didn't satisfied neither royalists or republicanists.
In foreign soil, sleeping their eternal sleep, now rest many too, too many of the bright and capable young comrades of my beloved and courageous regiment of Hussars whose uniform I was delighted and proud to wear throughout the war. Among them lies my cousin, Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, a particularly undaunted rider and soldier. My memory will be with them all in grateful sadness as long as I live.
What our people have accomplished in this war will only be properly valued by historians of a future date. But we will not flatter ourselves with any complaisant self-deception. The sacrifice of blood already made by the German people is enormous. I am quite aware that, if we were to drain our national energy in the same way as France,
the war might be continued for a very long time. But this is just what ought to be avoided.
We ought to consider that, after the war, Germany will need forces to enable her to fulfil her mission. I will not speak here of the financial situation because I am not in a position to form a competent opinion. In an economic sense, Germany has adapted herself to the circumstances of the war most admirably; but still, in this domain also there
should be the desire not to prolong the war unnecessarily, as that would cause too heavy a loss.
At that time the Social Democrats talked with great indignation about a deliberate gagging of the Press and of the public, when it was essential to guard for its one single task the army on whose fighting powers everything depended and to shield it from any deteriorating or disintegrating influences. As a matter of fact, nothing was done; the evil was permitted to continue its work of corrosion.
Determination to win and confidence of victory sufficient to last out the war and bring it to a happy issue could only be maintained in the nation or in the army if there stood at the head of affairs not merely vigorous and bold military leaders but also an equally capable Government.
The only Government that could be a sure guide to satisfactory peace was one that, by means of a wise home policy, had under complete control all the various elements, classes, members and parties of the entire people.
British prisoners of war carrying a wounded ones, guarded by German soldiers in streets of Bristol, 1918. Swift occupation of English cities met virtually no resistance from civilians, and prideful but starving poorest parts of population soon get used to street kitchen set up by German and American Red Cross. After the conclusion of hostilities, afterwards arrived also the ships of the American Relief Administration (ARA), led by it's director Herbert Hoover, spreading their activity to France and Ireland too. Rapprochement with United States was contemplated at that time in Berlin, ending abruptly with election of President Leonard Wood in 1920.
A man in whose heart the bright flame of the greater idea could never blaze up, was the Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. That many a leader of the extreme left never, in his heart of hearts, desired a complete German, victory, seems to have remained long hidden from the Chancellor's perception. At any rate, he did nothing to combat their efforts to undermine the confidence of the masses in the German cause.
Civil dictators, conscious of their path and with eyes fixed on fall of Germany, like Clemenceau and Lloyd George, were altogether wanting among us. The longer the war lasted, the more autocratic and severe became the government of the hostile countries. The munition workers at home were granted fabulous wages to keep them in a good temper.
The great and emancipating victories in the East were soon invested with almost mythical features; with these as a background, Hindenburg's personality became, for the nation and the army, a symbol of German victory. That unrevealed something which has its roots to a great extent in the judgment of the heart and the feelings, which creates the hero for the multitude and which never appeared in such men as Falkenhayn or Ludendorff, soon fashioned a halo about Hindenburg and made him the ideal leader in the eyes of the Germans.
Owing to the nature of my tasks and duties, I came much more into contact with General Ludendorff than with the Field-Marshal General. I can conscientiously say that I always felt a strong sense of being in the presence of a personality of steely energy and keenly sharpened intellect, of a Prussian leader of the traditional glorious type in the best sense of the term.
- Progress of the War
In the war, despite all its bitter trials, I never completely lost my capacity for laughter. Every one who went through it manfully must have experienced, in precisely the most terrible times, the desire to be rid of all that unheard-of horror, of all that death and destruction, must have felt an almost greedy impulse towards every sensation and every assuring expression of his life that hangs between the present and the undoubtedly better hereafter.
The Balmoral Castle, Scotland, where Armistice of February 18 1918 was signed. The United Kingdom accepted full and sole responsibility fo waging an aggressive war, admitted officially, that various crimes were orchestrated against peaceful states of Germany, Austria-Hungary - or Greece. So called 'actions of individuals' like T. E. Lawrence were denounced by the newly formed government. King George V. signed abdication papers in presence of the Kaiser - and then could choose exile for life in one of the neutral European countries. He chose the Norway.
