The German Emperor as Shown in His Public Utterances

Christening of a Cruiser

Kiel, March 26, 1895

The Emperor, as will be plain, took much satisfaction in the development of his navy and was to make innumerable addresses on these occasions. The present is a fair type of a number of the shorter speeches. Very soon they were to become occasions in which he was to broach the idea of the greater navy. The present address will serve to illustrate the spirit he was hoping to instil into this branch of the service.

As a testimony to the industry of the Fatherland, after the diligent labors of the imperial dockyards, this vessel now stands before us ready to be given over to its element. Thou shalt now be enrolled in the German navy. Thou shalt serve in the protection of the Fatherland to bring defiance and annihilation to the enemy. The names of the ships which belong to the same class are taken from the old Germanic sagas. Therefore thou also shalt hark back to the ancient time of our ancestors, to the powerful divinity who was worshipped and feared by all our German seafaring forefathers and whose mighty realm stretched from the north even unto the south pole, in whose province the northern battles were fought, and whence death and destruction were brought into the land of the enemy. Thou shalt bear the name of this great and mighty god. Mayst thou prove thyself worthy of it! So do I christen thee with the name of Ægir.