Hun speech

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Wilhelm II in the uniform of the sea ​​battalion during his speech on July 27, 1900 in Bremerhaven

The " Huns Speech " was given by Kaiser Wilhelm II on July 27, 1900 in Bremerhaven on the occasion of the departure of the German East Asian Expeditionary Corps ( China Expedition ) to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in the German Empire . It gained worldwide importance because of its drastic statements. From the speech derives the ethnophaulism “the huns” (the Huns ) for Germans, which was first used by the Entente propaganda against Germany during the First World War .

Historical background

The troops of the United Eight States on a Japanese drawing
Signature of Kaiser Wilhelm II on the day before the Huns' speech in Bremerhaven
Wilhelm II says goodbye to the expeditionary force, different perspective
Only the Navy Can Stop This ; Depiction of the German enemy as a Hun on a US Navy advertising poster ; USA , 1917

In the spring of 1900, attacks by the Boxer movement against foreigners and Chinese Christians culminated in a siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing . On June 20, the German envoy Clemens von Ketteler was shot dead in the street there. The attempt by British troops to relieve the Legation Quarter failed, as a result of which a coalition of eight foreign powers - Japan, the USA and six European states - sent an expeditionary force to intervene in China. At the farewell to some of the German troops belonging to this expeditionary force on July 27th in Bremerhaven , Wilhelm II gave his notorious Huns speech. It was just one of several speeches the Emperor gave on the occasion of the disembarkation of the troops.

Content of the speech

The text of the speech has come down to us in several slightly different variations. The central, infamous passage read:

“If you come before the enemy, they will be beaten! Pardon will not be given! Prisoners are not taken! Whoever falls into your hands will fall for you! Just as the Huns made a name for themselves a thousand years ago under their King Etzel , which still makes them appear powerful in tradition and fairy tales, so may the name of Germans in China be confirmed by you for 1000 years in a way that it will never be again Chinese dares to look peevishly at a German! "

Tradition and versions

The speech was given freely by Wilhelm II; a manuscript has not survived and may not even exist. Several versions of the text came into circulation on the same day:

  • Wolff's Telegraphic Bureau circulated a summary in indirect speech.
  • The State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, shortly afterwards Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow , authorized a variant a few hours later, this time verbatim, which did not contain the incriminating passages: the reference to the Huns and the demand “Pardon will not be given. Prisoners are not taken, ”is missing. This version probably comes from an editor of the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger , to whom von Bülow only made minor corrections. By authorizing this “harmless” variant of the imperial words, Bülow tried to cover up the brutal and (nationally) illegal actions the emperor and commander in chief had urged the German troops to take. From a third party, this variant has been further defused and the critical sentence changed to “Pardon will not be given to you”.
  • A number of journalists from North German newspapers were present and recorded the spoken word in shorthand . Apart from minor hearing, recording or composing errors, these transcripts reproduce a consistent wording that is now considered to be the authentic word spoken by the emperor. This brought the emperor's immediate "spoken word" into wide circulation.

interpretation

Peoples of Europe, protect your most sacred goods , picture by Hermann Knackfuß

In his speech in the Huns, Wilhelm II called on the German troops to undertake a ruthless campaign of revenge in China, and he meant it. There are further indications for this. For example, at the same time the emperor donated the picture Peoples of Europe, preserve your most sacred goods , created according to his design by the painter Hermann Knackfuß , for several troop transports , an allegory on the defense of Europe under German leadership against the alleged " yellow danger ". In at least one case, Wilhelm added the words “Pardon will not be given” or “No pardon” on the picture.

Wilhelm II felt entitled to this request, especially after the murder of the German ambassador in China, Klemens Freiherr von Ketteler , on June 20, 1900 in Beijing. He ignored the fact that he could have violated international law. He moved fully in the style of the colonial war, which gave the enemy no legal position. The Hague Land Warfare Regulations , signed by the German Reich in 1899 , expressly prohibit the request not to give any pardon during war. However, it was controversial among contemporaries whether this agreement was applicable to China, because China had participated in the Hague Peace Conference, but was not one of the signatories of the land warfare order. Part of the emperor's moral indignation can also be traced back to the hoax, which was spread with gruesome detail in mid-July in the British Daily Mail and later in the German and international press, that the Beijing legation district had been stormed and all foreigners without exception had been killed.

Politicians and journalists in other European countries who participated in the suppression of the Boxer rebellion also called for revenge for the murder of Western foreigners in China, for example The Times in London. In a colonial attitude that was widespread at the time , they were outraged that a country considered to be colonizing dared to oppose resistance - initially relatively successful - to Europeans who felt themselves to be superior. However, no one went as far as the German Kaiser in his expression. With his drastic rhetoric, he contributed to the fact that the international military operation in China was actually conducted with extreme cruelty - although it was not only the German troops who did not give any pardon.

