The Prussian Officer-Autocrat and Slave.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 205, 1 September 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Prussian Officer-Autocrat and Slave.

HE EATS, DRINKS, DRESSES, MARRIES, DIES ACCORDING TO RULE.

By A PRUSSIAN, in tho New York "Tribune."•

(The writer of this article is tho son of a former major in the German Army, and was for some years a cadet at the Prussian Military Academy, at Potsdam, but is now a resident in the United States.) If I can make the Prussian officer clear I can make modern Germanv clear. For he is the embodiment of all the Governmental theories and practices of his native land. The Prussian officer is Germany. Ther is nothing in this country that corresponds to him. The Government of tho United States is a civilian Government and an American army officer is merely an official of one department of the Government with no authority in peace times outside of that department. The Prussian army officer, on the contrary, js the direct agent of a national government that is fundamentally military. He is ex-officio policeman, detective, and deputy sheriff. He cannot be arrested. He may stop traffic, railway trams, or other public conveyances, and is responsible for lb > consequences only to the military authorities. He is an autocrat, hut ha is equalle a slave. Coupled with lus almost ununited authority goes an ironclad obligation to exercise it under given conditions. His actions, public and private; the clothes he wears, Hhe wine he drinks, his private expenditures, his betrothal and marriage, his friendships and his enmities —all these are regulated by code, a code whose violation means disgrace ind heavy pmrshment. When he emerges, a sub-lieutenant from a Prussian Military Academy, he has certain principles deeply ingrained. He lias learned to obey orders unques t'onably and unemotionally; he has been schooled to face any danger with • out show of fear; he has been taught to

TO THE GERMAN CIVILIAN AN OFFICER IS A DIVINITY. Obviously, it would seem to be an honour to marry a Prussian officer. It is. Indeed, it is hard te- exaggerate the well-nigh superstitious awe and reverence with which the rank and ulo of Clerman soldiers and civilians look up to the officers. For forty years the Prussian Government has been fostering this attitude, until it has becomo second nature to the people. Not that the officer as a man is important. It is the uniform, the sacred "King's coat," that counts/ For example, it is an insult —nay, -x cnm«, pnnishable by death —for a civilian or a private to molest an officer in any way. The officer must avenge the insult instantly or risk dismissal A fewyears ago a lieutena.nt stationed at a garrison near Berlin was roughly handled by a drunken civilian, who came up behind him and pulled one of. his epaulets oft'. The officer promptly lan after him, and after a chase of several hundred yards caught up to him and ran him through with his sabre. The man died the next day. That seems ilke sheer, wanton brutality, doesn't it? It would not if you bad been brought up in Germany. For if that officer had failed to run h : m through he could not have remained in the army twenty-four hours. Such is the code. The officers are not all brutes, in spite of their training. Many of .hem will do their utmost to trouble I have seen an officer dodge into a doorway to avoid being seen by i drunken private who was staggering up the street. He was afraid the soldier might, if he caught sight of him. become insulting or abusive, in which case he would have had to shoot him on the spot or face dismissafVfrom the army.

look upon the private sold'er as a pawn, not a man, and upon a civilian as something less than that. H 0 has learned the Prussian lesson and is ready to Uo a Prussian officer. One year before the graduation from the academy he chose the regiment to which he wished to belong. H : s parents then made sure, through strictly unofficial channels, that he would be acceptable to the other officers. Had thero been any objection to him no would have had to choose another regiment. This custom is very strict. Not even the Kaiser himself can burden a regiment with an unwelcome officer. Once the young officer enters his regiment he is completely under the uomin'on of the code. To begin with, he must have an allowance from home the minimum permissible being 120 marks (about £6) a month. In addition he receives a monthly salary of 120 marks, but he never sees this —it is all swallowed up by his mess bills and ths support of his orderly. The orderly stands in th,e same relation to his officer as d : d the mediaeval esquire .to his knight. He cares lor Ins master's uniforms and other equipment, and in a cavalry regiment takes care of his horse—::; other words, a sort of combination valet and groom. He volunteers for this service,, and is exempt from other military duties as long as the officer needs him. In battle he must keep close by his master, and is iespons : ble for his life. (hie of the first discoveries a young officer makes is that h : s scal e of living is subject to strict regulation. Any display of wealth is frowned upon severely. Prusisan officers aiv as a class pflor men, and the Government sees to it that the more fortunate ones do not enjoy any undue advantages. An officer's horse, for example, must not have cost more than a certain sum and regardless of pree, must never be better or faster than the colonel's. An officer may own one automobile if- uo can afford it but only one, and ii must not be too oliviously an expensive ear. He must use it unostentatiously, and is bound by custom to oiler the use ot it to ;ill the other officers of Irs regiment in turn. They, by the way, arc equally bound to decline. An officer's marriage is a weighty matter . First, he must obtain Ins colonel's penn'ssion. That granted, the parents of his prospective bride must grant a generous dowry. As a marred officer he will have a certain social position to mantam, and it is up to the "inlaws'' to prov'de the means. The usual dowry is 70,000 marks (L';r<oo) cash and furniture sufficient for a s srooni apartment.

