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
Soon after the war began George Sylvester Viereck brought out his
publication, _The Fatherland_, a moderately clever attempt to appeal
to intelligent readers in Germany's behalf. On July 1, 1915, the
publication having stumbled along a rocky financial path--for no
publication distributed gratis can make money--Dr. Albert wrote Viereck:
"Your account for the $1,500--bonus, after deducting the $250 received,
for the month of June, 1915, has been received. I hope in the course of
the next week to be able to make payment. In the meantime, I request
the proposal of a suitable person who can ascertain accurately and
prove the financial condition of your paper. From the moment when we
guarantee you a regular advance, I must
"1. Have a new statement of the condition of your paper.
"2. Practise a control over the financial management.
"In addition to this we must have an understanding regarding the course
in politics which you will pursue, which we have not asked heretofore.
Perhaps you will be kind enough to talk the matter over on the basis of
this letter, with Mr. Fuehr." Fuehr's office was across the hall from
Viereck.
Viereck had assembled about him among others a staff of contributors
which included Dr. Dernburg, Frank Koester, Rudolph Kronau, J. Bernard
Rethey, a writer who affects the _nom de plume_ of "Oliver Ames,"
Edmund von Mach (whose brother is an official of some prominence
in Germany), and Ram Chandra (the editor of a revolutionary Hindu
newspaper published in California). Viereck, in his paper, forecasted
the sinking of the _Lusitania_ and later gloated over it as well as
over the murder of Edith Cavell. His father is the Berlin correspondent
of his paper. They are both "naturalized" citizens of the United
States. One of his contributors, as late as 1918, wrote for Viereck a
peculiarly suspicious essay on his conversion to Americanism, setting
forth in exhaustive detail the pro-German convictions which he had
previously held, and the justification for them, and winding up with
a pallid renunciation of them, the document as a whole intended
ostensibly to stimulate patriotism, while in reality it would have
rekindled the dying German apology. The pernicious Viereck, whose
mental stature may be judged by the fact that he treasured a violet
from the grave of Oscar Wilde, sought to interest the Embassy in his
merits as a publisher of German books, and was supported, as pro-German
volumes were issued from the Jackson Press which he controlled. He
suggested, too, to Dr. Albert names of American publishing houses as
excellent media for bringing out propaganda books on account of their
obvious innocence of German sympathies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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