Despondence, dependence and dignity: on the dilemmas of being an object of international charity in Western Europe – a Weimar German case study

ABSTRACT

The history of international humanitarianism is usually told from the perspective of donors and aid providers. Throughout the twentieth century, large humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, national Red Cross societies and a range of United Nations agencies have been the main channels of international aid and, as a result, a major focus of historical attention. In contrast, we know little about the feelings and thoughts of the ‘recipients’ of aid, who are often portrayed, partly for lack of sources, as innocent, passive and grateful. This paper challenges this narrative, using post-First World War Germany as a case study. It shows how difficult it was for many Germans to accept and ask for ‘charity’ from the international community, especially from former enemies. As a defeated and humiliated nation, accepting foreign charity could be deeply embarrassing for Germany: a reminder of defeat, poverty and déclassement. As a result, German officials spent a great deal of time and effort restricting German fundraising abroad, seeking to allow only such international aid as they deemed compatible with German honour and Great Power status. In the emotional environment of the post-war years, being the object of international charity raised much larger questions for Germany about international dependence and national dignity. Like many recipients in the twentieth century, Germany was far from a passive recipient.

KEYWORDS:

• Humanitarianism
• fundraising
• dignity
• interwar period
• humiliation

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Romain Fathi and Melanie Oppenheimer, as well as the two anonymous reviewers, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I would also like to thank Naomi Theresa Müller for her help with the final formatting and referencing of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The innocent hungry child gladly receiving a bowl of soup or a loaf of bread is seared into the public imaginary of international humanitarianism. On the imagery of children see Fehrenbach, “Children and Other Civilians.” The implications of this are political, of course, and have been extensively criticized; see the debate on ‘white saviours’ and the need to decolonize the aid industry, e.g. Cole, “The White-Savior Industrial Complex”; Hinsliff, “‘White Saviours’ belong in the 1980s”; Currion, “Decolonising Aid, Again.” Considerable attention has also focused on voluntourism and humanitarian selfie culture; see Garland, “The Visual Rhetoric of ‘Voluntourists’.”

2. Recent research has, for example, highlighted the importance of providing aid to the standing and influence of neutral countries in the Great War. A comparative perspective on the humanitarian politics of Great War neutrals is forthcoming in Cotter, “The Neutrals at War”; scholars are keenly aware of this imbalance in historical attention and have tried increasingly to acknowledge and redress this problematic asymmetry, see Hilton et al., “History and Humanitarianism,” 16–17; for some of the strategies of getting at beneficiary voices see Gatrell et al., “Reckoning with Refugeedom”; for a short overview of the US politics of giving see Schrayer, “The Politics of Foreign Aid”; on the effects of giving on aid workers see Malkki, The Need to Help.

3. For expressions of appreciation and gratitude and their quasi-diplomatic functions see the forthcoming special issue of Contemporary European History edited by Jorrit van den Berk, Albertine Bloemendal and Ludivine Broch. Most research on recipients has been done by political scientists and social psychologists, not historians; on recipient strategies in negotiating aid since 1945 see Fraser, “Aid-Recipient Sovereignty in Historical Context”; Fisher, Nadler and Whitcher-Alagna, “Recipient Reactions to Aid”; for some of the historical studies, focusing on the agency and interests of local humanitarians and recipient populations see Balkelis, “Humanitarian Crisis in German Occupied Vilnius, 1916–1917”; Cretu, “Nationalizing International Relief.”

4. One possible research route to take would be a thorough exploration of the German Diary Archives (Deutsches Tagebucharchiv) in Emmendingen, but questions of representativeness would remain.

5. The literature on reparations is considerable. On its importance for interwar international relations see Schuker, The End of French Predominance in Europe; for a critical perspective Marks, “The Myths of Reparations.”

6. The literature on the humanitarian consequences of the First World War and international responses is growing rapidly. An excellent introduction to the topic is Little, “An Explosion of New Endeavours”; see also Gatrell et al. “Discussion: Humanitarianism.” There has been special attention, too, on the rise of child aid, including aid to ‘enemy children.’ See Kind-Kovacs, “The Heroes’ Children”; Baughan, Saving the Children.

7. Cox, Hunger in War and Peace, 182.

8. For different takes on this question see Eichengreen, Golden Fetters, 99–152; Marks, “Mistakes and Myths,” and ibid., “Smoke and Mirrors.” On the political uses of German hunger see Piller, “German Child Distress.”

9. Feldman, The Great Disorder.

10. On the history of the Weimar Republic see the ground-breaking work of Peukert, The Weimar Republic; and Rossol and Ziemann, eds., Oxford Handbook of the Weimar Republic.

