Controversy followed Herz during the early 1910s, when his writing raised suspicions of plagiarism. A vaster controversy came with Romania's participation in the war, when Herz became noted as a supporter of the Central Powers. He remained in German-occupied territory, putting out the daily paper "Scena", which became a leading voice of Romanian "Germanophilia", but was also a pioneering contribution to cultural journalism. He was arrested by returning loyalists during late 1918, and sent to Văcărești prison, but was finally acquitted in March 1919. The controversy nevertheless survived, also leading to authorship disputes with a former friend, Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești, and provoking the enmity of writers Liviu Rebreanu and George Ranetti.