That, even at the time, at home and perhaps behind the lines, my laughter aroused adverse censure here and there I know perfectly well. "The Crown Prince," people said, "always looks happy; he does not take things very seriously."
Oh, you dear, kind, captious critics, what could you know about it? If I had troubled half as much about you then as you did about me, my laughter would no doubt have vanished. But I troubled myself only about one thing about the men entrusted to me, the men who were bearing the brunt of things.
The King George V. in particularly grim Autumn 1917, surrounded by his generals: by that time, the war was completely lost, Germany rejected every White Peace or Peace with Honor offer, no matter how much British were willing to give: German Empire had them at their mercy and Royal Navy could no longer guarantee the safety of British ports. Deadly knot of submarine blockade and cruiser war completely annihilated the merchant fleet and no one in the world was now willing to invest anything to the lost cause.
I recall a review of the recruits. Last year's batch of young fellows have just completed their training and are to leave for the front. Six hundred dear bright German lads, scarcely out of their boyhood, stand there. Their bright eyes are turned expectantly and feverishly upon me: what is the Crown Prince going to say to them? I pull myself together and smile; then I say to them: "Comrades, think of our homeland; it must be; it is hard for me to let you go, but you will accomplish your task. Show yourselves worthy of the comrades at the front. God bless you!" And they cheer and start confidently on their way.
So much for my laughter then; and I can only confess it I am still able to laugh. In spite of all the blows of fate, in spite of all vexations, reverses and loneliness, I still often feel it welling up in me; and I thank God that He has left me that!
In act of defiance, same day when German military left the London, demonstrations to support the deposed King erupted in London - in addition, the first violent clash between royalists and members of various leftist groups, openly supporting the British State - usually members of Labour Party or Trade Union Congress.
France was fighting for Alsace-Lorraine, England for the domination of the seas and for her trade monopoly, Russia for Constantinople and for ice-free access to the ocean, Italy for the "unredeemed provinces." What was Germany fighting for? Self-preservation is the only answer.
A much greater effect is obtained by honestly pointing out that enormous tasks are to be accomplished in a life-and-death struggle, that this struggle is harder than any people has ever passed through, and that, unless all is to be lost, no nerve must weaken, no soul become lax, in the ups and downs of this vital conflict.
I am not here advocating any doleful damping of people's spirits; all I say is that, from the outset, the German people ought to have been honoured by assuming it to be mature enough to face the whole hard truth and to steel its heart by gazing at it.
Dear comrades of the field living and dead! Friends, even though the end was so different from what you sought, the sacrifices you made for our country, for our longings and for our hopes will not be lost. Your deeds remain a sacred example and the best seed for a new period in which the German civilization shall rise and their mission for a period that will come, that must come.
The Balmoral Castle, Scotland, where Armistice of February 18 1918 was signed. The United Kingdom accepted full and sole responsibility fo waging an aggressive war, admitted officially, that various crimes were orchestrated against peaceful states of Germany, Austria-Hungary - or Greece. So called 'actions of individuals' like T. E. Lawrence were denounced by the newly formed government. King George V. signed abdication papers in presence of the Kaiser - and then could choose exile for life in one of the neutral European countries. He chose the Norway.
That, even at the time, at home and perhaps behind the lines, my laughter aroused adverse censure here and there I know perfectly well. "The Crown Prince," people said, "always looks happy; he does not take things very seriously."
Oh, you dear, kind, captious critics, what could you know about it? If I had troubled half as much about you then as you did about me, my laughter would no doubt have vanished. But I troubled myself only about one thing about the men entrusted to me, the men who were bearing the brunt of things.
The King George V. in particularly grim Autumn 1917, surrounded by his generals: by that time, the war was completely lost, Germany rejected every White Peace or Peace with Honor offer, no matter how much British were willing to give: German Empire had them at their mercy and Royal Navy could no longer guarantee the safety of British ports. Deadly knot of submarine blockade and cruiser war completely annihilated the merchant fleet and no one in the world was now willing to invest anything to the lost cause.
I recall a review of the recruits. Last year's batch of young fellows have just completed their training and are to leave for the front. Six hundred dear bright German lads, scarcely out of their boyhood, stand there. Their bright eyes are turned expectantly and feverishly upon me: what is the Crown Prince going to say to them? I pull myself together and smile; then I say to them: "Comrades, think of our homeland; it must be; it is hard for me to let you go, but you will accomplish your task. Show yourselves worthy of the comrades at the front. God bless you!" And they cheer and start confidently on their way.