11. On the scope of international humanitarian aid to Germany see still Kreyenpoth, Auslandshilfe für das deutsche Reich.

12. Aiken, “Feeding Germany,” and Huth and Maul, “Feeding the Enemy.”

13. Hartley, “Saving Students.”

14. For some examples of these personal ‘gifts of love” see MC034 Arthur von Briesen Papers, Box 1, Princeton University Library, Special Collections.

15. The sum was quite large. The European Relief Council, a joint 1921 fundraising drive by the United States’ key charitable organizations for all of Europe yielded only a little more than US$30 million (Department of Commerce estimate in late 1922, Central Relief Committee to Reich Ministry of Labour, November 1, 1921, Bundesarchiv Berlin (BArch) R 3901/9107). The head of the New York Relief Committee Emanuel de Marnay-Baruch estimated the total in November 1923 as US$350 million; see “Von unserer Arbeit. Vortragsabend,” Der Auslanddeutsche 6, no. 21 (November 1923): 623.

16. Piller, “German Child Distress.”

17. German Foreign Ministry to All German Missions Abroad, IX A 1550, November 30, 1920, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts (PA), Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 128, Sammlungen Generelles, 1920–1928.

18. See Eichert and Gill, “Children and the ‘Hunger Politics’ of 1919–20”; on transatlantic reform networks see Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings; on the issue of child health in the interwar period, Weindling, “From Sentiment to Science”; on the larger ‘humanitarian moment’ after the First World War see Cabanes, The Great War.

19. See for example, Zentralausschuß für die Auslandshilfe, Not! Bilder deutschen Elends, of which the Foreign Ministry translated and distributed 5000 English and 3000 Spanish copies. Aufzeichnung VI D 622, February 16, 1923, PA, R 65268.

20. Germany’s economic troubles were attributed almost exclusively to Versailles. An official pamphlet of the Reichszentrale für Heimatdienst, a Weimar office of public information, titled Kampf gegen den Hunger (Fighting Hunger) noted that ‘the origin of all our problems lies in the first instance abroad,’ quoted from Heinemann, Die verdrängte Niederlage, 287.

21. See the attacks on Gustav Stresemann, when he expressed appreciation for foreign aid in 1924, in Protokolle des Reichstags, Vol. 361, Session 404, pp. 12560D, S. 12577D, 12578D, 12579B, C.

22. Cable Westdeutscher Verwaltungsausschuss für Kinderspeisung to Deutscher Zentralauschuss für die Auslandshilfe, February 19, 1923, BArch R 3901/9109.

23. Skinner and Lester, “Humanitarianism and Empire,” 740.

24. Schwartz, “The Social Psychology of the Gift.”

25. On the US campaign see, Bernstorff, My Three Years in America, 165; Abschrift zu III a 15102, Dernburg to Zentralstelle des Roten Kreuzes, September 21, 1914, BArch R 901/82318; German Embassy Washington to German Foreign Ministry, No. 647, November 14, 1916, BArch R 901/82580.

26. Deutsche Wochenzeitung für die Niederlande, May 13, 1922, quoted from Der Auslanddeutsche 5, no. 11 (June 1922): 342.

27. German Foreign Ministry to all Missions Abroad, IRA 2300, May 24, 1923, PA, R 76947.

28. German Foreign Ministry to all Missions Abroad, IX A 1315, October 16, 1920, PA, Botschaft Washington, 1407.

29. See Kilian, “Von der ‘Auslandshilfe’ zur ‘Winterhilfe,’” 20; German authorities had begun regulating relief collections during the Great War to limit their number and reduce fraud. From 1915 onward, all war relief collections required state permission, only to be tightened two years later. Similar steps were taken in many other countries. See for example the 1916 War Charities Act in Great Britain: Grant, Philanthropy and Voluntary Action, 86 ff.

30. Reich Ministry of Labour, “Sammlungen im Ausland,” August 25, 1922, PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 128.

31. See the case of Dr Rudolf Mack in Konsulat St. Gallen to German Foreign Ministry, July 16, 1923, this and other cases in PA, Gesandtschaft Bern, 1360.

32. See, for example, the list of collections approved by the Prussian Staatskommissar für die Regelung der Kriegswohlfahrtspflege in German Foreign Ministry to all missions and consulates, January 14, 1921, in PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 128.

