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Collection: Eugen and Emma Klee Letters
Author: Eugen Haas
Recipient: Eugen Klee
Description: Letter from Eugen Haas to his uncle, Eugen Klee, October 7, 1915.
Eugen Haas to Eugen Klee, October 7, 1915
English Text
Heuchelheim, October 7, 1915
My dear ones!
Your loving postcards as well as your letter, dear Uncle, reached me in Speyer. What you wrote reminded me of good times, and especially the postcards woke old memories inside me. But now is not the time to reminisce about happy times, now that my fatherland is tempest tossed by the wild storms of war. This is a time when we have to say farewell to all pleasures, even to the memories of such; all strength has to be gathered together, each individual – according to his abilities –
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has to contribute so that the German oak is not smashed. And it will go on existing; for it draws its strength from the home ground and - thank God, does not depend on outside help. With things German everything is strong, brazen, made of iron and - genuine. No trumpery, no hypocrisy. We do not talk with protests and assurances, with empty words, but here the German fist preserves its right and crushes the lying and deceiving brood of vipers, and then the saying will come true: "Eventually the world will be cured with the help of all things German." But for now the following is still valid: "Every hater and rabble-rouser,
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who threatens German soil and nature, deserves only death." America also better mark those latter words. The time will come when the German Reich will remember it "lovingly". If it weren't for those miserable dollar chasers in America, who invest their capital in murderous weapons, this horrible war would long have been finished; for German vigor and bravery would have wrestled Germany's enemies to the ground a long time ago. My dears, you will probably be surprised that I have given up my idealism so completely, but well, these iron times teach you to finally do away with sentimentalism, with flirting with foreign ways and nature. I for one had
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been very interested in the relation of German-ness to other countries, I also wanted to join the community of - - , which you, dear Uncle, belong to as well, but their goal can never be accomplished and our present day just demonstrates how far we are still from reaching it. It is just that we Germans "stonewall" in a different way, we "stonewall" for the sake of our "Free"dom with an iron defense. It goes without saying that within this there is also an "endeavor" and a rich "field of action" for every one of us. - One's own self has to fade into the background in the face of such formidable happenings shaping world history at this moment.
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I gathered from your dear letters that you, my dears, are doing fine, that you, dear Uncle, are heaping success on top of success and that your dear wife is standing loyally by your side. It also made me happy that you are fighting for all things German, and that you feel German blood running through your veins. I myself have finished my exam and have the feeling of having done a good job. Right now I am with my dear Lisbeth to recover from the hardships of the exam. My service will restart on October 15th, and I hope to be fully cured again by then. The exam for military fitness, which
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will finally decide about my position within the military, has not taken place yet. Right now I am still on leave. There really are way too few teachers , too. Out of around 200 people from the classes of 1914 and 1915, only 20 took the exam. The latter was rather hard, even though there is such a lack of teachers. Unfortunately, I do not have the topics for the written exam on me, but will let you know later. I am happy to have gotten through this strenuous time and my dear Lisbeth is happy with me; for
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she, too, sees the time approaching when her dearest wish - to be all mine - will finally come true. We are going to announce our engagement at Christmas, most likely. In your letters, dear Uncle, you have mentioned my darling several times and you seem to be angry at her for not writing to you. But what is she to write? You and Auntie are still real strangers to her and it will only be with our engagement that she enters into a family relationship with you. She would love to write a nice letter, but that's the way "new" girls tend to be, it starts with her not knowing how to address you. We have already laughed
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about that a few times. But Lisbeth has sent a postcard to my dear aunt, and a letter to you is about to follow.Sorry, but now I will have to finish this letter; since it goes through inspection, one shouldn't burden the people working there with too much work. You write about some newspapers, dear Uncle, but I have not received them yet. However, a newspaper clipping was included in your letter which contained a report from your vacation.
With love and loyalty, as always, with faithfully German greetings and kisses,
I remain your thankful Eugen
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