0) 'CO :; lYde MAOALLS DEGENERATE GERMANY DEGENERATE GERMANY DEDICATED TO THOSE FEW, YET TOO MANY BRITONS WHO STILL HARBOUR Till- M/srlllLTo/ s ILLUSION THAT THE GERMANS ARE AN ESTIMABLE, PEACEFUL AND KINDLY PEOPLE, UTTERLY MIX/.LI* AND MISREPRESENTED BY THEIR WICKED ' 'l//,\- MBNT. DEGENERATE GERMANY BY HENRY DE HALSALLE av a Tror (Lysi.ie Oratioaes. TWENTIETH THOUSAND. PUBLISHED AT 8, ESSEX STREET, STRAND, BY T. WERNER LAURIE, LTD. Us AUTHOR'S PREFACE IT is to be feared that of the facts set forth in this volume " many " are of a distinctly unpleasant nature, so unpleasant that the writer would fain have omitted them. But had he done so he would have failed to substantiate his case i.e., that the German people are undeniably a degenerate race, if not the most degenerate race in Europe. Moreover, the writer contends that these un- wholesome facts (taken largely from German sources), nauseous as they may be, demand to be placed on record in a British publica- tion. Further, he believes such facts cannot be too widely known, and that their knowledge will be of value in combating the pre- " " posterous and dangerous peace ideas unfortunately held in various quarters in Great Britain : For instance, among those ill-informed, emasculated individuals styling themselves the " Union of Democratic Control." Also the writer would commend a perusal of the statistics in reference to German vice and crime contained herein to those of our politicians (and they are many) totally with the mental and moral condition of the unacquainted " " German people. Recognizing the adult character of many of the statements and facts recorded in this book the writer thought it best to obtain responsible opinion as to whether such statements and facts should be made public, and he therefore approached Mr. Frederic Harrison, our oldest and, perhaps, most distinguished man of letters. His opinion, freely and generously given, is appended. We all know the empty Teutonic boast that the Germans are a race of even some of superior beings ; our statesmen apparently have been more or less hypnotized by its frequent reiteration. The First Degenerate of Europe has said : '" OUR GERMAN PEOPLE WILL BE THE GRANITE BLOCK ON WHICH THE GOOD GOD MAY COMPLETE HIS WORK OF CIVILIZING THE WORLD. THEN WILL BE REALIZED THE^WORD OF THE POET WHO SAID: 'THE WORLD WILL ONE DAY BE CURED BY THE GERMAN CHARACTER.' " *i PR The insanity of such a needs no comment here. prophecy " " The reader is asked to judge of the German character in the light of the cold facts enumerated, particularly in chapters 6, 7, 8 and o in this work, u herein he will gather that it is not so much the " " " " " needs "world but the German character that curing ; and that so far from the Teutonic peoples of Central Europe being a superior race they are distinctly an inferior and degenerate race, dangerously unfitted to maintain a position as a first-class Euro- pean and certainly they are the last earth who power, " people upon should dream of World Dominion." H. de If. Sztratt from a Letter to ike author, from Frederic Harrison " (writer of The German Peril." 1915). 11 It is most desirable that our countrymen should he disabused of the mendacious pretences of German Kultur that as a people they may c laim a moral, intellectual, or physical superiority in Europe. I have visited Germany for more than sixty years on various in all its rities I occasions, and principal ; and have known Germans of all classes and various professions. I have po< proof of a rapid degeneracy of Germany, and especially of Prussia, during the reign of the Kaiser, and in the most marked degree during the twentieth century. After reading some chapters of your book I have no doubt that the facts they disclose ought to be made public. Appalling as are many of these statistics and citations from German authorities nothing in them surprises me, nor do I believe they can be refut> <1 or excused. I do not attempt to verify all these statements, and I leave the i ilitv of their a< curacy to you. The re .!< r must draw his own conclusions. Of course, similar < har^es of immorality, corruption, and crime have been made, and will be made, against English, French, Russian, and also American society. Everything depends on the relative average, and the accurate pro- portion of rvil in o.i.