GERMANY: Mutter of Versailles

Death came kindly last week to Dr. Hermann Müller, the Socialist Deputy who “threw away his career” by signing the Treaty of Versailles for Germany, then fooled everyone by twice becoming Chancellor of the German Republic (1920; 1928).

Never a great but always a most useful statesman, Dr. Müller once described as follows the supreme moments of his life:

“In Weimar I learned from French newspapers that it was intended to have the Treaty of Versailles signed with a special pen supplied by the leagues of Alsace and Lorraine. I decided to avoid this deliberately prepared humiliation by signing with my own fountain pen. . . .

“[At Versailles] I allowed Clemenceau’s speech to pass untranslated. Dr. Bell and I stood up and walked down the room.* The moment was silent and ceremonious and we could feel the gaze of a thousand eyes.

“When we reached the table I drew out my fountain pen and signed against my seal, which had been set at the very end of the page.

“Dr. Bell did not possess a fountain pen, so in order to be on the safe side he had obtained a cheap pen holder and pen from the hotel, wrapped it up in a bit of newspaper and stuck it into his waistcoat pocket. He produced it and used it to affix his signature.

“The press the world over scrupulously noted with many appropriate comments that I used a fountain pen to sign the treaty. One Paris newspaper published a rather poor caricature with the malicious but witty inscription, ‘The Huns’ Last Trick—Hermann Müller Signs in Invisible Ink.’

“That inspiration came too late.

“When I returned to my hotel my nerves gave way, although for the last hour and a half I had had myself under complete control. The very second I laid down my hat and coat, a cold sweat such as I had never known in my life before broke out all over my body—the physical reaction which naturally followed the unutterable psychic strain. And then for the first time I knew that the worst hour of my life lay behind me.”

Last week Dr. Müller’s last hours ebbed away in complete coma. He died after a gall-bladder operation at Berlin, aged 54. So fast have German Cabinets fallen since the War that Dr. Müller’s short total period of two years as Chancellor stands as the second longest record.†

*The other German signatory, Centrist Deputy Dr. Johannes Bell.

† Centrist Leader Dr. Wilhelm Marx has been Chancellor four times for a total of three years.