THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
 THE KAISER 
 
 MORTON PRINCE 
 
Class.. :' 1 : 
 
 Book ~Yl 
 
 Copyright N?. 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE KAISER TAKEN UNAWARES. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY 
 OF THE KAISER 
 
 A Study of His Sentiments 
 and His Obsession 
 
 BY 
 
 MORTON PRINCE 
 
 BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN 
 
 1915 
 
Copyright, 19 15, by Morton Prince 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Urterwood wui Underwood 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
 AUG -7 1915 
 
 ©CI.A410016 
 
SYNOPSIS 
 
 I. The Kaiser's Antipathy. 
 II. The Kaiser's Prerogatives. 
 
 III. The Kaiser's Divine Right De- 
 
 lusion. 
 
 IV. The German Autocracy and 
 
 the Army. 
 
 V. The Kaiser's Sentiments. 
 
 VI. The Kaiser's Self-Regarding 
 Sentiment. 
 
 VII. Aims of the German Democracy. 
 
 VIII. The Real Cause of the Kaiser's 
 Antipathy. 
 
 IX. The Kaiser's Antipathy an Ob- 
 session and a Defense Reac- 
 tion. 
 
 The Moral 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY 
 OF THE KAISER 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
 THE KAISER 
 
 i 
 
 THE KAISER'S ANTIPATHY 
 
 |"N the consciousness of the Kaiser there 
 ■*■ is nothing that is more dominant than 
 his increasing and virulent antipathy to a 
 great body of citizens constituting no less 
 than one-third of his empire — the Social 
 Democrats. 
 
 We have all read of the Kaiser's hatred 
 of the party known as the Social Demo- 
 cratic Party. We have read the epithets 
 which he has constantly hurled at them, 
 and of his antipathy to their creeds. 
 "Traitors," "a plague that must be ex- 
 terminated," "a horde of men unworthy 
 
 7 
 
8 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 to bear the name of Germans," "foes to 
 the country and empire," "people with- 
 out a country and enemies of religion," 
 he has called them. 
 
 To a delegation of striking miners he 
 said: 
 
 For me every Social Democrat is synony- 
 mous with an enemy of the empire and of 
 his country. If, therefore, I believe that 
 there are any Socialist tendencies in the move- 
 ment [the strike of 100,000 men], stirring 
 up to unlawful resistance, I shall act with 
 merciless rigor and bring to bear all the 
 power at my disposal — which is great. 
 
 Again : 
 
 The doctrines of the Social Democrats are 
 not only opposed to the commandments of 
 God and Christian morality but are also al- 
 together unpractical, being equally injurious 
 to the individuals and the whole community. 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 9 
 
 So violent is the hatred of the Kaiser 
 toward this party that he even has thought 
 it might come to suppressing it by the 
 army. He said to the young soldiers at 
 Potsdam: 
 
 For you there is only one foe, and that is 
 my foe. In view of our present Socialist 
 troubles, it may come to this, that I command 
 you to shoot down your own relatives, 
 brothers, and even parents, in the streets, 
 which God forbid; but then you must obey 
 my orders without a murmur. 
 
 Why so much feeling? Why such re- 
 current outbursts of anger and hatred 
 against a political party which in num- 
 bers is twice as large as any other single 
 party in the empire, a party which in 
 191 2 cast 4,250,000 votes * and which was 
 
 * The total vote cast was 12,207,000. The number of 
 Social Democrats elected was not fairly proportionate 
 to the voting strength of the party owing to the pecu- 
 
io The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 represented in the German Parliament in 
 1912 by no members, the representatives 
 
 liar election laws existing in the different states of Ger- 
 many. Hence ballot reform was the principal imme- 
 diate issue of the party before the war. In Prussia, 
 for example, there is what is called the "three-class 
 system." The voters are divided into three classes ac- 
 cording to the amount of taxes paid, the total taxes 
 being divided into three equal parts. "Then, starting 
 with the highest taxpayers, those voters whose taxes 
 total the first third of taxes paid constitute the first 
 class of electors. They are the wealthiest men and nat- 
 urally are smallest in numbers. 
 
 "The second class is made up of those electors who 
 pay taxes equal to the second division. Their number 
 is a little larger. The third class is made up of all 
 the rest of the voters. 
 
 "Each class elects the same number of deputies to the 
 Reichstag. Obviously the respectable middle class com- 
 posed of that element in Continental politics known as 
 the bourgeoisie throws its vote with that of the aris- 
 tocracy against the people at large. In one careful 
 analysis of this system the ratio in the division was 
 roughly as follows : one voter in the first class ; thirty-two 
 voters in the second class; three hundred and fifty voters 
 in the third class. 
 
 "Now the exclusive gentleman in the first class elected 
 just as many members of the Reichstag as did the 350 
 workingmen in the third class, or the thirty-two well-to- 
 do business men in the second class." ("The Kaiser," 
 edited by Asa Don Dickenson, p. 105.) 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser II 
 
 of over 21,000,000 people, nearly one- 
 third of the population? 
 
 S. P. Orth ("Socialism and Democracy in Europe") 
 gives various instances of the inequality which appears 
 in the cities. "In Berlin in one precinct one man 
 paid one-third of the taxes and consequently possessed 
 one-third of the legislative influence in that precinct. 
 In another precinct the president of a large bank paid 
 one-third of the taxes, and two of his associates paid 
 another third. These three men named the member of 
 the Diet from that precinct." 
 
 In Saxony the electorate is divided into four classes 
 according to their income. The members of each class 
 have respectively 1, 2, 3, and 4 votes. Consequently, in 
 1909 18,491 voters of the fourth class, having 4 votes 
 each, cast 73,964 votes, while 32,567 voters of the first 
 class cast only 32,567 votes. 
 
 Corresponding inequalities of representation neces- 
 sarily followed. 
 
 One result of the election laws is that the cities where 
 the Social Democrats preponderate have very small rep- 
 resentation, while the rural districts where the conser- 
 vatives (Junkers) are a majority have a dispropor- 
 tionately large representation. Thus Greater Berlin with 
 850,000 voters, where the Social Democrats are in a vast 
 majority, was represented in the Reichstag by only eight 
 members while the same number of voters in the small 
 rural districts were represented by forty-eight mem- 
 bers. Again: The city of Berlin in 1910 with a popu- 
 lation of 2,000,000 was governed by 33,062 persons, owing 
 to the three-class system of voting. 
 
12 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 These are strong words of the Kaiser's 
 I have quoted. They are not mere invec- 
 tives uttered during the heat of a politi- 
 cal campaign. They are not to be classed 
 with those emotional castigations with 
 which political stump-speech orators, 
 working themselves up to a state of pas- 
 sionate indignation, flay their adversaries, 
 and which are promptly forgotten as soon 
 as the campaign is ended — albeit the 
 Kaiser is essentially a stump-speech ora- 
 tor. 
 
 We have all learned not to take seri- 
 ously the ephemeral indignation of the 
 political orator. But the Kaiser's denun- 
 ciation of the Social Democrats is the 
 expression of an antipathy which is fixed, 
 
 It may also be pointed out that the 4,250,000 votes 
 cast by the Social Democrats in 1912 do not represent 
 the whole opposition to the autocracy, inasmuch as cer- 
 tain liberal groups, the progressives and the people's 
 party cast together 1,506,000 votes. 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 13 
 
 deep-rooted, persistent, and is a part of 
 his personality, for it has manifested it- 
 self in the form of recurrent attacks of 
 anger and hatred ever since he came to 
 the throne, twenty-seven years ago. It is 
 like unto an obsessing idea, common 
 enough, which, fixed deep down in the 
 mind, rises in consciousness whenever its 
 object presents itself. 
 
 Fixed antipathies are always, for the 
 psychologist, objects of interesting study, 
 but for others, even in an Emperor, they 
 are little more than matters of intellectual 
 curiosity unless the antipathy is one of 
 practical political import, one that affects 
 the policies of Government and the course 
 of history. 
 
 If the antipathy of the Kaiser were 
 only of that trivial kind common to many 
 people, which is manifested as a dread 
 of snakes, or of death, or other banal ob- 
 
14 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 ject, its study would be of little practical 
 interest excepting for its victim, Wil- 
 liam II. himself, although the revelation 
 of its origin and meaning would give an 
 insight into one component, however un- 
 important, of an exalted personality. 
 
 The periodical recurrence of the an- 
 tipathy and the psychological reactions to 
 which it gave rise would probably affect 
 the happiness of no one but himself and 
 the unhappy members of his family who 
 would have to bear the brunt of it. No 
 one is interested in other people's symp- 
 toms. 
 
 But it is different when such a recur- 
 ring antipathy is of a political nature. 
 Then by a study of the underlying causes 
 of this obsessing idea we not only can ob- 
 tain an insight into important components 
 of the personality of a great historical 
 character, but we should expect to find 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 15 
 
 the true motives which have determined 
 those policies of Government and the 
 course of history which have been the 
 direct result of the antipathy. 
 
 The Kaiser's hatred of the Social 
 Democrats has had momentous practical 
 consequences. It is safe to say that it 
 has been more than any other single fac- 
 tor the motive which has determined him 
 to maintain, against the progressive spirit 
 of modern civilization, the present auto- 
 cratic system of government, to resist all 
 liberal attempts to change the Constitu- 
 tion so as to give responsible representa- 
 tive government to the people and to de- 
 fend what he claims as his prerogatives. 
 It has determined other tyrannous meas- 
 ures which have suppressed freedom of 
 speech and the press and banefully op- 
 pressed the liberty of the German people. 
 I refer to the law of lese-majeste. 
 
16 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 This law, a return to the feudalism of 
 the Middle Ages, is the means the Kaiser 
 employs to punish those who talk back. 
 He may insult his subjects, call them all 
 manner of names, misrepresent their prin- 
 ciples, their purposes and ideals, excite 
 animosity against them "as enemies to the 
 country and religion," but if they answer 
 back they are met by the law of lese- 
 majeste, and this law is enforced, as every 
 one knows, with merciless severity to sup- 
 press political opponents. 
 
 Against the Democrats the law has 
 been used as a weapon of suppression, 
 though without success. Under this law 
 statistics showed that up to 1898, during 
 only the first decade of William II. 's 
 reign, more than 1,000 years of imprison- 
 ment had been inflicted upon offenders. 
 A recent responsible writer asserts that 
 up to 1 9 14 the sentences had reached 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser IJ 
 
 30,000 years, but I do not know upon 
 what authority these figures are based. 
 
 It is not surprising that editors of So- 
 cial Democratic newspapers, many po- 
 litical leaders of the party, and writers 
 for the Democratic press have been 
 among those who have served terms in 
 prison for lese-majeste, or offense against 
 the press law. 
 
