World War 1

From the Handbook for Schooling the Hitler Youth

Chapter Eleven: Territory and Population (Handbook online is here)

Large German family after 1919 with insufficient living space.

The following has been edited for greater brevity -cy

Before we consider the everlasting earthly foundations of our economic life we must investigate the relation of territory and population, the relation of population density and population distribution. For they are of decisive significance for the social and economic life of the German people. The soil cannot feed an indefinite number of persons. It cannot provide an indefinite number of possibilities for work. There is a limit to such possibilities, as soon as this limit is reached a people must win new territory if it does not wish to lower its whole standard of living.

A painting by Heinz Georg Lutz while a prisoner at Lodge Moor POW camp in Scheffield, England. Lutz was an architect and ex-Wehrmacht officer who was confined in the camp September 1945-April 1948. He made several linocuts and watercolour sketches of the camp and the area around it. Credit: Picture Sheffield

By Carolyn Yeager

REMAINS OF THE LARGEST PRISONER OF WAR CAMP IN BRITAIN, housing at least 11,000 Germans and Italians at its peak in 1944, has been uncovered by archaeologists from University of Sheffield.

The site is overgrown with woodlands and was forgotten for more than 60 years.

A German poster from 1919 showing 'what we are supposed to lose.'

By Carolyn Yeager

THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SIGNING OF THE VERSAILLES PEACE TREATY was quietly commemorated this week in Germany. The date of the signing was June 28, 1919. 

The treaty was 100% the creation of the Allied victors. No German negotiators were allowed to participate in discussing its content. Thus the peace treaty was a fait accompli which Germans never agreed to but were compelled to sign. It forced the country to pay billions in reparations; to give up its colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region; and to cede almost 20% of its territory to other nations: Alsace-Lorraine became French and most of West Prussia became Polish. The victorious powers — led by the United States, Britain, France and Italy — declared Germany and its allies to be solely responsible for the outbreak of the war that they themselves had turned into a World War. They accused the Germans of having forced them into war (when it was clearly the other way around), thus holding the Reich accountable for "all losses and damages" incurred.

ON FEBRUARY 1, 1917, THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND resumed submarine attacks on neutral ships in British waters. Their goal was to so devastate neutral shippers that they would become unwilling to trade with the Allies. Germany hoped that would inflict on Britain the same pain Germany itself had been suffering and force the Allies to come to terms. The Germans knew that this was a risky gamble because it could draw the United States into the war, but they hoped to bring the Allies to their knees before US involvement became significant.

In the map above, the shaded portion shows the extent of the German war zone.

Vol 6 no. 2    Feb. 14, 1917     Page 6

Headline on Feb. 3, 1917 after President Wilson spoke to Congress and the nation about his decision to react as promised to Germany's resumption of a more aggressive submarine warfare.

BEGINNING WITH THE FEB. 14, 1917 issue, THE FATHERLAND became THE NEW WORLD, saying they were making the change "to avoid misunderstanding and unnecessary provocation." On February 3rd, President Wilson had declared to Congress that the U.S. had broken off diplomatic relations with Germany because of its announced change in submarine warfare policy. Ambassador Bernstorff was given his passports by the State Dept. and sent back home to Germany. Everyone knew this brought us that much closer to a declaration of war.

This once secret British document depicts the general situation of minefields surrounding Great Britain on August 19, 1918. Enlarge

BECAUSE OF PRINTING DEADLINES, EVEN IN THIS LAST THE FATHERLAND NUMBER that came out on 7 February, 1917 there was no hint of the surprise U.S. break in diplomatic relations with Germany that was announced in Congress on 3 February.

In this issue, Capital correspondent Frederick F. Schrader once again writes the most pithy and informative account of the political situation: just how close America was to forcing peace on the belligerents, yet how active the powerful pro-British lobby was in keeping the war going.

The "Peace Dove" of the Entente -This caricature was originally published in the 28 January 1917 issue of the satirical German journal Kladderadatsch. The “peace dove” of the Entente is portrayed as a vulture carrying a map of Europe showing the areas to be "severed from the German Reich."

FOLLOWING PRESIDENT WILSON'S "SERMON ON THE MOUNT," as it was dubbed by The Fatherland Editor George Sylvester Viereck—that is, his speech to the Senate on Jan. 22 laying out his ideas for peace—the talk in Washington and in the country was of a positive nature. It was felt that the position of Germany was strengthening and that that nation was gaining in good will. The belief in a coming peace was palpable. This turned out to be deceptive, or at least, not to last. Below is some of what was published in that upbeat tone in the next to the last issue that was to be published under the name of THE FATHERLAND. -cy

President Woodrow Wilson addressed “the people of the countries now at war,” in a highly-publicized speech to the US Senate on January 22, 1917. He called for 'peace without victory' and a Monroe Doctrine for the world.

AFTER WILSON IS INAUGURATED INTO HIS 2ND TERM, he seems to sincerely turn his mind toward peace efforts. His idealism doesn't go over well with the Allies, for whom peace at this time would not give them what they want. Instead they are ramping up their propaganda efforts to bring the United States into the war.  At the same time, Germany has decided it must ramp up its submarine warfare with the aim of blockading British shipping in order to force England to the peace table. The editor of The Fatherland does not see what's coming; the poet in him waxes optimistic about Wilson's speech in the January 31 Fatherland issue. But first, the more down-to-earth Frederick Schrader tells us the mood and pro-war activity in America just before the President's important speech. -cy

IN THE JANUARY 24, 1917 ISSUE OF THE FATHERLAND, which will cease publishing under that name with the February 7th issue, the unsuspecting editors are still exposing the hypocritical nature (to put it kindly) of prominent pro-British, pro-Allies spokesperson Elihu Root. This former Republican senator from New York was President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of War during the Philippine-American War (1899-1902) when many atrocities were carried out against the Filipinos. Knowledge of that was prevented from reaching the American public. Writer Franklin Schrader uncovered secret documents and exposed them perhaps for the first time, at least for most Americans. The second article below adds to what was revealed in my prior post on Elihu Root's conduct of the war. But first, another “crime” revealed by a Fatherland reader. -cy

vol. 5 no. 22 Jan. 3, 1917 Page 4

ENGLAND BREAKS ANOTHER PACT

Letter to the Editor of The Fatherland

Sir:

In the issue of October 18^th in an article written by Mr. C.A. Collman THE FATHERLAND drew attention to the scandalous robbery going on in Nigeria where German property, real estate, warehouses, factories, wharves, residential sites, etc., etc., are to be forcibly sold by auction.