So much for my laughter then; and I can only confess it I am still able to laugh. In spite of all the blows of fate, in spite of all vexations, reverses and loneliness, I still often feel it welling up in me; and I thank God that He has left me that!
In act of defiance, same day when German military left the London, demonstrations to support the deposed King erupted in London - in addition, the first violent clash between royalists and members of various leftist groups, openly supporting the British State - usually members of Labour Party or Trade Union Congress.
France was fighting for Alsace-Lorraine, England for the domination of the seas and for her trade monopoly, Russia for Constantinople and for ice-free access to the ocean, Italy for the "unredeemed provinces." What was Germany fighting for? Self-preservation is the only answer.
A much greater effect is obtained by honestly pointing out that enormous tasks are to be accomplished in a life-and-death struggle, that this struggle is harder than any people has ever passed through, and that, unless all is to be lost, no nerve must weaken, no soul become lax, in the ups and downs of this vital conflict.
I am not here advocating any doleful damping of people's spirits; all I say is that, from the outset, the German people ought to have been honoured by assuming it to be mature enough to face the whole hard truth and to steel its heart by gazing at it.
Dear comrades of the field living and dead! Friends, even though the end was so different from what you sought, the sacrifices you made for our country, for our longings and for our hopes will not be lost. Your deeds remain a sacred example and the best seed for a new period in which the German civilization shall rise and their mission for a period that will come, that must come.
- Fall of Shade
At home we wanted energetic, inexorable and thorough leadership-dictatorship, suppression of all revolutionary attempts, exemplary punishment of deserters and shirkers, militarization of the munition works, expulsion of doubtful foreigners, and so on, the desires eventually fulfilled. A voluntary and timely reconstruction of our Constitution would have revealed the strength of the Crown; it would have disarmed the opposition and brought it back to a sense of duty.
The Prince of Wales with his wife, Lady Rosemary Millicent Sutherland-Leveson-Gower. One of the provisions of the armistice was abdication of the King and his heir, same as immediate and complete independence for all colonies and dominions - except the ones annexed by Germany, of course. But the English proved once more shrewd and resourceful, when his freshly married oldest son, David, became a King of Canada as Edward I. and his son Albert, a King of Australasia, George I. - to maintain any future possibility of restoration of their House to British throne. The choices were hardly a surprise - conservative elements in both Dominions were greatly scared by revolutionary chaos and left-wing demonstrations, seeking a stability of a monarchy, instead of republicanism, which now could easily degrade into bolshevism. In South Africa, the government loyal to Britain fell, and pro-German Afrikaner government took control. The India was more a puzzle, when the British administration withdrew from the Raj, leaving it with actually no central rule at all. It took further weeks, until federal Fazlul Huq's government was formed, as a compromise between the Princes of old Raj and major nationalist groups.
All this does not, by any means, exonerate the Radicalism of the Left or its filibustering followers, whose policy was to draw party advantage and to profiteer by the war, from an inexpiable share of responsibility for our struggles of four years' heroic fighting only in the name of defense of German nation.
Just in the last years of the war, all the human material that we called up and combed out ought to have passed through the strongest and firmest hands before being incorporated at the front. These men, who were for the most part worm-eaten by revolutionary ideas or tainted with pacifist notions, ought to have been trained by vigorous educative work into disciplined men worthy of their comrades at the front.
In cold, gloomy weather, I motored through a heavy fog that seemed to smother the whole countryside. Everything apathetic, comfortless, dreary and devastated; the half-demolished houses, their plaster crumbling from their damaged walls ; the interminable roads, ground by the violent jerkings of a hundred thousand wheels and pounded by the iron-shod hoofs of a hundred thousand horses.
The Wilhelm II. himself couldn't pass the opportunity to ride through England as it's conqueror: carried by his soldiers clothed in ceremonial uniforms and armors, the world-widely publicised 'Kaiser's Ride' from Dover to Edinburgh, became the most bitter experience the Englishmen had to endure during their darkest hour. It was said by the later historians that his endeavour was a most personal satisfaction for him, as his parents refused to let him see the glory of German Empire's proclamation in Versailles, when he was still a boy in 1871. He mentioned in one letter, that if she was still alive, he would certainly brought his mother with him, to see imperial divisions marching through London, in the tunes of 'Preussens Gloria' and 'Die Wacht am Rhein'.