 There have been times when scarcely 
 a week passed without three or four trials. 
 But against the Social Democratic mem- 
 bers of the Reichstag when making use of 
 their prerogatives as elected representa- 
 tives of the people, this law has not been 
 sufficient to satisfy the Kaiser's animosity. 
 So on one occasion when they refused to 
 rise and cheer him, in response to a de- 
 mand, the Kaiser had introduced, through 
 his Chancellor, a bill to permit the crim- 
 inal prosecution of these delegates. To 
 
1 8 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 its credit, be it said, the majority refused 
 to permit this encroachment upon its 
 rights. 
 
 It is safe to say that such a criminal 
 law as lese-majeste and its abuse for po- 
 litical purposes in England would cost 
 the King his crown. 
 
 To this antipathy of the Kaiser may 
 also be traced in large part responsibility 
 for the consolidation of the autocratic 
 and military party in Germany. For, 
 by suppressing the political power of the 
 only militant party that has opposed this 
 autocracy, the Kaiser has been enabled 
 to solidify his power and intrench him- 
 self with his army as the dominating po- 
 litical force which has determined the 
 foreign policies of the empire. 
 
 It is safe to say that if the democracy 
 had been in power, or if the constitutional 
 system of government had been such that 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 19 
 
 the Social Democratic Party, in and out 
 of the Reichstag, could have made its in- 
 fluence felt, the foreign and military poli- 
 cies and methods of the Government 
 would have been far different and there 
 would have been no war. Germanism 
 and Pan-Germanism would not have 
 threatened the world.* 
 
 * Surprise has been expressed that the Social Demo- 
 crats, in view of their avowed principles and their plat- 
 form, did not in the beginning throw their influence 
 against the war, but are patriotically supporting the 
 government. In other words, that there is a United 
 Fatherland. There is no question that the Social Demo- 
 crats were bitterly opposed to this war and yet they 
 cast their 111 votes in the Reichstag unanimously in 
 favor of the war budget, but it was after war had been 
 declared by the Upper House and the Emperor. 
 
 This seems on the face of the facts a complete re- 
 versal of the Party policy and yet it is easily under- 
 stood. 
 
 The Social Democrats, though opposed to militarism 
 and war, are first and all the time patriots. They 
 have always declared that if the Fatherland were at- 
 tacked they would rally to its defense, and all the world 
 knows that the German people as a whole have been 
 made to believe that the Fatherland was attacked. 
 
 In 1907 Bebel, then leader of the Party, declared in 
 
20 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 More than this, it is impossible, I be- 
 lieve, for any one to study the internal 
 
 a debate in the Reichstag that if the Fatherland were 
 attacked even he, in his old age, would "shoulder a mus- 
 ket" in its defense. And in the next Party Convention 
 he declared: 
 
 "I said, if the Fatherland really must be defended, 
 then we will defend it. Because it is our Father- 
 land. It is the land in which we live, whose lan- 
 guage we speak, whose culture we possess. Because 
 we wish to make this, our Fatherland, more beauti- 
 ful and more complete than any other land on earth. 
 We defend it, therefore, not for you but against 
 you." 
 
 Likewise Von Vollmar later said in the Bavarian 
 Diet: 
 
 "If the necessity should arise for the protection 
 of the realm against foreign invasion, thtn it will 
 become evident that the Social Democrats love their 
 Fatherland no less than do their neighbors; that 
 they will as gladly and heroically offer themselves, 
 to its defense. On the other hand, if the foolish 
 notion should ever arise to use the army for the sup- 
 port of a warring class prerogative, for the defense of 
 indefeasible demands, and for the crushing of those 
 just ambitions which are the product of our times, 
 and a necessary concomitant of our economic and 
 political development, — then we are of the firm con- 
 viction that the day will come when the army will 
 remember that it sprang from the people, and that 
 its own interests are those of the masses." 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 21 
 
 politics of Germany without arriving at 
 the firm conviction that the elimination 
 
 As S. P. Orth, from whose work I take these quota- 
 tions, says, "This makes their position very clear." 
 
 When war was declared the position which the Social 
 Democrats were obliged to take was also clear. It was 
 not a question of opposing the war. As Patrick Henry 
 declared, in his famous speech at the beginning of our 
 own Revolution, "Gentlemen may cry 'Peace! Peace!' 
 But there is no Peace. The war has actually begun." 
 And so with the Social Democrats, it was only a ques- 
 tion of voting supplies. The Social Democrats dis- 
 claimed all responsibility for the war. As Deputy Haase 
 said in the Reichstag in explanation of the vote of his 
 colleagues : 
 
 "The responsibility for this calamity falls upon 
 those who are responsible for the imperial policies 
 that led to it. We absolutely decline all responsi- 
 bility. The Social Democrats fought this policy 
 with all their might. At this moment, however, the 
 question before us is not war, or no war. The war 
 is here. The question now is one of defence of the 
 country. Our nation and the future of its liberty 
 are jeopardized by a possible victory of Russian 
 despotism, the hands of which are stained with 
 blood of the best of its own nation. Against this 
 danger it is our duty to secure the culture and in- 
 dependence of our land." 
 
 And the Vorwaerts, the official organ of the Social 
 Democrats, on July 30th, just before the declaration 
 of war, announced: 
 
22 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 of German militarism, for which the war 
 is being waged, and therefore the hope 
 
 "We are opposed to militarism, and we reaffirm 
 our opposition to monarchism, to which we have al- 
 ways been opposed, and always will be. We have 
 been compelled from the first to lead a bitter strug- 
 gle against the temperamental wearer of the crown. 
 We recognize, however, and we have stated it re- 
 peatedly, that William II. has proved himself to 
 be a sincere friend of peace among the nations, 
 particularly in later years. . . . But even the 
 strongest character is not entirely free from influ- 
 ence, and we regret to say that proofs are accumu- 
 lating in abundance that the clique of war shouters 
 have been at work again to influence the govern- 
 ment in favor of the devastation of the whole of 
 Europe. . . . 
 
 "In England it is the general opinion that the 
 German Kaiser in his capacity as the ally and ad- 
 viser of Austria was the arbiter in this trouble and 
 had it in his power to let peace or war fall from 
 the folds of his royal robes. And England is right. 
 As conditions are, William II. has the decision in his 
 hands." 
 
 It will thus be seen that although the Social Demo- 
 crats feel that the Kaiser and the military party are to 
 blame for the war, they also necessarily feel that as 
 patriots they must support the Fatherland as would be 
 the case with any party in any country. But it also 
 follows that if the Democracy had been in control of the 
 government of Germany there would have been no war. 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 23 
 
 of permanent world's peace, must rest 
 upon the German Democratic Party. 
 From this viewpoint, the study of the 
 Kaiser's antipathy for the Social Demo- 
 crats offers a most fruitful psychological 
 study. 
 
 Why, then, I repeat, so much feeling 
 when the Kaiser thinks of the Social 
 Democratic Party? Why such hatred of 
 it? Why such anger? Why such a per- 
 sonal attitude? 
 
 To explain it on the ground of differ- 
 ences in political principles, as a politi- 
 cal antipathy intensely expressed in terms 
 of an intense emotional personality, is a 
 superficial and inadequate psychological 
 explanation, although it is commonly 
 satisfying as a political explanation. The 
 two are not synonymous. The reasons 
 for this distinction will appear as we pro- 
 ceed. 
 
24 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 If the party represented only a small 
 band of criminal agitators, of militant 
 anarchists, let us say, who sought by as- 
 sassination and terrorism to destroy the 
 existing Government, such an attitude of 
 mind would be easily comprehensible 
 and would need no analysis. But the So- 
 cial Democratic Party in 1888, on the 
 accession of William II., on the basis of 
 one voter in every five of the population, 
 represented less than 4,000,000 subjects, 
 and in 19 12 over 21,000,000, a third of 
 the total population.* It is, therefore, 
 
 * The steady growth of the Social Democratic Party 
 has been phenomenal and is of importance in the bearing 
 it has upon the future. In 1871 the party cast only 
 124,000 votes and from that time to 1912 there has been 
 an almost continuous increase, as may be seen from the 
 following table: 
 
 1871 124,000 
 
 1874 352,000 
 
 1877 493,000 
 
 1878 437,000 
 
 1881 312,000 
 
 1884 550,000 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 25 
 
 representative of a large part of the pub- 
 lic opinion of the empire, and, above all, 
 of the working classes. Indeed, it is the 
 largest political party in the empire. 
 Criminal agitation is, therefore, out of 
 the question. 
 
 In other countries political feeling in 
 times of crises often runs high, and at 
 times statesmen, rulers, leaders of politi- 
 cal parties generally, have strong political 
 bias and feel intensely hostile to their po- 
 litical opponents ; but they do not regard 
 them as foes of their country, and God, 
 and religion, to be crushed by every force 
 in the power of the Government; and they 
 rarely carry their hostility, and anger, 
 
 1887 763,000 
 
 1890 1,427,000 
 
 1893 1,787,000 
 
 1898 2,107,000 
 
 1903 3,011,000 
 
 1907 3,259,000 
 
 1912 4,250,000 
 
26 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 and hatred into social and industrial life, 
 as has been the case with the German 
 Emperor. 
 
 Furthermore, the persistency of the 
 Emperor's antipathy is remarkable. It is 
 like an obsession. He has retained, un- 
 diminished, his hatred of the Social 
 Democrats from his accession to the out- 
 break of the war, and has never ceased 
 to angrily stigmatize them with such emo- 
 tional epithets as I have cited. 
 
 Now it is probable, owing to a psycho- 
 logical law, that when strong emotion, 
 out of all apparent proportion to the 
 cause, is excited by some object, that ob- 
 ject has struck some sentiment, a "com- 
 plex" of ideas and emotions deeply rooted 
 in the personality, but not squarely ad- 
 mitted and faced by consciousness. Ex- 
 amples of this we see every day. 
 
 A strong protectionist inveighs with 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 27 
 
 intense anger against the principle of free 
 trade and the political party that advo- 
 cates this principle in its platform. The 
 reason he consciously gives is the eco- 
 nomic disadvantage which, he appre- 
 hends, will result to the country at large. 
 But though this may be the reason, or 
 rather one reason for his political opin- 
 ion, it is not the real reason for his emo- 
 tion — his anger and his invectives. 
 
 These are due to the fact that the free- 
 trade doctrine strikes a chord within him 
 which resonates with selfish fear for his 
 own business interests, and the reaction 
 of this chord is anger. In other words, 
 to use a homely phrase, while apparently 
 speaking from the viewpoint of political 
 principles, he is really "talking out of his 
 pocket." But he does not squarely face 
 and perhaps is only half conscious or en- 
 tirely unconscious of this fact. This 
 
28 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 selfish viewpoint is his "unconscious at- 
 titude of mind." 
 
