The German Question, Part Eighty-One

Kaiser Wilhelm & World War I" Part Two/K "The Germans At War"

"Revolution Comes To Germany"

As the Allies pushed back the German lines in the late summer of 1918, and with the prospect of another winter looming, Prince Maximilian "Max" von Baden, heir to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Baden, was appointed Chancellor of Germany. The prince was known for his opposition to the unrestricted submarine warfare which had so antagonized the United States, and for his opposition to the general policies of Germany's right wing, in both the government and in the military. The Prince included in his government members of Germany's Social Democratic Party, a first for the nation. The Social Democrats were German socialists. (Please be kind and revive any right wingers who may be reading this. They may need a tranquilizer, and dab away any foam from around their mouths, as I'm sure they are shouting, "Head for the hills... the socialists are coming. This is the end...the end of civilization! Burn my picture of Barry Goldwater! If they find it, they'll send me to a gulag." [Ah, what's a 'gulag?' ] "I don't know, but they always send good upstanding right wingers, I mean, conservatives there. They like to use those foreign words, too, to confuse people. Long live Ronald Reagan, unbalanced budgets, health care only for those who can afford it, and tax cuts for the wealthy! Down with Keynesian economics, except when we use it!")

Prince von Baden was negotiating to end the war on the best possible terms for his country, but with the army losing thousands of men each day to surrender and desertion, the German negotiators had little leverage. Then, with President Woodrow Wilson calling for the abdication of the Kaiser, and the prospect of a harsh peace appearing to be more likely, General Ludendorff and the German admiralty decided on a last ditch major naval attack on Britain's Royal Navy in late October 1918, without permission from the new civilian German government. German naval personnel weren't stupid, and many resisted the order, unwilling to risk their lives in such a futile endeavor. A number of sailors were arrested, but the planned attack was halted. While total proof of a right wing conspiracy is lacking, there are those who believe Ludendorff, who had already shown signs of emotional instability, and other military leaders were seeking to shift any blame for the impending German defeat onto the new left-leaning civilian authorities. The whole fiasco caused, at least in part, Kaiser Wilhelm to dismiss Ludendorff, who escaped to Sweden within a short time. Even though the naval attack had been called off, German naval officers felt their sailors were no longer reliable, and word of the naval revolt spread throughout the country. With the Russian revolutionary example fresh in the minds of many, demonstrations took place, and navy personnel joined shipyard workers and other workers in calling for the release of the arrested sailors and for an end to war.

In the meantime, Austria-Hungary literally fell apart, as the various nationality groups declared independence, as attempts at government reforms failed to satisfy their quests for independence. Strikes and protests to end the war crippled the empire. The clincher came on October 31 when Hungary withdrew from its part of the empire, essentially leaving the Habsburg Kaiser, Karl I,* with only his German part of the former empire. On November 3 Austria signed a treaty with Italy.

* Karl was emperor of the entire empire, but he was also simultaneously "King of Hungary."

WORD HISTORY:
Lager/Lair-The word "lager" is pretty much confined to use in English as the short form of "Lagerbier," a term which English borrowed from German in the mid 1800s. While "lager" was a borrowing from close relative German, English has its own related word, "lair." These words go back to the Indo European base "legh," which meant "to lay, to lie (down)," and indeed it is related to English "lie" and "lay." This gave Old Germanic "legraz/legran," with the same meaning. This then gave Old High German "legar," which meant "bed;" that is, "a place to lie down." That meaning began to recede somewhat, as later the spelling became "leger," and it took on the broader meaning of "place to lay things in storage, storeroom;"^ and also, "camp, encampment;" that is "place for soldiers (or others) to lie down, settle down." The base word is also used as a verb in German, meaning "to store," and it also has given German their word for "siege," a "Belagerung;" that is, "a place where you keep an enemy 'stored,' " if you will (the verb being "belagern," "to besiege," and English has the related "beleaguer," ["besieged"] which we got from Dutch "belegeren," with the same meaning). The modern German spelling developed as "Lager," with a capital "L," as German nouns are capitalized. The word's use with beer is due to a process developed in Germany which had the idea of "storing" the beer in a cool place for a second fermentation of yeasts which were on the bottom of the cask and needed cool temperatures to activate. The process didn't become an immediate success in terms of popularity, because it required brewers to have "storage" space (usually caves, back then, or fairly deep cellars) for the process to work, and small breweries couldn't afford that. Prior to that time, yeasts fermented on the top, and didn't need cool temperatures, and these are usually called "ales." "Lager" still does have the meaning "bed or couch" in German, but to be quite honest, to my knowledge, it is not used in that sense very often anymore, although one never knows about regional uses of words in German, or even in English, for that matter. Further, like its English cousin "lair," German "Lager" can also mean "a place for animals to live, a den," but not all that commonly in more recent times. (See further)

Meanwhile, the Old Germanic form "legraz/legran" gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leger," which, like its German relative, meant "bed, place to lie down." (It had some other meanings too, even "grave;" that is, "a place to lay someone to final rest"). The spelling and pronunciation seems to have altered to the current mode during the Middle English period,^^ and the meaning of "bed" began to recede, as it did in German, and the meaning "place where animals live, a den" became the main meaning in the 1500s, and it has so remained into the modern era. With German "Lager" sharing in that meaning, it may be that long ago that was another general meaning of the Old Germanic word.

^ When I was a kid, it was common to hear people say, "We'll have to lay things in for...," and then whatever the reason, like bad weather, a flood or winter, and the obvious meaning was "store things." I don't know about you, but I don't hear that expression as often today. My point, however, is that English "lay" and German "lager," relatives of one another, have that connection of "store," too, although the German word much more so.

^^ The "g" sound obviously died out, or more precisely, blended with the vowel to produce the "ai." Many English words once had a "g" in their spelling, which then took the similar course of blending with a vowel, while some of the close relatives retained the "g." "Day" was once spelled "daeg" (compare Low German "Dag" and standard German "Tag") and "say" was once spelled "secgan," then "seggen" (compare Low German "säggen," standard German "sagen" and Dutch "zeggen"). Note: English, like its Germanic relatives, only had to use one word to express the infinitive form of a verb, like "seggen," meant "to say." English grammar changed pretty radically during the Middle English period, simplifying things considerably. Most of its Germanic cousins have retained many of the more complex grammatical features.