When martial law was proclaimed the Berlin Government caused official announcements to be issued throughout the whole country, requesting the public to assist in preventing tunnels, bridges, railways, etc., from being destroyed by foreign agents and spies.  The whole country at once became a detective office of madmen!

Ample proof is at hand to show that this lashing of the public mind into brutal fury was the calculated work of the German authorities.  “We are now absolutely dependent upon reports issued by the authorities; we do not know whether they are correct or whether they are merely intended to inflame public opinion.  Thus reports have been officially circulated of Russian patrols crossing our frontiers, and from Nuremberg of French airmen dropping bombs on the railways in that neighbourhood, whereupon diplomatic relations with both countries were broken off."[36]

[Footnote 36:  Leipziger Volkszeitung, August 3rd.]

The whole Press, with the exception of at least some Social Democratic organs, joined in a chorus of hatred and suspicion against Russians residing in Germany.  In bitterness towards the Russian State the Socialist journals were solid in their hostility, but the author has only discovered expressions of abhorrence in their columns concerning the ill-treatment, even murder, of innocent foreigners in Germany.  This fact must be recorded to their honour.

“Certain circles of Leipzig’s population are at present possessed by patriotic delirium and at the same time by a spy-mania which luxuriates like tropical vegetation.  In reality, love of Fatherland is something quite other than those feelings which find expression in the present noisy and disgusting scenes.  These mob patriots must remember that in their mad attacks on ‘Serbs’ and ’Russians’—­that is to say, everybody who has black hair and a beard, whom they at once conclude must belong to those nations—­they are endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Germans in France and Russia."[37]

[Footnote 37:  Ibid., August 4th.]

On the following day the same journal contained another detailed report:  “In spite of official appeals to the public to display self-possession in these serious times, the nationalist mob continues to behave in the most scandalous manner, both in the streets and public restaurants, etc.  The wildest outbreaks of brutal passions occur, and no one with black hair and dark complexion is secure from outbursts of rage on the part of the fanatics.  Shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday a gentleman in the uniform of a German artillery officer was sitting with a lady in the Cafe Felsche; apparently somebody ‘denounced’ him for a Russian officer in disguise.  The police accompanied by army officers arrested and led him into the street, where they were received by a yelling crowd.  The enraged mob forced its way past the guards and beat the ‘spy’ with sticks, umbrellas, etc., till streams of blood ran down his face, his uniform being torn to shreds.  The officers and police guarding him drew their weapons, but were unable to protect him from further brutal treatment; indeed, it was with the greatest difficulty that they succeeded in bringing him to a place of safety."[38]