HOHENZOLLERN RULE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 155, 28 December 1918, Page 3

HOHENZOLLERN RULE

GERMAN PEOPLE MUST -.:.'■ ■ - AWAKEN „

PROFESSOR NICOLAI'S APPEAL.

! i'Si-The; following published in The Times < on ioth October is front the pen of Professor G. F. Nicolai, a German physician [ and ■', a professor , of medicine at Berlin •University, who fled to Denmark by aeroplane last June. ThougH originally attached'to the army as a civilian doctor and given officer's rank, Professor Nicolai was degraded by the military authorities ' on account of his disapproval of German methods^ of warfare, and was ■. employed in menial tasks in different parts of Germany as a punishment for; the opinions eipre,ssed in his book. ' "The Biology of War." When/finally, it was decided to incorporate- him in the army as a. , private combatant 'soldier he found \ means of escaping to Denmark by aerp- ! plane with several companions.. No/w,' in order to vindicate his-own condoct aiid to .urge, his /ellow-countrymen to oyer-l \ throw the ,''grea* unknown" Authority' tha-t ;is hurrying the: German Empire to its destruction, he has / addressed this explanation and appeal to the German people:—' ; ", ; ■■;".■■ proletariat at home any ■•■..•'. ' . ■ : .Where.' .■ , .-;/■ ■ The day may still come, perhaps, when ,01^ (people, one language, and one set of ; ..customs will prevail over the whole earth.-/; But that,' consummation is not . yet! attained—is far from, being attained: '. and even the most enthusiastic supporter , of. the i-fraternisation of all; nations/, n matters of politics; will. gratefully acknowledge' that, in all things of the , mind, his. own development is deeply , rooted in His native language arid climatic environment. Only in his native , country can he hope'to meet with under- , standing—an understanding, raw 'n3 , doubt; put of the profoundest -kind ; only j , there is he able to exercise a. direct aha , personal influence. But the more inti- ,. mately. a man's life '.s bound up with ; , intellectual interests, the more intensely ' will he feel his absence from the country i ofrjiis birth.. A member of the proletariat will easily find himself at bom* , in.tjie cprTespondino;: class of any neigh- I [ bouring. country/ But the man : who I : works with his mind:.has learned to take | for gramed and to reckon upon the ©6operatdon of- other thinkers, -and, it: i» hardly possible for him to dispense with j that intellectual sympathy which he'can ! find only-among people of the earns : language and. education as his owp. ..Greatly as I long for Europe as "my 1 country' 5, in the larger senses • I know well that I should nevef be able to for- ; get Germany, the country of my birth, nor was it ever my intention to abandon Germany when I crossed the German 1 frontier. For I feel—feel indeed only too strongly:—that it ts ' utterly beyond my, power-to throw off the indissoluble ; tieg which bind .1116 to those who, for thousands of years, . have:lived, and- ' worked together in the centre of Europe under the name; of "Germans"—ties of language and cutnale, of friend-, ship. of ' kinship, and affinity of . tastes. ..On the contrary, niy I I object' in crogiihg the frontier was to , find, a' place whence I could fight my, ; battle in freedom and on my own re- , sponsibilitv, to the end that Germany's j . "greatness (at'T ; understand the term) i , may be all it« ancient glory, , and that Germany herself may play her par* in the coming organisation of a com- . Triori civiligation for all the; world, and ! , thus become a useful member in the . great-European confraternity: . : THE TRUE DUTY OF GERMANS., Precisely because I am a German, because I feel myself the spiritual descend- ! ant of our great humanists, 1 believe it to be my duty to \yin back for us Germans 1 lour own rightful and special place in I the council of nations, and to defend it against those dictators of the moment ; who, in their lu«t of power, have dared to tamper with the most precions achievements of' the German spirit, and have seduced the descendants of a Goethe and a Kant, leading them to pureue a shameless, policy, fit only for Tartars. I believe that "international" Germans like myself—who seem perhaps to-dayj amid the clash of arms, even more isolated than in fact we are—embody the spirit of Germany better than ariy Ludendorff or any other • personage, who openly or secretly holds the reins of eovtirnment. -„ The inmost 'faith of mine, which mature reflection has convinced me to be pure arid free from stain, justifies me ts an individual. in the serious step I am taking; it gives me the,,right to ex , change my home arid friends, my \ gphere of activity and my professional ■work, by family and position, for the uncertain lot of a refugee. But have I ! also the right not merely as an in-di-vidual, !bnt from a public point of view, to rebel, against those who for the time I being represent the power of Germany? I know, indeed, that thousands, eren millions', of the :best of my countrymen Secretly share my feelings... I know, that j there i« nothing in the whole' world they so ardently desire is that those who control Germany's destinies to-day . may fail to achieve any lasting power, and that our military party' may find iteeif baulked of its disastrous victory both at home and abroad But in a constitutional, State there are'definite, appointed methods by which alone the individual is entitled to express his will. i And the> metnod i selected was not one of these. ! NO CONSTITUTIONAL STATE. The question, therefore, arises : Is ! Germany a constitutional State? i Now, quite obviously. Germany' at the

