Crewe House

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Named after its seat, Crewe House was a British propaganda agency in Mayfair , London during the First World War . The Crewe House housed the secret Directorate of propaganda in enemy countries ( Directorate for Propaganda in Enemy Countries ) of the first Ministry of Information (MoI).

history

After the USA declared war on the German Reich on April 7, 1917, the secretly active War Propaganda Bureau (WPB) was restructured. After an interim phase in which the War Propaganda Bureau was replaced by the Department of Information , the Ministry of Information (MoI) emerged from this in February 1918. Its directorate for propaganda in enemy countries moved into the Crewe House. Crewe House was the town mansion of Robert Crewe-Milnes , which he made available to the government for war purposes.

In February 1918, the Lloyd George government won over newspaper publisher Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe), owner of The Times and Daily Mail , to take over the management of the directorate. With his help, the government managed to get the other Fleet Street publishers involved in the war propaganda .

In the early months of its existence, the War Office's Military Intelligence Directorate (MID) also continued to produce propaganda literature under the command of George Macdonogh .

British balloons preparing to launch propaganda over enemy lines at the front

structure

Deputy Director of the Directorate and - since Alfred Harmsworth was involved in many other activities - its actual head was Campbell Stuart , who had previously been a representative of the British War Mission in the USA. His closest collaborators included:

The Directorate for Propaganda in Enemy Countries was divided into two departments, for which a total of 54 people worked:

  • Propaganda production
  • Propaganda spread

The Propaganda Production Department comprised three sections. Their senior staff were:

  • Austria-Hungary section:
  • Section Germany:
    • James Headlam-Morley
    • HG Wells (from beginning to July 1918)
    • Henry Hamilton Fyfe (after HG Wells left)
  • Section Turkey and Bulgaria:
    • Hugo Cunliffe-Owen

To coordinate with the allies, there were meetings with their representatives, including Henry Franklin-Bouillon for France and Romeo Adriano Gallenga Stuart for Italy. Even Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook), the Minister of Information, participated.

activity

The Directorate's task was to give the people and the soldiers of the Central Powers the impression that the military situation on their own side was hopeless and that the victory of the Allies was inevitable. Crewe House received “appropriate” information for this purpose from the Department of Information, the Department of State and War, the Admiralty , the Treasury and the Stationery Office .

Propaganda against Austria-Hungary

Crewe House identified the multi-ethnic state of Austria-Hungary as the first target , as the Habsburg Monarchy was considered the "weakest link" in the chain of enemies. Steed and Seton-Watson traveled to Rome in April 1918 and spoke before a "Congress of the Oppressed Nations in the Habsburg Empire" convened by the Italian government. They won over some Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Southern Slavs and Romanians to participate in an "Inter-Allied Propaganda Commission", which was to be set up at the headquarters of the Italian army. This began its work on April 18, 1918 and published a weekly journal in the relevant languages. Their immediate aim was to weaken the fighting power of the Central Powers. The long-term goal was named to create a chain of independent states in the territory of Austria-Hungary, which should become allies of the Allies. The dispute between the Italian government and representatives of the southern Slavs turned out to be a burden. Because the latter's plans for a state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs clashed with the territorial desires of the Italians with regard to Istria and Dalmatia , for which Italy had secured the support of the Triple Entente in 1915 in the secret Treaty of London .

The Italian army took on the task of distributing millions of leaflets in Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Polish and Romanian languages ​​to the Austro-Hungarian troops on their fronts, mainly through the dropping of airplanes, but also through the use of deserters . In the no man's land between the fronts, gramophones were set up to play the national songs of the southern Slavs and Czechoslovaks. Crewe House ascribed a success of its propaganda to the fact that during the second Battle of the Piave, German and Hungarian soldiers had to prevent the defection of a Czech unit.

Propaganda against the German Reich

probably the first propaganda amphitheater on the Western Front, 1914

The first leaflet for Germans was created in October 1914 by the "eyewitness" Ernest Dunlop Swinton . Northcliffe gave him his Paris organization for reproduction and the British Army dropped the material by air. In it the soldiers were told, among other things, that they were not fighting for the defense of Germany, but for "a bellicose party at the expense of national interests". The war guilt is assigned to "the emperor ". Since the army did not approve of the activities, it remained a single action for a long time.

