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Character Is Destiny

The University of Michigan Press

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments............................................................................................ixIntroduction...........................................................................................................11. A Child with a Garden, 1872-1889....................................................................................112. Apprenticeship, 1893-1899...........................................................................................243. Widening Horizon....................................................................................................374. London-Berlin.......................................................................................................485. The Aberdeens, Scotland, Ireland, 1904-1908.........................................................................616. Two Jobs for Life, I: The School for Social Work, 1907-1913.........................................................687. Two Jobs for Life, II: Officer of the International Council; Canada and First Glimpse of U.S.A......................818. Brief Harvest before the Storm......................................................................................899. "The Evidence of Things Not Seen," 1914.............................................................................10110. Patriotism Is Not Enough, 1914-1916................................................................................10511. In the War Office, 1917-1919.......................................................................................11212. Fourteen Years of Democracy, I: Years of Chaos, 1919-1924..........................................................12113. Fourteen Years of Democracy, II: My Foreign Affairs, 1920-1933.....................................................13314. Fourteen Years of Democracy, III: Social Reconstruction, 1924-1929.................................................15015. Fourteen Years of Democracy, IV: Then Came the Collapse............................................................15916. The Golden Ring of Friendship......................................................................................16517. The Stream of Lava.................................................................................................17318. The Mystery of Individual Adjustments..............................................................................18119. A Spy Stands behind You............................................................................................18820. Exit Modern Woman..................................................................................................19121. The Strong and the Weak............................................................................................20122. God and Caesar.....................................................................................................20923. The Pastors ... Martin Niemller...................................................................................21424. New Lease on Life..................................................................................................220Appendix A. The Significance of the Women's Movement for Social Life...................................................231Appendix B. The Revolution of the Mother...............................................................................239Appendix C. Preface to an Early Version of Salomon's Autobiography.....................................................247Notes..................................................................................................................249

Chapter One

My childhood ended at the close of a chapter in German history. I was sixteen when a whole nation grieved over the death of a beloved sovereign and the fatal illness of his successor. Nobody who lived in Berlin in March 1888 could forget the tragic solemnity of the crowds arrayed to see the procession that carried Wilhelm I, aged ninety-one, to his grave. It was a bitter-cold morning; huge masses of snow had fallen during a month which generally brings spring to Germany. Since before dawn, the population had waited, a living wall against the walls of piled-up snow, to bid farewell to the emperor. For Wilhelm I had been very popular-a good Christian and a God-fearing man, according to his lights, and peace loving, even though his interests were limited to his army. It was known that he had been loath to allow his Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, to push Prussia into three wars of aggression: against Denmark, Austria, and France.

In the case of France, Bismarck had even resorted to the gross deception of publishing a doctored version of one of the emperor's telegrams in order to force a war. During my years at the University of Berlin, the professors of history frankly admitted this and considered it a particularly clever move. The masses of people heard only what they were meant to know: that these had been victorious wars fulfilling the German dream, the resurrection of a united German nation. "Through blood and iron" was the slogan, and I doubt whether many people had qualms about it. We swallowed it as people in other countries had swallowed what their governments had thought fit to let them know about imperialistic moves. "The end justifies the means" was a principle not new in politics, and the new German Empire pleased the people.

Under the influence of Bismarck, Wilhelm had given the nation a liberal constitution including general, equal, and secret suffrage for men; he had contributed an original program of social security to the world's theories on social progress. He remained simple and unostentatious even after the new German unity and grandeur had been achieved, becoming in his old age almost a legend. Liberal groups had looked forward to the reign of Friedrich, his son. In him lay their hope for a reign of peace, of democratic reforms and a stable economic and cultural policy. Now these hopes were blighted. When the old emperor was buried, everyone knew that the days of the new one were numbered. He succumbed after a reign of one hundred days, leaving the throne to rash, vainglorious young Wilhelm II.

At this time I was just beginning to reach out with vague aspirations toward a profession in which I could follow my long-growing desire to help people. It became for me more than a profession. It was a challenge, a vocation, and a calling.

Even as a small child, I had hoped for a career. At five, before I went to school, I wanted to become a teacher, and I began to want to help others when I was twelve. Besides, all my life, as long as I can remember, I wanted to travel and see the world.... All those these dreams have come true in strange and unexpected ways.

One of my earliest recollections is the birth of a baby sister when I was three. My older sister and constant playmate had been sent to visit our grandmother in Breslau-not to avoid embarrassing explanations but merely to relieve the household. Nobody dreamed of sex education at that period, nor did any of us doubt the story of the stork. On our vacations in the country we used to gaze for hours at a stork's nest up on the church spire, hoping to witness a delivery. My parents had been married in 1858, and for the next twenty years there was seldom a time when my mother did not have either a child on the way or in the cradle. A son was born in 1860...