Ring of Steel

by Alexander Watson

  100.Anonymous critical memorandum on the occupation of Poland, 1917, pp. 7 and 20. AA Poznań: OA IX 204. This states that 3,381 people had been released by the GGW between September 1915 and February 1917 but that many thousands remained imprisoned.

  101.Westerhoff, Zwangsarbeit, pp. 198–210.

  102.Herbert, History of Foreign Labor, pp. 87 and 93–4. Also Westerhoff, Zwangsarbeit, p. 93.

  103.Westerhoff, Zwangsarbeit, pp. 88–9, 114 and 252.

  104.Ibid., pp. 201 and 206.

  105.Ihnatowicz, ‘Gospodarka na ziemiach polskich’, p. 459.

  106.Westerhoff, Zwangsarbeit, pp. 65–6, 115, 202, 260 and 332; anonymous critical memorandum on the occupation of Poland, 1917, pp. 21 and 31. AA Poznań: OA IX 204.

  107.For Beseler’s state-building activities, see Kauffman, ‘Sovereignty and the Search for Order’, chs. 2–4. For Warsaw University, see also J. Kauffman, ‘Warsaw University under German Occupation: State Building and Nation Bildung in Poland during the Great War’, First World War Studies 4(1) (March 2013), pp. 65–79.

  108.Fischer, Germany’s Aims, pp. 239–44.

  109.Conze, Polnische Nation, pp. 177–91 and 211 for the quotation.

  110.Conze, Polnische Nation, pp. 226–33, and W. Sukiennicki, East Central Europe during World War I: From Foreign Domination to National Independence (2 vols., Boulder, CO, 1984), i, pp. 266–71 and 289.

  111.Reproduced in Ludendorff (ed.), The General Staff and its Problems, ii, pp. 379–80.

  112.For the alienating effect of the economic and repressive measures in the GGW on Poles, as well as the naked desire for domination visible in the Central Powers’ offer, see the letter of Graf von Hutten-Czapski to General von Chelius, 12 December 1916, reproduced in Michaelis, Schraepler and Scheel (eds.), Ursachen und Folgen, i, pp. 45–7 (doc. 27).

  113.P. S. Wandycz, The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795–1918 (Seattle, WA, and London, 1974), pp. 352–8, and Conze, Polnische Nation, pp. 242–306.

  114.M. Przeniosło, ‘Postawy chłopów Królestwa Polskiego wobec okupanta niemieckiego i austriackiego (1914–1918)’, in D. Grinberg, J. Snopko and G. Zackiewicz (eds.), Lata wielkiej wojny. Dojrzewanie do niepodległości 1914–1918 (Białystok, 2007), pp. 204 and 206, and S. Lehnstaedt, ‘Fluctuating between “Utilization” and Exploitation: Occupied East Central Europe during the First World War’, in J. Böhler, W. Borodziej and J. von Puttkamer (eds.), Legacies of Violence: Eastern Europe’s First World War (Munich, 2014), p. 97.

  115.Wegs, ‘Austrian Economic Mobilization’, p. 122.

  10. U-BOATS

  1.‘Entente Reply to the Peace Note of Germany and Her Allies, December 30, 1916’, reproduced in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (ed.), Official Communications and Speeches Relating to Peace Proposals, 1916–1917 (Washington, DC, 1917), p. 40.

  2.‘Aufzeichnung über die Besprechung zwischen Reichskanzler von Bethmann Hollweg, Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg und General Ludendorff in Pleß am 9. Januar 1917, 11. 15 Uhr vorm’, in Michaelis, Schraepler and Scheel (eds.), Ursachen und Folgen, i, p. 147 (doc. 84).

  3.J. M. Cooper, Jr, ‘The Command of Gold Reversed: American Loans to Britain, 1915–1917’, The Pacific Historical Review 45(2) (May 1976), pp. 219–20.

  4.Chef des Admiralstabes, Memorandum, 22 December 1916, p. 2. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 5/2971: fo. 281.