-h country. That horrible < -rimes are rife cannot be denied. I am quite aware of iaca! f!ences being common in parts of Germany. and mu^h bestiality in Trussia. I remember the case of the man who tried to sink an Atlantic liner and murder 2,000 persons to gain a petty sum in Insurance: also the case of the ruffian \\ho entrapped girls and murdered them in a wood wholesale. I believe the explanation of the paradox that Germans, at home n'nwii ited, are ostensibly mild and kindlv. awl yt in & PREFACE vii and under excitement break out (as to-day) into every form of vice and atrocity is this. By temperament and education they give themselves up to intellectual and ideal objects the exact opposite of the practical Briton and they follow out the imagined purpose regardless of good sense, morality, or decency. From are bred into a slave-like obedience to " infancy they up a master," to a dog's discipline to submit to orders from a superior. Even in civil life and in personal purely morality, they adopt" any practice, however degrading, if they find it sanctioned by au- " ' ' thority and endorsed by the higher example of the All Highest and his train." Remember, W yc tian llattcm* of the <artlj, tl?c otic ermanic race. Jrt your School* teach ye uour tjotith the ctu-rlatin0 tttiquita of tltee imptono aitb be^rat>fb barbariatte. 3lbotc the C5atc of uour Capital* cut >orb : 05ertttau OBiitcvft i|ere. $n uoitr lilarltct placce. upon portal*, there ettflrawe: lUavcg hct-citt catnc frott* the arcat crint*on ijanb. |ipott the boor* of gour an. attb above gottr Altar*, let iho*e tv\ja mor*hip rcab : father foraipe ti|Ct not* for thcu then bo. CONTENTS PART I CHAP. PAGE FOREWORD .......... 1 " " I. MENE MEKE TEKEL UPHARSIN 11 PART II II. CONCERNING MEDIEVAL GERMANY 23 III. THE 18TH CENTURY PRINCES AND AFTER .... 44 IV. GERMANY'S BACKWARDNESS ....... 54 PART III V. CONCERNING TWENTIETH CENTURY GERMANY ... 70 ' VI. CONCERNING WOMEN WORKERS, WOMEN, MARRIAGE AND OTHER THINGS 105 VII. GERMANY'S SCARLET SCOURGE ...... 125 VIII. (contd.) 139 IX. CRIME AND THE CRIMINAL 168 X. GERMANY'S MODERN ILLITERATURE AND INCIDENTALLY . 190 XI. " RELIGION " 232 XII. CONCLUSION 242 Advance proof i GERM \ were read by The Rt HOD. The BAKL or i: BUfc ;h Chancellor of Great Britain 1885-6. 1886-92, and 1895-1905. Editor-in-Chief of "The " of Laws of England ; President The Kuyal Society of Literature, etc , etc The Rt. Hon. The EARL OF ROSEBERY, KG. and ADMIRAL LORD BEBBSFORD. They wrote the Author as follows : " LORD HALSBURY is very grateful for Mr d Halsallc's book ' Degenerate " Germany.' It certainly is a most astounding and interesting work; but it is terrible -One shudders at seeing the picture, so vividly drawn, of a whole nation so and corrupting. corrupted" In this country' it is a most useful thing to know how corrupt, and how most unscrupulous, the Prussian State is, and how it is gradually infecting part of the German Empire. every" I hope Mr de Halsalle's work will be circulated everywhere ; whether at home or abroad. \t it will I I do good am sure ; and beg to thank Mr. de Halsalle again and again ior the mode in which de Halsalle has the k Mr propagated ledge of the truth Fearful as that truth is. it is necessary it should be known ith y thanks and hearty congratulat " I am. Very truly yours. (Sig*l) "HALS: THE EARL OF ROSEBERY says I have read the proofs with great in- r book indeed is a powerful arraignment of the Prussian social system ADMIRAL LORD BERESFORD has read the proofs of Mr. de Halsalle's Degenerate Ger- many.' and hopes that the hook will have an -n*iv publication and so open the eyes of the .lized world to the brutalities and bestial prac- tice* of so-called Kultur in German DEGENERATE GERMANY PART I FOREWORD SOW a superstition in the mind of a people and there is no weed that will flourish so rankly. The world-superstition of the igth- 20th centuries has been the supposed greatness and superiority of Germany in the field of human endeavour and accomplishment ; and the disseminator of that superstition has been Germany her- self, aided principally by a few misguided men of letters wielding an English pen. Briefly, Germany's claims to greatness rest first and foremost on her military organisation, which proved its superiorit}' over that of the French in 1871. She has also given birth to a few philosophers, whose mission has avowedly been to annihilate the Christian religion, and inflict upon a goodly portion of the reading world a series of head-aches. In literature generally and pictorial art she has assiduously cultivated the lewd and obscene, giving to literature one really great name, Goethe (who, not surprisingly, dubbed his compatriots, as a people, "miserable") while to art she has given Albert Diirer, who though German born, was of Hungarian descent. In science and industry without the guiding stars of Britain, France, and America the whole Ger- man people at the present day would still be coaxing the lean soil of Central Europe into giving them sustenance, as in the time of Frederick, called the Great.