Life in a German Crack Regiment

Lieutenant Bilse Beyerlein and Baron von Schlicht the author of the present work with their many less-known followers have managed among them to create what may be regarded as a novel of a new species—the critical military novel. What is commonly called the military novel has of course long been known in Germany but it differed considerably from the new species. The older military novel gave more or less lively pictures of camp garrison and casino life and the gay young lieutenant who generally figured as hero was much adored by ladies (as indeed he still is). But between the lieutenant of romance and the lieutenant of stern reality there is a gulf. Readers have now before them the lieutenant of reality and the uplifting of the veil on his interesting if not very edifying personality and doings has aroused in Germany a curious storm of indignation especially in army and official circles. Indeed as may be remembered Baron von Schlicht[Pg vi] was insulted over the present work in the Reichstag itself and the affair went so far that a duel nearly followed. The widespread interest taken in these revelations of military life is testified by the number of copies of the present work (40000) which have been sold in Germany though its circulation is now forbidden there; while for his outspokenness in this novel it is rumoured that Baron von Schlicht has to meet his trial in Berlin very shortly.. Though widely known as the author of various military sketches and stories of a more or less light and humorous turn in the present case Baron von Schlicht shows little trace of his characteristic vein. Here rather he devotes himself seriously to making what is in effect a detailed and apparently dispassionate exposé in regard to the manners and morals of officers of the old nobility in the German army. The indignation aroused against him is all the greater as he himself belongs to the old nobility which he so freely criticises and he has the further advantage of speaking from inside knowledge of the officers' caste (Offiziers-Kaste) to which he himself belonged during his military career. Lieutenant Bilse wrote from outside this circle of the old nobility; thus Baron von Schlicht's work fills a gap which Lieutenant Bilse's book still left open.