  5.A. Offer, ‘Economic Interpretations of War: The German Submarine Campaign, 1915–18’, Australian Economic History Review 23(1) (March 1989), pp. 25–7, and H. H. Herwig, ‘Total Rhetoric, Limited War: Germany’s U-Boat Campaign, 1917–1918’, in R. Chickering and S. Förster (eds.), Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914–1918 (Washington, DC, and Cambridge, 2000), p. 194.

  6.Holtzendorff, memorandum, 22 December 1916. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 5/2971: fos. 280–82.

  7.Best, Humanity in Warfare, pp. 252–5.

  8.Halpern, Naval History, p. 335.

  9.Holtzendorff, memorandum, 22 December 1916. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 5/2971: fos. 280–82 and 295–9.

  10.Offer, ‘Economic Interpretations’, pp. 28–31.

  11.Holtzendorff, memorandum, 22 December 1916, p. 24. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 5/2971: fo. 294.

  12.See Admiralstab der Marine, ‘Die englische Wirtschaft und der U-Boot-Krieg’, 12 February 1916, p. 21. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 5/2971: fo. 152.

  13.Bethmann, quoted in Jarausch, Enigmatic Chancellor, p. 284.

  14.‘Protokoll der Beratung über die Aufnahme des rücksichtslosen U-Boot-Krieges vom 31. August 1916’, in Michaelis, Schraepler and Scheel (eds.), Ursachen und Folgen, i, pp. 123–7 (doc. 70).

  15.Görlitz (ed.), Kaiser and his Court, p. 229 (entry for 8 January 1917).

  16.G. Granier, ‘Kriegführung und Politik am Beispiel des Handelskriegs mit U-Booten, 1915–1918’, in K. Oldenhage, H. Schreyer and W. Werner (eds.), Archiv und Geschichte. Festschrift für Friedrich P. Kahlenberg (Düsseldorf, 2000), p. 621.

  17.Nebelin, Ludendorff, pp. 289–9. Also Jarausch, Enigmatic Chancellor, pp. 296–7.

  18.‘Aufzeichnung über die Besprechung zwischen Reichskanzler von Bethmann Hollweg’, in Michaelis, Schraepler and Scheel (eds.), Ursachen und Folgen, i, p. 147 (doc. 84).

  19.See ‘President Wilson’s Address of January 22, 1917’, The American Journal of International Law 11(4) (October 1917), p. 318.

  20.Ludendorff, My War Memories, ii, p. 415.

  21.‘Aus den Aufzeichnungen des Chefs des Geheimen Zivilkabinetts v. Valentini über die Kronratssitzung vom 9. Januar 1917’, in Michaelis, Schraepler and Scheel (eds.), Ursachen und Folgen, i, p. 148 (doc. 85).

  22.J. M. Clark, The Costs of the World War to the American People (New Haven, CT, and London, 1931), p. 24.

  23.The Kaiser to Houston Stewart Chamberlain, January 1917, quoted in Stibbe, German Anglophobia, p. 175.

  24.For the pre-war German navy and Jutland, see Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet, esp. pp. 95–110 and 178–99. Also J. Rüger, The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire (Cambridge, 2007).

  25.Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, p. 319.

  26.Kommando des Hochseestreitkräfte, order, 31 January 1917.

  27.M. Schwarte, Die Technik im Weltkriege (Berlin, 1920), pp. 408–9, and E. Rössler, The U-Boat: The Evolution and Technical History of German Submarines (London, 1981, 2001), p. 67.

  28.Leader of Submarines, ‘Written record of the conference with captains of submarines on 17.1.1917’, 27 January 1917. TNA London: ADM 137/3866.

  29.Marine Generalkommando, memorandum, 10 March 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 120/577.

  30.Chef des Admiralstabes, intelligence report, 19 March 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 86/226.

  31.This follows Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, pp. 326–7.

  32.Halpern, Naval History, p. 408.

  33.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UC65 (November 1917), p. 17. TNA London: ADM 137/3060.

  34.This description is based on details of U97, U103, U104 and U110 in ‘Interrogation of Survivors’. TNA London: ADM 137/3872. For maximum torpedo stowage, see the list of 26 October 1917 in BA-MA Freiburg: RM 120/576.

