I AC C U S E! (excerpts)

 (J' ACCUSE!)

BY A GERMAN

 TRANSLATED BY

 ALEXANDER GRAY

 NEW YORK

 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 1915

PREFACE

 J'Accuse, a work recently published anonymously in Lausanne, has deservedly attracted much attention on the Continent on account of the independent standpoint of the author, the penetration shown in his analysis of the critical events of last year, and the vigour and clarity which characterise his presentation of the case. 

The German edition is prefaced by the following note-

 "The book 'J'Accuse, written by a German patriot, and entrusted to me, is herewith presented to the public. "I regard this work as an act which can only confer a blessing on the German people and on humanity, and I accordingly assume responsibility for its publication

 Dr. Anton Suter

Lausanne, April 20th, I9I5."

Chapter 1

GERMANY AWAKE!

La VERITE EST EN MARCHE

IF there were in Prussian-Germany a system of ministerial responsibility, such as exists in all other countries with effective Parliamentary Government, and such as has been held out with many other fair promises to the Prussian people for more than sixty-four years the Imperial Chancellor and President of the Prussian Council, Dr. van Bethmann-Hollweg, would have to be arraigned and condemned. 

It might be allowed in his favour, as an extenuating circumstance, that he was not the driving force of the war, but that he was driven to it-driven from above and from below. But a Minister, who yields himself as the tool of those who instigate war, who covers those who are irresponsible with his responsibility, who accepts the despicable task of representing to his nation and to all the world as a war of defence the offensive war which was prepared long in advance, who by this falsehood unchains the most fearful disaster which has ever fallen upon our globe, and which is inflicting on his Fatherland, whether victorious or defeated, wounds which will be incurable for generations to come; who delivers over to death and to mutilation of their age, annihilates at a stroke the arduous labs of half a century, suddenly wrenches asunder the bong of culture between civilised nations, and transforms prosperous regions of Europe into ruinous wastes-sag a man must bear the punishment which is due to his crime.

 In gathering together in the following pages the various points in the indictment which reveal the exclusive guilt of Germany and her ally, Austria-Hungary, in provoking the universal war, I am well aware of the fact that I will expose myself to the disapproving criticism of a large section of the German public, which proclaims it to be a patriotic duty to shut one's eyes to the truth, or if the truth be recognised, to conceal it in silence for the duration of the war.

 Only by bearing in mind these two points of view is it possible to understand the present frame of mind of such a highly intelligent people as the German nation.   The "State of War" (Kriegszustand), proclaimed the 3tst July, which placed the intellectual life of Germany under the supervision of Generals, and which even to-day, after than six months have elapsed, carefully keeps watch on the frontiers lest there should penetrate into the country so much as a suggestion of the intellectual life or of the views of foreign countries which might disturb the unity of Germany, or of foreign information or evidence which might illumine the German people-this "state of war" has produced the result that nine-tenths of the whole German people have blindly followed the dexterously coined phrases about the "state of defence which is forced upon us," about "the struggle for our freedom and culture against aggression and oppression." "The French and the Russians have already pressed over our frontiers"; "The Fatherland is in danger"; "They mean to humiliate us"; "In the midst of peace the enemy falls upon us"; "The existence of our Empire is at stake"; "We are called upon to defend our holiest possessions, our Fatherland, our very hearths against an unscrupulous attack"; "We are fighting for the fruits of our works of peace, for the in-heritance of a great past and for our future." These and similar phrases (all taken from official documents) have been used with the conscious intention of deceiving the German people, of inflaming its patriotism, and of inspiring it to unutterable and incalculable sacrifices in wealth and in life. "The few, who here have aught of Truth divined, Yet foolishly revealed their inner heart, Who showed the mob their feeling and their frond- The cross, the stake have always been their part."'

The few who, after the first days of intoxication, gradually returned to their senses, and who were able  to procure foreign documents and representations behind the backs of the military censors, and by careful study and comparison of these slowly arrived at the truth,- these had to shut the truth within them, since it was and is considered unpatriotic to give expression to it, since every utterance in word or in writing would be suppressed by the military authorities, and the offender would expose himself to the risk of punishment.

