Dr Muehlon's Diary

[IanA]

I recently chanced across a copy of this very interesting book and would like to know more about the author and the impact which the diary made on its publication. The book also appears to have been published under the title 'The Vandal of Europe' and been pretty widely circulated. Although the book extends to 247 pages, the diary only covers the period from early August to 14th November, 1914. The content is intriguing because of the author's position (he was a director of the great Krupp's armaments firm until the end of 1914), his contacts with highly-placed government officials and his level-headed analysis of the war. He expresses horror both at the invasion of Belgium and the subsequent brutality perpetrated there; he is firm in his conviction that war could have been avoided at any time if it were not for the Prussian desire for it; he is scathing about the propaganda emanating from 'Wolff's Bureau' and contemptuous of the Kaiser.

It was first published in Switzerland, where Muehlon had gone to live in 1917, but now seems rather obscure - I had never heard of it before and a search of this section brings up one mention in passing. Any further information will be gratefully received.

[David Filsell]

Muehlon is a fairly shadowy figure - not much easily available about the man or the book. Herewith my research notes for my proposed bibliography/commentary about German books on the GW. Hope they are of some interest. Not certain what happened to him after the war as yet. Hope it helps

From the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 Dr Wilhelm Muehlon, a Bavarian was a rare dissenting German voice against the war. Until 1914 he was a director of Krupp’s, the probably the largest company in Europe. He resigned from Krupp in late 1914, claiming to have freed himself “himself from the profession he loathed”. Muehlon emigrated to Switzerland late 1917 from where, on May 7th 1917, he sent a memorandum to the Imperial German Chancellor, Felix von Bethmann-Hollweg, “repudiating the German government and all its works”.

The many allegations about the nation’s conduct, and it its role in ‘priming’ the war, were roundly denounced the government. Not least he claimed that Austria had been promised “carte blanche in her dealings with Serbia, thus committing the German Government to a policy which was certain to provoke a European War”. The memorandum was debated at a meeting of the Main Committee of the Reichstag, on March 16th 1918. Speaking for the government Franz von Papen, the Imperial German Vice-Chairman, described Muehlon as “pathological”; a “neurasthenic who could not even come into a room if it contained a few gentlemen with whom he was personally acquainted”.

Dr Muehlon’s memorandum was made public in France on March 31st 1914 when it was published in the communist newspaper founded by Juan Jaurès L‘Humanité. On May 4th that year it was published in the Swiss German language Die Freie Zeitung. It was not published in Germany - in Berliner Tageblatt - until March 21st 1918. On June 10th 1918, Julian Grande, of The New York Times, reported from Berne that Muehlon had “bought a good deal of land and an old country house near Berne and settled there with his family” He also noted that Muehlon had been called-up by the German authorities for military service a few weeks earlier. Grande added, “Dr Muehlon has though it best to remain in Switzerland, although by doing so he constitutes himself a deserter, and although the position of deserters in Switzerland is not altogether a pleasant one”.

The journalist also recorded the response of a well placed Swiss contact on the controversy triggered by Muehlon’s memorandum and the doctor’s decision to publish his diaries. The contact had informed Grande that:

“... Dr Muehlon did not intend to publish the diary until these statements were made about him in the Reichstag and now, when people read the book the world in general will be able to laugh at to scorn the notion that of a mentally unbalanced man having clear, direct, and logical a style From his own observations Grande concluded: Nothing appears more clearly from this diary than the fact that Dr Muehlon considers – for excellent reasons – based on fact, which he cites in detail – that Austria, her intolerance and lack of conciliation generally, were mainly responsible for outbreak of the war, and the

individual most responsible for rushing Europe into it was the German Emperor”.

Muelon’s published account of, and judgement upon, Germany’s involvement of the war were taken from personal records; a diary which kept from early August 1914 until November 1914. The book also contained “the substance” of his communication to Bethmann-Hollweg. It was first published in Zurich by Orell Füsli in May 1918, titled the title Die Verheerung Europas: Aufzeichnungen aus den ersten Kriegsmonaten (The Devastation of Europe: Notes Written During the First Few Months of the War..

The work was published in the United States, by G P Putnam’s Sons in 1918 as The Vandal of Europe in a translation by William L MacPherson. The British edition, Dr Muehlon’s Diary, was published in an unattributed, different, translation the same year by the London based international publisher Cassell and Company. Unsurprisingly, in view of its criticisms of German policy and conduct in the war, the book sold well and it entered at least three impressions in the United States.

There are some differences between the two editions of the diary, mainly it appears translational rephrasing. However, the US edition includes a lengthy publisher’s forward, outlining Muehlon’s memorandum to Bethmann-Hollweg, and an introduction by the translator, MacPherson, as well as Muehlon’s original preface. The British work includes a briefer introduction by the book’s unattributed translator and a reworded version of Muelon’s preface. Throughout the text translational differences between the two versions are evident.

Unsurprisingly, the British edition promotes Muehlon as a man who displayed both clarity of thought in his denunciations of Germany’s support for the war and its military conduct, and the author’s insight into the “issues at stake”. It adds adds that the author was “highly sensitive to moral considerations and placed moral values above material success”.

In the US edition, MacPherson adds a number of further details about Muehlon’s career underlining the author’s high level business contacts and connections. Not least these outline his involvement with “important business with Morocco shortly before the affair of Agadir” and close communication with the Deutsche Bank “which played so large a part in financing German enterprise” and a director if the bank who was to become Germany’s Imperial Minister.

Although now little read, both the US and the British editions of Muehlon’s diary are readily obtainable from book dealers in both countries and the American edition is available on-line.

As a footnote to the 1918 New York Times reports on Wilhelm Muehlon’s career, on March 1919 the paper reported that following the assassination on February 21st 1919 of Kurt Eisner - the socialist politician, who had declared Bavaria a free state on November 8th 1918, and become its first republican premier – Muehlon was called to Munich by the Bavarian Central Council. There, Muehlon was offered the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in a coalition government.

After negotiations Muehlon became convinced that Eisner’s assassination had totally polarised the Bavarian monarchists and Bolshevists. He concluded that the two were no more than opposing and evil forces – and concluded that in the mortal struggle for supremacy between the two extremes democracy seemed doomed to be overwhelmed. In consequence, two days after his arrival in Munich he declined the post. In the words of the The New York Times Muehlon considered:

“the outlook seems so hopeless that he has decided to remain in Switzerland for the present”.

[SiegeGunner]

Thanks for that very useful commentary, David. Do you have a link to the online copy of the US edition?

[IanA]

I'll add my thanks too, David. I wonder if there is an error in your account? I'm not sure how a memorandum penned in May, 1917 could be published in France in 1914. Perhaps I have misunderstood something.

[David Filsell]

Thanks for responses. Re link - no but put up the title and you should find it. Re error. Yes it was an error. I will correct. Finger trouble!

Best regards

David

[IanA]

It appears that the good Dr Muehlon is as shadowy a figure as I had thought. It is a shame that the diary stopped so soon - it would have been interesting to read his views on the use of gas and other developments.

Ian