Still Stuck at Sevastopol: The depiction of Russia during the Russo-Japanese War and the beginning of the First World War in the German press

German History

Volumn 16, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 358-376

  Paddock, Troy R E ^a  

^a SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61949169211     PISSN: 02663554     EISSN: 1477089X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1191/026635598675302706     Document Type: Review

References (48)

1. Almost a decade after the Russo-Japanese War, Otto Hoetzsch would still be lamenting German society's relative lack of knowledge concerning Russia. The desire to promote the study of Russian history and society was the main justification for the foundation of the Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Studium Rußlands in October 1913. See Michael Burleigh, Germany Turns Eastwards. A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich (Cambridge, 1988), p. 17.
2. Volker Schulze, 'Vorwärts', in Heinz-Dietrich Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen des 17. bis 20. Jahrhundert (Pullach bei München, 1972), p. 336.
3. The increase in the paper's circulation in the early twentieth century reflected the growth of the SPD. The number of papers printed daily grew from 56,000 (1902) to 112,000 (1906) to 165,000 (1912) (Schulze, 'Vorwärts', p. 337).
4. Klaus Bender, 'Vossische Zeitung', in Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen, p. 37.
5. Kurt Koszyk, Deutsche Presse im 19. Jahrhundert (Geschichte der deutschen Presse, vol. II) (Berlin, 1966), p. 156.
6. Before the First World War the paper's circulation was well over 100,000. It reached a high of 170,000 copies daily in 1917. (See Kurt Paupié, 'Frankfurter Zeitung', in Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen, p. 248.)
7. Gotthart Schwarz, 'Berliner Tageblatt', in Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen, pp. 318, 321.
8. Rolf Kramer, 'Kölnische Volkszeitung', in Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen, p. 261.
9. Klaus Wernecke notes that one Prussian official, in a letter to the Reich Chancery, described the paper as practically indispensable in Bavaria. See Klaus Wernecke, Der Wille zur Weltgeltung. Außenpoltik und öffentlichkeit im Kaiserreich am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges (Düsseldorf, 1970), p. 12.
10. Risto Ropponen puts the pre-war circulation figure at somewhere between 140,000 and 160,000. See Risto Ropponen, Die russische Gefahr. Das Verhalten der öffentliche Meinung Deutschlands und österreich-Ungarns gegenüber der Außenpolitik Rußlands in der Zeit zwischen dem Frieden von Portsmouth und dem Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs (Helsinki, 1976), p. 28.
11. Hans-Dietrich Fischer, Handbuch der politischen Presse in Deutschland 1480-1980. Synapse rechtlicher, struktureller und writschaftlicher Grundlagen der Tendenzpublizistik im Kommunikationsfeld (Düsseldorf, 1981), pp. 221-2, 414.
12. See also Kurt A. Holz, 'Münchner Neueste Nachrichten' in Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen, pp. 194-7.
13. Ropponen sets the pre-war circulation for the Kölnische Zeitung at between 70,000 and 75,000 (Ropponen, Die russische Gefahr, p. 24).
14. Meinolf Rohleder and Burkhard Treude do not provide pre-war circulation figures for the Kreuzzeitung; however, they do provide a good brief introduction to its history and political influence. See Rohleder and Treude, 'Neue Preußische (Kreuz-) Zeitung', in Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen, pp. 209-24.
15. Richard D. Ashmore and Frances K. Del Boca, 'Cognitive Approaches to Stereotypes and Stereotyping', in David Hamilton (ed.). Cognitive Processes in Stereotyping and Intergroup Behavior (Hillsdale, 1981).
16. The study the authors refer to is D. Katz and K. Braly, 'Racial Prejudice and Racial Stereotypes', Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28 (1933). Although over sixty years old, the methodological procedure initiated by Katz and Braly, the adjective checklist, has remained the standard for the majority of stereotype studies conducted since 1933.