 It is to escape this fate that those who know the facts have kept, and still keep, silence. Those, however, who do not know the truth, or do not wish to know it, cry out all the more loudly, and as a work of illumination scatter broadcast the foolish products of their minds throughout the world, where no one believes them, even if they were to repeat the German lies a million times. What are we to say when Germans of the highest eminence, from Bode to Dehrnel, from Haeckel to Hauptmann, from Liszt to Sudermann, from Laband to Liebermann, (in all nearly a hundred of them), distribute in foreign countries an appeal, which immediately after the opening words contains the following sentence:- "Germany on the other hand made every effort to avoid war. The incontestable evidence in support of this fact are open to all the world.... Only when the overwhelming forces of the enemy, who had long been lying in ambush on our frontiers, fell into our country from three sides (!), only then did the German people rise like one ."

And with such robber-stories as these about the enemy lurking in ambush-one thinks involuntarily of Lederstrumpf and All Baba-they dare to humbug such highly educated, cultured nations as, for instance, the Italians (among whom even a street-porter has to-day a better knowledge of the historical truth about the war than a Harnack has among us), among a people whose Government, with the approval of the whole country, declared that the war was an offensive war on the part of Germany and Austria, and rightly and of necessity so declared unless it wished to charge itself with faithlessness and the breach of its own word.

 It is to these men a self-evident fact that we are the leading culture-people of the world, and consequently (such is the logic of these gentlemen!) we are called upon to impose our culture forcibly on the other inferior races and even on neutrals by means of bombs and grenades, by fire and devastation. Such is the mission which Providence has pointed out to us, as it called upon the Crusaders to fight against the Crescent (which now we have gained as an ally in the struggle against Christian nations), and as it instigated the Catholics in the Thirty Years' War to cast out of the Protestants by fire and sword their new-won faith. In the view of our leading spirits, in place of the wars of religion there has suddenly arisen since the fist August, 1914, a culture-war, in which the nations are fighting for the equal privileges or the supremacy of the various "hostile cultures." Has ever a greater madness than thus been conceived?   In 1870 when France was defeated and crushed, did we suppress, did we so much as touch, the culture of that country? Did the foreign domination of Napoleon wipe out even a trace of our German spiritual culture, which just then had reached an incomparable height? When the Romans conquered Greece did they at the same time overthrow Greek culture? Precisely the opposite took place. The captor was made captive.  The mind of Greece, the art of Greece, subdued Rome. And we find the same thing in the history of Christianity. In the end was it not the small province of Galilee that imposed its spirit on the world empire of Rome? How indeed is it possible for anyone to speak of the present struggle as a struggle of cultures when what we really have before us is merely a struggle of anti-cultures, of barbarisms, against each other, a struggle which from day to day becomes more bitter, more cruel, and more murderous, a struggle in which all the principles of international law and of humanity are more and more forgotten, if indeed it is still possible to speak of humanity in face of this inhuman massacre? What has all this got to do with culture?   Do we intend in any way to suppress the culture of England and France, of Russia and Belgium? Do we mean to renounce Shakespeare, Darwin, Newton, and Spencer, Tolstoy and Dostoiewsky, Voltaire, Rousseau, Zola, Goncourt, Rubens, Van Eyck, Meunier, and Maeterlinck, or do we mean to rid the world of their achievements? With what right, then, do we impute to the others intentions against us which we do not have against them, and to which we could not give effect even if we entertained them? If we had not read it daily in print, we would not have believed that the intellectuals of Germany could have persuaded themselves and the German people that German culture is in danger, and that it must be be fended with Zeppelins and with 42-centimetre artillery

The "neurosis of war" has indeed become epidemic like St. Vitus's dance or flagellantism in the Middle Ages. As the Dervishes in the East for hours at a time utter the same formulae of prayer and go through the same contortions with their arms and legs and their bodies until at last they fall down foaming at the mouth and overpowered, so now we have seen the learned men of Germany repeating for months past the same patriotic litanies, the same unproved assertions (assertions indeed of which the contrary is proved); at all times reaching upwards with their arms and their legs and indeed their whole body, until in their opinion they and their people surpass all other nations of the earth, and if they do not become like to God, they at least become the chosen people of God. They overpower themselves with their own phrases, until they foam at the mouth from sheer patriotism and fall down in adoration of themselves.... But they will in time awake from their stupefaction, and the wild intoxication will be followed by the terrible discomfort of returning sobriety.

 * * * * * * 

The purpose of this book is to hasten this awakening.  This I regard as a patriotic duty; for the longer the intoxication lasts, the worse will be the consequences for the German people, and the process of awakening will be more difficult and more terrible. It is only a better knowledge of the origins and objects of this war, a recognition of the guilt and responsibility for this war, that can bring about a change for the better.

EPILOGUE

"They who do not feel the darkness will  never look for the light."-Buckle

THE man who wrote this book is a German.