present tune is nothing of the kind: (It is totally irrelevant", so far as I myself and my prfesent question are concerned, whether similar conditions have come to prevail in other. States too. The only question before me is whether tlwre were in my own country lawful methods at iiiy disposal for giving effect to my will): • ■ ' •■ ■ ■".,'■■■' .■ : " : ■All over Germany coristitutibnal and legal right has given place;to arbitrary power; In spits: of the' clear provisions (of the Constitfltibn), which forbid the proclamation of a state of siege except in districts directly menaced by the enemy, all parts of the German Empire, though- it. is virtually.-:; nowhere directly ' threatened by,the tenemy," have been' subjected for four years to that abnormal measure. The so-called ■ "Preventive ArTest" 1 is equivalent,to, a retuTn to those illegal "lettres de cachet" which before now have turned .many a law-abiding man into a revolutionary. There-is no paragraph of the law to justify themonstrous pressure, that dn unscrupulous (arid what is more, a foolish) censorship is exercising on .articles, speeches, and public meetings; why, contrary to theexplicit words of the Constitution, the shorthand report* of the meetings of th» German Reichstag are actually subjected to arbitrary mutilation! Even "thel most precious jewel in the crown", of the Prussian Constitution (its one and only diamond, we might almost say)—even ite famous' Paragraph 20, which declares science and its teachings to be free from control, has now been suspended. But, above all, the constitutional and lawful Government of the Empire .is.in general >nd at, a Whole deprived of! all further control of affairs ; power is wielded solely by the iword I held m the mailed fist, :and rio one j knows for certain who is actually the bearer of that, sword; assuredly it is not the German Imperial Chancellor, though he is responsible under the Imperial Constitution ; and no less assuredly jt is not the German Emperor, for his speeches, as everyone knows, are subt jected to at least as stnet a censorship as are the .utterances of any other less illustrious demagague.- ' Hence one, cannot even say that 'the present state of things is a necessary'result of the..state, of war, for the very provisions, which were intended. by the Constitution to adapt conditions in, Germany to a, stats of war are being violated. - ...:.- :..:'' "'■ ,','-,-,. ,;:;: THE DICTATOR RULES. ■ But if in any country supreme power is in the hands of an; irioriymous dictator of this kind—4 dictator omnipresent,!but everywhere elusive, ruling not in virtue of any law, but simply in virtue of that power which the well-armed,man usurps to himself oyer the unarmed ;: then■: we have a. situation directly opposed to what t* called'a constitutional-State. , Germany, therefore, is de facto no linger a ' constitutional' State. As, however, de jure, it ought to be a constitutional • State, •it '■•' follows, that one possesses the indubitable right to revolt with all one's strength against this state of. things. ' •'. -..' •;' /'■• ■-..-,.., i.- 1 ■'!.,■■ It is true that, in,'tjie! first instance, this 'right- arid duty of • revolt belong to the.elected representative? of the people. But 'they, the natural protectors of the Constitution, hare . relinqiuslfed this right, without sufficiently 'reflecting that, in so doing; they were aJso neglecting a duty, . I will not examine the reasons for the behaviour they have adopted. : Many of them, perhaps, w_ere infiuencel" by motives derived. from a ■ false worship of theory; but many also, it cannot be doubted, havo yielded to indolence- and cowardice. At any rate, I know that there are numerous, representatives of the people who, 'in private, regird this absence.; of a:; constitution as -a disastrous outrage, while, in public they continue to .sanction the .votes Of rcredit;.which ■ make! it possible for this state of things to continue. ! ' -, ; The unfortunate truth is that- at trie present time our . military Government wields enormous power over men's minds, fn yirtue!of the unlimited authority of which At actually disposes,, it can decide almost absolutely'at its-goijd. pleasure to send any individual to death 'ut the trehchea. orytoi bestow upon him' a! comfortable, existence in, a' post; of safety; it can .decree the,sheer annihilation of the] .individual's .economic' existen.ee or secure; to' hirix : lucratiye condition!!'-.-''.of life 1; it can disgrace him or raise him to lijmpur; ■if can- throw him into' prison or make him, Judge over those who. have' hitherto^ been his subordinates.. But' all this puts into! the hands of thte Government an almost infallible method for. corrupting the whole of our publio life, by appealing to the obvious and inevitable cowaWice of the great '.majority of Peotfe-; .-■;■!'.. -• '.. ,;■■ ':■':. ' Moreover, tins process of corruption spreads downwards. For example!' I am acquaihtetd with, members of ■ the, "Imperial" Social Democracy who, as regards their political views, are unconditional supporters of the independent .Social Democracy, and yet do not avow themselves its followers, for fear of- losing their positions—positions which, thanks to the, practice of our law court*, remain "within the gift of the official party.