  35.G. G. von Forstner, The Journal of Submarine Commander von Forstner, trans. R. Codman (Boston and New York, 1917), p. 56.

  36.M. Niemöller, From U-Boat to Concentration Camp (London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1939), pp. 19, 24–6 and 45. Also von Forstner, Journal, pp. 7–11.

  37.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UC65 (November 1917), p. 17, UC35 (May 1918), p. 10, and UB85 (May 1918), p. 6. TNA London: ADM 137/3060. Also interrogation of survivors from U64 (June 1918), p. 10. TNA London: ADM 137/3903.

  38.E. von Spiegel, Kriegstagebuch ‘U202’ (Berlin, 1916), p. 27.

  39.Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, pp. 398, 428–9 and 437.

  40.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UB72 (June 1918), U104 (May 1918), and UC65 (November 1917). TNA London: ADM 137/3874, 3872 and 3060.

  41.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UB81 (December 1917). TNA Lo
ndon: ADM 137/3060.

  42.‘Information Obtained from Survivors of U93’ (May 1917). TNA London: ADM 137/3872. The commander was Spiegel, whose book is cited above. See also the ‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U103 (May 1918), p. 6, in the same file and UC65 (November 1917), p. 13, and U58, p. 6, in ADM 137/3060.

  43.See ‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UB109 (September 1918), p. 9, and UC65 (November 1917), p. 10, in TNA London: ADM 137/3874 and 3060.

  44.‘Copy and Portion of a Further Statement by Captain Anthony Starkey of the SS “Torrington” ’ [c. 11 January 1919] and ‘Interrogation of Machinist Alfred Berner’ from U48, 26 November 1917. TNA London: ADM 137/4138 and 3902.

  45.UB124 (August 1918). TNA London: ADM 137/3901 and ADM 137/3874.

  46.Von Forstner, Journal, pp. 69–70. Cf. ‘A Conversation with the Crew of “UB30” ’, translated article from De Telegraaf, 2 March 1917. TNA London: ADM 137/3874.

  47.Führer der Unterseeboote, order and appendix, 10 May 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 86/226.

  48.Kriegstagebuch U93, 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 97/11034: fos. 7–23 and 92.

  49.‘Report of Interrogation of Survivor’ from UC63 (November 1917), p. 3. TNA London: ADM 137/3060.

  50.‘German Prize Crew from SS Older’ [men from U49 and U50], c. December 1916, pp. 24–5; ‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U48 (December 1917), p. 16; ‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UB72 (June 1918), pp. 10–15. TNA London: ADM 137/3902, 3872 and 3874.

  51.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U103 (June 1918), p. 17. TNA London: ADM 137/3872.

  52.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U48 (December 1917), p. 17, UC63 (November 1917), p. 9, UC65 (November 1917), p. 17, and UC35 (May 1918), p. 9. TNA London: ADM 137/3872 and 3060.

  53.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U58 (December 1917), p. 15. TNA London: ADM 137/3060. Cf. ‘A Conversation with the Crew of “UB30” ’, 1 March 1917, pp. 1–2. TNA London: ADM 137/3874.

  54.‘Aufstellung über den Stand der U-Boot-Spende’, 28 July 1919. GStA PK, Berlin: I. HA Rep 191, 3643.

  55.An extract from this film, Der magische Gürtel, is uploaded at: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060008290. Accessed on 25 April 2014.

  56.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U104 (May 1918), p. 7, and UB72 (June 1918), p. 7. TNA London: ADM 137/3872 and 3874.

  57.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U103 (June 1918), p. 6, U48 (December 1917), p. 8, UB85 (May 1918), p. 5, and UB109 (September 1918), p. 11. TNA London: ADM 137/3872, 3060 and 3874.

  58.Draft memorandum, Marinekorps, Generalkommando to Chef des Admiralstabes der Marine, 28 April 1917.

  59.Führer der Unterseeboote to I., II., III., IV. Uflottille, 10 May 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 86/226.

