I9I93 Fate of German Pacifists 



A letter from Fried (then in Berne) published in Frie, 

 Fnedenswarte for February, 1917, gives an inside '^'^^ 

 view of the position of the democrats of Germany '''''"' 

 who had worked for peace amid the calamities of the 

 war. \ rom it I condense a few extracts : 



Most of the active German pacifists recognized from the 

 first the guilt of Germany in the war, and so far as military 

 repression would allow have openly spoken. They have opposed 

 all annexation policies of the old war makers and spoken out 

 against their methods. They have condemned the reckless 

 submarine warfare and protested against the desolation in the 

 retreat along the Somme. In turn they have suffered fearfully 

 during the blockade and yet have held to their opinions in spite 

 of military oppression. 



The German Peace Society and the Union of the New Father- 

 land were disbanded by force, the active secretary of the latter, 

 LiHi Jannasch, being made an object of persecution. Hans 

 Wehberg, though unfit for military duty, was on account of his 

 expressed desire for peace mustered into the army and shame- 

 fully treated. Fritz Rottcher was forced to wear the uniform 

 and suffered severe military oppression. Schucking was interned 

 at Marburg, and forbidden to write to any foreign peace lover, 

 or even to the government at Bedin. Quidde was forbidden the 

 use of the mails and the railway. Madame Hoesch-Ernst was 

 arrested and interned in an out-of-the-way place. Lammasch 

 was from the beginning the object of special hatred. I was 

 myself arrested for high treason in Vienna. Paasche with 

 much pain and difficulty escaped from the jail where he was 

 confined for a month, to be afterward assassinated by a mili- 

 tarist. 



Professor G. F. Nicolai ^ was degraded to the rank of a com- 

 mon soldier, but as such found the chance to write his master- 

 work, now world-renowned, "The Biology of War." Richard 



^ Dr. Nicolai, one of the most eminent of German scientists, was professor of 

 Physiology in the University of Berlin and surgeon to the imperial family. His 

 course of lectures on race deterioration due to the reversed selection of war met 

 with official disfavor and he was ordered to discontinue them. Upon his refusal, 

 he was removed from his chair and sent to the front at Danzig, where he was 

 later imprisoned. Making his escape, he fled to Copenhagen in an airplane. 



n 1^1 :] 