33. Editorial, Detroiter Abend-Post “Ein ernstes Wort als Warnung und Bitte,” June 1923, copy in: PA, R 80296; a similar sentiment in “Ausländische Bettelindustrie,” Thurgauer Zeitung 63 (ca. March 1923), copy in: PA, RAV 261 BERN 1360.

34. “Olika slags hjälpsökande,” Stockholms Dagblad, August 1923, Clipping in: PA, RAV 250, Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 135.

35. Copy, German Consulate New Orleans, IRA 2810, November 23, 1922, PA, R 80446.

36. It seems that countries like Sweden and Switzerland were excluded in response to the complaints of German diplomatic personnel; being easily accessible from Germany and comparatively prosperous, German ‘begging’ had become a problem in these countries early on.

37. Reichsarbeitsminister, “Sammlungen im Ausland,” August 25, 1922, PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 128.

38. German Foreign Ministry to all Missions, IRA 2430, December 11, 1922, and German Foreign Ministry to all Missions, IRA 2300, May 24, 1923, both in PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 128; Foreign Ministry to German Legation Stockholm, IRA 1490, April 6, 1923, PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 135.

39. Abschrift, No. IRA 3745, August 24, 1923 to Reichsarbeitsministerium, PA, R 80296.

40. Abschrift, No. IRA 3745 [Gneist], August 24, 1923 to Reichsarbeitsministerium, PA, R 80296.

41. See the large number of such cases in PA, RAV 250, Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 132 and 136.

42. IX A 2297 Note, Reich Ministry of Labour to German Foreign Ministry, December 9, 1920, PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 128.

43. Abschrift zu IX A 2297, “Würdelosigkeit,” December 1920; in: PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 128; “Mehr Würde: Gegen deutsche Sammlungen im Auslande,” Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, November 25, 1922; “Nur ein paar Kronen!” Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, June 6, 1923, clippings in PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 135; “Gegen den ‘Auslandsbettel’,” Der Auslanddeutsche 6, no. 1 (January 1923): 23.

44. German Foreign Ministry to all Missions Abroad, IRA 1949, September 16, 1922, PA, R 80446.

45. These included the Deutsches Volksopfer, Deutsche Nothilfe, Deutscher Zentralausschuss, Nationalstiftung für die Hinterbliebenen der im Kriege Gefallenen, Wirtschaftshilfe der Deutschen Studentenschaft, Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft, deutscher Caritasverband, Oberschlesischer Hilfsbund, Wohlfahrtsgemeinschaft der deutschen Blindenfürsorge – und Blindenorganizationen.

46. German Foreign Ministry to all Missions Abroad, IRA 2100, June 27, 1924, PA R 65520.

47. Copy, Ambassador Wiedfeldt to Paul Rohrbach, February 23, 1923, PA, R 80295.

48. This began at the Paris Peace Conference itself; see Krumeich, “Versailles 1919,” 53–64.

49. On the Foreign Ministry Reform in 1919/20 see Doss, Das deutsche Auswärtige Amt; on the work of the cultural department Trommler, Kulturmacht ohne Kompass.

50. Wittgens, “The German Foreign Office Campaign against the Versailles Treaty”; Rietzler, “Philanthropy, Peace Research, and Revisionist Politics.”

51. On the German discussion about Wilson, see Gassert, Amerika im Dritten Reich, 34–46; Schwabe, Woodrow Wilson.

52. On efforts to win over the US public see Piller, Selling Weimar.

53. See “Der neue Preis,” Simplicissimus 27, no. 26, September 27, 1922, 1; it is also interesting to consider the considerable number of interwar books that referred to the United States as ‘dollar land.’ See for example, Erich Braun, In’s Dollarland (Angerburg: Krüppellehranstalt, 1931); Marie Jacobi, Im Dollarland (Bremen: Lloyd, 1928); Alexander Bond, Wir Techniker im Dollarland (Stuttgart: Franck’sche, 1926).

54. Millions of Germans had immigrated to the United States since the US Civil War and they were generally considered a most successful immigrant group. Quite aside from the large fortunes amassed by German brewers and despite the discrimination and persecution they experienced during the First World War, Americans of German descent were able to send significant humanitarian relief to post-war Germany, especially as the dollar possessed extraordinary purchasing power in the early 1920s.

55. German Embassy Washington to German Foreign Ministry, K.Nr. 744, July 14, 1923, “Bettelei Deutscher an Amerikaner,” PA, Botschaft Washington, 1407.

56. German Foreign Ministry to Reichsarbeitsministerium, IRA 3745, August 24, 1923, PA, R 80296.

57. German Embassy Washington to German Foreign Ministry, K.Nr. 680, June 26, 1923 “Deutsche Besucher in Amerika,” PA, R 80296.