 Now, is the Kaiser's antipathy to the 
 Social Democrats merely the expression 
 of an academic disbelief in Marxian 
 principles of Socialism and a disbelief in 
 the practicability of such principles if 
 applied by the State to political govern- 
 ment? Or are these only ostensible rea- 
 sons for his antipathy? If the latter, a 
 study of the Kaiser's mind ought to re- 
 veal deep-rooted sentiments of another 
 kind which will explain his emotional 
 reaction. But in that case, for a complete 
 explanation, we must inquire what there 
 is that is peculiar in the political tenets 
 of the Social Democracy that touches 
 these sentiments and excites the reaction. 
 In other words, it is a question of the 
 Why. 
 
 These questions rise above a banal cu- 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 29 
 
 riosity to inquire into a peculiar personal 
 dislike of an Emperor, however that 
 might be justified by the exalted world- 
 position which he occupies. They are 
 important in that, if pursued, they may 
 lead to a deeper understanding of his 
 personality, and they may unfold both 
 his viewpoint of government as exempli- 
 fied by the German system and the an- 
 tagonistic viewpoint of the German De- 
 mocracy, which for many years has been 
 striving against the power of the Em- 
 peror to force its ideals and aspirations 
 upon the autocracy that rules Ger- 
 many. 
 
 All these questions are involved in the 
 psychology of the personality of the 
 Kaiser. The political questions are in- 
 volved, for no personality can be under- 
 stood apart from its environment to 
 which it reacts, and which is largely re- 
 
30 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 sponsible for the formation of "senti- 
 ments." 
 
 The sentiments are of prime and fun- 
 damental importance in the formation of 
 a personality. I use the term "senti- 
 ments" in a restricted psychological sense 
 and not in accordance with popular 
 usage. I shall have occasion later to ex- 
 plain how sentiments are formed after 
 we have become acquainted with some of 
 the Kaiser's mental attitudes. 
 
 Meanwhile I would simply explain in 
 justification of this inquiry, that charac- 
 ter depends upon the psycho-physiologi- 
 cal organization of ideas, derived in the 
 broadest sense from life's experiences, 
 with the innate primitive instinctive dis- 
 positions to behave or react to given situ- 
 ations (i. e., to react to the environ- 
 ment). 
 
 Thus, on the one hand, sentiments are 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 31 
 
 formed which characterize our attitude 
 toward life, including therein our per- 
 sonal, social, political, and industrial re- 
 lations to the world about us ; and, on the 
 other, the inborn natural instincts of man 
 are harnessed, controlled, and repressed, 
 or cultivated and given free rein. Upon 
 the development of sentiments, therefore, 
 not only the behavior of the individual 
 depends, but the whole social organiza- 
 tion. Of course, in a brief article of this 
 kind we shall be obliged to limit our- 
 selves to a few of the sentiments involved 
 in the questions placed before us and 
 therefore to a very limited study of the 
 Kaiser's personality. 
 
II 
 
 THE KAISER'S PREROGATIVES 
 
 ET us go back to the year 1888, 
 -■— ' when the Kaiser came to the throne. 
 In his very first speech to the Prussian 
 Diet he proclaimed with noticeable em- 
 phasis that he was "firmly resolved to 
 maintain intact and guard from all en- 
 croachment the chartered prerogatives of 
 the Crown." (The Kaiser, edited by 
 Asa Don Dickenson, page 113.) It was 
 noticed that he laid marked stress on 
 these words, so that it was publicly com- 
 mented upon by those who heard him. 
 This intention to defend his prerogatives 
 the Kaiser has consistently maintained 
 ever since, and more than once has pro- 
 claimed. What are the "prerogatives" 
 
 32 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 33 
 
 about which the Kaiser took the very 
 first opportunity to warn Germany and 
 about which he has been so tenacious? 
 They can be briefly stated. 
 
 In the first place, we must know it is 
 the Kaiser's prerogative not to be respon- 
 sible to the people or to Parliament, but 
 only to himself. He does not derive his 
 power from either, but he reigns by his 
 own right. This is his prerogative. Fur- 
 thermore, he not only reigns, but it is his 
 prerogative to govern. The King of 
 England reigns, but, as has so often been 
 said, he does not govern. In England 
 the responsibility for governing rest? en- 
 tirely with the Ministry, which in prin- 
 ciple is only a select committee of Par- 
 liament. It is the English Parliament, 
 therefore, and practically the elected 
 House of Commons that governs. 
 
 In the second place it is the Kaiser's 
 
34 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 prerogative to appoint a Chancellor to 
 help him govern. He has no Cabinet, 
 nor Board of Advisors. The Chancellor 
 is responsible only to the Emperor. Par- 
 liament may be entirely opposed to him, 
 but in such case he does not necessarily 
 resign, as would the British Prime Min- 
 ister, nor is it the customary usage. He 
 may not have been a member of Parlia- 
 ment when appointed. The Kaiser alone 
 may dismiss him, as he dismissed Bis- 
 marck. The Emperor may disregard him 
 and his advice, if he likes ; so that in prac- 
 tice he may be his own Chancellor, as it 
 is commonly said in Germany he has been 
 ever since Bismarck's dismissal and as 
 Bismarck foretold would be the case. 
 
 A third prerogative is to appoint the 
 Ministers, the heads of the great depart- 
 ments — Navy, Foreign Affairs, Colonies, 
 &c, who are under the Chancellor. 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 35 
 
 Thus all executive power resides in the 
 Kaiser. Parliament has none. We may 
 say it is the Kaiser's prerogative to be 
 the administration. 
 
 A fourth prerogative is to be Com- 
 mander in Chief of the Army and to have 
 absolute authority over the forces of the 
 army both in peace and in war. (Art. 
 63 of the Constitution.) It is his pre- 
 rogative to "determine the numerical 
 strength, the organization, and the di- 
 visional contingents of the imperial 
 army"; also to appoint all superior of- 
 ficers. (Art. 64.) That the Kaiser re- 
 gards this as one of his most cherished 
 prerogatives the world well knows. 
 
 A fifth and exceedingly powerful pre- 
 rogative is to appoint and control the 
 seventeen members of the upper house — 
 the Bundesrath, or Federal Council — the 
 most powerful upper house in the world. 
 
36 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 The Kaiser thus has the votes — only 
 fourteen being required — to defeat any 
 amendment to the Constitution, and in 
 practice he has always controlled a ma- 
 jority of the Council, which has been the 
 creature of the Kaiser throughout its 
 history. With the consent of the Council 
 he can declare war, but, as the Council 
 is a lady of easy consent, this limitation 
 need not bear hardly and the wooing need 
 be but short and light. 
 
 A sixth prerogative is to initiate all 
 legislation, although indirectly, through 
 his controlled Federal Council, of which 
 the Chancellor is President. The lower 
 house, the Reichstag, elected by the peo- 
 ple, cannot initiate legislation, so well did 
 Bismarck fix the Constitution for the ben- 
 efit of Prussia and the Kaiser. 
 
 All measures must originate in the up- 
 per house, which can also veto them 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 37 
 
 when amended in the Reichstag, and can 
 dissolve the latter (with the Kaiser's con- 
 sent) if it doesn't like its ways. (Think 
 of the House of Lords dissolving the 
 Commons!) The Kaiser has thus very- 
 great power in controlling legislation. 
 (With almost innumerable parties, none 
 of which has a majority, in the House, 
 log-rolling under an astute Chancellor 
 has been raised to a fine art that would 
 make an American State Legislature 
 blush like a neophyte.) 
 
 The Reichstag, however, can refuse to 
 vote supplies and to pass measures fa- 
 vored by the Kaiser. The elected repre- 
 sentatives of the people can thus talk, 
 resolve and criticise, and refuse to follow 
 the Kaiser and thus create a public 
 opinion which he may or may not dare to 
 oppose, but they can do little more. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE KAISER'S DIVINE RIGHT DELUSION 
 
 T? INALLY, the Kaiser claims that his 
 -*- prerogative to govern is derived 
 from God, granted by the Almighty to 
 his house, the house of Hohenzollern. 
 This is far from being meant as a figure 
 of speech or mere rhetoric, or an allegori- 
 cal expression of religious responsibility 
 for duties to be performed. It is a deep, 
 all-abiding belief and principle of ac- 
 tion. 
 
 It is difficult for us Americans of the 
 twentieth century fully to grasp this be- 
 lief in a present-day man of boasted cul- 
 ture, from whom we expect common 
 
 sense. We may laugh at it, but in its 
 
 38 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 39 
 
 practical consequences it is no laughing 
 matter. It is fundamental to the Kai- 
 ser's viewpoint and to an understanding 
 of his attitude toward his subjects and 
 the world. Another sovereign derives 
 his right to reign, if not to govern, from 
 the Constitution of his country, which 
 means in the last analysis by contract with 
 his people. 
 
 But the German Emperor refuses to 
 acknowledge any responsibility to the 
 people, or any dependence upon the peo- 
 ple, or the Constitution, or contract, for 
 his right to govern. He derives this right 
 directly from God. Whatever rights and 
 powers the people possess descend from 
 the Kaiser, who grants them through the 
 Constitution; the rights and powers of 
 the Kaiser do not ascend from the people, 
 as in a democracy. 
 
 The concentration of irresponsible 
 
4-0 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 hereditary power in one man and those 
 appointed by him is plainly an autoc- 
 racy. "The Divine right of Kings to 
 rule" is a doctrine dating back to the 
 Middle Ages, and is by Americans 
 naively supposed to have ended nearly a 
 century ago with the dissolution of the 
 "Holy Alliance," whose designs upon 
 South America gave rise to our Monroe 
 Doctrine in 1823. 
 
 This doctrine of Divine right, then, 
 is one of the prerogatives, if not in his 
 mind the great prerogative, which the 
 Kaiser announced he was resolved to de- 
 fend. And it does not belong to the pres- 
 ent Kaiser alone, but was possessed, as 
 he claims, by his long line of ancestors 
 of the House of Hohenzollern, and will 
 descend to his successors of this house. 
 It is the prerogative of his house. Thus 
 he announced : 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 41 
 
 It is the tradition of our house that we, the 
 Hohenzollerns, regard ourselves as appoint- 
 ed by God to govern and to lead the people 
 whom it is given us to rule, for their well- 
 being and the advancement of their material 
 and intellectual interests. 
 
 And again: 
 
 I look upon the people and nation handed 
 on to me as a responsibility conferred upon 
 me by God: and that it is, as is written in 
 the Bible, my duty to increase this heritage, 
 for which one day I shall be called upon to 
 give an account; those who try to interfere 
 with my task I shall crush. 
 
 And again: 
 
 I regard my whole position as given to me 
 direct from heaven, and that I have been 
 called by the Highest to do His work, by 
 One to Whom I must one day render an 
 account. 
 
42 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 This claim as German Emperor, or as 
 King of Prussia, has been announced 
 again and again by the Kaiser, and his 
 words have been quoted by the press, by 
 magazine writers and pamphleteers and 
 bookmakers unto weariness of the reader. 
 