 He is not a Frenchman, a Russian, or an Englishman. He is a German who is uncorrupted and incorruptible; who is not bought, and is not for sale.

 A German who loves his Fatherland like anyone else; but, just because he loves it, he wrote this book. 

Born on German soil, trained in German culture, German in his ancestry, his speech and his thought, he knows all the virtues of the German people, but he also knows their failings and their weaknesses. In the German people, as everywhere, virtues produce weaknesses. From the virtue of fidelity there springs  the blind confidence which does not inquire whether the good faith of the nation has been deceived, and from the virtue of attachment there springs the unconditional adherence which does not ask whether the path pointed out leads to guilt and destruction.

 The confidence of the German people has been basely abused by its leaders and rulers. Their eyes, which once saw so clearly, have been wrapped in the gloom of ignorance. Her citizens who loved peace have been transformed into combatants full of hatred and vengeance; the representatives of high culture and of intelligence have been changed into blind and benighted worshippers of success; men whose vision comprehended the universe have become narrow-hearted, clinging to the soil of their country; the lights of art and of science have been replaced by "the spirits of the barrack-yard tricked  out in academic freedom." 

The German people has been corrupted and blinded that it aught be driven into a war which it has never  foreseen, never intended, and never desired.  In order that it might be liberated, it has been put in chains.

 It was to break this charm, to liberate the people from its "liberators," to fight against falsehood, that I wrote this book of Truth

. A true son of Germania, I see my blinded Mother tottering to the abyss; I leap forward to save her from the fatal plunge.

May truth still be spoken in the Germany of to-day? Or have things already advanced so far that it is counted moral to utter falsehood, but immoral to speak the truth ? Does the good old song, which we used to sing to the sound of the rapier, no longer hold: 

"A pitiable wretch is he Who knows the truth and yet can silent be."  Has this ancient glory for ever departed? Should it now read: "A pitiable wretch is he Who knows what's false and cannot silent be." 

 Do you dispute what I have declared to be the truth ? First let me speak and then disprove what I say. If you can do so, so much the better for you! But bear this well in mind: the spoken word is sometimes dangerous; more dangerous at all times is the suppressed word. 

Your security within?  Must the peace within endure until it becomes the peace of a churchyard? "Not now -later," you exclaim. "Precisely now-only now," I tell you. What is later but a word, an unavailing word, is now an act, an act of salvation. Hundreds of thousands could be saved from death, the German people could be saved from destruction-even now, even at this very moment-if Truth could but force her way into the German people, for Truth would mean a pause, but Falsehood is an advance on the path that leads to destruction.

 You say that the Truth helps our enemies? You great children, who shut your eyes to escape danger. Long ago the enemy knew the truth; there is no one in the whole world who does not know it. It is everybody's secret.

 But you, Germany, you incorrigible, trusting dreamer, you alone still slumber, you alone continue to sleep, in all your unrighteousness, the sleep of the righteous. It is long since the sun rose and spread her beams. But you see it not, in the stillness of your night, behind the closed shutters of your citadel. . . . How long must Truth stand outside begging and shivering before the doors of your castle, entreating in vain for admission, while within Falsehood sits at the garish table? Open the doors! Long enough has Truth been waiting. It is time to admit her, and to prepare for her the place of honour. In admitting such a guest, you would honour yourself.

Make peace without, and within you will not need peace. Open the doors to the free word, to the light that it may illumine your darkness, to the air that it may blow away the unclean vapours! You are choking within. Throw open the doors!

 Do you believe that the sun would not rise if you were to wall up your windows ? Do you believe that the day-star would not shine, because your bat's eyes cannot bear its radiance? Be sure that Truth, in spite of all obstacles, will penetrate into your closed dwellings, through chinks and crevices, like motes of dust; she will force her way into the house by the chimneys or the keyholes; she will gnaw the floor from under your feet; she will strike away the roof from over your head. Open and let her in; thus at least your house will be saved. 

If, however, you do not hear, if you will not hear- even now your house will fall, and you will be buried under the ruins. For I tell you that if Germany continues to gain "victories" such as she has attained up till now, her victories will lead to her death....

To prevent this I wrote my book, a book of enlightenment for the German people. History, which weighs guilt and innocence in its iron scales, will, I am firmly convinced, confirm the judgment which, with pain and shame, I as a German have been compelled to pass on Germans, in honour of truth and for the well-being of the German people. History also with letters of flame will inscribe the verdict: weighed in the balance and found wanting. So I finish my book as I began it, with a clean conscience, with the sure feeling of having done a good work, and, if justice is done, of having deserved the thanks of my country.