The embarrassment of the Emperor's remarks is also reflected in the fact that all of the Emperor's collections of speeches until the mid-1970s only included the "defused" versions of the speech.

Reactions and consequences

Right away

The soldiers going to China took the emperor literally. The cavalryman Heinrich Haslinde reports in his diary:

"[The emperor] gave us an inspiring speech, of which I only remembered the following words:" Prisoners are not taken, pardon will not be given to any Chinese who fall into your hands. "

Soldiers put inscriptions such as "Revenge is sweet" or "Pardon will not be given" on the railroad cars that they transported to the coast.

With the Huns speech , Wilhelm II met with approval at home and abroad, but also with criticism. The comparison with the Huns was also used in Germany as a metaphor for the cruel warfare. Soldiers' letters printed in German newspapers that reported on riots during the operation in China were referred to as "Huns letters". And the Reichstag member Friedrich Naumann was nicknamed "Hun Pastor" because of his defense of the military intervention in China. The liberal deputies Eugen Richter on the other hand condemned on 20 November 1900, in a Reichstag the actions of the German troops in China, which had been incited by the comments of the emperor.

In reality, the behavior of German troops during the intervention in China was no better or worse than that of troops from the other participating nations. According to today's understanding, all the powers involved are guilty of serious human rights violations and war crimes. The speech of the Huns is noteworthy insofar as in it a head of state publicly urges his soldiers to behave in this way.

Long-term consequences

The “Huns' speech” had a great impact during the First World War, when British war propaganda took up the “Huns” metaphor and used it as a synonym for the Germans and their behavior that was described as barbaric. In Great Britain the speech coined the term The huns for the Germans. German commercial steamers requisitioned by Great Britain were referred to as " Hunnendampfer ".

Sound recording

A phonograph cylinder recorded at the beginning of the 20th century with the slightly shortened second version of the speech was reconstructed in 2012. The roller was digitized by Norman Bruderhofer. It is doubtful whether the spokesman for the wax roller was actually Wilhelm II.

literature

  • Ralph Erbar: No pardon! Wilhelm II's "Huns" speech and its history. In: Political Speeches. Germany in the 20th century. Westermann, Braunschweig 2007, pp. 14-17 ( Praxis Geschichte. Vol. 20, H. 6, 2007, ISSN  0933-5374 ).
  • Thoralf Klein: The Speech of the Huns (1900). In: Jürgen Zimmerer (Ed.): No place in the sun. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. Frankfurt 2013, ISBN 978-3-593-39811-2 , pp. 164-176 (with extensive bibliography).
  • Susanne Kuss, Bernd Martin (Ed.): The German Reich and the Boxer Rebellion. Iudicium-Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-89129-781-5 ( Erfurt series on the history of Asia 2) (including a facsimile of the official version edited by Bülow).
  • Johannes Penzler (Ed.): The speeches of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Vol. 2: 1896-1900. Leipzig undated
  • Bernd Sösemann : The so-called Huns speech by Wilhelm II. Text-critical and interpretative remarks on the speech of the emperor on July 27, 1900 in Bremerhaven. In: Historische Zeitschrift 222, 1976, ISSN  0018-2613 , pp. 342-358 (with the authoritative text version).
  • Ernst Johann (ed.): Speeches of the emperor. Addresses, sermons and toasts by Wilhelm II. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-423-02906-4 (contains sixty texts with commentaries and a detailed introduction).

Web links

Wikisource: Hunnenrede  - (Only reproduces the variant "defused" by von Bülow)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klein, p. 164.
  2. ^ Speech of the Huns - reproduced from: Penzler, pp. 209–212. germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org (PDF) at the German Historical Institute Washington
  3. ↑ Klein, p. 165 f.
  4. ↑ Klein, p. 166.
  5. ↑ HistoriaPRO e. V .: Comparison of the text versions .
  6. ↑ Klein, p. 166, note 5.
  7. ↑ Klein, p. 169.
  8. ↑ Klein, p. 169.
  9. ↑ Klein, p. 168.
  10. ^ Diana Preston, Rebellion in Peking , Stuttgart / Munich 2001, p. 232 ff.
  11. ↑ Klein, p. 168.
  12. ↑ Klein, p. 166.
  13. ^ Eugen Richter on Wilhelm II's speech in the Huns. Eugen Richter archive
  14. ↑ sound recording ; whether the speaker is actually Wilhelm II is doubted.
  15. ↑ TV report. ( Memento from April 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Bayerischer Rundfunk (12:21 min.), Bruderhofer's homepage .