The Kaiser Goes To Trial

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 17 (Supplement)

The Kaiser Goes To Trial

And Is Found "Not Guilty'

Story of the Reign

TWENTY years is not long 1 enough for the glory at a dynast to cease to dazzle the eves of a subject whose instinct it is, bred in the bone, to make royalty something more than an ideal, something only a litlle less than high communion with the gods.

-And 1-.0 it is that wben George Svlvepter \ iereck, first class journalist, gifted author an.l a loyalist holding primly to his first love, puts the Kaiser rn the dock he finds him not guilts* from indictment to sentence, finds the man greater than thu nation, and funis a ocapegoat for bis every indiscretion. In "The Kaiser on Trial" (Duckworth) lie has written a book which is very readable, a tribute to the writer's untiring research and industry, but which so consistently and subconsciously finds that its subject was always in the right that it defeats its own purpose. As the drama, which was the Kaiser's life, progresses, so steadily doe# the author insist upon his perfect innoccnce and on the malevolence, ineptitude and ingratitude of his advisers that the reader beeomea more and more convinced that everybody else at the conrfc eoald not baveao edmptotely lacked political wisdom, honesty of purpose, and the power to gauge the current of events. This subconscious attitude react* imfavourably on the reader, tending to make bim xindtily critical of implications and conclusions \vhicb otherwise would meet with readier acceptance. But if recognised in time this bias becomes a ehallencfs and .compels a close attention to and examination of the facts collected and c< Hated. That is good, for the accepted challenge compels the recall of one's own estimate*; of the henchmen of tho Kaiser, of the relative importance of the events which went to the making of his life until he left History's pages behind him when the gates of J>oorn closed in upon him.

Tim Author has attempted a bold task; he has put the Kaiser not on the spot, hut on tri;il before the High Court of History, where the judges are international, whore both the living and the dead arc called to the witness box, where both prosecution and defence state their

:cn=e Tt< condition of the trial, stated !*' ,lll! '""-'iiniiiiL.'. and empha>;i-=ed aL'ain <-V'-ry ph:i<«., U that the ' , ISIT . V " into the \\ .1 r l,y cis or intrigue at home and abroad, bv accidents, . blunders and misunderstand-'-v '"i'dnien parading as statesmen ■by lying friends and hypocritical foes. Mere IK indict merit plus, but tlie author nas nii-jid! the : oipi'ua t.ion <>t his own con'•l".si(."w, that, it all who surronnded t lie Kaiser were fouls, knaves and lunatics and it" neither thy Kaiser nor the nation '■onld truly assess their duplieity, then there mu.-t necessarily have been some defect, of national 'character which ur-ed ■it along the inevitable path to destruction. Hut ever, so, the volume is intensely interesting and stimulating to those who would ktioA- something of the causes ot the last war that thev mav Ix- better able to assess the factors which are leading up to the next, for, as the author .-ays, the same biekerin-s. the same intrigue-;, the same surreptitious whisper-, the -a me objure plots are being spun from continent to continent, from ocean to ocean. As the book proceeds it becomes more and more the portrait of a man. standing out upon a skyline of jisychologi-

cal and historical data, carefu&y collected with a patience and an e-amaet-ness which cannot be overpraised, sorted "tit through the perspective of Mr. Vieit'cks mind into their relative planes of importance, summed up and presented in dramatic and dynamic form. -Attention is gripped from first to last, and the trial unfolds with an intensity attained by few historians, and with every evidence of the author's pertinacity in seeking "the news behind the news."

The trial opens with the dawn of .Armageddon, shows how the Kaiser went on his customary sea holiday after the fatal shot at Serajevo, assured by his generals that war was out of the question, how he hurried back after the struggle had actually begun, when, at England's fault, according to the commentator, the local conflict between Austria and Serbia became a world conflagration. From that point the writer goes back to the beginning of things, to the days of bis grandfather and the shortlived reign of Tiis father, to his own youth and upbringing, to his maiTiage

and then his break with Bismarck, whnse shadow, lie insists, fell upon the Kaiser even in death, iie fin<l> plenty of reason and excuse for the dropping or the pilot. Fiercely he writes of Fritz von llolstein, the "man with the hyena eyes." the powder-drunk eelieimrnt who was the one genius, if we can believe Mr. Viereck, of the Whole Kmpire. The vials of his wrath are poured upon Ilolstein's head, and the tempo" doe,; not shieken til] his resignation. The story of the Eulenburg scandals and their ri*fle.\ ax-tion ujion the whole court is l.rieflv told, and then back comes Llic wliip of scorpions for JSuhnv. the Chancellor with the serpent 'k ton-tie. To him is ascribed all blame for the unpopularitv which almost fr-nu lii's throne after the Kru/j- r telegram, the "Daily Telegraph"' interview and the Tangier incident. Betrayal of the most shameless kind is alleged against Billow, who is pictured as a cross between a snake, a crocodile and for a good measure a rather unintelligent simian, whose one urge was tiie lu.,t of power for himself, and who had no concern for the Kaiser, the Kmpire or anvone or anything el«e— an ungenerous portrait. The war and the debacle are summarised in interesting fashion and the storv of the abdication is told with a fine sen-'e of the dramatic. Finally, Will,elm himself enters the witness , U id here he removes the last vestige of stain from the character of the pri-oner, proves him beyond shadow of doubt to bo the most gentle, self-saerilicing and honourable monarch who ever sat"upon throne, a monarch who always placed fatherland before self, who even in exile saved his country from the shame of having to hand him over to the foe, who lived that he might bear witness against those who accuse Cermany of the ~TCate**t crime in his tor v. " ° j

Finallv, tlie author "Von wlm read this are the twclftll. the masked juror. To you are known tlie of the jury and its decision,*' and at that h« leaves it, perfectly satisfied that there is no earthly occasion f„ r him to announce thj verdict of the ,-,.urt. It must be "Xot guilty; the accused is discharged without a etain uj.on his character." In the opening e.h:i;iter. Viereck tells us that the Kaiser' had written that he was the onlv TTewspaper man who ever entered Doorn'as his cuest. and he was to remain an exception to the rule. The hospitality lias been verv fully repaid.