Etiquette Broken by Ambassador

“The etiquette of diplomacy has it that an Ambassador, even one from a republic, who hangs about a throne thereby acquires a sort of obligation to observe the etiquette of the throne. When Bismark wrote his memoirs, even that man of blood and iron wrote only of Kingly persons who were dead; etiquette forbade him even discussing the relations he had with living royalties. It is this rule that Gerard is breaking all to pieces.” Kaiser Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, from 1888 until his abdication in 1918. This marked the end of the German Empire and the 300-year reign of the House of Hohenzollern in Prussia, along with the end of the 500-year reign in Brandenburg.– Public domain image of Ambassador James W. Gerard, Ambassador to Germany from 1913 to 1917

Gerard’s Story Will Stir London

(Special Correspondence) LONDON, July 28.- Official London is "shocked." It is not the first time London has been shocked by American ways of doing things, and probably will not be the last. The thing which has caused this particular shock is the announcement of the publication of the memoirs of Ambassador Gerard, who but a few weeks ago was President Wilson's personal representative at the court of Berlin. This story will run in the Los Angeles "Examiner" beginning August 5.

It appears that there is a divinity which doth hedge a King– or a Kaiser – for which Ambassador Gerard, like other Americans, care not one straw. The etiquette of diplomacy has it that an Ambassador, even one from a republic, who hangs about a throne thereby acquires a sort of obligation to observe the etiquette of the throne. When Bismark wrote his memoirs, even that man of blood and iron wrote only of Kingly persons who were dead; etiquette forbade him even discussing the relations he had with living royalties. It is this rule that Gerard is breaking all to pieces. 

Just back from Berlin, only a few days out of the diplomatic service, he is proceeding to tell his fellow citizens in good plain American language just what he said to the Kaiser and just what the Kaiser said to him, and how the German secret-service tried to search his. papers while the German Foreign Office was trying to divert his attention by telling him how much they loved America; and how he introduced the good American phrase, "Until hell freezes over," into the German language, and a lot of similar things.

The point is that Mr. Gerard ought to wait until the Kaiser is dead. Eng- land has no love for the Kaiser, and would just as lieve that the Kaiser play he is dead, but England has a KING and a court, and etiquette is etiquette. In the meantime, the American public will undoubtedly be looking for every installment of Gerard's story, and reading it with eager interest, as it appears as a serial in the leading daily papers of all parts of the United States. – Ventura Free Press, 1917

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia