Friedrich Wilhelm of Lippe offers himself in place of Kaiser

July 9, 1919

By special cable to the New Times from Berlin via Copenhagen.

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Lippe is offering himself, and all the German princes as "substitutes for the ex-Kaiser."  He has written to Wilhelm II's second son, Prince Eitel Friedrich:

"The humiliation which the enemy powers wish to inflict on the Prussian dynasty must be shared by all belonging to Princely German houses.  I beg your Royal Highness that my person, too, be extradited instead of his Majesty, your royal father."

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm also offered an appeal to all the German royal houses.

"Germany, exhausted and defenseless, has granted to the enemy powers the satisfaction of revenging themselves on our Kaiser, whose possession they envied us not long ago.  His humiliation also hits us.  Are we standing aside while the Kaiser goes to Golgotha.  That must not be.

"We German Princes who followed the Kaiser in peace and war must now stand in front of him and tell the enemy to take us instead.   Let us show the enemy that German fidelity is still alive. We who were first to offer our lives on the battlefield must now sacrifice them for the Kaiser."