In the spring of 1916, the MID of the War Office established a propaganda department which, in addition to German soldiers, also targeted Belgian and French civilians in their language. For the next two years, 1 million leaflets were distributed monthly. After the imperial army severely punished downed planes that had transported the material, they switched to distribution using grenades and balloons. From the spring of 1918, Crewe House created the pamphlets for MID.

HGWells Memorandum

In May 1918, Northcliffe recruited the sociologist and writer HG Wells ( The Time Machine ), who prepared a memorandum to establish propaganda points of attack. In it he states that “Germans are sensitive to systematics” and “used to discussing and understanding coordinated projects”. “German political thinking” is “familiar with ideas represented by phrases like 'Berlin-Baghdad' and 'Central Europe'” - 'Berlin-Tehran' and 'Berlin-Tokyo' would be familiar to you right now. There is no corresponding counterpart to Naumann 's 'Central Europe' and the Allies should oppose “some understandable scheme of a world organization” such as “a League of Nations ”. Competent writers would have to implement this and it would "work automatically".

Regardless of the British's own form of government (a constitutional monarchy ) and with a view to the British Empire , he stated that it should be shown that “it is not about the destruction of people or enemies, other than the existing structures, ruling dynasties and military and economic castes "Go, but about" freedom "and" self-determination ". If they would not accept that, it would lead to financial ruin and misery and hatred of Germans in the non-German world. The longer the war lasts, the more serious are the consequences under which these enemies would then have to work, even as a member of a League of Nations. It is about a change of the Germans themselves, who should overcome their militaristic system, "in order to enter honorably into the allied scheme of a world organization."

The German Reich has therefore "mentally destroyed the Russian Tsarist Empire" ( October Revolution ), "Austria-Hungarian imperialism squashed people", and it is necessary to enter a phase of "free movement of spirits" and "noble interpersonal relationships", into a league of free nations, etc. Finally, he theorizes that this is the “war to end all wars” and thinks about the distribution of mandates in a League of Nations. The war against “Junker Germany” must be “waged militarily, economically and politically”. Through "intensive aerial warfare and appropriate propaganda, the Allies should bring reasons and a conscience to the Germans home in order to convey to the German population the impossibility of this concept of national pride and aggressiveness".

Propaganda amphlet No. 16

7-point program

These documents became the basis of Crewe House propaganda. Northcliffe summarized them in 7 points, which he conveyed to Secretary of State Arthur Balfour :

  • the enemy's will to win must be weakened; to pack allied war aims to strengthen every kind of existing opposition in the German Reich in a usable form
  • Germany’s internal conditions result in two points of great importance that belong together, since they offer the elements fear (a) and hope (b)
    • a) There is reason to believe that the Germans will surrender as a whole if the impression is given that they are faced with firmly and unchangeable Allied nations who will continue the war at any cost, regardless of German military successes. Such successes are not the way to bring them the peace they are hoping for; Continuation of the economic blockade.
    • b) Since the German government is conveying to the people that peace, according to the will of the Allies, makes each individual poor, unemployed and starving, it must be shown that this can happen, but can be averted, if the German nation gives up its plans for domination and that allied scheme of a new world organization accepted
  • Support for the goals through appropriate foreign policy in order to avoid being portrayed as imperialist ambitions by German writers
  • as a member of a League of Nations with economic advantages, Germany could accept our political conditions and make our goals acceptable to moderate elements in Germany
  • the propaganda must be supported by public and official statements to be credible
  • these explanations are not yet available, the problem should be dealt with quickly
  • Some kind of declaration of a corresponding kind should be made as soon as possible on the idea of ​​a 'League of Free Nations', as it would have the effect of an offer of peace to Germany. It is to be made clear to the German people that the privilege of participating in this association will be irrevocably withdrawn in a period proportional to the duration of the war.

In addition, Northcliffe notes: the removal of the German colonies; Germany's war guilt, which is why restitution, guarantees and reparations are to be paid; the different treatment of mutually conquered areas.

implementation

The government approved the plan and Wells took part in the public preparation for the establishment of the League of Nations in London to demonstrate Germany's isolation. In an appeal to German workers, he published, among other things, a list of the advantages of British working conditions during the war. To discourage the enemy, his department made an economic study for Germany during and after the war. In July 1918, Wells gave up his position as section head due to differences, but remained a member of the directorate.

