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[[Main_Page | WWI Document Archive ]] > [[1914 Documents]] > '''Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals'''
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As representatives of German Science and Art, we hereby protest to the
civilized world against the lies and calumnies with which our enemies are
endeavoring to stain the honor of Germany in her hard struggle for
existence -- in a struggle that has been forced on her.<br><br> 

The iron mouth of events has proved the untruth of the fictitious German
defeats; consequently misrepresentation and calumny are all the more
eagerly at work. As heralds of truth we raise our voices against these.<br><br>

<I>It is not true</I> that Germany is guilty of having caused this war.
Neither the people, the Government, nor the "Kaiser" wanted war....<br><br> 

<I>It is not true</I> that we trespassed in neutral Belgium. It has been
proved that France and England had resolved on such a trespass, and it has
likewise been proved that Belgium had agreed to their doing so. It would 
have been suicide on our part not to have been beforehand.<br><br> 

<I>It is not true</I> that the life and property of a single Belgian citizen
was injured by our soldiers without the bitterest defense having made it
necessary....<br><br> 

<I>It is not true</I> that our troops treated Louvain brutally. Furious 
inhabitants having treacherously fallen upon them in their quarters, our 
troops with aching hearts were obliged to fire a part of the town, as 
punishment. The greatest part of Louvain has been preserved....<br><br> 

<I>It is not true</I> that our warfare pays no respects to international 
laws. It knows no undisciplined cruelty. But in the east, the earth is 
saturated with the blood of women and children unmercifully butchered by 
the wild Russian troops, and in the west, dumdum bullets mutilate the 
breasts of our soldiers....<br><br> 

<I>It is not true</I> that the combat against our so-called militarism is 
not a combat against our civilization, as our enemies hypocritically pretend 
it is. Were it not for German militarism, German civilization would long 
since have been extirpated....<br><br>

We cannot wrest the poisonous weapon -- the lie -- out of the hands of our 
enemies. All we can do is proclaim to all the world, that our enemies are 
giving false witness against us.... <br><br>

Have faith in us! Believe, that we shall carry on this war to the end as a
civilized nation, to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Kant,
is just as sacred as its own hearths and homes.<br><br> 


Adolf von Baeyer<br>
Peter Behrens<br>
Emil Adolf von Behring, Professor of Medicine, Marburg<br>
Wilhelm von Bode<br>
Aloïs Brandl<br>
Lujo Brentano<br>
Justus Brinkmann<br>
Johannes Conrad<br>
Franz von Defregger<br>
Richard Dehmel<br>
Adolf Deissmann<br>
Wilhelm Dörpfeld<br>
Friedrich von Duhn<br>
Paul Ehrlich, Frankfort on the Main<br>
Albert Erhard<br>
Carl Engler<br>
Gerhart Esser<br>
Rudolf Christoph Eucken<br>
Herbert Eulenberg<br>
Henrich Finke<br>
Hermann Emil Fisch<br>er
Wilhelm Foerster<br>
Ludwig Fulda<br>
Eduard Gebhardt<br>
J. J. de Groot<br>
Fritz Haber, Professor of Chemistry, Berlin<br>
Ernst Haeckel, Professor of Zoology, Jena<br>
Max Halbe<br>
Adolf von Harnack, General Director of the Royal Library, Berlin<br>
Gerhart Hauptmann<br>
Karl Hauptmann<br>
Gustav Hellmann<br>
Wilhelm Herrmann<br>
Andreas Heusler<br>
Adolf von Hildebrand<br>
Ludwig Hoffmann<br>
Engelbert Humperdinck<br>
Leopold Graf von Kalckreuth<br>
Arthur Kampf<br>
Fritz-August von Kaulbach<br>
Theodor Kipp<br>
Felix Klein<br>
Max Klinger<br>
Aloïs Knoepfler<br>
Anton Koch<br>
Paul Laband<br>
Karl Lamprecht, Professor of History, Leipzig<br>
Philipp Lenard<br>
Maximilien Lenz<br>
Max Liebermann<br>
Franz von Liszt<br>
Ludwig Manzel<br>
Joseph Mausbach<br>
Georg von Mayr<br>
Sebastian Merkle<br>
Eduard Meyer<br>
Heinrich Morf<br>
Friedrich Naumann<br>
Albert Neisser<br>
Walther Hermann Nernst<br>
Wilhem Ostwald<br>
Bruno Paul<br>
Max Planck, Professor of Physics, Berlin<br>
Albert Plohn<br>
Georg Reicke<br>
Max Reinhardt, Director of the German Theatre, Berlin<br>
Alois Riehl<br>
Karl Robert<br>
Wilhelm Roentgen, Professor of Physics, Munich<br>
Max Rubner<br>
Fritz Schaper<br>
Adolf von Schlatter<br>
August Schmidlin<br>
Gustav von Schmoller, Professor of National Economy, Berlin<br>
Reinhold Seeberg<br>
Martin Spahn<br>
Franz von Stuck<br>
Hermann Sudermann<br>
Hans Thoma<br>
Wilhelm Trübner<br>
Karl Vollmöller<br>
Richard Voss<br>
Karl Vossler<br>
Siegfried Wagner<br>
Wilhelm Waldeyer<br>
August von Wassermann<br>
Felix Weingartner<br>
Theodor Wiegand<br>
Wilhelm Wien<br>
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff<br>
Richard Willstätter<br>
Wilhelm Windelband<br>
Wilhelm Wundt<br>


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