 The prerogatives we have briefly sum- 
 marized are imperial, but be it noted 
 they are double-headed in that — mutatis 
 mutandis — they also belong to William 
 II. as King of Prussia so far as the con- 
 stitutional relations of the kingdom to 
 the empire make them applicable. 
 
 The odd notion of Divine right the 
 Kaiser picked up from his grandfather, 
 William I., who, when he was crowned 
 King of Prussia at Konigsberg, to show 
 he was above the Constitution which his 
 predecessor had granted the people, 
 raised with his own hands the crown 
 from the altar, "set it on his own head, 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 43 
 
 and announced in a loud voice, 'I receive 
 this crown from God's hand and from 
 none other.' " 
 
 And, referring to this historical inci- 
 dent, the present Kaiser, William II., in 
 a speech, now historic, at the same place, 
 said: 
 
 And here my grandfather, again, by his 
 own right, set the Prussian crown upon his 
 head, once more distinctly emphasizing the 
 fact that it was accorded him by the will of 
 God alone, and not by Parliament or by any 
 assemblage of the people or by popular vote, 
 and that he thus looked upon himself as the 
 chosen instrument of Heaven, and as such 
 performed his duties as regent and sovereign. 
 
 From a psychological point of view, it 
 does not matter — any more than it sig- 
 nified anything to the Kaiser and his 
 grandfather— that, as a matter of fact, 
 
44 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 the first ruling Hohenzollern of Bran- 
 denburg, Elector Frederick I., acquired 
 his title to the Electorate by taking from 
 King Sigismund of Hungary, in 141 1, a 
 mortgage on the province (the nucleus of 
 modern Prussia) as security for a loan 
 to that hard-up potentate of about one 
 hundred thousand gulden. A little later 
 he foreclosed the mortgage and took title 
 — a rather poor title at that, as there was 
 already a mortgage on the property which 
 it was convenient for Sigismund to repu- 
 diate. Perhaps royal second mortgages 
 — like marriages — are made in Heaven, 
 and thus they become "Divine Rights." * 
 What does psychologically matter is 
 that the present Kaiser has persuaded 
 himself, forgetting all about this business 
 transaction, that his early Hohenzollern 
 
 *In 1701 Elector Frederick III. took the title of 
 (first) King of Prussia as Frederick I. 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 45 
 
 Shylock (in foreclosing the mortgage) 
 "felt within himself the call to journey 
 to this land" of Brandenburg — plainly a 
 Divine call — and "was convinced that the 
 task [of governing] was given him from 
 above." (Kaiser's speech, Feb. 3, 1899.) 
 What counts psychologically is that 
 the Kaiser believes that a Divine right 
 to rule is his prerogative. How, in this 
 age, a man who has shown such marked 
 ability in certain directions can be such 
 a fool — I mean psychologically, of 
 course — as to persuade himself to believe 
 such stuff, is another story that would 
 make an interesting psychological study 
 in itself, and in the last analysis could 
 probably be traced to subconscious 
 wishes which have produced this con- 
 scious delusion, just as such subconscious 
 processes determine the delusions of in- 
 sane people. 
 
46 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 Our conscious thoughts are much more 
 determined by subconscious processes, of 
 which we are unaware, than we realize. 
 
 One great popular delusion is that our 
 minds are more exact logical instruments 
 than they really are, and we stand in awe 
 of the minds of great men, thinking that 
 because they are superior in certain direc- 
 tions, therefore they are superior in all 
 other directions of their activities where 
 they claim superiority; whereas, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, a man may be eminently supe- 
 rior in certain fields of mental activity 
 and psychologically a perfect fool-thinker 
 and fool-performer in other fields. 
 
 Helmholtz said of the eye that it was 
 such an imperfect optical instrument 
 that if an instrument maker should send 
 him an optical instrument so badly made 
 he would refuse to accept it and return 
 it forthwith. He might have said the 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 47 
 
 same thing of the human mind. It is a 
 very imperfect instrument of thought. 
 All we can say of it is, that though a poor 
 thing, it is the best we can get. The 
 deeper insight we get into the mechanism 
 of the human mind, the poorer thing it 
 appears as an instrument of precision. 
 
 This Divine Right delusion is psy- 
 chologically interesting in that it very 
 closely resembles and behaves like the 
 delusions characteristic of the mental dis- 
 ease paranoia. This is not to say — indeed 
 it would be absurd to say as some have 
 said — that the Kaiser is afflicted with 
 paranoia. But it is true that in normal 
 people we find the prototypes of mental 
 processes observed in abnormal mental 
 conditions. The essential characteristic of 
 paranoia is a systematized delusion: that 
 is, some belief into which all sorts of facts 
 of the environment are interwoven and 
 
48 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 through which such events, casual actions 
 of other people and their motives are in- 
 terpreted. Thus, an insane person may 
 imagine he is the object of persecution 
 and then proceed to interpret any kind of 
 act of others, really unrelated to himself, 
 through this belief, imagining that it is 
 directed towards the end of persecuting 
 him. Or a paranoiac may imagine that 
 he is the divine emissary of God and then 
 interpret one hundred and one everyday 
 events of life as divine messages to him- 
 self. 
 
 In normal people we see the prototype 
 of such a delusion in the form of a mildly 
 fixed idea which leads a person to 
 wrongly interpret other people's motives 
 and acts. You may say, if you like, that 
 he believes such and such a thing because 
 he wishes to, or because of some firmly 
 fixed belief through which he interprets 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 49 
 
 it. The difference between the normal 
 and abnormal person is that the former 
 can, if he desires and the truth is properly 
 presented, change his belief; the abnor- 
 mal person cannot. 
 
 It would be an extravagance to say 
 that the Kaiser's delusion is anything 
 more than a normal fixed idea which he 
 could change if he wished to. But this 
 fixed idea is so strong, so deeply rooted 
 in his personality, and so directly the ex- 
 pression of a cherished and cultivated 
 wish, conscious or subconscious, that it 
 dominates his interpretation of facts 
 which to an ordinary person flatly contra- 
 dict it. It leads him to entirely ignore 
 both palpable facts, such as the purchase 
 with cold cash, by his ancestor, of the 
 throne, or more exactly, electorate of 
 Brandenburg, and universally accepted 
 understandings of the relation of God to 
 
50 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 the worldly affairs of men — so universally 
 accepted that they have passed into the 
 common-sense of mankind. We may say, 
 paraphrasing the words of a subconscious 
 personality known as "Sally" in a case 
 of multiple personality describing the at- 
 titude of mind of one of her other selves: 
 "There are so many things he cannot or 
 will not see. He holds to certain beliefs 
 and ideas with unwearying patience. It 
 makes no difference that the facts are all 
 against him. He still ignores the facts, 
 still idealizes himself and his preroga- 
 tives." 
 
 The Kaiser's fixed idea is, according to 
 psychological laws, determined by wishes 
 — his wish to be sole and autocratic ruler 
 of Prussia and the Empire, his wish to 
 be the sole arbiter and director of the 
 imperial destinies, his wish, "considering 
 himself the instrument of the Lord, with- 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 51 
 
 out heeding the views and opinions" and 
 will of his subjects to "go his way"; his 
 wish to decide everything, like a patri- 
 arch for the people, and to treat them like 
 children; his wish to be looked up to as 
 the supreme power — all these desires de- 
 termine in him the belief that he is the 
 "anointed of the Lord," a ruler by Divine 
 authority. For only by such authority 
 could he logically find justification for 
 the assumption of such powers and the 
 fulfillment of his desires. In other words, 
 through the acceptance of the Divine 
 Right Delusion he finds a means for the 
 fulfillment of his wishes. And curiously 
 enough, but still according to psycholog- 
 ical laws, this fixed idea with its powerful 
 instinct of self-assertion has awakened in 
 his junker and militaristic supporters 
 sentiments of self-abasement through 
 which they yield submissively to this as- 
 
52 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 sumed prerogative of the Kaiser and 
 adopt an attitude of Divinity Worship. 
 Thus we have a politico-religious cult in 
 which the Kaiser is the Godhead. And 
 thus we have wishes conscious and sub- 
 conscious, but working subconsciously, 
 making a fool — psychologically speaking 
 — of the Kaiser. 
 
 The most curious part of this whole Di- 
 vine Right business is that in Germany, 
 with all its "Kultur," there has been 
 scarcely one single voice among all the 
 people of Germany publicly to deny this 
 claim, excepting the voice of the Social 
 Democracy; or if there has, it has been 
 like a voice crying in the wilderness — or 
 perhaps from behind prison bars, where 
 such rashness brought the prisoner, con- 
 demned under the feudal law of lese-ma- 
 jeste. We shall presently see what the 
 German democracy thinks about it. 
 
IV 
 
 THE GERMAN AUTOCRACY AND THE ARMY 
 
 THE practical upshot of this whole 
 German system of government, in 
 which imperial prerogatives and an im- 
 potent opera bouffe Reichstag are essen- 
 tial ingredients, is that the Kaiser with 
 his Chancellor and the Ministers of the 
 several departments (Foreign Affairs, 
 Navy, Post Office, &c), a bureaucracy 
 responsible only to the Kaiser, constitute 
 an autocracy independent of Parliament 
 and the voters. Consequently the Gov- 
 ernment is intended to be and is for the 
 State, by the State, not of the people, by 
 the people. 
 
 The Kaiser's point of view as to his 
 
 53 
 
54 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 own place in the State is shown by some 
 of his sayings : "There is only one master 
 in this country — I am he and I will not 
 tolerate another." "There is no law but 
 my law; there is no will but my will," 
 he told his soldiers, and, "The King's 
 will is the highest law," he wrote in the 
 Golden Book of Munich. 
 
 And so, as a German Professor, Lud- 
 wig Gurlitt, has said: 
 
 He regards his people, the masses, as chil- 
 dren not yet of age, and thinks the Govern- 
 ment competent to prescribe the course of 
 their social and cultural development — a pro- 
 found and fatal mistake ... a mediaeval 
 idea ! 
 
 Autocracy makes for efficiency, but it 
 also makes for the suppression of the as- 
 pirations of the people and self-govern- 
 ment. But if the Kaiser, the bureau- 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 55 
 
 cracy, and an emasculated Parliament 
 were the whole system of government, au- 
 tocracy would be incomplete. The sys- 
 tem would crumble away as by an earth- 
 quake when democracy became success- 
 ful at the polls. 
 
 The system, therefore, must be sup- 
 ported by power of some kind. Without 
 power behind the throne, or behind any 
 government, autocratic, monarchical, or 
 republican, that government would fall 
 at the first shock of internal conflict. In 
 a real republic that power is the will of 
 the people — commonly called public 
 opinion. But we have seen that the Ger- 
 man system does not rest upon public 
 opinion. Upon what, then? William 
 II., indeed, as the "instrument of the 
 Lord," has flaunted his own defiance of 
 public sentiment. 
 
 Five years ago he said: 
 
56 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 Considering myself as the instrument of 
 the Lord, and without heeding the views and 
 opinions of the day, I go my way. 
 
