11100:11:21,440 --> 00:11:24,750Any

111
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:24,750
Any still alive they bayoneted violently

112
00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:26,796
then threw them in the Sambre

113
00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:43,838
Photographs of some of those
who remarkably survived the German bullets...

114
00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,076
and those who fell victim

115
00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,359
A total of 6,500 French and Belgian civilians,

116
00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:58,275
including women and children ,
were killed in the first month of the war.

117
00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,750
180,000 Belgian refugees
crossed the Channel to Britain.

118
00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,594
The stories of German atrocities
against ''plucky little Belgium''

119
00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:16,515
provided ideal propaganda
to rally Allied public opinion behind the war.

120
00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:22,037
The image of the ''murderous Hun'',
the ''Barbaric Boche'', was born.

121
00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:32,552
But what drove this nation,

122
00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:38,590
whose soldiers massacred women and children,
razed towns to the ground, shot priests,

123
00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:43,959
yet had the engraving on their belt buckles,
''Gott Mit Uns'' - ''God is with us''?

124
00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:53,635
JOHANN CRUGER:
Now Thank We All Our God

125
00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:15,640
The monument erected outside Leipzig

126
00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:20,350
to commemorate the centenary of the
''Battle of Nations'' was dedicated yesterday

127
00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,676
In the interior of the monument is a crypt

128
00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:30,469
to the honour of the heroes
who fell in the fight with Napoleon

129
00:13:30,560 --> 00:13:33,233
Amid uproarious cheering

130
00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:38,394
the Emperor reached the broad flight of steps
leading to the foot of the monument

131
00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:44,992
The whole concourse sang the beautiful choral
Now Thank We All Our God

132
00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:57,430
In 1913, Kaiser Wilhelm II
celebrated his silver jubilee.

133
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:03,793
Germany had not known war for 40 years,
and was enjoying spectacular economic growth.

134
00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:15,832
The Kaiser depicted his country
not as an aggressor with territorial ambitions,

135
00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:18,559
but as the custodian of international concord.

136
00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:23,753
Germany is standing
guarding the peace of the earth

137
00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:29,517
at the door of the temple of peace
not only of Europe but of the whole world

138
00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,349
But Germany was only as old as that peace,

139
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:37,718
welded just 40 years before
out of 39 separate states.

140
00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:45,755
The Leipzig memorial was a building block
for German nationalism.

141
00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,349
It harked back to a time when German states
had joined with Britain and Russia

142
00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:52,032
to defeat Bonaparte's France.

143
00:14:55,840 --> 00:15:00,311
Its monumental architecture sought to embed
the nation's roots in a shared past.

144
00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:12,159
But the Kaiser, in 1913, realised
that the process of unification was not complete.

145
00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:14,196
And that spelt weakness.

146
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,036
Whereas England forms a political unit

147
00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:25,309
Germany resembles a mosaic in which the
individual pieces are still clearly distinguishable

148
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:30,758
This is shown by the army which is still made up
of contingents from the various German states

149
00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:32,717
all wearing different uniforms

150
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,834
The young German Reich needs institutions
which are clearly German

151
00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,869
Beneath one flag,
Germany remained extremely diverse:

152
00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,110
Catholic South, and Prodestant North.

153
00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:48,879
Rural East...

154
00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:51,916
..and industrialised West.

155
00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:58,470
Germany seemed ultra-conservative,

156
00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:03,031
but boasted a modern welfare state
which inspired Britain's pre-1914 reforms.

157
00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:10,551
I have been shown round one of the new
labour exchanges by the mayor of Strasbourg

158
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:14,674
I saw some of the poorest fellows
in German society

159
00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:17,149
but they all had an insurance card

160
00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:22,234
entitling them to benefit in sickness
invalidity infirmity and old age

161
00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:27,193
There is no doubt
that these labour exchanges are tremendous

162
00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:32,438
The honour of introducing them into England
would be in itself a rich reward

163
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:42,079
Men would die for Britain in the First World War
who did not have the vote.

164
00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:44,435
Perhaps half failed to meet the qualifications.

165
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,315
But in Germany,
there was suffrage for all men over 21.

166
00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,870
The largest party in the Reichstag,
or parliament, was socialist,

167
00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:55,951
and yet none of this added up to democracy.

168
00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:01,349
Germany's government was accountable
not to her people, via the Reichstag,

169
00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:03,396
but to her emperor.

170
00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,199
The call for political reform was growing loud,

171
00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,431
but Germany entered the First World War
governed by an autocrat.

172
00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,957
And his character was as burdened by paradox
as his country was.

173
00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:25,396
One day the Kaiser is a Solier-King

174
00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:27,675
rigid traditional

175
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:32,072
Suddenly he is the reform king
embracing the worker as a brother

176
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:35,111
Next he is the modern king

177
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:37,156
treating the past with contempt

178
00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:42,234
regarding the factory as a temple
with electricity powering all of Germany

179
00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,076
Kaiser Wilhelm II was
Queen Victoria's oldest grandson ...

180
00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,033
..cousin to both Britain's George V
and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

181
00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:02,113
Wilhelm was born with a withered left arm,
for which he compensated with sports:

182
00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:04,316
sailing, riding and hunting.

183
00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:09,990
He had an immature streak, dressing up
and playing often cruel practical jokes.

184
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:19,072
Wilhelm's right arm was incredibly powerful.

185
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:20,798
With his rings turned inwards,

186
00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:25,237
he would squeeze the hands
of visiting dignitaries so hard they would cry out.

187
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,236
A king's insecurities matter little
if he has no power,

188
00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:38,996
but the Kaiser was Germany's
commander in chief - its supreme warlord.

189
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,958
In no area has the Kaiser views of his own
and he doesn't know what to do

190
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,191
Sadly he is putty in the hands of clever people

191
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:53,556
and makes surprising laps of judgment
all over the place

192
00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:57,349
Everything he decides
is motivated by his desire to be popular

193
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:07,309
The Kaiser was most comfortable
in the company of his officers.

194
00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:10,920
He was obsessed with uniforms and militarism.

195
00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:22,910
His army's ethos was rigidly professional,

196
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,753
though, even in peacetime, half were conscripts.

197
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:31,359
They were highly disciplined,
and the guardians of the German state.

198
00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:33,510
The French were old enemies.

199
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:37,989
The last time they'd fought, in 1870,

200
00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,631
the French had used civilian snipers,
franc-tireurs, against them.

201
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,111
The German Chief of Staff's own uncle
led that campaign,

202
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:52,512
and passed on the crucial lesson
to the German soldiers of 1914.

203
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:59,556
International rules do not work
when soldiers are in constant fear for their lives

204
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:03,189
worried that a civilian may pick up a rifle
and shoot them

205
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:10,197
It must also be remembered that the greatest
deed in war is the speedy ending of the war

206
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,955
and every means to that end must remain open

207
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,992
German troops going into Belgium and France
used terror from the start.

208
00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:24,708
The civilian population,

209
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:28,509
caught between the weight of historic fears
and current military necessities,

210
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,034
was not going to get the benefit of any doubt.

211
00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:42,350
Belgian and French forces
bore the brunt of the German onslaught.

212
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,273
They were soon joined by British troops.

213
00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:59,396
In all, 100,000 men
of the British Expeditionary Force

214
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,233
crossed the Channel
in the early weeks of the war.

215
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:08,