  60.Hardach, First World War, pp. 50–51 and 125–30, and P. E. Dewey, ‘Food Production and Policy in the United Kingdom, 1914–1918’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 30 (December 1918), pp. 82–9.

  61.‘Translation of Extract from Letter Written by Freiherr von Spiegel to his Wife’, 7 May 1917. TNA London: ADM 137/3903.

  62.Osborne, Britain’s Economic Blockade, p. 155, and Halpern, Naval History, pp. 341–2.

  63.D. Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918 (London, 2011), pp. 335–49. For British tonnage, see Hardach, First World War, pp. 44–6.

  64.Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, p. 370.

  65.Halpern, Naval History, pp. 351–60.

  66.Ibid., pp. 362–5 and 394–5.

  67.H. Herwig and D. F. Trask, ‘The Failure of Imperial Germany’s Undersea Offensive Against World Shipping, February 1917–October 1918’, The Historian 33(4) (August 1971), pp. 628–32. Also Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall, pp. 315–16.

  68.Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall, p. 364, and Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, p. 379.

  69.Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, pp. 372–8 and 383–4, and Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall, pp. 313–15, 325 and 345–6.

  70.Halpern, Naval History, pp. 343–4 and 366–8.

  71.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UB52 (July 1918), p. 7. TNA London: ADM 137/3060.

  72.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U48 (December 1917), pp. 8–12. TNA London: ADM 137/3872. Cf. also ‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U64 (June 1918), p. 9. TNA London: ADM 137/3903.

  73.See Chef des Admiralstabes, order, ‘O-Sache’ to Hochseekommando, 3 June 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 120/576. Also Halpern, Naval History, pp. 425–7.

  74.Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet, p. 220, and Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, p. 436.

  75.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UC65 (November 1917), p. 17. TNA London: ADM 137/3060. See also ‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U110 (April 1918), p. 16. TNA London: ADM 137/3872.

  76.Halpern, Naval History, pp. 159–60, 349–50, 406–7 and 440–41.

  77.Chef des Admiralstabes, memorandum to Kommando der Hochstreitseekräfte, 7 December 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 120/576.

  78.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U48 (December 1917), p. 17. TNA London: ADM 137/3872.

  79.Herwig, ‘Total Rhetoric’, p. 205, and Schröder, U-Boote des Kaisers, p. 429.

  80.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U110 (April 1918), p. 7. TNA London: ADM 137/3872.

  81.Ibid., p. 17. Cf. also the ‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U103 (June 1918), p. 15 in TNA London: ADM 137/3872.

  82.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UB81 (December 1917), p. 14, and UB109 (September 1918), pp. 8–9. TNA London: ADM 137/3060 and 3874.

  83.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U110 (April 1918), p. 7. TNA London: ADM 137/3872.

  84.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from UB85 (May 1918), pp. 3–5. TNA London: ADM 137/3060.

  85.‘Interrogation of Survivors’ from U64 (June 1918), p. 8. TNA London: ADM 137/3903.

  86.See A. Bucholz, Hans Delbrück and the German Establishment: War Images in Conflict (Iowa City, IA, 1985), pp. 98–101, and Redlich, Schicksalsjahre Österreichs, ii, pp. 188–9 (diary entry for 5 February 1917).

  87.Wolff, Tagebücher, pp. 478–81 (entries for 5, 11 and 14 February 1917).

  88.‘Zusammenstellung der Monatsberichte der stellv. Generalkommandos an das preußische Kriegsministerium betr. die allgemeine Stimmung im Volke’ for February 1917 (3 March 1917), p. 3. GStA PK, Berlin: I. HA Rep 90A, Nr. 2685. See also P. Scheidemann, Der Zusammenbruch (Berlin, 1921), p. 54 (although he contradicted this on p. 50).

  89.C. J. Child, ‘German-American Attempts to Prevent the Exportation of Munitions of War, 1914–1915’, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 25(3) (December 1938), pp. 351–68. For propaganda on the US weapons trade, see, for example, K. L. Henning, Die Wahrheit über Amerika (Leipzig, 1915), pp. 20–25, and see Buchner (ed.), Kriegsdokumente. From volume 4 onwards, Buchner’s books reproduce numerous press reports on the American supply of war equipment and munitions to the Entente.