The car jolted through fields of mud, splashing the brown mire about it in huge fountains; it rushed heedlessly past columns of weary soldiers and troops and groups of men who had once been soldiers and who, now disbanded, trudged their way laden with a medley of odds and ends; it left behind it curses and cries and fists raised in the grey mist.
The Prince of Wales with his wife, Lady Rosemary Millicent Sutherland-Leveson-Gower. One of the provisions of the armistice was abdication of the King and his heir, same as immediate and complete independence for all colonies and dominions - except the ones annexed by Germany, of course. But the English proved once more shrewd and resourceful, when his freshly married oldest son, David, became a King of Canada as Edward I. and his son Albert, a King of Australasia, George I. - to maintain any future possibility of restoration of their House to British throne. The choices were hardly a surprise - conservative elements in both Dominions were greatly scared by revolutionary chaos and left-wing demonstrations, seeking a stability of a monarchy, instead of republicanism, which now could easily degrade into bolshevism. In South Africa, the government loyal to Britain fell, and pro-German Afrikaner government took control. The India was more a puzzle, when the British administration withdrew from the Raj, leaving it with actually no central rule at all. It took further weeks, until federal Fazlul Huq's government was formed, as a compromise between the Princes of old Raj and major nationalist groups.
All this does not, by any means, exonerate the Radicalism of the Left or its filibustering followers, whose policy was to draw party advantage and to profiteer by the war, from an inexpiable share of responsibility for our struggles of four years' heroic fighting only in the name of defense of German nation.
Just in the last years of the war, all the human material that we called up and combed out ought to have passed through the strongest and firmest hands before being incorporated at the front. These men, who were for the most part worm-eaten by revolutionary ideas or tainted with pacifist notions, ought to have been trained by vigorous educative work into disciplined men worthy of their comrades at the front.
In cold, gloomy weather, I motored through a heavy fog that seemed to smother the whole countryside. Everything apathetic, comfortless, dreary and devastated; the half-demolished houses, their plaster crumbling from their damaged walls ; the interminable roads, ground by the violent jerkings of a hundred thousand wheels and pounded by the iron-shod hoofs of a hundred thousand horses.
The Wilhelm II. himself couldn't pass the opportunity to ride through England as it's conqueror: carried by his soldiers clothed in ceremonial uniforms and armors, the world-widely publicised 'Kaiser's Ride' from Dover to Edinburgh, became the most bitter experience the Englishmen had to endure during their darkest hour. It was said by the later historians that his endeavour was a most personal satisfaction for him, as his parents refused to let him see the glory of German Empire's proclamation in Versailles, when he was still a boy in 1871. He mentioned in one letter, that if she was still alive, he would certainly brought his mother with him, to see imperial divisions marching through London, in the tunes of 'Preussens Gloria' and 'Die Wacht am Rhein'.
The car jolted through fields of mud, splashing the brown mire about it in huge fountains; it rushed heedlessly past columns of weary soldiers and troops and groups of men who had once been soldiers and who, now disbanded, trudged their way laden with a medley of odds and ends; it left behind it curses and cries and fists raised in the grey mist.
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So David ended up in Canada after all... Under the circumstances, though, it seems like there is little the surviving Commonwealth states can do at the moment, except bide their time and wait for a sign of weakness.
Just discovered this and I thought that this would be the perfect place to share it.
Wilhelm II tours Great Brittain with his band after the victory of the United Kingdom, 1917, colourized and sound inserted
Wilhelm II tours Great Brittain with his band after the victory of the United Kingdom, 1917, colourized and sound inserted
Germany did nothing wrong.
Only what's fair and right
Canadian security and economy was already linked closely to United States - Australians, though, must swallow the bitter pill and be much less racist - Anglo-Japanese Alliance still exists and Aussie security kinda depends on it - this will cause the rift between now created Edwardian and Georgian Windsor lines.
Nah,...
brittain has
Yes, thankfully, the vile plans of greedy Englishmen were stopped by benevolent and most civilized Germans, only reluctantly now responsible for peace and security of Europe - it's really just bitter duty forced upon noble teutonic souls.
The giant black eagle did torn him apart.
Billy's Band European Grand Tour
1914 Paris
1915 Moscow
1916 Rome
1917 Athens
1918 London
That was always German city belonging to German nation. And we know there's really just one German Kaiser.
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