Hamilton Fyfe continued his work, publishing pamphlets of British superiority, including a series of 'London Letters' articles in Scandinavian and Swiss newspapers that allegedly glossed over pro-German, British food supplies and living conditions. Lists of dead or captured German submarine commanders were circulated in German naval ports, books with different content were smuggled into bookshops and material transported across the border.

From July 1918 until the armistice in November, 100-300,000 pamphlets were placed above and behind the German lines every day, including counterfeit German newspapers, religious articles and, particularly, extensive US involvement in the war.

German reaction

German medal to Lord Northcliffe

Paul von Hindenburg and Oskar von Hutier called on the troops to resist the “poisoning of the spirit” and were dismayed by the attempts at decomposition. Hindenburg noted that unrestricted expressions of any opinion and the publication of enemy army reports and political speeches during the war were both strength and weakness of Germany: strength, as it demonstrates a sense of power and weakness through the "back door for the enemy". A direct press censorship existed with regard to own troop and material movements.

A message from Hutier to his 6th Army, which captured the MoI, describes its existence, activity and head of the “extreme crook” Northcliffe and his methods: “Paid agents, attacks on ambassadors, forged prisoner's letters as well as tracts and pamphlets in the name of German poets , Writers and statesmen who seem to have been printed in Germany ( Reclam Universal Library ) ”. People who handed over unknown pamphlets to the authorities received cash bonuses, but the effect could no longer be stopped.

effect

Erich Ludendorff described the "increase in betrayal and disobedience ... with a disastrous effect on the morale of the people at home." The disclosure of the propaganda apparatus generated nervousness. In the summer of 1918, German newspapers and politicians discussed the establishment of counter-propaganda, recognized the “brilliance of the enemy”, despised it as “carnival of the soul-stormers” and “idiotic terror” or thanked them for “remembering our duty as Germans” to meet. The German army reports, however, were increasingly less believed than the forged British ones.

Propaganda against Bulgaria

Since the USA was not at war with Bulgaria and consideration had to be given to Serbia, Romania and Greece, Northcliffe was left with the Macedonians as the "ethnic group to be liberated". This should later be protected by "an international gendarmerie power". For peace, he proposed to offer Silistra and the Enos-Midia line as the eastern border, which Balfour agreed to. However, this meant a reduction in the area. The demands for peace were: removal of King Ferdinand I and his family, separation from the German Reich and establishment of a democratic government with the aim of a Balkan confederation under the auspices of the Allies and the USA. Crewe House produced corresponding pamphlets.

Propaganda among prisoners of war

In British prison camps, Northcliffe's first goal was to "erase the ideas of militarism" from the enemy. Then the "advantages of a democratic form of government" were impressed on him. To this end, all commanders of the camps were questioned by the member of the Enemy Propaganda Committee and Crewe House employee, Charles Nicholson, and instructed on the permitted literature. Mail was censored, and influential prisoners were provided with relevant literature separately.

HG Wells' plans for a post-war Europe

On August 14, 1918, British, French and Italians were attended by five Americans at an Inter-Allied conference in Crewe House. They basically passed HG Wells' plans for a post-war Europe and decided to push ahead with corresponding national plans. On November 15, 1918, four days after the armistice, Northcliffe dismissed the board - the Enemy Propaganda Committee .

literature

  • Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House. The story of a famous campaign . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1920. (online)

Footnotes

  1. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, pp. 11-13.
  2. ↑ Luciano Tosi: Romeo A. Gallenga-Stuart e la propaganda di guerra al estero (1917–1918) . In: Storia Contemporanea , Vol. 2 (1971), pp. 519-543.
  3. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, p. 148.
  4. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, p. 30.
  5. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, p. 25.
  6. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, pp. 40-42.
  7. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, p. 38.
  8. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, p. 39.
  9. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, pp. 42-43.
  10. ↑ Quotation marks in the original, C.Stuart
  11. ^ Campbell Stuart: Secrets of Crewe House . London 1920, p. 81.
  12. ↑ Memorandum of the German government 1914 (PDF file; 72 kB)
  13. ↑ Supplement to the leaflet for the press published in 1914 on the basis of the mobilization plan § 20 B. 7 (PDF file; 69 kB)

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