I just came across this interesting article about Kaiser Wilhelm sending a
portrait to a convent in the United States in 1913.
Kaiser Wilhelm portrait
Many people believe that, from the start, the majority of Americans were
opposed to the Germans in the First World War but that isn’t the case at all.
Until early 1917, there was huge support for Germany and a lot of ill-feeling
towards Britain particularly since many American cities were populated by German
immigrants, who had contributed a great deal to society (by, for example,
introducing kindergartens and other novel ideas). When the British blockade
prevented arms or supplies from reaching the Central Powers, one German U-boat
managed to reach America where it was received with great acclaim! People
greeted the sailors as heroes and rushed to give them supplies to take back to
Germany. Even the sinking of the Lusitania failed to dampen the Americans’
support for the Central Powers but suddenly, following Woodrow Wilson’s
re-election in November 1916, the newspapers turned against Germany and began
printing stories of atrocities in such a way as so persuade the American people
to support America’s entry into the war ('
he kept us out of the war'??). The entire episode seems very
deliberately staged.
One of the most unpleasant aspects of this was the way in which all German
patents taken out in America were seized. This included all the chemical and
pharmaceutical patents, which were based on ideas which were far ahead of any
other nation in the world. These ‘stolen’ patents were then sold off for next to
nothing or given away freely to specific American companies the owners of which
often had connections to members of the US government or bankers. This was
basically theft of German intellectual property rights but it resulted in great
success for many of the pharmaceutical companies which still operate
internationally today.
I sincerely hope that the nuns of the St. Edith convent kept their
portrait!
Many people believe that, from the start, the majority of Americans were
opposed to the Germans in the First World War but that isn’t the case at all.
Until early 1917, there was huge support for Germany and a lot of ill-feeling
towards Britain particularly since many American cities were populated by German
immigrants, who had contributed a great deal to society (by, for example,
introducing kindergartens and other novel ideas). When the British blockade
prevented arms or supplies from reaching the Central Powers, one German U-boat
managed to reach America where it was received with great acclaim! People
greeted the sailors as heroes and rushed to give them supplies to take back to
Germany. Even the sinking of the Lusitania failed to dampen the Americans’
support for the Central Powers but suddenly, following Woodrow Wilson’s
re-election in November 1916, the newspapers turned against Germany and began
printing stories of atrocities in such a way as so persuade the American people
to support America’s entry into the war ('he kept us out of the war'??). The entire episode seems very
deliberately staged.