Whether they were pro- or antiwar, Berliners continued to fill the streets in the last days of July, if for no other reason than to get the latest information regarding the escalating crisis. On July 29 they learned that the czar had mobilized his troops on Russia’s border with Austria. This prompted renewed demonstrations of support for Vienna, along with calls for German mobilization against Russia. The kaiser saw Russia’s action as the latest episode in a long-running international conspiracy to keep Germany down. Although the order to mobilize was given in St. Petersburg, Wile believed that it had been set in motion by the anti-German policies of his late uncle, King Edward VII. “[Edward] is stronger after his death than I who am still alive,” he cried.
Learning on July 31 that Russia had extended its mobilization to the German border, the kaiser announced a state of drohende Kriegsgefahr—imminent danger of war. At 5:00 P.M. that day a lieutenant of the Grenadier Guards stood before the statue of Frederick the Great on Unter den Linden and read a proclamation from the Commanding General of Berlin giving him full authority over the city according to the Prussian Law of Siege of 1851. This law suspended civil rights, barred civilians from carrying arms, and granted the military the right to search houses at any time; it amounted, in effect, to granting the military dictatorial control over the capital for the duration of the war.
The announcement of Kriegsgefahr prompted widespread jubilation in Berlin. Thousands of men, not just the young and stupid, rushed to enlist in the army. Among them was Count Harry Kessler, a cosmopolitan art connoisseur who in the Weimar era would be identified with liberal internationalism. In 1914, however, he was proud to call himself a conservative nationalist. He spoke for all those crowding Berlin’s recruiting centers when he declared, upon ordering his military kit: “One breathes freely, the pressure and cloying closeness fall away, replaced by cool decisiveness.” The bellicosity, however, was mixed with signs of fear. Berliners removed their deposits from banks and housewives stormed the stores to stockpile food and supplies. In response, store owners hiked prices. These actions set the tone for an internal struggle for private advantage that would accompany the carnage on the front during the next four years.
On August 1, as the kaiser’s government met in the Royal Palace to debate its course of action if Russia refused to rescind its mobilization order, a crowd gathered outside and serenaded the ministers with patriotic songs, accompanied by the band of the Elisabeth Regiment. “The enthusiasm knew no bounds,” cabled the Berlin correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung at 1:55 P.M., “and when as a finale the united will of the masses elicited the Pariser Einzugsmarsch [a march celebrating Germany’s entry into Paris in 1871] the enthusiasm reached its high point.” At about 5:30 P.M. a car rushed out with a General Staff officer inside who shouted one word: “mobilization!” The mob responded with more singing and cries of “We want the kaiser!” Shortly thereafter Wile appeared on a balcony and declared:
From the depths of my heart I thank you for the expressions of your love, of your faithfulness. In the battle now lying ahead of us, I recognize in my Volk no more parties. Among us there are only Germans, and if some of the parties in the course of past differences turned against me, I forgive them all. All that now matters is that we stand together like brothers, and then God will help the German sword to victory.
That evening and the following day nationalist Berliners celebrated the German mobilization with an enormous party. Pubs and beer gardens stayed open all night to accommodate the patriotic revelers, mostly young middle-class men and their girls. Local churches performed some 2,000 emergency marriages for couples soon to be separated by duty at the front. Taking their cue from the kaiser, previously disaffected groups like homosexual rights campaigners and women’s franchise crusaders vowed to support the nationalist cause. So did the Association of German Jews, which proclaimed that every German Jew was “ready to sacrifice all the property and blood demanded by duty.”
As Germany was now at war with Russia, St. Petersburg’s ambassador to Berlin hastened to leave the German capital on August 2. The American ambassador, James W. Gerard, lent his Russian colleague his car for the trip from the Russian embassy to the railway station. As soon as the car pulled out a mob surrounded it and tried to overturn it. People jumped on the running board and struck the ambassador and his family with sticks. Although the ambassadorial party eventually made it to the station, their treatment was an ugly example of the xenophobic frenzy awakened by the prospect of war.
Germany’s initial mobilization was aimed only at Russia, but since that nation was deemed too inefficient and backward to mount a quick assault on the Reich, Berlin’s battle order, the famous Schlieffen Plan, called for a rapid conquest of France before St. Petersburg could get its military “steamroller” moving. The kaiser summed up this strategy succinctly: “Paris for lunch, dinner in St. Petersburg.” To achieve this goal Germany would have to slash toward Paris through Belgium, whose neutrality was guaranteed by Great Britain. On August 1 Britain’s foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, hinted that London might remain neutral if Germany made no military moves against France or Belgium. The kaiser, ever hopeful of an accommodation with Britain, was prepared to change course and confine opening operations to Russia, but his generals insisted that the Schlieffen Plan could not be altered without producing total chaos. Their insistence upon placing military tactics above questions of statecraft provided a vivid confirmation of Clausewitz’s dictum that war is too important to be left to the generals. Taking France’s mobilization on August 2 as a casus belli, Germany declared war the following day. At the same time, Berlin chose to ignore a last-minute British ultimatum demanding Germany’s respect for Belgian neutrality. As of midnight on August 4, the Reich was also at war with Britain.
Upon learning of London’s declaration of war, Wile raged over Britain’s “betrayal” of his personal friendship with the English people and Germany’s historic ties to the island nation. This was the thanks that the Germans got for helping save the Britons’ bacon at Waterloo, he fumed. Many Berliners shared the kaiser’s shock and rage over Britain’s decision to fight. On August 5 a menacing crowd surrounded the Hotel Adlon, where some British journalists were staying. Another angry mob gathered outside the British embassy and pelted the building with stones. America’s Ambassador Gerard became so concerned for the safety of his British counterpart, Sir Edward Goschen, that he drove over to the British compound and offered him sanctuary in the American diplomatic residence. Goschen declined the offer and managed to slip unharmed from the city on the following day. In the meantime, Gerard himself ran into trouble upon leaving the British embassy. As he drove away in his open car a man leaped on the running board and spat on him. Infuriated, Gerard jumped out of the car and chased down his assailant. When the man learned that he had assaulted the American ambassador, rather than the representative of perfidious Albion, he apologized profusely.
The German government made no apologies for rounding up British and French citizens in Berlin and interning them in Spandau Fortress. At the opening of hostilities, Berlin’s military command sent out an appeal to the citizenry asking for help in ferreting out spies and rendering “such dangerous people harmless.” This was an open invitation to vigilantism, and the results were immediately visible in attacks on foreigners and people who looked foreign. Because she had black hair and exotic features, the Danish-born actress Asta Nielsen was mistaken for a Russian and accosted by a mob. She might have been badly injured had not one of her attackers suddenly recognized her and called off the assault. But she was advised to leave the scene immediately because, as her savior put it, “the people have completely lost their senses.”