The German Secret Service in America 1914-1918Jones, John Price
History
The German Secret Service in America 1914-1918
Jones, John Price
World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- Germany
Von Papen was a man of war, a Prussian, the Feldmarschal of the Kaiser
in America. In appearance he bespoke his vigor: he was well set up,
rawboned, with a long nose, prominent ears, keen eyes and a strong
lower jaw. He was energetic in speech and swift in formulating daring
plans. In those first frantic weeks after the declaration of war he
reached out in all directions to snap taut the strings that held
his organization together--German reservists who had been peaceful
farmers, shopkeepers or waiters, all over the United States, were
mobilized for service, and paraded through Battery Park in New York
shouting "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles!" to the strains
of the Austrian hymn, while they waited for Papen's orders from a
building near by, and picked quarrels with a counter procession of
Frenchmen screaming the immortal "Marseillaise." Up in his office sat
the attaché, summoning, assigning, despatching his men on missions
that were designed to terrorize America as the spiked helmets were
terrorizing Belgium at that moment.
And he, too, failed. Although von Papen marshaled his consuls, his
reservists, his thugs, his women, and his skilled agents, for a
programme of violence the like of which America had never experienced,
the military phase of the war was not destined for decision here, and
there is again something ironical in the fact that the arrogance of
Captain von Papen's outrages hastened the coming of war to America and
the decline of Captain von Papen's style of warfare in America.
The Kaiser's naval attaché at Washington was Karl Boy-Ed, the child
of a German mother and a Turkish father, who had elected a naval
career and shown a degree of aptitude for his work which qualified
him presently for the post of chief lieutenant to von Tirpitz. He was
one of the six young officers who were admitted to the chief councils
of the German navy, as training for high executive posts. In the
capacity of news chief of the Imperial navy, Boy-Ed carried on two
highly successful press campaigns to influence the public on the eve of
requests for heavy naval appropriations, the second, in 1910, calling
for 400,000,000 marks. He spread broadcast through cleverly contrived
pamphlets and through articles placed in the subsidized press, a
national resentment against British naval dominion. His duties took him
all over the world as naval observer, and he may be credited more than
casually with weaving the plan-fabric of marine supremacy with which
Germany proposed in due time to envelop the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account