Xot all officers would be. so humane, however. Some of them arc extremely brutal in their treatment of the private" soldiers, who arc absolutely at thei r mercy. Instant and implicit obedience tc orders is exacted from their men. If an officer ordetcd a private to jump ov,er the edge of a cl'ff the (private would have to obey. If he refused one of two things would happen to him. Either he would be shot by the officer or he would be court-martiallod and sentenced to prison for a term of years. The rule is : "Obey first and make complaint afterward." Tho fact that n some cases it would be 100 late to make complaint does not alter the inflexibility of the rule. Such : s Prussian logs,' In one instance, though, the soldier gets his due. When a company on the march stops at a wayside spring the officers may not drink until the privates have slaked their thirst. A thirsty officer can still give orders, but a thirsty private cannot march. DUELLING . MOXG OFFICERS IS NOT OXL\ LEGAL BUT IS EN- . COI'RAGED. If an officer is insulted by a brotlie: officer he cannot mete out the summary punishment that he would to a civilian, hut he can challenge him to a duel. Duelling is v.ery common in Germany, and is, 'ii fact, encouraged by the Kaiser, on the theory that it keeps the young officers high-sp : rited. These military duels are not to be confused with the Mensur, or sporting duels, indulged in at the universities. They are serous affairs, ondng only when one of the participants : s dead or disabled. The choice of weapons is determined by the seriousness of the offence. Thus. ■m ordinary quarrel is settled with light swords. In more serious eases the prinleples use pistols at thirty, twenty, or ten pace--, or the deadly cavalry sabre. Some classes of civilians are satist'onfahig—that is, eligible to tight d.iels. These include students and the higher grades of profcss'onal men. Most of the duels, 'n fact, take place between students and officers and not among the officers thenis, !■.-.-. Oddly enough, to refuse to fight a man who has challenged you disgraces not yourself but t-he challenger. The implication is Unit he has done something that makes him an unworthy opponent. 1 left the army at.the age of fifteen, uul having once been ,-i cadet I "belong"; I am satisfactioufahig, If I were in Berlin to-day I could run the career of any officer in the Gorman fl-rmy bv slanpiim hi- l'a<o and then refusing to iiidit him. lie would be driven out <>! the service in twenty-four hour-. That i. he : ng "foo proud to light'' with .i vengeance!

ML ST PAY HIS DEBTS OR KTLL HIMSELF. As I have said, officers are forbidden to make any undue display of wealth but, on the other hand, they are required to make certain expenditures that sorely tax tueir slender incomes. They are forced to indulge in certain luxuries, such as espensive wines and champagne, at mess dinners, regardless of their tastes and financial resources. They must ride first-class on nil railways. They must pay their debts especially gambling debts, promptly No one asks where or bow the money is procured, but n- must be forthcoming. A Prusian officer must pay a gambTng debt within twenty-four hours or he must commit suicide. That is tha rule, and there is no appeal from it Custom even prescribes the form of suicide. He may be tbrown from uis horse while hunting or ho may "accidentally" shoot himself while cleaning a gun." The latter is the commoner y.iethod. At all costs, the officer must keep up his outward appearance. H : s uniforms must be numerous and immaculate, h's horse must be spirited and wellgroomed. If this entails slow starvation it is no affair of the Prussian Government. I have seen an officer of the famous Alexander Regiment, of Berlin, the proudest regiment in Germany, come back from dress parade in his magnificent uniform, wh'.eh costs perhaps 2000 marks, and, climbing the stairs to his miserable, unheated attis lodging, sit down to a dinner of dry army bread, beer, and sausage. Poor fare, but better than none, And none it would have been if his orderly had not paid for it but of bis own pocket Why all this dsplay, this insane m flistence on rank, this officially encouraged brutality toward private and civilian, this rigid code of private and public behaviour ? Because power and command in Germany go not to tho able men, but to the well-born man. The young Prussian officer ; s not necessarily a born leader; indeed, he may be. and often is, stupid and inefficient by nature. So Germany makes natural ability unnecessary. She teaches him to be brutal, because that makes it easier to give orders. She compels private and civilian to obey those orders on pa : n of death. She makes a uniform more sacred than a man because the man—any man—need but don the uniform t; become an object of veneration. So you have the Prussian officer — arrogant, smple, comic, tragic, and always ruthlessly efficient. Why does Germany endure him an 1 tho machine of which he is a. product? Because Germany firmly believes that Prussia and the Prussian officer arc-, her salvation. In forty years the Prus. San machine turned Germany from i loose federation of weak and disorganised little States into a great, prosperous, and powerful nation. I find it hard to believe that there will be a German revolution after the war. If Germany wins, the Prussian machine will have justified its existence, if Germany loses, it wjll prove to her people that the Prussian'machine was right—that Europe was conspiring to crush her. For you must remember that the German people honestly be--I'eve that they are fight : ng a defensive war. A foolish belief, you may say. Tt> is t'oo! : sh. But Germany believes it.