Letter from Home or Propaganda?
One of the fascinating tools of modern genealogical research is digitized newspapers. When seeking clues about Katherine Miller, I scanned newspapers to fill in the genealogical gaps.
An important tip for newspaper research: always look for alternate spellings as well as members of the FAN Club (Friends, Associates and Neighbors). Last week, I got a result for Katherine’s older brother that looked promising.
Letter from Home
The Mankato Free Press published a transcription of a 1914 letter written to Adam Miller from his soldier-brother Nicholas Müller.1From Saturday’s Daily. Mankato (MN) Free Press. November 20, 1914, page 7, col 4-5. Letter from Nicholas Miller [sic] to Adam Miller. Excitedly, I began typing the transcription (spelling and punctuation preserved).
From Saturday’s Daily.
Adam Miller, 814 North Front street, has received from his brother, Nicholas Miller [sic], a German soldier, whose home is at Trier, Prussia, the following letter:
Sarrlouis, [Saarlouis] October 5, 1914 – Dear brother and sister-in-law: I had written to you all including Michael and Kate, before my departure from home, but you probably have not received those letters. The postal service has now been to some extent restored and I will write again, hoping that you will receive this letter.
I have been among the soldiers since the second of August, but I have not yet been in any battle. But we can be called into the field any day. Germany has soldiers enough of we would already have been called into service.
We are vigorously attacked on all sides but a German does not lose his courage. We have made good progress in every campaign. Antwerp must fall within the next few days. Four forts are already in our hands and with Antwerp, the last Belgian stronghold is ours.
Likewise in France all goes well. When our forty-two centimeter cannons begin to thunder, there is no longer any such thing as resistance. You ought to see the ruin that these forty-two centimeter guns with heavy cannon balls make. They strike through concrete walls, four feet thick, and break them to pieces, burying the garrisons beneath the ruins. Such a fort as can resist these monsters has never yet been built.
The French and English already have had their noses full. Eleven hundred English officers we have already rendered harmless. Three hundred thousand unwounded prisoners, French, Russians and Englishmen, we have so far in Germany.
As far as our troops have gone in France and Belgium, German is spoken. Only German trains are run, with German-speaking crews. In the conquered cities, German government has been established.
Belgian would have done better to have stood by Germany, but on one suspected that Germany had grown into such an enemy.
Concerning the breach of neutrality, you undoubtedly have heard remarkable stories. The worse blame however, does not rest on Germany for both these nations before our mobilization had themselves broken the neutrality. In Luxemburg, as early as the first of August, there had been French bicycle soldiers. Thereupon we marched into Luxemburg, for the salvation of the whole country of the Moselle, for if we had been one day later our homes would have been in ruins.
Belgium as early as the sixteenth of April, 1914, had concluded a secret treaty with France and Russia against Germany and French engineers were at work on the Belgian fortifications. along with Belgian border. Nevertheless, our emperor twice asked permission for a passage through Belgium. The Belgian answer was a declaration of war against Germany. Yet with God’s help we shall conquer.
The cause of the war was the murder of the Austrian heir-apparent through the plotting of Servian officers, and behind this stood as real instigators, Russia, England and France. For anybody must certainly believe that the abject people of Servia would never have dared to undertake a war against Austria, if they did not have help. The Servians did not comply with the demands of Austria, whereupon Austria declared war.
Then Russia began to mobilize. Our emperor asked Russia what the mobilization along the German boundaries meant. The answer was that again our emperor asked, as the mobilization proceeded further, how Russia would stand in regard to the war between Austria and Servia, and whether it was not possible to localize the war in these countries. Hereupon Russia answered that our emperor could step in as a peacemaker and could demand that the emperor of Austria back down, for our emperor had that power, and Russia would not be indifferent to the fate of Servia.
All this time the mobilization of the Russians went on. Now came the break. Emperor William asked Russia to explain within twenty-four hours what the mobilization meant. The answer was the invasion by Russia over the eastern boundaries.
How long the Russians were prepared for this move one may see from the fact that within the first fourteen days Siberian troops were in the fight. To bring these troops to the German boundary required two months, for Russia has very poor railroad service.
France also had her reserves collected as early as the twenty-sixth of May. So one cannot accuse our emperor of having brought this war about. It was not until the second day of August that our mobilization began.
Indeed the war might have been avoided if we had said, “Come now, and divide up Germany and Austria.” But let the war come. Germany will dictate the terms of peace and no power in the world will ever dare encroach on Germany. The war demands heavy sacrifices from us as well as from our enemies, but when it is happily over, no one in the next hundred years will declare war against us.
Extend my greetings to Michael and Kate and uncle [Beck] and all. When I have time I will write offener. I hope to receive an answer soon.
Did Nicholas Write This?
The opening and the closing of the letter are personal; Nicholas uses the first-person. However, the body of the letter is not written from his first-hand account.
Was Nicholas commanded to write/send this letter? Is this letter personal or is it propaganda?
What Else to Research?
The Mankato Free Press published other letters from Germany during the Great War. What can we glean from them?
Do you have original letters sent among the Müller/Miller siblings?
SOURCES
- 1From Saturday’s Daily. Mankato (MN) Free Press. November 20, 1914, page 7, col 4-5. Letter from Nicholas Miller [sic] to Adam Miller.