you. It is to yourself, Hauptmann. In the name of our Europe, of which
up to the present you have been one of the noblest champions--in the
name of that civilization for which the greatest of men have
struggled--in the name of the honor even of your German race, Gerhart
Hauptmann, I adjure you, I command you, you and the intellectual elite
of Germany, where I have so many friends, to protest with utmost
vehemence against this crime which leaps back upon yourselves.

If you fail in this, one of two things will be proved--that you
acquiesce, (and then the opinion of the world will crush you,) or that
you are powerless to raise your voice against the Huns that now command
you. And in that case, with what right will you still pretend, as you
have written, that your cause is that of liberty and human progress?

You will be giving to the world a proof that, incapable of defending the
liberty of the world, you are helpless even to uphold your own; that the
elite of Germany lies subservient to the blackest despotism--to a
tyranny which mutilates masterpieces and assassinates the human spirit.

I await your response, Hauptmann--a response which shall be an act. The
opinion of Europe awaits it, as do I. Bear this in mind; in a moment
like this, even silence is an act.

*A Reply to Rolland*

*By Gerhart Hauptmann.*

You address me, Herr Rolland, in public words which breathe the pain
over this war, (forced by England, Russia and France,) pain over the
endangering of European culture and the destruction of hallowed
memorials of ancient art. I share in this general sorrow, but that to
which I cannot consent is to give an answer whose spirit you have
already prescribed and concerning which you wrongly assert that it is
awaited by all Europe. I know that you are of German blood. Your
beautiful novel, "Jean-Christophe," will remain immortal among us
Germans together with "Wilhelm Meister," and "der gruene Heinrich."

But France became your adopted fatherland; therefore your heart must now
be torn and your judgment confused. You have labored zealously for the
reconciliation of both peoples. In spite of all this when the present
bloody conflict destroys your fair concept of peace, as it has done for
so many others, you see our nation and our people through French eyes,
and every attempt to make you see clearly and as a German is absolutely
sure to be in vain.

Naturally everything which you say of our Government, of our