Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1902
[Untitled]
The Department’s opinion is that this incident will be given sufficient prominence if, when asking for the free entry of the emblem, you explain to the foreign office the circumstances which render a new coat of arms for Bamberg necessary. It is believed that the German Government can hardly avoid expressing regret of its own volition over this occurrence.
You might look up the reported insult to the German consulate in Russian Poland, to which reference is made in Mr. Guenther’s dispatch, and which was probably noticed in the papers, and if you find the circumstances to offer a fair parallel to the case under consideration, you may say to Baron von Richthofen informally that you deem it unnecessary to ask the German Government to do for the United States what, it seems, Germany obtained from Russia in a similar case.
I am, etc.,
Mr. Guenther to the Department of State.
Frankfort-on-the-Main , June 23, 1902 .
Sir: In confirming the following telegram, which I addressed to you on the 19th instant, “Consular arms Bamberg grossly defiled with fæces night June 17. Stone thrown through window,” I have now the honor to report more fully in the matter.
On the morning of the 19th instant I received from Consul Bardel a letter reporting that during the night of June 17–18 the coat of arms hanging above the street entrance to the consulate was completely covered with human excrement and that one of the windows was shattered with a stone. The following morning Consul Bardel called upon the mayor of Bamberg and brought the matter to his attention. The mayor suggested that the consul had better submit to him a written statement of the facts, which was done. The mayor further stated that the matter would be placed in the hands of the Bavarian state’s attorney.
Consul Bardel is of opinion that the identity of the culprits will not be discovered and declares that he knows of no one who could have done the vile deed out of personal ill will toward himself or any member of his family.
I at once reported the outrage by telegraph to the Department and also to the embassy. Mr. Bardel suggested the offering by the consulate of a reward of 100 marks for information establishing the identity of the culprits, but by my advice he has refrained from doing so. I have taken the ground that the defiling of our arms was a vile insult to the Government and people of the United States and that the wrong is one which must be righted by the German Government. By my advice Consul Bardel has removed the defiled national emblem and will do without one until a new coat of arms is furnished to his office either by the German Government or the Department of State.
The course which I have taken in the matter has been approved by the embassy in a letter dated the 20th instant; but the embassy holds that, as I have reported the incident to the Department of State, instructions from you must be awaited before any formal demand for apology can be made.
Consul Bardel is very much discouraged by the occurrence, as he has done his best to regain for the consulate the respect of the community. * * *
The throwing of a stone or other missile might have been the work of a vandal or drunken person, but the deliberate choice and use of a vile material is evidence of premeditation and of malicious intent. As the coat of arms hangs over the door probably 12 or 15 feet above the sidewalk, and as Consul Bardel reports that it was smeared all over with the material, it seems probable that more than one person took part in the outrage, and that the police and night watchmen of Bamberg were perhaps negligent in the performance of their duty.
When a similar insult was recently offered to a German consulate in Poland the indignation of the Germans was great, and was pacified only by the action promptly taken by the Russian Government to atone for the wrong.
I have, etc.,
Mr. Guenther to the Secretary of State.
Frankfort-on-the-Main , June 26, 1902 .
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 184, of the 23d instant, reporting the defilement of the consular arms at Bamberg and the breaking of a window in the consulate, I have now the honor to inclose for your information copy of a letter from Consul Bardel relative to an oral apology offered to him at the consulate in the name of the municipal government by the acting mayor of Bamberg, and transmitting copy of a written communication from the same expressing regret, promising that an effort will be made to discover and punish the culprit, and stating that a closer watch will be kept by the police in future with a view to preventing the perpetration of similar outrages.
The stand which Consul Bardel has taken in the matter seems to me correct and dignified, and I trust will meet with your approval. If the Department decides not to demand that the German Government must supply and publicly place above the entrance of the consulate a new coat of arms, I respectfully suggest that a new one be forwarded to Consul Bardel from Washington, and I trust that the German Government will at least, as a matter of courtesy, waive the collection of any duty thereon.
Such an attack upon a German consulate would undoubtedly arouse a degree of indignation which would not be pacified by an apology from a municipal government or by a mere promise by it that an attempt would be made to discover and punish the guilty parties.
The action taken by the mayor of Bamberg seems to me very good as far as it goes, but unless some public atonement is made which will properly impress the people of Bamberg, I fear that some of the disgrace will continue to cling to the consulate. This would apparently be unfair to Mr. Bardel, who has done nothing to deserve the reproach. * * *
I have, etc.,
Mr. Bardel to Mr. Guenther.
Bamberg , June 25, 1902 .
Sir: I have the honor to report to you that the acting mayor of this city, Rechtsrat Lutz, visited this consulate officially to-day to deliver to me, and through me to the United States of America, in his name as well as the name of the city of Bamberg, the deepest regret in, and abhorrence of, the villianous misdeed to which the emblem of the United States of America had been exposed on the night of June 17 instant. To the evidently sincere apologies he added the assurance that the city of Bamberg would leave nothing undone to bring about the punishment of the culprits, and that the magistrate would offer a suitable reward for the discovery of the same. He expressed the hope that, on account of the city of Bamberg being so extremely sorry for what had happened, and on account of their being so solicitous to see the crime punished, the authorities of the United States of America would accept their apologies, and would, in return, allow the coat of arms to be replaced where it was before the assault.
I answered that I received the regrets of the city of Bamberg with due appreciation, and that I would transmit the same willingly to my superiors, the same as I had to report on the affront offered the United States of America within the city last week. I added that on account of this serious matter being now before my Government and entirely out of my hands, I could not, in any shape or manner, commit myself as to the ready acceptance of their apologies; that, however, a quick discovery and subsequent punishment of the villains would help materially to pacify the just indignation of the United States at this outrage. The coat of arms, having been defiled in such a vile manner, would probably not be allowed to be replaced, and that it would have to be determined whether the Bavarian authorities or the Government of the United States of America would have to furnish a new one, if any coat of arms will ever be allowed to appear again in public in this city.
A few minutes after the mayor had left my office, I received by special carrier a letter from the magistrate in reply to my letter of June 18. I inclose a copy of this [Page 433] letter herewith. I have not done a thing yet in regard to reporting to the embassy and to the Department, and I await your kind directions in this matter.
I have, etc.,
The municipal government of Bamberg to Mr. Bardel .
We have learned with deepest regret of the infraction of the sovereign rights of the United States of America at the hands of an infamous ruffian. In order to bring about the punishment, deserved and severe, of this disgraceful act, which was, however, no doubt caused by youthful ignorance, we have at once made use of every means in our power to discover the culprit, on the one hand by referring the matter to the royal state’s attorney for prosecution, and on the other by issuing to our police the strictest instructions for the discovery of the culprit.
Furthermore, in order to prevent the recurrence of similar acts, we have ordered for the future an increase in the number of patrols and watchmen in the immediate vicinity of your dwelling.
We beg you to bring the above to the knowledge of your superiors, with the additional remark that we will offer a reward for the discovery of the culprit.
- Lutz.
- Lochner.