17. The idea that the intelligentsia are the representatives of public opinion can be found in Karl Mannheim's Ideologie und Utopie (Bonn, 1929). This view maintained that the informed opinion of the 'enlightened' as opposed to the uninformed opinion of the masses constituted public opinion. The transition from the public sphere as an arena for intellectual and cultural debate to one of culture consumption is discussed by Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Thomas Burger (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), pp. 159-75.
18. For a history of the understanding of the term 'public opinion' in Germany, see Rüdiger vom Bruch, Wissenschaft, Politik und öffentliche Meinung. Gelehrtenpolitik im Wilhelminischen Deutschland, 1890-1914 (Husum, 1980)
19. and Ernst Fraenkel, 'öffentliche Meinung in Deutschland', in his Deutschland und die westlichen Demokratien (6th edition) (Stuttgart, 1974).
20. Koszyk, Deutsche Presse im 19. Jahrhundert, pp. 127 and 264.
21. For an examination of Russia in the German press in the nineteenth century see Mechthild Keller's 'Erst bewundert, dann gefürchtet. Pressestimmen bis zum Wiener Kongreß', and 'Es teilen sich die Geister. Pressestimmen von den Karlsbader Beschüssen bis zur Reichsgründung', in Mechthild Keller (ed.), Russen und Rußland aus deutscher Sicht. 19. Jahrhundert: Von der Jahrhundertwende bis zur Reichsgründung (West-östliche Spiegelungen 3).
22. For a review of the literature on the Russo-Japanese War see Jan Kusher, 'Der russisch-japanische Krieg 1904-1905 in Publizistik und Historiographie. Anmerkungen zur Literatur über den "kleinen-siegreichen Krieg'", Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 42, 2 (1994), 217-34.
23. Frankfurter Zeitung (henceforth FZ), 20 Feb. 1904.
24. Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (henceforth NAZ), 10 Feb. 1904.
25. To support the claim of neutrality the newspaper quoted excerpts from the Kölnische Zeitung, Vossische Zeitung and Freisinnigen Zeitung. The German government's conduct was not as straightforward as the papers made it seem. For a scathing review of German government policy during the war see Jonathan Steinberg, 'Germany and the Russo-Japanese War', American Historical Review, 75 (1970), 1965-86.
26. Münchner Neueste Nachrichten (henceforth MNN), 31 Dec. 1903.
27. The equation of the Asiatic with barbarism was not limited to Germany. In his work on 'Orientalism', Edward Said argues that the equation of the Orient with barbarism was an integral part of Western imperialism. See Edward Said, Orientalism (New York, 1994, first published 1978).
28. Leipziger Volkszeitung (henceforth LV), 24 Feb. 1904.
29. Max Weber, Zur Russischen Revolution von 1905 in his Gesamtausgabe, vol. I, part 10, ed. Wolfgang Mommsen (Tübingen, 1989), p. 26.
30. For a detailed examination of the Kölnische article and reactions, see Wernecke, Der Wille zur Weltgeltung, pp. 249-73
31. and Anton Jux, Der Kriegschrecken des Frühjahres 1914 in der europäische Presse (Berlin, 1929).
32. For Fischer's account of the incident see War of Illusions: German Policies 1911-1914 (London, 1975), pp. 373-9.
33. For the evidence that suggests otherwise see the following correspondence in Die große Politik der europäischen Kabinette: Pourtalès to Gottlieb von Jagow (Secretary of State), vol. 39, no. 15843, 6 March 1914; Bethmann Hollweg to Prince von Lichnowsky (German envoy to England), vol. 39, no. 15849, 14 March 1914; Georg Potschke, 'Kölnische Zeitung', in Fischer (ed.), Deutsche Zeitungen, p. 155.
34. Paul Rohrbach, 'Unser Gegner Rußland', in FZ, 18 Aug. 1914 and 19 Aug. 1914.
35. The contribution to the Frankfurter Zeitung was just the tip of Rohrbach's war-time efforts. For further examples see P. Rohrbach, Rußland und wir (Stuttgart, 1915);