 Behind the German autocracy is the 
 army, under the absolute control of the 
 Kaiser. Upon the army the Kaiser de- 
 pends for the security of his rule. The 
 army is the power behind the throne. 
 
 As one writer remarks: 
 
 "The army is the foundation of the social 
 structure of the empire. " 
 
 The Kaiser, on one occasion, declared: 
 
 With grave anxiety I placed the crown 
 upon my head. Everywhere I met doubt, 
 and the whole world misjudged me. But one 
 had confidence in me; but one believed in me 
 — that was the army. And relying upon 
 the army, and trusting in God, I began my 
 reign, knowing well that the army is the 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 57 
 
 main tower of strength for my country, the 
 main pillar supporting the Prussian throne, 
 to which God in His wisdom had called me. 
 
 He said in 1891 : 
 
 The soldier and the army, not parliamen- 
 tary majorities and decisions, have welded 
 together the German Empire. My confi- 
 dence is in the army — as my grandfather 
 said at Coblenz : "These are the gentlemen 
 on whom I can rely." 
 
 And again, asserting his belief in mili- 
 tary force as the means upon which the 
 empire must rely to accomplish its ends 
 at home and abroad, he quoted the say- 
 ing of Frederick William I. : 
 
 If one wishes to decide something in this 
 world, it is not the pen alone that will do it 
 if unsupported by the power of the sword. 
 
58 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 In his first official act as Emperor, 
 (June 15, 1888,) he declared: 
 
 The absolutely inviolable dependence upon 
 the war lord (Kriegsherr) is, in the army, 
 the inheritance which descends from father 
 to son, from generation to generation. . . . 
 So we are bound together, I and the army. 
 Thus we are born for one another, and thus 
 we will hold together in an indissoluble bond, 
 in peace or storm, as God wills. 
 
 This close connection between the 
 army and the Prussian Kings, as Profes- 
 sor Gauss points out, is a tradition which 
 William II. has sedulously maintained, 
 just as we have seen he has maintained 
 the traditions of a Divine right to rule. 
 
THE KAISER'S SENTIMENTS 
 
 WITH the meaning of all these pre- 
 rogatives in mind, let us look a 
 bit more closely into the psychology of 
 the Kaiser. In doing so let us bear in 
 mind that in the doctrine of Divine right 
 we see developed in the Kaiser a strong 
 sentiment of the most personal kind, of 
 birthright, of self-interest. And, be- 
 sides this, in all the other prerogatives 
 which the Kaiser has so defiantly re- 
 solved to defend against all encroach- 
 ments, we also have sentiments of self- 
 interest — sentiments of possession, of 
 rights pertaining to self. 
 
 All these sentiments are bound up with 
 
 59 
 
60 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 a consciousness of his own personality 
 (a "self-regarding" sentiment), with his 
 ego. And there is a great deal of 
 ego, of consciousness of his ego, in his 
 personality. Perhaps his enemies would 
 say, as was said of the great orang-utan, 
 Bimi, in Kipling's tale — Bimi, who also 
 wished to crush his enemies in furious 
 outbursts of jealous rage — "there is too 
 much ego in his cosmos." 
 
 Now, as a matter of psychology, "senti- 
 ments," as I have already said, are of tre- 
 mendous importance as factors in per- 
 sonality and as forces which determine 
 attitudes of mind, reactions of the per- 
 sonality to the environment and conduct. 
 
 Upon the formation of "sentiments" 
 the character of a person and his social 
 behavior fundamentally depend. And by 
 the formation of sentiments in the course 
 of the individual's mental development 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 61 
 
 the primitive innate instincts of human 
 nature are harnessed and brought under 
 control and their impulses given proper 
 direction. Thus these primitive impulses 
 are repressed or cultivated according to 
 the ideals of society. Otherwise, driven 
 by the impulses of our innate instincts, 
 we should all run amuck through society. 
 
 We must understand, then, a little 
 more precisely what, psychologically and 
 technically speaking, a sentiment is. I 
 am not using the word in the popular 
 sense. Without going into the psychol- 
 ogy deeply, we may say that a sentiment 
 is an idea of something, as its object, or- 
 ganized or associated with one or more 
 instinctive emotions which give the idea 
 impulsive force. 
 
 In the personality of every human 
 being — and the same is true of animals — 
 there are a number of emotional instincts. 
 
62 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 These instincts are characterized by a 
 particular emotion which each possesses, 
 and may be named indifferently, for our 
 present purposes, either after the emotion 
 itself or after the biological aim which 
 the instinct serves. 
 
 Every person, for instance, possesses a 
 pugnacity instinct of which the emotion 
 is anger. Other such instincts are fear, 
 parental feeling, disgust, curiosity, self- 
 assertion, self-abasement, reproduction, 
 and so on. All such instincts have a bio- 
 logical function in that they serve either 
 to protect, like anger and fear, the indi- 
 vidual (and the species) from danger 
 against its enemies and prevent its ex- 
 tinction, or, like the parental and repro- 
 ductive instincts, serve to perpetuate the 
 species, or like the curiosity instinct, to 
 acquire knowledge and learn by experi- 
 ence, and so on. Emotion, as the very 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 63 
 
 word itself indicates, moves us — i. e., it is 
 a force that impels toward some end and 
 the emotion of each instinct carries it to 
 fulfillment. 
 
 When an emotion — i. e., instinct — has 
 been excited by some object, whether it 
 be a material thing, like a snake, or an- 
 other person, or something mental — an 
 idea of a material object, or a thought as 
 of a possible danger to the individual, 
 or of a political principle — the emotion 
 may become so associated with and bound 
 to the object that whenever the object is 
 presented in consciousness the emotion 
 is excited. This particularly happens 
 when the emotion has been frequently 
 excited by the same object. 
 
 Thus a person may acquire a fear of 
 snakes, or thunderstorms, or hatred of 
 a person. Two or more emotional 
 instincts may be organized in this way 
 
64 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 into a system about a given idea as 
 their object. 
 
 Now, when an idea always excites one 
 or more emotions, so that the idea is al- 
 ways accompanied by the same emotional 
 reaction, the whole is called a sentiment. 
 Thus we have the sentiment of love of 
 a mother for her child, of hatred of a 
 tyrant, of disgust for a vicious person, of 
 pride of self, and so on. 
 
 Practically, psychological analysis 
 shows that the organization of a senti- 
 ment is more complicated than such a 
 simple arrangement would make it, and 
 that the sentiment is deeply and widely 
 rooted in a number of ramifying, pre- 
 vious mental experiences and innate emo- 
 tions. This is expressed by popular lan- 
 guage when we say a given sentiment is 
 deeply rooted in a person's personality. 
 The emotions serve to give their ideas 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 65 
 
 great intensity and driving force for ac- 
 tion. 
 
 It is held by some psychologists that a 
 sentiment always includes innately organ- 
 ized systems of several emotions so that 
 a different emotion is necessarily excited 
 according to the situation in which the 
 object presents itself. Thus a hated per- 
 son will awaken in us joy, or sorrow, or 
 anger, or fear, according to whether he 
 suffers injury, or escapes destruction, or 
 prospers, or is likely to get the better of 
 us. 
 
 In accordance with this view a senti- 
 ment is an organized system of emotions 
 centred about an idea of an object. The 
 mechanism, as I have stated it, however, 
 is sufficiently accurate for our purpose. 
 
 With these general principles in mind, 
 one has only to read the Kaiser's speeches 
 to recognize that his ideas of himself and 
 
66 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 of his prerogatives, which he jealously 
 defends, are organized with instinctive 
 emotions of great intensity — emotions be- 
 longing to greed of possession, and pride, 
 and self-assertion, (or self-display,) and 
 pugnacity, and vengeful emotion, and 
 jealousy. These ideas are therefore sen- 
 timents deeply fixed and organized in his 
 personality, and given great driving force 
 by their emotions, which tend to carry 
 them to activity and fruition. 
 
 Hence it is that the Kaiser's sentiments 
 of himself and his prerogatives exhibit 
 great intensity of feeling and determine 
 his conduct to assert his rights and to ex- 
 ercise and enjoy them by being his own 
 Chancellor and ruling the army and em- 
 pire, and, if need be, to defend them most 
 vigorously. 
 
VI 
 
 THE KAISER'S SELF-REGARDING SENTI- 
 MENT 
 
 T3 UT we must leave these traits of the 
 ■*-J Kaiser's personality for the imme- 
 diate issue of our study. One sentiment, 
 however, ought to be considered more 
 intimately if certain of his most notori- 
 ous peculiarities are to be understood. I 
 refer to what has been called the "self- 
 regarding" sentiment. 
 
 Every person possesses such a senti- 
 ment, although it varies according to the 
 ingredients that enter into it. Professor 
 William McDougall, one of the most 
 eminent of contemporary psychologists, 
 
 has analyzed this sentiment, and at- 
 
 67 
 
68 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 tributes it to the biological instincts of 
 self-assertion and self-abasement com- 
 pounded in varying proportions with the 
 idea of self. (These instincts are com- 
 mon to animals as well as men and have 
 a biological end.) We thus get different 
 types of self. 
 
 When the first instinct of self-asser- 
 tion — also called self-display — with its 
 emotion of positive self-feeling is the 
 chief instinct, then we have a type in 
 which pride is the main characteristic of 
 the idea of self. When the second in- 
 stinct (with the emotion of negative self- 
 feeling) is happily blended in the senti- 
 ment, we have a type of self-respect. 
 
 To illustrate the former type, Pro- 
 fessor McDougall (Social Psychology) 
 draws the character of an imaginary 
 Prince in whom the first instinct is the 
 dominating one. It is interesting to see 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 69 
 
 how perfectly his picture represents the 
 Kaiser: 
 
 Imagine the son of a powerful and foolish 
 Prince to be endowed with great capacities 
 and to have in great strength the instinct of 
 self-display with its emotion of positive self- 
 feeling. Suppose that he is never checked, 
 or corrected, or criticised, but is allowed to 
 lord it over all his fellow-creatures without 
 restraint. The self-regarding sentiment of 
 such a child would almost necessarily take 
 the form of an unshakable pride, a pride 
 constantly gratified by the attitudes of defer- 
 ence, gratitude, and admiration of his social 
 environment; the only dispositions that would 
 become organized in this sentiment of pride 
 would be those of positive self-feeling or 
 elation and of anger (for his anger would 
 be invariably excited when any one failed to 
 assume toward him the attitude of subjection 
 or deference). 
 
70 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 His self-consciousness might be intense and 
 very prominent, but it would remain poor 
 in content; for he could make little progress 
 in self-knowledge; he would have little occa- 
 sion to hear, or to be interested in, the judg- 
 ments of others upon himself; and he would 
 seldom be led to reflect upon his own char- 
 acter and conduct. The only influences that 
 could moralize a man so endowed and so 
 brought up would be either religious teach- 
 ing, which might give him the sense of a 
 power greater than himself to whom he was 
 accountable, or a very strong natural en- 
 dowment of the tender emotion and its al- 
 truistic impulse, or a conjunction of these two 
 influences. 
 
