Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1917 — Wilhelmshaven and Memel [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Wilhelmshaven and Memel

WILHELMSHAVEN, the scene of a terrific explosion which Is supposed to have wrought great damage to the imperial docks and shipyards recently, is one of the two most Important naval stations of the German empire, says a bulletin of the National Geographic society. Only sixty-five years ago the site of this now strongly fortified town of 35,000 inhabitants given over chiefly to shipyards, dry docks, fitting out harbors, iron foundries, boiler foundries and boiler factories, was a desolate, low-lying, marshy tract of land on the edge of a shallow inlet of the North sea, known as Jade Busen or Jade bay, which had been formed by inundations in the thirteenth and sixtenth centuries. In 1852, however, the nascent spirit of Prussianism awoke to the fact that the kingdom did not own a single inch of sea coast on the North sea.’ In order to acquire a foothold on the western shore of Europe the Prussian king purchased from the grand duke of Oldenburg the marsh, four square miles, upon which now stands Wilhelmshaven, and the purchase price was 500,000 thalers (about $355,000). Seventeen Years Building Town.

For seventeen years a large body of workmen w’as engaged at great expense in building the town, dredging the bay, and sinking piles In the peaty soil upon which to erect the docks and shipyards. It was a herculean task and frequently months of labor would be wiped out in a single hour by a high tide or a violent storm. In the end, however, the work was completed and the harbor was formally opened by King William, afterward Emperor William I, in the presence of many British naval officers who little Imagined what a momentous ceremony they were witnessing, for with the dedication of Wilhelmshaven began in earnest the development of modern Germany’s sea power. One of the odd difficulties with which Prussia had to contend in the building of Wilhelmshaven was the unfriendly attitude of the kingdom (soon therafter to become a Prussian province) of Hanover, which refused to allow the construction of a railroad across its territory from Prussia into Oldenburg, so that all the material for the harbor had to be shipped from Prussia by the long sea route. Wilhelmshaven is less than 40 miles in an airline northwest of Bremen, and is only 60 miles by rail from this great commercial center.

The new x harbor of Wilhelmshaven has an area of 170 acres and a depth of more than twenty-six feet. Memel, Germany’s Northern City. ""Another of Germany’s important seaports is Memel, in East Prussia, which the Russians partly destroyed early in the war. Memel is land’s end for the Germans. It is the most northerly town in the empire, lying but a few miles from the Russo-German border. Before the war, Memel was a city of considerable consequence, a city rushed with commission business and a port whose harbor was always filled with sail and smoke columns. The port is midway upon the Baltic sea, conveniently placed for trade with Stockholm, Sweden, to the north; with Riga and Petrograd, Russia, to the northeast; with Copenhagen, Denmark, to the west, and with the many north German ports. It has an excellent harbor, well improved, protected by two lighthouses and by forts toward the open water. Memel was the center of the Baltic lumber trade. Great rafts of loses, hewn in the forests of Russian Potend and western Russia, were floated down the Nleroen river and the Koenig Wilhelmeanal -every year, and the lumber product of the city’s mills was distributed by the busy Memel fleet to every Baltic port, much of it golfig-t<r'Rus-sia. Pole, Russian, Lett and German, during the years of peaceful effort, fraternized in Memel’s coffee booses, beer gardens and in the tidy, pretentious little inn, Nlmmersatt Tilsit, a military and commercial center, is 58 miles south-southeast of Memel, while Koenigsberg, capital of East Prussia,.lies 91 miles to the southwest. Memel had a well-to-do population of about 22,000 before the war. A city without poor and without a millionaire, it possessed a thriving trade in transit goods, agricultural find manufactured produce in international exchange. Was a Growing City. Memel had a growing industry—iron foundries, shipbuilding yards, and lactones for the output of chemicals, ma-

chlnery, soap and amberware. Its most important business, however, was its export of grains and timber. It shipped each year timber to a value of more than $5,000,000. Before all else, Memel was a growing seaport. It was drawing an even greater share of the distributing business of agricultural produce from the neighboring regions of the Russian Baltic provinces, and was developing close, fruitful business relations with Russian Poland, handling Polish timber, grain and meats, and making headway In the competition for handling the exports from the rich Polish manufacturing districts. Memel’s position near the farms of East Prussia, near the fields and factories of Russia’s Baltic provinces, and near the forests, farms and manufactories of Russian Poland gave the town great promise of becoming a rich city port. Like many of the well-placed cities commercial center. The town is given over almost entirely to the needs of the German navy. It has extensive arsenals and mine depots, machine shops. Iron foundries and boiler shops. The imperial dockyards before being enlarged for the present emergencies included two large slipways, five immense floating docks, four smaller docks for the accommodation of torpedoboats and seven dry docks. The shipyards are surrounded by lofty walls and access to the inclosure even prior to the outbreak of the war was very restricted. More than a third of the population of the town before the beginning of hostilities in 1914 was made up of army and naval forces. Like many of the well-placed cities of these northern coastlands, Memel was a foundation of those crusaders of the middle ages, who took their way north and spread their faith among the outlying peoples by brand and sword. It was founded by Poppo von Osterna, grandmaster of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, who fought the natives of Prussia, the Letts and Finns through generations to bring them within the fold of the Christian church. When founded In 1252, Memel was first called New Dortmund, and, later, Memelburg. The advanced Christian fortress early acquired aq important trade, and became a member of the merchant trust, the Hanseatic league. Its place upon the borders of several unrelated peoples, however, while possessing the same advantages as today, possessed, also, the same disadvantages. It was burned several times by hostile forces during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. After the crushing defeat administered to Friedrich Wilhelm^ HI of Prussia by Napoleon upon the field of Jena, the German monarch retired to Isolated Memel, and here, In 1807, the treaty which was to have such farreaching results was concluded between Great Britain and Prussia.