My Four Years

1917. The author was the late Ambassador to the German Imperial Court. Illustrated. From the Foreword: I am writing what should have been the last chapter of this book as a foreword because I want to bring home to our people the gravity of the situation; because I want to tell them that the military and naval power of the German Empire is unbroken; that of the twelve million men whom the Kaiser has called to the colors but one million, five hundred thousand have been killed, five hundred thousand permanently disabled, not more than five hundred thousand are prisoners of war, and about five hundred thousand constitute the number of wounded or those on the sick list of each day, leaving at all times about nine million effectives under arms. I state these figures because Americans do not grasp either the magnitude or the importance of this war. Perhaps the statement that over five million prisoners of war are held in the various countries will bring home to Americans the enormous mass of men engaged. Contents: My First Year in Germany; Political and Geographical; Diplomatic Work of First Winter in Berlin; Militarism in Germany and the Zabern Affair; Psychology and Causes Which Prepared the Nation for War; At Kiel Just Before the War; The System; The Days Before the War; The Americans at the Outbreak of Hostilities; Prisoners of War; First Days of the War: Political and Diplomatic; Diplomatic Negotiations; Mainly Commercial; Work for the Germans; War Charities; Hate; Diplomatic Negotiations; Liberals and Reasonable Men; The German People in War; and Last. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty or faded.