36. P. Rohrbach, Bismarck und wir (München 1915);
37. P. Rohrbach, Der Kampf um Livland: Deutsch-Russisches Ringen durch sieben Jahrhunderte, vol. XI of Ernst Jackh and Institut für Kulturforschung in Wien (eds.), Weltkulture und Weltpolitik: Deutsche und osterreichische Schriftenfolge (Munich 1917);
38. P. Rohrbach (ed.), Das Baltenbuch (Dachau, 1917)
39. For an account of Schiemann's career as a journalist see Klaus Meyer, Theodor Schiemann als politischer Publizist (Frankfurt and Hamburg, 1956).
40. A discussion of Schiemann's 'Rußlandbild' can be found in Loren K. Campion, 'Behind the Modern Drang nach Osten: Baltic Emigrés and Russophobia in Nineteenth-Century Germany', Dissertation. Indiana University 1966. For an account that places Schiemann's 'Rußlandbild' in a broader intellectual context see Troy R. E. Paddock, 'Historiker als Poltiker', in Mechthild Keller (ed.), Russen und Rußland aus deutscher Sicht, vol. IV, 19./20. Jahrhundert: Von der Reichsgründung bus zum Ersten Weltkrieg (West-östliche Spiegelungen) (Munich, forthcoming).
41. References by various members of the German Foreign Ministry to Schiemann's articles in the Kreuzzeitung and the concern they caused abroad can be found as early as 1905, and his anti-Russian stance elicited a response from St Petersburg as early as 1908. See Die große Politik der europäischen Kabinette 1871-1914, vol. 19:2, no. 6214, 24 July 1905, and vol. 26, no. 9138, 27 Nov. 1908).
42. Meyer, Theodor Schiemann als politischer Publizist, p. 207.
43. Johannes Haller, 'Die russische Gefahr im deutschen Hause', vol. VI of Paul Rohrbach (ed.), Die russische Gefahr (Stuttgart, 1917). In this ninety-four page pamphlet, written in response to the second edition of Hoetzsch's Rußland: Eine Einführung auf Grund seiner Geschichte von 1904 bis 1912 (1st edn 1913, 2nd edn 1915), Haller criticized Hoetzsch's theoretical assumptions (e.g. that one can talk about a European Russia and an Asian Russia), his scholarly omissions, and his historical analysis of the origins of Russia as a whole. Hoetzsch claimed that the Tatar invasions pushed the centre of Russia from Kiev to Moscow. Conversely, Haller contended that Moscow was a colony of Kiev, but tore itself from Kiev and gained power itself. In other words, the Muscovite state was not the continuation of the Kievian state, but a distinctly separate (Asiatic) state. Ultimately, Haller denied that Russia was a nation-state in the modern sense of the term.
44. In his Theodor Schiemann als politischer Publizist, Meyer does not offer a concrete explanation for Schiemann's departure from the Kreuzzeitung. Leo Loewensen claims that Schiemann's virulent anti-Russian sentiment became too extreme for his conservative Junker readership, which was more inclined to view England as the main villain - in what Loewensen calls the 'Gott strafe England spirit' - and that this led to his departure from the Kreuzzeitung. Loewensen offers no documentary proof for this view. However, the ideological position of Schiemann's replacement, Hoetzsch, lends considerable weight to Loewensen's view. See Leo Loewensen, 'Karl Stahlin: 1865-1939', The Slavonic and East European Review, 28 (1949), 154.
45. For an account of Schiemann's relationship with the Kaiser see Wilhelm II, My Memoirs, 1878-1918 (New York, 1922), pp. 194, 195-6.
46. Wolfgang J. Mommsen, 'Nationalism, Imperialism and Official Press in Wilhelmine Germany 1850-1914', in Opinion publique et politique extérieure, vol. I, 1870-1914 (Ecole Française de Rome, 1981), p. 382.
47. George L. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology. The Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York, 1964).
48. See Woodruff D. Smith, Politics and Science of Culture, 1840-1920 (Oxford, 1991) for an examination of the link between the culture and nation in German scientific thought which shows that what Mosse calls 'Völkisch thought' was not confined to conservative circles and actually has what might be described as liberal roots.