Germanophilism in Britain: Non
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4*ary GERMANOPHILISM IN BRITAIN: NON-GOVERNMENTAL ELITES AND THE LIMITS TO ANGLO-GERMAN ANTAGONISM, 1905-1914 By Steven Wai-Meng Siak London School of Economics and Political Science Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. March 1997 UMI Number: U615717 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615717 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the limits to Anglo-German antagonism and the sources of rapprochement between Britain and Germany, during the approximate period 1905-1914. It thus explores Anglo-German relations before the First World War from a perspective which has up to now been largely neglected, and serves as a corrective to the emphasis on the sources of antagonism which prevails in the English-language historical literature. The study probes Germanophilism among British non-governmental elites, focusing on the commercial, financial and academic communities, as well as cooperative links between the two countries at the non-governmental level before the war. The topics examined include the Anglo-German friendship movement in Britain, ties between British and German commercial interests and Anglo-German economic interdependence, and Anglo-German links in education. The thesis also studies attitudes, including a discussion of British stereotypical images of Germany based on travel accounts. British textbooks on German history that were published before the war are analysed as well as a means of assessing the prewar attitude of British academics, in particular historians, towards Germany. This investigation reveals the strength of the idea of Anglo-German racial kinship, and demonstrates that British historians tended to view Germany favourably before the war. Their attitude, however, changed after the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. In conclusion, the thesis reappraises the ultimate failure of the 'pro-German' forces in Britain to prevent the outbreak of Anglo-German hostilities in 1914. Its primary aim, nevertheless, is not to argue that the limits to the Anglo-German antagonism could have prevented the First World War, but to demonstrate that they existed and were important. 2 CONTENTS page List of Tables 4 Abbreviations 5 Acknowledgements 7 1. Introduction 9 Part One 2. The Anglo-German Friendship Movement, 1905-1914 23 3. Anglo-German Economic Rivalry: An Optical Illusion? 53 4. The German Connection in British Education 101 Part.Tjyp 5. The German in British Eyes: Friend, Foe or Blood Relation? 152 6. The Betrayal? 183 7. The Ambivalence of Being at War 250 8. Conclusion 306 Bibliography 338 3 TABLES Percentages of World Trade The Explosives Industry in Britain and Germany, 1889 ABBREVIATIONS AGFC Anglo-German Friendship Committee AGFS Anglo-German Friendship Society ED British Documents on the Origins of the War. 1898-1914 3DFA British Documents on Foreign Affairs BEF British Expeditionary Force BL British Library BLPES British Library of Political and Economic Science BodL Bodleian Library CAB Cabinet papers CID Committee of Imperial Defence CMH Cambridge Modem Historv DBB Dictionary of Business Biography PNB Dictionary of National Biography ED Board of Education papers FO Foreign Office papers HSBC Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation I£I Imperial Chemical Industries: A Historv ICIA Imperial Chemical Industries Archives IGS Institute of Germanic Studies JHI Journal of the Historv of Ideas KCMAC King's College Modem Archive Centre, Cambridge KEBF King Edward VII British-German Foundation LCC London County Council MET Modem Language Teaching NCA Nineteenth Century and After NLS National Library of Scotland PRO Public Record Office RHL Rhodes House Library RTC Report of the Tariff Commission T Treasury papers ULL University of London Library USL University of Southampton Library WO War Office papers ZUG Zeitschrift fur Untemehmensgeschichte 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the Scholarships Office of the London School of Economics and Political Science for its financial assistance during the first three years of my research. My gratitude also goes to the University of London's Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals for nominating me for the Overseas Research Students Award. An essential part of the thesis required travel to the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. My thanks go to the University of London's Central Research Fund and the Royal Historical Society for providing funding for the trip. Acknowledgement is due to the staffs of the following libraries and archives which I visited: the Bodleian Library; the British Library; the British Library of Political and Economic Science; the Guildhall Library; the archives of the Imperial College of Science and Technology; the Imperial