 A man in whom the self-regarding senti- 
 ment had assumed this form would be in- 
 capable of being humbled — his pride could 
 only be mortified; that is to say, any display 
 of his own shortcomings or any demonstra- 
 tion of the superiority of another to himself 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 71 
 
 could cause a painful check to his positive 
 self-feeling and a consequent anger, but could 
 give rise neither to shame nor to humilia- 
 tion, nor to any affective state, such as ad- 
 miration, gratitude, or reverence, in which 
 negative self-feeling plays a part. And he 
 would be indifferent to moral praise or 
 blame; for the disposition of negative self- 
 feeling would have no place in his self- 
 regarding sentiment; and negative self-feel- 
 ing, which renders us observant of the atti- 
 tude of others toward ourselves and recep- 
 tive toward their opinions, is one of the es- 
 sential conditions of the influence of praise 
 and blame upon us. 
 
 The inordinate cultivation in the 
 Kaiser of the self-regarding sentiment 
 with the unalloyed instinct of self-dis- 
 play also explains, psychologically, the 
 manifestations of certain traits which 
 have amazed the world. I mean his 
 
72 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 colossal vanity as manifested by his fond- 
 ness for dressing himself up in all sorts 
 of uniforms and constantly changing his 
 costumes — on occasions as often as five 
 or six times in a single day, and even dur- 
 ing the course of a Court reception — his 
 fondness for having himself photo- 
 graphed or painted, or his portrait made 
 as busts, lithographs, medals, and bas-re- 
 liefs, always posing in heroic attitudes for 
 the purpose. 
 
 It is interesting to compare the snap- 
 shots of the Kaiser with the posed pho- 
 tographs (there are thousands of photo- 
 graphs of him), and not only as himself, 
 but in the heroic character of a Roman 
 Emperor mounted on a charger, and 
 again in imitation of the Emperor Char- 
 lemagne. 
 
 It explains his self-assumption to be an 
 artist — a painter, a musician, a composer, 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 73 
 
 an architect, an art critic, a preacher, and 
 Heaven knows what else. It also gives a 
 psychological explanation of his inability 
 to stand personal criticism, and for his 
 vain obtuseness in not being able to un- 
 derstand how any one should not look 
 upon him excepting with reverent awe. 
 One of the authors of "The Kaiser" cites 
 the following two incidents. 
 
 One of his subjects had been sentenced 
 to prison for hinting something disre- 
 spectful about his sovereign: 
 
 William was genuinely amazed that such 
 an unnatural crime could ever have been com- 
 mitted. He u read and reread the papers in 
 the case with the closest attention"; and 
 finally said to the waiting official : "It would 
 seem that this man hitherto has not been a 
 criminal — son of respectable parents, himself 
 in a respectable walk of life, with a good 
 
74 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 education. And yet — how do you explain 
 this — this insult to the Anointed of the Lord? 
 Strange! Strange!" 
 
 On another occasion: 
 
 After reading a speech of the Socialist 
 leader Bebel, containing some animadver- 
 sion upon himself, he turned to the officer 
 in attendance with clouded brow and flash- 
 ing eye, and remarked in a voice trembling 
 with passion : u And all this to me ! To me ! 
 What is the country coming to?" 
 
 This self-regarding sentiment is also at 
 the bottom of that dominating trait — love 
 of power — which has led him to aspire 
 to world power and to believe that with 
 his army and with a stronger navy, 
 toward the upbuilding of which he has 
 directed untiringly his energies, he could 
 conquer the world. It even led him to 
 think of conquering the United States, for 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 75 
 
 when we were engaged in war with Spain 
 he declared, as I have authority for say- 
 ing, "If I had had a larger fleet I would 
 have taken Uncle Sam by the scruff of 
 the neck!' * 
 
 * In a letter to the author, July 7, 1898, Joseph Cham- 
 berlain, then Colonial Secretary of Great Britain, wrote: 
 
 "Of course you will win, and will be able to dictate 
 terms to Spain. The Continental Powers will not inter- 
 fere because England will not join them. I am certain 
 that if opinion here had been different to what it is, you 
 would have had to face a European coalition. 
 
 "A fortnight ago (do not quote me as the authority) 
 the German Emperor said to a friend of mine, 'If I had 
 had a larger fleet I would have taken Uncle Sam by 
 the scruff of the neck' — and this represents the view of 
 the older monarchies who begin to desire a Monroe Doc- 
 trine for Europe. But, in view of the attitude of this 
 country, they dare not move. 
 
 "You are therefore free to work out your destiny." 
 
 I have now been fully authorized to publish this letter. 
 There is much other corroborative evidence, which is 
 undoubtedly accessible, of this attempt to form a Euro- 
 pean coalition against the United States and of its 
 being blocked by England. (See letter of Mr. G. Creigh- 
 ton Webb, in the New York Times, June 2, 1915.) In 
 this connection the following statement in my possession 
 giving a conversation between another member of the 
 English Cabinet and the late Mr. F. W. Holls, formerly 
 Judge of the First Hague Tribunal (and my informant's 
 
76 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 That this saying of the Kaiser's meant 
 more than a mere momentary ebullition 
 of petulant feeling or a thoughtless boast 
 becomes manifest when we bear in mind 
 that it was made towards the end of 
 June, 1898, after the arrival of Vice- 
 Admiral von Diedrich and his fleet 
 at Manila on June 12. It is significant 
 that von Diedrich, when asked by Dewey 
 why so large a German naval force — five 
 ships, a more powerful force than that of 
 the American fleet — was present, replied, 
 "I am here by order of the Kaiser, sir," 
 
 guardian), at least is of corroborative value. This Cabi- 
 net officer (mentioned by name) said to Mr. Holls that 
 during the Spanish-American war, the Continental Pow- 
 ers had a plan to secure England's assent to interven- 
 tion. One of the London ambassadors was appointed 
 to sound him on the proposition, he being then Acting- 
 Prime Minister. On being asked if intervention would 
 meet with the views of Her Majesty's government, he 
 said: "Intervention had indeed been considered, but — 
 that the only form it could possibly take would be to 
 place the fleet of Great Britain at the disposal of the 
 President of the United States!" 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 77 
 
 and the same explanation has been given 
 since. We know now that there was an 
 attempt made to form a coalition of Con- 
 tinental monarchies against the United 
 States to intervene in the war in favor of 
 Spain, but that it was blocked by Eng- 
 land who, there is evidence to show, 
 threatened to place her navy on the side 
 of this country. Consequently Germany 
 and the other Powers dared not move. As 
 it was we came to the brink of war in July 
 through the action of von Diedrich in in- 
 terfering, after the battle of Manila, May 
 1, with the blockade by Dewey.* 
 
 * It has come to light that events went so far that a 
 German ship, it has been reported, cleared for action 
 and Dewey, in the famous choleric interview (July 10) 
 with the German Admiral's representative, Flag-Lieuten- 
 ant v. Hintzer, threatened war if Germany wanted it. 
 This part of the interview was thus reported to Mr. 
 John Barrett by "one of the officers of the Olympia who 
 heard the conversation": "If the German Government" 
 (said Dewey) "has decided to make war on the United 
 States, or has any intention of making war, and has so 
 
78 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 The remark of the Kaiser that he 
 "would have taken Uncle Sam by the 
 scruff of the neck" must be taken in con- 
 nection with all the events of the time and 
 particularly with the attempt to form a 
 European coalition against the United 
 States which probably would have been 
 successful had it not been for the action 
 of England. 
 
 And so this same self-regarding senti- 
 ment, distorted and unbalanced, in co- 
 operation with other sentiments, led him 
 in 191 4 to have contempt for the other 
 Powers and to believe that he had a 
 strong enough army to terrify Russia and 
 her ally, France, into submission, and so 
 he gave Austria authority to take Servia 
 "by the scruff of the neck" ; to feel, in case 
 
 informed your Admiral, it is his duty to let me know. 
 . . . But whether he intends to fight or not I am 
 ready." (Admiral George Dewey, by John Barrett: 1899: 
 p. 115). 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 79 
 
 the gleam of the "shining armour" and 
 the clang of the rattling sabre did not 
 suffice, that he had a strong enough army 
 to take Russia "by the scruff of the neck," 
 and so he declared war against that coun- 
 try; to feel that he had a strong enough 
 army to take France "by the scruff of the 
 neck," and so he declared war against 
 France; to feel that he had a strong 
 enough army to take Belgium "by the 
 scruff of the neck," and so he invaded that 
 country with his army; and it led him 
 more than twenty years ago to believe 
 that some day he would have a strong 
 enough navy to take England "by the 
 scruff of the neck," and so he builded and 
 builded his navy and drank to "Der 
 Tag." 
 
 Of course the Kaiser's hypertrophied 
 and one-sided self-regarding sentiment 
 was not the sole psychological factor in 
 
80 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 determining his attitude of mind towards 
 the United States and the other Powers. 
 There were many factors, but it was one; 
 and it accounts for his notorious con- 
 tempt for other nations and at that time, 
 particularly, for the United States. 
 There were also sentiments of World- 
 power and Empire, of German Kultur 
 and War- Worship; a desire to have a 
 "place in the sun," to possess colonies and, 
 in particular, the Philippines and those 
 of England and France; and to extend the 
 German Empire to the iEgean Sea on 
 the south and the North Sea on the north. 
 
 The self-regarding sentiment, obvi- 
 ously, has played also a large part in the 
 Divine Right Delusion, ia cooperation 
 with the wishes we have considered, form- 
 ing a large ego-centric complex. 
 
 Such, and other manifestations of the 
 Kaiser's self-regarding sentiment, due to 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 81 
 
 the impulsive force of its highly devel- 
 oped instinct of self-display, (self-asser- 
 tion,) would make this element of his 
 personality an interesting psychological 
 study by itself. I merely wish now to 
 point out that it is the extreme type of 
 this sentiment that is responsible for 
 many of his extravagances of speech and 
 action, and that it plays a part, as we 
 shall see, in his reactions to democracy. 
 
VII 
 
 AIMS OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRACY 
 
 NOW let us return to the Kaiser's 
 hatred of democracy. This also is 
 a sentiment organized with several emo- 
 tional instincts, &c, which we need not 
 bother about here. That he has a hatred 
 of democracy is obvious. 
 
 But why? 
 
 To know that he has a hatred is not 
 enough. We want it explained, to know 
 why. It is not a sufficient explanation 
 to say that he disbelieves in the princi- 
 ples of democracy. That would not be 
 sufficient to account for the develop- 
 ment of the sentiment of hatred and for 
 the reaction of anger which democracy 
 
 82 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 83 
 
 excites. What created the hatred? For 
 so much emotion there must be a deeper- 
 lying cause — some hidden sentiment 
 which, we may suspect, conflicts with the 
 sentiments of his cherished prerogatives 
 and his self-regarding sentiment. 
 
