On August sixteenth the Kaiser left Berlin for the front. I wrote
to his master of the household, saying that I should like an
opportunity to be at the railway station to say good-bye to the
Emperor, but was put off on various excuses. Thereafter the Emperor
practically abandoned Berlin and lived either in Silesia, at
Pless, or at some place near the Western front.
At first, following the precedent of the war of 1870, the more
important members of the government followed the Kaiser to the
front, even the Chancellor and the Minister of Foreign Affairs
abandoning their offices in Berlin. Not long afterwards, when it
was apparent that the war must be carried on on several fronts
and that it was not going to be the matter of a few weeks which
the Germans had first supposed, these officials returned to their
offices in Berlin. In the meantime, however, much confusion had
been caused by this rather ridiculous effort to follow the customs
of the war of 1870.
When von Jagow, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was absent at the
Great General Headquarters, the diplomats remaining behind conducted
their negotiations with Zimmermann, who in turn had to transmit
everything to the great general headquarters.
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