  90.F. Gygi, ‘Shattered Experiences – Recycled Relics: Strategies of Representation and the Legacy of the Great War’, in N. J. Saunders (ed.), Matters of Conflict: Material Culture, Memory and the First World War (London and New York, 2004), pp. 83 and 85. For an example of indignation in the German public, see E. Stempfle, diary, 10 April 1915. DTA, Emmendingen: 1654. Next to a newspaper cutting listing the hundreds of thousands of rifles, millions of cartridges and multifarious other weapons ordered from the United States by Russia, France and Britain, she commented sardonically ‘This is how America stays neutral!’

  91.‘Zusammenstellung der Monatsberichte der stellv. Generalkommandos an das preußische Kriegsministerium betr. die allgemeine Stimmung im Volke’ for February 1917 (3 March 1917), p. 3. GStA PK, Berlin: I. HA Rep 90A, Nr. 2685.

  92.Reich Navy Office quoted in C. Brocks, ‘“Unser Schild muss rein bleiben”. Deutsche Bildzensur und propaganda im Ersten Weltkrieg’, Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 67(1) (2008), p. 42.

  93.See, e.g., ‘Die Ereignisse zur See’, Deutsche Kriegszeitung 1917. Illust
rierte Wochen-Ausgabe herausgegeben vom Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger. Nr. 12, 25 March 1917, p. 6, and Nr. 16, 22 April 1917, p. 6. For the statistics given to allies, see ‘Vertreter des Admiralstabes der Marine im Großen Hauptquartier to königlich bulgarischer Militärbevollmächtigten im Großen Hauptquartier’, 1 July 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: RM 120/576.

  94.Koszyk, Deutsche Pressepolitik, pp. 203–4.

  95.M. L. Hadley, Count Not the Dead: The Popular Image of the German Submarine (Quebec City, 1995), pp. 18 and 36.

  96.K. Roesler, Die Finanzpolitik des deutschen Reiches im Ersten Weltkrieg (Berlin, 1967), p. 207.

  97.S. Bruendel, ‘Vor-Bilder des Durchhaltens. Die deutsche Kriegsanleihe-Werbung, 1917/18’, in A. Bauerkämper and E. Julien (eds.), Durchhalten! Krieg und Gesellschaft im Vergleich, 1914–1918 (Göttingen, 2010), p. 87.

  98.Poster, 6. Kriegsanleihe, 1917. Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte: 2.5/72 a. Also Welch, Germany, Propaganda and Total War, pp. 130–31.

  99.Wolff, Tagebücher, pp. 478–81 (entry for 2 and 5 March 1917).

  100.H. Muhsal, diary, 9 March 1917. BA-MA Freiburg: MSg 1/3109.

  101.R. Höfner, diary, 16 April 1917. DTA Emmendingen: 1280,1.

  102.‘Entwicklung der Stimmung im Heere 1916/17’. Forschungsarbeit von Obkircher (1936), p. 37. BA-MA Freiburg: W-10/51507.

  103.Feldman, Army, Industry and Labor, p. 337.

  104.Kriegsministerium, ‘Zusammenstellung der Monats-Berichte der Generalkommandos vom 3.4.17’ (p. 3) and ibid., ‘3.5.17.’ (pp. 5–6) GStA PK, Berlin: I. HA Rep 90A, 2685. Also, E. Stempfle, diary, 8 April 1917. DTA, Emmendingen: 1654.

  105.A. Hartmuth, letter from his mother, 27 June 1917. Author’s Collection. More generally, see also R. Fiebig von Hase, ‘Der Anfang vom Ende des Krieges: Deutschland, die USA und die Hintergründe des amerikanischan Kriegseintritts am 6. April 1917’, in W. Michalka (ed.), Der Erste Weltkrieg. Wirkung, Wahrnehmung, Analyse (Munich and Zurich, 1994), p. 132.