To Americans From a German Friend

By Ludwig Fulda.

     Like most of the champions of Germany in the literary field,
     Ludwig Fulda is a Doctor of Philosophy.  He is also author of many
     famous poetical and prose works of fiction.

Many things have been revealed to us by this war that even the keenest-minded among us would have declared immediately before its outbreak to be impossibilities.  Nothing, however, has been a greater and more painful surprise to Germans than the position taken by a great part of the American press.  There is nothing that we would have suspected less than that within the one neutral nation with which we felt ourselves most closely connected, both by common interests and by common ideals, voices would be raised that in the hour of our greatest danger would deny us their sympathy, yes, even their comprehension of our course.

To me, personally—­I cannot avoid saying it—­this was a very bitter disappointment.  A year has hardly passed since I was over there the second time as a guest and returned strengthened in my admiration for that great, upward striving community.  In my book, “Amerikanische Eindrucke,” ("American Impressions,”) a new edition of which has just appeared in a considerably supplemented form, comprising the fruits of that trip, I have made every effort to place before my countrymen in the brightest light the advantages and superiorities of Americans, and especially to convince them that the so-called land of the dollar was not only economically but also mentally and spiritually striding upward irresistibly; that also in the longing and effort to obtain education and knowledge and in the valuation of all the higher things in life, it was not surpassed by any other country in the world.  In the entire book there is not a page that is not filled with the confidence that for these very reasons America and Germany were called upon to march hand in hand at the head of cultured humanity.  Is this belief now to be contradicted?  Shall I as a German no longer be permitted to call myself a friend of America because over there they think the worst of us for the reason that we, attacked in dastardly wise by a world of foes, are struggling with unanimous determination for our existence?

Guillotining German Honor.

Of course I know very well that public opinion over there has largely been misled by our opponents and is continuously being misled.  Did not the English at the very beginning of the war cut our cable, in order to be able to guillotine our honor without the least interference?  For this reason I cannot blame the masses if they took for truth the absurd fables dished out to them, when no contradicting voice could reach them.  Less than that, however, can I understand how educated beings, even men who, thanks to their gifts and their standing, play the part of responsible leaders, not only accepted believingly