War Museum; King's College Modem Archive Centre, Cambridge; the National Library of Scotland; the National Science Museum Library; Peterhouse Library, Cambridge; the Public Record Office; the Rhodes House Library; Trinity College Library, Cambridge; and the University of Southampton's Hartley Library. I would like to thank, in particular, Mrs. Helle Brown of the King Edward VII British-German Foundation for taking the foundation's old records out of storage, transporting them to London, and making them available to me at her home. Her kind assistance is greatly appreciated. Ms. Sheena Russell and her staff at Imperial Chemical Industries were very accommodating in responding to my request to consult the company's records. Many sincere thanks to them. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Sir Anthony Kenny for granting me permission to consult the Rhodes Trust's private archives, and Dr. Mark Nicholls of Cambridge University Library for making time available to introduce me to the Phoenix Archives database. My thanks similarly go to Mrs. Madeleine Stiles for giving me access to the Historical Association's archives. I wish to acknowledge also the assistance provided by Mrs. Joy McCarthy of the Royal Historical Society with regard to the George Prothero Papers. Peter Busch, Adelheid Holl and Vanessa Bismarck have helped with the translation of some German texts. I am especially grateful to Peter and his family for their assistance in deciphering the Gothic script, which I encountered in virtually all of the handwritten German documents from the pre-1914 period. During the course of my research, I have benefited from discussions with, and advice from, numerous individuals. They include Prof. Richard Aldrich, Dr. Peter Alter, Dr. Youssef Cassis, Dr. Kathryn Castle, Prof. Hugh Cockerell, Prof. Martin Daunton, Dr. David Edgerton, Dr. Modris Eksteins, Ms. Antje Hagen (soon to be a 'Dr.'), Dr. Gunter Hollenberg, Dr. Anthony Howe, Dr. Lothar Kettenacker, Dr. David Kynaston, Mrs. Joan Lewin, Dr. John McDermott, Dr. Richard Roberts, Dr. Angela Schwarz, Dr. David J. Starkey, Prof. Pat Thane, and Dr. Oliver Westall. This thesis owes its existence in large part to Dr. Jay Winter of Pembroke College, Cambridge. It was he who proposed the topic to me. Dr. David Stevenson has been an exemplary supervisor and mentor. To him, I shall always be indebted. Lastly, I wish to thank my family and friends whose continued support has made the completion of this thesis possible. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Anglo-German relations before the First World War have been the subject of numerous historical works. Paul Kennedy's The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism. 1860-19141 probably stands as the most comprehensive study of the Anglo-German relationship in the half-century before 1914, touching on virtually all aspects of the countries' bilateral relations. His book traces the origins of the antagonism and views the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 mostly as the culmination of a long-term pattern of growing and intractable Anglo-German tensions. Other works, approaching the prewar period coloured by the knowledge that war did break out in 1914, have similarly stressed the prewar sources of discord and forces contributing to an Anglo-German conflict, such as the growth of the German navy after 1898 and the Anglo-German naval race, the rise of German economic power in the late nineteenth century and the Anglo-German commercial rivalry, war scares and spy fevers, and the rise of militarism and right-wing movements. E.L. Woodward's Great Britain and the German Navy (1935), for example, views the growth of the German navy and the Anglo-German naval rivalry as the primary causes of the First World War.2 Richard Langhome's article in the Historical Journal (1971), 'The Naval Question in Anglo-German Relations, 1912-1914', similarly focuses on the naval race in pre-1914 Anglo-German relations.3 Other works analysing the Anglo-German relationship from the standpoint of its diplomatic and naval aspects include Zara Steiner's Britain and the Origins of the First World War (1977),4 and a series of essays in F.H. Hinsley (ed.), British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grev (1977).5 Ross J.S. Hoffman's Great Britain and the German Trade Rivalry (1933),6 is an exponent par excellence of the economic interpretation of the Anglo-German antagonism. It views the prewar rise of German commercial competitiveness as the chief cause of Anglo-German friction. Other works that deal with the German 'threat' to British industrial supremacy in the prewar period include The Development of British Industry and Foreign Competition. 1875-1914 (1968), edited by Derek Aldcroft.7 Emphasis on the prewar climate of Germanophobia and invasion scares in Britain can be found in I.F.