 We want to know the Why. With this 
 object let us consider the object of the 
 hatred — the aims of the party of democ- 
 racy, one of the great political forces in 
 Prussia and the empire; one with which, 
 as we have seen, the Emperor has been 
 passionately in conflict since his acces- 
 sion to the throne. We cannot under- 
 stand the psychological reaction of the 
 Emperor without understanding the aims 
 and the potential power of this political 
 force. For this purpose I shall have to 
 ask the reader to bear for a moment 
 with a slight digression, keeping in mind 
 what has been said about the Kaiser's 
 
84 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 sentiments until we return to our main 
 theme. 
 
 What does the Social Democratic 
 Party stand for and in what respect are 
 its aims antagonistic to the Emperor's 
 prerogatives and the German system of 
 government? The party is widely re- 
 garded in the United States, I am con- 
 strained to believe, as the party of so- 
 cialism. But this idea needs consider- 
 able modification. Indeed, so much so 
 that the party would, if its aims were un- 
 derstood, receive the moral support of 
 Americans. 
 
 Socialism has an ominous sound to 
 American ears. The word has a stigma 
 for many and is calculated to repel. At 
 one time in its early history Marxian 
 Socialism, formulated by Marx himself 
 as "the social ownership of the means of 
 production and distribution," was the 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 85 
 
 dominating aim of the German Socialist 
 Party. 
 
 But times have changed. The aims of 
 the party have undergone various meta- 
 morphoses as the result of conflicts of 
 factions within, fusions and political evo- 
 lution. Since the Kaiser came to the 
 throne in 1888 a revolution has taken 
 place in the aims, methods, tactics, and 
 programs of the party. In accordance 
 with this change, in 1890, the name 
 was changed to the Social Democratic 
 Party. Socialism has been relegated 
 to the background and democracy 
 has become the paramount aim and 
 issue. 
 
 In other words, the principles of the 
 socialist, Marx, have given place to those 
 of the brilliant democratic leader, Las- 
 salle. Both men are dead, but democracy 
 survives. As one authority (S. P. Orth) 
 
86 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 puts it, "Marx is a tradition, democracy 
 
 is an issue." 
 
 Today one hears very little of Marx 
 and a great deal of "legislation" based 
 on democratic principles: 
 
 The last election [19 12], with its brilliant 
 victory for Social Democracy, was not won 
 on the general issues of the Erfurter pro- 
 gram, but on the particular issue of the ar- 
 rogance of the bureaucracy and ballot re- 
 form. 
 
 Marxian propagandism has been 
 sloughed off. But even if the Demo- 
 cratic Party still stood for socialism as 
 its paramount aim this fact would not 
 necessarily make it antagonistic to the 
 Emperor's prerogatives or the German 
 system of government. The State might 
 become engaged in all sorts of individ- 
 ual enterprises without the fundamental 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 87 
 
 structure of Government becoming al- 
 tered. As a matter of fact, Germany is 
 today the most socialized nation in the 
 world. 
 
 We will not stop to inquire into the 
 origin of this State Socialism. It does 
 not matter for our purposes that these 
 State socialistic measures were offered as 
 a "bribe," to use Bismarck's term, to the 
 Social Democrats to cease agitation 
 against the government, and that the Em- 
 peror long ago dropped this policy when 
 he found that the Social Democrats 
 would not be bribed. They would have 
 none of these measures. They wanted 
 political rights, political freedom of 
 thought and speech, and the right to man- 
 age their own government just as we do 
 ours in the United States. 
 
 The German State owns railroad, 
 canal and river transportation, telegraph 
 
88 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 and telephone systems, harbors and a par- 
 cel post. It conducts banks, insurance, 
 savings banks, and pawnshops. It ad- 
 ministers sick and accident insurance and 
 old-age pensions. The municipalities 
 own public utilities of all kinds, theatres, 
 markets, and warehouses. 
 
 The State, or municipality, obviously 
 might go further and administer iron, 
 coal, and manufacturing enterprises; it 
 might undertake all sorts of socialistic 
 functions without altering one whit the 
 prerogatives of the Crown, or of Par- 
 liament, or of the relations of the Gov- 
 ernment to the people. Governmental 
 autocracy would still exist and very 
 likely would administer these industrial 
 enterprises with the same satisfying ef- 
 ficiency with which it administers every- 
 thing else it has taken hold of. 
 
 The intense anger and hatred with 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 89 
 
 which the Emperor reacts to the Social 
 Democrats cannot, therefore, be ex- 
 plained by the principles of socialism 
 per se, although he may disbelieve in ex- 
 treme Marxian socialism. Even if these 
 were still the aim of the party, there must 
 be some other explanation that a Social 
 Democrat should be stigmatized as an 
 enemy of the empire, of religion and 
 God, to be shot down by the army if his 
 party became too strong. 
 
 Let us examine then the demands as 
 given in the latest program (1912) of 
 the Social Democrats and some of the 
 legislation for which they have fought. 
 The demands are given in fourteen ar- 
 ticles. 
 
 Number one demands equal opportu- 
 nities for all, special privileges to none — 
 good American doctrine. Number two 
 relates to reform of the ballot laws and 
 
90 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 has been the main immediate issue. 
 "Universal, direct, equal, secret ballot" 
 is demanded — also American doctrine. 
 Owing to the present inequality of the 
 ballot the Democrats have been badly 
 handicapped in that they cannot elect 
 their proportionate number of repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 Number three relates to the existing 
 system of government. A true Parlia- 
 mentary Government is demanded, and a 
 Ministry, like that of England, responsi- 
 ble to Parliament, instead of the present 
 autocratic system by which the Ministry 
 is responsible only to the Emperor. Also, 
 it is demanded that "the power to declare 
 war or maintain peace" be given to the 
 lower house (Reichstag). Consent of 
 the Reichstag to all State appropriations 
 (as with the House of Commons and the 
 American Congress). 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 91 
 
 Numbers four and five relate respec- 
 tively to the organization of the army and 
 reform of administrative justice, abolish- 
 ing class privilege at law, &c. Number 
 six demands the "right to combine, meet, 
 and organize." Number seven relates to 
 the establishment of a national Depart- 
 ment of Labor, factory inspection, and a 
 legalized universal eight-hour day, &c. 
 Number eight relates to reform of the 
 industrial insurance laws, and lowering 
 the age of old-age pensions from 70 to 
 65, &c. 
 
 Number nine: complete religious free- 
 dom. Separation of Church and State. 
 No support of any kind for religious pur- 
 poses from public funds — good Ameri- 
 can doctrine again. Number ten de- 
 mands universal free schools. Number 
 eleven relates to reform of taxation de- 
 manding abolition of indirect taxes and 
 
92 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 taxes on necessities of life and reduction 
 of tariff on those schedules which encour- 
 age trusts. 
 
 Number twelve supports "measures 
 that tend to develop commerce and 
 trade." Number thirteen: "A graduated 
 income, property and inheritance tax" 
 in order to dampen "the ardor of the rich 
 for a constantly increasing army and 
 navy." Number fourteen: "Internal im- 
 provements and colonization"; but the 
 "cessation of foreign colonization now 
 done for the purpose of exploiting for- 
 eign peoples for the sake of gain." 
 
 The first thing that will strike the 
 reader is the absence of anything essen- 
 tially socialistic in the principles formu- 
 lated in this program. They are rather 
 what we in this country would call "Re- 
 publican," "Progressive," and "Demo- 
 cratic." They are not nearly as social- 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 93 
 
 istic as many of the functions now under- 
 taken by the German State. With the 
 exception of those articles that relate ex- 
 clusively to German conditions (such as 
 numbers four and eight) and the aboli- 
 tion of indirect taxation, they express 
 good American doctrine and are, for the 
 most part, axiomatic in this country. 
 
 No American and no Englishman 
 would see anything in them to get ex- 
 cited about, although he might hold a 
 different opinion about the expediency 
 of one or the other demand. Undoubted- 
 ly the spirit of German democracy goes 
 further than the program, especially in 
 particular parts of Germany; neverthe- 
 less this program formulates the demands 
 of the national party. 
 
 Between the American Republic and 
 German democracy there is, or should be, 
 a bond of common sympathy, the bond of 
 
94 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 common political ideals and common 
 purpose — the love of political and reli- 
 gious liberty, freedom of thought, free- 
 dom of speech, and freedom of the press 
 without fear of imprisonment or punish- 
 ment under "lese-majeste" or any power 
 of the State; the emancipation of man- 
 kind from the tyranny of autocracy; the 
 "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness" according to the dictates of 
 the individual conscience; the rule of the 
 people and not of an autocracy, the sub- 
 ordination of the State to the will of the 
 people — and to this end government 
 based not upon an army, but upon public 
 opinion as expressed by the votes of the 
 people. 
 
 When these ideals and purposes of the 
 German democracy are realized in the 
 United States, American public opinion 
 will have the strongest ties of sympathy 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 95 
 
 with the great masses of Germany, strug- 
 gling for these ends against an intrenched 
 "State." 
 
 Between German democracy and 
 American public sentiment there can be 
 no conflict. It is only with the autocratic 
 classes that there can be antagonism, but 
 the autocratic classes mean the State as 
 an artificially created entity isolated from 
 and distinct from the masses of the peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Why, then, does the Emperor almost 
 alone, even among Germans, react to 
 the ideals of democracy with such pas- 
 sion, such anger, and such hatred? On 
 psychological grounds we can anticipate 
 that such emotion must be for personal 
 reasons and because they strike some in- 
 tense emotional sentiment. 
 
 We find the key to the puzzle when we 
 come to examine Articles 3 and 4. Num- 
 
96 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 ber three has been the paramount issue 
 of the democracy — it is its foundation 
 stone. Number two, the reform of the 
 ballot, while the main political issue of 
 the day, is only a means to this end. 
 
 The fundamental issue is (1) a true 
 Parliamentary Government, with parlia- 
 mentary power in conformity with mod- 
 ern democratic ideas, such as obtains in 
 England; and (2) the abolition of a 
 Chancellor and Ministry appointed by 
 the Kaiser and responsible only to the 
 Kaiser and the substitution of a Govern- 
 ment responsible to Parliament. Thus 
 the Government and the army would be 
 responsible to the people and rest upon 
 public opinion. 
 
 This democratic principle seems to our 
 ideas not only harmless enough, but a 
 matter of course and only the expression 
 of the age we live in. But to the Kai- 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 97 
 
 ser it means a personal cataclysm. It 
 means the abolition of the greatest of the 
 Kaiser's prerogatives; it means the denial 
 of the Divine right of Kings; it means 
 the downfall of the House of Hohenzol- 
 lern, in that it means the reduction of 
 the prerogatives of the house to reigning 
 without governing. 
 
