the German Emperor, Princess Victoria Louise, that put an . to these difficulties. The marriage was celebrated at Berlin on May 24 1913 with great splendour, and a large number of European sovereigns and princes were present. Among them were the King and Queen of England and the Tsar of Russia. Prince Ernest Augustus, who had previously entered the Prussian army, had on April 20 addressed a letter to the Imperial Chancel- lor intimating that his father had transferred to him his rights to Brunswick; further, that his marriage with Princess Victoria Louise and his entrance into the Prussian army would, in his view, justify a reversal of the former decision of the Federal Council concerning the Brunswick succession. On the proposal of Prussia the Federal Council then declared (Oct. 27) that it agreed to the prince's accession to the throne of Brunswick. The young Duke and Duchess of Brunswick were, therefore, able to make their state entry into Brunswick on Nov. 3. The fact nevertheless had a sequel. Attacks were made in the Reichstag on the Federal Council because it had given its consent to the accession of Prince Ernest Augustus without the renunciation of the throne of Hanover by his father, the Duke of Cumberland, which it had demanded in the year 1907. The German Crown Prince in a correspondence with the Imperial Chancellor asso- ciated himself with this protest, a proceeding which caused some transient annoyance. Meanwhile, the Hanoverian Guelphs turned the settlement of the Brunswick succession to account by advancing in the most uncompromising manner demands, which since 1866 they had never abandoned, for the reestablishment of the Guclph kingdom of Hanover.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, von Kiderlen- Wachter, suddenly died on Jan. 2 1913. He was succeeded by the ambassador in Rome, Gottlieb von Jagow. On Jan. 29 the chief in command of the High Seas Fleet, Adml. von Holtzen- dorff , was placed on the retired list and was succeeded by Adml. von Ingenohl. The danger of war, which had again overshad- owed Europe, and more especially Germany's ally, Austria, in consequence of the Balkan War and the Russo- Austrian tension, caused the German Government to introduce the great Army Bill of 1913, to meet the cost of which a non-recurring war con- tribution (Wehrbeitrag) was to be levied upon the well-to-do sections of the nation. The Imperial Chancellor introduced the bill on April 7 in a great speech, in which he referred to the change in the military and political situation resulting from the issue of the Balkan War. " If ever," he said, " there should be a Euro- pean conflagration in which Slavs and Germans were opposed, a disadvantage for the Germans would lie in the fact that the place in the balance of power hitherto occupied by European Turkey would now to some extent be occupied by the South Slav states." After alluding to the growth of Pan-Slavic ten- dencies, to the literature of Chauvinism in France, and to the fact that in Germany, as contrasted with France, the idea of univer- sal service was no longer completely carried out, the Chancellor declared: " We are not bringing in this bill because we want war, but because we want peace, and because, if war comes, we desire to be the victors." The bill raised the strength of the German army, as from Oct. i 1913, from 544,271 men to 661,176. It passed the third reading in the Reichstag on June 30 1913. The financial measure accompanying it, defraying the proposed expenditure to the amount of more than one milliard marks by a non-recurring war contribution levied upon personal fortunes, was passed at the same time. The bill for this impost, which in the ensuing years indeed for the most part in the first year was paid up without any disturbance of the economic life of Germany, was the work of the Secretary of State for the Treasury, Kiihn. The sovereigns of the German Confederation renounced their privilege of exemption from taxation and paid their share of this contribution on behalf of the national defences. As regards the construction of warships, the Secretary of State for the Navy, von Tirpitz, had stated in the Reichstag on Feb. 7 ' that he had no objection to the proportion of 10 to 16 between the numbers of the German and the English battleships, as proposed by the British First Lord of the Admiralty.
The remarkable progress of the German nation up to 1913-4
was advertised in a striking way by the great celebrations of 1913, the centenary of the War of Liberation, and the twenty- fifth anniversary of the accession of William II. All the German sovereigns assembled to take part in a ceremony in the hall built at Kehlheim to commemorate the national liberation, and in the dedication of the monument erected at Leipzig in memory of the " Battle of the Nations " (VolkerscUacht). On the occasion of the fetes celebrating the Kaiser's accession, there were many references to the industrial, economic and financial prosperity which had been achieved. Dr. Helfferich calculated that the national wealth of Germany amounted at that date to something like 300 milliard marks (about 15,000,000,000). The popula- tion, according to the census of 1910, was 64,896,881. Never- theless, Germany had one constitutional weakness which was a flaw in its prosperity. The World War came upon it at a stage of its internal political development when it had not yet suc- ceeded in readjusting the rights and duties of the various factors in the life of the state, in the sense of a compromise, such as the times demanded, between monarchy and parliamentary democracy. In the very centre of this political struggle, which had been going on for many years, stood the question of the suffrage for the Prussian Diet. The Social Democrats, almost exactly one year before the outbreak of the World War, lost on Aug. 13 1913 by the death of August Bebel their veteran leader in the struggle for the democratization of Germany. His suc- cessor in the presidency of the party organization was the man who was destined subsequently to be the first president of the Republican Reich, Ebert. (O. B.)
The War Period. The prosperous development which Ger- many had experienced for more than 40 years of peace had been both politically and economically a mighty one; and there had arisen in the German people a profound sense of their strength, based in great part upon the absolute confidence which they felt in their military power. This confidence continued to influence popular feeling during the first years of the war. The events which led up to it, the crime of Sarajevo, the Austrian ultima- tum to Serbia, the preparations for war in Russia, were followed throughout the country with earnest attention, but until the end of July 1914 there was scarcely any sign of satisfaction among the German people at large at the prospect of war. It was only when it became known that there was no hope of avoiding the conflict that any national enthusiasm for war suddenly broke out and communicated itself to all sections of the people. It found expression in lively demonstrations. Char- acteristic of the state of public feeling were the words which the Emperor addressed from the balcony of Berlin Castle to the assembled masses below: "I no longer know any parties among my people; there are only Germans." The necessity of setting aside all party strife was felt from the extreme Right far into those working-class circles which, as belonging to the Social Democratic party, had hitherto been opposed on principle to war. On Aug. i 1914 the Socialist leaders had issued a manifesto exhorting their followers to persist in their confidence that the future, in spite of everything, belonged to Socialism as the great bond between the nations. Indeed, if the Social Democrats had frankly taken up an attitude of opposition to the war, the masses, even those who belonged to the party, would in their patriotic enthusiasm have declined to follow their lead. The appeal by the Kaiser to his people on Aug. 6, the manifestos of the different German sovereigns, the Emperor's speech from the throne on Aug. 4, and the speech of the Imperial Chancellor Bethmann- Hollweg on the same day, awakened an accordant response from the nation. On Aug. 4 the Social Democrats joined with the rest of the parties in the Reichstag in voting the first war credit of 10 milliard marks. A united front of all parties was established.
And now the events of the war followed each other in rapid succession. The overrunning of Belgium by the German troops and the victory of Hindenburg over the Russians at Allenstein produced a whirlwind of victorious exultation. On Sept. 9 the Socialist leaders published a protest against the anti-German attitude of the International Socialist Bureau, and thus drew a clear line of cleavage between the German Social Democracy and