58. Copy, IRA 3059, Anzeige im “Berliner Westen” vom 16. Juni 1923 “Amerikanische allerbeste richtige Unterstützungsadressen,” PA, RAV 250, Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 135.

59. On ideas of German-Americans being part of a German ‘community of fate’ and hence having to (financially) support the former fatherland see Piller, “To Aid the Fatherland.”

60. German Foreign Ministry to Prussian Ministry of the Interior, September 8, 1923, PA, R 80296.

61. Strickland, “American Aid,” 121.

62. Report, German Consulate General, San Francisco, November 12, 1924, PA, R 80446.

63. Report, German Consulate New Orleans, November 12, 1924, PA, R 80446.

64. German Embassy Washington to German Foreign Ministry, K.Nr.1054, December 8, 1924 “betr. Deutsche Bettelbriefe,” PA, R 80446.

65. German Legation Stockholm to German Foreign Ministry, May 29, 1923, PA, RAV 250, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 135.

66. On the socialization of (German) diplomats see Schwabe, ed. Das Diplomatische Korps; Mösslang and Riotte, eds., The Diplomats’ World.

67. Frevert, Ehrenmänner.

68. German Legation Stockholm to German Foreign Ministry, March 21, 1923, “Sammlung für den Oberschlesischen Hilfsbund in Schweden,” PA, RAV 250, Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 132 Sammlungen, Vol. 4, 1922–23.

69. German Embasssy Washington to German Foreign Ministry, K.Nr. 744, July 14, 1924, PA, R 80296. In an equally patrician manner, another diplomat found this ‘constant “begging” over there [in the United States] really quite contre coeur to us.’ German Foreign Ministry to German Consulate New York, December 13, 1922, PA, R 80294.

70. German Embassy Washington to German Foreign Ministry, K.Nr.423 April 25, 1924, PA, Botschaft Washington, 1534 Ludwig Stein.

71. It would be interesting to know whether similar fears were widespread among other recipient nations. One might surmise that recipient countries like France or Poland would find it easier to frame US aid, in particular, as a token of Allied solidarity and hence consider it less problematic and emasculating. Moreover, there might have been a perceived difference in aid to alleviate wartime destruction, which could be seen as a shared Allied burden, and the humanitarian efforts to alleviate child distress brought on by so intangible a phenomenon as inflation.

72. Foreign Ministry to all German Missions abroad, IRA 2300, May 24, 1923, PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 128.

73. Abschrift zu IX A 2297, “Würdelosigkeit,” December 1920, PA, Gesandtschaft Stockholm 128.

74. German Legation Stockholm to Großberliner Kinderhilfe, December 21, 1922, PA, RAV 250, Gesandtschaft Stockholm, 132.

75. See the discussion in German Embassy Washington to German Foreign Ministry, K. Nr. 256, March 12, 1924 “Professor Ludwig Stein,” PA, R 65520; and Copy, III A 666 in PA, Botschaft Washington 1534 Ludwig Stein.

76. Geschäftsbericht der Wirtschaftshilfe der Deutschen Studentenschaft für die Zeit 1.1.22–31.3.1923, copy in: BArch R149, folder 213.

77. Cited in Schroeder-Gudehus, Deutsche Wissenschaft und internationale Zusammenarbeit, 199.

78. German Legation Bern to German Foreign Ministry, B. 476, Bern, April 11, 1924 “Antrag auf Erteilung der Sammelerlaubnis für die Schweiz,” PA, RAV 261 BERN 1360.

79. Reichstagsprotokolle, 404. Session, February 29, 1924, 12560 C.

80. Most recently Braune et al., eds., Vom drohenden Bürgerkrieg.

81. Otto Wiedfeldt to German Foreign Ministry, November 15, 1924 in Schröder, ed., “Otto Wiedfeldt,” 233.

82. Clavin, “The Austrian Hunger Crisis.”

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Elisabeth Piller

Elisabeth Piller is Assistant Professor of Transatlantic and North American History at the University of Freiburg in Germany. She works on US and German foreign policy and transatlantic relations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is the author of the award-winning monograph Selling Weimar: German Public Diplomacy and the United States, 1918–1933, published in 2021. She has also published articles in Diplomatic History, the Journal of Contemporary History and the International History Review. She is currently working on her second book, The Good Samaritan of all the World: US Humanitarians, Post-War Europe and the Making of the American Century. The book examines US humanitarian aid to Europe and the difficult renegotiation of transatlantic power during the early Cold War.