 He could be no longer his own Chan- 
 cellor, as he is recognized generally to 
 be today in fact. His wings would be 
 clipped. He would be shorn of auto- 
 cratic power. He could no longer dic- 
 tate policies of government. The will of 
 the people would rule. What would be 
 the use of a "Divine right" to sit as a 
 social ornament upon a throne and watch 
 the people rule? 
 
 Furthermore, his "self-regarding sen- 
 timent," characterized by the instinct of 
 self-assertion and the emotion of pride, 
 
98 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 would receive an unbearable rebuff. He 
 would no longer be the central figure in 
 Europe, overlording all other rulers by 
 his personality, his autocratic power, and 
 his prerogatives. The conflict between 
 the Kaiser and the democracy thus be- 
 comes a personal conflict on his part. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE REAL CAUSE OF THE KAISER'S 
 ANTIPATHY 
 
 /FATHERING together the facts 
 ^-* which we have collated, we have 
 found in the Kaiser intensely strong senti- 
 ments of his prerogatives, an almost ab- 
 normal self-regarding sentiment, and a 
 powerful, steadily growing political 
 party acting in antagonism to those sen- 
 timents and threatening in case of suc- 
 cess to rob him of his prerogatives. 
 
 Now, with these facts in mind, let us 
 analyze the antecedent contents of the 
 Kaiser's mind a little more intimately. 
 If he has been a thinking being at all, we 
 know, in view of the political and his- 
 
 99 
 
ioo The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 torical facts we have studied — any asser- 
 tion to the contrary would meet with in- 
 credulous skepticism — there have been 
 thoughts, however fleeting, of what 
 would happen to himself and his house 
 if the democratic reforms should prevail; 
 thoughts of being robbed of his preroga- 
 tives, robbed of his power to rule the 
 Kingdom of Prussia, to rule the Imperial 
 Bundesrat by his power as King of 
 Prussia, to rule the Reichstag through 
 the Bundesrat; thoughts of being robbed 
 of the prerogatives to be his own Chan- 
 cellor, to appoint his own Ministry, to 
 control the army, to be independent of 
 Parliament and public opinion and the 
 public will — in short, robbed of being an 
 autocratic ruler of the Kingdom of Prus- 
 sia and the German Empire by Divine 
 right. 
 And there has been a full realization 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 101 
 
 of the increasing power of democracy, 
 steadily growing in numbers, and rising, 
 swelling, year by year, like a great ir- 
 resistible tidal wave, threatening sooner 
 or later to carry all before it and over- 
 whelm the system of autocracy. And 
 against this growing avalanche of bal- 
 lots of the democracy he sees no defense 
 for himself save the army, and so he 
 calls upon his soldiers to be prepared to 
 "shoot down your own relatives, brothers, 
 and even parents in the streets," when 
 he shall give the word of command. 
 
 Such thoughts and such realizations of 
 future danger could not but excite the 
 biological defensive instinct of fear. And 
 this instinct, being associated with its ob- 
 ject, the idea of democracy, forms a sen- 
 timent, the fear of democracy. This sen- 
 timent is further associated with or crys- 
 tallized about other egoistic sentiments of 
 
102 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 self and his House and his prerogatives. 
 Hence it may be described as a fear of 
 democracy because of the danger to him- 
 self and his House of Hohenzollern, a 
 fear of being deprived by the hands of 
 the democracy of his prerogative to be 
 an autocrat. It is a fear of democracy, 
 not for Germany but for himself. He 
 fears for his own life, so to speak, for, 
 if you rob him of his prerogatives, do 
 you not take away that which to him is 
 his life? 
 
 This does not mean that he is aware 
 of this very personal egoistic or egocen- 
 tric fear-sentiment. He undoubtedly 
 would not admit it to others, nor is it 
 likely that he could, even if he would, 
 admit it to himself, because it has not 
 been squarely faced, but has been thrust 
 aside, repressed by the pride of his self- 
 regarding sentiment and not allowed to 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 103 
 
 come to the full light of consciousness. 
 Though not recognized by himself, it is 
 there all the same, repressed into the sub- 
 conscious, or, if you prefer, in the back- 
 ground of the mind (which, after all, is 
 a part of the subconscious). 
 
 Repressed into the subconscious, it is 
 there necessarily intimately systematized 
 with, and has deep roots in, the many 
 associated antecedent thoughts that, as 
 we have seen, gave rise to it. So long 
 as these so-called psycho-genetic thoughts 
 are there unmodified — conserved also, 
 like a phonographic record, in the sub- 
 conscious — he could not get rid of his 
 fixed fear of the democracy if he would. 
 
 In this light his famous declaration of 
 his prerogative, "I am the Supreme War 
 Lord," receives deeper meaning when at 
 the same time we remember he is the 
 head of that autocracy that wields the 
 
104 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 power. We can see into the background 
 of his mind. He sees the danger, we see 
 the fear. We see, too, in the background 
 of his mind a realization of a growing 
 democracy, and we find there upon what 
 methods he relies if the German democ- 
 racy should win at the polls and change 
 the Constitution. To oppose the will of 
 the people he has the army. And we 
 see into his inner consciousness when he 
 prepared (as already quoted) the minds 
 of his young soldiers for "the day." 
 
IX 
 
 THE KAISER'S ANTIPATHY AN OBSESSION 
 AND A DEFENSE REACTION 
 
 NOW let us go one step further. Al- 
 though this egocentric sentiment of 
 fear for himself and his dynasty is re- 
 pressed into the subconscious, it is not for 
 that reason inert and incapable of affect- 
 ing his conscious processes. On the con- 
 trary, as we are forced to believe from 
 the result of psychological investigations 
 into such conditions of personality, it de- 
 termines many of his conscious processes 
 of thought, of his political principles and 
 his activities against his most dangerous 
 political enemy. 
 
 In the first place, it induces a defense 
 
 105 
 
106 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 reaction of an intensely emotional char- 
 acter which aims to direct his activities in 
 a direction that will protect him against 
 the dangers of democracy. This defense 
 reaction is anger and the sentiment of 
 hatred. 
 
 It should be explained that psychologi- 
 cal analysis of the emotions goes to show 
 that the sentiment of hatred is made up 
 of several emotions associated with its 
 object, of at least fear and anger and 
 vengeful emotions, which last also in- 
 cludes anger besides that most conspicu- 
 ous trait of the Kaiser — the self-regard- 
 ing sentiment. 
 
 The way the defense reaction comes 
 into play is this: The instinctive emo- 
 tions and their sentiments are awakened 
 and recur from time to time whenever 
 the subconscious egoistic sentiment or 
 any of its associated psychogenetic 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 107 
 
 thoughts — those of his possible fall from 
 power — is touched. The sentiments of 
 fear he will not admit to himself, and 
 they are repressed as such; but the fear- 
 emotion appears in consciousness dis- 
 guised as hatred, of which it is a compo- 
 nent. Anger against and hatred of 
 democracy he is prepared to admit. 
 They are fully faced and rise into the full 
 light of consciousness, although their real 
 underlying cause is hidden. 
 
 Such an intensely fixed emotional idea, 
 (hatred,) recurring whenever its object 
 is presented to consciousness, is, in prin- 
 ciple, an obsession, although it may not 
 be so beyond control as to be pathologi- 
 cal. But, as in the Kaiser's case, it may 
 be only the apparent obsession, i. e., a 
 defense reaction to the real obsession hid- 
 den in the subconscious. The Kaiser s 
 real obsession is a subconscious phobia, a 
 
108 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 fear of democracy for himself and his 
 House. 
 
 It is interesting to notice in this con- 
 nection how the national hatred of one 
 nation for another is recognized by pop- 
 ular language as a phobia or fear. We 
 speak of an Anglo-phobia, of a Russo- 
 phobia, to describe the hatred of, let us 
 say, Germany for England and Russia. 
 Though the nation would not admit 
 being afraid, nevertheless, by the very 
 term employed, it is popularly recog- 
 nized that the hatred is really though un- 
 consciously the expression of a fear. 
 
 In the case of the Kaiser's phobia of 
 democracy, the impulsive forces of the 
 biological instincts of pugnacity, (anger) , 
 fear, self-assertion, &c, provide the en- 
 ergy of the fighting spirit and carry to 
 fruition his political ideas aimed at re- 
 pressing the Social Democrats. This is 
 
The Psychology of the Kaiser 109 
 
 exemplified by the Kaiser's exhortations, 
 threats, and epithets hurled in his 
 speeches at these alone of his political en- 
 emies, and by the laws enacted and the 
 use of the lese-majeste to suppress them. 
 By suppressing the Social Democracy he 
 is defended from his peril. Hence, as 
 I have said, anger and hatred is a defense 
 reaction. 
 
 There are other ways in which the 
 Kaiser's subconscious phobia uncon- 
 sciously determines his mental behavior 
 — by this I mean his modes or reasoning, 
 his political principles and activities. As 
 is well recognized not only by psycholo- 
 gists but by popular notions, such a re- 
 pressed, unadmitted sentiment becomes a 
 motivating force, a subconscious motive 
 that directs our conscious reasonings. 
 
 Thus the Kaiser rationalizes, as psy- 
 chologists say, his political objections to 
 
no The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 democracy — that is, unwilling to admit 
 his real objections, he finds and formu- 
 lates logical reasons why democracy is 
 wrong and why his own opinions are 
 right, really believing in them, perhaps, 
 as God-given. Saving the introduction 
 of the Deity, this is nothing more than 
 what every one does who is unconscious- 
 ly influenced by subconscious motives of 
 which he is unaware. 
 
 When we say that a person is uncon- 
 sciously influenced by this or that, un- 
 consciously governed by a prejudice or 
 sentiment like jealousy or fear or am- 
 bition or what not, we mean that he is 
 governed by a motive which is subcon- 
 scious, which he will not admit to him- 
 self, and of which he is therefore un- 
 aware. It determines his thoughts just as 
 the hidden works of a clock determine 
 the movements of the hands and chimes. 
 
THE MORAL 
 
 WHAT is the moral of all this? 
 Surely the insight into the Kai- 
 ser's mind which a study of his senti- 
 ments and his phobia has given us reveals 
 something more important than the mere 
 personality of an exalted personage — ex- 
 alted in the eyes of the world. It gives 
 us an insight into the political forces 
 which are wrestling within the German 
 Empire for those ideals for which hu- 
 manity has been striving through all the 
 ages. It reveals the forces which for 
 years have been striving with might and 
 main to suppress these ideals. And it re- 
 veals the forces upon which the world 
 
 must depend to overthrow Germanism. 
 
 in 
 
H2 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
 
 The Kaiser and his House of Hohen- 
 zollern and all that they stand for have 
 become Civilization's World-Problem. 
 
 If the Powers of Europe want lasting 
 peace through the overthrow of autoc- 
 racy and militarism, i. e., Germanism, the 
 obsession of the Kaiser points the way — 
 look to the democracy of Germany! 
 
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