Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-09-18
"CLOWN PRINCE" OF
GERMANY HATEDBY
FELLOW STUDENTS
Bohemian Army Officer Relates
Personal Experiences With
Frederick William at German
University
BY JOHN L. kuBlk.
Hgrs Co, 9Th Group, NJ. r. D,

| Camp Hancock, Ga
! Beside the kaiser and Field Mar
| shall Won Hlndenburg the Gre wn Prince
! Frederick William is the most impor-
| tant parsonage in Germany today.
| Here in America and in the allied
| countries he is known only as com
| mander Of German armies In Cha
/ payne and around Verdun. and being
the backbone Of the Prussian military
| clique, he naturally is conceded to he
| one of the Criginators Of the world
| war
But so far no information that
would throw light on his general char
| aCter has been given
My friend, who is now an officer in
! Czecho- Slovak army, told me the fol-
! lowing story which shows that the
| Clown Prince OF Potsdam. as His
dighness might properly be called, has
an arbitrary nature
While fellow student In Bonn"
said my friend, the Kronprinz was far
from popular with us. and many Ger
man students enyied me my iudepen-
dent position as a foreign subject-an
Austrian.
One OF the unpleasant characteris-
| tics Of the Kronprinz at that time was
that whenever he entered a room, be 1t
small or large. in the University class
or restaurant, he expected every occu-
pant of that room to rise and remain
standing till it had pleased him to sa
lutte and had given sign that we might
sit down again.
Now once in a while it would hap
pen that His Imperial Ilghness would
enter our particular restaurant while
we were in discussion, take his seat
at the tble and forget all about his
humble subjects and myself The
whole room would be standing patient
ly, waiting for the sign of release,
which sometimes was withheld from
five to fifteei. minutes.
Il feel sure that it must be impossi-
BILE for a person, who has never been
in Germany and seen the Kultur at Is
! height, to picture a club room filled
with students, all of them standing up
and not one of them with the nerve to
| sit down till they had received permis-
sion. OF course | always followed the
| example of my German fellow students
| and rose when the kronprinz entered,
! l had no objection W whatsoever to pay
| ing due respect to the future Emperor
OF Germany, but those standing per-
| formanCes thoroughly CALLED me and
| did not forget to tell about 1t, either
"One day the Kronprir" again en-
! tered our restaurant, evidently in a
very i'll humor. We all rose, while he
sat down, and looked as If he was 60
| ing to let us enjoy some standing ex-
ercise. l sat down in my chair, took
my humpen of beer and with a Prosit'
| meme Herren,' emptied it,
"Brrrr, The look of horror which
came over every face in that room l
shall never forget if I live to be a
hundred,
1T seemed that everyone expected
that the least that was going TO happen
to me would be to hang at daybreak
and to tell you the truth, after I saw
all those ashen gray Mortified faces l
began to have that we'll known curious
feeling down my back. OF course. I
had to see the thing through now.
The KronprinZ did not give me
much time to consider ny audacity
In about three jumps of five feet each
he was in front of me with a Him
mel Kreutz donnerwetter, Brrrr. und
SO weiter!"
Being addressed by royalty, had TO
get up again. and quietly and with as
much dignity as l could manage 1
answered I very much beg your high
ness pardon. but I would like to draw
the attention Of your highness to the
fact that unfortunately 20 I do not
happen to have the honor of being a
German subject and therefore owe al
legiance to his highness my Kron-
prinz'
For a few seconds we stood there
| cycling each other, both l feel sure,
wishing to -. Then he turned
around, went back to his table, waved
| his hand and said 'Seutzt each (sit
DOWN. II was a Ions time before con-,
versation was started again without
/ restraint, and ever since that day l got
| the Dynamo OF der frenche Boehm'
| (the fresh Bohemian.
| Terrible things We're predicted for
me, but after the first excitement was
over I did not care much, but the
! Kronprinz never forgave me.
-Four years later l met the Kron-
| prinz again. 1t was while taking part
/ in the German Kaisermanoeuyers as
| Einiaehriger Freiwilligcr tone year
| volunteer being attached to the staff
/ of the commander OF a division.
| "One day l was sent out with an i'm
portant but verbal report, TO be deliv-
| cred to the Kronprinz When I APP
| peared in his tent h. seemed TO recog-
| uize me and to judge by his manner he
was not going to let bygones be by
cones.
We have met before, havr we not?'
! and smilingly grimly he looked me
| over.
Il had that honor and pleasure, your
highness, upon several occasions" I
replied
After that I started my report,
standing at attention inside his tent.
But l might just as well have been