Life, 1918-03-28 · page 32 of 40
Life — March 28, 1918 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This WWI-era song by Oliver Herford celebrates American soldiers marching toward Berlin to defeat Kaiser Wilhelm II ("Kaiser Bill"). The lyrics use patriotic American rhetoric—democracy, freedom, the Stars and Stripes—to frame the war as a righteous crusade against German ("Hun") autocracy and Prussian militarism. The accompanying cartoon shows an American soldier and a German civilian in conversation. The civilian skeptically questions whether Germany could mount air raids on America; the soldier responds with a tongue-in-cheek warning about wearing one's best hat—likely satirizing both German military threats and American civilian preparedness anxieties. The "High Visibility of Jews" section below is a separate editorial comment on Jewish prominence in governance and supervision during wartime—a problematic observation reflecting contemporary prejudices. The final anecdote about "Bobbie" humorously deflates the serious patriotic song by suggesting audience members cared more about spectacle than substance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
EA Marching to Berlin W come from God's own country in the ships of Uncle Sam; We're going to get the william-goat of er Will—i—am ; We know it is verboten, but we do not give a damn, As we go marching to Berlin! (Drions) Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! As we go marching to Berlin! Refrain Hurray! Hurray! We'll wave the Stripes and Stars! Away, away with Emperors and Czars! And when we get the Kaiser we'll put him behind the bars, ‘As we go marching to Berlin! (Drums) Berlin! Berlin! etc. We're from the dear old A., the Land of Libert: We've crossed a hundred rivers and three thousand miles of sea To teach the Huns a thing or two about Democracy, As we go marching to Berlin! (Drums) Berlin! Berlin! ete. Refrain Hurray! Hurray! We'll show the Prussian swine That Freedom is the only Right Divine, And when we catch old Kaiser Bill we'll pitch him in the Rhine, wee ella. = | As we go marching to Berlin! (Drums) Berlin! Berlin! ete. lian: DON'T YOU THINK IT WOULD BE PRACTI- CALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR GERMANY TO SEND AIR-RAIDERS TO THIS COUNTRY ? . } “yo R CAN TELL, MISTER, IP YOU TAKE MY AD= } VICE YOU WON’T WEAR YOUR BEST HAT.” We've left our happy homes that we may help to win the war, We're a million strong already, and there'll soon be mil- lions more; And when the job is done with Kaiser Bill we'll mop the High Visibility of Jews floor, As we go-marchiig:to Berlin? ANKIND, or at least the supervisory part of it, may be (Dru) Bertin Bertin! etc divided always, but especially just now, into those who | are trying to govern and those who are trying to beat them to it, t There are lots of Jews in hoth classes, Jews being super- visory in disproportion to their other gifts. Refrain Hurray! Hurray! We're going to make it hot For all the bloody Hohenzollern lot, And when we get the Kaiser we'll present him to his Gott, As we go marching to Berlin! (Driuns) Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! Berlin! As we go marching to Berlin! Oliver Herford. “VY/ELL, Bobbie, what was the play about? I don’t know, sir, [ was so much interested in what the people were doing I can’t remember about the pla: “SEE THE BIRDIE comicbooks. [xuK